Artists

A week of music and poetry in venues all over London led up to the second Mandela Wembley concert on 16 April 1990. 

Flyer advertising a party and evening of dance music to raise funds for the ANC in March 1990. The evening featured ‘Beat the Border’ with Ugandan musician Geoffrey Oryema.

Leaflet advertising a fundraising concert for the ANC at The Fridge, Brixton, on the evening of the AAM’s mass rally in Trafalgar Square on 25 March 1990. The gig featured District Six, the ANC choir, Isangoma, and Chris McGregor and the South African All Stars. It was sponsored by Lambeth Council.

Two months after his release, Nelson Mandela attended a second Wembley Stadium concert held on 16 April 1990. The concert was attended by a capacity audience of 76,000 people and broadcast around the world. Mandela thanked the hundreds of thousands of people who had campaigned for his freedom and called for the continued isolation of South Africa until it had been transformed into a non-racial democracy.

Nelson Mandela at the Wembley concert held on 16 April 1990.

This festival was organised by Glasgow North-West AA Group as part of Glasgow’s 1990 European City of Culture celebrations. It featured African and Asian dance and the Zambian band Masusu.

As part of Glasgow’s 1990 European City of Culture celebrations, Mandela Club Nights showcased bands from Southern Africa. The Sechaba Festival brought 60 South African poets, musicians, actors and dancers to Glasgow in a two-week programme of events. The Festival included a five-day international conference on cultural resistance to apartheid, and performances, exhibitions and films. The Club and the Festival were organised by Sechaba Festivals Ltd., established by the Scottish AAM Committee and the STUC with support from Glasgow City and Strathclyde Regional Councils and individual trade unions.

The Zabalaza Arts Festival featured musicians, artists and actors from South Africa, showcasing the country’s vibrant resistance culture. It included plays and an exhibition of murals, a photographic exhibition in Oxford and 40 films shown at London’s ICA, as well as training workshops, talks and discussions. It followed the ‘Culture in Another South Africa’ festival held in Amsterdam in 1987. The festival was organised by the ANC’s Arts and Culture Department.