1981 Annual Report

http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.af000058

Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education.

The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law.

Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org 1981 Annual Report

Alternative title 1981 Annual Report Author/Creator Africa Fund Publisher Africa Fund Date 1982 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, Namibia, United States, Mozambique, Zimbabwe Coverage (temporal) 1981 Source Africa Action Archive Rights By kind permission of Africa Action, incorporating the American Committee on Africa, The Africa Fund, and the Africa Policy Information Center. The photograph captioned "'Stay Away 16-17 June' a strike call marking the anniversary of the 1976 uprising" is used by kind permission of Suzette Abbott. Description Angola. Mozambique. Zimbabwe. Tanzania. Zambia. African National Congress. Refugee Aid Projects. Emergency Assistance. Research, Publications, and Education. Special Projects. South West Africa Peoples Organization. SWAPO. Jennifer Davis. George Houser. Format extent 4 page(s) (length/size)

http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.af000058

http://www.aluka.org 1981

1981 ANNUAL REPORT Namibian refugees in Angola. 1981 was a year of challenge for the Africa Fund. Resistance and repression intensified in southern Africa while the new Reagan administration designated the apartheid regime "a loyal friend" and embarked on a dangerous policy termed "constructive engagement!' The South African government interpreted this, quite literally, as a license to kill. Determined to crush the struggle for freedom and independence in South Africa and Namibia, Pretoria moved to ensure that no state in southern Africa would dare help that struggle. Troops moved into Angola, wiping out villages, bombing schools and homes; hit and run attacks were mounted against vital targets in Mozambique; leaders of South Africa's major liberation movement, the African National Congress, were assassinated in Zimbabwe. Inside South Africa and Namibia the state embarked on a policy best described as peace through terror, with new waves of detentions without trial, torture, and the violent death of opponents, killed most brutally in what the state termed unsolved crimes. Against that background we have worked to reach many more Americans with the truth about South Africa and US policy. At the same time we are seeking to expand the ways in which we can help meet the needs of the thousands upon thousands of refugees driven into exile by the escalating terror.

REFUGEE AID PROJECTS George Houser and Jennifer Davis both made trips to southern Africa in 1981 to follow up Africa Fund medical assistance projects and discuss future needs. George Houser met with health officials in Zimbabwe and Mozambique about their programs to.bring health care to the countryside where most of the people live. Before independence people in these areas had little or no access to doctors or medical care. He also met with South African refugees in Zambia and Tanzania who described self-help projects they are building. The AF Trustees subsequently approved a $10,000 grant to the Womens' Council of the African National Congress of South Africa to help finance a daycare center for South African refugees in Zambia. This project will make it possible for young mothers to continue their education. The mothers themselves will also be involved in setting up and running the center. During her trip to Angola as part of an international commission investigating South African attacks on the people of Namibia and Angola, Jennifer Davis visited a Namibian refugee center. Twenty five thousand people were being cared for in this camp with more arriving daily. She reported "I was struck by the determined way tremendous difficulties were being tackled and overcome. Young and old came to talk with us. They talked about the importance of the help friends from outside had given them-seeing it not only in terms of physical needs, but in terms of human solidarity as well." She met with leaders of SWAPO, the Namibian liberation movement, who explained the problems of caring for an ever growing refugee population, forced to flee their homes by the racist South African government. They gave her detailed lists of the most urgent needs. The Africa Fund prepared a special brochure on the refugee centers. We distributed nearly 50,000 copies of this brochure in 1981 in an effort to alert the American public to the critical needs of these refugees. The Fund contributed $11,000 to the SWAPO Women's Council for a project designed to provide vocational training for women refugees to equip them with skills which will en- able them to play a role in building a new Namibia. We also shipped eyeglasses and audio visual equipment for classroom use to the refugee camps. As 1981 ended we were preparing to ship over half a ton of penicillin to the refugee centers. Penicillin is especially needed because many people are extremely weak when they arrive and therefore susceptible to infection. We were also preparing to ship $50,000 worth of medicines, equipment and books in cooperation vith the Namibian Medical Refugee Aid Drive of Minnesota. We will also be sending a small library of books on Afro-American and African history, political and economic development to Namibian students in Lusaka. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE The Africa Fund provides emergency assistance, small amounts of money given quickly in true emergency situations, primarily to African refugees living in the US. In 1981 we spent about $25,000 in this way. At the end of November a Zimbabwean nurse who is supporting her three nephews and putting them through technical schools came to see us. She had been forced to move and couldn't afford both the moving expenses and her nephews' tuition. Unless she could get help one of them would have to drop out of school. An Africa Fund grant enabled her to pay for the move and keep her nephews in school. Sometimes a small grant can mean a great deal. A Namibian student broke his glasses and couldn't afford new ones. Without them he couldn't study. We paid for his eye examination and new glasses. In July we prevented the eviction of a young black South African woman who is supporting her two-year-old daughter while studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When her roommate moved out for the summer she couldn't meet the full rent alone. A grant helped her pay the rent until the fall so she could keep the apartment. A small grant from the Africa Fund helped each of these people deal with a temporary emergency. Grants range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. 1981: A Year of Transition for The Africa Fund 1981 was a year of transition for The Africa Fund. George M. Houser retired as executive secretary, the post he held since The Africa Fund was founded in 1966. The Trustees selected Jennifer Davis, our long time research director, as the new executive secretary. The Africa Fund owes much of its success to George Houser's guidance. His personal contacts with the leaders of the liberation movements and the newly independent countries have facilitated our refugee aid work. Frank Montero, Chairman of The Africa Fund, paid tribute to George at the time of his retirement. "George Houser's contribution to African freedom has been invaluable because quietly and consistently he has supported the liberation and resistance movements on the continent through the years when it was popular but also when it was unpopular to do so." George Houser has been named Executive Secretary Emeritus, and will continue his contribution to our work as the newest Trustee of The Africa Fund. Frank C. Montero, Chairman of The African Fund.

South West Africa People's Orgar (SWAPO) OF NAMIBIA Solidarity - Freedom - Justice Ref. No. ATTENTION: Paul Irish, The African fund, 198 Aroadway N.Y., New York 10038. Dear friends, N 3 0 1981 extensive correspondence with African and American leaders and provide a record of the activities of the two organizanisation tions. They will supply scholars with a rich new source of information on the African freedom movement and its US supporters. We have received a special grant to facilitate this ft- 1 H. QS. project. P. 0. Bo 953 Africa Fund Projects Director Dumisani Kumalo, an exiled Telehon 220OM LUANDA South African journalist, spoke at over twenty colleges and P. R. A. universities from Maine to California on speaking tours in the spring and fall. In his talks Kumalo vividly describes his life 21st March, 1981. under apartheid and discusses US policy toward southern Africa. A faculty member from one of the colleges he visited wrote to us saying, "Though many of us have read and heard a lot about the South African issue, having with us a man who has lived through and among the atrocities makes it somehow more real. He has truly stimulated this campus." In reply to your letter dated 8/i/80 on which you informed us in details about the ninenty one (91) cartons of pharmacetils-which came through the UNSCR, Luanda of the AWB-047-18 1894-1171 of TAP, all have been arrived safely. On behalf of my movement, SWAPO of Namibia, I extend to your organisation our profound thanks and hope that in future you will continue to assist us in our struggle for National independence. GabrieI Nanta SWAPO LGIST 1 3,7 EOORDI NATORF SPECIAL PROJECTS We were able to respond to a request from the Mozambique Ministry of Foreign Affairs for books and periodicals needed to establish a resource library for the diplomatic staff with the help of a special grant. We sent nearly 200 books dealing primarily with African history, international law and relations, economics, and development. Among the periodicals subscribed to were the American Journal of International Law, Foreign Affairs, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Afrique-Asie. Nine student interns assisted with our research work in 1981. The internship program provides valuable exposure to contemporary African issues for students while they help to maintain and expand The Africa Fund's research center. Last year's interns came from Columbia, UCLA, Dartmouth, the City University of New York, and Brown, among other colleges and universities. After he retired as Africa Fund executive secretary last June, George Houser began working to prepare the archives of The Africa Fund and the American Committee on Africa for placement with a research library. The archives contain RESEARCH, PUBUCATIONS, AND EDUCATION The Africa Fund is the major source of information on southern Africa and US policy for thousands of individuals, as well as church, trade union, student, and human rights organizations. Every year more requests for information pour in from journalists, scholars, legislators, diplomats and many others. Last year 155 researchers and students came to our office to use the extensive research center which has been built by years of monitoring over fifty African, American and European newspapers and journals. Many requests for information came from the media. Among our responses, we supplied an Associated Press reporter with information on the persecution of the church in South Africa, the Public Broadcasting System program "Nova" with facts on US mineral dependency on South Africa, assisted Joe Hamill of The New York Daily News to research an article on Frank Sinatra's performance in the South African Bantustan of Boputhatswana, and gave a Wichita, Kansas radio station information on military uses of US aircraft in South Africa. Among the many others we assisted were researchers from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Council of Churches, the Council on Interracial Books, local leaders from the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and student activists from a wide range of colleges and universities. In addition to requests coming to the office, we are able to reach a very wide audience through staff appearances on radio and television. Dumisani Kumalo has appeared on television in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bangor, Maine; Galveston, Texas; and Baltimore, Maryland. He and other staff members have been on the radio in those cities and in Hartford, Houston, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Eugene, Los Angeles, and New York City. The Africa Fund published five research studies and distributed approximately 35,000 copies of our own publications and many titles by other publishers. The five new studies are: "The Sullivan Principles: A Critical Look at the US Corporate Role In South Africa," "Fluor: Building Energy Self: Sufficiency for South Africa," "South Africa: Questions and Answers On Divestment," and "Namibia: For Freedom and Independence" by Theo-Ben Gurirab, SWAPO of Namibia's Permanent Observer to the United Nations.

"Stay Away 16-17 June". a strike call marking the anniversary of the 1976 uprising when police killed a thousand unarmed protesters in South Africa. 1981 Financial Results* Income Contributions Literature Sales Travel & Honoraria Interest $ 191,684.00 9,693.00 980.00 2,473.00 $ 204,830.00 Projects Research/Education Membership General * The financial figures above are preliminary and subject to independent audit. Copies of the 1981 audited financial statement for The Africa Fund will be available when completed on request. THE AFRICA FJND The Africa Fund was founded in 1966 to provide humanitarian aid to African people struggling for independence and to work toward increased American understanding of African issues through a program of research and literature production. Contributions to The Africa Fund are tax deductible. THE FUTURE AND THE AFRICA FUND Some who care deeply about the work of The Africa Fund have made provision for it in their wills. These remembrances help generate growth and vitality in our ongoing work. For those who wish to provide for the continuance of their interest in the purposes of The Africa Fund the following form of bequest is suggested: I hereby bequeath to The Africa Fund, 198 Broadway, NY, NY, for use in its programs the sum of $ Trustees Frank C. Montero Chairman John L. S. Holloman Vice-Chairman Marvin Rich Treasurer George M. Houser Executive Secretary Emeritus Isaac Bivens Robert Boehm Jacob Clayman Wesley Hotchkiss Sophia Yarnell Jacobs William B. Landis Tilden LeMelle Andrew Norman Robert Potter Lionel Rogosin Robert Stover Peter Weiss Advisory Committee Julian Bond Dick Clark Ossie Davis Ruby Dee James L. Farmer Henry Foner Coretta Scott King Rep. Parren Mitchell Frederic O'Neal Stanley Sheinbaum Eugene Stockwell Executive Secretary Jennifer Davis The Africa Fund (associated with the American Committee on Africa) 198 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10038 The Africa Fund's last audited financial statement is available on request. New York residents may obtain a copy of the latest "Report of Charitable Activities" filed with the Secretary of State by writing to the New York Department of State, Office of Charities Registration, Albany, N.Y. 12231 or to The Africa Fund Expenses $ 102,280.00 81,527.00 17,640.00 4,269.00 $ 205,716.00