1e Prijs Storytelling & 2e prijs – Documentair Internationaal – 2019 – Ilvy Njiokiktjien – Born Free -Mandela’s generation of hope

1.
Students of Tom Naudé High School in Polokwane, walking from one classroom to the other in between classes. (2012)

In 1994, 25 years ago, Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president and his nation a free country. The segregation system of apartheid ended. Mandela had high hopes for the youth, the children born in the years right after apartheid ended are now young adults: the born-free generation for whom racial segregation is a thing of the past. They were to be the face of a new, free and successful South Africa. My personal project, ranging over 12 years, takes a look into how free the born-frees really are and how modern day racism influences their day-to-day lives.

2.
Homeless Nonjabulo Ndzanibe (21) sits on the side walk on one of the rough areas of Durban, South Africa. To find shelter, she sometimes sleeps with men for money. (2018)

“I wanted to get that fresh air,” Nonjabulo Ndzanibe (21) explains why she ran away from her unhappy childhood home to the coastal city of Durban. “I just needed space for myself.”

3.
Jason Noah (21) arrives at a night club in Pretoria to celebrate his 21st birthday. Jason is a foreign exchange trader, an activity that has made him millions of rands. He grew up in a middle-class family. (2018)

4.
Men work out at a gym, under a tin roof in Kayamandi, South Africa. Kayamandi is one of the developing townships situated in Stellenbosch. The area was founded in the early 1950s as part of the increased segregation during the apartheid regime. (2018)

5.
One of the camp leaders points a gun at a boys’ heads, during a self defence lesson in the field during the Kommandokorps camp in Carolina, South Africa.
The Kommandokorps organises right wing racist camps during school holidays for young white Afrikaner teenagers, teaching them self-defence and how to combat a perceived black enemy. The group’s leader, self-proclaimed ‘Colonel’ Franz Jooste, served with the South African Defence Force under the old apartheid regime and eschews the vision of a multicultural nation. (2011)

6.
Jano van Zyl (13) on his bed at home in Klerksdorp. Jano attended the Kommandokorps camp earlier in the year. After returning home he was unsure what to think of South Africa’s rainbow nation. (2011)

7.
The swim team of Michaelhouse, a neighbouring boarding school to Hilton College, during a swimming match at boarding school Hilton College in Hilton, South Africa. Most boarding schools used to be all-white during apartheid, but since the ’90s the schools are all mixed. (2019)

8.
Ofentse Sean Lewis (27, left) and Sipho Lewis Maestro Azzuro (24, right) sit together on the Nelson Mandela bridge in Johannesburg. Since 1994, the year that Mandela became president it is allowed for LGBTQ’s to get married. (2018)

9.
People order drinks at the bar at the Pirates Bowls Club in Johannesburg. One of the bands playing that night is Desmond and the Tutus. (2018)

10.
A domestic worker sweeps the floor beneath Tanya Grobler's (19) feet in Polokwane, South Africa. The family does not know its maid's name, though she has cleaned their home daily for years. They call her by saying “tsss tsss.” (2012)

11.
As Lauren-Lee (Lolla) and her prom date walk out of the house in Joyce Court, Manenberg, everyone cheers them on. They all want to see Lolla walk out of the house in her ball gown. She is the first one in the court to graduate from high school. Manenberg, the area where Lolla grew up is rough and know for the high crime rates. Drugs, alcohol and gang violence are rife in this notorious Cape Town neighborhood. (2015)

12.
Mixed couple Wilmarie Deetlefs (24) kisses her boyfriend Zakithi Buthelezi (27) in his car after a night out in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mixed couples are not common in South Africa. Deetlefs is of Afrikaner heritage and Buthelezi is Zulu. They sometimes get stared at, but always hold hands wherever they go. Deetlefs believes the born frees are the generation that give South Africa a clean slate. (2018)

1e Prijs Storytelling & 2e prijs – Documentair Internationaal – 2019 – Ilvy Njiokiktjien – Born Free -Mandela’s generation of hope

‘Born free’ is de benaming voor de generatie Zuid-Afrikanen die na de afschaffing van de apartheid werd geboren. In 2019 was het 25 jaar geleden dat Nelson Mandela werd verkozen tot president van Zuid-Afrika, en het land een democratie werd. In een tijdspanne van twaalf jaar volgde de fotograaf zo’n 35 jongeren. Sommigen worstelen zich door een leven vol verwaarlozing, geweld en armoede. Anderen tonen een grote wilskracht en pakken alle kansen die ze in het tijdperk voor Mandela nooit zouden hebben gehad.

FOTOGRAAF

Ilvy Njiokiktijen