Political prisoners

Members of City of London Anti-Apartheid Group call for the release of South African political prisoner David Kitson outside South Africa House in August 1982. Kitson served 20 years imprisonment in South Africa and was released in 1984. In the picture on the right are David Kitson’s wife Norma Kitson and son Steve.

City of London AA Group members launched a non-stop picket calling for the release of David Kitson on 16 September 1982. Kitson served 20 years imprisonment in South Africa and was released in 1984. In the picture are his wife Norma and children Stephen and Amandla.

This pamphlet was published by SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society) in 1982 as part of its campaign to ensure that long-term political prisoners were not forgotten. Walter Sisulu was elected as the ANC’s first full-time Secretary-General in 1949. He was charged in the 1956 Treason Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment with Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial in 1964. 

Leaflet publicising a march through the centre of Glasgow to call for the release of all South African and Namibian political prisoners.

Set of six postcards designed by Ken Sprague calling for the release of South African and Namibian political prisoners.

One of many posters published by the Anti-Apartheid Movement to publicise the campaign for the release of political prisoners in South Africa and Namibia.

Leaflet asking AAM supporters to protest outside the South African Embassy on the opening day of the trial of Albertina Sisulu in 1983.

Letter from Malcolm Rifkind, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, replying to a request from Des Starrs, Chair of Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS), for the British government to intervene on behalf of the Kassinga detainees. In 1978 South African armed forces killed around 600 Namibian refugees at Kassinga refugee camp in Angola and took hundreds more prisoner. Five years later some of them were still held in detention in Namibia. Malcolm Rifkind turned down the request for a meeting on the grounds that he had already met an AAM delegation to discuss repression in the Ciskei.