Apartheid was an ideology introduced in 1948 by the Afrikaner National Party. It called for the separate development of the different racial groups in South Africa. Apartheid forced different racial groups to live separately and tried to stop all inter-marriage and social integration between racial groups. South Africans were classified by race (Bantu, Coloured, White and Asian). Cities and towns were divided into segregated residential and business areas, determining the areas in which people of different races and nationalities could reside and own property. Black South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they met with poverty and destitution.
The resistance movement was led by organisations such as the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918 to 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid leader. He served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid. He was imprisoned in 1962 and, following the Rivonia Trial, Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment. He was not released until 11 Feb 1990.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) is a British organisation founded in 1960. It began as the Boycott Movement, set up in 1959 to persuade shoppers to boycott apartheid goods. In 1981 Sheffield became the first local authority to pledge that it would end all links with apartheid. In the 1980s, Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) was set up to coordinate local authority action. By 1985 more than 120 local councils had taken some form of anti-apartheid initiative. Cllr Mike Pye of Sheffield helped set up LAAA and chaired its National Steering Committee from 1984 to 1994.
In 1991, the government of President FW de Klerk began to repeal most of the legislation that provided the basis for apartheid. President de Klerk and activist Nelson Mandela later won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work creating a new constitution for South Africa. In 1993 Sheffield City Council conferred Honorary Freedom of the City of Sheffield upon Nelson Mandela.
This guide lists sources available within Sheffield Libraries Archives and Information for the study of Sheffield and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.