Memory Against Forgetting

Renowned South African photographer Ranjith Kally captured iconic scenes throughout his career, such as his portrait Umkumbane, which has come to symbolise the shimmering jazz age of African townships in the 1950s.

When Miriam Makeba returned to Maseru, Lesotho, for a concert for black South Africans at the height of apartheid, Ranjith, too ventured to Lesotho and returned home with a remarkable image of an exiled singer poised between joy and heartbreak. And in a series of unflinching portraits, he documented with probity the horror of the forced removals in Natal.

As one of our country’s most prolific photojournalists, Ranjith’s pictures provide us with a glimpse into the tensions of the past and the events that shaped our future.