The Commonwealth,Apartheid, and the Role of Micro-states

In the 1980s, the debate surrounding South Africa apartheid consumed the Commonwealth. While superficially this discussion might appear to have had little relevance to the interests of micro and small state members of the Commonwealth, the behemothic nature of apartheid presented significant challenges to such states. This article attempts to assess the varied ways in which South African apartheid affected the diplomatic strategies of micro-states within the political landscape of the Commonwealth, and how it could be perceived as both a hindrance to their agendas, as well a potential tool in the fight to amplify their voices. Micro-states used the egalitarian structure of the Commonwealth and combined it with the prominence of apartheid in international debate to both elevate their status and even to garner support for their own personal concerns. Apartheid’s reframing of the international conversation had broad reverberations which affected Commonwealth responses to a variety of seemingly disparate issues. This culminated in the ejection of Fiji from the Commonwealth in the aftermath of the 1987 coup due to concerns over racial discrimination, emblematising the all-pervasive nature of the apartheid debate within the Commonwealth.     

South Africa

A look at the historical development of the Commonwealth and the effect the Zimbabwe issue, most recently, but also the issue of South Africa under apartheid, had on it.     

Choosing a Secretary-General—How do the Commonwealth and the United Nations Compare?

Comparing the procedures for the choice of Secretary-General in the United Nations and in the Commonwealth, this article notes that recent years have seen changes which are significant, albeit to varying degrees. The author is of the view that the Commonwealth needs to draw up some rules for choosing its future Secretary-General, and that pressure for this should probably come from civil society.     

International Norms and the End of Apartheid in South Africa

This article examines the interface in the post-World War II era between expanding global movements supporting human rights and traditional great power concerns regarding global security, and asks why an international alliance of actors mobilized to pressure the Western powers, particularly the USA, to politically isolate and economically sanction South Africa in the midst of the cold war. We argue that in the international struggle against apartheid, humanist (human rights) ideology emanating from social movements in global civil society clashed with traditional realist ideology regarding what constituted state security in the global polity. The norms of self-determination of nations and anti-racism together fueled global activism and challenged powerful Western states. Facing mass protests and lobbying efforts from citizens, democratic states across the Western world found greater security in upholding their own professed human rights principles than in maintaining close economic ties to the apartheid regime.     

The Commonwealth is Getting its Second Wind

This article looks forward to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, April 2018, in light of reflection on the nature of the Commonwealth (‘club, church or beehive?’) and its legacy. Special attention is paid to the significant anniversaries of 2015—Magna Carta, United Nations, end of the Second World War, London Declaration and 50 years of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The author also considers the agendas for CHOGM and the implications for the Commonwealth of Britain’s exit from the European Union (Brexit).     

Arts,apartheid struggles,and cultural movements

ABSTRACT

This study i) briefly sketches some anti-apartheid arts initiatives of the 1980s; ii) examines the anti-apartheid academic common sense that assumed that “real struggle” could occur only within the labor movement; while iii) both are discussed in relation to early Afrikaner conservative cultural theory. The role of social theory within these sites of resistance is discussed. The article offers a lived methodology by including evocative observations from some social actors who participated in, and contributed to anti-apartheid art, drama and writing. The objective is to draw out debates on struggle rather than to offer a discussion of arts initiatives themselves. These are examined in terms of Albie Sachs’ pleas for discussion beyond the weaponization of art, one that restores the humanity robbed by apartheid.     

An ‘All of Commonwealth’ Journey: From Marlborough House to Malakal

In this article, the author, who played an instrumental role in the post-apartheid development of South Africa, argues that there is a clear need for some ‘All of Commonwealth’ initiatives for the reconstruction of South Sudan. In particular, he advocates the creation of an Eminent Persons Group along the lines of its 1985 South African predecessor, and notes that the strategy suggested may lead to Canadian re-engagement with the Commonwealth.     

Myths of Commonwealth Betrayal: UK–Africa Trade Before and After Brexit

Abstract

This article critically interrogates claims that a British exit from the European Union (EU) (Brexit) will create opportunities for the UK to escape the EU’s apparent protectionism and cumbersome internal politics in order to pursue a more liberal and globalist trade agenda based on the Commonwealth. Taking a historical view of UK and EU trade relations with the Commonwealth in Africa, the author highlights the way in which the incorporation of the majority of Commonwealth states into the EU’s preferential trading relationships has reconfigured ties between the UK and its former colonies over time. Further, the author suggests that the EU’s recent attempts to realise a vision for an ambitious set of free trade agreements in Africa—the Economic Partnership Agreements—was disrupted not by EU protectionism or internal politics but rather by African resistance to the EU’s liberal agenda for reciprocal tariff liberalisation and regulatory harmonisation. The UK therefore faces a complex challenge if it is to disentangle its trade relations with Africa from those of the EU and to forge its own set of ambitious free trade agreements with African Commonwealth partners.     

A New Scenario for British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies?

This article looks at territories that form part of the ‘Commonwealth Family’ but which do not enjoy legal sovereignty as nation-states and cannot therefore qualify for full membership of the Commonwealth. A particular focus of this article is Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories, both of which retain a constitutional link with the UK, but most of them are largely self-governing, each with its own constitution and its own government. The author examines the arguments for and against providing for these territories with ‘observer’ or ‘associate member’ status, which would grant them greater access to the official institutions and forums of the Commonwealth.     

Voices of the Commonwealth: An Oral History of the Modern Commonwealth 1965–2012

This article describes a major exercise undertaken by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, to put together an oral history of the modern Commonwealth. The project was set in the context of a wider research agenda aimed at investigating whether the Commonwealth has made any difference globally in policy terms. As part of the exercise, the author, who was the lead researcher on the project, interviewed senior figures within the Commonwealth who played key roles in shaping the destiny of the organization and in influencing policy. The article is a personal account of the exercise.     

Searching for the Sugar-coated Man

Proclamations of the excellence of the film Searching for Sugarman, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, ignore its contrived narrative. The film violently yokes the singer’s South African popularity to the struggle against apartheid. This article argues that the film capitalizes on white South African nostalgia and that the tours subsequent to the film’s release have offered occasions for the performance or endorsement of this problematic phenomenon. Through describing the suburban approbation of Rodriguez’s music in the 1980 and 1990s and the homogeneity of his audiences, then and now, I suggest that the salvaging of his career and reputation needs to be approached, not ecstatically, but in ways that are cautious and qualified.     

A woman patriot and fighter for Italy's unity and freedom: Antonietta De Pace in Southern Italy

SUMMARY

In the context of the history of Italy's Risorgimento and unification, Maria Sofia Corciulo recounts the adventurous life, the clandestine struggle, and the political significance of Antonietta De Pace (1818–1894), the leading figure among several women patriots in the kingdom of Naples during the period of pre-parliamentary republican struggle. Her trial after capture in 1855 caused an international sensation, and in 1860 she entered Naples with Garibaldi's triumphal army. She devoted her entire life to Italian unification, and her later years to improving the social, economic and cultural position of women. Her career suggests that, in the exceptional circumstances of independent women like her and the political turbulence of the age, nineteenth-century Italian society was prepared to allow a greater degree of equality to women than before.     

Put Down Your Knitting: Unpicking Social Welfare Professionalisation in 1970s Australia

This article compares evidence given to the 1970s Commonwealth Commission of Enquiry into Poverty by a social worker from Armidale with that of a group of foster carers in Adelaide. It does so to illuminate the power struggle underway between volunteers, professionals and experts at a key moment in Australia’s social welfare history. The testimonies provide two very different perspectives on the challenges of social welfare professionalisation. Analysing them allows a deeper exploration of those challenges, which, to date, have been under-explored, while bringing a greater understanding of the factors that shaped the creation of enquiry submissions.     

The Voice of (Which?) Africa: Miriam Makeba in America

Throughout her time as a concert singer in 1960s America Miriam Makeba was promoted as the embodied voice of a sonic, imagined Africa. Where her white audiences were attracted to the complete ‘‘otherness’’ of her African blackness, her black American audiences saw themselves – or imagined versions of themselves – put on stage, and built solidarities between their own struggle and the struggle against apartheid. In this essay, I argue that the discourses that followed Makeba’s voice and body reflected the evolving attitudes of America towards Africa, and, through Africa, its contradictory relationship to its own African American citizens. Makeba played on these discourses to craft a political and musical identity in solidarity with black and diasporic causes. This identity, embodied in the persona of ‘‘Mama Africa,’’ allowed Makeba the flexibility to speak to and for her fellow (South) Africans with cultural authority. By joining the oft-opposed positions of ‘‘Africa’’ and ‘‘The World,’’ Makeba became what I’m calling an African Cosmopolitan.     

Out of Malta,Beginning Anew

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Malta witnessed high drama in the election of Patricia Scotland as the organisation’s new Secretary-General. This article notes, among other things, that it once again demonstrated the myth that the Secretary-General is chosen on the basis of consensus. In the view of the author, although the conference discussed a number of issues of substance and importance, there is an urgent need to give the Secretariat new collective purpose and vision. Malta, argues the article, provided an important point of departure, and the next CHOGM, to be held in Britain in 2018, offers Commonwealth organisations and civil society an opportunity to make their own unique and enhanced contributions.     

“To Make It Brilliantly Apparent to the People of Australia”: The Pilbara Cooperative Movement and the Campaign for Aboriginal Civil Rights in the 1950s

During the 1950s an Aboriginal mining cooperative in Western Australia's Pilbara attracted widespread interest as a model for addressing Aboriginal disadvantage throughout Australia. Individuals and organisations involved in the struggle for equal rights for Aboriginal people learned what they could of the ideology, operation and history of the cooperative, chiefly through the writing and speeches of its non-Aboriginal leader and spokesman, Don McLeod. They saw in the Pilbara cooperative a model of Aboriginal-directed change which contrasted markedly with the tutelary monocultural approach of individual “advancement” which characterised state and Commonwealth government assimilation policy at the time. The intense interest shown in the cooperative by the Victorian Council for Aboriginal Rights, in particular, provides evidence that throughout the 1950s campaigners sought alternative solutions to Aboriginal disadvantage to those proposed under assimilation policy.     

CIVIC MOVEMENT AND NON-VIOLENT ACTION: THE CASE OF THE CAPE AREAS HOUSING ACTION COMMITTEE

The inner life and organizational style of the civic momentin South Africa during the turbulent years of apartheid hasreceived little attention. This article examines a civic bodycalled the Cape Areas Housing Action committee (Cahac). It demonstratesthat Cahac functioned as a centralized organization, althoughits constitution envisaged it operating as an umbrella body.This was because its affiliated structures were either dormant,weak or non-existent. Cahac's structures and decision-makingprocesses, including the control of finances were dominatedby a small group of individuals who composed its leadership.In that way democratic control of the organization from belowwas sacrificed, if not totally undermined. The effectivenessor otherwise of methods of struggle employed by Cahac are alsoanalysed. Finally, on a broader conceptual point, it is arguedthat the strength of social movements depend on their abilityto maintain a niche for themselves which makes the inherentlyreform oriented formations.     

‘Very Brave or Very Foolish’? ‘Gallant Little’ Botswana’s Defiance of ‘Apartheid’s Golden Age’, 1966–1980

The period from 1966 to 1979 is claimed to have been ‘apartheid’s golden age’ when the anti-apartheid forces were alleged to have largely acquiesced in the well-resourced South African government. However, this paper observes that Botswana, a country of about one million people and almost entirely surrounded by extremely hostile white minority regimes, demonstrated a spirit of defiance to apartheid’s golden age. Botswana defied military intimidation and reprisals from South Africa (an African giant) and its ally Rhodesia by continuing to host large numbers of refugees despite Botswana’s severe budgetary constraints. Botswana did this even though it was landlocked and overwhelmingly dependent on South Africa for economic survival. Botswana felt that it was a moral obligation to make sacrifices for the benefit of the oppressed black people of South Africa. This article attempts to demonstrate that despite being defenceless and dependent on South Africa for economic survival, Botswana did not yield in its principled stand against apartheid, a stand which won international acclaim during the period from 1966 to 1980 – apartheid’s golden age. It concludes that in its own small way Botswana demonstrated that apartheid was not entirely invincible.     

The United Nations in Katanga

The following address by the Conservative Member of Parliamentfor Mid-Bedfordshire was given at a joint meeting of the RoyalAfrican Society and the Royal Commonwealth Society on March1, 1962. Major Lewis Hastings, M.C., author and broadcaster,took the chair.     

Remembering A Year of Anniversaries, 2015

2015 was a year of significant anniversaries and commemorations related to the Commonwealth, Magna Carta, World War II and the United Nations. In this article the author reflects on these events, on his personal participation and on the media coverage of the events.