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25 Years Ago in South Africa

Angola becomes independent of Portugal in 1975. But the long struggle against Portuguese rule had resulted in three separate independence movements. Unlike Mozambique, the former Portuguese colony in East Africa, a long civil war broke out in Angola, with Cuba backing one of the sides, and South Africa another, while Zaire supported the third. Efforts to end the civil war did not seriously begin until 1988.

In 1965, white Rhodesian settlers declare unilateral independence from Great Britain. The new government under Ian Smith is dominated by the white settlers with little rights for native Africans. The government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia, after many years of civil war, gives up power. In 1980, Robert Mugabe becomes president of the country, now renamed Zimbabwe.

Steve Biko becomes the symbol of the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa after his murder by South African security police in September 1977. Biko was a key member of the Black Consciousness Movement, a non-violent opposition group against Apartheid, which called on black Africans to regain pride in their culture and heritage, which had been eroded by decades of colonial rule.

Traditional visual art in South Africa has a rich and diverse tradition. This includes the rock paintings of the San, wood carvings of the Venda people, the pottery of the Zulu and the beadwork of the Ndebele. However, these arts have been ignored because they were viewed as artifacts or craft work, and not as fine art. However, a number of white South African artists began to use traditional designs in their work. Most well known among these are Walter Battiss (1906-1982) and Alexis Preller (1911-1975), creating a mixed European-African art form. Now there is a new interest in the traditional art forms themselves. Black South African artists from rural areas who had maintained and preserved these ancient art forms are gaining fame, such as the sculptors Jackson Hlungwane and Noria Mabaso.

Bessie Head became one of South Africa's most important writers in the second half of the 20th century. She drew heavily on her own traumatic past to find themes for her novels. Born in 1937, her father was black and her mother was white, but in the South Africa of the time this was considered a crime, and because of this her mother was put into a mental institution. Bessie was raised in a foster home, but in spite of the disadvantages of being a women and of mixed race, she succeeded as a teacher and journalist in South Africa. Head eventually went into exile in neighbouring Botswana where she continued to teach and write. She died in 1986 at the age of 49.

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