BASIL FEBRUARY, framing a legacy, visually speaking

254pp., 4to., colour illus., hardback, Terry February Photography, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9781049259543

A visual documentary of the exhumation and repatriation of MK cadre Basil February's mortal remains in 2024, through photographs taken by his brother Terry February and his nephew Che February.

Basil February (1943-1967) was born in Somerset West and matriculated from Trafalgar High School in 1960 with five distinctions. In 1964, at twenty years of age, he left South Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's military wing, and adopted the MK name, Paul Petersen. After undergoing specialist military training in the then Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, he served as camp commissar in Kongwa, Tanzania, before moving to Zambia to manage an ANC farm in Livingstone. He also contributed many articles to Dawn, the Umkhonto we Sizwe journal.

In 1967 February's MK unit, the Luthuli Detachment, embarked on a long march, now known as the Wankie Campaign. They planned to fight their way from Zambia across the Zambezi into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to open a corridor into South Africa for personnel and supplies. He died in combat shortly afterwards and was buried in an unmarked grave in Athlone cemetery in Bulawayo. The family searched for his grave for 57 years. In September 2024 his remains were finally brought home through The Repatriation and Reburial Project for Liberation Stalwarts, and were buried in Somerset West cemetery. The Presidency awarded Basil February a posthumous Order of Mendi for Bravery in Gold in December 2003.