Demonstration outside the Mangrove, All Saints Road, Notting Hill on 10 October 1976 in support of the school students uprising in Soweto.

FRELIMO Central Committee member and future Mozambique President Armando Guebuza at a meeting with representatives of London’s black community, 24 June 1981.

Black British sportspeople were especially active in sports boycott campaigns. The main speaker at this conference was Paul Stephenson, the only black member of the British Sports Council. The conference was organised by the Communist Party’s Afro-Caribbean Organisation.

Three local councillors from London’s black community express their opposition to Botha’s visit to Britain in June 1984. Black organisations were prominent in the opposition to the visit. They formed a special mobilising committee and there were many articles in the London black press. The West Indian Standing Conference held on all-night vigil on 1–2 June.

Clarence Thompson, General Secretary of the West Indian Standing Conference, speaking at the AAM rally in Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985. 25,000 people marched up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985 to demand sanctions against South Africa. Left to right: Jerry Herman from the US Disinvestment Campaign, Trevor Huddleston, Denis Goldberg of the ANC, Clarence Thompson, Zerbanoo Gifford of the Liberal Party and SWAPO leader Hidipo Hamutenya.

Activists in the multi-racial area of St Paul’s, Bristol declared it an anti-apartheid free zone in the mid-1980s. Opposition to apartheid was so strong that the local Tesco’s stopped stocking South African goods.

In 1985 the local community association in the multi-racial St Paul’s area of Bristol launched a campaign to persuade local shops and businesses to end all links with South Africa. After a slow start, the great majority of local shops and all seven pubs in the area agreed to boycott apartheid products. This newsletter reproduced a Declaration signed by local businesses. The campaign gained such momentum that the local Tesco’s branch agreed not to stock South African goods.

In 1985 the local community association in the multi-racial St Paul’s area of Bristol launched a campaign to persuade local shops and businesses to end all links with South Africa. After a slow start, the great majority of local shops and all seven pubs in the area stopped selling apartheid products. The community association also asked local businesses to boycott Barclays Bank. Its annual report described the progress of the campaign. 

The contingent from the Mangrove, All Saints Road, North Kensington, on their way to join the march for sanctions against South Africa on 2 November 1985. In the background is a banner from the Tabernacle Community Centre. 150,000 people marched from east, west and south London to Trafalgar Square on 2 November 1985 to demand British sanctions against South Africa. ANC President Oliver Tambo, SWAPO leader Shapua Kaukungua and US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson all called for a change of government policy. The march was the culmination of an intensive campaign that reached every part of Britain.

Leaflet publicising a demonstration at the International Rugby Union’s centenary celebrations at Twickenham on 19 April 1986. The ‘rest of the world’ squad included several Springboks sponsored by the whites-only South African Rugby Board. The demonstration was organised by the AAM, SANROC and the British Black Conference against Apartheid Sport. There was also a demonstration in Cardiff, where the British Lions played a world squad on 16 April.

The AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee held a carol service in Trafalgar Square on 21 December 1986. The singing was led by the ANC and SWAPO choirs and the London Community Gospel Choir, and other groups gave readings on the situation in Namibia and South Africa. The event was sponsored by the four leading black London newspapers.

The AAM’s Black Solidarity Committee was set up in 1988 as the Black and Ethnic Minorities Committee. This introductory brochure set out facts about apartheid in South Africa and Namibia and called for support for the ANC and SWAPO. It asked people from black and ethnic minority communities to join the AAM and support its campaigns.

Cutting a birthday cake for Nelson Mandela at the Mangrove, All Saints Road in west London.

This Africa Liberation Day celebration was the first public event held by the AAM’s Black and Ethnic Minorities Committee. The highlight of the evening was a speech by Mozambican writer and FRELIMO activist Lina Magaia. A collection was made for the SWAPO Election Appeal Fund.

The AAM held its 1989 July National Committee meeting in the multi-racial area of Grangetown, Cardiff. Black and ethnic minority supporters took part in a special session at the meeting to discuss their role in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Poster advertising a meeting at the Hackney Empire Theatre, London on 4 February 1990, organised by the Parliamentary Black Caucus and the AAM.

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.

Lela Kogbara was a member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s Black Solidarity and Executive Committees, 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.

In this clip Lela Kogbara describes the aims of the Black Solidarity Committee.

Tim Oshodi joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement as a student activist in 1985. He was Chair of the London School of Economics AA Group and took part in an occupation of the LSE to pressure it to disinvest from South Africa. He was a researcher for the AAM's disinvestment campaign, and a member of the AAM National and Black Solidarity Committees. He was a founding member of Friends of Simukai, an group that worked in solidarity with freedom fighters in Zimbabwe. Tim is currently involved in solidarity work with South African based housing activists.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the ‘Forward to Freedom’ AAM 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 compares political campaigning in the 1980s with campaigning today and describes how it has been transformed by the social media and the internet.

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 why he felt compelled to campaign against apartheid and why he  thought it was essential that black people should have a strong presence in the Anti-Apartheid Movement.