Marguerite Copeland Contemporary African Art 312 Professor Kim Miller Label Writing Assignment March 22, 2013

Word Count for Interpretive Text: 526 Object Label: Sue Williamson, A Few South Africans: Mamphela Ramphele, 1985 Photography, Collage and Printing This piece is a portrait of Mamphela Ramphele, a Black South African woman banned during the period of Apartheid for her work as an activist. This portrait is included in a series which show other black South African women who to, were banned for their activism during Apartheid, entitled A Few South Africans. Interpretive Museum Text Description: Williamsons portrait of Mamphela Ramphele, a Black South African writer, doctor and activist, celebrates the work of a woman who challenged the injustices of Apartheid. This was a time filled with discrimination against those who were not of European decent. The government developed ways to legalize segregation which in turn created roads that led to violence and inequality. Following World War II, the National Party came to power in 1948 bringing with them a platform for racial segregation and support for poor Afrikaners. Immediately, a number of laws were passed to establish the Apartheid structure of government. Three major acts were put into place, The Race Classification Act which meant every citizen that was not of European decent was to be classified by race, The Mixed Marriages Act which prohibited marriage between different races and The Group Areas Act which forced people to live in certain areas based on their race group. Rights such as freedom of speech, protection from unlawful treatment by the government and the right to a trial were soon violated. The government censored any type of social, political or economic movements that brought forth change. They began banning the presence and

possession of anything that depicted such changes, including people, one in particular, Mamphela Ramphele. People who fought for these changes in the government, like Ramphele, regularly disappeared in the night sometimes never to be heard from again. Williamson is well known for her series of portraits of women involved in South Africas political struggle. This portrait is a part of a series entitled A Few South Africans. All of the portraits, like this one, have a black and white photo of a woman who has played a role in the political movement against Apartheid. Many of the photos show these women in their younger years seeing as they were banned, no recent photos of them were to be found. Surrounding the portrait includes images of objects that represent moments in their lives. The images that appear in the border surrounding Rampheles portrait depict her life as a doctor, political activist and victim of a system that tried to discredit her. Included in the border are images of stethoscopes and medicine bottles which represent her profession as a doctor, handcuffs and military trucks which represent the moment the government kidnapped her in the middle of the night and tried to make her disappear by leaving her for dead but failed, and wheel barrows and bricks which represented her survival and her building a new life in the remote area she was left in. Sue Williamson wanted to bring to the light what was meant to be hidden. She places the images in chronological order to follow Mamphelas life. Sues work proves to be documentation of the struggles during the period of Apartheid. The hidden aspects of what occurred during Apartheid are relayed in this work. Her strategic layout of the portrait helps to individualize the work, placing focus on Mamphela Ramphele and her life while also focusing on the overall theme of Apartheid. Although Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, South Africa is still recovering from the inequalities that it brought forth.

Bibliography TheStoryofAfrica:SouthernAfrica.BBC.co.uk.http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/featur es/storyofafrica/12chapter7.shtml The Legacy Events Index: Apartheid in South Africa. LegacyProject.org.http://www.legacyproject.org/index.php?page=event_detail&eventID=13 (2001-2008) Bodinson, Sara, Stephanie Pau, Jackie Armstrong. MOMA-Writing Effective Art Exhibit Labels: A Nuts and Bolts Primer.Slideshare.net.http://www.slideshare.net/stephaniepau/writingeffective-interpretive-labels-for-art-exhibitions-a-nuts-and-bolts-primer(May 15, 2012) Gurney,Kim.SueWilliamson.Artthrob.co.za.http://www.artthrob.co.za/03nov/artbio.html(Nov. 2003) AFewSouthAfricans:MamphelaRamphelebyWilliamson,Sue.Artvault.co.za.http://www.artvaul t.co.za/view.php?cid=355&pg=13&ob=artists.sname&od=0&id=26667(2013)