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Some Personal Recollections of the Free Nelson Mandela Campaign by Mike Terry
I would have been fourteen years old when Nelson Mandela was first arrested for leaving South Africa ‘illegally`. Although a regular reader of the Manchester…
Robert Sobukwe: What a sense of mission! By Sibonginkosi Mazibuko, 19 February 2015, South Africa
cc SABC February 27 marks 37 years since the passing away in the hands of the apartheid regime of the great pan-Africanist leader. His radical dedication…
PlacePacaltsdorp
(prior to 1910)The settlement of Hooge Kraal was established in 1813 as a station of the London Missionary Society (LMS). In 1818, its name was changed to…
Document 43 - Letter from T. W. Thibedi fo Leon Trotsky, 10 August 1932
From: South Africa's Radical Tradition, a documentary history, Volume One 1907 - 1950, by Allison Drew Document 43 - Letter from T. W. Thibedi to Leon…
Book 4: Industrialisation, Rural Change and Nationalism - Introduction
From the book: Book 4: Industrialisation, Rural Change and Nationalism commissioned by The Department of Education Industrialisationand rural change were key…
30. Potchefstroom traders: we please the poorest class of customers
From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai The agitation by anti-Asiatic vigilante groups…
ArticleTimeline — Land Dispossession and Restitution in South Africa - 1995-2013
After the advent of democratic rule in 1994, the newly elected ANC led government was faced with the task of dealing with a legacy of centuries of land…
ArticleCape Schools Join the Revolt
The school students in Cape Town reacted to the news they heard of events in Soweto. A teacher at one of the Coloured schools was later to write: 'We haven't…
ArticleSita’s story
My Childhood at Phoenix Settlement I was born on 19th of October 1928 on my grandfather’s farm, which was fifteen miles away from the city, and in those days…
PlaceDiamond Hill Battle, Garden of Remembrance
The site of the Battle of Diamond Hill, which took place on the 11th and 12th June 1900, in which 14000 British soldiers and 4000 Boers engaged in battle…
EventThe South African War: The lifting of the siege of Mafeking
The Siege of Mafeking (now known as Mafikeng) was an important battle in the South African War (Second Anglo-Boer War). The war began in late 1899; President…
EventThe siege of Mafeking starts
During the first week of Anglo-Boer War 2, Boer forces besieged the small town of Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in the Northern Cape (now North West Province),…
EventThe second Anglo-Boer war, also known as the South African war, breaks out
A number of interrelated factors led to the Second Anglo-Boer War. These include the conflicting political ideologies of imperialism and republicanism, the…
EventB.J. Vorster, Minister of Justice, announces extensive security measures following the Sharpeville Massacre
On 15 February 1962, B.J. Vorster, Minister of Justice announced extensive measures to "ensure the safety of the state to the absolute maximum" in view of…
ArticleCustomary Marriages in South Africa: Understanding The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act of 1998
Before the establishment of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 (RCMA), there were many controversial and unequal positions regarding the…
ArticleNelson Mandela Timeline 1930-1939
1930 White women get the vote. This means in effect that the weight of the black vote is decreased from 3.1% to 1.4%. The first restrictions against the…
ArticleThe Crackdown on the Black Consciousness Movement in 1973
The period after the Sharpeville Massacre and the banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC), especially after the…
Ahmed Kathrada pays tribute to Nelson Mandela, 6 December 2013
Madala, as you light-heartedly started calling me some years ago, it both grieves me and inspires me to write this to you now, with the hour of your death…
Indian South Africans timeline 1940-1949
Indian South Africans Timeline: 1940-1949 1940 January, A meeting is held between the Nationalist Bloc, Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) leadership and…
Chapter 12 - Certification of the final constitution
Within twenty-four hours of adoption, the executive director of the Constitutional Assembly began receiving calls from the Constitutional Court enquiring how…
EventMoroccan Army of Liberation attacks Spanish enclave of Ifni
Morocco had been ruled by the Alaouite Dynasty since 1631. In 1859, a war was waged against Spain in an attempt to remain independent. Following this war, the…
EventFatima Meer is banned for a second time
Federation of South African Women (FSAW or FEDSAW) President and the first person to be banned under the 1976 Internal Security Act, Fatima Meer, was banned…
EventThe Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is approved by Parliament
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa is regarded as one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The process that led to its approval…
EventHaile Selassie, deposed Ethiopian emperor, dies
Haile Selassie was born Lij Tafari Makonnen, in the village of Ejersa Gor, in the Harar Province of Ethiopia. Heir to a 13th century dynasty, he ascended to…
EventPAC’s leader, Potlako Leballo confirms that Poqo is the organisation’s military wing
Potlako Leballo, the leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), confirmed in Maseru, Basutoland (now Lesotho), that Poqo and the PAC are one and the same…
PlaceMaphikela House
In 1912, prominent black leaders gathered here and forged the foundations of what would eventually become the ruling party of the country. The house was…
18. Narayanan searches for his wife and child
From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai Narayanan, who worked for a Port Shepstone sugar…
PlaceCity Hall, Cape Town
This is a large Edwardian building in the centre of Cape Town city. It was built in 1905, on the Grand parade, West of the Castle of Good Hope. Messrs Henry…
ArticleZion Christian Church (ZCC)
The largest and fastest-growing of the African independent churches in the 1990s is the Zion Christian Church[i] . Its members, estimated to number between 2…
ArticleThe Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 1995
After the end of apartheid, as well as the release of political prisoners in the early 90s and the country’s transition from repressive rule to democracy in…