Read more
This edited collection examines how Western European countries have responded and been influenced by the apartheid system in South Africa. The debate surrounding apartheid in South Africa underwent a shift in the second half of the 20 th century, with long held positive, racist European opinions of white South Africans slowly declining since decolonisation in the 1960s, and the increase in the importance of human rights in international politics. While previous studies have approached this question in the context of national histories, more or less detached from each other, this edited collection offers a broader insight into the transnational and entangled histories of Western European and South African societies. The contributors use exemplary case studies to trace the change of perception, covering a plurality of reactions in different societies and spheres: from the political and social, to the economic and cultural. At the same time, the collection emphasizes the interconnections of those reactions to what has been called the last 'overtly racist regime' (George Frederickson) of the twentieth century.
List of contents
1 Knud Andresen, Sebastian Justke, Detelf Siegfried: Introduction.- Part I: Moral and Economy.- 2 Knud Andresen: Between Goodwill and Sanctions. Swedish and German Corporations in South Africa and the Politics of Cofes of Conduct.- 3 Jakob Skovgaard: Perceptions of Petroleum. The British Anti-Apartheid Campaign against Shell.- 4 Benjamin Möckel: Shopping against Apartheid. Consumer Activism and the History of AA Enterprises (1986-1991).- Part II: Apartheid in Culture and Media.- 5 Tal Zamanovich: The Comic Representation of Apartheid on British Television in the late 1960s.- 6 Andrea Thorpe: "This Peculiar Fact of Living History". Invoking Apartheid in Black British Writing.- 7 Detlef Siegfried: Anti-Apartheid and the Politicisation of Pop Music. Controversies around the Mandela Concert 1988.- 8 Vincent Jung and Vincent Kuitenbrouwer: Dutch Dialogues with Afrikaners. The Netherlands and the Cultural Boycott against the Apartheid Regime in the 1980s.- Part III: Transnational Entanglements in Politics and Churches.- 10 Namara Burki: Conflicting Solidarities. The French Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa, circa 1960 - 1991.- 11 Andreas Kahrs: Re-centring the Apartheid Discource. Strategic Changes in South African Propaganda in West Germany.- 13 Sebastian Justke: Overcoming Apartheid through Partnership? 'Glocal' Relationships among Christiand in West Germany, South Africa and Nambia: 1970s - 1990s.
About the author
Knud Andresen is Senior Researcher at the Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg and Adjunct Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany.
Sebastian Justke is a historian and research assistant at the Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg, Germany.
Detlef Siegfried is Professor of Modern German and European History at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Report
"Andresen et al. are to be commended for publishing a fine study contributing to a deepening literature on the West's reception of apartheid." (Paul S. Landau, Connections, December 11, 2021)
