Anti-Apartheid: The Black British Response
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 64; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/02582473.2012.675809
ISSN1726-1686
Autores Tópico(s)South African History and Culture
ResumoAbstract Although histories have been written about the transnational character of the anti-apartheid solidarity movement, thus far little has been written about the black voices raised in solidarity in Europe or in Britain, arguably the centre of the international anti-apartheid movement. There is a long history of pan-African sentiment from the late nineteenth century among Africans of the diaspora settled and transient in Britain. The deteriorating racial situation in South Africa throughout the twentieth century therefore attracted the concern of black communities living in Britain. People of African descent in Britain felt the insult of apartheid most keenly because of past and contemporary manifestations of racism in Britain. This empathy was transformed into acts of solidarity and material support. Black Britons viewed the African liberation struggle in Southern Africa with more than casual detachment. There was a willingness to identify with the liberation struggle whether through supporting the ANC or the PAC. However, there were ambivalent feelings in some quarters about the former. The following article will focus on aspects of black British anti-apartheid solidarity during the nearly 45 years of apartheid. Keywords: African National CongressPan-African CongressNelson Mandelaapartheidanti-apartheid movementBlack and Ethnic Minority Committeeblack BritishWest Indianracesolidarity Notes 1A.G. Cobley, ‘“Far From Home”, The Origins and Significance of the Afro-Caribbean Community in South Africa to 1930’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 2, (1992), 370. 2In referring to the black community/communities in this article I refer to people of African-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean heritage who settled in Britain migrating from the English speaking Caribbean and Guyana, South America, from the late 1940s. Forty years later the black community comprised the second and third generation of these migrants who identified with the cultural Caribbean roots of their parents while simultaneously asserting their black British identity and their rights as citizens in Britain. Eventually African migrants and people of Asian descent who migrated from Africa and from the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia joined these communities. In varying degrees one can find individuals from all of these backgrounds in the anti-apartheid movement and who identified with the term ‘Black’. 3G. Klein, ‘Strategies of Struggle: The Nelson Mandela Campaign’, in W. Beinart and M.C. Dawson, eds, Popular Politics and Resistance Movements in South Africa (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2010), 116. 4 The Guardian, 19 October , 1987. 5See E.M. Williams, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa: Black British Solidarity and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle (London: IB Tauris, forthcoming 2013). 6See E.M. Williams, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa: Black British Solidarity and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle (London: IB Tauris, forthcoming 2013). 7R. Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid A History of the Movement in Britain, A Study in Pressure Group Politics (London: Merlin Press, 2005), 269. 8S. Thomas, The Diplomacy of Liberation, The Foreign Relations of the ANC Since 1960 (London: IB Tauris, 1996). 9C. Gurney, ‘“A Great Cause”, The Origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement June 1959–March 1960’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 1 (2000), 123–144; Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid, 8–12. 10P. Henshaw and R. Hyam, The Lion and the Springbok: Britain and South Africa Since the Boer War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 11Interview with Lord Hughes of Woodside, AAM Chair 1976–1995, London, 21 January 2004. 12J. Solomos, Race and Racism in Britain, 3rd ed. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 172–190. 13C.L.R. James, Beyond a Boundary (London: Hutchinson, 1963). 14These discriminatory practices had serious repercussions on the careers of sportsmen and women. B.K. Murray, ‘Politics & Cricket: The D'Oliveira Affair of 1968’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 27, 4 (2001), 667–684. 15Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid, 97–99. 16Formed in the aftermath of the racial disturbances in Notting Hill, London, in 1958 to fight for the civil rights of Black citizens in Britain. The papers of this organisation at time of writing can be found at the WISC offices on Westminster Bridge Road, London, UK. 17P. Hain, Sing the Beloved Country, The Struggle for the New South Africa (London: Pluto Press, 1996), 58; Don't Play with Apartheid, Background to the Stop the Seventies Tour Campaign (London: Allen & Unwin, 1971). 18Interview with the late Ethel De Keyser, London, 3 March 2001. 19Hain, Don't Play, 172, 219. 20West Indian Standing conference, West Indian Standing Conference Papers (hereafter WISC), Folder A, South Africa House Vigil and Demonstrations-1 Saturday 26 June 1976 Newspaper Clippings. 21The clashes between the police and Black youth were due to the stop and search policing of the Force under the Vagrancy Act of 1824, commonly known as the ‘Sus’ law. The law effectively permitted the police to stop and search and arrest anyone they chose, purely on the basis of suspicion that they might commit a crime. 22D. Humphry, Police Power and Black People (London: Panther, 1972), 70–71. 23Interview with Onyekachi Wambu, London, 16 June 2002. 24W.A. Henry, What the Deejay Said, A Critique From the Street! (London: Nu-Beyond Ltd, 2006), 239. 25‘Gimme Hope Jo'anna’ is a song originally sung by Eddy Grant, and became a well-known anti-apartheid reggae anthem from the 1980s. Though the song was banned by the South African government when it was released, it was widely played in South Africa nonetheless. It reached number seven, in the UK singles chart. ‘Jo'anna’ in the lyrics represents the city of Johannesburg, and the lyrics critique the South African Government that ran the apartheid system. 26C.L. Clarke, ‘Music, Politics and Violence: A Study of Calypso and Steel Band From Trinidad, Reggae From Jamaica and Their Impact on a Multi-Ethnic Community in London in the Late 20th Century’, (PhD thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2000). 27The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola-MPLA fought against the Portuguese army in the Angolan War of Independence, 1961–1974. It went on to defeat other liberation groups in the Angolan Civil war. 28See, ‘Rastafari, Babylon, Dread History, and the Politics of Jah’ and ‘Get Up, Stand Up, The Redemptive Poetics of Bob Marley’, in A. Bogues, Black Heretics, Black Prophets, Radical Political Intellectuals (London: Routledge, 2003), 153–207. During what became known as the Battle of Lewisham in 1977 when blacks and whites stood up to white fascists marching through their communities, an elderly Black woman according to an eye witnesses, played Marley's Get Up, Stand Up, to galvanize the anti-racist marchers. See, D. Renton, August 1977: The Battle of Lewisham, http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/lewisham_1977.html, accessed 1 March 2012. 29S. Gilbert, ‘Singing Against Apartheid: ANC Cultural Groups and the International Anti-Apartheid Struggle’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 33, 2 (2007), 421–441. 30See Steel Pulse's song, ‘Handsworth Revolution’, Album, Handsworth Revolution, released by Island Records in 1978. The words of this song make a direct link between what was happening on the streets of South Africa and the streets of Handsworth in Birmingham an area with a large Black and Asian community that had troubled relations with the police throughout the 1970s and 1980s. 31G. Farred, What's My Name?: Black Vernacular Intellectuals (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003). 32Bogues, Black Heretics; Henry, What the Deejay Said. 33C. Gurney, ‘In the Heart of the Beast: The British Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1959–1994’, The Road to Democracy in South Africa-International Solidarity, 3, 1 (2008), 340–341; Klein, ‘Strategies of Struggle’, 103–104, 108–111. 34Williams, The Politics of Race in Britain. 35Thomas, The Diplomacy of Liberation, 46. 36F. Meer, Higher Than Hope: A Biography of Nelson Mandela (London: Hamish Hamilton), 197. 39Interview with Suresh Kamath, London, 14th July 2003. 37Interview with Spartacus R, London, 23 March 2001. 38Set up by Black and Asian members of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement in the late eighties to build anti-apartheid solidarity in the respective communities and to encourage membership of the AAM. Forthcoming Williams, The Politics of Race in Britain 40Interview with Trevor Phillips, London, 19 February 2002. 41Interview with Linton Kwesi Johnson, London, 15 May 2002. During the 1980s Mr Johnson instructed his wife not to purchase South African goods. He informed the author that this was common practice among family and his circle of friends and most black communities around the country. 42Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid. 43H. Thörn, Anti-Apartheid and the Emergence of a Global Civil Society (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 92. 44Interview with Dan Thea, London, 20 December 2004. 45This informant wishes to remain anonymous. Exiled ANC members were often in fear of the South African security forces and assassination, the murders of Ruth First in Maputo, Mozambique in 1982, and in 1988, Dulcie September the ANC representative in Paris, caused deep disquiet. As did the bombing of the ANC's London office by South African agents in March 1982. 46Interview with Lee Jasper, London, 10 October 2002. 47Klein, ‘Strategies of Struggle’. 48Interview with William Henry, London, 22 February, 2006. 49Interview with Lee Jasper, London, 10 October 2002. 50 West Indian World, 2 August 1973, 69. 51 West Indian World, 2 August 1973, 19–20. 52 West Indian World, 2 August 1973, 19–20. 53 West Indian World, 2 August 1973, 19–20. 54Alex Pascall presented the programme for 14 years from 1974 to 1988. The recordings of these broadcasts can be accessed at the British Library Sound Archive in London. 56Interview with Alex Pascall, London, 30 September 2002. 55The British Library Sound Archive holds tapes of BBC Radio ‘Black Londoners’ broadcasts. 57 Interview with Alex Pascall, London, 30 September 2002. 58Rhodes House, Oxford, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (hereafter Bod.MSS AAM), Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1981-Sept 1982, p.23. 59 Rhodes House, Oxford, Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (hereafter Bod.MSS AAM), Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1981-Sept 1982, p.23. 60Bod.MSS.AAM 13, AAM Annual Report, 1982–83, 23, 1984–85, 29. For references to sport and the Black community in previous years see Annual Reports, 1976–77, 20, 1980–81, 20. 61Despite appeals from the AAM, the British government refused to support this campaign. See Bod.MSS.AAM 780, ‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1982–84, 19 February 1982 Richard Luce MP to Robert Hughes. 62Interview with Christabel Gurney, London, 30 April 2002. The London carnival is the high point during the year of black British festival culture. Originally founded by Claudia Jones in the late 1950s to display Caribbean culture and bring the races together after racial clashes between blacks and whites. 63Interview with Christabel Gurney, London, 30 April 2002. The London carnival is the high point during the year of black British festival culture. Originally founded by Claudia Jones in the late 1950s to display Caribbean culture and bring the races together after racial clashes between blacks and whites. 64Bod.MSS.AAM 108, ‘Black Solidarity Committee Leaflets, 1988–92’. 65Such as Russell Profitt in the London borough of Lewisham, and Ben Bousquet in the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea. See AAM references to these zones in Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1982–Sept 1983, 23. 66Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1979–September 1980, 20. 67Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1982–September 1983, 23. 68Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1984–September 1985, 29. 69Interview with Ben Bousquet, London, 27 May 2004. 70Bousquet, interview. Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1984–September 1985, 29–30. 73Interview with Dame Jocelyn Barrow, London, 7 February 2004. 71Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, 1986/1987, ‘Carols for Liberation’, 33. SWAPO was the African liberation movement of Namibia from the 1960s. 72Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1983–September 1984, 28. According to the late Ben Bousquet, The Mangrove Community Association based in West London was largely responsible for the huge turn out of Black people at the Botha demonstration. 77Bod.MSS.AAM 107, General Correspondence 1988–3, ‘Report of the Working Party on the Black and Ethnic Minority Communities’, Dan Thea, October 1987. 74Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, October 1982–September 1983, 23. 75The Executive Committee was elected by the National Committee of the AAM to carry out the work of the AAM and met on a monthly basis. The National Committee was the policy-making branch of the AAM. The decision was taken at its AGM, 10–11 January 1987, and then the National Committee at its February meeting formally established the working party. The subsequent report was presented in October 1987. 76Bod.MSS.AAM 13, Annual Report, 1986/87, 33. 81This press release statement put out by the West Indian Standing Conference, under the heading ‘WISC says “No to Botha! No to Apartheid!” ’ Underlining of words present in the original. See WISC Folder B. 78For fuller discussion of the anti-apartheid activity of WISC see E.M. Williams, ‘Black British Solidarity with the Anti-Apartheid Struggle: The West Indian Standing Conference & Black Action for the Liberation of Southern Africa’, in H. Sapire and C. Saunders, eds, The Struggle for Southern Africa: New Local and Global Perspectives (University of Cape Town Press, forthcoming 2012). 79WISC Southern Africa Activities Folder B, ‘Friday 1st Jun 1984-Vigil Sat 2nd Jun 1984-Demonstrations’; Interview with William Trant, London, 11 May 2005. 80WISC Southern Africa Activities Folder A & B ‘Flyers/Posters/information sheets’. A much- used slogan read, ‘WISC says “No to Botha! No to Apartheid!” ’. 82WISC Folder B. ‘Press Release/Statements’. The West Indian Standing Conference distributed this statement to many of its affiliated groups and sent them out to those on its mailing list. There was a tear-off slip encouraging recipients to sign and send as a protest to the Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing Street. Unfortunately, the organisation did not keep a record of the numbers distributed. 84WISC Folder B ‘Press Release/Statements.’ 83As noted above it was the substantial presence of Black protestors, largely due to WISC's mobilisation of the communities to attend the massive anti-Botha march and demonstrations organised by the AAM that brought to the surface the large reservoir of potential Black support. 85WISC Folder B ‘Press Release/Statements.’ 87Editorial, Caribbean Times, 18 May 1984. 86Editorial, Caribbean Times, 18 May 1984. 89WISC Folder B, Russell J. Phillips to W. Trant chairman of WISC, 1984. 88 The Guardian, ‘West Indians Protest at Botha Visit’, writes Colin Brown, 12 May 1984. 90 The Times, 29 May 1985. The advert cost £3,000. Within WISC's papers, no details remain of the financial contribution made by the organisation to the overall cost. The paper work of the accounts which detail the donations or financial contribution the organisation gave to Southern African liberation is at present unavailable. However there are letters asking for financial support. For example one dated 17 May 1985, from the chairperson of a Namibia support committee asking for a monetary contribution to SWAPO. 91Bod.MSS.AAM 13, ‘AAM Annual Report 1984/1985.’ In the report see the section on the Black community. At a planning meeting a document was presented entitled, ‘Report to Emergency Mobilising Meeting – Saturday 26th May’, which examined ways of galvanising the public to protest against Botha's visit. The meeting was held in the council chamber, Camden Town Hall. 93Thomas, The Diplomacy of Liberation, 48. 92Interview with Bini Brown, leader of the Afro-Caribbean Self Help Organisation, Birmingham, 24 March 2001. 94Held annually in May attracting support of a sizeable number of African-Caribbeans and mainly pan-Africanist groups from around the country. 95University of the Western Cape Bellville, South Africa, Mayibuye PAC/ANC Papers (hereafter MCH), MCH 101 Dennis Goldberg ‘Black Groups Local-Black Parents Movement,’ J.S. Charter UK Representative of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement (UK), New Eltham, London to Solly Smith. 31 December 1984. 96Interview with Former South African High Commissioner to Great Britain, George Johannes, London, 19 February 2002. 97MCH 101, ‘Dennis Goldberg-‘Black Groups Local’, See invitation sent to the ANC to an event held at the offices of the newspaper Caribbean Times on behalf of Mr George Louison and other members of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement, 7 February 1985. Interview with Onyekachi Wambu, London, 16 June 2002; Interview (phone) with Arif Ali, 14 September 2003. 98Williams, The Politics of Race in Britain. 99T.K. Plaatje, ‘The PAC's Internal Underground Activities, 1960–1980’, 685–701, in The Road to Democracy in South Africa Volume 1970–1980, 2 (Cape Town: South African Democracy Education Trust, 2006). In the same volume see, Plaatje, ‘The PAC in Exile’, 703–746. 100Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid. 101S.M. Ndlovu, ‘The ANC's Diplomacy and International Relations’, in The Road to Democracy in South Africa 2 (Cape Town: South African Democracy Education Trust, 2006), 615–667. 102E.M. Williams, ‘“Until South Africa is Free, We Shall Not Be Free!” Black British Solidarity With The Anti-Apartheid Struggle During The 1980s’ (PhD thesis, Birbeck University of London, London, 2009). 103Plaatjie, ‘The PAC's Internal Underground’, 669–746.
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