Provenance

The Paul Alberts Estate.

The Photographic Archival and Preservation Association.

Notes

"PW Botha, former president of South Africa and a man well documented to have little mercy in his heart for the suffering of other people, especially if they were black, was particularly irked by the constant flow of so-called illegal blacks into the Western Cape, where many settled at Crossroads. The Interference of Botha's government in Crossroads led to divisions in a once peaceful and law-abiding community, and with the instigation of the authorities, they started fighting among themselves. Many were killed and even more children were left orphaned in the struggle between the pro-government faction, known as the 'Wit Doeke', and the 'Comrades'. This photograph was taken in 1982 when women and children of Crossroads gathered to pray for the Nyanga Bush Squatters, who had staged a hunger strike in St George's Cathedral in an attempt to persuade the authorities not to demolish their plastic shacks. The protest was fruitless the shacks were torn down during the wet Cape winter, causing great hardship."¹—Paul Alberts, 1997.

Paul Alberts (1997) Some Evidence of Things Seen: Children of South Africa, Johannesburg: Open Hand Trust.

Literature

Paul Alberts (1997) Some Evidence of Things Seen: Children of South Africa, Johannesburg: Open Hand Trust, illustrated on page 227 with the title 'Cross Roads, Kaapse Vlakte (II)'.