Exposing the ghosts of SA's toxic past

A new exhibition sheds light on South Africa’s secret chemical and biological warfare programme.

Pretoria, South Africa – The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Institute for Security Studies opened the exhibition Poisoned Pasts.

This year marks four decades since the 1976 Soweto student uprising in South Africa, which spurred the decision of the apartheid military to establish a secret chemical and biological warfare programme, code-named Project Coast. This year also marks 20 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission started its investigations, which led to the public hearings about Project Coast.

‘Today, South Africa is again experiencing a wave of student protests and a state under severe pressure. It is an appropriate moment to consider how the past has been and is being dealt with. And it is timely to think about the implications this holds for the future,’ says Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The burden of a toxic past will haunt future generations in ways that we cannot always anticipate, and South Africans will continue to grapple with questions on how to deal with the past, what is required to bring healing, and where to find assurance that historic harms will never be repeated.

Poisoned Pasts is a collaborative undertaking by forensic artist Kathryn Smith from Liverpool John Moores University/Stellenbosch University, ISS researcher Chandré Gould and sociologist Prof Brian Rappert from University of Exeter.

In the exhibition, facts and testimony are set against contested and conflicting accounts, putting visitors in the position of an investigator. Concise, meticulously researched commentary accompanies powerful visual reportage. Original artifacts, reconstructions and historical documents illuminate the many narratives that Project Coast has produced.

‘This exhibition leads us to examine how we reckon with difficult pasts, while it also acknowledges and honours unidentified victims. It also raises questions about how scientists and medical practitioners can be protected from becoming involved in similar programmes,’ says Chandré Gould.

Poisoned Pasts, ultimately, is not about the past: it is about the futures we want to be building. And for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, it is about realising the South Africa of Madiba’s dreams.

The exhibition will be on display at the Nelson Mandela Foundation from October 2016 until March 2017.

For more information or media inquiries contact:

Verne Harris: +27 82 9942233, [email protected]

Chandre Gould: +27 83 3054915, [email protected]

Kathryn Smith: +27 82 7737033, [email protected]

Brian Rappert: [email protected]