South African potato boycott

Last updated

The potato boycott of 1959 was a consumer boycott in Bethal, South Africa during the Apartheid era against slave-like conditions of potato labourers in Bethal, Transvaal. The boycott started in June 1959 and ended in September 1959. Prominent figures of the movement included Gert Sibande, Ruth First, Michael Scott and Henry Nxumalo.

Contents

Events leading up to potato boycott

A participant of the potato boycott in Bethal reported that young boys were taken to potato farms after committing Pass Law offences. Their clothing was taken away, and they were given sacks to wear as clothing. They slept on concrete floors and used their hands to dig the potatoes due to a lack of resources. The boys were beaten with sjamboks by the foremen and many of those who died were buried on the fields without reporting the death to the relatives of the deceased. Community leaders then decided to boycott the potatoes from Bethal farms [1] In the 1940s, a prominent leader Gert Sibande played an important role in organising and revealing the conditions of labourers in Bethal. His findings after going undercover as a potato farmworker in Bethal were revealed in the New Age/The Guardian with assistance from journalist Ruth First and Michael Scott in 1947. In 1952, Drum magazines Henry Nxumalo also published an article reporting unsatisfactory working conditions on Bethal farms. Drum magazine journalists came into contact with a collection of documents and trial cases of beatings that occurred in the 1940s, this also included the case of a worker who had been beaten to death in 1944. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd dismissed these findings in Parliament and described it as 'a most unjust attack by unwarranted generalisations'. [2] [3]

Potato boycott

After the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the Congress of the People in 1955, the government prohibited most forms of political action and also banned many political leaders. The movement turned to boycotts as a method of resistance. [4] Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Congress of Trade Unions, South African Indian Congress (SAIC), South African Coloured Peoples Organisation/SACPO and the Congress of Democrats created a combined body called the Congress Alliance. The Congress Alliance aimed to initiate a boycott strategy in the struggle for equality in South Africa. Consumer boycotts were popular as there was less victimisation compared to other forms of resistance. Other boycotts included the 1957 Alexandra bus boycott, Beer Hall Boycott as well as 'Dipping tanks' which was initiated by women in Natal. On Friday, 26 June 1959 the South African Congress of Trade Unions, launched the national potato boycott in response to the unsatisfactory working conditions of labourers in Bethal in the Eastern Transvaal now known as Mpumalanga. Over 60, 000 people attended the launch of the boycott at Currie's Fountain in Durban. [5] The potato boycott of 1959 is regarded as one of the most successful boycotts supported by the ANC [6] Many people, black and white, started boycotting potatoes, a staple to many people's diets. [2] [1] Setswannung Molefe, an ANC supporter from Alexandra Township in Johannesburg believed that: 'The Boer who farmed with potatoes had the habit of knocking down his 'lazy' labourers with his tractor. He did not bury them, instead, he used them as compost in his potato farm. We convinced that what we heard was true, because even the potatoes themselves were shaped like human beings. They were not completely round. Then we had to boycott potatoes...we argued that eating potatoes was the same as eating human flesh.' [7] Due to the effects of the boycott, the government appointed a Commission of Inquiry into the labourers working conditions. Farmers on potato farms also started improving the conditions of the labourers on their farms. [5] In August 1959 a leaflets were released by the Congress Alliance titled: 'Potato Boycott lifted. A victory for the people. A warning for the farmer.'The boycott was finally called off in September 1959. It gave people confidence to participate in other protests. [8] In 1957, Congress Alliance initiated a mass boycott of nationalist controlled businesses. Products listed included Rembrandt cigarette products, Senator Coffee, Braganza tea, Glenryck canned fish, Neptune canned fish, Laaiplek Farm Feeds and Protea Canned Fish.

International response

The consumer boycotts in South Africa gained international attention from anti-apartheid groups in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who also started boycotting Rembrandt cigarette products. [2] A British boycott started in the 1950s. Chief Albert Luthuli and Duma Nokwe visited anti-apartheid supporters in London. Chief Luthuli responded to a request from the Boycott Movement for a clear statement endorsing the British boycott. The statement was co-signed by G M Naicker, the president of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), and Peter Brown of the Liberal Party. It stated: ‘Economic boycott is one way in which the world at large can bring home to the South African authorities that they must mend their ways or suffer for them … This appeal is therefore directed to the people of Great Britain to strike a blow for freedom and justice in South Africa.’ The statement and appeal became the founding statement of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. [9]

Participants

Organisations

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mpumalanga</span> Province in South Africa

Mpumalanga is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares borders with the South African provinces of Limpopo to the north, Gauteng to the west, the Free State to the southwest, and KwaZulu-Natal to the south. The capital is Mbombela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sobukwe</span> Founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress (1924–1978)

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth First</span> South African journalist, scholar and anti-apartheid activist (1925–1982)

Heloise Ruth First OLG was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police.

Bethal is a farming town in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The farms in the region produce maize, sunflower seeds, sorghum, rye and potatoes. The town lies 155 km (96 mi) east of Johannesburg on the N17 national route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Democratic Front (South Africa)</span> 1983–1991 anti-apartheid organisation

The United Democratic Front (UDF) was a South African popular front that existed from 1983 to 1991. The UDF comprised more than 400 public organizations including trade unions, students' unions, women's and parachurch organizations. The UDF's goal was to establish a "non-racial, united South Africa in which segregation is abolished and in which society is freed from institutional and systematic racism." Its slogan was "UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides." The Front was established in 1983 to oppose the introduction of the Tricameral Parliament by the white-dominated National Party government, and dissolved in 1991 during the early stages of the transition to democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Modise</span> South African politician (1929–2001)

Johannes "Joe" Modise was a South African political figure. He helped to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress, and was its longest serving Commander in Chief, deputised at different points in time by Joe Slovo and Chris Hani. Modise headed MK for a 25-year period, from 1965 to 1990. He served as South Africa's first black Minister of Defence from 1994 to 1999 and led the formation of the post-independence defence force.

The National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) was an important force for liberalism and later radicalism in South African student anti-apartheid politics. Its mottos included non-racialism and non-sexism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Nkobi</span>

Thomas Titus Nkobi was a senior leader of the South African African National Congress (ANC) and a key figure in the Anti-Apartheid movement. Until his death he was the Treasurer General of the ANC and also its Member of Parliament.

Zephania Lekoame Mothopeng was a South African political activist and member of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal resistance to apartheid</span> 1950–1994 social movement in South Africa

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid, which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.

The 1957 Alexandra bus boycott was a protest undertaken against the Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) by the people of Alexandra in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Richard "Gert" Sibande was a South African political activist. He was one of the ANC co-accused to stand trial in the treason trial of 1956-61 alongside Nelson Mandela and 154 others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress Alliance</span> Anti-apartheid political coalition in South Africa (1950s)

The Congress Alliance was an anti-apartheid political coalition formed in South Africa in the 1950s. Led by the African National Congress, the CA was multi-racial in makeup and committed to the principle of majority rule.

Florence Grace Mkhize was an anti-apartheid activist and women's movement leader. Mkhize was usually called 'Mam Flo'. Mkhize was also involved in trade unions in South Africa, organizing for the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). From her teenage years, determined to be part of the solution of the apartheid, she joined the African National Congress (ANC). By the age of 20, Mkhize was already a full fledged activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federation of South African Women</span> Political lobbing group

The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) was a political lobby group formed in 1954. At FEDSAW's inaugural conference, a Women's Charter was adopted. Its founding was spear-headed by Lillian Ngoyi.

Christina 'Chrissie' Jasson was a South African clerk and trade unionist from Port Elizabeth, who stood accused of treason at the Rivonia Trial.

Mary Thipe OLS (1917-1982) was a South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist who took part in the 1956 Women's March against apartheid pass laws, the South African potato boycott of 1959 and the Cato Manor Beer Hall boycott in the same year. Thipe was also the vice-chairperson of the Cato Manor branch of African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) during the 1950s.

Florence Matomela OLG (1910–1969) was a South African anti-pass law activist, communist, civil rights campaigner, ANC veteran, teacher and mother who dedicated her life to fighting against Apartheid laws in South Africa. Matomela was the provincial organiser of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) and vice-president of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in the mid 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Africa–Sweden relations</span> Bilateral relations

South Africa–Sweden relations refers to the bilateral relations between Sweden and South Africa. Formal relations between the two countries began with the opening of a South African legation in the 1930s with relations being upgraded to ambassadorial level in 1994 following South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections. In 2000 a South African - Swedish Binational Commission was established by President Thabo Mbeki and Prime Minister Göran Persson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Jana</span> South African human rights lawyer (1943–2020)

Devikarani Priscilla Sewpal Jana was a South African human rights lawyer, politician and diplomat. As a member of the African National Congress (ANC) during the anti-apartheid movement, she participated in both legal activism as well as in the underground movement to end apartheid. She represented many significant figures in the movement, including South African president Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Steve Biko, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Jana was one of the very few South Africans who had access to political prisoners, including Mandela, in the maximum security Robben Island prison, and served as an emissary for coded messages between the political prisoners and the ANC leadership.

References

  1. 1 2 "Don't eat potatoes! | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "50th Anniversary of the Potato Boycott – Satyagraha in Pursuit of Truth". www.satyagraha.org.za. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  3. ↑ Don Pinnock (2014) Building an alternative consensus for political action:Ruth First as journalist and activist, Review of African Political Economy, 41:139, 97–104, DOI:10.1080/03056244.2014.878079 Accessed 24 July 2017
  4. ↑ "Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives - Forward to Freedom". www.aamarchives.org. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  5. 1 2 Mac Maharaj. Reflections in Prison. African National Congress. Zebra, 2001. pg 170
  6. ↑ "SACTU launches a national potato boycott. | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Belinda Bozzoli. Explaining Social Consciousness: The Case of Mrs. Molefe (Expliquer la prise de conscience: le cas de Mrs. Molefe) Cahiers d'Études Africaines Vol. 31, Cahier 123 (1991), pp. 287–306 Published by: EHESS Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4392330 Accessed 25 July 2017
  8. ↑ "SACTU launches a national potato boycott. | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  9. ↑ "Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives - Forward to Freedom". www.aamarchives.org. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "Frances Baard". The Solomon. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.