By Eugene Smith – A selection of mainly South African expats gathered around a sculpture at the top of Max Roach Park Brixton Road London on Saturday 17 June 2017, for prayers in memory of the June 1976 student uprising protest against the introduction of the Afrikaans language to be used as the medium of instruction in schools and colleges.
The uprising resulted in a blood bath, which some says over thousand students and young children were shot dead and mauled by the apartheid police with their dogs. This sculpture relates to that iconic photograph taken by Sam Nzima at the demonstration, which symbolised to the world the struggles the indigenous South African people had to endure under an unjust apartheid system.
However this now iconic sculpture at the top of Max Roach Park Brixton Road has an interesting history. The subject matter was first commissioned by the 198 gallery in the 1990’s to the Zimbabwean sculptor David Mutasa who was issued £20,000 to sculpt an image and have the finished piece cast in cold cast bronze he subsequently absconded with the remaining cash and the finished art work to Zimbabwe and that was that.
Not to be desponded the chairman of the 198 gallery Clarence Thompson created a campaign and managed to raise £13.000 to commission another sculptor, the Jamaican artist Raymond Watson who works in steel, Watson’s finished stunning memorial sculpture entitled First “Child” is what we see erected on the plinth donated by Lambeth Council.
This memorial event finished up at a meeting at 366 Brixton road for talks on the progress and history of South Africa.
This meeting at 336 Brixton Road is regular workshop held on Fridays 7.30-10.00pm where one can express their views and learn about politics and history relating to Africa and the African Diaspora.
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