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Anti Apartheid

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SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY

Before 1956, there was 1913: The forgotten women of the first pass war

While South Africa celebrates the women of 1956, this article sheds light on the largely forgotten women of 1913. Exactly 43 years earlier, thousands of black women in the Orange…

  • Lesley Mofokeng
7 min read
Unabashedly sassy: Nkoli is a vogue-opera that blends opera singing with a live orchestra, rapping, lip-syncing and voguing. Photo: Supplied
SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE

‘You strike a queer, you strike a rock’: How ‘Nkoli’ revives the legacy of Simon Nkoli

A vibrant vogue-opera celebrates anti-apartheid and LGBTQ+ activist Simon Nkoli, blending history, spectacle and political resistance with dazzling theatrical flair. The…

  • Aarti Bhana
6 min read
Reunited: Anthony Akerman with his birth mother in 1990
AMSTERDAM

A return to the literal motherland

This extract from playwright Anthony Akerman’s memoir tells of coming home after 17 years’ exile

  • Anthony Akerman
8 min read
A demolished six-storey building in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood contains libraries, youth centres, training for university students, and a mosque that was bombed by Israeli aircraft in raids in Gaza City, Gaza, on May 18, 2021. (Photo by Momen Faiz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
ANC

Israel’s destruction of archives, libraries strip Gazans of their past

The anti-apartheid archives provide an understanding of our past and therefore present, something Palestinians no longer have

  • Ayesha Omar
3 min read
As parliament’s speaker Frene Ginwala also oversaw the passing of some of the most progressive legislation in the world for women’s rights. Photo: Supplied
ANTI APARTHEID

A tribute to Frene Ginwala, a champion of women’s rights

The anti-apartheid leader implementing structural changes to dismantle the patriarchal nature of parliament

  • Naleli Morojele
4 min read
Freedom fighter Denis Goldberg talks to the media at Liliesleaf Farm, the apartheid-era hideout for Nelson Mandela and freedom fighters in Johannesburg, on July 11, 2013 in Rivonia, South Africa. It is 50 years since the hideout was raided by police on July 11, 1963. The farm was the secret nerve centre for the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC and the Congress Alliance. Police interrupted a meeting of Operation Mayibuye, a plan to overthrow the Apartheid government. The raid by police led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki and Denis Goldberg, who were convicted through the infamous Rivonia Trial and most were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Anti-apartheid veteran Denis Goldberg dies

Convicted along with Nelson Mandela and eight others, the Rivonia Trialist spent his golden years active in the ANC although he called out its faults

  • Lester Kiewit
3 min read