Black Solidarity

The AAM Black and Ethnic Minorities Committee held this seminar soon after the release of Nelson Mandela. One of the speakers was Labour MP Bernie Grant, who met Mandela on the day of his release. Sipho Pityana made an analysis of the new situation in South Africa. The seminar was attended by representatives of British black organisations, including the Black Unity and Freedom Party, the West Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Association and Afro-Caribbean student groups.

The AAM Black and Ethnic Minorities Committee organised this fundraising social for delegates to the September 1991 meeting of the AAM’s National Committee.

In the early 1990s the AAM Black Solidarity Committee distributed this leaflet to British black organisations. It asked them to support their brothers and sisters struggling for freedom in Southern Africa by either joining AAM campaigns or organising independently. It offered to help them set up direct links with the liberation movements.

In the early 1990s the AAM debated the role of international solidarity after the end of apartheid. The AAM Black and Ethnic Minorities Committee convened this consultation conference to discuss the special role of black and ethnic minorities in future solidarity action.

Poster advertising a conference in London on 3 April 1993 on the role that the British black community could play in helping to transform education in Southern Africa.

Chitra Karve was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign. She was a member of the AAM Women’s and Black Solidarity Committees, and was Chair of the latter. After the formation of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) in 1994 Chitra was elected to ACTSA’s Executive Committee. She is currently Chair of ACTSA.

In this clip she reflects on discussions in the Black Solidarity Committee about whether the AAM should join campaigns against racism in Britain.

Chitra Karve was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign. She was a member of the AAM Women’s and Black Solidarity Committees, and was Chair of the latter. After the formation of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) in 1994 Chitra was elected to ACTSA’s Executive Committee. She is currently Chair of ACTSA.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Lela Kogbara was a member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s Black Solidarity Committee and Executive Committee, and an activist in South London AA Group. She was the Chair of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) from 1994 to 2012, and still serves on its Executive Committee.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by Christabel Gurney in 2005.