Free Mandela

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 in 2012.       

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

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 in 2012. 

In this clip Brian Filling describes how Nelson Mandela visited Glasgow in 1993 to meet representatives from the nine British cities who had given him the freedom of their cities.

Christabel Gurney was active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1969 to 1994. She edited the AAM’s monthly newspaper Anti-Apartheid News in the 1970s and was later secretary of Notting Hill Anti-Apartheid Group. More recently she has researched and written about the history of the AAM. 

In this clip she describes the atmosphere at the event in South Africa House held to celebrate the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as President in May 1994.

This is the transcript of a witness seminar held at St Antony’s College, Oxford in 1999. Participants included Rivonia trialists Ahmed Kathrada and Rusty Bernstein, Mandela’s biographer Anthony Sampson, the producer of the 1988 Nelson Mandela tribute concert Tony Hollingsworth, former Executive Secretaries  of the Anti-Apartheid Movement Mike Terry and Ethel de Keyser, and the AAM’s Deputy Director Alan Brooks and Campaign Organiser Clive Nelson. The seminar was convened and chaired by Professor William Beinart.