Forward to Freedom

Anti-apartheid badges have made it to the V&A as part of the museum’s new ‘Disobedient Objects’ exhibition. They are on show alongside banners from UNITE and Greenham Common, Chilean folk art and objects from all over the world. The exhibition runs from 26 July to 1 February 2015.

A new library and archive of Donald Woods’ books and papers is set to open at Hobeni, Eastern Cape. Hobeni, where Donald Woods was born and where he and his wife Wendy are now buried, is the headquarters of the Donald Woods Foundation.

The library contains 1,102 books and well over 3,000 documents, posters, audiotapes, videos and photographs, currently being catalogued and archived by former anti-apartheid activist David Kenvyn. Selected items will be available online. 

The ‘Forward to Freedom’ exhibition went on show at TUC headquarters in London on 12 May. Union members heard TUC Assistant General Secretary Paul Nowak and the former Chair of the AAM Trade Union Committee Mike Sparham talk about the big contribution British unions made to anti-apartheid campaigns. Zita Holbourne from the civil service union PCS asked for support for ACTSA’s ongoing campaigns to help the peoples of Southern Africa overcome the legacy of apartheid. The exhibition will be at the TUC until 30 May. You can browse the photos on Flickr.

Chris de Broglio, one of the main movers behind apartheid South Africa’s exclusion from international sport, has died at his home in Corsica. Chris was a founding member of SANROC, the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee, and helped secure South Africa’s withdrawal from the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and its expulsion from the Olympic movement in 1970.

Jerry Dammers has been honoured in South Africa for writing the song "Free Nelson Mandela", which became the anthem for the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Along with other prominent artists and politicians he attended a ceremony at Union Buildings on Sunday the 27th April , the official seat of the South African government in Pretoria, he will receive one of the country's highest awards, the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, for outstanding work benefiting the country.

The South African Deputy High Commissioner, Bongiwe Qwabe, unveiled a plaque commemorating Nelson Mandela's honorary membership of UNISON at the union’s London headquarters on Thursday 3 July 2014.

Nelson Mandela was remembered on 5 December, the first anniversary of his death, at special events in Leeds and in Haringey, north London. In Leeds, civic leaders, community groups and young people gathered in Mandela Gardens to watch a specially commissioned film about Mandela’s legacy. In Haringey, where local residents played a big part in the campaign for Mandela’s release, people were asked to come to Bruce Castle Museum on Saturday 6 December to record their memories. The event accompanied an exhibition ‘Nelson Mandela and the Haringey Anti-Apartheid Movement’, which runs until 21 December.

Ruth MompatiRuth Mompati, who died in Cape Town on 12 May, served as the ANC’s representative in Britain in the early 1980s. She earned wide respect at a time when apartheid was not such a big issue as it later became. She travelled the length and breadth of Britain winning support for the anti-apartheid cause among students, councillors and local communities.

Ruth was born in Vryburg, North West Province, in 1925 and as a young woman moved to Johannesburg, where she worked in Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo’s law practice. She helped found the Federation of South African Women in 1954 and was one of the leaders of the 1956 women’s march on Pretoria. She was forced to leave South Africa in 1962, received military training and was elected to the ANC National Executive. Her many important posts during the long years of exile included Head of the ANC Women’s Section and of its Board of Religious Affairs.

Ruth was elected as a member of the South African parliament in the 1994 freedom election and from 1996 to 2000 served as South Africa’s ambassador to Switzerland.

She is remembered with love and admiration by her many friends in Britain and all over the world.  

Strike!, Tracey Ryan's brilliant play about the Dublin shopworkers who refused to sell South African fruit in 1984 will run at the Southwark Playhouse, 13 April–6 May. Plans are ongoing for a nationwide tour. Tickets for the May Day performance on 1 May are available at a reduced price of £16 for ACTSA supporters – voucher ACTSA16 and on other nights for £20 – voucher ACTSA20. Booking https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/strike/ 

An evening of music, images, history and comment
Friday 6 March 2015, 6–8pm
Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
Organised by SERTUC Race Relations Committee
Contributors: Judy Richards (invited), Professor Mary Davis, Marika Sherwood and Alex Pascall. Chair: Betty Joseph, NUT

Bristol Action for Southern Africa supporters held their annual sponsored walk in the Mendips on Saturday 15 June – the 34th walk since anti-apartheid supporters first walked to raise funds for the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom School in 1980. You can watch their video blog here

The Forward to Freedom website was launched on the evening of the 20th March 2014 at the South African High Commission.

Former activists and supporters heard speeches from the AAM’s former Chair Lord Bob Hughes, historian Prof Colin Bundy, musicians Jerry Dammers and Julian Bahula and Christabel Gurney from the AAM Archives Committee.