Students and South Africa: UCL and anti-apartheid campaigns

Early activism

Student awareness of South Africa developed at the end of the 1950s, when the apartheid government began to introduce racial segregation in universities. The first boycotts of South African products by UK students took place in 1959. In extraordinary footage captured by UCL’s Film Society, processions of students half a mile long, some playing trombones and drums, can be seen walking through central London in protest. For many students at the time, aware of the liberal ethos underpinning UCL’s foundation, “the admission or exclusion of a student on the basis of the colour of his skin is quite contrary to everything that University College London represents”.

To begin with, however, university authorities were nervous about students’ engagement with the topic. A proposed exhibition about South Africa in the cloisters was turned down “with regret” by the Provost, Ifor Evans, because it was a “political issue” that might open the floodgates to a range of other demonstrations.

But this did not deter students. Concern about South Africa fused with a growing interest in and greater understanding of the civil rights movement in the USA, the fear of nuclear weapons, and military action in Vietnam. Further anti-apartheid marches took place in the early 1960s and a Joint Action Committee Against Racial Intolerance was set up at UCL in 1964.

Plans for a scholarship scheme to fund a student from South Africa to come to London were spearheaded by the Students’ Union President, Roger Lyons. He and the committee raised funds, convinced the university’s College Committee Chairman Lord Strang to be the appeal’s patron, and held rallies in the main quadrangle. The most important rally was held in May 1964, attracting a huge crowd that was addressed by speakers from both major political parties. The anti-apartheid campaigner and former Archbishop of Cape Town Joost de Blank told the audience that the scholarship fund was “of desperate and crucial importance”. Students who were there at the time remember it vividly 60 years later.

“He’s coming over to be a student”

Lyons’s successor as Union President, Tom McNally, welcomed the first South African scholar, Lyttleton Mngqikana, to UCL in 1965. One student later reflected on how the scheme was handled delicately, with McNally cautious of not making Mngqikana “a kind of hero” by throwing him a big dinner, because ultimately “he’s coming over to be a student”.

Interviewed after his studies, Mngqikana reflected on how “the scholarship has given me an opportunity to advance my education … it has widened my view of education … future scholarships will be useful for a future South Africa”.

Still, UCL authorities remained wary of the political nature of the scholarship, making no official mention of it in its early years.

Such a scheme might have fizzled out once this initial victory was won. However, backed by the National Union of Students (NUS), anti-apartheid campaigning continued to be a top priority for students. A series of further rallies at UCL followed. One in 1967 was attended by 600 people who crowded into the quadrangle. On this occasion the new Provost, Lord Annan, publicly backed the scheme – evidently the mood among those leading UCL was shifting.

Alongside him was the Conservative MP Sir Edward Boyle, although some Conservative students were not so keen on the scheme. Indeed, the scholarship scheme should not obscure the fact that many people, including students, continued to be victims of racial discrimination in London in this period.

Even so, large-scale rallies were supplemented by other campaigning methods, including teach-ins, where experts aimed to raise awareness. A second scholar, Seiso Liphuko, arrived in 1968, and was also welcomed at the airport by the then Students’ Union President, John Shipley – who, like McNally, would later become a member of the House of Lords.