There was a significant struggle to destabilize and end the apartheid regime in South Africa. This struggle could be examined together with the external revolution for political, cultural and economic agreements. At the heart of the opposition and resistance of the black Africans in Southern Africa was the goal to terminate the aspect of white supremacy that was evidenced by the apartheid regime. There were ideological and organizational relationships and links between anti-apartheid activists (Williams, 2012). The protests in Europe and England, as well as the aggressiveness of the media against the arrest of Nelson Mandela, were the major tool to the fall of South African Apartheid.
The internal movement to end this racist apartheid regime in South Africa catalyzed the activities at the global level and the significant connection that provided the platform for unity against apartheid. The course of the anti-apartheid crusade equals that of the US civil rights movement and the revolution of the media that led to an unparalleled amount of information regarding national and global events into individual’s homes (Clark & Worger, 2016) . The media ensured a heightened flow of information against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela presenting a distinct opportunity for social protests to oppose dominant ideas and give alternatives to policymakers and the public about this situation.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The civil rights and anti-apartheid revolts concentrated on revealing the cruelty of the British systems and Europe through the media. The intention was to shift public perspectives and the policy agenda that terminated the Southern apartheid completely. The media could release dreadful images of white people hanging, hosing, whipping and abusing black people, particularly children in the South (LSE, 2014). Alexandru (2013) explained that this motivated thousands of African Americans into a move to oppose this regime, which was packaged as the civil rights movement. The correspondingly awful images of Sharpeville and Soweto carnages in South Africa also stirred a movement. It sparked up the creation of African-American activists that would connect their struggle to that of the blacks in South Africa.
In this time of anti-apartheid movement, black revolutionists such as Paul Robeson and WEB Du Bois were the prominent individuals in black anti-colonial politics. These radicals were operating from the Council on African Affairs endeavoring to inspire US foreign policy through steady discourse, demonstrations, protest marches, and petitions against apartheid. They also mobilized funds for sufferers of apartheid and colonialism and funded lectures by African nationalists (Sahoboss, 2017) . Coherently, to give credible information on what is really happening in South Africa, activists utilized the CAA’s journals, Africa News, Spotlight on Africa and more media platforms.
Yergan, a theologist became a YMCA secretary, and together with other missionaries served India and East Africa before some of them went to South Africa. These missionaries became friends with black activists like Govan Mbeki that later was a frontrunner of the South African Communist Party, as well as Clements Kaldie, an aggressive trade mediator and earlier Garveyite that had created the International Commercial Union (ICU). Yergan later resigned his missionary job to take up an activist role to defend the rights of the blacks in South America (Yadav, 2007). Yergan, together Paul and England Robeson founded the International Committee on African Affairs with Yergan given the position of executive secretary. Thus, the trend was the missionaries being radicalized by the relationship with African nationalists to form movements to stop this apartheid regime. The remarks of Robeson on the movements that were arising sounded as a warning to Europe and England in the South African struggle for freedom. He pointedly indicated that it was unimaginable to enslave 150 million Africans and assume that they would not have freedom (Clark & Worger, 2016) . The activists also connected their struggle beyond South African and to some UN organizations that would oppose the practices and actions of the apartheid regime.
The response of the external world to the uprising of apartheid regime was extensive, and during the 1980s, it gave a consistent threat to the South African administration of Apartheid. The regime faced innumerable internal and external threats, which finally yielded to create a way for a new, democratic release. Nations in the entire globe and not just South Africa took several measures to destabilize and bring down apartheid totally (LSE, 2014). It was the anti-apartheid demonstrations in Europe, Hollands and the USA that led to the greatest challenges to the apartheid regime in South Africa. Europe was possibly the most effective of all such movements in the entire globe. By the end of 1970s, the anti-apartheid movement (AAM) that was spearheaded by the United Kingdom had released an increased number of campaigns and had different arms in the entire nation and globe (Clark & Worger, 2016) . AAM came up with a movement that emerged to be one of the most influential global solidarity movement to have ever existed in the past, a framework that had then been utilized to dwindle or replace several other tyrannical regimes besides Apartheid in South Africa.
The AAM created connections with political parties and some other influential movements in South Africa to strategize and reinforce effective channels to strike the foundations of every part of the apartheid framework. This gave way for economic, cultural, and trade boycotts that amounted in sanctions movement, being promoted by governments in the entire globe. By principle, AAM was a coordinating engine and relied on other activists to attain its goals (Professor Alec Ryrie, n.d) . It convinced people such as Nelson Mandela who was aggressive to fight against apartheid, organizations, political frameworks, and the government to consider steps that would help attain the separation and destabilization of apartheid state (Sahoboss, 2017) . Its role was to make influential actors like Mandela and other activists consider significant decisions that had historical and impactful influences on the Apartheid regime.
Britain had taken over Cape Town by 1795 (Yadav, 2007). British capital controlled the mines in the region such as diamond and gold. By 1950s, Britain became among the few South Africa’s very trusted trading partners, with about 35 percent of South Africa’s imports being sourced from England and about the same percentage being exported to Britain (Sahoboss, 2017). Britain banked on this relationship, and between 1946 and 1959, about 113,000 Britons were living in South Africa (Professor Alec Ryrie, n.d) . The aspects of the British culture, in the end, worked against white domination. London became the home where slaves from all the parts of the world including South Africa could be gathered. Likewise, South Africans that were running away from apartheid that had begun in the beginning of 1950s fled to the capital of Britain and lived them. Activists such as Vella Pillay, Tennyson Makiwane, Kader, Oliver Tambo, as well as afterward Thabo Mbeki and several others went to England for a long time and this was their base to issue strikes and threats against apartheid (Yadav, 2007).
On November 23, 1962, more than 100 blacks met under the umbrella of the American Negro Leadership Conference (ANLCA) at Arden House, Colombia University (Sahoboss, 2017) . This conference was dominated by the agenda of Apartheid. Roy Wilkins made a significant contribution indicating that the United States had to supersede verbal condemnations of colonialism and apartheid and execute power-on Portugal and South Africa. They advocated for a war against terror, murder, extermination, and dictatorship (Williams, 2012). The conference pushed for an appeal for action to fight Apartheid that Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Luthuli, who headed the African National Congress of South Africa had sponsored. It urged the government of the US to reinforce UN sanctions against South Africa. The group indicated that the US military army stops military exercises in South Africa and cease from utilizing South African waters or bases. The US government supported the authorizations to enforce an absolute arms ban and public and private investment to this apartheid regime.
When a military rule was declared in July 1985, the apartheid regime was intensified with most activists in South Africa increasingly facing harsh laws to hinder their campaigns. The harsh laws that they underwent included imprisonments, politician detentions, and some even had their lives terminated ( Alexandru, 2013) . The AAM pleaded with churches, trade unions as well as students to join in the movement that will respond to the predicament of detainees. Trevor Huddleston paraded an entreaty “Free All Apartheid’s Detainees” in June 1987 that had about 300,000 individuals signing (Sahoboss, 2017) . A movement was started against the repression of trade unionists that were the main targets of the apartheid regime.
Solomon Mahlangu was killed in 1979 in spite of a plea that the UN Security Council made, as well as 14 other objectors who received a death sentence over the following 14 years (Williams, 2012). In light of the global weight, seven of these detainees were excluded from this sentence. The AAM and Southern Africa: the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) had night watches within the courts of South African House advocating for the rights of the people. Even women activists rose up to defend Theresa Ramashamola, who was among the accused Sharpeville Six, whereas the rest of AAM revolutionists focused on the Upington Seven. In 1980, the Free Mandela revolution in South Africa was launched. This was later spearheaded by the AAM through the inputs of ES Reddy that was the administrator to the UN special Committee by that time ( Alexandru, 2013) . The AAM combined forces with the international Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF), producing a video concerning Mandela. The film was labeled South Africa’s Other Leader. The media steered the views of this video, reaching millions of people inside and outside America in 1984.
Mandela was a front-runner activist in the fight against Apartheid. He was given the emancipation of Glasgow in August 1981 (Williams, 2012). He received rewards of such caliber by 50 councils as well as local authorities ten years after that (Clark & Worger, 2016) . The street in which the AAM headquarters were located was named Mandela Street. The AAM pleaded with Britons to convey letters to the detained leader, which they adhered to, sending thousands of them. Musicians were particularly alert to the motivation to free Mandela. Many other artists and bands came up with patriotic songs such as Lucky Dube that spoke against Apartheid and advocated for the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Hugh Masekela performed in a band at a Celebration of African Sounds in 1983 to celebrate the life of Mandela, at the 65th of his birthday ( Alexandru, 2013) . Consequently, these recordings and songs were broadcasted far and wide even beyond South Africa demanding for the emancipation of the blacks from the Apartheid regime.
In conclusion, the Africa American activities in Europe and England played a huge role in the global anti-apartheid crusade from the moment of its founding in the 1940s to the achievement of the majority rule in South Africa in the elections 1994. The achievement of the majority rule marked the end of the apartheid regime that had enslaved most of the blacks in South Africa. The war against apartheid was characterized by famine relief revolutions, legal defense funds, demonstrations at the South African embassies and uniting with the UN to enforce global sanctions. The media also played a huge role in exposing dangerous atrocities that were being done to discriminate the blacks. Images of hangings, mistreatments, and other painful experiences would be broadcasted to reach millions of people who would understand what was happening in the region. The production of liberation songs by artists also enhanced this exposure of discriminating activities against the blacks. Both media and Black African activists in England and Europe and their protest that influenced the English and UN Sanctions to collapse the apartheid regime.
References
Yadav, A. K. (2007). Nelson Mandela and the Process of Reconciliation in South Africa. India Quarterly, 63(4), 49–84.
Clark, N. L., & Worger, W. H. (2016). South Africa: The rise and fall of apartheid . London: Routledge.
Sahoboss. (2017, July 27). The British Anti-Apartheid Movement. Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/british-anti-apartheid-movement
Williams, E. (2012). Anti-Apartheid: The Black British Response . South African Historical Journal, 64(3), 685-706. doi:10.1080/02582473.2012.675809
Professor Alec Ryrie, The Gospel of Apartheid. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-gospel-of-apartheid
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). (2014, October 29). Art and Activism: Reflections on the anti-apartheid struggle and 2 decades of S. African democracy . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RX3fFYdT8Y
Alexandru, S. (2013, April 17). History Channel - Miracle Rising South Africa [Full Movie]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKDrRdfvUg8
