On the Trans-Kalahari Highway: Caught in the Middle of Two Spaces

The author reflects on how Africa’s Trans-Kalahari Highway bridged her move from Botswana to Namibia literally and figuratively

“We Are Worried Mothers:” A Panel of “Ordinary South Africans” on US Capitol Hill

In 1986, a “panel of ordinary South Africans” addressed members of the US Congress. Their visit did not command as much attention as would the visit of (future president) Nelson Mandela in 1990 or as did (former prime minister) Jan Smuts in 1930. Yet, for an increasing number of Americans watching closely, it represented a momentous public rebuttal to apartheid. The visit responded to ongoing celebrity protests and built public support for sanctions. While many Americans instigating “designer arrests” believed that they spoke for South Africans, in 1986, physicians, activists, and children who had faced detention spoke for themselves on foreign soil, becoming embroiled in attendant tension and harassment on their way home. An examination of the records of the Southern Africa Project and the US Congress reveals that, while the embassy protests were catalytic, this panel of “ordinary South Africans” on the Hill—and, subsequently, on national and international television—provided public faces for anti-apartheid movements in ways that celebrities certainly could not. As such, it is necessary to examine the factors leading to the panel, its impact on US anti-apartheid politics, and places of connection with youth activism and celebrity protest generally

South Africa’s History of Struggle and Liberation

Clive Glaser’s The ANC Youth League, Colin Bundy’s Govan Mbeki, and Saul Dubow’s South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights together contribute to Ohio University Press’ new series, Ohio Short Histories of Africa. The three works fit within the larger set of eight brief monographs, written by eminent scholars in a simple and publicly digestible format. The series provides an entry point for new scholars and the general public to familiarize themselves with contemporary histories in a format that is short and easy to read. At the same time, all three works have many challenges to offer more established scholars

Avenging Carlota in Africa: Angola and the Memory of Cuban Slavery

Fidel Castro’s meta-narrative of Cuban history emphasizes the struggle – and eventual triumph – of the oppressed over their oppressors. This was epitomized in Nelson Mandela’s 1991 visit to the island, when his host took him to the northwestern city of Matanzas, and the pair gave speeches titled “Look How Far We Slaves Have Come!” The use of Matanzas as a site of public political memory began in 1843, and the memory of slavery soon became a surrogate for Cuba’s flawed liberation movement. One-hundred and fifty years after the execution of Carlota, one of the enslaved leaders of the Triumvirato Rebellion in Matanzas, Cuba began Operation Black Carlota in Angola. Castro had come to power 20 years earlier and publicized his own storming of a former slave – and by then prison and Army – barracks at Moncada in Santiago. The naming of the mission, and the subsequent emphasis on slaves overcoming their neocolonial “masters,” illustrates the vividness of Cuban memories of slavery, as well as its emotional resonance as a rallying point. This paper summarizes this general memory of slavery and asks how Castro and his comrades used it to legitimize their African sojourns to their fellow Cubans and to international leaders. It examines how military victories such as that at Cuito Cuanavale served to some as a vindication of these earlier rebellions, resulting in the victory that Carlota and her comrades did not attain. Using speeches, memoirs, pamphlets, and existing literature on Cuba and Africa, it outlines how the memory of slavery deeply impacted both Cuba’s revolution and its subsequent foreign policy

Reflections on Experiences Abroad

Reflections on Experiences Abroad is a collection of essays written by Ouachita Baptist University faculty and staff who have lived outside of the United States. Students in Professor Margaret Reed\u27s Fall 2022 ENGL 3383 Editing class copyedited and helped prepare this volume. It is a one-time publication that gave Reed\u27s students an opportunity to demonstrate their editing skills at the end of the course. The student editors were Darby Jones, Sydney Motl, and Addie Woods

Medicine on the Rand: The Biko Doctors and South Africa\u27s Sharp Dissection

The Johannesburg-based Rand Daily Mail’s September 15, 1977, edition contains a striking amalgamation of headlines on page 2: “Kruger Lays Down His Own Condition,” outlining South African Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger’s attempt to convince anti-apartheid activists that white South Africans deserved most credit for the country’s economic and political development; “SA Faces UN Fury” and “Why UK Is Reluctant on Sanctions,” juxtaposing two divergent international opinions toward redressing the country’s infamous racial policies; “World Shocked at Biko Death;” and “Ex-Policeman Gets Twin Heart,” sharing the story of the world’s seventeenth heart-transplant recipient. While these may, at first glance, seem a tad disjointed, they reveal the beginnings of a larger thematic story—that of a national medical profession grappling with a new spotlight and its own responsibilities within an oppressive state system

Bureaucrats of Liberation: Southern Africa and American Lawyers and Clients During the Apartheid Era

Bureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Right under law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Between 1963 and 1994, the Southern Africa Project connected lawyers from Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Within the Project’s network, activist lawyers exchanged funding resources, provided logistical support for political trials, and mediated new voting and governmental systems. The Project’s history provides a lens into twentieth century geopolitics tied to anti-apartheid, decolonization, Cold War, and movements agitating against white supremacy. In doing so, it pays careful attention to the Project’s different eras, beginning with US Executive Branch officials helming the effort and evolving into a space where more activist-oriented attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic drove its mission and politics.https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/mono/1068/thumbnail.jp

Bureaucrats of Liberation : Southern African and American Lawyers and Clients During the Apartheid Era

Bureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Between 1963 and 1994, the Southern Africa Project connected lawyers from Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Within the Project’s network, activist lawyers exchanged funding resources, provided logistical support for political trials, and mediated new voting and governmental systems.9789400603783 (pdf); 9789400603790 (epub)Wetensch. publicati

Bureaucrats of Liberation : Southern African and American Lawyers and Clients During the Apartheid Era

Bureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Between 1963 and 1994, the Southern Africa Project connected lawyers from Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Within the Project’s network, activist lawyers exchanged funding resources, provided logistical support for political trials, and mediated new voting and governmental systems