Apartheid archive

Happy Birthday Oom Paul

Liberal Party members, from left: Jimmy Corrigall, Philippa Dale, Elliot Mngadi, James Wyllie and Selby Msimang, at Roosboom near Ladysmith, around February 1969. Msimang was also a founder member of the ANC and the ICU. Source: A Political Biography of Selby Msimang

South Africa officially replaces the old British-style pound, shilling, and pence system with the Rand and cent, February 1961. Credit: British Pathe

Johannesburg achieved city status on 5th September 1928 at the redesignated City Hall. The photo below shows a large crowd, of a couple of thousand, gathering in front of the City Hall. The proclamation was read out by the Administrator of the Transvaal, the Honourable J H Hofmeyr (who had been the first Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand between 1922 and 1924 and had lived with his mother in a small house in Yeoville). Hofmeyr by 1928 lived in Pretoria but retained his membership of the Rand Club. Source: The Heritage Portal/When Johannesburg became a City by Kathy Munro.

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1950s. Credit: British Pathe.

*Wits has always been a leftist shithole.

The story of the 'New Nation' weekly newspaper, September 1988. 📹South Africa Now/Globalvision.

Holdup in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, November 1963. Credit: David Goldblatt

South Africa, 1970s. Credit: AP

Rhodesians Never Die

They made us all stand up to be executed. Among the prepared ones were young and old Boers, who stood proudly in front of the raised rifles. I stood out from everyone else due to my extraordinary height and appearance.
I stood motionless. In my hand, I still held my mother's picture – I wanted to look at it once more before death.
An officer stared at me from a distance, then came closer, looked me over, and noticed the picture in my hand. He took it from me. He was surprised by my mothers clothes. My mother was wearing a traditional Georgian dress.
– Who is this woman dressed so strangely? – he asked me.
– It's my mother! – I answered in French.
– Your mother? Who are you?
– Georgian! My name is Bagrationi!
Upon hearing this, the officer immediately stepped back, then ordered me to be taken out of the line and hurried off somewhere. They took me to the general. He asked me – who is general Peter Bagrationi to you, the one who fought against napoleon. I answered – he is my relative. British general was fan of peter bagrationi.
Soon, I was removed from the area.
At the end of the war, Niko Buri, as a prisoner of war, was transferred to Saint Helena Island, where, after 7 months of captivity, he was released on the condition that he would never return to South Africa.

"General Cronje could no longer withstand the torture of so many people. He was forced to surrender to the enemy. We laid down our weapons. The English continued their offensive, while the Boers began to retreat on all fronts. So, here I am, already a prisoner. Part of the prisoners were sent to Saint Helena Island. Others were sentenced to be executed without trial. I was among them.
What troubled me the most was that after two years of fighting for justice and defending the republic of a heroic people, was to be executed like a criminal by the enemy. It became night. Countless stars shining on the clear sky. I remembered Georgia, my home, my elderly mother... my relatives... my friends.
Once, Villebois told me that they write a lot about you in French and often in American newspapers as well, so perhaps now they'll publish the news of my execution. If this story is also printed in Russian newspapers and, through their help, my mother finds out about the tragic end of my life, it will be a true nightmare for the old woman. The memory of my mother made me sad. I took out the picture of her from my pocket, which I always carried with me, and, under the moonlight, I gazed at it. I remembered my beloved homeland which was far away.
The dawn broke.

My entire being was filled with sympathy for the Boers, and without hesitation, I firmly decided I would help the freedom-loving small people whom England was threatening to destroy. The situation of the Boers somehow reminded me of my homeland, and I believed that if I fought against the enemy of the Boers, it would mean that I was also avenging my country's enemies.
Upon arriving in South Africa from Egypt, Niko met the President of the Transvaal, Paul Kruger, who received the descendant of the Bagrationi family, the Georgian prince, with great honor and enlisted him in the Transvaal army. The Boers used this fact for PR purposes and published it in newspapers to show the world that a prince was fighting in their support. The Anglo-Boer War, despite the immense numerical superiority of the English (the half-million British army fought against up to 80,000 Boers), lasted for three years due to the steadfast resistance of the freedom-loving Boers.
The English treated Boer prisoners of war brutally and showed no mercy to the civilian population, while the Boers treated English prisoners with dignity and quickly released them. One day Niko and his unit captured Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister of Great Britain. Towards the end of the war, the Boers switched to guerrilla tactics and inflicted significant losses on the English, but victory was not in their favor. During one of the battles, Niko Bagrationi, along with the Boer forces, was captured as a prisoner.

Niko Bagrationi (in the middle of the picture) aka "niko the Boer". A member of the Georgian royal family. He participated as a volunteer in the Second Anglo-Boer War. He wrote a book – With the Boers, which provides important information about the war.
In 1899, he traveled to Africa with a French friend to hunt lions. There, he heard about England's declaration of war on the Boers and decided to go to the war.
"The great and powerful England, proud of its civilization, declared war on the small people living in South Africa – the Boers. The noise in the city (Alexandria, Egypt) was gradually growing louder. People were shouting, bumping into each other, and rushing somewhere. The newspaper-selling kids were shouting loudly and running. The unrest of the crowd also caught hold of me. I returned to the hotel. The hotel owner told me:
“– These English are despicable! They want to turn the freedom-loving Boers into slaves and make their country a colony”. I was reminded of my beloved Georgia!

Life in Orlando Township, 1946. Credit: Periscobe film.

(((Helen Joseph))) on the 1956 anti-pass campaign led by FEDSAW. (Frontline/Apartheid series

Soweto, Black Urban Township. Credit: AP Archives

"We are very proud to be associated with the Defiance Campaign. We make no secret of it. And we make no secret of the fact that during the Defiance Campaign we are breaking laws. We are breaking laws not because we don't like laws. We are breaking the laws because the laws are unjust and immoral." - UDF Leader Dullah Omar, 1989. Credit: History Uncut/Afravision

ANC communist jewish leadership at the funeral of President Samora Machel, October 1986. 📹: History Uncut/Afravision.

Communist and carpenter Phillip Mbhele says "We don't want passes" during an anti-pass meeting in Johannesburg, 1950. Credit: Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty