Happy Birthday South Africa

Millions of South Africans danced and revelled throughout the day and night as the African National Congress, arguably Africa’s oldest liberation movement, celebrated its 100th Anniversary yesterday.

African leaders and former heads of state, along with African kings and chieftains, attended a midnight ceremony where President Jacob Zuma lit a flame, which will stay alight the entire year, at the Bloemfontein church where black intellectuals and activists founded the party in 1912.

Absent yesterday because of his frailty was anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, the first black President who is only six years younger than his movement.

The recent history of South Africa is one of brutal colonialism, apartheid, divide and rule, and of course liberation.

The spirit and will to be free and strong will always be our enduring image of South Africa.

Happy Birthday from your brothers and sisters here in the UK.

Simon Woolley