Struggle for a Free South Africa

This book explores anti-apartheid movements on university and college campuses across Africa and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the wake of the March 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, the country’s apartheid policies drew increasing critical international attention. By the 1970s, South Africa found itself isolated due to growing sporting, economic and cultural boycotts. Africans across the continent showed solidarity with Black South Africans through a range of boycotts and protests, by hosting South Africans exiled from their home country, and by vilifying the apartheid government at every turn. This volume looks at elite institutions as well as state colleges and universities in the United States, and the actions of university students in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa during the anti-apartheid movements in the 1970s and 1980s, revealing the local manifestations of a global struggle. The chapters showcase how vibrant campus anti-apartheid movements were, what universal problems emerged, and where unique concerns manifested at a wide range of institutions.

Taking innovative approaches and offering case studies, Struggle for a Free South Africa reveals the myriad ways the anti-apartheid struggle manifested in a range of academic environments and how those campaigns have been remembered and documented. This book was originally published as a special issue of Safundi.