Browse the AAM Archive

This list of honours conferred on Nelson Mandela by British organisations was issued by the Nelson Mandela Reception Committee after Mandela’s release in February 1990. It includes honorary degrees, honorary life memberships, and roads and venues named after Mandela. Mandela was honoured by towns and organisations all over Britain, from Exeter in the south-west to Aberdeen in northern Scotland.

In 1990 a rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, broke the international boycott of South African cricket. This petition was presented to the Test and County Cricket Board and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. AAM supporters also picketed 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss.

In 1990 a rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, broke the international boycott of South African cricket. AAM staff members Paul Brannen (pictured here) and Karen Talbot protested at the photocall and press conference held on the day the team left for South Africa. AAM supporters also picketed 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss. 

Mug produced for the campaign for a boycott of South African gold.

Programme for a conference on trade unions in South Africa held on 24 February 1990. After the banning of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1988, the trade union movement led the opposition to apartheid. The conference mobilised support for trade unionists who had been arrested and detained.

More than 4,000 people asked their MPs to support the maintenance of sanctions against South Africa on 27 February 1990. The lobby achieved a record coverage, with constituents lobbying 495 of 523 MPs sitting for English constituencies and a majority of Scottish and Welsh MPs. The day before Nelson Mandela’s release, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that Britain would end its limited restrictions on new investment and tourism. The lobby was organised by the Southern Africa Coalition, a broad-based grouping of church organisations, trade unions, overseas aid agencies and the AAM.

Four thousand people from nearly every parliamentary constituency in Britain lobbied Parliament on 27 February 1990 calling for a ‘fundamental change in British policy’ towards South Africa. The lobby was organised by the Southern Africa Coalition and was the biggest ever parliamentary lobby on Southern Africa.

Leaders of the mass movement against apartheid within South Africa were the main speakers at a meeting held at the parliamentary lobby organised by the Southern Africa Coalition on 27 February 1990. The lobbyists asked their MPs to support the maintenance of sanctions against South Africa. The day before Nelson Mandela’s release, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that Britain would end its limited restrictions on new investment and tourism.