After 1948 many opponents of apartheid were forced out of South Africa. This accessible and readable account draws upon interviews with many of those involved to examine how those activists who came to the United Kingdom developed political organisations, social networks, ideologies and identities that supported their time in exile. It examines the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the African National Congress in exile and documents the violent attempts by the South African government to control exile activity. Finally, it investigates how exiles came to terms with the possibility that they might return.
The postwar government of South Africa, led by H.F. Verwoerd, implemented wide-ranging racial segregation laws, beginning the open policy of apartheid in one of Africa's most prosperous and internationally influential states. During the apartheid era, the British government faced an uneasy dilemma: while repudiating apartheid laws it maintained an ambiguous stance towards the South African government. As black South African's were reduced to the status of non-citizens after the 1970 Citizenship Act, increasing numbers of exiles and fugitives were finding refuge in Britain, which was now home to a growing anti-apartheid protest movement. This is the first book to examine the British support for the anti-apartheid movement among its own black communities. Elizabeth Williams highlights the connection between domestic anti-racism struggles and the struggle in South Africa, showing how black Britons who were themselves fighting racism in British society identified and expressed solidarity with black South Africans during the Apartheid years. Williams further assesses the way in which Black communities in Britain viewed Margaret Thatcher's support of South Africa despite the international call for sanctions. Featuring the work of acclaimed documentary photographer and civil rights activist Vanley Burke, this will be an essential book for students and scholars of race, British history, international relations, post-colonial studies and South African history.
This book examines the experiences of 49 second-generation exiles from South Africa. Using “generation” as an analytical concept, it investigates the relational, temporal and embodied nature of their childhoods in terms of kinship relations, life cycle, cohort development and memory-making. It reveals how child agents exploited the liminal nature of exile to negotiate their sense of identity, home and belonging, while also struggling over their position and power in formal Politics and informal politics of the everyday. It also reflects upon their political consciousness, identity and sense of civic duty on return to post-apartheid South Africa, and how this has led to the emergence of the Masupatsela generational cohort concerned with driving social and political change in South Africa.
“This rich volume will interest scholars and students of Africa, the African diaspora, world history, legal history, and international affairs.” —Lorelle Semley, author of To Be Free and French: Citizenship in France’s Atlantic Empire The enforced removal of individuals has long been a political tool used by African states to create generations of asylum seekers, refugees, and fugitives. Historians often present such political exile as a potentially transformative experience for resilient individuals, but this reading singles the exile out as having an exceptional experience. This collection seeks to broaden that understanding within the global political landscape by considering the complexity of the experience of exile and the lasting effects it has had on African peoples. The works collected in this volume seek to recover the diversity of exile experiences across the continent. This corpus of testimonials and documents is presented as an “archive” that provides evidence of a larger, shared experience of persecution and violence. This consideration reads exiles from African colonies and nations as active participants within, rather than simply as victims of, the larger global diaspora. In this way, exile is understood as a way of asserting political dissidence and anti-imperial strategies. Broken into three distinct parts, the volume considers legal issues, geography as a strategy of anticolonial resistance, and memory and performative understandings of exile. The experiences of political exile are presented as fundamental to an understanding of colonial and postcolonial oppression and the history of state power in Africa.
As a spokesman for a country, a continent and the developing world, Thabo Mbeki played a crucial role in world politics, but to many people he remained an enigma throughout his presidency. Is this simply because he was a secretive man, or were there complicated political factors at play? Who was the real Mbeki? In this book, multiple-award-winning journalist William Mervin Gumede chronicles Mbeki’s spectacular rise to dominate Africa’s oldest liberation movement. He explores the complex position that Mbeki occupied – following in Nelson Mandela’s footsteps, holding together an alliance with deep ideological differences, and ruling an intensely divided country. Revealing the political and personal tensions behind the scenes, Gumede explains how Mbeki sought to mould the ANC into his image through tight control, and exposes the intrigues behind the battle for succession. Covering Mbeki’s attempts to modernise the economy and kick-start an African Renaissance, and investigating his controversial stance on issues from AIDS to Zimbabwe, the book offers invaluable insights into the arcane machinations behind political decisions that touch the lives of millions every day.
Examining the history of social movements and non-state socio-political action, this volume shows how Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have proliferated in Britain since 1945, and how they have raised new political agendas, revived associational life, and arguably re-politicized generations disillusioned with the politics of the ballot box.
"Behind the clerical dog collar he wore as Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, John Collins ran a single-minded, constantly creative, campaign over several decades to provide material support to those waging the struggle against apartheid - assisting leaders like Nelson Mandela and thousands of township and rural activists, as well as families who suffered because their loved ones were in prison, in exile or dead. The success of the organisations he founded, the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and Christian Action, depended on a network of volunteers across the world and a small group of South African exiles and British workers in London. South African intelligence agents tried to penetrate these networks but to no avail."--BOOK JACKET.
