Amandla Cultural Ensemble: Promoting SA Liberation Cultural Heritage
At the end of the weekend of 29 April 1979, the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), taking the cue from the Cuban successes – following the September 1978 International Festival of Youth and Students that took place in Havana, Cuba – took a decision to have a permanent cultural group, the Amandla Cultural Ensemble, to promote the anti-apartheid struggle globally and ensure the international isolation of the racist regime.
At the International Festival in Cuba, South Africa was represented by a group of youths who were members of the ANC studying in various countries in Europe, Africa and America. They also included seven members of MK based in Angola. These groups had to combine and perform as one united group of the ANC. The success of their performances so reverberated throughout the world such that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had to remark ever favourably about the beautiful performance of the South African delegation.
The ANC leadership also took a decision that the membership of the group should be members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) because of the military discipline factor. Naming the group “Amandla” denoted “power” in the Zulu language, which was also a symbol in itself, since “Amandla” whose political content was “Power to the People” was one of the most popular fighting slogans of the South African revolution. The group started with those sev
