UnFreedom Day is an unofficial annual event that is marked every year on or around 27 April. UnFreedom Day is organised to counter the official South African holiday called

Freedom Day Freedom Day may refer to any of the following days: National and international * National Religious Freedom Day on 16 January in the United States, to commemorate the adoption of Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedo ...

, an annual celebration of South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. UnFreedom Day was started by

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which primarily campaigns for land, housing and dignity, to democratise society from below and against xenophobia. ...

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

in 2006. It has become a day of education in which films, discussions, speeches and performances play a major role along with marches and rallies, attracting thousands of participants. The point of the day is to contest the claim that the poor are free in South Africa have attracted crowds of thousands. The day is now marked in different parts of the country and by various organisations. In 2023 Abahlali held UnFreedom events in the

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

and

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

provinces.

Attempt to ban UnFreedom Day

In 2009 the South African police initially tried to ban the UnFreedom Day event held by Abahlali baseMjondolo, together with the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the

Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement is an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a history ...

, the Rural Network and the

eMacambini eMacambini is a rural area in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa which is mostly populated by members of the Macambini clan. It is near Mandeni on the Zululand coast, just north of Durban and close to the new King Shaka International Ai ...

Anti-Removal Committee (all of these movements supported the

No Land! No House! No Vote! No Land! No House! No Vote! is a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in South Africa that calls for the boycotting of the vote and a general rejection of party politics and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that if governme ...

campaign) in the Kennedy Road settlement in

. However the police ban was seen off, those who had been arrested were released and the event went ahead with a police helicopter circling low above the assembly.UnFreedom Day 2009
/ref> A number of popular musical groups performed at the event including the

Dlamini King Brothers The Dlamini King Brothers are an isicathamiya choir from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban, South Africa.

References

{{Political history of South Africa

External links

Dear Mandela: A film about unfreedom
by Jared Sacks, ''Mail & Guardian'', 2012
ENCA Television news report on UnFreedom Day
2013 April observances Society of South Africa Unofficial observances Politics of South Africa Housing in South Africa Housing protests