.

In January 1989 "Stompie" Moeketsi Seipei was kidnapped by members of Winnie Mandela's notorious gang known as the Mandela United Football Club. The young boy's decomposing body was later found in a river-bed on the outskirts of Soweto, his body and head were riddled with injuries and multiple stab wounds to the neck. Stompie was 14 years old. (see Details of Soweto slaughters)

Hodnett has portrayed a beaten Stompie in an oversized football jersey bearing the hand-painted name of his heroes. The young boy stands in front of a list of all those killed during the Soweto riots of June 16, 1976, which took place nearly thirteen years before his untimely death. This was the horrific culture of violence in which Stompie and many other young South Africans grew up.

Part of the suite of 4 works based on photographs of political victims, this painting was first shown at the Britannia Community Centre in Vancouver, Canada in May 2002. This suite of 4 paintings now forms part of the permanent collection at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. (see also: A Ukrainian Jew's Execution, Masha Bruskina and Steve Biko)

Signed lower right.  Size:    91.5 cm. x 91.5 cm. - 36 in. x 36 in.

Click here or on image to return to Gallery - 11