New Worlds: Literature as Resistance and the Cultural Boycott

This chapter considers the complicated issue of the cultural boycott of South Africa, which entailed conversations—and confrontations—with musicians, artists, and performers who played in Apartheid South Africa or were scheduled to tour (or work) there. It explains the African National Congress’s (ANC) conception of culture as a form of resistance in itself, simultaneously identifying the ANC’s insistence that all artists should avoid legitimizing the Apartheid regime by appearing in South Africa to disseminate their creative work. It shows the Irish workings of the United Nations’ Register of Entertainers, Actors and Others Who Have Performed in Apartheid South Africa, which was set up in 1983 by the UN Centre Against Apartheid to shame those who toured to or worked in South Africa. Kader and Louise Asmal maintained the Irish list, confronting artists—including acclaimed songwriter Phil Coulter—who were alleged to have broken the boycott. The chapter also considers the interaction of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement with the mid-1960s era of the ‘Ballad Boom’, as well as the cultural contributions to the IAAM’s activities of actor Siobhán McKenna, rock band U2, and poet Seamus Heaney, who all shared a particular devotion to the issue.