A Brief Walk-through of The Anti-Apartheid Movement through Video
Students' Role in the Movement
DISINVESTMENT CAMPAIGNS
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Students were at the forefront of Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigns. They collected funds for the Southern African liberation movements, campaigned against investment in apartheid and took action in solidarity with students in South Africa. In 1969/70 students took the lead in direct action and mass demonstrations against the rugby and cricket Springbok tours.
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NUS-AAM STUDENT NETWORK
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In 1971 the National Union of Students and the AAM set up a network to co-ordinate student campaigns. Over the next decade students at nearly every university and college in Britain organised some form of anti-apartheid action. At more than half of all colleges students called on the university authorities to sell shareholdings in British companies with South African interests. They rejected the argument that institutions should use their shares to lobby for pay increases for African workers and pressed for total disinvestment from South Africa.
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SOUTHERN AFRICAN LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
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In the 1960s and 1970s students collected funds for the liberation movements across Southern Africa. They campaigned for the independence of Namibia and for support for guerrilla fighters in the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola. They led the AAM’s mass marches to stop the British government granting independence to Rhodesia before black majority rule.
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SASO AND NUSAS
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When student leaders of the black South African Student Organisation (SASO) and the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) were banned and imprisoned in the early 1970s, British students protested outside the South African Embassy. They raised funds for scholarships for black students from South Africa and Namibia to study at universities in Britain.
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FREE NELSON MANDELA
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The National Union of Students was one of the founding organisations of Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS). In 1964 the University of London Union made Nelson Mandela its Honorary President. Later, in the 1980s, many student unions named buildings in honour of Mandela and initiated moves to grant him an honorary degree.
Unsung Heroes
Steve Biko
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An activist and leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, and became known for his slogan 'black is beautiful'.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
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South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, currently serving as Minister in the Presidency for the National Planning Commission for Policy and Evaluation.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
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ANC Political Activist and ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, President of ANCWL,
Walter Sisulu
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In 1952, Tambo opened the first black law firm in the country with Mandela, the Johannesburg-based Mandela and Tambo.
Helen Joseph
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In 1955, she read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People. The Women's March was one of the most memorable moments of her political career, as she was one of the main organizers of the protest.
Walter Sisulu
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The South African freedom fighter was a key figure in the ANC in the 1940s, and brought Mandela into the organisation.
Media Timeline
"UCT Students Against State of Emergency"
University of Cape Town
c. 1985
Footage of a South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) meeting in Namibia. Unidentified SWAPO members and supporters address the gathering. [00:38] Shots of the Namibian security police and soldiers on patrol in the streets of Katitura, Namibia. [05:51] Footage of the arrest of several University of Cape Town students. Max Ozinsky, student leader and member of the Western Cape Legislature, explains to the protesters that they will negotiate with police for their release. [08:56]The students march to the edge of campus and wage a sit in until students are released. [11:47] The protest ends badly with students being beaten. [14:48]
Funeral for the Gugulethu Seven
c. March 15, 1986
Gugulethu, Cape Town: Footage of the funeral procession honoring seven young activists - all members of Umkonto we Sizwe - killed by the South African Police on 3 March 1986. The caskets of the seven dead men, Mandla Simon Mxinwa, Zandisile Zenith Mjobo, Zola Alfred Swelani, Zabonke John Konile, Christopher Piet, Themba Mlifi, and Jabulani 'Jabu' Godfrey Miya, are carried through the streets of Gugulethu. Thousands of mourners including students, activist, and clergy participate in the funeral. [00:01]
Protest at The University of Cape Town
c. 1988
UCT students and community protest on UCT campus and along highway. Most participants conceal their identities with scarves and hats. South African Police officers film protest. The crowd displays a range of posters and signs denouncing the State of Emergency, apartheid and detentions and demanding the release of political prisoners. Protesters sing freedom songs and demonstrate peacefully.
"Forward to People's Power"
c. 1989
Footage of marchers in Guateng Province delivering a petition to police. Demonstrators carry placards demanding the unbanning of the ANC and posters of African leaders such as Oliver Tambo, Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Samora Machel (Mozambique) and others. They are singing a song in Xhosa, "Umama ka Botha ugibele imfene" (PW Botha's mother is riding on a baboon), implying that PW Botha's mother is a witch. Clip of another march in Gauteng where demonstrators are celebrating the release of eight political prisoners from Robben Island, including Walter Sisulu,. Footage of workers protesting the Labor Relations Act (LRA). Former COSATU president Elijah Barayi addresses the crowd as police standby. Footage of a political gathering at Cape Town City Hall where Mayor Peter Muller calls for a united Cape Town. In attendance are leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Zollie Malindi, Reverend Frank Chikane, Cyril Ramaphosa, Allan Boesak, Jay Naidoo, and others. Segments recorded by NBC, Reuters, and BBC.
Welcome Home Sisulu
c. January, 1990
A VisNews production (Reuters/NBC/BBC) which includes footage of Walter Sisulu arriving home from Robben Island, surrounded by police, press family, and well wishers. [00:28] Cyril Ramaphosa, former UDF leader, addresses the press. [09:56:] ANC and COSATU supporters and leaders enter a church hall to welcome Sisulu. [10:13] Sisulu and other Rivonia trialists enter. [12:22]
De Klerk Announcecs Mandela's Freedom
February 10, 1990
State President F. W. de Klerk delivered a speech at the opening of the 1990 session of the Parliament of South Africa in which he announced sweeping reforms that marked the beginning of the negotiated transition from apartheid to constitutional democracy. The reforms promised in the speech included the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid organizations, the release of political prisoners including Nelson Mandela, the end of the state of emergency, and a moratorium on the death penalty.
Mandela Is Released
February 11, 1990
Interviews with the public regarding Nelson Mandela's release and footage of the gathered crowd outside Victor Verster Prison awaiting his release. [00:08] Footage of Mandela appearing in public for the first time, escorted by Cyril Ramaphosa, former political and trade union activist and leading businessman [10:32] Additional shots of Whitey Jacobs, Hilda Ndude (former MP and current high profile business woman) and Bulelani Ngcuka, some of ANC Western Cape leadership. [13:44] Footage of a praise singer citing a poem for Mandela [13:55] SABC head Dali Mpofu clears the way. [16:06] Footage of Mandela and Jesse Jackson inside Cape Town City Hall [18:24] Mandela's first public speech after his release, with Walter Sisulu on his right side, and Cyril Ramaphosa holding the microphone. [20:34]
Towards a New Constitution with Albie Sachs
c: May 8, 1990
Footage of Albie Sachs (former political prisoner and exile and Justice of the Constitutional Court 1994-) addressing students at the University of the Western Cape after returning from exile. [00:00] Dullah Omar, Muslim anti-apartheid activist and former Minister of both Justice and Transport, is present sitting next to Sachs. [14:52]
"Apartheid is in deep conflict"
c.June 14, 1990
Footage of ANC meeting in Woodstock, Cape Town. Seated are Reggie September (trade unionist and political exile), Lynne Brown (member of the United Women’s Organization, United Women’s Congress, and UDF, and Western Cape Provincial Minister of Finance and Tourism, 1994 - ), and Dullah Omar (Muslim anti-apartheid activist and former Minister of both Justice and Transport). [00:00] Lynne Brown speaks to the gathering. [00:54] Siraj Desai (post-1994 Cape High Court Judge) speaks about MK, economic sanctions, and his vision for a post-apartheid society. [02:04] Dullah Omar calls for an intensification in the struggle against censorship and the building of a strong ANC. [07:36]
It doesn't end there. The story continues on!
Now that you've seen a little bit of how the movement operated, you're encouraged to do some digging of your own! Find out how the Anti-Apartheid Movement came to a resting point. There's so much more to know!
Retrospective Resources
Below are several videos that show a remembering of the Anti-Apartheid era from a perspective of reflection. Fromm mactivists looking back, to historians recovering the truth, it's always important to consider history in the light of the present as well as the past.
"I realized how much I had been carrying the baggage of being discriminated against - I really felt that I didn't belong, I didn't have the right to sit on a lovely porch that overlooks the beach." [4:31]
Zed Tshaballa tells how a personal experience in Ghana revealed how much she had internalized the oppression of apartheid. This convinced her to become a trainer on issues of diversity in order to help herself and others get over the internalized feelings of discrimination and hatred and write a new script for relations among people of different races in South Africa.
International lecturer, author, and cultural historian Dr Elizabeth Williams talks about some interesting parts of her debut book The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa. In it she unearths the untold story of Black British solidarity with the anti-apartheid movement. The book explores the socio-political history of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement alongside interconnections around the politics of race in Britain and South Africa from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century when Nelson Mandela was released. It is a must read.
Stanley Abrahams was born in 1928 in the District Six community of Cape Town. He was active in protest actions against apartheid, such as participating in a two-day strike following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and responding to forced removals during the 1960s. Abrahams became a facilitator for the Institute for Healing of Memories, which conducts workshops for healing the wounds of apartheid, which an approach of "remember and change" rather than "forgive and forget."
In this special Self-Deportation Edition of The Daily Show, Trevor heads back to South Africa, tours the neighborhood he grew up in, talks to his grandmother about Nelson Mandela and apartheid, and gives an “MTV Cribs”-style tour of his grandma’s home.
