Sue WilliamsonA Few South Africans: Amina Cachalia, 1984
In 1982, Sue Williamson spent much of her time in Crossroads, an informal Cape Town community marked for destruction by the apartheid state. She was working with residents on strategies to oppose the demolitions. It was there that she first encountered the image of Elizabeth Paul – a Xhosa faith healer whose faded photo adorned the walls in many homes. This repetition marked Elizabeth as an important figure in the community, a person to be honoured and remembered.
Williamson began a series of photo-etched portraits with screen-printed frames, with the first in the series, a portrait of Elizabeth Paul. Each was a tribute to a woman who inspired others through her leadership, often in the struggle for liberation: Helen Joseph, Winnie Mandela, Annie Silinga, Mamphela Ramphele. Their names are familiar today, but in the 1980s they were largely invisible. Williamson’s work sought to give them visibility, and to honour them.
Her influences were many. Renaissance portraiture offered structure; the inventive frames of Crossroads homes provided texture. But more than technique, it was the desire to make these women known that shaped the work. In mass- producing and distributing postcard versions of the portraits, Williamson made the series portable, ensuring that these stories could travel, unbound by gallery walls.
Amina Cachalia grew up in a politically aware family and was one of the leaders of the Federation of South African Women, a broad-based organisation which opposed apartheid. She was banned in 1963. Her husband, Yusuf, was under house arrest and her sister, Zainab, who lived next door, was also banned. After the first democratic election, in 1994, Amina accompanied Nelson Mandela on a visit to the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, in a classic action of reconciliation.
