The Apartheid Regime

Talking Drums's coverage of the apartheid regime of South Africa
The two issues on which all African states agreed in the eighties were the resistance to the apartheid regime in South Africa and the demand for independence in Namibia. While some states opened up dialog, all were in favor of sanctions and many actively supported the liberation movements even with arms. There was a quite visceral reaction to the continued support of the regime by the US and UK (and Israel to some extent). Throughout those years, there was continued pressure for boycott, sanctions and denunciations of Pretoria - Reagan and Thatcher's legacy speak for themselves standing as they were on the wrong side of history.

There were the daily atrocities of apartheid in everyday life and then the lowlights, say the Langa massacre at Uitenhage in 1985. The National Pary would undertake cross border raids bombing of its neighbors ostensibly to harrass the African National Congress whose leaders were in jails. Cubans would commit troops to the fight in Angola and Mozambique. ArchBishop Desmond Tutu would receive the Nobel Prize piling on the pressure. Talking Drums would cover it all (even a bloodthirsty Mengistu of Ethiopia would denounce the South Africans when he assumed chairmanship of the OAU). Talking Drums would highlight the ironies and the twists and turns of the struggle. Read on...

Selections from Talking Drums's Coverage of South Africa

talking drums 1984-11-05 Desmond Tutu Nobel Peace Prize - who is a Ghanaian - Amnesty report on west africa
talking drums 1985-02-11 open letter to rawlings talking drums 1985-09-30 Ghana Now Inconsistencies and Realities - Miriam Makeba talking drums 1986-03-17 African musicians in London - Spiritual revivalism sweeps across west africa