Department
History
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2-2020
Abstract
In 1986, a “panel of ordinary South Africans” addressed members of the US Congress. Their visit did not command as much attention as would the visit of (future president) Nelson Mandela in 1990 or as did (former prime minister) Jan Smuts in 1930. Yet, for an increasing number of Americans watching closely, it represented a momentous public rebuttal to apartheid. The visit responded to ongoing celebrity protests and built public support for sanctions. While many Americans instigating “designer arrests” believed that they spoke for South Africans, in 1986, physicians, activists, and children who had faced detention spoke for themselves on foreign soil, becoming embroiled in attendant tension and harassment on their way home. An examination of the records of the Southern Africa Project and the US Congress reveals that, while the embassy protests were catalytic, this panel of “ordinary South Africans” on the Hill—and, subsequently, on national and international television—provided public faces for anti-apartheid movements in ways that celebrities certainly could not. As such, it is necessary to examine the factors leading to the panel, its impact on US anti-apartheid politics, and places of connection with youth activism and celebrity protest generally.
Publication Title
Critical Arts
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2020 Taylor and Francis
DOI
10.1080/02560046.2019.1680719
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Myra Ann Houser, “'We Are Worried Mothers:' A Panel of 'Ordinary South Africans' on US Capitol Hill," Critical Arts, (2020) 34:1, 116-128, DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2019.1680719.
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Critical Arts, published by Taylor & Francis. it is available online at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560046.2019.1680719.