Dennis Brutus and the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee in Exile, 1966-1970

• Published in: South African Historical Journal Vol. 72; no. 2; pp. 246 - 271
• Main Authors: Llewellyn, Matthew P., Rider, Toby C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.04.2020
• Subjects: anti-apartheid; Britain; Dennis Brutus; human rights; International Defence and Aid Fund; non-racial sports; Olympics; South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC); Sports boycott; transnational activism
• ISSN: 0258-2473; 1726-1686
• DOI: 10.1080/02582473.2020.1737205

In July 1966, the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) re-emerged in exile in London. The arrival of Dennis Brutus, the coloured Rhodesian-born activist, poet, and educator, into the British capital provided the stimulus to renew calls for the exclusion of apartheid South Africa from international sport. In the years 1966-1970 that marked Brutus's exile in Britain, SANROC elevated apartheid sport to the world's attention. As this paper contends, SANROC's success in discouraging foreign contact and competition with racialist sporting organisations, teams, or individuals from South Africa rested largely on Brutus's ability to position himself at the nexus of an emergent human rights discourse that dominated the agendas of state institutions and international organisations throughout the 1960s. Brutus skilfully tethered the issue of racism in South African sport to broader discussions of human rights. SANROC's anti-apartheid activism, however broad its transnational horizons, must also be read in its national context. As this paper will further contend, a deeper comprehension of the political and racial climate of 1960s Britain is central to understanding Brutus and SANROC's experiences in exile in the years 1966-1970.