Afrikaner Blood : the Born Free Generation
Ilvy Njiokiktjien / Canon Female Photojournalist Award 2011 presented by the French Association of Female Journalists (AFJ – Association des Femmes Journalistes) in partnership with Le Figaro Magazine
An extreme right-wing group is teaching young white South Africans to eschew Nelson Mandela’s vision of a multicultural rainbow nation. The boys, born after apartheid, are part of the “born free generation.” The Kommandokorps, a fringe group led by ex-apartheid leader Franz Jooste, holds holiday camps for Afrikaner teenagers. Jooste teaches them self-defense. He says that black South Africans are their enemy, that they are first and foremost Afrikaners and should deny their South African identity. In just nine days, boys who could once believe in South Africa’s unity, are turned into tough men with racist ideas.
Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Ilvy Njiokiktjien was born in 1984 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. After attending high school in the Netherlands, she went overseas for one year, to study in the United States of America (South Dakota).
She returned to the Netherlands to study journalism in Utrecht. Ilvy graduated in 2006 and she started working as a writer and photographer.
In 2007 she took off to work for The Star, a daily newspaper based in South Africa, Johannesburg.
After 8 months she returned to the Netherlands and started working as a freelance photographer. Her pictures have been published in Telegraph Magazine, l’Espresso Magazine, The Mail & Guardian, Vrij Nederland, HP de Tijd and many others.
In 2008 she won the prestigious Canonprijs, part of the Zilveren Camera (Silver Camera).
In that same year she also won the first prize in the National Geographic Photography Contest.
In 2010 she won an award in the Foreign News category of the Dutch photo contest Zilveren Camera with a picture she took at the funeral of South African extreme right leader Eugene Terre Blanche.
In 2011 Njiokiktjien won the Canon AFJ Female Photojournalist Award. Her work on adolescents in South Africa will be presented at Visa Pour ‘l Image in Perpignan in 2012.
Her series about the extreme right organization Kommandokorps in South Africa recently received an award at the Dutch photo contest Zilveren Camera.
In 2012 Njiokiktjien won 2nd prize at the World Press Photo in the Contemporary Issues Category with a picture of a sergeant pointing a gun at a boy at the right wing Kommandokorps camp in South Africa.
With that same picture she won an Award of Excellence in the Feature category of the Pictures of the Year International award (POYI).
The multimedia ‘Afrikaner Blood’ made together with multimedia journalist Elles van Gelder won first place at the Pictures of the Year International (POYI) award in the Issue Reporting Multimedia section.
With her overall work of the past years Njiokiktjien has been announced in 2012 by PDN as one of the 30 New and Emerging Photographers to watch.
Afrikaner Blood / The Born Free Generation – Ilvy Njiokiktjien
From september 1st to september 21st
Couvent des Minimes
Rue François Rabelais
66000 Perpignan – France
