CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

A Casa Dos Carvalhos (10 years of democracy)

One night in March 1995 2 men armed with knives broke into the Bezuidenhoudt Valley, Johannesburg, house of an elderly couple, Diamantino Baptista De Carvalho and his wife Edith. They demanded guns and money. Frustrated at finding nothing they proceeded to strangle and beat the couple severely with a water pipe and left them for dead in the early morning. Their eldest son Diamantino (Tino) jnr. found them and after medical treatment moved them to his own house which is close by. He packed some essentials for them and locked up the house he has grown up in, leaving all their furniture, clothing, documents and other personal effects in the house.

His parents never again returned to their house, with Diamantino snr. passing on the next year from his injuries and Edith following in 2004. No perpetrators have been arrested to date and all attempts at justice had failed. For the past 10 years, since the date of this tragic event, the house has been under sustained attacks by thieves and vandals with repeated violations resulting in all the personal effects strewn over the floors of the rooms and most furniture and fittings stolen.

Tino has been a virtual prisoner of his duties to preserve the house and its memories. He does not work. Day and night he patrols the sidewalk in front of the house, carrying a stick. He chases away vandals and confiscates trolleys with stolen goods taken from the house. Many have tried to illegally occupy the house, siting “land grab occupation” rights.

The De Carvalho family emigrated to South Africa in 1961 from Beira in the then
Mocambique. Diamantino jnr.(Tino) was 14 years old and his younger brother Rui
and sister Susanna (twins) a few years younger.

The Exhibition containing 24 pieces is experienced as a walk through the house.

Postscript; In 2013 Tino De Carvalho was murdered in the street whilst patrolling in
front of his family’s house trying to protect it, as he has done daily since 1994.