Shortly after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela famously addressed Canada’s parliament in 1990 to express gratitude for the country’s support. When Mandela died in 2013, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper claimed credit for Canada’s role in the fight against apartheid.
But Canada’s contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle didn’t start with the political leadership. It started with decades of work and struggle by ordinary Canadians across the country — grassroots activists, trade unions, church congregations, students and others. A new audio documentary on the Canadian anti-apartheid movement explores their stories.
“I think what will surprise listeners is how big and diverse the anti-apartheid movement was,” says University of Alberta sociologist Dr. Amy Kaler, academic consultant on the new Montreal-based audio documentary on the Canadian anti-apartheid movement.
“People from every walk of life, from church leaders to communists to postal workers to university students, put their shoulders to the wheel and pushed the Canadian government to really take a stand against apartheid in South Africa.”
From Vancouver to Halifax — and even in Edmonton — there was an “extremely active anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 1980s,” she says.
Shifting the focus from high-profile politicians, the series uses oral histories and front-line interviews with grassroots activists to show how the movement was built from the ground up by decentralized, everyday organizers using common tools of resistance — such as protests and picketing, consumer boycotts of South African products, divestment campaigns and union support for South African workers.
Produced by Montreal’s CKUT 90.3 FM, the five-part Small Little Foot Soldiers: A People’s History of the Canadian Anti-Apartheid Movement begins airing Nov. 9. Stream it on demand via the CKUT Podcasts Directory or on major podcast streamers.
Politicians may have led diplomatic efforts, says Kaler, but “what’s more important is that the government didn’t do anything until the grassroots movement had made itself impossible to ignore.”