“Trevor is ‘News’”: Celebrity as Protest in the Early Anti-Apartheid Struggle, 1948–1960

Abstract

Celebrity culture was a crucial, though unrecognized, component of the early antiapartheid struggle. Between 1948 and the foundation of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) in Britain in 1960, activists discovered celebrity to be a valuable political tool. The strategic use of celebrity secured media coverage, mobilized support for the struggle, and built a transnational network of activists and collaborative institutions. By analysing celebrity as a tool of protest in the pre-Sharpeville era, this article will illuminate its centrality in the future 'war of representation' between South African authorities and global anti-apartheid protest. I focus on British Anglican priest and anti-apartheid activist Trevor Huddleston who reached international fame in the early 1950s as a leader of the moral crusade against apartheid. The South African state increased its offensive on Huddleston as his reputation grew, leading to his recall to England in late 1955. The Huddleston affair instructed both sides about the promises and perils of the use of celebrity in the global war over public opinion. I argue that this standoff was a precursor of the 1970s campaign of propaganda and disinformation that the South African government launched to counter anti-apartheid movements in the West.