South Africa’s history shows that mobilising white privilege can be a useful tool for advancing the struggle against racism.
Rivonia trialist Denis Goldberg speaking at a gala event in 2011 to honour the surviving members of the Rivonia Trial.
Photo by Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Goldberg was the youngest Rivonia triallist. Segregated prisons meant he was sent to Pretoria, while his fellow accused were incarcerated on Robben Island.
Actor Peter Paul Muller as Bram Fischer in the film ‘An Act of Defiance’.
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South African lawyer Bram Fischer has been idealised in a post-1994 context. He was raised in a position of privilege, but he used it to defy the injustice of the society that raised him.
Nelson Mandela, arriving for Thabo Mbeki’s inauguration in 2004.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
Factions within South Africa’s ANC nostalgically point to the example of Oliver Reginald Tambo whose seen as an exemplar of integrity, personifying an ideal leader who served the party selflessly.
Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada share a moment in South Africa’s Parliament in 1999.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
South African struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada believed in non-racialism to his core, even as others around him began to argue for an Africanist approach.