Content warning: This article deals with the subjects of racial prejudice and apartheid.
October marks Black History Month. This year’s theme, Honouring Our Communities, invites us to recognise the individuals whose everyday contributions shape, support and sustain Black life across the United Kingdom.
Last October, Naomi McGuire, history student and Surrey Heritage volunteer, shed light on the role of Woking refugee charity, Ockenden International, in supporting the Biafran diaspora in Surrey Operation Compassion: Ockenden and the Biafran War. This year, again using the Ockenden archives (reference 7155), Naomi looks at how Ockenden challenged the racist South African apartheid regime by offering Black students educational opportunities in England.
Naomi explains further: "As I worked through the collection, I was struck by the South African students' determination to build and strengthen communities, both at Ockenden and beyond. While the apartheid regime sought to fracture and categorise, those within the Ockenden system embraced each other’s differing experiences and backgrounds to strengthen solidarity. Exploring Ockenden through the lens of this year’s theme has provided an opportunity to consider the experiences of South African refugees in Britain, specifically how community-building and education can be considered an act of resistance against the apartheid regime."
Apartheid – the context
Between 1948 and 1990, white minority rule in South Africa imposed policies of racial discrimination upon the majority non-white population. Coined ‘apartheid’, an Afrikaans term meaning ‘separateness’, these degrading and openly legalised racist policies impacted every part of the lives of non-white South Africans.
In 1963, Ockenden and the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), explored the possibility of helping African students obtain tuition and qualifications to qualify for entry into British universities and technical colleges. In 1965, a selection committee including Ockenden founder, Joyce Pearce, and patron, Dr Robert Birley, began to consider suitable candidates. They liaised with a wide variety of agencies including the South African Committee of Higher Education (SACHED), the Africa Bureau, the International Refugee Council of Zambia in Bechuanaland, and the Refugee representative for Botswana. An initial intake of six students from South Africa and Rhodesia (now divided into Zimbabwe in the south and Zambia in the north) was selected to come to Britain.
In total Ockenden supported 13 South African students travelling to Britain to further their education, and most were in their early 20s. This marked a significant shift in Ockenden’s work, as previously the charity had mostly focussed on providing sanctuary for children in Displaced Persons camps across Europe. Navigating this operation was complex, as the constitution restricted use of Ockenden’s funds which resulted in the charity having to secure external funding such as United Nations fellowships, university scholarships and charitable grants for the students. Due to the impact of apartheid on education, Ockenden’s Executive Committee minutes for 1965 show that the charity also amended their policy of only supporting students under the age of 21 due to the impact of apartheid on education (reference 7155/2/2/5).
Leaving South Africa
Leaving South Africa was a complex and often dangerous process for non-white citizens. The apartheid regime extended the reach of its policies far beyond its borders, requiring Black South Africans and those deemed political dissidents to apply for exit visas and renounce their citizenship to leave the country. This included those seeking work or education abroad, and denying passports was a way of controlling both life at home and possibilities of a future abroad.
The level of danger faced by the students who came to Ockenden is evident throughout the collection. One letter advises Ockenden not to mention NUSAS on passport applications, warning that doing so might jeopardise a student’s exit.
Ockenden and apartheid
Whilst Joyce Pearce and Dr Robert Birley were vocal critics of the apartheid regime, the political nature of apartheid caused friction within Ockenden’s committee. Despite this, both continued publicly to denounce apartheid with Birley travelling to South Africa to provide educational support to schools in Johannesburg through his role as President of South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED). Birley was outraged at the educational situation in the township where only 4% of Black South Africans attended school.
Initial correspondence indicates Ockenden aimed to support and sponsor South African students in their applications to UK universities. However, Birley’s visit revealed how significantly the apartheid regime had impacted the education system for Black South African students as well as the mental toll this had taken. In response, the charity devised a 3-month immersion programme to ease the transition of students to school sixth form, college or university. During this period, the students typically stayed at The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, leased to Ockenden and run by Margaret Dixon, a co-founder of the charity. Ockenden took immense pride in the South African students who made Sutton Courtenay their home, often celebrating their achievements in their newsletters after they had left.
Those who progressed to sixth form study were often supported by United Nations Fellowships at Atlantic College, a Welsh boarding school with a multicultural community of 35 nationalities, well-suited to educating overseas students. Many went on to study at university, including at Oxford and the London School of Economics (LSE), while others pursued more practical routes such as nursing.
Honouring their communities
The Ockenden collections are useful for exploring the students' determination to succeed academically. While apartheid fostered hatred and division, it appears to have driven the students to fight for better opportunities abroad and to contribute meaningfully to their communities. Many of the students pursued political careers, suggesting they aimed to use education to understand and one day improve the situation in South Africa.
Those who arrived in Britain first were looked to as leaders within the Ockenden community. Simon Kumalo (Dabi Simon Mrwetyana) came from Cape Province, and Joyce’s letters reveal how he supported other South Africans who came to Ockenden through the emotional toll of having lived under a regime that denied them basic human rights. Simon also presented at an 'Education in Britain Today' conference for sixth formers, designed to challenge the students to consider different ideas and promote tolerance of differences in their local communities. His success at Atlantic College encouraged the headmaster, Admiral Desmond Hoare, to accept more South African students and sparked his interest in beginning a co-educational programme at the school. After a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, Simon continued his efforts to support and advocate for other refugees by joining the Ockenden committee. He later became a barrister.
Another student, Moeletsi Mbeki, spent a year at Ockenden, living in the Woking headquarters after his father, Govan Mbeki, the former African National Congress leader, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island (the maximum-security prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in captivity). Moeletsi’s brother, Thabo Mbeki, later became president of South Africa after Nelson Mandela. Moeletsi became involved with the local Labour Party’s 1966 election campaign, and after graduation he studied for his Master's degree at the University of Warwick. He went on to work for the BBC, and after returning to South Africa from exile in 1990 became a senior political journalist and analyst. As Deputy Chair of the South African Institute of International Affairs based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Moeletsi recalls fondly his experience at Ockenden, owing his introduction to politics to his time there. He kindly shared these thoughts with us:
"I spent a wonderful year in 1965/66 at Ockenden. I met a wide variety of people I would never have met anywhere else. These included people who were displaced by the many conflicts in Europe as well as Tibet. During my stay at Ockenden I became a member of the Woking branch of the Labour Party. This introduced me to the British political system as I became an activist during the 1966 National Election canvassing votes door to door. I remember Ms Joyce Pearce fondly for her big heart in helping so many disadvantaged people from different parts of the world."
Legacy
Both Simon and Moeletsi are examples of the students defying the apartheid regime which sought to deny Black people agency over their futures. As some of the first students to come to Ockenden from South Africa, the way they conducted themselves paved the way for others who followed and invited a great deal of respect from those they met. Despite living under a regime built upon racial hatred, the students immersed themselves in the multicultural Ockenden lifestyle. The 1969 annual report shared how South African student Ivor Leong became good friends with Tibetan children living there. Their empathetic nature was shared by many of the other South African students at Ockenden, several of whom became involved in rebuilding their country after the regime fell. Excelling in their studies and becoming involved in political campaigns served as an expression of the students’ resistance against a regime that saw them as unworthy of education and suffrage.
The Ockenden collections at Surrey Heritage are useful in exploring how Black South Africans who came to Britain as refugees helped celebrate each other’s shared and individual experience and inspire each other to build lives that they could be proud of, in spite of the regimes they fled from. This is best captured in a thoughtful tribute to Joyce by Simon Kumalo at a service of thanksgiving for her life at Westminster Abbey in September 1985:
"She gave those round her not only refuge but hope, strength and courage to face a world that seems to have infinite capacity to inflict deep wounds on those of different political persuasions, religious beliefs and skin colour. It was a marvel to have known her, a privilege to have been brought to the UK to be part of that community, an honour to have been asked by her to honour that community and for that we are truly grateful for her life." (reference 7155/3/6/2)
You can read the full story on our Exploring Surrey’s Past website.
Access requests
Please note: Ockenden files which include material relating to named refugees or which contain sensitive information about individuals are subject to access restrictions for 100 years but requests for access can be made by those individuals through the Data Protection Act enquiry process.
Images
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- Group of letters to Ockenden regarding placements for South African students, 1965, including Atlantic College, United Nations, National Union of South African Students, and the University of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (reference 7155/6/2/1)
- Ockenden committee update regarding the support of potentially 8 South African students, noting that Moeletsi Mbeki had already arrived at Ockenden, 1965 (reference 7155/6/2/1)
- The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire (reference 7155/4/7/6c)
- Atlantic College, St Donat’s Castle, Llantwit Major, South Wales (with kind permission of U W C Atlantic)
- Alien certificate of registration for Moeletsi Mbeki, South African student supported by Ockenden, Woking, 11 Apr 1965 (copyright of and by kind permission of Mr Moeletsi Mbeki)
- Tribute to Joyce Pearce by Simon Kumalo for the Service of Thanksgiving, Westminster Abbey, 18 Sep 1985 (reference 7155/3/6/2)