‘Sisters in the struggle’: Women of Indian Origin in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle 1900–1994 unveils an unchartered historical terrain, highlighting the contributions of Indian women towards non-racialism and equality and their experiences within diverse political parties; therefore, shifting the post-apartheid liberation stories which have been dominated by the journey of the ANC to other political organisations who collectively played a significant role in South Africa’s road to democracy. In this book, Hiralal presents a refreshing perspective of Indians, particularly women, as contributors and activists in the struggle. The book elucidates that the struggle against apartheid was a collective endeavour among the oppressed races and not a one-sided endeavour by the ANC. The book, thus, examines the participation of Indian women against apartheid and colonialism within gendered and political frameworks.
Positions the history and inner workings of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) against the canvas of the major political developments in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s up to the first democratic elections in 1994 Following a hiatus in the 1960s, the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in South Africa was revived in 1971. In fascinating detail, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed bring the inner workings of the NIC to life against the canvas of major political developments in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, and up to the first democratic elections in 1994. The NIC was relaunched during the rise of the Black Consciousness Movement, which attracted a following among Indian university students, and whose invocation of Indians as Black led to a major debate about ethnic organisations such as the NIC. This debate persisted in the 1980s with the rise of the United Democratic Front and its commitment to non-racialism. The NIC was central to other major debates of the period, most significantly the lines drawn between boycotting and participating in government-created structures such as the Tri-Cameral Parliament. Despite threats of banning and incarceration, the NIC kept attracting recruits who encouraged the development of community organisations, such as students radicalised by the 1980s education boycotts and civic protests. Colour, Class and Community, The Natal Indian Congress, 1971—1994 details how some members of the NIC played dual roles, as members of a legal organisation and as allies of the African National Congress’ underground armed struggle. Drawing on varied sources, including oral interviews, newspaper reports, and minutes of organisational meetings, this in-depth study tells a largely untold history, challenging existing narratives around Indian ‘cabalism’, and bringing the African and Indian political story into present debates about race, class and nation.
Buckle up for a tour of South Africa – your guide the inimitable Sihle Khumalo. Born in South Africa, and having lived here for almost fifty years, Khumalo reflects on the past and ponders the future of this captivating yet complex country. He delves into the history of the names given to our towns and cities (from Graaff-Reinet to Schweizer-Reneke to Zastron) and in the process raises issues we might not have interrogated fully.
This is the first major attempt to view the break-up of Britain as a global phenomenon, incorporating peoples and cultures of all races and creeds that became embroiled in the liquidation of the British Empire in the decades after the Second World War. A team of leading historians are assembled here to view a familiar problem through an unfamiliar lens, ranging from India, to China, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Falklands, Gibraltar and the United Kingdom itself. At a time when trace-elements of Greater Britain have resurfaced in British politics, animating the febrile polemics of Brexit, these essays offer a sober historical perspective. More than perhaps at any other time since the empire’s precipitate demise, it is imperative to gain a fresh purchase on the global challenges to British identities in the twentieth century.
Through the long 20th century, Indian South Africans lived under the whip of settler colonialism and white minority rule, which saw the passing of a slew of legislation that circumscribed their freedom of movement, threatened repatriation, and denied them citizenship, all the while herding them into racially segregated townships. This volume chronicles the broad outlines of this history. Taking the story into the present, it provides an analysis of how Indian South Africans have responded to changes wrought by the remarkable collapse of apartheid and the holding of the first democratic elections in 1994. Drawing upon archival records, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, this study examines the ways in which Indian South Africans define themselves and the world around them, and how they are defined by others. It tells of the incredible journey of Indian South Africans, many of whom are fourth and fifth generation, towards being recognized as citizens in the land of their birth and how, while often attracted by and seeking to explore their roots in India, they continue to dig deeper roots in African soil.
This autobiographical volume will foster a deeper understanding of racism, discrimination, and inequality in all its subtleties. Through storytelling, framed within the life journey of a South African sociologist of Indian ancestry, this book examines how marginalized communities lived with, fought, and braved racial engineering under apartheid. Moodley shares her experiences of living, studying, and teaching race, ethnicity, identity, nationalism, and critical multiculturalism in five countries: South Africa, the United States, Germany, Egypt, and Canada. Everyday experiences are blended with academic interpretations, so readers gain insights from what is in part memoir and in other parts educational lessons drawn from numerous micro experiences. Subjects range from indentured labor to expropriation, the influences of Gandhi and Mandela, anti-Semitism in Europe to welfare colonialism in Canada, sectarianism in the Middle East to strategies for combatting bigotry in America. “A tour de force. Moodley’s journey gives readers new hope that educating for political literacy might reduce the insidious web of societal racism.” —Rhona S. Weinstein, University of California, Berkeley “A delicate stitching together of social theory, political commentary, and memory.” —Crain Soudien, CEO, Human Sciences Research Council “Combines an unfailing eye for telling details with an insightful social analysis of race and culture. A remarkable journey through historic junctures on three continents.” —John Willinsky, Stanford University
A majestic saga and thoughtful narrative recounting a family's epic struggle, this novel weaves together extraordinary characters bursting with richness, feeling, and dimension. The story of Chin Govender's family is blended into the rich cultural tapestry of Indian life and the intricacies of close communities that form the backdrop for this amazing tale. Painting an evocative portrait of five generations of descendants of former indentured Indian laborers and their struggle to build an identity in an emerging South Africa.
When George M. Fredrickson published White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History, he met universal acclaim. David Brion Davis, writing in The New York Times Book Review, called it "one of the most brilliant and successful studies in comparative history ever written." The book was honored with the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, the Merle Curti Award, and a jury nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Now comes the sequel to that acclaimed work. In Black Liberation, George Fredrickson offers a fascinating account of how blacks in the United States and South Africa came to grips with the challenge of white supremacy. He reveals a rich history--not merely of parallel developments, but of an intricate, transatlantic web of influences and cross-fertilization. He begins with early moments of hope in both countries--Reconstruction in the United States, and the liberal colonialism of British Cape Colony--when the promise of suffrage led educated black elites to fight for color-blind equality. A rising tide of racism and discrimination at the turn of the century, however, blunted their hopes and encouraged nationalist movements in both countries. Fredrickson teases out the connections between movements and nations, examining the transatlantic appeal of black religious nationalism (known as Ethiopianism), and the pan-Africanism of Du Bois and Garvey. He brings to vivid life the decades of struggle, organizing, and debate, as blacks in the United States looked to Africa for identity and South Africans looked to America for new ideas and hope. The book traces the rise of Communist influence in black movements in the two nations in the 1920s and '30s, and the adoption of Gandhian nonviolent protest after World War II. The story of India's struggle, however, was not to be repeated in either America or South Africa: in one nation, nonviolence revealed its limitations, encouraging splits in the civil rights movement; in the other, it failed, fostering an armed struggle against white supremacy. Fredrickson brings the story up through the present, exploring the divergence between African-American identity politics and the nonracialism that has triumphed in South Africa. In a career spanning thirty years, George Fredrickson has won recognition as the leading scholar of the struggle over racial domination in the United States and South Africa. In Black Liberation, he provides the essential companion volume to his award-winning White Supremacy, telling the story of how blacks fought back on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Heartbreaking and inspiring,” Nelson Mandela’s Prison Letters reveals his evolution “into one of the great moral heroes of our time” (New York Times). First published to mark the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela sparked celebrations around the globe for one of the “greatest warriors of all time” (O, The Oprah Magazine). Featuring 94 letters selected from that landmark collection, as well as six new letters that have never been published, this historic paperback provides an essential political history of the late twentieth century and illustrates how Mandela maintained his inner spirit while imprisoned. Whether they’re longing love letters to his wife, Winnie; heartrending notes to his beloved children; or articulations of a human-rights philosophy that resonates today, these letters reveal the heroism of a man who refused to compromise his moral values in the face of extraordinary human punishment, invoking a “story beyond their own words” (New York Times). This new paperback edition—essential for any literature lover, political activist, and student—positions Mandela among the most inspiring historical figures of the twentieth century.
