Apartheid and Hope

• Prize
• Photographer
  Pierre le R du Toit, South Africa

Racism will always lurk around the world, but the violence of apartheid
in South Africa seemed destined to drag the entire African continent
and perhaps humanity into the vortex of prejudice and mutual self-
destruction. Yet, that same country, in the words of South African
Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, discovered the richness of
the "Rainbow Nation", and perhaps of a rainbow world.

The pictures can be viewed in any order except that the kiss in a park
must be the final one. I believe that that will remain the power to end
racism among all humanity, and bring liberation to all who cherish
their own humanity. (It comes from the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris,
the city where freedom in the modern era was born.)

The scene of banning to the moon, away from the bounty of earth, is
where it started. The maiming of a nation was inevitable. The ghosts
of 'suicidal' hangings and 'accidents' will linger for generations around
the cold blue Johannesburg Police Headquarters once called John
Vorster Square. And the many who were anonymously dumped to rot,
some without as much as a pauper's grave, will be buried in the
human conscience with the unknown soldier.

With many challenges remaining, I am humbled to be a citizen of a
country who could yet universalize love among humans, whether it be
in a beautiful park in Paris or anywhere north or south, west or east of
the rainbow couple in the final picture.

Awards Let the work be judged by itself - I have exhibited and published photographic work (together with poetry)