Gideon Mendel

In March 1989, Gideon Mendel exhibited a series of colour photographs of the various 1988 celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Great Trek at the Market Photo Gallery. Mendel's photo-essay covered all two-and-a-half Great Trek celebrations: the FAK trek, on behalf of the National Party, the Volkswag trek on behalf of the Conservative Party, and the AWB trek that was linked to the Volkswag trek. The exhibition was sponsored by the the left-wing alternative Afrikaans newspaper, Vrye Weekblad, and entitled Beloofde Land (or ‘Promised Land’). The photo-essay was criticized for being ambiguous in its point-of-view. Viewers were not quite sure whether Mendel was on the side of the left’ or the ‘right’. On Sharpville Day (21st March) that year, five photographs from the exhibition were removed and the gallery lights were replaced with candles.

For more information on Beloofde Land, see Michael Godby, 'Dismantling the Symbolic Structure of Afrikaner Nationalism: Gideon Mendel's Beloofde Land Photographs (1989)', South African Historical Journal 39, 1998, pp.111-128.