RFK's 1966 Speech: Parallel Histories of the US and South Africa

In 1966, Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, highlighting the conjoined histories of the United States and South Africa. Invited by the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), Kennedy spent five days touring the country and meeting movement leaders. His address drew parallels between the two nations: both were settled by the Dutch in the mid-17th century, later taken over by the British, and achieved independence—the US in 1776 and South Africa via the 1910 Union. Both countries subjugated Indigenous peoples through treaties and genocide, and both imported slaves—the US receiving about 5% of transatlantic slaves, while the Dutch East India Company brought enslaved people from Southeast Asia to Cape Town. Kennedy noted how both nations tamed natural resources through modern technology, exemplified by South Africa's first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in 1967, performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard. The speech occurred amid the US civil rights movement (Civil Rights Act 1964, Voting Rights Act 1965) and South Africa's apartheid era (beginning 1948). NUSAS originally invited Martin Luther King Jr., but he was denied a visa. Kennedy's visit underscored the parallel struggles against racism in both countries.