Thero Makepe: We didn’t choose to be born here

Thero Makepe is the British Journal of Photography Award Winner for FORMAT25.

This body of work is an exploration of Botswana and South Africa’s socio-political fabric through a personal lens. Blending staged portraiture, documentary images and re-enactments, I weave personal family stories with national history.

These images are part of a photobook that addresses the history of musicality and activism in my family lineage.

In 1958, my grandfather, Hippolytus Mothopeng, fled South Africa to escape racist Apartheid law. He went to Botswana, a far more peaceful country under British protection that eventually achieved independence in 1966. He worked as a town clerk in Francistown and Gaborone and as a hobbyist jazz musician.

In contrast, my grandfather’s uncle, Zephaniah Mothopeng, a teacher by profession, became an activist and joined the Pan-African Congress of Azania (PAC), eventually becoming the president of this political party. As a prominent leader of the struggle against Apartheid, my great-uncle Zephania Mothopeng served two separate jail sentences on Robben Island – the latter in 1979 for threatening to overthrow the government – for which he was sentenced to 15 years.

The title of the project, “We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here”, is a phrase explored in the minds of different family members during crises, separation, and ennui. In my photobook, I also write about my own experiences with activism during the #FeesMustFall protests that took place at the University of Cape Town in 2016, fighting for free, decolonized education across all South African universities.

My project focuses on the dilemma of personal responsibility in times of crisis. As an individual, do you fight for something greater for yourself in a collective struggle, or do you try to achieve the best for yourself? Furthermore, how does one deal with the reality of the world and personal circumstances they were born into? How does one’s social class influence their ideology and aspirations? I use my family as a conduit to unpack these questions in my book project. 

Growing up in Botswana, I had a very limited and innocent view of my family in South Africa, as I would only see them during holidays and brief visits. I was not aware of their contributions towards the liberation movement in South Africa and the consequences of such, which led to many traumatic experiences. 

My photographic work is collaborative with my family as they share their experiences, stories and memories, and I interpret them as an artist. I do this by either retracing their steps and producing documentary or post-documentary photographs of the places they have been or creating staged re-enactments where different family members, including myself, perform as past family members. I also make portraits of family based on feelings and emotions I want to communicate, such as grief, anxiety and hopelessness. I approach this work not as a singular auteur but as a custodian. Therefore, my family always has a heavy hand in curating themselves as they are photographed and what archival material is left out of this project.

The contributions of the PAC towards the struggle against Apartheid is greatly underrepresented in South African arts, culture and history. In my personal experience, I only learned of my great-grand uncle’s legacy by innocuously googling my mother’s maiden surname when I was a child and being met with many search results of a revolutionary leader, much to my shock. I view this project as a social responsibility to my family and other Africans. Through this artistic project, I aim to be a custodian of history and knowledge and illuminate the side of radical political action in South Africa that has been greatly suppressed. Although Zephania Mothopeng was my relative, he was also a public figure and, therefore, a ‘collective’ ancestor whose legacy has to be contextualized with sensitivity.

Participant

Thero Makepe