Tag Archives: liberation heritage route

Inhlangano Yabafundi: South African Students Organisation

Soweto school children protest against Afrikaans in 1976

Inhlangano Yabafundi: South African Students Organisation Umbhikisho wabafundi obunedumela kulonyaka odlule uthi awufane nombhikisho owenzeka eminyakeni engaphezu kwamashumi amane edlule lapho amalungu enhlangano yabafundi i-National Union of South African Students ahlubuka aqala inhlangano eyaziwa nge South African Students Organisation (SASO). Nakuba umshikashika we-Fees Must Fall ubonwa sengathi wawufuna ushintsho lwenzeke ngokushesha, kanjalo nemibono yamalunga e-SASO […]

Umdlalo wekhilikithi ngesikhathi sobandlululo

Protesters in London during South Africa's Test visit, 1965

Abomdabu baseNdiya baseThekwini bazithola bevalelwa wonke amathuba futhi bekhishwa ekubeni ngamalungu ezinhlaka zemidlalo kuya emahhotela. Inhlangano eyaziwa ngeSurat Hindu Association yasungulwa kusaqala iminyaka yama 1900 ngemizamo yokuvikela amalungelo abomdabu bevela eNdiya. Lenhlangano yasiza ngezinhlelo eziningi njengokutholakala kothisha bolimi iGujarati ababevela eNdiya, kuya kwezenkolo kanye nokusungulwa kwamaqembu nezinhlelo zemidlalo njenge Bharat Cricket Club. Umdlalo wekhilikithi wafika […]

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

This Friday sees the launch of A Life in Letters: Selected Correspondence of Denis Hurley. The book, which consists of 250 letters penned by Archbishop Denis Hurley, took three years to compile with Paddy Kearney*, Brother Philippe Denis and Jane Argall making the selection from a massive 5000 letters written by the Archbishop between the ages of 11 and 88. […]

Mother to Thirty Thousand

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While there seems to more politicking and less activism in many of today’s trade unions, there was a time in South Africa when the unions filled a very serious role in the fight for workers’ rights, which the government of the day were determined to squash. Curries Fountain, which now forms part of the Durban […]

The Apartheid Convention

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On the 27th February 1979 the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Unesco) released a report entitled “Implementation of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid”. The ‘Apartheid Convention’ (or ICSPCA), which came into force in 1976, was ratified by twenty countries, namely Benin, Bulgaria, Belarus, Chad, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, the German […]

Biko & the South African Student Organisation

This evening the University of KwaZulu-Natal will host their annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, to commemorate the 41st anniversary of Steve Biko’s death. On the 18th August 1977, Biko and his associate, Peter Jones, were stopped at a routine road block near Grahamstown. When the police recognised the men, they were arrested under the Terrorism Act […]

I-Durban Bantu Social Centre yaphambilini namanje

Indlela okubukeka ngayo amadolobha iyashintsha ngendlela exakile ngokuhamba kweminyaka. Izithombe ezilenga ezindongeni zasezitolo zotshwala nasemaphaseji asemahhotela ziveza isithombe esehlukile ngendlela iTheku ebelibukeka ngayo phambilini, nokuthi indawo yaseBerea yayiyihlathi elinjani, esikhundleni sokuba yindawo yamafulethi okuhlala abantu. Kumbalwa kakhulu okungashintshile, kodwa uma ubheka izithombe zeDurban Bantu Social Centre eyavulwa ngama 1930, uyiqhathanisa nesakhiwo eyisona manje, isabonakala, hhayi […]

Michael Hathorn’s Detention Diary

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One of the sites that make up the Durban Liberation Heritage Route is Durban Central Prison, or more specifically one of its boundary walls, as the prison itself was destroyed some years back. Surprisingly though if you look online for images of the prison before it was demolished, you’ll find very few photographs. One of the […]

Inside Apartheid’s Prison

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First published in 2001, Inside Apartheid’s Prison by Raymond Suttner, was rereleased at the end of last year. Suttner, an academic, was one of a small number of white South Africans who were imprisoned for their efforts to overthrow the government during apartheid. He was first arrested in 1975, serving eight years for his underground activities […]

Charlotte Mannya Maxeke (1871-1939)

Bronze statue of Charlotte Maxeke, The Long March to Freedom National Heritage Monument, Pretoria

While apartheid is considered officially to have begun in 1948 with the National Party’s ascension to power, racial segregation had long been practised in South Africa prior to this date. Apartheid simply formalised ‘separateness’ through a long list of laws, that were constantly being added to, and amended. As a former British colony, South Africa was […]