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the early morning. Once again the excruciatingly beautiful music floated through the barred windows, echoing round the brick exercise yard, losing itself in the vast prison yards. And then, unexpectedly, the voice of
Vuyisile Mini came roaring down the hushed passages. Evidently standing on a stool, with his face reaching up to a barred vent in his cell, his unmistakable bass voice was enunciating his final message in Xhosa to the world he was leaving. In a voice charged with emotion but stubbornly defiant he spoke of the struggle waged by the African National Congress and of his absolute conviction of the victory to come. And then it was Khayinga's turn, followed by Mkaba, as they too defied all prison rules to shout out their valedictions. Soon after, I heard the door of their cell being opened. Murmuring voices reached my straining ears, and then the three martyrs broke into a final poignant melody which seemed to fill the whole prison with sound and then gradually faded away into the distant depths of the condemned section.
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489:(Take up your things Brother and let's go, they are waiting, our mothers and fathers, at home), came to take on new associations as the forced relocation scheme of apartheid made Black people refugees in the land of their birth. He is remembered for composing one of the most popular liberation songs of the 1950s,
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Mini was born in 1920 in Tsomo in rural
Transkei. Mini's father who was born in Tsomo and later moved to Port Elizabeth as a young man was a Port Elizabeth dockworker active in labour and community struggles, which inspired Mini, at 17, to take part in bus fare and rent increase protests. He was also
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After his 1964 execution, Mini was secretly buried in a pauper's grave at
Rebecca Street Cemetery in Pretoria. The bodies of Mini, Khayinga and Mkaba were exhumed in 1998 at Rebecca Street Cemetery in Pretoria and Mini was given a heroes funeral when he was re-interred at the Emlotheni Memorial Park
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The last evening was devastatingly sad as the heroic occupants of the death cells communicated to the prison in gentle melancholy song that their end was near... It was late at night when the singing ceased, and the prison fell into uneasy silence. I was already awake when the singing began again in
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Mini was a gifted actor, dancer, poet and singer (he was a member of various groups and a prominent member of the P.E. Male Voice Choir). He is remembered for the songs he composed as well as their delivery in his powerful bass voice, sometimes militant, and at other times nostalgic. His words
339:('Red Hell' or North End Prison, Port Elizabeth) for participation in the 'Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws' (Defiance Campaign). He intentionally entered railway property reserved for Whites only, and because of his imprisonment, lost his job as a packer in a battery factory.
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were hanged in the
Pretoria Central Prison on 6 November 1964. Mini went to the gallows singing freedom songs, some he had composed. In a spirit of defiance, Mini made a death row statement after an approach by security police to get him to bear witness against comrades.
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In 1961, Mini was one of the first group of people to be recruited into uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and become a member of the
Eastern Cape High Command. Mini was arrested on 10 May 1963 together with two other prominent ANC members,
433:, was serving a three-year term in Pretoria prison for MK activities at the time of Mini's execution. He recalled the last moments of Mini (44), Khayinga (38) and Mkaba (35) life in Sechaba, the official ANC journal:
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His union comrades knew Mini as the "organizer of the unorganized", because of his courage and tireless efforts to organize workers across
Eastern Cape during the increasingly repressive 1950s. Mini was tasked by the
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On his release he married his trade union work with political activism, rose rapidly in the ranks of the ANC and was elected secretary of the ANC Cape region. In 1956 Mini was one of 156 defendants in the famous
311:. He was also a founding member of the Port Elizabeth Stevedoring and Dockworkers Union, which embarked in the 1950s on one of the longest protests for a wage increase, and fought against the use of convicts for
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active in campaigns against forced removals of Black people from
Korsten (where he lived) to Kwazakhele. After completing elementary school, he worked as a labourer and trade union organiser.
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347:. The state's case collapsed for lack of evidence and Mini was discharged on 20 April 1959. In 1960 he became secretary of the Eastern Cape branch of SACTU, a target of repression.
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He was arrested and detained along with Govan Mbeki, Temba Mqota, Raymond Mhlaba, J Makgatho, F Matomela, Alvin Bennie, Frances Baard, Norman
Ntshinga, V Bisset, S Ndzube, Father
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became a member of MK and survived a March 1979 South
African Defence Force attack on the Novo Catengue camp in Angola. She was shot dead by members of the notorious
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Truth & Reconciliation
Commission, (2002). Truth & Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Vol. 7, Cape Town: Juta, p. 428.
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303:(SACTU) to organize the metal workers and he subsequently became the Metal Workers' Union Secretary. Together with another activist,
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on 19 December 1985. Seven members of the Security branch, including its then deputy chief were refused amnesty for this killing.
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On 27 June 1998, the park was officially opened by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and the Mayor of Port Elizabeth, Nceba Faku.
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Reddy, E. S. (1974). 'Vuyisile Mini' in Notes and Documents, No. 31/74, November. Accessed from Internet 21 September 2004:
378:. They were charged with 17 counts of sabotage and other political crimes including complicity in the January 1963 death of
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From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of Politics in South Africa 1882-1964, Vol. 4 Political profiles 1882-1964
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In March 1964 the three were sentenced to death. This provoked an international outcry, and clemency appeals by President
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South Africa Bulletin, February 1965, reports on the execution of Vuysile Mini, Zinakele Nkaba, and Wilson Knayinga
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UNITED NATIONS AND THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS Partners in the Struggle against Apartheid
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http://disa.nu.ac.za/articledisplaypage.asp?articletitle=Vuyisile+Mini&filename=DaSI86
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The African Activist Archive Project website has documents on Vuyisile Mini, including:
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At the time of his death, Mini was married, and had six children. One of his children,
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On 6 November 2010, Port Elizabeth's Market Square was renamed Vuyisile Mini Square.
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Organize or starve!: the history of the South African Congress of Trade Unions
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opened a Furniture factory that was known as the Vuyisile Mini Factory (VMF).
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of the United Nations were unsuccessful. So too were approaches by the
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Mini's militant political activities began in 1951 when he joined the
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Ngqungwana, R.M.T. . Accessed on the Internet 21 September 2004:
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523:"State of Emergency Declared", SAPA, Evening Post, 30 March 1960
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Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa
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by the American Committee on Africa (about April of May 1964),
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MEMORANDUM ON POLITICAL PRISONERS AND TRIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA
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Thath' unthwalo Buti sigoduke balindile umama no bab' ekhaya
714:(February 1965) by the American Committee on Africa, and
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declared under the Public Safety Act on 30 March 1960.
269:(8 April 1920 – 6 November 1964) was a trade unionist,
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http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/misc/mini.html
493:, (Look out, Verwoerd, here are the Black people).
551:. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. p. 89.
472:hit squad when they raided two houses in Maseru,
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687:www.dispatch.co.za/1998/04/08/southafrica/MK.HTM
595:The Road to Democracy in South Africa: 1960-1970
429:, a previous co-accused of Mini's in the 1956
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448:in New Brighton township in Port Elizabeth.
532:Memorial plaque at Emlotheni Memorial Park.
504:Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony
50:Learn how and when to remove these messages
806:People executed by South Africa by hanging
801:People convicted of murder by South Africa
148:. Please do not remove this message until
186:Learn how and when to remove this message
168:Learn how and when to remove this message
107:Learn how and when to remove this message
766:South African people convicted of murder
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547:Gerhart, G. M.; Karis, T., eds. (1977).
144:Relevant discussion may be found on the
70:This article includes a list of general
786:Music in the movement against apartheid
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746:20th-century executions by South Africa
491:Pasopa nantsi 'ndondemnyama we Verwoerd
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692:www.sacp.org.za/biographies/vmini.html
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301:South African Congress of Trade Unions
273:activist, singer and one of the first
556:Luckhardt, Ken; Wall, Brenda (1980).
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562:. New York: Lawrence and Wishart.
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327:. In 1952 he was jailed with
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