Free Mandela

Jerry Dammers formed the Specials in Coventry in 1977. He was an anti-apartheid activist from his school days, and in 1986 founded Artists Against Apartheid to involve musicians in anti-apartheid campaigns and promote the cultural boycott of South Africa. He wrote the song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, which became an international hit and helped raise awareness of the situation of Nelson Mandela and political prisoners in South Africa.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom AAM history project in 2013.

Jerry Dammers formed the Specials in Coventry in 1977. He was an anti-apartheid activist from his school days, and in 1986 founded Artists Against Apartheid to involve musicians in anti-apartheid campaigns and promote the cultural boycott of South Africa. He wrote the song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, which became an international hit and helped raise awareness of the situation of Nelson Mandela and political prisoners in South Africa.

In this clip he taks about how he came to write ‘Free Nelson Mandela’.

Joni McDougall became active in Camden Anti-Apartheid Group in 1984. She later worked full-time in the Anti-Apartheid Movement office for the Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust as organiser of the international conference on ‘Children & Apartheid’,  held in Harare in 1987. In 1988 she joined the Nelson Mandela Freedom March as one of the 25 marchers who walked from Glasgow to London as part of the ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign.

In this clip Joni talks about the Nelson Mandela Freedom March.

Richard Caborn was the Labour MP for Sheffield Central, 1983–2010, and Minister for Sport, 2001–2007. He joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement when he was a trade union official in the 1970s and was a founder member of Sheffield Anti-Apartheid Group. He served as the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s national Treasurer, 1989–1994. In 1984 he became Secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on Southern Africa.

Vijay Krishnarayan became involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1984 while studying town and country planning at Oxford Polytechnic. As student union president, he was elected to the National Council of the student section of the Labour Party and in 1988 took part in the Mandela Freedom March from Glasgow to London. In 1989, he campaigned against the rebel cricket tour to South Africa before moving on to a career in civil society organisations, promoting people-to-people solidarity.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Vijay Krishnarayan became involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1984 while studying town and country planning at Oxford Polytechnic. As student union president, he was elected to the National Council of the student section of the Labour Party and in 1988 took part in the Mandela Freedom March from Glasgow to London. In 1989, he campaigned against the rebel cricket tour to South Africa before moving on to a career in civil society organisations, promoting people-to-people solidarity.

In this clip Vijay tells how he walked over 600 miles from Glasgow to London as one of the Mandela freedom marchers in the summer of 1988.

Talal Karim came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1971 and supported anti-apartheid campaigns as a student at Warwick University. He later became a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a member of its Race Equality Committee. He represented Islington Council on Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and was one of the main movers behind the Council’s Declaration on Southern Africa, and support for the African National Congress (ANC) and South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

In this clip Talal Karim explains why he became an anti-apartheid activist and describes his meeting with Nelson Mandela in 1993.

Brian Filling became involved in anti-apartheid campaigning as a student at Glasgow University in the late 1960s. He was a founder of the Scottish AAM Committee in 1976 and served as its Chair from 1976 to 1994, when he became Chair of ACTSA Scotland. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) from 1994 to 2011 and is now Honorary Consul for South Africa in Scotland. He was awarded the National Order of Companions of O R Tambo, the highest award made to non-South Africans, by the Republic of South Africa in 2012.       

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.