Photographer Jurgen Schadeberg (1931–2020) spent most of his life documenting the struggle against apartheid. Years before his death in 2020, Schadeberg shared some of his iconic images – and the stories behind them – with Al Jazeera.
On April 27, 1994, South Africa held its first multiracial democratic election, voting out apartheid and voting for its first black president, Nelson Mandela.
46 years ago, in 1948, apartheid was enacted – a system built on white supremacy, segregation and inequality.
It fueled the boundaries between races and cut people off from each other with increasingly strict rules.
In the vibrant multiracial enclaves of Johannesburg in the 1950s, apartheid police intervened while many non-whites resisted.
Among those documenting life and resistance during the apartheid era for the famous Drum magazine was a young German-born photographer, Jurgen Schadeberg.
On the streets of Johannesburg, he captured vibrant, diverse communities at a time when the apartheid government was doing its best to remove all traces of multiracialism from its streets. He also immortalized leading struggle and cultural icons with his lens, including Oliver Tambo, Miriam Makeba and Nelson Mandela himself.
This story was first published in Al Jazeera Digital Magazine.