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
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 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
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.
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.
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