The Dutch Antiapartheid Movement: An Interview with Sietse Bosgra

In this interview with coeditor Alex Lichtenstein, longtime Dutch antiapartheid activist Sietse Bosgra (b. 1935) describes the evolution of his political commitment to solidarity with the liberation movements of southern Africa, especially Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa. The interview explores the experience of German occupation during World War II, the Dutch colonial wars in Indonesia in the late 1940s, and Dutch New Left opposition to Portuguese colonial wars in Africa during the 1960s. Active in the noncommunist left organization Komitee Zuiderlijk Afrika (Holland Committee on Southern Africa), Bosgra explains the complex and shifting relationship between liberals and leftists that beset the antiapartheid movement in the Netherlands, as activists debated boycotts, armed struggle, and relationships with governing political parties. He also discusses differences over the role of the Communist Party and the question of combating European racism.