In 2022, I began exploring my interest in archives, specifically how they function in ways of knowledge production – i.e., how they can frame a particular group of people and places. In addition, this interest included the ways that collecting and archive-making might impact representations. This project was deeply inspired by Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s, I carry her photo with me and through this work, I thought through the role that personal histories and archives (e.g., vernacular photography) might have in how certain events are remembered and how they can deconstruct mainstream methods of archiving (and knowledge production). I am concerned with the effects that these normalised systems of knowledge production have on marginalised people and how these systems tend to erase or overlook certain histories, in favour of another. By taking a closer look at my familial history, this project attempts to redress certain narratives surrounding victims of gang violence, and their families.

This project is a tribute to Eugene Brown, my mother's first love who was taken from this world too soon. My mother was just 21, when the love of her life, Eugene (22), was murdered. Because Eugene's family still plays an integral role in not only my mother's life but in mine as well, I felt compelled to learn more about him and the love that they shared. Eugene was not a gang member, he was a warm, innocent man – who did not deserve to die. Although my mother's story may be heartbreaking, hers is not the only one. Countless people have lost and are continuing to lose their partners, sons, mothers, brothers and loved ones to gang violence every year. It has been 24 years since Eugene's death and not much has changed on the Cape Flats. Through highlighting Eugene's story, I am hoping to shed light on the realities many people of colour face in post-apartheid South Africa.

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