When I born, I black; when I grow up, I black;
When I go in sun, I black; when I scared, I black;
When I sick, I black; and when I die, I still black.
And you white fellows:
When you born, you pink; when you grow up, you white;
When you go in sun, you red; when you cold, you blue;
When you are scared, you yellow; when you sick, you green;
When you die, you grey;
And you calling me coloured?
- Poem by an African child; Nominated as the best poem of 2006 by UN
When Rosa Parks, aka The First Lady of Civil Rights refused to give up her seat in the bus, to a white citizen, she sparked change. When Martin Luther King Jr. stated “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, he sparked change. When the royal monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II was challenged by a Lord Altrincham, who labelled it as old fashioned and entangled in white racial supremacy, he sparked change and when millions took to the streets in all corners of the world last year to condemn the brutal murder of George Floyd, they sparked change…
Social movements are rarely born in isolation, and the anti-apartheid movement (AAM) in South Africa was no different. The AAM grew in 1959, as a result of ongoing resistance movements and the efforts of many within South Africa and the international community to end racial inequality and the oppressive policies of enforced racial segregation in South Africa known as “apartheid”. Resistance to long standing racial inequality in South Africa was evident before the beginning of the 20th century.
Organized resistance began with groups such as the Natal Indian Congress, African churches, labour and trade unions, the African National Congress (ANC), and the Communist Party. Subsequent organizations such as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), founded in 1959 by Robert Sobukwe, the South African Student's Organization (SASO), founded in 1969 by Stephen Biko, and the United Democratic Front, founded in 1983 proved instrumental in ending apartheid. Early forms of resistance were primarily peaceful, including mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, boycotts, and strikes. These strategies, employed by various groups in an effort to achieve social justice and to bring an end to the oppressive white South African government, never quieted.
The 1940s witnessed a number of important events that became crucial for the AAM, both in South Africa and abroad. Within South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo formed a youth league within the ANC to develop new strategies of resistance. Around the same time, the ever-growing oppression was forcing growing numbers of South Africans into exile in London. After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, the banning of ANC and PAC, and the arrests of movement leaders in South Africa, the efforts of exiled leaders proved crucial for the AAM becoming a key means for banned liberation movements to continue their work.
Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the National Party government in South Africa strengthened the racist policies of the white government and enacted new apartheid legislation. The Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act became cornerstones of apartheid. All individuals were labelled black, white, or colored, and the labelling predetermined their place in society, determining where they lived, worked, and went to school. The apartheid government also stepped up its attempts to prevent anti-apartheid actions; they arrested leaders, harassed civic groups, and intimidated individuals. In addition, the government passed the Suppression of Communism Act, which was used later to arrest most of the movement's leaders.
In the aftermath of World War II, the ANC adopted new plans to push for black freedom and equality. Walter Sisulu was appointed Secretary General of the ANC, and it adopted a more militant anti-apartheid strategy. This action transformed the ANC from a reactive group organizing protest movements to a proactive mass organization. Sisulu worked tirelessly to foment social, political, and economic change despite growing oppression from the white South African government. The ANC initiated a Defiance Campaign in 1952 to challenge the apartheid laws and overtax the legal system by violating the apartheid laws and forcing the arrest of violators. The plan was to fill the jails and keep the police force working at full force until it became ineffective. Two additional campaigns during the 1950s helped to solidify the anti-apartheid movement. The ANC, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Colored People's Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats, and the South African Congress of Trade Unions joined forces to establish the Congress Alliance, responsible for the Freedom Charter and convening a Congress of the People.
March 21, 1960, was the day chosen by the PAC to hold a protest march in Sharpeville. As demonstrators gathered, the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing 69 protesters and injuring 180. The massacre of people in Sharpeville turned the tide again for the anti-apartheid movement, which initiated strikes and work stoppages. The government declared a state of emergency. International attention was focused on South Africa. A proposal to initiate economic sanctions against South Africa was put forward at the United Nations, but it was vetoed by the United States and Britain. Increasing criticism of the South African Nationalist Party led them to withdraw from the British Commonwealth. The Republic of South Africa was determined to continue its apartheid state.
Protests against apartheid did not stop. In 1961, Umkhonto we Sizwe, a guerrilla army, was launched under the direction of Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo. It began a program of sabotage and tactical violence against government installations. Armed struggle was deemed necessary, as all peaceful efforts for change had failed and the government was increasingly violent against demonstrators. On June 12, 1964, the ANC and PAC were banned and the leadership jailed. As a result of the Rivonia trial, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Taymond Mhlaba, Elias 2 Motsoaledi, and Andrew Mlangeni were sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island. In jail, the men were sentenced to hard labor, and they were allowed only one family visit and one letter every 6 months. They protested their living conditions through hunger strikes and go-slow protests. Pressure brought by the international community gradually brought an end to their sentences of hard labor. They were also then given access to newspapers and were allowed to receive letters and visitors twice a week.
During Mandela's 27 years in prison at Robben Island, Pollsmore Prison, and then Victor Verster Prison, his determination never faltered, and his confidence in the future for majority rule in South Africa continued to grow. On June 16, 1979, almost 25 years after the creation of the Freedom Charter and the meeting of the People's Congress, 20,000 Soweto schoolchildren took to the streets in protest over a government order that Afrikaans was to be used as the language of instruction at all black secondary school. This protest revealed ingrained resentment toward apartheid and its policies of pass control, forced removals, denial of political rights, police terror, housing shortages, and inferior education for blacks. The antiapartheid movement was revitalized in the children of South Africa. As they marched, they called for the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and other ANC leaders. Rather than deny the leadership of the movement, they sang praises to them. The police shot and killed several students.
With movement leaders within South Africa imprisoned and others forced to live in exile, an international AAM grew up in Britain and spread elsewhere. During a meeting of South African exiles and their supporters in London in 1959, Chief Albert Luthuli suggested the formation of an AAM in Britain. The organization organized boycotts, published the newspaper Boycott News, organized public meetings in support of the ANC and PAC, and worked diligently to enlist the active involvement of the United Nations, the British Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of African Unity, and many other international organizations in their struggle. AAM began by promoting the establishment of antiapartheid groups in other West European countries, lobbying the Commonwealth in 1960–1961 and the International Olympic Committee in 1962, launching the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners in 1963, and organizing the International Conference on Sanctions against South Africa in 1964. Its campaigns for people's boycotts, government sanctions, and the arms embargo soon spread far beyond the borders of Britain. AAM was responsible for a broad range of actions from public boycotts to U.N. sanctions, from the provision of humanitarian assistance to refugees to military and non military assistance to the liberation movement. Nelson Mandela was released on February 10, 1990, and South Africa's first democratically held elections signifying the end of apartheid were held on April 27, 1994, finally marking success of the movement.
When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for eternity.
– Nelson Mandela
--Written by Komal, (1st Year)
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