"I hope my photographs will show that a deep-rooted resistance movement against apartheid has always existed and continues to exist in South Africa; that this movement has well-considered directions and objectives; and that at every stage of its development it has had, and continues to have, the loyal and enthusiastic support of the majority of South Africans"
– from the introduction to Portrait of a People A personal photographic record of the South African liberation struggle by Eli Weinberg, 1978
Gordon Metz, 1995
Eli Weinberg holding up an enlarged image of Chief Albert Luthuli taken by him
WEINBERG'S LIFE
1908
Eli Weinberg was born in 1908 in Latvia on the Baltic Sea. His experiences of the First World War and the 1917 October Revolution led to his support for socialism and working-class struggles. At sixteen he joined the trade union movement. During 1926 he developed an interest in photography while assisting a friend in his photographic studio.
He left Latvia due to the rise of fascism, arriving in South Africa in December 1929. He worked as a professional photographer on arrival and built a successful studio at his home in Plantation Rd in Johannesburg.
He left Latvia due to the rise of fascism, arriving in South Africa in December 1929. He worked as a professional photographer on arrival and built a successful studio at his home in Plantation Rd in Johannesburg.
1932 - 1948
Deeply affected by the systemic oppression of black South Africans, he joined the Communist Party in 1932 and worked as a trade unionist. Listed and banned from trade union activities in 1948 he continued to participate underground while working as a photographer from his home studio.
1960
In the wake of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 he and his activist wife Violet and daughter Sheila were detained for three months under the State of Emergency. Then in 1964 he was arrested for his involvement in underground activities supporting the ANC and its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was imprisoned for five years
1960
These young girls were present at the foundation conference of the Federation. The little girl on the left is a link between the past and the present. She is Sheila Weinberg. In 1964 she was, at the age of 18, the youngest detainee under the 90 Day detention law. Held for 55 days in solitary confinement, she went on hunger strike. Later she was imprisoned for six months for ANC activities. During the early seventies she was secretary of the Human Rights Committee in Johannesburg, and is now banned and under house-arrest in Johannesburg.
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
1970 - 1982
After his release in 1970 he continued to face harassment from the apartheid government. In 1976, under an increasingly repressive political climate Weinberg went into exile in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. While repeatedly denied citizenship by the apartheid regime, Weinberg regarded himself as South African and died in exile on July 18, 1982.
Weinberg could not take his collection of negatives when he left for exile and most of his collection was destroyed. The majority of the photographs that he did recover, taken while on assignment for the New Age newspaper, ended up in the IDAF collection and are now housed in the photographic archive at the Mayibuye Archives.
Weinberg could not take his collection of negatives when he left for exile and most of his collection was destroyed. The majority of the photographs that he did recover, taken while on assignment for the New Age newspaper, ended up in the IDAF collection and are now housed in the photographic archive at the Mayibuye Archives.
2014
The artwork to commemorate the Weinberg family of activists is a focal piece of a neighbourhood park in Savoy which was named in honour of the Weinberg Family of activists in 2014. Commissioned by the City Directorate of Arts & Culture, produced as a collaboration of Drew Lindsay and Hannelie Coetzee.
View the monument
View the monument
PORTABLE EXHIBITION PRODUCED DURING THE WEINBERG’S EXHIBITION AT THE TROPEN MUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM IN 1980
Now known as Wereldmuseum AmsterdamGeorge Vogelaar interview with Eli Weinberg at the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam in 1980
SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXTS FROM WEINBERG'S BOOK "PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE"
produced by International Defence and Aid Fund 1978CONTROL OF LABOUR: THE PASS LAWS
The real purpose of apartheid has been stated frankly by white South African statesmen. Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, usually credited with being the 'architect' of apartheid (although he merely formalised an already well established system), said: 'there is no place for the black man in the white economy other than in certain forms of labour ...'
Every Adult African over the age of sixteen must carry a 'pass' and must be able to produce it on demand at any time of day or night. The pass is obtained at so called 'Pass Offices', where applicants are carefully screened by a computerised index……
Pass raids are a daily feature in the lives of Africans. They take place at arbitrary times, at bus stops, railway stations, factory gates or in the dead of night during house-to-house searches.
Those found without passes or with faulty documents are detained, handcuffed and assembled to be loaded into waiting vehicles, which travel around until they are full and then proceed to various police stations. There the prisoners are locked up in cells until the following morning, when they will appear before a Bantu Commissioner acting as a magistrate … Eleven million people served prison sentences for pass offences between 1948 and 1973.
Once in jail for a pass offence, the prisoner is sent to work, sometimes for a white farmer in a distant rural area, sometimes in the garden of a government official.
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
THE CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE
AND THE FREEDOM CHARTER
The initial proposal to convene a Congress of the People came from Professor z. K. Mathews in his presidential address to the Cape Province conference of the African National Congress on 15 August 1953. The final decision was taken at the annual conference of the ANC in December 1953 and Chief Luthuli, as President, issued a 'Call' in May 1954, published in several languages and widely distributed throughout the country by 10,000 'freedom volunteers' for whom a distinctive uniform had been designed. These volunteers canvassed people in every part of the country, and collected demands from representative groups and organisatIons at numerous meeting
The preparations for the Congress were planned by the 'Congress Alliance', headed by the African National Congress. Other members of the Alliance were the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the Coloured People's Congress and the Congress of Democrats (an organisation of white supporters of the ANC). An emblem was designed to symbolise this Alliance, consisting of a wheel representing the ANC and four spokes for the other parties.
The Congress of the People met on 25 and 26 June 1955 on an open square in Kliptown, near Johannesburg. It was a prodigious job of organisation and popular endeavour. Transport for some 3,000 people had to be arranged, they had to be accommodated and fed for two days. Even toilet facilities had to be specially planned. Many delegates never reached the Congress, as the police had erected road blocks in many parts of the country and detained some 200 delegates. Nevertheless, when the Congress opened, there were 2,884 accredited delegates present, of whom 320 were Indians, 230 Coloureds and 112 whites. In addition there were about 3,000 observers who watched the proceedings from behind a canvas enclosure set up to separate the public from the official delegates.
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
I was banned from attending gatherings, so I had arranged for myself a grandstand view from a nearby roof, where I set up my equipment. An angry Colonel Spengler, head of the Special Branch, came storming up to me: 'Weinberg, if you don't bugger off this minute, I will arrest you and charge you with attending a gathering!'
I had no alternative but to 'bugger off', but actually this proved to be fortunate, as shortly afterwards armed police surrounded the Congress, searched and took the names of everybody present and confiscated documents, papers, leaflets and even photographs films. By that time, I was already ensconced in my darkroom developing the photographs for delivery for the next edition of the New Age.
I had no alternative but to 'bugger off', but actually this proved to be fortunate, as shortly afterwards armed police surrounded the Congress, searched and took the names of everybody present and confiscated documents, papers, leaflets and even photographs films. By that time, I was already ensconced in my darkroom developing the photographs for delivery for the next edition of the New Age.
- Eli Weinberg
THE TREASON TRIAL
THE MAIN ATTACK ON THE FREEDOM CHARTER
Throughout 1955 and 1956 the Special Branch conducted a series of raids on offices and private homes of hundreds of opponents of apartheid. Documents, letters, pamphlets, even pieces of clothing were seized in preparation for a show trial. Finally, early on the morning of 5 December 1956, hundreds of policemen throughout the country descended on the homes of leaders of the Congress Alliance and arrested them.
One hundred and fifty-six people-104 Africans, 23 Whites, 21 Indians and 8 Coloureds-were charged with high treason, a capital offence in South Africa. While the case was remanded against most of the accused, 30 of them sat in court almost daily for four-and-a-half years, their normal lives disrupted, and had to listen to an endless recital of long documents, garbled reports of ANC meetings and fabrications by bought informers. Outside, the struggle of the people was continuing in the streets, the bus-boycott ran its bitter but successful course, there were pass burnings, there were stay-at-homes and there was the state of Emergency when the government showed itself unable to continue with normal , methods of administration. The Treason Trial was the main attack on the Freedom Charter, but in the end the court acquitted and discharged all the accused.
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
PASS BURNING
Just before the ANC was declared an illegal organisation in 1960, there was a defiant campaign of pass burning. Chief Luthuli gave the signal by burning his own pass.
Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, 1978
