The Exhibition "Signs of Dignity" consists of 50 b&w-Photographs depicting the live of the people in the homelands in the north-eastern Transvaal: Gazankulu.

Alltogether, an estimated of 500 Photos feature the daily life, portraits, living situation, sanitation, water supply and the beauty of the people. A small amount of this photographic work - which covers an unique humanitarian situation of Mozambican refugees during 1991 until 1992 - is on show until September 2008.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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FACES OF HLUPHEKANI:

PROPOSAL FOR AN EXHIBITION
ON MOZAMBICAN REFUGEES IN GAZANKULU
ORGANIZED BY MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES
AND PRESENTING RALF GRUNDER'S PICTURES

As a tourist attraction, the Kruger Park has been for decades a target for amateur as well as experienced photographers. But very few bother to picture people from the surrounding villages as they leave the park, although one could find there a very special kind of human being: people who used to spend a peaceful life on their pieces of land and whose destinies have suddenly turned to chaos, when Renamo or other forgotten soldiers came and achieved their customary works of destruction. And once this occurs, there is no alternative but to flee, either through the electric fence which stretches from Swaziland to Kruger Park, or through the Park itself. Witnesses and victims of one of the most devastating wars in the world, these people know, when they get to the "hosting places" of KaNgwane and Gazankulu, that what they have left behind is more than an unsafe place: a human chaos, with tragedies equally shared among villages and families, where "no man's land" means "no moral limit's land".

They share the lot of "war refugees" throughout the world: mostly former peasants, victims of hatred, power struggles and the arms trade. Far beyond their "potential of self-immunity", they flee when luck is on their side;

It is their daily life in Hluphekani camp, near Giyani in Gazankulu, that has been captured by Ralf Gründer's Leicas.
They report their simple and terrible stories to Renneth, M.S.F.'s Field Officer in Giyani, or Greg, Doctor in Tinswalo. The irresistible joy of living, or an overwhelming sadness transpire from their portraits... We deeply felt that it was our duty to witness their fate, for the good and for the bad.

PRESENTATION AND AIMS:

The description of "FACES OF HLUPHEKANI" will proceed by addressing the following questions: Who (exhibits); What and Why; Where; When; for How Much.

I-WHO ?

A- Medecins Sans Frontieres is a private medical humanitarian organisation specialized in emergency and precarious situations. Medecins Sans Frontieres means Doctors without Borders.

M.S.F. France is now more than twenty years old. Its parents were a group of doctors who, in 1971, were dissatisfied with the way the Eastern Pakistan crisis was handled (on a humanitarian and medical point of view) by the international community: these doctors wanted to go further than speeches and official assistance; they rather believed in getting to the very victims, the silent side of the tragedy that was taking place. They used to share the strong feeling that a doctor does not have to bother about "the reason of State" when it comes to help and cure war victims, most affected by that very reason. Apart from that extreme perspective, M.S.F. devoted itself to natural disasters victims and to areas under covered in terms of health and sanitation structures. In concrete terms, such implication consisted for instance in: setting up of cholera camps, participation to Expanded Programs of Immunization, running of dispensaries and training of local staff, monitoring of sanitation projects, surgical work in conflict areas,... In 1991 almost 900 doctors, surgeons, nurses, logisticians, sanitarians and administrators have been working in 60 places in the world, for short-term voluntary missions. The French doctors are no more exclusively French: six other sections have been created in Europe: Belgium, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Greece. Rotating presidency, regular meetings as well as crisis taskforces make it possible to harmonize our various actions and create a "multiplier effect". As an example, sixty expatriates from almost all sections are currently working in various parts of Mozambique. As far as funding is concern, M.S.F. 's machinery is as follows;

-M.S.F.'s resources in 1991 amounted to the equivalent of
R 159.000.000,00 out of which

-48% were coming from private donations (735000 regular donators are recorded so far);
-41% were European Community funds;
-5% came from United High Commissioner for Refugees and
6% from various embassies and organizations.

One should point out that, being involved in dramatic situations, remote areas, often controled by rebel forces, we consider our independance as a key factor. This enables us to work in both sides of the conflict (for example in Angola even before the peace accords). But more than this, it strengthens our ability to stand up as witnesses, in order to fulfil what we consider as our "humanitarian task". As an example of such a task, we say loudly that we do not agree when victims, be them refugees (in Thailand, Hong Kong, Bengladesh,...) or nationals (in Sudan, Ethiopia, Irak,...) have to cope with brutal political decisions (repatriation, deportation, political use of the international aid,...) when their conditions are already so bad and when the implementation has not been thought with enough concern for the people's safety and dignity (two of the main words used in the 1951 U.N. Convention for Refugees).

In South Africa, Medecins Sans Frontieres has been working for five years amongst the Mozambican war refugees in KaNgwane and for one year in Gazankulu, doing food distribution and health surveillance, including a nutrition scheme in a Hospital's structures, monitoring registration of new comers and settled refugees, and more recently, surveying water supply needs and setting up emergency operations, motivating the community for latrine construction,...

B- Ralf Grunder has been for more than one year M.S.F.'s Logistician and Sanitarian in Gazankulu. But apart from getting "his hands dirty" by actually running the whole sanitation and food distribution programme there, he found himself in a position of an active witness of people's various fates. Active, because he is an experienced photographer (he has already exhibited his pictures on the Berlin wall at the Market Gallery) whose sensitivity has been constantly sollicited all along his very daily work as a field officer.

II-WHAT AND WHY ?

Hluphekani, the name of the refugee camp near Giyani, means “place of suffering".
“ Faces of Hluphekani” is an exhibition dedicated first to the plea of the Mozambican refugees; it must be seen as a testimony that M.S.F., thanks to its presence in this type of context, is intent to make, so that, especially among South African urbanized people, a better understanding of what that neighbouring country has become, and who these Mozambicans that are so frequently burdened with all evils on the earth and on South Africa, may also be.

"Faces of Hluphekani" will be composed of four distinctive aspects:

1. 40 black and white and 20 colour pictures (40 cm x 20 cm) will represent portraits and houses from Hluphekani camp;
2. Along with the pictures, extracts from interviews made among refugees will be placarded on the walls;
3. A typical "Shangaan refugee house" will be set up in the middle of the gallery: it will be made up of mud and Coca Cola or Beer cans. Inside the hut, movies on M.S.F.'s activities throughout the world will be viewed (one of these movies has been remixed by the BBC);
4. Parallel to "Hluphekani" features, a small set of pictures will be presented in one of the corners, aimed at illustrating where a Mozambican, whatever status he used to have in South Africa, reaches, once he has been repatriated: Ressano Garcia, the Mozambican border town near Komatiport, is "the last stop before hell", that is the bush between there and Maputo. There, people who have been working for months or years in South Africa and saving their money, would fight their best to get into a truck or a bus going to Maputo, while being aware at the very same time that they may be stolen of all their belongings if not their lives, during the trip. Nevertheless: they will fight to get in...

"Faces of Hluphekani" is our tribute to the pathetic simple people of Mozambique. It is also the tribute to Ralf Griinder, a talented photographer who belongs to that remarkable category of artists who do not only want to steel a portrait, but also to shake hand, sympathize, assist whenever necessary, be part of the world rather than only picturing it.

III-WHERE ?

"Faces of Hluphekani's venue will hopefully take place at the Market Gallery, in Johannesburg.

IV-WHEN ?

To be decided: hopefully sometime in September - October 1992

Johannesburg, 19th July 1992
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Ralf Gründer

Exhibition "Faces of Hluphekani"

Press release of the first display at the Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1993. During that Exhibition, titled "Faces of Hluphekani", 86 images had been displayed.

Now, in January 1993, when the International Community praises the current peace process in Mozambique, celebrates the re-opening of formerly lethal roads and territory, and blesses the new covenant between urban and rural Mozambique.

Why hold an exhibition on the plight of the Mozambican refugees?

MEMORY

This exhibition focuses on Mozambican who had been leading peaceful lives on their farms when their destinies turned into chaos, as Renamo, Frelimo and other soldiers came and destroyed everything they touched.

Since then, these people have shared the fate of war refugees throughout the world. Mostly former peasants, they became the victims of hatred, regional disputes, power struggles and the arm trade. When they could no longer protect themselves, they fled their homes towards peaceful countries.

WE OWE THEM A GLANCE AND OUR ATTENTION: thus, this exhibition by Medecins sans Frontieres ("Doctors without Borders") and Ralf Gründer is aimed at promoting the cause of these civilians who had no choice, but were caught up in a deadly conflict; and at preserving the memory of their fate in South Africa, at the Hluphekani Camp ("Place of Suffering": Shangaan),

HOPE

The peace process in Mozambique is showing some valuable results since October 1992, while learning from the bitter experience of Angola. In addition, the rainfall there has been generous this season, another sign of relief after so much harm.

THE FOLLOWING FACTORS MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT:

- Both armies spread thousands of mines all over the rural areas, which are still there - waiting for the first, most enthusiastic returnees;

- Gangsters and free-lance killers are trying to perpetuate their way of life, which thrives on war and would be ended by a successful peace process;

- Repatriation will only be a success, if it proceeds in line with the principles that have guided the United nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for more than forty years:

Voluntary agreement and return in safety and dignity. One can add: and coordination with assistance programs underway in Mozambique.

In this regard, State President F. W. de Klerk has taken a great stand, on his own initiative, during a recent ceremony at which he received a book published by Medecins sans Frontieres entitled "Population in Danger." He stressed that those that we label as "the Mozambican refugees" should be treated with humanity, and that a guarantee of basic living conditions in Mozambique was the foremost criteria for any repatriation process.

Ralf Gründer has had a very special relationship with Hluphekani camp and the Mozambicans living there. A geologist and photographer, he has been involved for two years in a comprehensive program of food distribution (food given to M.S.F. by Operation Hunger thanks to European funds), water supply and sanitation facilities aimed at preventing disease. His work has extended in the past year to providing water to South African villages in Gazankulu, which had badly hit by the drought.
These pictures and interviews are a kind of "artistic overtime" accomplished in addition to his daily work.

Thus, this exhibition should be seen in its triple dimension:
- artistic
- historical
- humanitarian

We thank for attending