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It's time we revisit Sharpeville

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Jabulani Dhlamini
Today the country will remember the 69 South Africans, 10 of whom were just children, who were murdered during the Sharpeville massacre. Garreth van Niekerk goes back in time with artist Jabulani Dhlamini to get a sense of the town 

In the 56 years since the Sharpeville massacre, many important memories of that day have been lost during our efforts to memorialise the event.

Despite the horrific moments we know of, which are burnt into public knowledge thanks to initiatives like the township-wide Sharpeville Human Rights Precinct, the Sharpeville Memorial and Exhibition Centre and various other sites of remembrance to the victims of the tragedy, there is still an important gap in the story: What happened after the protest? What was inherited from that day?

In creating all these ways to remember what was lost, what have we done to consider what survived?

Soweto-born artist Jabulani Dhlamini’s exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town, named Recapture, demands that the question of “collective trauma” be considered.

In Dhlamini’s photographs, the artist begins a painful process of weaving the narrative of the past with the painful legacy it left behind, invoking the Sharpeville of today by including voices and perspectives of the current residents with their memories of that time.

Some of these images, like the series of photographed objects from the families, friends and neighbours of those lost in the massacre, become informal memorials to the people who continue to experience the trauma of that day.

A leather briefcase in the photograph Mamkoena, Rooistena, Sharpeville, tells the story of a woman who lost her husband during the protest. They left their home to see what was happening outside their house, and joined the march together, but she lost him as the crowd moved onwards.

When it was over, she searched everywhere for him, but all she could find of her husband was the briefcase he was carrying when they left the house. The people who died were all buried in a mass funeral, and that briefcase was a physical thing she could hold to be near him on that day.

In the photo Phelandaba Cemetry I, the artist captures a story that many don’t know. Dhlamini tells me over the phone this week that the clouds hanging above the 69 graves of the protestors in the picture mean a lot to the people of Sharpeville. On the day of the protest, the sun was out and it was hot, but soon after the shootings, clouds gathered over Sharpeville and a big storm broke.

Many of the survivors will never forget how the rain washed away the blood on the streets, and many stood outside and washed their bodies in the storm.

A photograph of a house with the windows boarded up requires a deeper look.

“When somebody has passed on, we normally board up the windows to show that we are in mourning,” Dhlamini says. “But what I found is that many houses in Sharpeville are still boarded up like that. People are still in that mourning period.

“We need to talk about these things. Have we moved on? Have we forgiven? Have we forgotten?”

Recapture is on at the Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, 176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, until April 6

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