Documenting the Anguish of Apartheid

The Cordoned Heart, a collection of 136 pictures taken by 20 South African photographers, poignantly conveys the evils of apartheid. It was a product of the Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in South Africa (1982-1984), and published in conjunction with a larger exhibit of photographs that traveled to different parts of the world. The book, which includes both photographs and essays, not only documents poverty but presents a powerful and unflinching portrait of life in South Africa under apartheid, which did not end until 1994 when the first multi-racial democratic elections were held in that country. Even today, South Africa’s black citizens comprise the vast majority of those suffering the indignities of poverty, a condition that is especially harsh for women and children in rural areas as The Cordoned Heart movingly attests. As People magazine noted in a 1986 review of the images in the collection, “It is hard to imagine any more striking portrayals of the grueling, embittering, enraging impact of apartheid than what is written on the faces of these people.” The Cordoned Heart was edited by Omar Badsha, an award-winning artist and photographer and noted anti-Apartheid activitst who was born in Durban in 1945 and grew up in a Gujarati Muslim family.