Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning at Penton Street

01/10/2026

Artists Against Fascism | Saturday 10 October

We stand in pride as one of the contributors to Artists Against Fascism, a day of discussions, exhibitions, live music, comedy and performance exploring the role of culture in resisting fascism and racism.

The Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre will be exhibiting a selection of Norman Kaplan’s lino prints from our collection - powerful works reflecting his lifelong commitment to anti-racism, internationalism and social justice.

📍 Newington Green Meeting House, N16 9PR
📅 Saturday 10 October, 11am–11pm

A packed programme of artists, writers, musicians and performers throughout the day.

More information & tickets:
artistsagainstfascism.art

24/09/2026

🇿🇦 Happy Heritage Day, South Africa!

This year’s theme, “Reimagine our heritage institutions for a new era,” feels especially resonant for us as we prepare to open the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre in London.

Our work begins with South African history, but also with the extraordinary history of international solidarity with the struggle against apartheid – and the people, movements and communities across Britain who stood alongside South Africans in the fight for freedom.

At the Centre, we want to preserve those histories, but not simply to look backwards. We want to ask what they can teach us now: how memory can inspire action, how stories of solidarity can connect generations, and how museums and heritage spaces can become places for learning, creativity, dialogue and participation.

As a heritage institution, we are thinking hard about what it means to be a custodian of memory for a new era – connecting archives and lived experience with young people, communities, new technologies and new ways of telling these stories.

On Heritage Day, we celebrate South Africa’s rich and diverse heritage – and the enduring power of people across borders coming together to create change.

Happy Heritage Day! 🇿🇦

📷 Students march through London to mark the first anniversary of the Soweto uprising, 18 June 1977. Photograph: John Sturrock/Report. Courtesy of AAM Archives.

14/09/2026

🇿🇦 South African Heritage Day in London

Below are details of this year’s South African Heritage Day celebration, organised by Women of Valour SA - UK in Wimbledon Park.

We’ve had the pleasure of taking part in this wonderful celebration in the past, bringing together South Africans in the UK, the wider diaspora, friends and supporters to celebrate South Africa’s rich and diverse heritage.

📍 Wimbledon Park, London
📅 Saturday 19 September 2026
⏰ 1–8pm

Expect an afternoon of music, food and celebration, with Queens of Umzansi, DJ Zie and South African food including Braai Diba Ltd and Bunny UK

The event is free, but registration is required.

🎟️ Visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-africa-heritage-day-uk-2026-tickets-1997697954358

Wishing everyone attending a fantastic Heritage Day! 🇿🇦

12/09/2026

📬 Our Autumn newsletter is out!

It’s been a busy few months at the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, and our latest newsletter brings together some of what we’ve been working on.

Inside: the latest from 28 Penton Street as we get closer to opening, our community mural, exhibitions and student collaborations, new resources for schools, online ways to explore anti-apartheid history in London, and plenty happening this autumn.

Have a read, share it with anyone who might be interested — and if you’d like future editions delivered straight to your inbox, please sign up to our mailing list.

🍂 Read our Autumn newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/8644ef9ab227/antiapartheidlegacy-autumn-2026-newsletter-10359726

📩 Join our mailing list:
https://antiapartheidlegacy.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=bd9efb6b5967f189e68d84fb7&id=43d69edcea

10/09/2026

Teachers of - bring your classes to a special Creativity Live: Celebrating Diversity livestream on 15th October.

We are excited to partner with Eastside Educational Trust for this special schools opportunity.

FREE and online so you can join across the UK and beyond.

More info below and at https://www.eastside.org.uk/creativity-live

Creativity Live: Celebrating Diversity Livestream

Join Eastside for a FREE 50-minute interactive livestream workshop celebrating Black History Month, produced in partnership with the -Apartheid Legacy Centre.

Using drama, movement and music, we’ll explore the experiences and courage of the young people who took part in the Soweto Uprising 50 years ago this year.

Participants will consider what led young people to protest, the impact of their actions, and how their voices can inspire us to stand up for fairness and change today.

This livestream is a thoughtful way to mark Black History Month while supporting learning around equality, diversity and inclusion for your students.

📅 Thursday 15th October 2026

 ⏰ 11.00 - 11.50am

🔗 Sign up now through the link in Eastside’s bio

03/09/2026

🎥 Boycott, information and the power of solidarity

This summer, Eve, a Master's student in Global Heritage Management at Heritage, Museums & Galleries Studies at Newcastle University UK joined the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre on placement, where she focused on researching anti-apartheid activism across Newcastle and Tyneside and bringing its lessons to new audiences.

In this second short film, Eve draws on the memories of Sharon Morgan, who was active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, alongside archive material and music to explore how people in Britain connected with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

Sharon recalls the importance of Anti-Apartheid News in providing information about what was happening in South Africa, and how boycotting South African produce offered an immediate, practical way to take action – while also opening up conversations and spreading awareness about apartheid.

The consumer boycott became one of the Anti-Apartheid Movement's longest-running and most widely accessible campaigns. It meant that solidarity could be expressed through an everyday decision: what not to buy.

Eve's film captures something of how information, individual action and collective campaigning came together – and how people acting far beyond South Africa's borders became part of a much wider movement against injustice. It’s a reminder, too, that the choices we make about what we buy can have an impact – and that having that choice shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Thank you to Eve for creating the film, and to Sharon for sharing her memories with us.

Research & image credits for 🎞️ AAM Archives & The Chronicle Live, 🎶 by Tyneside Anti-Apartheid Choir

28/08/2026

We are deeply saddened by the death of our friend Paddy Donnelly earlier this month.

Paddy was a photographer and photo editor, archivist, educator, musician and highly regarded film critic. His commitment to social justice took him from documenting resistance to apartheid in South Africa to London, where he worked at the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (IDAF) and the Catholic Overseas Development Agency. He later returned to South Africa and spent many years at Rhodes JMS, where he shared his extraordinary knowledge, curiosity and enthusiasm with generations of students.

We had the great pleasure of getting to know Paddy through the development of the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre. He was tremendous fun: warm, energetic, endlessly curious and generous with his knowledge, with a wonderfully direct – and usually completely on-the-money – observation always at the ready. Time spent with Paddy invariably left you knowing more, thinking about something differently, and smiling.

Paddy generously donated photographs from his years of photographing anti-apartheid activity to the Centre, together with books, documents, prints and other material from his collection. We are enormously grateful that he took the time to share these with us, and proud that his materials and the stories they hold will become part of the Centre.

Our love and condolences go especially to Paddy’s wife Liz, and to his family, many friends, colleagues and former students in South Africa, the UK and around the world. He will be very greatly missed.

📷's in carousel order.
1. Paddy Donnelly, from the programme for his memorial at Rhodes University Chapel, Makhanda, 28 August 2026.
2. Paddy at Thin Ice Press, York, for our exhibition of the work of his longtime friend and former IDAF colleague Norman Kaplan, March 2026.
3. Nelson Mandela Concert, Wembley Stadium, 1988, photographed by Paddy.
4. Paddy annotating photographs from his collection donated to the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre, 2026.
5. Nelson Mandela, photographed and image colourised by Paddy Donnelly.
6. Paddy Donnelly in younger days, from the programme for his memorial, photo from his private collection.

20/08/2026

🌿 Resilient Roots finds a permanent home at Chelsea Physic Garden

What began with conversations, memories and shared knowledge has now taken permanent root. Four new Community Star Labels developed through Resilient Roots have been installed amongst the Southern African planting at Chelsea Physic Garden.

Resilient Roots brought together South African elders and community members from the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre with MA Visual Communication, London Metropolitan Univercity students. Working with Chelsea Physic Garden’s Southern African plant collection, they explored indigenous knowledge and uses of the plants, and their connections to land, culture, healing, food, memory and identity.

Three permanent panels now share reflections from Mam' Lindiwe, Tanya and Vusi, alongside an introduction from the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre - foregrounding South African voices and lived knowledge within the Garden.

Writing about Galtonia candicans, Vusi Mathebula describes it as a “living symbol of indigenous knowledge, reminding us that nature, spirit, and land are one. Through it, we remember who we are and where we come from.”

Tanya reflects on gardens as spaces of care and quiet resistance, remembering the agapanthus in her grandfather’s Barberton garden, grown “just for the joy they bring.” Growing them in London connects her to family, home and “the blue of the African sky.”

It is especially poignant to see the words of our late elder Lindiwe held permanently here. She chose Tulbaghia, a plant whose healing properties carried for her memory, medicine and heritage. A committed activist and compassionate advocate, her panel is a lasting marker of her wisdom, care for others and belief in intergenerational learning.

Our huge thanks to Mam' Lindiwe, Tanya and Vusi for sharing their knowledge and memories so generously, and to Chelsea Physic Garden and London Metropolitan University for a collaboration that continues to grow.

A lasting legacy of Resilient Roots - enriching how these plants are encountered and understood through the cultural knowledge, memories and meanings they carry.

13/08/2026

🎥 New student placement spotlight

This summer, Eve Robson, a Master's student in Global Heritage Management at Heritage, Museums & Galleries Studies at Newcastle University UK, joined the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre on placement, where she focused on researching anti-apartheid activism across Newcastle and Tyneside and bringing its lessons to new audiences.

Alongside her research, Eve created this short film exploring the power of international solidarity and collective action. Looking back at the global movement to boycott apartheid South Africa, it reminds us that people, communities and grassroots movements can influence change far beyond their own borders.

Reflecting on the project, Eve said:

"I wanted to work on educational social media content, and I care deeply about justice and equality. History often repeats itself. We need to keep using our voices - our actions matter, and leaders need to be held to account."

Thank you, Eve, for bringing together research, creativity and public history to explore why the history of anti-apartheid solidarity continues to resonate today.

https://youtube.com/shorts/J6fDNthfl4k?feature=share

Research & image credits for 🎞️ AAM Archives, Matt Graham & Chris Fevre

Explorng anti-apartheid boycotts in Newcastle,1989 by Eve Robson (N...

09/08/2026

Today we mark South African Women's Day, commemorating the more than 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 in protest against the extension of pass laws to women.

Their courage, organisation and determination became a defining moment in the struggle against apartheid and inspired generations of activists in South Africa and around the world.

Earlier this year, for International Women's Day in March, we shared a short preview of this animation created by Lakshina Bajracharya as part of her response to our live-brief engaging Southern African heritage. Today, we're pleased to share the full film in tribute to the extraordinary women whose leadership, resilience and sacrifice helped shape South Africa's journey to freedom.

As Lakshina writes:

"This animation is about celebrating women. It is about recognising strength in resistance."

As we prepare to open the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre later this year, we remain committed to ensuring that the stories of women in the struggle - from those who marched in 1956 to the countless organisers, educators, trade unionists, mothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, and community leaders and activists who sustained the movement - continue to be researched, celebrated and remembered.

"Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo."
"You strike a woman, you strike a rock."

Animation and storytelling: Lakshina Bajracharya