The 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela's release from prison is the focus of an exhibition Feb. 9-28 in the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, 58 Prospect Ave. Titled "A Personal Account of Cape Town in 1990," the exhibition features photographs and newspapers from the private collection of Hugh Price, a lecturer in public affairs and the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
An exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa and Nelson Mandela's release from prison will open at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, 58 Prospect Ave.
Price, then vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, was in Cape Town as part of a tour of U.S. foundation officials through southern Africa when South African President F.W. de Klerk declared an end to apartheid on Feb. 2, 1990. Nine days later, Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. "As good fortune and fortuitous planning would have it, Cape Town and de Klerk's speech fell smack in the middle of the trip," said Price, a scholar and activist who is shown here speaking at Princeton's 2009 Martin Luther King Day celebration. (Photo: Brian Wilson)
Titled "A Personal Account of Cape Town in 1990," the exhibition features photographs and newspapers from the private collection of Hugh Price, a scholar and activist who currently teaches in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It will be on display in the Clark Munoz Gallery and library at the Fields Center through Sunday, Feb. 28.
Price, then vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, was in Cape Town as part of a tour of U.S. foundation officials through southern Africa when South African President F.W. de Klerk declared an end to apartheid on Feb. 2, 1990. Nine days later, Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. A lifelong champion of human rights, Mandela helped lead South Africa's transition toward multiracial democracy. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and became the first democratically elected president of South Africa following the end of apartheid.
Price, who is a lecturer in public affairs and the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor in the Wilson School, took photographs that depicted the diverse demographics of Cape Town and the fervor of the demand for change in South Africa. He also collected newspapers chronicling the historic events he witnessed.
In addition to the exhibition, several events are planned at the Fields Center to mark the anniversary:
The account from the Feb. 1, 1990, issue of The Argus of Cape Town, reads, "President de Klerk and Mr. Nelson Mandela are expected to meet today amid fever-pitch expectations about the release of the jailed African National Congress leader."
• a discussion titled "Building the New South Africa: Historic Transition/Tough Challenges," featuring Price and Jennifer Widner, professor of politics and international affairs and director of the Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11;
• a discussion on "The Role and Impact of the Arts in Inspiring, Sustaining and Propelling Change" with Chika Okeke-Agulu, an assistant professor of art and archaeology and African American studies, and Simon Gikandi, the Robert Schirmer Professor of English, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24; and
• screenings of the acclaimed movies "Sarafina" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, and "Amandla!" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25.
The events are cosponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, the Program in African Studies, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Office of Religious Life, the Princeton University Art Museum and the Wilson School. Hours for the exhibition will be 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
"These photographs taken by Price depict the diverse demographic of Cape Town and the fervor with which an ethnic spectrum of South Africans demanded change," writes exhibition curator and 2006 Princeton graduate Tayo Ogunbiyi in her statement. "Arrayed hair types and dense gatherings of citizens -- white, black, Indian and indeterminable racial hybrids -- tell the story of an impassioned Cape Town where protest transpired in the foreground of Art Deco architecture."
