Compound Gates

Johannesburg

Linocut on paper
Norman Kaplan, 1975

The compound was a single men’s hostel for migrant municipal workers in every town and city in South Africa where men came from rural areas to work. The hostels were strictly supervised, meaning men had to get permission to leave the hostel, and a strict curfew was imposed for their return. These two young men are dressed for a Saturday night out. In the shirt pocket of one is the hated ‘dompas’ (passbook), without which no African was allowed to move around. Failure to produce on demand the dompas (Afrikaans, meaning literally ‘stupid pass’) would automatically land you in jail, where you were at risk of being shipped out as slave labour for the white farmers in rural South Africa.

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