Ealing Anti-Apartheid Group was established and managed by Amin and Susi Mawani in 1987 and run from their home in Hanwell until the end of Apartheid in 1991. Oral history interviews with Amin and Susi, as well as transcripts, are available online at the website of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, www.aamarchives.org.
Apartheid was a unique system of racial segregation and white supremacy in South Africa. For nearly three centuries Africans were dispossessed and exploited by Dutch and British colonists. In 1948 apartheid ('apartness') became official policy. The National Party, elected by an all-white electorate, extended and formalised separation and discrimination into a rigid legal system. www.aamarchives.org
Local groups like this in Ealing gave the Anti-Apatheid movement a presence all over Britain. Some groups had hundreds of members and links to trade unions, churches and community organisations. Others were kept going by a few dedicated activists. These groups campaigned to end British links with South Africa within their local communities. They asked shoppers to boycott South African goods and pressed local branches of supermarket chains like Tesco and Sainsbury's to stop selling them. They handed out leaflets outside Barclays Bank and Shell petrol stations explaining how the companies supported apartheid.
This collection includes:
Meeting agendas and minutes
Accounts showing breakdown of income and expenditure, 1986-1991
Incoming and outgoing correspondence
Newsletters sent to Members and Friends
Pamphlets, programmes and photographs of peaceful protest, pickets and fundraising events, including for an Anti-Apartheid Festival held in Southall Park in June 1988, featuring performances from Jonas Gwangwa, Premi, Abacush, Taxi Pata Pata and compered by Benjamin Zephaniah. This festival was organised by the Group with the support of Ealing Council and the programme includes messages of support from the Mayor of Ealing, Councillor EF Dunckley and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Len Turner
Newscuttings
Please note meeting attendance sign-in sheets have been extracted and closed under the General Data Protection Act