Mark Israel. South African Political Exile in the . New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. x + 281 pp. $79.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-312-22025-9.

Reviewed by Barry Feinberg

Published on H-SAfrica (November, 2005)

There has been no lack of literature docu‐ our understanding of an important component of menting and probing the struggle against the struggle against : "British people," apartheid in . Indeed, where short‐ the author suggests, "probably know more about falls did exist in areas and issues that commercial South Africa than any other part of the conti‐ publishers may have decided lacked academic or nent.Yet, little is known of those South Africans literary merit, they were made good by the parti‐ who sustained the anti-apartheid struggle san eforts of the liberation movements and their throughout those years in exile" (p. 235). supporters. Much of that publicizing and exposi‐ Since the defeat of apartheid there has been tory work was done by South African exiles in steadily diminishing interest in and recognition of London, which the author describes as "a major the importance of the liberation struggle, which fnancial, diplomatic and intellectual centre for has been of increasing concern to all involved the African National Congress and its anti- with national reconstruction. While politically apartheid allies" (p. 5), as well as the place "to motivated amnesia constraining especially the seek support from foreign governments, link up privileged generations who lived under apartheid with other liberation movements, and establish a had been expected, a more serious problem has centre for communications" (p.169). But the spe‐ developed with the post-apartheid youth who, cial circumstances and processes underpinning while welcoming democracy and the increased the activism of exiles which, for so many years, opportunities it provides are, for the most part, had been critical in raising awareness interna‐ frighteningly ignorant of recent national history. tionally about apartheid and the resistance to it, This in a context where knowledge and under‐ remained opaque, until now, with the notable ex‐ standing of the social and individual traumas ception of Hilda Bernstein's The Rift, a collection wrought by colonialism and apartheid is indis‐ of interviews with South African exiles which ac‐ pensable to the building of an equitable and just cording to Mark Israel provided "a broad if gener‐ South Africa. ally uncritical account of individual experience" Born and raised in London as the son of two (p. 159).[1] well-known South African exiles and currently This book, focusing on the United Kingdom lecturing and writing on issues of migration and experience and produced principally for universi‐ exile, criminology and racism, Mark Israel has ty readers, sets out to reveal and explore the been strategically well placed to investigate and South African exile phenomena for the frst time, analyze the lives of the older generation of exiled and in the process makes a major contribution to South Africans who left the country during the H-Net Reviews frst twenty years of the apartheid regime. A mi‐ prospect of returning to South Africa grew with nority of those escapees from repression, who ar‐ the unbanning of the liberation movements. rived in the United Kingdom prior to the South For this reviewer one of the most interesting African Act of 1961, were entitled to claim dual chapters, titled "The Opposition in Exile," details citizenship and, in later years, those who came at the eforts of the exile communities to win the the height of the South African regime's intensify‐ support of the British people for the overthrow of ing onslaught on activists, were granted asylum apartheid. Organizations like the British Anti- largely as a result of a politically astute and ener‐ Apartheid Movement and the International De‐ getic anti-apartheid lobby. fence and Aid Fund were outstanding expressions Through interviews with a wide range of ex‐ of the solidarity that was achieved. It was, after iles and their children the author uncovers the all, the solidarity organizations worldwide who daily problems of, on the one hand, establishing successfully challenged the complicity of their life in the United Kingdom: "people who came out own governments in helping to keep apartheid of South Africa at diferent times felt obviously alive. The exiles, led by O. R. Tambo, were also in‐ very alien in this country and depended on each strumental in securing state-backed support from other for some of them it was a wall of protection friendly governments in Africa and abroad in‐ which then became a wall of enclosure" (p. 127). cluding the major donors in Scandinavia, the On the other hand, the author also presents the USSR, and the German Democratic Republic. A be‐ difculties and dangers encountered in sustaining ginning has been made to document that help.[2] over decades commitment to the struggle: "The When taken together with this book a clearer per‐ liberation movements needed to be able to assert spective will be imparted on Tambo's characteri‐ their legitimacy and mobilize support internation‐ zation of international support for South African ally against the South African government, in the liberation as the "fourth pillar of the struggle."[3] face of symbolic and physical violence deployed Notes against them by Pretoria" (p. 237). It was the hope [1]. Hilda Bernstein, The Rift: The Exile Expe‐ of many exiles that they would eventually return rience of South Africans (London: J. Cape, 1994). to rebuild South Africa as a democratic society. In‐ deed the condition of membership of, for exam‐ [2]. V. Shubin, ANC: A View from Moscow (Bel‐ ple, the South African Communist Party was an lville: Mayibuye Books, University of the Western undertaking to return as and when needed. Cape, 1999); the three-volume Nordic Africa Insti‐ tute series "National Liberation in Southern In addition to the interviews, Israel provides, Africa: The Role of the Nordic Countries," pub‐ among other fascinating contextual material, lished as Tor Sellstrom, Sweden and National Lib‐ chapters on the history of South African migra‐ eration in Southern Africa; Tore Linne Eriksen, tion to the United Kingdom with useful pie charts ed., Norway and National Liberation in Southern indicating the ebb and fow of migration since Africa; and Christopher Munthe Mogenstierne, 1924; an analysis of the role of the apartheid se‐ Denmark and National Liberation in Southern cret service in its eforts to intimidate and even Africa: A Flexible Response (Uppsala: Nordic eliminate exiles--sometimes with the tacit support Africa Institute's 1999); and H. G. and I. Schleich‐ of British intelligence; and, fnally, an interesting er, Special Flights: The GDR and Liberation Move‐ account of "The End of Exile" detailing, again ments in Southern Africa (Harare: Sapes Books, through the frst-hand experience of exiles, the 1998). dilemma faced by many of them when the

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[3]. The three other pillars are the under‐ ground struggle, the legal struggle, and the armed struggle.

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Citation: Barry Feinberg. Review of Israel, Mark. South African Political Exile in the United Kingdom. H- SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. November, 2005.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10951

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