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Thank you!

I would like to thank those who have reached the end of this blog. I hope you found it both informative and interesting. Although, your hunt for more knowledge about the Anti-Apartheid Movement doesn't have to end here. Attached down below is a link to the organisation's official website, which includes further information and sources in respect of the national movement's endeavours to end apartheid abroad. The cover image to this blog is one of the many photographs uploaded to the website's extensive archive, this one depicting Nottingham students protesting against the university's ties to the Smith regime in Rhodesia in the campus' Portland Building in 1968.

https://www.aamarchives.org

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This leads to our final and my personal favourite source from the ephemera collection at UL/F/6, this 1982 cartoon from the AAM.

It evidently mocks the two-sided nature of the apartheid regime and its immigration policy by the early 1980s with the slogan, "There's a place for everyone in South Africa". White immigrants are presented with this utopian paradise and are welcomed into the country with open arms, due to their fairer skin colour and expertise. In contrast, those of the indigenous population, pictured to the left, are hidden away from white migrants behind barbed wire fences and armed guards.

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This source is another printed flyer, encouraging both students to “Demonstrate!” against the South African recruitment drive and informing them of a lecture on South African mining in 1982. It notifies the society to meet outside the “science library”, referring to current-day George Green library on campus.

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This source is a simple printed flyer advertising a talk by another invited speaker from the ANC, titled “You + Apartheid”, which is dated to 1982.

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This source is a letter sent out to the members of the society by its secretary, reminding them of what events have been organised for the months of February and March in 1982. The events organised follow the standard format laid out by the society up to this point: talks by invited speakers, attendance at conferences, and participation in demonstrations/pickets.

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ANC and AAM 🔗

As the ANC went into exile in South Africa, following its banning under the Unlawful Organisations Bill of 1960 and the aftermath of the Rivonia trial in 1964, the movement sent representatives into Britain to set up external missions (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, pp. 83-107). The ANC could not ignore the black British community who could provide feasible support to their cause with a sympathetic understanding (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 107). Due to the roots of the AAM deriving from a direct response to the ANC’s request in 1959 to boycott South African goods, that connection between the two organisations was already there and thus the two mutually backed each other (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 107).

Whilst the ANC established and maintained an independent presence in London, through its office that acted as its external mission headquarters, the AAM functioned as an “interpreter” to the ANC’s objectives for the British people (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 109).

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This source is another programme for the week of the 9November 1981, comprised of talks from invited speakers, an afternoon of “actionizing” on Wednesday, and a film screening on Thursday. It mentions that speakers from both the AAM and the African National Congress (ANC) were invited by the society to talk about their respective campaigns against apartheid.

The South African liberation movement of the ANC by the 1980s had brought international awareness to their cause against the racial segregation system (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 102). Following the Rivonia trial of 1963, where 19 members of the High Command of the military wing of the ANC were imprisoned following a tip-off, the anti-government political and military activity of the ANC was forced to go underground (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, pp. 84-85). The movement thus looked globally for backing to their cause (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 102). They worked with groups such as the World Council of Churches (WCC), Amnesty International, and the United Nations which resulted in numerous resolutions of denouncements by the UN against South Africa, such as the 1977 arms embargo (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 102). The movement also supported the AAM, and vice-versa, which will be covered in more detail in the following post.

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Windrush connections to the AAM 🛳️

From the late 1960s up to the mid-1980s, black intellectuals and political activists were the ones participating within anti-apartheid politics (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 34). The mass of “ordinary” black householders were instead more focused on navigating the domestic challenges of everyday life, such as racial discrimination in employment and housing, in post-Windrush Britain (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 34). Black intellectuals and activists, such as Stuart Hall, John La Rose, David Pitt, and Walter Rodney, framed racial issues in South Africa as a part of worldwide system of racism that disadvantaged the lives of Africans and those of African descent (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 35). They thus followed developments in South Africa with eagerness (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 35).

As the first generation of children from Caribbean migrants started to progress through the education system and become politically aware of domestic and international affairs, they started to participate in anti-apartheid activities on their own terms (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 35).

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The AAM’s campaigns during the 1970s and 1980s 🥫❌

In accordance with its beginnings, the AAM continued its boycotting of South African goods through campaigns during the 1980s as the organisation believed that apartheid was reliant and flourished on foreign capital that British business held an excessive share of (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 114). In 1980, the organisation launched a consumer boycott with information sheets, posters, and lists of South African products to avoid purchasing (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 115).

Alongside the boycotting of consumer goods from the apartheid regime, the AAM also looked towards economic disinvestment campaigns as a means of hurting South Africa financially (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 117). The AAM called for the boycotting of Shell and BP who continued to pursue interests in South Africa, with the publicity created by the movement resulting in every move by the oil companies now being under public scrutiny (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 118).

The organisation even went to lengths to call out further British businesses who had interests in South Africa, compiling a list of 500 British companies during the 1970s (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 121). The movement then provided this information to media outlets and other anti-apartheid organisations, encouraging activists to lobby MPs and push trade unions to raise these issues with their employers (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 121). The British companies targeted by the AAM included British Steel, Marconi, GEC, ICI, Standard Chartered and Midland Bank, and Tate and Lyle (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 121).

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AAM membership and office by the 1980s 🏢

In the early 1980s, the AAM was based in Mandela Street in Camden, north London (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 111). The movement looked at individuals in mainstream public life to boost the profile of the organisation, one of these individuals being Robert Hughes (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 112). He was a member of Parliament who held the position of chairman of the organisation for almost 20 years, starting from the mid-1970s (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 112). What started off as less than 10 full-time workers in the 1960s had increased to 23 employees at the AAM headquarters by the mid-1980s, with South African émigrés and exiles acting as the compelling force behind the organisation (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 112).

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This source is a flyer, dating to 1981, publicising to students that a speaker from the national Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was invited to the university’s Portland Building (PB) to answer questions about “The Apartheid Bomb”.

The AAM was first named the Boycott Movement and originally formed in 1959 as a response to the call of the president of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, for the international community to boycott South African goods (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 25). Those heavily involved with the activities of the Boycott Movement were members of the Committee of African Organisations (CAO), which was established in London by African students who advocated for the liberation of the continent from European colonialism and imperialism (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 25). Leaflets were handed out by CAO members to spur British shoppers into purchasing Australian, European, and Caribbean goods over those from South Africa, in addition to the organising of pickets to bring further awareness to their cause (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 29).

In March of 1960, just prior to the Sharpeville massacre, the Boycott Movement was eventually renamed the Anti-Apartheid Movement after various name changes (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, pp. 30-31). The organisation’s new name reflected its consistent focus on southern Africa and apartheid through campaigns which revealed to the British public the injustices and impact of the racial segregation system on the lives of its victims (Williams 2015, The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa, p. 31).

More information about the AAM and its campaigns during the 1980s will be provided in the next three posts.

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This source is a pamphlet which advertises a screening for the film “Rhodesia: The Other Side”, in which speakers from both the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the Nottingham Zimbabwe Solidarity Group were present to answer any questions regarding the film and conditions in the country. In addition to promoting the film screening, the back of the pamphlet also provides a list of items for students to donate to the refugee camps in neighbouring Mozambique and Zambia. These were to be collected at the Portland Building (P.B.) on campus.

The pamphlet is dated to 1980 but prior to Zimbabwe gaining official independence on 18 April 1980 (Mtisi, Nyakudya, and Barnes 2009, Becoming Zimbabwe, p. 165). The Lancaster House Agreement in December of the year prior ended the 15-year liberation war in Zimbabwe and settled that elections would be held within three months to appoint the first Prime Minister of the newly independent country (Mtisi, Nyakudya, and Barnes 2009, Becoming Zimbabwe, p. 165). This would end up being Robert Mugabe, the leader of ZANU-PF and whose interview was presented at this event (Mtisi, Nyakudya, and Barnes 2009, Becoming Zimbabwe, p. 166).

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This second source is another pamphlet, dating to December of 1980, with this one advertising to Nottingham University students to come join the society’s fight against South Africa’s system of racial segregation.

The implementation of apartheid started in South Africa with the election of the Afrikaner Nationalist Party in 1948 (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 37). Why it was put into practice was down to a multitude of factors: economically through ensuring a low-paid African workforce was available for white business owners to make large profits off of, culturally through the maintenance of Afrikaner society and culture, and historically through the development of previous segregation legislation already in place by 1948 (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 37).

The pamphlet mentions the “Obligatory classification of every human being into 4 Racial groups” under apartheid, which was first introduced under the Population Registration Act of 1950 (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 49). In addition to the racial categorisation of South Africa’s population, the Act also instituted the issuing of identity cards which listed the assigned race of an individual (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 49). This was used to judge any person’s access to legal rights within the country (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 49). Other aspects of life under apartheid cited by the pamphlet also had its roots in 1950s legislation, such as the Immorality Act, which prohibited sexual relations between whites and non-whites, and the Group Areas Act, that designated one group to a particular area for occupation and forcibly removed existing occupants from said area (Clark and Worger 2022, South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid, p. 52).

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This is the first source I selected first for documentation, with it being the earliest piece of ephemera associated with the society within the archive UL/F/6. It is a pamphlet, dating to 1979, which details the society’s programme for the month of October. The variety of events organised, from film screenings, pickets, to the attendance of conferences, sets the tone for the dynamic character of the society for the upcoming decade.

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Welcome!

Welcome to Nottingham’s Rebellious Students! This is a project dedicated to digitally preserving and documenting the ephemera associated with Nottingham University’s Anti-Apartheid Society from 1979 to 1982. I intend to provide some contextual history behind some of these sources, so that you guys can have a basic understanding of what was going in and outside of South Africa by this time period. All of the sources featured come from UL/F/6, an archive that contains ephemera from the university’s past societies. It is kept in the Manuscripts and Special Collections on King’s Meadow Campus.

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