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.
Robert Sobukwe in his cell at the prison on Robben Island.
Getty Images
Robert Sobukwe was once perceived to possess more revolutionary potential than Nelson Mandela.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Epa/Ian Langsdon
Archbishop Desmond Tutu didn’t stop his fight for human rights once apartheid came to a formal end in 1994. He continued to speak critically against politicians who abused their power.
Jackson Mthembu is the most prominent South African politician to succumb to COVID-19.
GCIS
Jackson Mthembu’s death drives home the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Percy Qoboza, editor of The World, second from left, being arrested by apartheid police following the banning of the newspaper in 1977.
Arena Holdings Archives
Journalists need to hold firmly to the ethical standards that assure audiences their work is reliable and credible.
Human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist George Bizos at Freedom Park, Pretoria, in 2013.
GCIS/Flickr
His appearance on behalf of the families of mine workers shot by the police at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry was just one of his efforts to seek justice for the poor and marginalised.
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.
Members of South Africa’s Zip Zap Circus.
Washington Post/Getty Images
An ongoing study shows that storytelling can positively increase self-awareness in young people, especially if they can relate to the stories. But in Africa access to story platforms is limited.
Former South African President FW De Klerk at the opening of parliament recently. The Economic Freedom Fighters objected to his presence.
EFE-EPA/Reuters Pool
It seems that former president FW De Klerk continues to find it hard to accept that apartheid was a crime against humanity.
Steve Biko is widely considered to be the father of Black Consciousness in South Africa.
EFE-EPA/Sowetan
Black consciousness in South Africa changed blacks and whites.
Onkgopotse Tiro.
Book cover
The book depicts how Onkgopotse Tiro’s time at Turfloop amounted to a revolutionising political script for generations to come.
Ahmed Timol’s funeral in 1972.
ahmedtimol.co.za
In South Africa’s criminal justice system post-1994, the Timol case is the first to enact what can be properly understood as restorative justice.
Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s “Gangster State” is one of South Africa’s top sellers.
Charles Leonard
Political books touches a certain chord in South African society that makes them bestsellers.
One of the founders of South African Students’ Organisation, Steve Biko.
South African History Online
Fifty years after the founding of South African Students’ Organisation this anti-apartheid movement remains a model for student activists.
Between 1963 and 1969 Robert Sobukwe spent six years of near-complete solitary confinement on Robben Island.
Book cover
A collection of prison letters provides a peek into the suffering of South African liberation hero, Robert Sobukwe.
Hugh Lewin served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Institute for the Advancement of Journalism
Hugh Lewin is best known for two books that arose from his early involvement in the anti-apartheid underground.
Students perform a re-enactment of the 1989 killing of six Jesuits, including Ignacio Martin-Baro, during the Salvadorian civil war.
Oscar Rivera/EPA
Social psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró’s work reminds us of the urgency to bring all psychology into the orbit of liberation. Doing so allows a necessarily ambitious conception of liberation.
Jonas Gwangwa performing in Germany in 2010.
EPA
South African jazz veteran Jonas Gwangwa has been getting recognition for the pivotal role he played in ‘singing down apartheid.’
Steve Biko in 1977.
EPA/Sowetan
The ANC has worked hard to monopolise the history of the anti-apartheid struggle – meaning transformational figures are being left out.
Student protests in South Africa have centred around free tertiary education.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
Generational rebellion is an enduring feature of all societies. Indeed, it is the dynamic through which societies renew themselves and move forward.