Cover detail of the book Guerrillas and Combative Mothers.
UKZN Press
The interviews in this book offer firsthand insights into women’s participation in the armed struggle against apartheid.
Opera meets vogueing in the production about the life and work of the late Simon Nkoli.
Mark Lewis/Nkoli: The Vogue Opera
A 26-member theatre ensemble aims to bring history to light in a fresh way.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi inspired very different assessments of his roles and legacies.
GCIS/Flickr
If Mangosuthu Buthelezi had not opposed the apartheid state’s plans for an ‘independent’ Zulu kingdom, South Africa’s history would have unfolded very differently.
Some 1971 tour players, from left, Hira Dhiraj, Hoosen Bobat, a Dutch friend, Jasmat Dhiraj, Charmaine Williams and Oscar Woodman. Williams toured at her own expense.
Courtesy the 1971 players/UKZN Press
A new book delves into the issues faced by a 1971 international tennis tour, and calls for injustice to be recognised.
Detail of a photo of Frank Anthony (front left) on Robben Island with Walter Sisulu (front right).
© Unknown/Courtesy Nelson Mandela Foundation
The activist and writer has been erased from South Africa’s history - but new academic work seeks to restore his voice.
A holocaust survivor who also witnessed apartheid, Ruth Weiss will receive national honours.
Oliver Berg/picture alliance via Getty Images
Weiss witnessed atrocities in Germany and South Africa and railed against them, becoming a towering figure as a writer and poet.
Richard Drury/Getty Images
Fifty years ago the council was created to fight for marginalised communities to participate fairly in sports. Their dream remains unfulfilled.
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions sing political songs in 1987 in Johannesburg.
Walter Dhladhla/AFP via Getty Images
Struggle songs are relevant even in the post apartheid context because they continue to be an important way in which people deliberate on issues.
A memorial in Orlando West, Soweto, honouring the victims of the massacre of school children by apartheid police.
AFP/Mujahid Safodien/via Getty Images
The students who marched on 16 June 1976 did more than simply register a political opinion.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the country is committed to achieving world peace through negotiation, and not force.
GCIS/Flickr
The relationship between South Africa and the West, especially the US, has a complex history. Not least because the US designated those fighting the apartheid regime, as terrorists.
The late Professor Jaap Durand was a Afrikaans theologian who broke with Afrikaaner ideology and demonstrated his solidarity with anti-apartheid activists.
University of the Western Cape
The greatness of an institution lies in acknowledging both the light and the shade in its ongoing journey as a great South African university.
Lindiwe Mabuza (right) with President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018.
Katlholo Maifadi/GCIS
For her, art was a weapon in the struggle and a tool for education. She used every opportunity to build movements and to archive experiences in writing.
Aggrey Klaaste, right, used the Sowetan newspaper to drive his Nation-building campaign. He is seen here with John Mabatho, the newspaper’s production manager.
Paul Velasco © Arena Holdings
Klaaste was distressed by what was happening in black communities, where residents faced state terror and political violence. He sought to restore values such as self-help and neighbourly conduct.
Detail of the poster And the People Vote for Nelson Mandela.
Judy Seidman/Medu Art Ensemble
Four decades later, post-apartheid South Africa barely recalls the Medu Art Ensemble’s contributions to the liberation struggle. But that could be changing.
South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters toyi-toyi at an anti-Israel protest.
PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa’s famous toyi-toyi was adopted from Zimbabwean troops, who learned it in Algeria – showing the interconnected nature of Africa’s liberation struggles.
Moeletsi Mabe/The Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The revered trombonist, composer and cultural activist never wished to be ‘the state composer’ but remained political until the end, in service of the people.
A younger Dennis Brutus, president of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee in Montreal, Canada in 1976.
Neil Leifer /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
That none of his collections were published in apartheid South Africa testifies to the police state’s censorship.
South African freedom struggle stalwart Andrew Mlangeni at the UN.
Although a commited veteran of the ANC, Mlangeni was no party apparatchik. He was outspoken against endemic corruption in government.
Dennis Brutus’s life is synonymous with South Africa’s freedom struggle.
@mjb/Flickr
Brutus’s life was closely interlinked with the rise of apartheid and offered a way to look at resistance to this system.
Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
South Africa’s history shows that mobilising white privilege can be a useful tool for advancing the struggle against racism.