This moment, when the focus is on Mandela, and the miraculous victory over apartheid, will only last for a short time. Such is the new(s).
Thus I'm remembering a night not long ago when then-South Africa Partners' President Judith Kurland invited me to the organization's screening of "Sing the Song," the documentary about Harry Belafonte. The film is great but what was astonishing was the history lesson and awards given before the screening to Bostonians who had spearheaded the anti-apartheid movement beginning as early as the late-Sixties: Polaroid chemist Caroline Hunter who spoke out against the company's complicity in producing the horrible identity cards for South Africa's non-white majority; and Mel King, who introduced Mandela the day he came to Boston just months after his release from prison, and who, with my friend Byron Rushing, led the Commonwealth's efforts to divest from South Africa in the 1980s as state reps here in Massachusetts.
All three, along with three others (Reebee Garofalo, Willard Johnson, and South African Consul General George Monyemangene) got awards from South Africa Partners that night and many in the audience, myself included, became educated in the pivotal role Boston played in ending apartheid.
Here's the link to the award announcement including a photo of the Amandla (Xhosa and Zulu word meaning "power" used as rallying cry during the movement against apartheid) Awardees: http://www.sapartners.org/what-we-do/community-learning/96-amandla-awards-and-screening-of-sing-your-song.html
