Albie Sachs
The Importance of Paul Robeson to the South African Struggle
Paul Robeson’s work for racial and economic justice stands out for its global scope. He was actively concerned with racism and other forms of oppression everywhere, with particular interest in the anti-colonial struggles in Africa. For this work, the United Nations honoured him with a posthumous special tribute on the occasion of his 80th birthday, in 1978, at which Mfanafuthi J. Makatini, representing the ANC, said, “To the African people…and the oppressed and struggling people of South Africa in particular, Paul Robeson was more than a legendary artist… To our people, Paul Robeson was also an outstanding and selfless freedom fighter…an outstanding champion of the emancipation of the country”. This talk will look into the details of Paul Robeson’s life, work, and thought which warranted this place within the South African fight against Apartheid.
Albie Sachs is a South African lawyer, activist, and writer. He was appointed a judge in first Constitutional Court of South Africa, and became an internationally recognised common law judge. After several detentions in the late 1960s on account of his activist work against Apartheid, Sachs was forced to leave South Africa. He continued his ANC work abroad, including first England and then Mozambique, where he survived an assassination attempt in 1988. Sachs was able to return to South Africa in 1990, where he was subsequently closely involved in the creation of the post-apartheid 1996 constitution. Sachs has written several books on justice in South Africa and his experiences as an activist judge, and has won many awards both for the books—e.g., Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter (2009); Strange Alchemy of Life and Law (1990)—and for his contributions to peace and justice: e.g., the Reconciliation Award (Institute for Justice and Reconciliation); the Legion of Honour (France); Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil).