Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa
Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa
Alternate Names: Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Duration: 1968 - 1992
Newsletter(s):
M.A.C.S.A. News
The Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa (MACSA) was a community-based organization that included students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was formed in the fall of 1968 to lobby and educate the university and community about Southern Africa, to support sanctions on minority regimes in Southern Africa, and to provide...
The Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa (MACSA) was a community-based organization that included students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was formed in the fall of 1968 to lobby and educate the university and community about Southern Africa, to support sanctions on minority regimes in Southern Africa, and to provide assistance to liberation movements. The first office was located at the University YWCA. MACSA began a newsletter in 1969 and published two widely distributed pamphlets, Israel and South Africa and Is Southern Africa Wisconsin's Business? One early campaign supported Phyllis Jordan, a South African anti-apartheid activist, who was threatened with deportation following the death of her husband A.C. Jordan, a faculty member in African languages and literature. One campaign resulted in the divestment of holdings in South African businesses by the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Retirement Investment Trust after the State Attorney General advised on the possible illegality of investments in discriminatory corporations abroad. MACSA picketed, supported boycotts of South African products or companies that did business in South Africa, protested South African government propaganda in Wisconsin, and raised funds for African liberation movements. In the 1970s MACSA also sponsored guest speakers such as Prexy Nesbitt and representatives of African liberation movements including the African National Congress of South Africa (Oliver Tambo, Albie Sachs); Zimbabwe (Nathan Shamuyarira); and Frelimo of Mozambique (Sharfudine Khan, Armando Guebuza). During its first years MACSA efforts focused on Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia, on which it organized a regional conference. After the African colonies of Portugal gained independence, MACSA concentrated its efforts on South Africa. Following the Soweto uprising in 1976, MACSA petition drives and lobbying resulted in the Wisconsin Attorney General's advisory opinion on investments in companies which racially discriminated abroad, which resulted in the University of Wisconsin's decision to divest its investments in South African corporations. In 1985 the committee reorganized as the Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition (MAAC). MAAC supported the fight against apartheid in South Africa as well as worked with the Mozambique Support Network and the National Namibia Concerns Committee. (Sources: David Wiley, William Minter and Wisconsin State Historical Society.)
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