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Apartheid in South Africa - Demonstrations & violence 1960s - 1980s Key concepts: Change & Consequence Essential Questions:
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"Sharpeville Massacre Was Turning Point in Anti-Apartheid Movement." YouTube, uploaded by CBS News, 17 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=n2EvZ8cYcC8. Accessed 19 Jan. 2019.
As passive resistance officially gave way to the armed struggle in 1961 when Umkhonto Wesizwe (Spear of the Nation) was formed, this new direction in the struggle added a new fierceness to songs. New weapons (as expressed in the words umshini (machine), scorpion, and bazooka, the (racial) identity of the enemy and the consequences of an armed struggle were clearly worded in songs. A prime example is the MK (Umkhonto Wesizwe) song:
Hamba Hamba kahle Mkhonto Mkhonto we-Mkhonto, Mkhonto Wesizwe 2x
Thina Thin’ abant’ boMkhonto sizimisele ukuwabulala wona amabhunu. 2x
English translation:
Go Go well Mkhonto Mkhonto you Mkhonto, Mkhonto Wesizwe 2x
We We the people of Mkhonto we are determined to kill the Boers. 2x
(From: South African Freedom Songs)
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Protest poetry: Before Interrogation? (An Epitaph to Ahmed Timol and Others) by Ronnie Kasrils (writing as ANC Kumalo) |
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Umkhonto weSizwe ("Spear of the Nation") Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) - Armed wing of the African National Congress established in 1961 to force the apartheid regime to the bargaining table through acts of sabotage and, if necessary, military campaigns. |
South Africa, Johannesburg: Poster- anti apartheid, struggle days , Nelson Mandela - A peoples' Leader. Graeme Williams/South. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/160_206079/1/160_206079/cite. Accessed 21 Jan 2019.
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Protest posters were an important form of protest, particularly in the 1980s. They often provided a unifying symbol for a particular struggle or movement. This collection of anti-apartheid posters served as a means of keeping the image of Nelson Mandela alive for a generation of young people who had never seen him or heard him speak. |
Weinberg, Eli. Treason Trial: The Accused, December 1956. Dec. 1956. South African History Archive, www.saha.org.za/nonracialism/treason_trial_the_accused_december_1956.htm. Accessed 22 Jan. 2019.
The Treason Trial:
"The South African government regarded the Freedom Charter as a treasonable document and it claimed that the Congress Alliance was plotting to overthrow the state. As a result, 156 members of the Congress Alliance were arrested and charged with treason. The treason trial lasted from 1956 to 1961, but the government failed to prove that treason had been intended and so everyone was eventually acquitted.
This photograph is interesting because it has been constructed. The photographer, Eli Weinberg, had received permission to photograph all 156 trialists in Joubert Park, Johannesberg. However, when the park superintendent found out that most of the people were black, he withdrew permission. So Weinberg set up benches outside the park and photographed the people in different groups. He then put the groups together in a single photograph."
Understanding Apartheid. p. 61 Cape Town, Oxford UP Southern Africa, 2006.
| "The State wanted to actually bottle us up, thinking that the struggle will die out..." [4:36] |
In this interview, Billy Nair, one of the Treason Trialists who was active in the Indian Congress, describes how the Treason Trial was an attempt to demobilize leaders who organized the Congress of the People, where the Freedom Charter was adopted. Nair served his prison term with Nelson Mandela and other political leaders on Robben Island.
Robben Island Museum: interviews of ex-prisoners