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Following his first visit, Kirby’s oeuvre has evolved into a multi-faceted output that spans multiple genres. In particular, his series “We Gave You Forgiveness…(You Kept the Krugerrands)” builds on his visual condemnation of apartheid and its aftermath. He reflects, “Two decades after Nelson Mandela was elected, and after the much-lauded peace and reconciliation process, racial tensions in South Africa are still a major issue. Many believe that the country has become more divided as the economy has failed to deliver the growth and jobs that were promised to bring greater financial equality to the population. For the majority of South Africans, not much has changed economically in the past twenty years.” Kirby chose to reflect this using specific visual interventions in his photographs.
As a tangible product of apartheid, the Krugerrand has deep-rooted sociopolitical and symbolic associations attached to it. In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of Western countries forbade its import due to its association with the problematic regime. Addressing the title of his series, Kirby explains, “90% of the country’s wealth is held by 10% of the primarily-white population. To put it simply, the black population was extremely magnanimous in offering forgiveness during public reconciliations, but the white population still kept the majority of the wealth. With this series, I wanted to present that fact and this situation.”
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