ABSTRACT
In Chapter 6, I revisit the south-north border by comparing different images of Africa. I first survey multimedia representations of Mgcineni Noki, aka Mambush, “the man in the green blanket,” one of the leaders of the 2012 miners’ strike who was killed by police during the massacre that took place outside the small town of Marikana, in the North West Province of South Africa. I begin with a photograph shot just a few hours before the massacre and retrace the making of the man in the green blanket through newspaper articles, a poem, a YouTube video, a stencil, art installations and performances, and other offline and online reproductions of this image. I end with an image that superimposes the man in the green blanket on the African continent. I contrast this image with that of the 2011 feature article “Africa Rising,” which celebrated a continent open for business and blessed with the rapid expansion of markets, the fast growth of a native middle class and of internet users, and technology-led development. What does the south-north border look like when our gaze is filtered through the lens of the Marikana massacre, of the almost daily protests in South Africa’s townships and informal settlements, and of the uprisings and resistance of the urban and rural poor across the African continent?
