The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Trust's Centre of Memory and Learning is set to open later this year. It is based at 28 Penton Street, Islington, London, the ANC’s former London HQ. The Centre will house exhibitions, an archive and study facilities. It will also have an outreach programme and online resources. The project already has an exciting programme of events and commissions. To watch the centre's 'Breaking the Ground' ceremony, click here. To find out more about the Centre's programme click here.
A statue of Nelson Mandela will be unveiled on Friday 9th October at 4pm in Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow. The statue was commissioned by the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation and sculpted by Royal Society of Sculptors member Alan B Herriot, following a competition and public consultation. Cast in bronze on a South African granite plinth, the statue is the first of a named black person in Scotland. Glasgow was the first city in the world to award Nelson Mandela the Freedom of the City in 1981 when he was still imprisoned on Robben Island.
Don't miss 'Free Nelson Mandela', Rogan Productions three-part TV series about Mandela's life and the global campaign for his freedom, now streaming on Channel 4. The series draws on material from the AAM Archives, and features interviews with former anti-apartheid activists and footage from the AAM's 1986 Festival for Freedom on Clapham Common.
‘Oliver Tambo and his London Recruits’ has been nominated as the 'Best Feature Documentary' in this year's South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTAS). Plans are going ahead to screen the film nationwide in South Africa. To contribute to the crowd-funder for the South African tour click here. The film tells the story of the young men and women who went to South Africa to carry out undercover missions for the ANC. For information on showings in the UK, or if you can suggest a venue, click here.
The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Trust's Centre of Memory and Learning is set to open later this year. It is based at 28 Penton Street, Islington, London, the ANC’s former London HQ. The Centre will house exhibitions, an archive and study facilities. It will also have an outreach programme and online resources. The project already has an exciting programme of events and commissions. To watch the centre's 'Breaking the Ground' ceremony, click here. To find out more about the Centre's programme click here.
‘Oliver Tambo and his London Recruits’ tells the story of the young men and women who went to South Africa to carry out undercover missions for the ANC. The film premiered at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton on Thursday 21 November and will be showing at independent cinemas all over Britain in a ‘People’s Release’. For dates and places, or if you can suggest a venue for a showing, click here.
South African artist Norman Kaplan’s exhibition of linocuts and cartoons will move to Bristol at the end of April. It will be on show at John Wesley's New Room, 36 The Horsefair, BS1 3JE from 29 April to 19 June, together with a programme of schools workshops and outreach events. Many of the artworks first appeared in the ANC's journal Sechaba and The African Communist. The exhibition is part of the 'All Shall be Afforded Democracy' programme organised by ACTSA, the AAM Legacy Centre of Memory and Learning project and AAM Archives to mark 30 years of South Africa's liberation. https://antiapartheidlegacy.org.uk/resources/exhibitions/asbad/
Remembering Hanef Bhamjee, Chair of Wales AAM, who died on 9 January. Hanef resisted apartheid in South Africa from the age of 11 and helped found Wales AAM in 1981. He was a driving force in mobilising the people of Wales in the fight againt apartheid. You can read Wales Assembly member Mick Antoniw's tribute to Hanef in the Senedd here
The Mitting Inquiry into Undercover Policing has revealed how the British police spied extensively on the AAM, Stop the Seventy Tour and other anti-apartheid groups. Documents reveal how undercover officers attended AGMs and infiltrated private meetings. You can read summaries of some of the evidence here
The Scottish Centre for Global History at the University of Dundee is running a four-part podcast series on the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. SCGH editor Paul Feeney talks about how the AAM grew from small beginnings in the 1960s into one of the biggest social movements of the 20th century with historians Matt Graham and Chris Fevre. The podcasts also discuss the legacy of anti-apartheid campaigning and its relevance to contemporary movements for social change. You can listen to the podcasts here.