What these three photos can tell us about 16 June 1976

On Monday , 25 May 2020, Derek Chauvin, a police officer in Minneapolis, pinned George Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, until he stopped breathing. In South Africa, soldiers entered Collins Khoza’s home in Alexandra, poured the beer he was having over his head. An altercation broke out and he died, according to news reports, in front of his children. All around the world, from London to Paris, Black Lives Matter protests broke out. On June 16, South Africa commemorated the student march, organised Studying the images from that day, amidst all of the loss of black life today, and during the worldwide protests, leaves one with a sense of defeat, if not exhaustion. The timeline, from then to now, tells of the precarious loop that is black life, death always hovering, to befall at any moment. 

Sam Nzima: Hector Pieterson.