Haringey Against Apartheid

Haringey Against Apartheid – A Brief History

The Anti-Apartheid Movement was Britain’s biggest-ever mass movement to campaign about an issue in another country. It called for an end to the Apartheid regime in South Africa and for the release of Nelson Mandela, jailed in 1964.

Leaders of the exiled African National Congress (ANC) came to London to look for support and many found refuge and a home in Haringey, including Oliver Tambo, then Deputy President of the ANC. Nelson Mandela first visited Haringey in 1962 for secret meetings with Oliver Tambo and other leaders of the ANC. They were known as the external mission of the ANC and had made Haringey their home.

Membership of the Haringey Anti-Apartheid Movement was the largest in the country. Its HQ was in Endymion Road in Finsbury Park, N4. Grass-roots campaigning by local groups such as the Broadwater Farm Youth Group and the Woodcraft Folk, with its radical origins, reinforced their work.

When Mandela finally walked free from his prison cell in 1990 he had been behind bars for 27 years. Bernie Grant MP, who had served on the executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, travelled to South Africa with his good friend Jesse Jackson to witness the event.

Bruce Castle Museum and Archive holds a significant collection of material including photos, badges, pamphlets and ephemera produced by and relating to Anti-Apartheid activism in Haringey, which you can view for free by booking a visit to their archive and search room.

Other great resources include Haringey Council’s Black History 365 timeline and Anybody Everybody Tottenham’s podcast episode with History PhD student Nico Blackstock, which focuses on his research into Haringey Against Apartheid, and why it is important to him and his family in Tottenham.

Free Nelson Mandela! Tottenham High Road and the Anti-Apartheid Movement

Meetings

Number 628 High Road, the home of Tottenham Community Project, played host to Anti-Apartheid meetings, often advertised by the popular rallying cry ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. It was when he heard this chant echo at the first Nelson Mandela birthday concert "African Sounds” at Alexandra Palace in July 1983 that Jerry Dammers was inspired to write the song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. The song became emblematic of the freedom struggle and although the record was banned in South Africa, the black population knew the world was on their side.

Protests

Protests against South African Apartheid were regularly held all over Haringey, including Tottenham High Road. Two focal points for protest on the High Road were Tesco’s supermarket (near Seven Sisters station) and the Shell garage (South Tottenham).

In 1987, Mayor of Haringey Councillor Andreas Mikkides presented Tesco’s supermarket with a petition urging them to remove South African goods from their shelves. Bernie Grant as MP for Tottenham also attended the picket.

Picketers also demonstrated at the Shell station in South Tottenham to raise awareness of the company's links to South Africa and encourage a boycott. Such demonstrations were pivotal in accelerating the Anti-Apartheid movement and it was under the leadership of MP for Tottenham Bernie Grant that Haringey Council issued its own declaration against buying South African-made goods.