Give peace a chance, Soweto
Peter Magubane
Artwork 1976
Peter Magubane’s monochrome photograph ‘Give peace a chance, Soweto’ shows an individual standing in a road making peace signs with both hands held high at the front, and large vehicles at the back.
Artwork: Peter Magubane, Give peace a chance, Soweto (1976). Photographic print. 29.5 x 44 cm. Courtesy of Goodman Gallery.
Artist Peter Magubane Title Give peace a chance, Soweto Date 1976 Materials Photographic print Dimensions 29.5 x 44 cm Edition Edition of 10 Credit Courtesy of Goodman Gallery

Magubane was influential in persuading youth in Soweto to allow journalists to cover the 1976 protests and the weeks of violence that followed, telling schoolchildren, “A struggle without documentation is no struggle”. Give Peace a Chance is one such document.

b.1932, Johannesburg; d.2024, Johannesburg

Peter Magubane is recognised for his fearlessness in documenting apartheid’s subjugation of black South Africans. He was arrested on numerous occasions and sentenced to nearly 600 days in solitary confinement. In Magubane’s words: “I did not want to leave the country to find another life. I was going to stay and fight with my camera as my gun. I did not want to kill anyone, though. I wanted to kill apartheid.”

Installation photograph from the Photo Book! Photo-Book! Photobook! exhibition in A4’s Gallery. In the middle, Peter Magubane’s framed photograph ‘Give peace a chance, Soweto’ hangs above a display shelf in an area dedicated to photobooks from the years 1967 to 1994.
Installation photograph from the Photo Book! Photo-Book! Photobook! exhibition in A4’s Gallery. At the front, three freestanding display cases with printed matter. On the left, a moveable gallery wall features Ernest Cole’s book ‘House of Bondage’ and four screenprints from Gavin Jantjes’ ‘A South African Colouring Book’ series. On the right, shelving units with printed matter from the years 1967 to 1994 line a white wall, along with David Goldblatt’s photograph ‘Climbing into kibbles at the shaft-head, the shift gets ready to go down. President Steyn No.4 shaft, Welkom, Orange Free State. 1969’ and Peter Magubane’s photograph ‘Give peace a chance, Soweto (1976)’.
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