"We believe that the world, too, can destroy apartheid, firstly by striking at the economy of South Africa"
About this Quote
Tambo’s line treats morality as strategy, and it lands with the force of a plan, not a plea. “We believe” isn’t soft; it’s coalition-building language, a way of drafting listeners into a shared obligation. The real pivot is “the world, too,” a pointed reminder that apartheid wasn’t a sealed-off national pathology. It was sustained by trade, finance, and diplomatic tolerance. If South Africa’s economy could be plugged into global circuits, Tambo argues, it can be unplugged by them.
The intent is surgical: shift the anti-apartheid struggle from spectacle and sympathy to leverage. “Firstly” signals sequencing and discipline. He’s not romanticizing resistance; he’s laying out the opening move in a larger campaign. “Striking” carries the double meaning of labor action and deliberate attack, echoing union power and consumer boycotts while implying that economic pressure is a form of nonviolent force that still hurts where regimes are most sensitive: stability, investment, and profits.
The subtext is an indictment of bystanders who prefer inspirational rhetoric to costly commitment. Tambo implies: if you do business as usual, you are already choosing a side. In the late Cold War context, when Western governments often framed the ANC through a security lens and corporations defended “engagement,” this sentence flips the frame. It asks the world to stop admiring South Africans’ courage and start owning its complicity - by making apartheid expensive enough to collapse.
The intent is surgical: shift the anti-apartheid struggle from spectacle and sympathy to leverage. “Firstly” signals sequencing and discipline. He’s not romanticizing resistance; he’s laying out the opening move in a larger campaign. “Striking” carries the double meaning of labor action and deliberate attack, echoing union power and consumer boycotts while implying that economic pressure is a form of nonviolent force that still hurts where regimes are most sensitive: stability, investment, and profits.
The subtext is an indictment of bystanders who prefer inspirational rhetoric to costly commitment. Tambo implies: if you do business as usual, you are already choosing a side. In the late Cold War context, when Western governments often framed the ANC through a security lens and corporations defended “engagement,” this sentence flips the frame. It asks the world to stop admiring South Africans’ courage and start owning its complicity - by making apartheid expensive enough to collapse.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|
More Quotes by Oliver
Add to List
