Tributes continue to pour in from around the world for Peter Magubane, one of the most recognised photojournalists who captured life in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa for more than five decades. 

Magubane died at his Johannesburg home on 1 January at the age of 91.

The Young Lions on 16 June 1976. The Young Lions students wanted to stop Peter Magubane from photographing on the morning of 16 June 1976. Magubane explained to them, ‘A struggle without documentation is no struggle’. They agreed and issued an instruction that photographers and journalists be allowed to document the march . (Photo: Peter Magubane)

Black Power 1976: Late afternoon in Soweto, 16 June, 1976. (Photo: Peter Magubane)

Peter Magubane at the opening of his ‘Nelson Mandela. Man of the People’ exhibition at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk, Poland, on 6 June 2016. The photo exhibition of portraits of the former South African president presented important milestones in Mandela’s life as well as major moments in South African history, pre and post-apartheid. (Photo: EPA / Adam Warzawa)

Dr Peter Magubane. (Photo: Facebook)

Friend and family spokesperson David Meyer-Gollan said he had many fond memories of Magubane, but the lasting lessons he learnt from the photojournalist were resilience, innovation and humility. 

“He taught me to go out and make my projects… don’t wait around for opportunities – go out and make it happen,” said Meyer-Gollan

Peter Magubane at the memorial service for politician and apartheid General Magnus Malan on 2 June 2000, in Pretoria. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sondag / Liza van Deventer)

Undated: Poems are accompanied by Peter Magubane’s piercing photographs, which reflect the brutality of black life under apartheid as well as how black people lived in joy and pain. (Photo: Supplied)

Peter Magubane on 19 October 2000. (Photo: Supplied)

Meyer-Gollan said he felt deeply for the family at their time of loss.

“Surviving detention for over 500 days during apartheid, losing family members, and so many other horrific things, was enough to inspire, but he strived for excellence and was so disciplined. I looked at that and thought, wow, this is what it takes to succeed,” said Meyer-Gollan 

He recalled how Magubane was always willing to share his knowledge. 

“When he spoke to young people, you could see their eyes light up… they would hang on his every word. He always made time to share with others.”

Magubane had to find creative ways to dodge the authorities as he set about documenting the harsh realities of life in apartheid South Africa.

Everyone who crossed paths with this struggle legend has a Peter Magubane story. DM