October 2024 is the United Kingdom’s annual Black History Month, however the mood on this front seems tempered. But do not despair, there are exciting undercurrents. 

One of the interesting happenings are the exhibitions that seemed to be linked through some, probably coincidental, themes. The specific example here is the exhibitions Zanele Muholi at the Tate Modern London and Ernest Cole: A Lens in Exile at Autograph London. So, what do these two exhibitions and hence featured artists have in common? Apart from both artists being photographers, they are specifically both South African photographers. But these are not just any South African photographers, while Muholi today addresses the issues of sex, sexual and gender-based discrimination, Cole over half a century earlier, was operating in the thick of the racial discrimination of South Africa’s apartheid in the 1960s. Both are tied by the social malaise of violence triggered and spurred on by discrimination.

Ernest Cole is the forebear of Zanele Muholi in almost every sense and realm, but most especially politically. Cole’s mission, fore mostly was to broadcast the horrors of apartheid in 1960s South Africa, using the voice of and through the eyes of the Black victims of the racially oppressive system. This he did effectively through his visceral photo volume House of Bondage published in 1967, when was 27. 

As the title of the exhibition hints, Ernest Cole: A Lens in Exile at Autograph London is not about the misery of apartheid in South Africa. The exhibition nevertheless is about racially triggered political misery as it unfolds in the USA at the height of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, as seen through Cole’s lens and in effect eyes. The exhibition is an insight into Cole’s soul. Despite his mission and passion Cole is revealed to be a reluctant “chronicler of misery, injustice, and callousness”. This will not be news to those who battle racial strife and political misery daily, which over time are mentally, emotionally and physically tiring. 

While these two exhibitions running at the same time might be a coincidence, the parallel of Cole and Muholi is apt, and more so, timely for the UK’s Black History Month of October. In tandem with Black History Month, Cole reminds us of the efforts of the forebears in the international fight for Black emancipation, while Muholi impresses on us that the struggle continues in certain important quarters, despite our perceived social strides. Zaneli Muholi is on at Tate Modern until 26 January 2025. Ernest Cole: A Lens in Exile at Autograph ends on 12 October 2025 and it is probably that the exhibition would have ended by the time this essay hits the newsstands. However, there are opportunities to engage with Ernest Cole online to, for example, continue the comparisons with Muholi. Here are some of these opportunities: 

• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/books/review/ernest-cole-house-of- bondage.html
• https://www.plparchive.com/house-of-bondage/  
• https://theconversation.com/ernest-cole-south-africas-most-famous-photobook-has-been-republished-after-55-years-197647  
• https://www.protestinphotobook.com/post/house-of-bondage  

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