What Black America Means to Europe
The New York Review of Books
Hugh Masekela - trumpeter and singer-songwriter was a pioneer of jazz in South Africa and a campaigner against apartheid in exile. The "Father of South African jazz," Masekela died in Johannesburg Tuesday. Masekela was one of those rare artists who succeeded in fusing politics with music, making his songs and performances compelling and timeless.
One of the reasons why we need to recall Luthuli's life in this time of shameful and shameless greed is that he consciously emphasised what he called the "gospel of service". Even if the ANC chooses to neglect the memory and legacies of Luthuli we, the citizens of South Africa need to draw on these. Luthuli was the first non-racial leader in South Africa, the first African to have a following amongst whites.
South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela, died Tuesday, aged 87. Affectionately known as “Uncle Kathy,” the liberation struggle stalwart spent 26-years in prison under the apartheid government and went on to be an open critic of President Jacob Zuma. He was one of the most senior African National Congress (ANC) leaders to criticize Zuma as allegations of government corruption mounted.
Reader Comments: Anita Hill-What We Can Still Learn From Sexual Harassment; Readers on The Left Deserves Better Than Jill Stein; Racism and Fight Against Public Lands; Secret Struggle Against Apartheid; Spain's Turmoil and Europe's Crisis; CCR Takes John Ashcroft to Supreme Court;
Announcements: Ethel Rosenberg's sons on 60 Minutes - Sunday; Chicago forum-Contemporary Capitalism and Why We Need Marxism; New York - three different book talks; exhibit - U.S. Radical Left
They undertook secret missions against South Africa's apartheid regime. Sensational story hidden for over 40 years. In the 1960s, a group of leftists risked everything to revive the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. These international activists who embraced a working-class radicalism that was internationalist, cosmopolitan, anti-imperialist, and anticapitalist - and most important, steadfastly opposed to legalized racial oppression in South Africa.
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