Sechaba, Jul. 1986
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Page 1 of 38 Alternative title Sechaba Author/Creator African National Congress (Lusaka, Zambia) Publisher African National Congress (Lusaka, Zambia) Date 1986-07 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1986 Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA) Rights By kind permission of the African National Congress (ANC). Format extent 36 page(s) (length/size)
Page 2 of 38 SECHABAJULY 1986official organ of the african national congress south africaFROM UNGOVERNABILITY TO PEOPLE'S POWER
Page 3 of 38 SECHABA and other ANCpublications are obtainablefrom the followingANC addresses:ALGERIA5 Rue Ben M'hidi LarbiAlgiers.ANGOLAPO Box 3523Luanda.AUSTRALIABox 49 Trades Hall (Room 23)4 Goulburn StreetSydney NSW 2000.BELGIUM9c Rue de RUSSiC 1060Bruxelles.CANADAPO Box 302Adelaide Postal StationTorontoOntario M5C-214.CUBACalle 21aNR 20617Esyuina 214 AtaheyHavana.DENMARKLandgreven 7/3 1301Copenhagen K.l1i't P 15 Ahmad I%hmat StreetZanlalckCairo.ETHIOPIAPO Box 7483Addis Ababa.I R \\('I18 Rue des Petites Ecuries75010 Parisl&ll\IA\ DLMOCRAIIC RLPI 1iLILAngerweg 2WilhehnsruhBerlin 1106.FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANYPosttach 1901405300 Bonn I.INDIAFlat 68Bhagat Singh MarketNew -Delhi I .ITALYVia S. Prisca ISa00153 Rome.MADAGASCARPO Box 80Tananarive.NIGERIAFederal GovernmentSpecial Guest HouseVictoria IslandLagos.SENEGAL26 Avenue Albert SarrautDakar Box 34 20.SWEDENPO Box 2073 S-103 12Stockholm 2.TANZANIAPO Box 2239 Dar es Salaam.PO Box 680 Morogoro.UNITED KINGDOMPO Box 3828 Penton StreetLondon NI 9PRUNITED STATES801 Second Avenue Apt 405New York NYC 10017ZAMBIAPO Box 31791Lusaka.LISTEN TO:Radio FreedomVoice of the African National Congressand Umkhonto We Sizwe, the People's Army.Radio Luandashort wave: 30 & 40 in. bandsmedium wave: 27.6 in. band7.30 p.m. daily.Radio Lusakashots wave: 31 m. band. 9580 KHz7.15-8.00 p.m. Monday to Friday10.05-10.35 p.m. Wednesday10.30-11.00 p.m. Friday7.00-8.00 p.m. Saturday8.00-8.45 p.m. Sunday, 17895 KH/.Radio Madagascarshort wave: 49 m. hand, 6135 KHz9.30-10.00 p.m. daily.Radio Ethiopiashort wave: 31 m. band. 9545 KH/9.30-16.00 p.m. daily.Radio TanzaniaShort wave: 19 m. hand. 15435 KHzSunday. Monday. Wednesday. Friday.8.15 p.m.31 m, band,Tuesday. Thursday & Saturday.6.15 a.m.Published be theAfrican National Congress of South AfricaP.O. Box 31791, LUSAKA, ZAMBIAPrinted by the Druckerei 'Erich Weinert',20011 Neubrandenburg, G.D.R.
Page 4 of 38 Page 5 of 38 SECHABAJULY 1986CONTENTS:EDITORIALThe Masses Strike Fear in the Enemy ...... 1THE IDEOLOGY OF RACISMSpeech by President O R Tambo ...... 2PASSIVE RESISTANCE - AND AFTERThe Indian Congress in South AfricaBy Das Gupta...... 9ANC INTERNATIONAL ...... 14WHAT CAN THE WORLD LEARNFROM SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE?By Wally Serote...... 15CENTRE PAGEWomen Fighters - Inside and Outside Apartheid Jails ...... 16ARTISTS HAVE A MORAL RESPONSIBILITYJonas Gwangwa Speaks to Francis Meli ...... 20ANC STATEMENTS ...... 28LETTER TO THE EDITOR ...... 30The front cover shows part of the funeral of seven people ambushed and shot inGugulethu, March 1986.The picture on page 2 is b), courtesy of'the Third World Foundation.Send Hour subscriptions to:Sechaba PublicationsP.(). l;ox ;R, 28 Penton Street, London N 1 9PRUnited KingdomTelephone: 01-837 21112Telex: 29955ANCSAG Telegrams: NlayibuyeDonations Helcome
Page 6 of 38 THE MASSES STRIKE FEAR IN THE ENEMYThe South African racists are in a panic.They have pulled down the steel shutteron the laager into which they haveretreated. They have declared a nation-wide state of emergency,four days beforethe tenth anniversary of the Soweto upris-ing - June 16th.This has been done in deliberate defianceof the international community and the de-mand for comprehensive and mandatorysanctions. This ban on extra-parliamentaryopposition has meant that hundreds of ac-tivists have been detained, and others wentinto hiding. Soweto has been sealed off toall "non-residents," including the media.These sweeping powers given to thesecurity forces are so wide-ranging thatthey ban the taking of photographs, thedissemination of news overseas, and pro-hibit any writing or recording, as well.asuttering "within the hearing of any otherperson," any "subversive statement."This state of emergency has been impos-ed at a time when more than 1 600 peoplehave lost their lives since 1984; after theracists attacked Botswana, Zimbabwe andZambia on May 19th and caused untolddamage to the economy of Angola.Far from solving its problems, theregime is compounding the situation foritself. The ANC is the only organisationthat can solve the crisis which the regimehas plunged the country into.We have said this over and over again.But now let us hear from others. The Emi-nent Persons' Group reports that they drawthe conlusion that,while the racist regimeclaims to be ready to negotiated, it is intruth not yet prepared to negotiate fun-damental change, nor to countenance thecreation of genuine democratic structures,norto face the prospect of the end of Whitedomination and White power in theforeseeable future. Its programme ofreform does not end apartheid but seeksto give it a less inhuman face. Its quest ispower-sharing, but without surrenderingoverall White control.This Eminent Persons' Group goes fur-ther to say:"There can be no negotiated settlement inSouth Africa without the ANC; the breadthof its support is incontestible; and this sup-port is growing."They have other things to say about thepeople:"Put in the most simple way, the Blackshave had enough of apartheid. They areno longer prepared to submit to its oppres-sion, discrimination and exploitation. Theycan no longer stomach being treated asaliens in their own country. They have con-fidence not merely in the justice of theircause, but in the inevitability of their vic-tory. Unlike the earlier periods of unrestand government attempts to stamp out pro-test, there has been during the past 18months no outflow of Black refugees fromSouth Africa. The strength of Black con-victions is now matched by a readiness todie for those convictions. They will,therefore, sustain their struggle, whateverthe cost."
Page 7 of 38 THE IDEOLOGY OF RACISMSpeech by President TamboOn May 5th President Tambo received the fifthannual Third World Prize on behalf of Nelsonand Winnie Mandela in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. Nelson and Winnie Mandela wereawarded the prize in "fecognition of theiroutstanding contribution to Third World pro-gress." Jointly sponsored by the Third WorldFoundation and the Malaysian Institute for Socialand Economic Studies (London) and the Malay-sian Institute of Strategic and InternationalStudies (ISIS), the prize-giving ceremonybecame an act of solidarity with our strugglingpeople. The Malaysian Prime Minister, DatoSeri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said, "If we mustmeet terror with force, this is the time to meetterror with force," and he called on those whoseeconomic clout has the the necessary force to"apply economic sanctions."We reproduce excerpts from President O RTambo's speech on the occasion.We are meeting here today to honour two SouthAfricans, Nelson and Winnie Mandela, whosymbolise those prisoners, the first with the nar-rower and the second, the wider meaning of thatterm. We meet not to express sympathy eitherwith them or with the millions of people of whomthey are part, but rather, to salute and pay tributeto them for their steadfastness in the struggle togive birth to a world in which those of us whoare blessed with the skin colour you see on ourhands and faces will no longer be victims of op-pression, exploitation and degradation.The cause for which our people are paying thesupreme sacrifice daily and for which NelsonMandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, HarryGwala, Ahmed Kathrada, Elias Motsoaledi andothers have been sentenced to life imprisonment,has a significance which extends far beyond theborders of our country.Pernicious Ideology of RacismFor, what they are fighting against is the per-nicious ideology of racism, the accumulatedrefuse of centuries of an anti-human prejudicePresident 7iunho receiving the prize fromthe Prime Minister of Malaysiawhich seeks to define people as inferior, as notfully human, by virtue of their race. They areengaged in struggle to end the practice whichgave birth to these ideas, the practice of racialdiscrimination, racial oppression, dominationand exploitation.Racism, one of the great evils of our time,bedevils human relations, between individuals,within and between nations and across con-tinents. It brutalises entire peoples, destroys per-sons, warps the process of thought and injectsinto human society a foul air of tension, mutualantagonism and hatred. It demeans and de-humanises both victim and practitioner, lockingthem into the vile relationship of master race anduntermenschen, superior and underling, eachwith his position defined by race.As Black South Africans, we have lived withinthe entrails of the racist beast for many a longyear. We have seen constructed a system of socialorganisation based on the premise and the prac-tice that those who are White are inherentlysuperior and those who are Black must, in their
Page 8 of 38 own interests, be the objects of policies decidedexclusively and solely by the White people.Quite clearly, this edifice required somepseudo-theoretical precepts to underpin it andgive it the appearance of rationality. The theoreti-cians of racism in our country drew on the grossperversions of science which assumed theirclearest foims during the second half of the lastcentury in Europe and the United States. In thesecentres of imperialist power, there grew uptheories that biology and social anthropologyprovided the basis to justify the notion that allBlack people carried with them both an innateand a cultural inferiority to the White, giving thelatter the right and the duty of guardianship overthe former.Theoreticians of 'Racial Purity'Implicit in this thesis is the idea that these higherhuman beings have a similar right and duty tomaintain the purity of the human species up tothe point and including the commission of thecrime of genocide.One of the earliers of these racist theoreticiansin our country, this century, was none other thanGeneral Jan Smuts, who opposed Nazism onlybecause it threatened British imperial power.Speaking amidst the splendour of the LondonSavoy Hotel in 1917, Smuts had this to say:"It has now become an accepted axiom in ourdealings with the Natives that it is dishonourableto mix White and Black blood ... We have feltmore and more that if we are to solve our Nativequestion, it is useless to try to govern Black andWhite in the same institutions of government andlegislation. They are different not only in col-our but in minds and in political capacity ...".More than 40 years later, when these insultingracist ideas had been translated into the apartheidsystem, here is what two other theoreticians ofthis system wrote:"The three foundation stones of apartheid areWestern culture, Christian morality and a specificracial identity. In the case of the Afrikaner, thereis a powerful connecting link between these threeelements. His own particular bio-geneticcharacter is, for example, associated with a par-ticular socio-cultural way of life and to give upeither, through amalgamation with a moreprimitive culture or race must necessarily resultin the destruction of the other." ZOf course the inanities that were being conveyedas bio-genetic and socio-cultural theory, duringthe second halves of both the 19th and the 20thcenturies, were nothing but an attempt to justifya colonial relationship of the domination and ex-ploitation of the Black peoples by the Whites.They had absolutely nothing to do with scientifictruth.Once implanted, and despite their exposure asfraudulent and bankrupt, these ideas seemed totake on an independent existence, nurtured bythe continued practice of White supremacy inmany parts of the globe. Originating from prac-tice, they served to encourage the entrenchment,perpetuation and extension of this practice. Toemphasise the point that they reflected an im-mutable natural order of things, the fertile humanmind goes further to enrobe these racist ideas andpractices with the cloak of religion.Crime in the Name of ReligionIt is indeed in this way that it becomes possiblefor racism to give those who believe themselvesto be superior, the power to challenge the veryGod they dragoon to serve their interests andwhom they claim to worship. Thus, whereas theChristian scriptures, for instance, see all humanbeings as having been created in God's image,all racists will, for reasons that are perfectly ob-vious to them, retort that this cannot be so. Andso it is that the foulest of crimes, against life itself,are perpetrated in the name of religion, as is thecase in our own country. The idea of a civilisingmission, so dear to the earlier missionaries,derived exactly from this view that the Europeanwas a higher being deposited on this planet to playGod over 'the Natives.'From what we have said so far, it is self-evidentthat the practical relationship that characterisedthe interaction between Europe and the colonis-ed world, today's Third World, could not be buta hothouse of ideas for justifying this relation-ship. In its essence, racism is therefore aboutdomination and works both to justify existingdomination and to prescribe domination as thesine qua non for the solution of all futureproblems.Among the objectives pursued by our il-lustrious host here today, the Third World Foun-dation, are "to assist in the evolution of a fun-damentally just and equitable relationship bet-ween the Third World and the developed
Page 9 of 38 countries" as well as "to create greater awarenessof the problems of poverty, hunger and ignorancein the Third World."Colonial Relations PersistThat it is necessary to address these issues, asindeed it is, attests to the fact that the imbalanceof strength, the inequality of power and the in-compatibility of objectives that marked the rela-tions between the imperialist powers and the col-onised peoples remain to this day. It is notnecessary for us to elaborate further on this tothose who are gathered here and have to contendwith its disastrous consequences daily.The point we must, however, emphasise is thatit is exactly in these conditions that racismthrives, as it did during the colonial period.Hence we still find current, notions that at thebase of the 'North-South' dichotomy, lies the dif-ference between White peoples in the North whoare inventive, industrious and disciplined and theBlacks in the South who are innately indolent,imitative and happy-go-lucky.Western Europe has large numbers of so-calledgastarbeiter who are mainly non-Europeanworkers from the South. The jobs they do, thesqualor in which many of them live, the ghet-toes in which they are concentrated, once moreemphasise the distinction between Black andWhite as well as the lowly position of the formerand the superiority and domination of the latter.Similarly, in the United States, one has onlyto see the statistics of unemployment, drug ad-diction, homelessness, single-parent families andso on, to realise the extent to which the Blackpopulation is marginalised and serves as a liv-ing exam,ple for the most backward elements to'prove' the assertion that to be Black is to belongto a category of the human species that is lessthan human and which must be used as befits itsstatus.All of us present here know that the causes thataccount for the relationship between Black andWhite, the North and the South, that we havebeen talking about, are neither bio-genetic norsocio-cultural. Rather, they are socio-economicand are therefore capable of being changed orremoved.Those who are interested in an end to racismmust necessarily be concerned that theseColonial rulers give place to people's leaders: the base of the King George statueon the Grand Parade, Cape Town
Page 10 of 38 organisations should succeed. Inasmuch as thehuge nuclear arms expenditures are incompati-ble with development, so is the growing relativeand absolute underdevelopment of millions uponmillions of Black people incompatible with theobjective of ridding the world of racial arrogance,discrimination and tyranny.Need for a New Economic OrderThe urgent need for a New InternationalEconomic Order has been dramatically illustratedby the famine in Africa, the international debtcrisis and the collapse of the price of oil and otherraw materials. The hard and continuing strug-gle for the New Order is fundamentally about theredistribution of the world means of production,to bring about the economic independence of theThird World and enable its peoples to banishhunger, disease and ignorance for ever, to asserttheir dignity as human beings and bring fulfil-ment to their lives. The accomplishment of thisobjective would itself redress the political im-balance which threatens the independence ofmany nations, thanks to the extension of the in-famous Monroe Doctrine by the present US Ad-ministration to cover the entire Third World.We, the peoples who were objects of im-perialist expansionism, for ever the infantiledwarfs who required the benign or brutalpatronage of the White superperson, in earliertimes had to be liberated from the state of noblesavagery. Whether this resulted in our transpor-tation across the seas as slaves or in enslavementin our own countries, as subject peoples, was butthe unfolding of the manifest destiny.Today, still the infantile dwarfs as of yore,unable to think for ourselves, inanimate fruitready for the picking by whosoever has sufficientstrength to rule the garden patch, we are beingtaken under the protective wing of the UnitedStates, to save us from falling victim to an alleg-ed communist expansionism.Angola and Mozambique, Nicaragua andLibya, Grenada, El Salvador and Namibia arethe victims of this eminently racist policy whichasserts the supremacy of the interests of theUnited States over those of the peoples of theThird World, which presumes, as General Smutsput it, that we have neither the minds nor thepolitical capacity to exercise the right toself-determination.It is clear that the fate that has befallen thesecountries will be visited on even more of us. Overthe last few years, we have seen a discernibleswing to the right in all the major Western coun-tries, with the dominant social groups infusingpublic consciousness with the notion that mightis right. And, in good measure, we have seen theexercise of White might against the Black peo-ple, be it in the street brawls in British or Frenchtowns or the invasion of countries.Apartheid - Concentrated RacismApartheid in South Africa exists as the concen-trated expression of the worldwide cancer ofracism that we have been talking about. In ourcountry, the ideas and practices of racism reignsupreme, as they did in Nazi Germany - theessence and the purpose of state policy, the in-strument to effect and guarantee the dominationand exploitation of the Black majority by theWhite minority.Because of its high pedigree in reactionarypolitical thought and praxis throughout theworld, the apartheid system serves also as thenursery for the cultivation and propagation of thesame man-hating policies which the United Na-tions Organisation was formed to stamp out. Itis because there is today widespread recognitionof this reality that there exists that important in-strument of international law - the Conventionon the Suppression and Punishment of the Apart-heid Crime Against Humanity.We assert it as an incontrovertible truth thatmankind is under an obligation to suppress andpunish this crime against humanity. On the basisof the experience of our own people of the hor-rendous practice of racism, we can categorical-ly state it here that this crime cannot be suppress-ed by means of words or by persuading itsperpetrators to desist from the commission of acrime.Racism, the theory and practice of the domina-tion of one race by another, and specifically itsapartheid expression, cannot be reformed. LikeNazism, its antecedent and sister crime againsthumanity, it must be overthrown and uprootedforcibly, in its totality. Those who argue to thecontrary and even claim that Pretoria has embark-ed on reform, are either grossly misled or are benton protecting the regime or racial tyranny byseeking to refurbish its image to make it moreacceptable.
Page 11 of 38 In any case, a cancer cannot be its own cure.The fanatical racists, who have spent more thanhalf a century drawing up the blueprints of theapartheid system and transforming thosetheoretical constructions into the South Africansociety we know today, cannot, at the same time,be the agents for the abolition of the system.Bloodshed and GenocideAll they know and will ever know, is the needto maintain the system of White supremacy, andto maintain it by the use of all the violence thatthey can muster. Today our people are dying inlarge numbers, murdered on the orders ofPretoria's army and police generals. The blood-letting continues without reserve because, afterall, those that are being killed are, in the eyesof the generals, lesser beings who can be disposedof without compunction, because they are lessthan human. Some Western governments arepleased to describe this as the maintenance of lawand order!The same mentality and objective of thedefence of White minority domination, has in-structed and continue to inform the attitude andpolicy of the Pretoria regime towards thefrontline and other independent countries ofSouthern Africa. Its regular forces as well as itsarmed puppet formations have wrought untolddamage especially on the peoples of Angola andMozambique, with an enormous loss in humanlives. Racism cannot accept any relationship be-tween Black and White except that between ser-vant and master. Southern Africa will know nopeace until the apartheid regime in South Africais defeated and the system it upholds is destroyed.When that day dawns, only then will the fullhorror of the genocide being carried out in theBantustans become visible for all to see. Whereasthe Nazis resorted to the gas chamber to an-nihilate peoples they considered superfluous andno better than vermin, the Pretoria regime hasused the method of death by starvation to carryout its mission to purify the human race. Thedestruction of a system that has as one of its cor-nerstones such deliberate mass murder, is sure-ly long overdue.Yet the reality of the perpetuation of racismin South Africa is that the apartheid regime is sup-ported by the same forces which, during the lastcentury, deemed that the perspectives held outby the French and American Revolutions werenot for the colonised. The dominant forces in the
Page 12 of 38 major Western countries do this not despite thesystem of apartheid, but because of it.They support racism because it expresses theimperative of the system they represent, name-ly, to dominate, and serves their purposes as aninstrument for the extreme exploitation of thosewho are dominated. For these reasons, they spurnour appeals for comprehensive sanctions againstapartheid South Africa, which we repeat todayand urge upon the world community as the mosteffective means to bring about change in ourcountry with the minimum of violence anddestruction.Imperialism Seeks to DominateIt was not a slip of the tongue but a frank admis-sion of the truth when Ronald Reagancharacterised the apartheid regime as an ally oflong standing. His policy of constructive engage-ment with apartheid represents an engagementwith racism that arises from the nature of im-perialism - an engagement which, in the con-text of his goal to dominate the Third World, isconstructive because it helps to strengthen theallied apartheid regime.True to character, the Reagan Administrationand others in the West make certain, wheneverthey address the question of negotiations toresolve the conflict in our country, that they putthe supposed interests and aspirations of theWhite minority first. They turn their own na-tional experience of political change on theirheads in order to serve the cause of racism inSouth Africa.For example, it is argued forcefully that it isinappropriate and unreasonable for us to demandthat all South Africans, both Black and White,should have an equal right to elect the govern-ment of their choice - in other words, to havea system of one person one vote in a unitary state.Similarly, it is argued that it is we, the victimsof the violence inherent in the apartheid system,we who have to bury our murdered childrenevery day, who must lay down arms and ceaseour armed struggle to make negotiations possi-ble. Countries which are proud of the armedrevolutions which brought their peoplesdemocracy are, because of their support for theracists, equally fervent in their denunciation ofour armed combatants as terrorists.Likewise, we must renounce all claims to thenational wealth of our country, which we havecreated with our labour, because, by some queerlogic, to say that the wealth of the country mustbe shared by all the people is, in the South Africancontext, to threaten the human rights of the Whiteminority.March to Pollsmoor to demand the release of Nelson Mandela, 28.8.1985
Page 13 of 38 From Washington, London, Bonn and Parisissues the call that it will be absolutely vital tosafeguard the rights of the White minority. Andyet from all these, which pride themselves as thecentres of democracy, there is never a word aboutthe rights of the majority - the non-racial ma-jority! Instead, these centres of democracy areengaged in a desperate bid to find flunkeys andcollaborators from among the Black people whowill be imposed on us as our true representativesand paid for their services, in order to preserveWhite privilege.We Shall Abolish RacismBut certainly, no amount of political manoeuve-ring or killing of our people will blunt or stopthe offensive of our masses, under the leadershipof the African National Congress, to destroyracism in our country. Already the realisation isabroad among our people that victory is in sight.It is a victory that we will use to build a trulydemocratic South Africa, one in which we shallabolish racism once and for all, and end the un-just and unequal relations of domination and ex-ploitation that exist between Black and White inour country today and which are expressed in theconcept and the practice of apartheid.By that means, we shall also make our con-tribution to the struggle for a just and equitableinternational political, economic and social orderand add as much as we can to the constructionof a new world, free from hunger and povertyand free from the threat of termination of lifeitself through the use of nuclear weapons in aThird World War.We count ourselves fortunate that we haveamong our people such outstanding humanistsas Nelson and Winnie Mandela, as well as otherssuch as Albertina Sisulu, Greta Ncapai, DorothyNyembe, Thandi Modise, Frances Baard, VestaSmith, Amanda Kwadi, Barbara Hogan andMarion Sparg, people who hate racism and loveall humanity enough to be prepared to die in thedefence of liberty of all persons, regardless oftheir colour or race.We are proud that we come of a people that,like all others, is not prepared to tolerate evil andacquiesce in the perpetuation of tyranny. In theirnames, we are happy to receive this eminentprize. We thank the Third World Foundation andall who are associated with it for having sohonoured us. This prize will serve as a furtherZinzi Mandelaspur for us and, we are certain, for the rest ofhumanity, to redouble our efforts to free all thepolitical prisoners in our country and to liberatethe millions of our people who are held hostageby a racist clique.I . Quoted in: Wilkins and Strvdom: The Broederborul,Paddington Press Ltd, London 1979.2. Quoted in: Pierre ran den Berghe: South Africa -A Stud N in Conflict, UnirersitN. of California Press,Berkeley 1967- quoting N J Rhoodie and H J Venter.
Page 14 of 38 PASSIVE RESISTANCE- AND AFTERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIThe Indian Congress in South AfricalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllBy Das GuptaIn the calendar of events in the freedom strug-gle, June is certainly the most crowded andsignificant month. Ten days after the Soweto an-niversary of June 16th is June 26th, recognisedthe world over as South African Freedom Day,which originated in a series of strugglesculminating in the Congress of the People in1955.However, before June 16th is another anniver-sary that should not escape our attention. 40 yearsago, on Friday 13th June, 20 000 Indians in Dur-ban and several thousand in Johannesburgobserved hartal - a stoppage from work, schooland business - and marched to plots of land pro-hibited to Indians, which they then occupied.They marched in protest against fresh anti-Indianlegislation, the Asiatic Land Tenure andRepresentation Act, the main purpose of whichwas to curtail the already limited rights of Indiansto occupy, own and use land. The South AfricanIndian Congress aptly dubbed this act the Ghet-to Act.Suffocating RestrictionsAfter the African people, the Indians were thenext most restricted. They were trapped withintheir provinces, and then further restricted to liv-ing and trading only in certain parts of the pro-vince. in the Transvaal, they were confined to"streets, wards and bazaars, " as far back as 1883,and there were 60 " Asiatic Bazaars" in theTransvaal, where Indians lived. They were total-ly prohibited from living in the Orange FreeState, and only allowed in transit, and even thenonly by permit. In the Cape only small numberswere allowed, and those by educational qualifica-tion. Indians were certainly not allowed in theTranskei.In Natal, where the bulk of Indians lived, theirlives were suffocating. In Northern Natal, theirmovements were restricted, because at one timeNorthern Natal was part of the old TransvaalRepublic. They were barred from Zululand.Some coastal towns were lily-white - Indianscould only work there as waiters, and were con-fined to their quarters when off duty.In Natal, Indians were controlled by the Peg-ging Act of 1943.Now, with the Land Tenure Act, control wasgoing to be country-wide and uniform. As a sop,the Smuts Government offered Indians separatecommunal representation, in the form of the rightto elect three White MPs to the racist parliament.Defiance of the LawThe action of June 13th and the campaign thatfollowed was a total rejection of second-classcitizenship, a deliberate defiance of racist laws.It was led by the South African Indian Congress,under the leadership of Dr Yusuf Dadoo and Dr'Monty' Naicker.The hartal and the march were curtain raisersto the launching of the passive resistance cam-paign in Natal and the Transvaal, an action thatlasted two years. As one group occupying a pro-hibited plot of land was arrested, another groupwould take its place. Some groups from Natalbroke the law by crossing into the Transvaalwithout permits; if they were not arrested at theborder, they made their way to 'Red Square' inFordsburg. In the same way, volunteers from theTransvaal joined those in Durban, who were oc-cupying sites in Gale Street and Umbilo. Thevolunteers included 200 women and many youngpeople.What the Indian people did was consistent withtheir long traditions of resistance against racialdiscrimination, from the days when M K Gan-dhi was in South Africa - Gandhi, who later wasto lead India to freedom from the British Empire.
Page 15 of 38 Africa and Asia: Struggles for FreedomThe Passive Resistance of 1946 had a numberof significant historical features, several of whichwere to influence the course of political eventsin South Africa.The campaign was launched within ten monthsof peace being settled in Europe and Asia. 50million lives had been lost, and Europe and Asiawere in ruins. Emerging out of the ruins of Asiawere new nations, after a desperate bid for in-dependence. Two such giants were China andIndia.In South Africa, Black people also believedthat what was in store for them was relief fromracial persecution and oppression. They were tobe disappointed. White South Africa was not go-ing to alter its system of racial domination.The South African Indian Congress made a de-mand for equality. During the two years thePassive Resistance Campaign lasted, it made theracial disadvantages of all the Black people ofSouth Africa and Namibia internationally known.This caused much discomfort to General Smuts,to Britain and the other western Europeanpowers. For Smuts it was a sort of humiliation,as he had had a hand in drafting the Charter ofHuman Rights.Ever since 1946, the plight of the Black peo-ple has been the subject of discussions and resolu-tions at the United Nations; initially led by thenewly independent India and strongly supportedby the Soviet Union and the People'sDemocracies of Eastern Europe. It was Indiawhich first called for sanctions and the diplomaticisolation of South Africa, and the first to resolute-ly carry this policy out. Its steadfastness wasagain reiterated by Prime Minister Rajiv Gan-dhi, on a visit to Zimbabwe in May of this year.The South African Indian Congress was mind-ful that freedom would not come to the Indianpeople so long as the African people were op-pressed. Their future was an integral part of thefuture of the African people. This did not pre-vent Indians from making their own protests; butit meant that they were simultaneously workingfor unity with the African people.Pioneers and HeroesIn the late 1930s, such pioneers as Dadoo,Naicker, Dawood Seedat and H A Naidoo hadalready charted the course of unity in the strug-gle. Both Dadoo and Seedat were prominent inthe anti-pass campaigns.Dr G M (Monty) Naicker addresses a meeting of passive resisters in 1946
Page 16 of 38 The launching of Passive Resistance posedtremendous challenges to the South African In-dian Congress. It needed volunteers; thevolunteers' dependents would need welfareassistance; it needed a newspaper to express itsviews; it needed international support; it need-ed people, particularly young ones, willing to dothe backroom work for propaganda productions,bill posting, organising of platforms andtransporting. Most of all, it needed funds. Thesheer logistics of such a campaign wasfrightening.In time, it turned out some of the most talentedand dedicated people. So it is fitting on this oc-casion to salute the calibre of people likeH A Naidoo, Ashwin Choudree, Toti Khan, I Cand R A Meer, M D Naidoo, Roy NaranNaidoo, George Poonen, J N Singh, ZaynabAsvat, Surayakala Patel, Goonam Naidoo, VellaPillay (still in his teens and a promising and skill-ed youth organiser), Ahmed (Kathy) Kathrada,now a national leader, in his 23rd year ofimprisonment.Winning International SupportThe Indian Congress sent teams of people to lob-by abroad. Dadoo and Naicker went to visit In-dia; Nana Sita and Debi Singh to East Africa;Sorabjee Rustomjee, H A Naidoo and AshwinChoudree to Paris and New York.In New York they were to meet the ReverendMichael Scott, himself a passive resister in thecampaign, and there to plead the case on behalfof the Namibian people against the illegal occupa-tion of their country by South Africa; DrA B Xuma, the President-General of the ANC,and Hymie Basner (a senator representing the'natives' in the racist parliament), all in a jointattempt to win international support. Together,they were a powerful force against General Smuts- some of them were to lay eyes on 'their' PrimeMinister for the first time, 6 000 miles away fromhome.Our leaders were assisted in every possibleway by Paul Robeson, chairman of the AmericanCouncil of African Affairs, who, with limitedfunds, did much to enlighten American publicopinion on South African racism.A newspaper, The Passive Resister was laun-ched, and ably edited by Ismail Meer.There was the founding of the Transvaal In-dian Youth Volunteer Group, under the chair-manship of Kathy Kathrada. In 1955 it was tobecome the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress,one of the most militant youth movements. InNatal, a similar youth wing was formed, led byDawood Seedat.These young people seem to have been madeof a special mettle. Such assets were ZainabAsvat and Abdul Patel, medical students; VioletSolly, a factory worker, thrice imprisoned, andher brother Harold, who, together with JackieGovender were given lashes because they wereunder age; Kesval (Kay) Moonsamy; IsmailBhania, Suleiman Esakjee and Amin Kajee.On another level, there were Maulvi and YusufCachalia, M Thandray, M P Naicker, S V Red-dy, Cassim Amra, Maulvi Saloojee and GoonamPahad. These were people of powerful standingin the community.Helping in the campaign and in solidarity workwere the Communist Party; members of the ANClike J B Marks and Dr A B Xuma and DanTloome; George Carr and James Phillips fromthe Coloured people, and Cissy Gool from theCape Muslims.Newspapers like The Guardian, lnkululekoand The Searchlight gave wide coverage.Another journal that distinguished itself was TheDemocrat, edited by the eminent psychologist,Dr Wulf Sachs.Achievements of the CampaignWhat the campaign achieved was to break therusty mould the Indians had got themselves intoafter Gandhi's departure from South Africa in1914. It led to the isolation of a narrow and con-servative element in the Indian community, anelement that had been opposed to militant action.The campaign alerted the Indian people to thetricks that were being played on them, anddelivered a resounding defeat to the governmentplans for separate representation - it could noteven find three White candidates to stand as'Indian MPs.' This was a case when the boycottwas effectively used as a weapon of struggle.The leaders of the Indian and African Con-gresses were brought closer to unity, and, a yearlater, there was the famous Xuma-Dadoo-Naicker Pact.The campaign also led to the hardening ofWhite attitudes, and gave rise to strong anti-Indian agitation, nourishing the Nationalist Partyof Dr Malan, which was waiting in the corridorsof parliament.
Page 17 of 38 After nearly two years, when the campaignwas petering out, it was suspended. Its suspen-sion must be seen in the light of several facts:ti Enthusiasm was declining.ri There had, perhaps, been an over-emphasison the role of the United Nations, overlookingthe fact that its composition was still very muchdominated by the imperialists.ti The post-war recession had a grinding effecton the people.ti The Indian working class had become disen-chanted with the business community.ri The United Party had been defeated by theNationalist Party.0 The ANC had not quite emerged as a united,powerful body.ti The late 1940s was a time of anti-communisthysteria.ti The Communist Party of South Africa wasfighting for survival.The Nationalist Party made great play of theUnited Party's 'liberal' offer of CommunalRepresentation to the Indians. It successfully rais-ed the scares of the 'Black Bogey' and the 'RedMenace.' Such slogans as 'Die Hotnot op sy bek,die Kaffer in sy plek en die Koelie uit die land,'('Boot the Coloured in the mouth, keep theAfrican in his place and the Indian out of thecountry') found fertile ground with manyAfrikaner Whites, many of whom were beginn-ing to feel the effects of job losses. As for theJews, they were referred to as either 'thecapitalists' or 'the communists.'Shortages gave rise to black marketeering.Some Indian traders and property owners tookadvantage, ruthlessly exploiting the poor of allnational groups, and the African people were themost affected. This, and the racism of some In-dians, was a contributing factor triggering off theAfrican/Indian pogrom in Durban in 1949.African and Indian leaders went to the riot-tornareas to restore order and calm and to explainto the people who the real enemies were. (Gangsof Whites moved among the Africans, eggingthem on. More Africans died from gunshotwounds from the police than from Indians.) Itwas certainly a setback for African-Indian unity.These events took place within a year of theelection to power of the Nationalist Party, whichset about implementing its apartheid policy in ablitzkrieg-style attack on the limited rights of thepeople. The pass laws were tightened; mixedmarriages and so-called 'immorality' laws werepassed, forbidding sexual relations betweenBlack and White; the Communist Party wasoutlawed; and, in 1950, the Indian Representa-tion Act was repealed.This was followed by the passing of the GroupAreas Act, with devastating results for the Blackpeople.May Day 1950By 1950, a new era of political unity was achiev-ed. May Day 1950 was a breakthrough for thejoint efforts of the Communist Party (just beforeit was outlawed) the Transvaal Indian Congress,the Transvaal ANC and the Orange Free StateANC.May Day 1950 was marked by the death of 18people, killed as a reprisal for the successful one-day stoppage in the Transvaal. This led the ANC,as a national body, to call for a day of mourningon June 26th. After a thorough analysis, the ANCYouth League, led by Walter Sisulu, NelsonMandela and O R Tambo, gave its full backing.That decision can be considered the turning pointfor the liberation movement. From then onwards,the unity of the African and Indian Congresseswas accelerated, through all the major struggles,right up to 1961 and beyond. From then on, theIndian people were always up front; perhaps notalways in sufficient numbers, but neverthelessthey were there.Police repression did not discourage peoplelike Nana Sita and Mohamed Bhana from con-ducting their own non-violent struggles, nor thehundreds of Indian women who joined the marchof 20 000 women to Pretoria in 1956.When the ANC took its momentous decisionto launch MK, some of its first recruits came fromamong the Indian people. There were suchnames, now highly honoured, as Billy Nair, IsuChibba, Reggie Vandeyar, Indres Naidoo,George Naicker, Shirish Nanabhai. These wereall to undergo torture and long terms of imprison-ment. They have come out from these ex-periences even more defiant. Kathy Kathrada isstill the symbol of that determination.New Tasks and ProblemsFrom the mid-60s up to about the late 1970s,there was a lull in Indian political activity, largelycaused by bannings, imprisonment and exile.This left the field wide open for the regime to
Page 18 of 38 hoist the Indian National Council (later called theSouth African Indian Council) and the LocalGovernment Extension Act of 1963, drawing ina collaborationist element. These governmentstooges carried on without public concensus, andlater the regime felt confident that the SouthAfrican Indian Council could go public by allow-ing for elections in the hope of gaining the ac-ceptance of the Indian people.The elections to the South African IndianCouncil gave some of the old Natal and TransvaalIndian Congress members an opportunity torevive their organisations, and this led to the for-mation of anti-SAIC committees, whichdelivered a resounding rebuff to the plans of theregime from the majority of the Indian people.However, in spite of the low poll throughout thecountry, the regime persisted, and in 1983 reveal-ed its plans for the creation of the tricameralparliament; a dispensation being peddled as a ge-nuine attempt to reform the political process ofthe country. The regime sought backing from theWhites through a referendum and got favourablesupport.What it did not calculate on was the degree ofopposition to the tricameral parliament, fromAfricans, Coloureds and Indians. The anti-SAICCommittees and the Release Mandela Committelaid the basis for united action, and thus was bornthe mighty United Democratic Front.Unity is NecessaryWhile we commend the Indian people for theirrecord of militancy, it is necessary to debate whythe Indian people are now not complementing thestruggle to the degree of the Africans, who aremaking the supreme sacrifice. It is the task of theliberation movement to examine this problem ina positive and constructive manner, as ignoringit or skirting it will not help - only compoundthe problem and create new ones.One does not know precisely what factors arepresent here, but we can suggest some likelyones, in the hope that it will lead us to greaterunderstanding.One factor is the basic system of apartheid inits stratification of the people into White, Indian,Coloured and African, with a disparity in jobs,wages, education, housing, business and so on- this has been a divide-and-rule technique ofthe regime.Apart from this stratification and the ploy ofthe tricameral parliament, the regime has madeother attempts to woo the Indians. There is anIndian cadet force, and recent recruits includewomen. Indians with rifles - a thing unknownin the past - have been shown on televisionscreens, standing side by side with Whitepolicemen.The presence of Inkatha in Natal poses a pro-blem not only for the ANC, the UDF andCOSATU, but a serious threat to unity betweenIndians and Africans. Inkatha demonstrated itsattitudes when its hoodlums attacked the Gan-dhi house, and the Indians in Inanda and Phoenix,and later Indian people on the beaches. GatshaButhelezi is on record as making veiled threatsto Indians by reminding them of the troubles of1949.The expulsion of Indians from East Africa (asa result of the problems created by British im-perialism) was highly exploited by the regime andmedia in South Africa.The revival of the NIC and the TIC was mostimpressive, and impressive, too, are the cam-paigns they led. However, the absence ofworkers in the leadership would mean thepolitical relationship with African workers, infactory and office, would be a distant one. Pre-sent political forces in South Africa are built onworker level.Some elements of communal sectionalism havesurfaced from time to time, especially among In-dian collaborators.Political activists and leaders in the Indiancommunity need to put stronger emphasis forgreater involvement in the struggle, if we are tomake the slogan of seizure of people's power areality.
Page 19 of 38 ANC/INTERNATIONALINTERNATIONALSANCTIONS SEMINARAn International Seminar, organised by theUnited Nations Special Committee againstApartheid and the World Campaign againstMilitary and Nuclear Collaboration with SouthAfrica, met in London from 28th-30th May, andagreed a Declaration which incorporated a seriesof 14 proposals to strengthen the arms embargo,and ensure its strict implementation. Theserecommendations were forwarded to the worldconference on sanctions, with an appeal for theirendorsement.There were 150 participants at the seminar.Over 30 governments were represented; nationalliberation movements, including ANC, SWAPOand the PLO; and non-governmental organisa-tions. Special experts were invited to read papers.The seminar expressed its concern at "thegrowing threat that the apartheid nuclear bombpresents to the peace of Africa and the world,"and did not accept that "in the case of SouthAfrica a meaningful distinction could be madebetween collaboration for peaceful purposes andthat for nuclear weapons production." Theseminar also stressed the importance of the man-datory arms embargo, which has created seriousshortages for the South African military, depriv-ing them of vital supplies. It discussed the supp-ly of weapons sent by the United States toUNITA, deciding that the supply of arms toSouth African surrogate forces amounted to a ma-jor breach of the arms embargo, and urging theUnited Nations Security Council to give im-mediate attention to the matter.In a message to the seminar, President Tam-bo pointed out that the United Nations SecurityCouncil arms embargo remained riddled withloopholes, because the logical steps to strengthenit had been resisted by certain member states.Referring to the failure of the Security Councilto impose mandatory sanctions followingPretoria's aggression against Botswana, Zambiaand Zimbabwe, President Tambo concluded:"The latest abuse of the veto power by theUnited States and United Kingdom are an act thatflies in the face of the world-wide condemnationof Pretoria's attack on three Commonwealthcountries in order to torpedo the Commonwealthpeace initiative, and must be vigorously con-demned. It must be taken as a challenge by theinternational community in general, and theCommonwealth countries in particular, tostrengthen the arms embargo and to take effec-tive measures, especially the imposition of com-prehensive and mandatory sanctions againstracist South Africa."NETHERLANDS UNIVERSITYHONOURS WINNIE MANDELAOn 1 lth June, as part of the celebrations mark-ing the 350th anniversary of its foundation, theUniversity of Utrecht in the Netherlandspresented an honorary doctorate in law to Win-nie Mandela. As Winnie Mandela could not bepresent, the award was received on her behalfby Comrade Rose Motsepe, of the ANC missionin the Benelux countries.
Page 20 of 38 WHAT CAN THE WORLD LEARNFROM SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE?By Wally SeroteThis was an address given at the Second Con-ference of African and Swedish Writers inStockholm in April 1986The ANC, and as a result the people of SouthAfrica, have a history of having had to sacrificeall basic human needs: family warmth and friend-ship, the right of living in one's country, deman-ding from each individual to make the demandfrom themselves of the highest form of disciplineso that their actions define them as freedomfighters. And then, that each South Africanforges a lifestyle which equates freedom with life.That is one part of the story. The other is thatthe ANC, having demanded only the best of itselfand of the people of South Africa, then forgedalliances and friendship with governments,organisations and peoples whose purpose for liv-ing is to make the world a better place to live in.The people of South Africa have not only re-jected apartheid, but have gone further, andcreated an alternative to it, the ANC. If we agreethat culture is how people organise themselvesto harness nature so as to better their lives, andalso, that it is when they make rules forthemselves so that they know how to relate toeach other in the process of harnessing nature,ensuring that the rights of individuals, groups,and the nation are protected, in order that the na-tional collective talent contributes to progress,joy and peace of the world in general, then sim-ple logic would inform us that apartheid, whosebasic principle is discrimination based on skincolour and super-exploitation of the majority bya minority which apartheid defines as the "masterrace", we then understand how apartheid itselfis a violent cultural and political programme. Inthe South African context, a few get the best, themajority the worst.Lessons of HistoryHistory has taught us that it is not in the natureof man to accept oppression and exploitation, andthe people of South Africa are no exception tothis rule. Therefore, a regime in power whichformulates apartheid and implements it, willnaturally be faced with rejection and hostilityfrom its victims, and therefore will have to devisestrong means of making its violent cultural andpolitical programme acceptable.The minority White regime in South Africathen, having devised apartheid and havingcreated a strong security system to protect andimplement it, has had also to seek allies andfriends to make progress out of its backwardnessand to share the loot. On the other hand, as Ipointed out above, the ANC and the majority ofthe people of South Africa by saying, "SouthAfrica belongs to all who live in it. Black andWhite, and that no government can justly claimauthority unless it is based on the will of all thepeople," faced with the might of the "masterrace," set new cultural reference for the peopleof South Africa and the world to relate to.This is the story about two forces, one fightingfor the oppression and exploitation of the majori-ty, and the other fighting for the majority tobecome free, non-racial and democratic. It is astory of how a people can degenerate to thelowest form of human life. It is also a story abouthow a people can emerge in glory as they releasetheir power for creativity to utilize the individualand collective talent and put these to the use ofall - to the glory of humanity!Three hundred years of living under oppres-sion and exploitation is a thorough process ofgenerations upon generations being subjected toa systematic programme of dehumanisation; andseventy-four years of being an organised peoplestruggling to become part of humanity is, on theother hand, a pointer to the size, depth and heightof odds faced, and also to the vastness of thewealth of experience gained. This, in varyingability, has been the exploration of the culturalmanifestations of South Africa.It is against this background that South Africancultural work and cultural workers must be judg-(Continued on page 18)
Page 21 of 38 WOMEN FIGHTERS INSIDE ANq- ILeft: A shopper in central Johannesburg supports theother political activists.Above: Dideka Heliso, outside Pollsmoor Prison in Atrialist Raymond Mhloba. After 22 years, Mhlaba mSA meeting of the Federation of Transvaal Women, in March 1986, condemns detention, con the Shorpeville Six. From left to right: Sister Bernard Ncube, President of Fedtrow, orto life - June Mlangeni, Albertina Sisulu and Irene Mkwayi.
Page 22 of 38 L) OUTSIDE APARTHEID GAOLScampaign to protect Winnie Mandela and61 1986, after her marriage to Rivoniay now receive contact visits from his wife.d calls for the lifting of the death sentencesThree wives of freedom fighters sentencedfhandi Modise, sentenced m 1980to eight years for Umkhonto we Sizweactivities.Helena Passtoors, sentenced inApril 1986 to ten years for membershipof the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Page 23 of 38 (Continued from page 15)ed. Whether we are looking at films, paintings,photographs, theatre, dance, and/or music, allthe time, our guide is what role have thesecultural manifestations played to record the storyof the people of South Africa, to portray the stateof this country, to contribute to the bettermentof their lives, to inspire these same people toreach their aspirations, and to give lasting andsustaining hope, so that their lives are led foreveroptimistic.It is not possible then, under these cir-cumstances, to have cultural workers in SouthAfrica who create art for its own sake, or culturalworkers who have taken no side in this seriousconflict. Nor is it possible to be alive and creatingin a world which is, on a daily basis, fighting forpeace for all in it, while its other part createsmeans and prepares for the complete annihila-tion of humankind, and be neutral. We as culturalworkers, like everybody else, must take positionson these matters.Having said that, I want then to confront a verydifficult and very serious reality which confrontseveryone on a daily basis, for, without doing this,an becomes irrelevant. Also, since I am dealingwith South Africa, it is best to focus at the re-cent reality in that country. The ANC made a callto our people to make apartheid structures un-workable and the country ungovernable. Theapartheid regime has directed all those who sup-port it, especially its supposedly invinciblesecurity system to, by all means, defend apart-heid, this crime against humanity. What do theseopposites mean for the people of South Africaon a daily basis?The Writer Must Face Reality1 want here to use literature, since that is whathas brought us here together, to look at the issuesof my country. The pictures of today's realityare grim, and can be blood-curdling. Let usisolate one incident, which is grim, which mostpeople in the world are aware of because it wastaken from bloody streets of South Africa intothe homes of people inside the country and intolarge parts of the world. A young woman whowas still a student was hurled into living-roomsat news time. She had just been bound, made towear the necklace, and we watched as she wriggl-ed beneath the raging flames which were con-surning her clothes, her flesh and, eventually, herlife. Those who did it said that she was workingfor the police. They were doing this as they wereburying seven young men of their age who hadbeen killed by grenades. The people of thetownship where this was happening said thegrenades were a booby-trap set by the police, andthat this young woman who died such a grimdeath was responsible for, and had directly par-ticipated in, planning this grim incident of kill-ing the seven youngsters. A funeral processionwhich was held together by revolutionary songsand had been brought together by the deaths ofthe seven young fighters, whose bodies were inthe coffins which the procession suspended intothe air as it marched, watched as the youngwoman was caught, bound and burnt. What isall this?Well, the death of this girl, more than anythingelse, must make us sober. It must demand of usto find out why it is possible for a little girl, forthat matter, for anyone, to die such a ghastlydeath.Suppose it is true what the people are sayingabout this little girl, what does this say to a writer,and what can a writer do with such grim infor-mation? Suppose it is not true what the peoplewere saying, the question retrains, what does thissay to a writer and what can a writer do with suchinformation? What are the tools and skills whicha writer must have to handle such matters? And,why must a writer deal with such matters, or doesa writer have a choice: is it a matter of take itor leave it?That is one incident. The other is that the worldhas been witness, as daily for the past twenty orso months, the South African regime, withfrightening coldness, sends its soldiers and policeinto the streets of townships all over South Africato kill hundreds of young girls and boys indefence of White domination. We also heardwhat the reasons are for all this. What does awriter say to the many, many other fightingyoung girls and boys who have decided that noone will stop them from facing the soldiers, foras long as the white minority regime remains inpower. We also know what the regime says aboutall this, and daily we witness what it does aboutthose who say it through flowing blood, their ownblood, that South Africa must change, willchange. We have also heard the ANC call to thepeople of South Africa to render South Africa
Page 24 of 38 ungovernable and also that they must form organsof popular power. Each side is going to use allits resources to achieve its objectives. Whoseresources are South African cultural workers?Apartheid Does Not Respect LifeWe must answer this question, for then theanswer to it enables us to answer once and forall the issues raised by the death of the girl andthe death of the seven young fighters. We maynot know the details of these terrible incidentsbut we know one thing: the minority regime hasno respect for international law, for thesovereignty and independence of other countries,as the people of Southern Africa have come toknow. It has no respect for life, will stop atnothing to maintain white domination. To them,we can say, it must be very clear that we do notwant our children to be used for, or killed to save,apartheid which is a crime against humanity.Then we must, as writers, arm the minds andhearts of our children with knowledge, withhope, with optimism, with courage, that not oneof them must be used to save apartheid.South African literature which does not addressitself to these issues is irrelevant. Writers whoare not part of this unfolding process cannot writeabout the lives of these people. Why? That is sobecause we can only know how green the grassis and how many brown patches of earth hidethemselves by reducing the distance between usand the grass we are looking at.A bloody conflict is ensuing in South Africa.The people are saying that they have createdstreet committees. These committees are takingcontrol of the hearts and minds (to use words thathave been made bloody) of the oppressed. Thesecommittees are receptacles of new ideas whichmust challenge and do away with old ones. Whatliterature must these people read, or what can theworld read and learn from the literature of theseembattled people? That to me is the issue whichSouth African writers must answer through whatthey know best, and it is the only tale they cantell well to their people and to the world.The courage, the hope, the optimism of thesepeople, young and old, including children, whoare part of the street committees, hold and hangon every second, every minute and hour whichpasses every day as blood flows, as gunshotscrack, and gun-smoke smells.Oh comradeWe would love lessYou and IIf we loved not freedom moresays Lindiwe Mabuza in her poem, To aComrade.ANC Leads the StruggleThere is one truth that a South African writerknows: the world hears a lot about young menand women, the under thirties, who, throughtheir lives, articulate the day-to-day struggle ofthe people - that the world knows; we as writersalso know that the day-to-day struggle of our peo-ple is a manifestation of the presence of theAfrican National Congress which is leading andguiding the process of struggle. This struggle isfor the people to seize political power so that theycan use the creative ability of everyone to builda new South Africa. What contribution can theSouth African literature make to this process? Itis my view that one reason for our being in thisconference is about that question; that thepresence of writers from other countries enablesus to learn from them and their people, and thatthey can learn from us and our people, and sinceSouth Africa is part of the world and as a resultof this conference, it is our task as writers to sup-port firmly this noble objective of the people ofSouth Africa, also, to learn from them for ourcreativity.Lerato Khumalo, a South African poet, in herpoem Childhood in Soweto, in which she so ablyportrays the life of a child who has to grow upin this township, where "There are noplaygrounds" and "There are no stars/ to twinkletwinkle little eyes," concludes:But 1 have seen new playsin one actannouncing the birthof childhoodgrenades clearing the nightof blinders of smokeand hurdlespassing the childinto star-grappling teensadulthood without passesin Sowetoin towns and citiesnorth and eastgrowing fromSoweto.
Page 25 of 38 ARTISTS HAVEA MORAL RESPONSIBILITY MJonas Gwangwa Speaks to Francis MeliComradeJonas Gwangwa, You see re involved inthe field of music anti (iris in South Africa sincetlwSlls. Can you tell its more about your in volve-rnent and development in the 50s and later'I will start from how l got to be a musician. OfCourse I came from a quite musical family,although all we had was a piano in the house, andmN sister was an accomplished pianist and singerand wr just used to have family singing likeever% body else had. But, then 1 went to St Peter'sSecondary School in Rosettenville. At the time,l=ather Trevor Huddleston was the chaplain. Ithink, and principal at the priory and also takingcare of the school. After a couple of years, I meanin '53, following the request of one of thestudents for a trumpet, and after Father Hud-dleston got it, a lot of the artists, I mean thestudents, started asking for various instruments1 was amongst those Fwd 1 asked for atrombone.The instruments arrived, donated by variouspeople who were sympathetic to our struggle asfather Huddleston. now President of British AA.was one of our champions in the struggle for theblack people of* South Africa, and there were alot of people who were sympathetic and I iberals.They all were sending instruments, buyingsecond-hand instruments here and there. As theinstruments trickled in, we started a band. Thisband we called the Huddleston Jazz Band. 1 coin-ed the name, coincidentally. I guess.But, as the band grew and became popular asthe first African High School Band in SouthAfrica, we were performing little concerts hereand there, we took a tour to Durban and weredoing a lot of fund-raising for various little frater-nities, little societies -- women's - and raisingfunds for the struggle. We were, for instance,invited to raise funds lot the Congress of the Peo-ple in 1955 and we raised funds at Orlando Com-munal Hall and of course we were in Kliptownfor tire drawing up of the Freedom Charter. Theway it happened is that ANC members came toSt Peters. went to Father Huddleston to ask for,Iem(iS Gx-ant!tra plays the trombone
Page 26 of 38 the band and he told them that, "This is not myband; it is my name, but go and talk to the boys. "I can't remember who it was, but he just camein and said, "We work with Huddleston," so, niyiBand yomzabalazo, and that was it. We were justtold the venue, time and place and when to per-form. Then, of course, going around we werediscovered by the newspapers, the Bantu Worldat the time had good write-ups and I was pickedup as one, the trombone being a rare instrumentin South Africa, I was particularly noticed by thereporters and one thing led to another - we kepton playing around and a lot of professionals tookinterest in me. People like Kippie Moeketsi,MacKay Davashe, Zakes Nkosi, Ntemi Piliso,Sol Klaaste, Gideon Nxumalo - I know a lot ofmusicians - Elijah Ngwenyane, of course, whowas also giving lessons to some of ourtrumpeters. Then I was picked up by a groupcalled the Boston Brothers who called me to comeand back them up, seeing that the Ink Spots hada trumpet player. Elijah Ngwenyane and Manhat-tan Brothers had Kippie Moeketsi and MacKayDavashe, so they would have a different soundwith the trombone, so I was backing the BostonBrothers.That's where I started learning a whole lot ofdifferent tunes, which extended my repertoireand I had a chance of course through MacKayDavashe to play with the famous Muddy BlackBand which was the existing big band that wasdoing all the ballroom concerts. I played with theJazz Dazzlers under MacKay Davashe, whichwas one of the big groups, jazz groups in SouthAfrica with great musicians like Kippie,Mackay, Rubushe, Sol Klaaste, Mzala Lepere,General Duze ... I joined in and I was very lucky.They gave me a lot of experience.Then as time went I was also contracted to beone of the musicians in King Kong, King Kongbeing the first black musical in South Africa. Weand a friend of mine were involved in writing,not writing as such but being copyists, that is afterthe music is written out on the score, we copyit from the score to the individual, copy to theindividual instruments. We did that and that alsogave us different experience because we went outthere with a team that was arranging, which wascomposed of the people I have mentioned. Wetook off from there - of course we were bigmusicians - to South Africa with King Kong,which King Kong folded up, that was in 1958.And then we formed a group, a jazz group thatwas supposed to be going to a jazz festival inSwitzerland. We went to Cape Town, that is Kip-pie, Hugh Masekela and I, who went to CapeTown to look for musicians, where we foundDollarbrand Ibrahim with Makhaya Ntshokowho is presently in Switzerland and Johnny Getse... Makaya was on drums and Johnny Getse onbass.We formed what was the most powcrful jazzgroup in South Africa and played around CapeTown and went to Jo'burg. That was in 1960already, and right around that time there was theSharpeville massacre and with the Sharpevillemassacre, no more than five people, Africans,were to be seen in one place because of the Stateof Emergency at the time, and then we, beingsix, were already illegal, without an audience.The group disbanded and Hugh Masekela leftfor England. When the State of Emergency waslifted, we continued with Kippie Moeketsi andI as the horns, and the same rhythm section, butthat did not take long.We disbanded because King Kong resumed.This was the export version. We had made arecord and it being South Africa, we were notpaid a penny for the LP that we made. We hadbeen fortunate, I mean the three of us, Kippie,Hugh and I, to have met John Mehegan who carneto South Africa on a lecture tour. He was a pianistand I think he came the end of '58, then he didgive us a few scholarships, so we opened withour Violi Harmony - had quite a few sessionswith him and we had jazz workshops aroundJo'burg. We also made an LP and I must say thatwas a first LP for black people because black peo-ple were not allowed to have any long-playingrecords at the time - we could only make ?8s.So we made the first LP, Jazz in Africa, with JohnMehegan and the second LP was with our group,The Jazz of the People, Verse 1.After the formation of Jazz Special, Dollar-brand went back to Cape Town, and the rest ofthe guys, because they came from there andwe played in Johannesburg with King Kong. Kip-pie and I were in King Kong again which left forLondon on the 8 February 1961. We wentstraight to the West End, the Princess Theatre,which is Shaftesbury Theatre now and after sixmonths, I left the show to go to the United Stateson a scholarship.I went to the Manhattan School of Music where
Page 27 of 38 I joined Hugh and was in school for four yearsfor a bachelor's degree in Music. In the interim,being in the United States, I was able to workwith people like Miriam Makeba. I was also ableto work with Harry Belafonte, but I didn't havea work permit at the time. But then later on in1965 Harry Belafonte asked me to come and doan album for him, which was the album he wasdoing with Miriam Makeba, An Evening withBelafonte/Makeba, which has been a very suc-cesful album. It was voted the best folk albumof 1965 and it was a winner of the NationalAcademy for Recording Arts and Sciences andwas nominated for a Grammy Award. Thisalbum consisted of revolutionary songs fromSouth Africa and it's still selling very well to thisday.That sort of launched me and I had a wholelot of people coming to me to help them do ar-rangements, after which I did Phata Phata forMiriam Makeba, which was a hit. Then I formeda group of my own, African Explosion, whichwas managed and produced by Ahmed Jamal thepianist. I was able to do a few television spots,that is I was on TV and also able to arrange TVcommercials. I was in New York, playing aroundNew York, where I formed a group of dancersand singers to accompany the band and I wastouring colleges and doing nightclubs here andthere. That is where I started to get into usingtraditional dancers. As a matter of fact, in 1964,a group came from South Africa, called Spononowith a show which was to be on Broadway. Itwas successful and ran for }6 days from previewto close and then of course whilst the singers anddancers were around, they got a job with the NewYork World's Fair and performed there. I washelpful in the music and then the next year, in1965 they were called back again. So, that'swhere I started directing them.I used them in various reviews with HarryBelafonte that we had at the Philharmonic, whereit was my very first time to direct a big show,co-directed with Harry, when he had Ballet Afri-cain visiting the United States. So we had BalletAfricain and the Zulus, a Zulu group.Ballet Africain is from West Africa?Ballet Africain is from Guinea, Conakry, andthey are professionals that have been travellingthe world over for a long time. But we had a verypowerful show.Anyway, then I directed the World's Fair in1965 and continued to travel with the group ofdancers and singers. I then made a record whichwas on Jamal Records which had good reviewsbut Ahmed Jamal did not have the bread to pushit, so it went under.Then I left New York and went to Californiawhere I joined Caephus Semenya and Hugh andLetta Mbulu. Then we formed the Union of Ar-tists, which was a group consisting of Caephus,Hugh and I and some American musicians. Wecut a record which was quite a success in SouthAfrica. Unfortunately, I never got a penny outof it. It, too, is still selling to this day, interna-tionally, not only in South Africa by the way.I moved back to New York with a group whilstwe were touring, and I had an accident, a car ac-cident. I was hit by a car and I was laid up forfive months in New York. I came out of a hospital- a friend of mine, Joe Manong, was directinga movie, so he called me to come and write thetheme to the movie, the music. Right, straightfrom hospital with my crutches and all, I wentto Ohio to look at the shooting and I came outwith a theme. It was unfortunate that there is aninjunction on the movie right now because theproducers all got into a misunderstanding and thewhole thing is with the sheriff in New York.Then from that movie, some of the musiciansthat were there introduced me to other producers;there was a producer who had written a shortscript of Othello, with Yaphet Koto as the lead,and I had to do some music there because theywanted Othello with the setting in Africa - theMoor's home. So I did the whole soundtrack ofthe movie; the script is somewhere in Birm-ingham in the archives but I still haven't heardfrom the people. I might have a little boodle outthere somewhere, in New York somewhere.Anyway, I left New York whilst they were stillselling it.I was then contacted to direct music for amusical, actually it was a straight play with in-cidental music, but there was so much music thatit was bordering on a musical. Because a certainnumber of songs make it a musical, we had tocut one song out to make it a play, technicallyspeaking, but it was really a musical, and thiswas at Brown University in Providence, RhodeIsland. That was a success, it was a good ex-perience. From there on, I was back in New Yorkagain and moved over to Boston where I was do-
Page 28 of 38 I_ - _._-___Striking B7R Sarmcol workers enact the relationship betweenP W Botha and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatchering nightclub work and recordings for variouspeople.When I left the United States in 1976, I wentto Botswana with Caephus Semenya and Letta.where we toured the country and I was left therewhen they went back. I then formed a band inBotswana using Botswana musicians, teaching,and we played at the Holiday Inn there, but ofcourse I had to get a work permit so I had to leavethe country to get that, and I went to Zambiawhere I met the Broadway Quintet and startedplaying with' them at the Intercontinental Hotel.That has been something that I have not stoppeddoing; each time I pass Zambia I know I got alittle job there playing with the Broadwys.I went back to Botswana, and that job wasgone, but I toured Botswana advertising a localbrew there, with a local band, and I was trainingmusicians. I trained three female vocalists, theonly ones that ever sang in Botswana, I think,because Botswana could not believe that they hadsinging girls, and we toured the whole countryvery widely, pretty succesfully.Then the same year I left to go to Nigeria wherewe had the Festival of Black and African Artsand Culture, FESTAAC. This was in 1977. Outthere of course I was under the wing of theAfrican National Congress, our movement. 1came with a few musicians and poets and we allconverged with the choral singers coming fromthe GDR, and Poppie, with Veteran, comingfrom Zambia as dancers. From Tanzania camestudents that came out of South Africa during the'76 uprisings. There were ttnusicians that camefrom London, Dudu Pukwana, Julian Bahul;s,people like that. Johnny Dyani came fromSweden and we all converged in Lagos for theFestival. We had never worked together. I tookthe initiative in forming one show with penni-sion from Comrade Thabo Mheki.I went ahead to direct the show and lori ned om'ANC group which had music, poctr~, dame,both traditional and urban dances, both modernmusic and tradition, both traditional poetry andmodern poetry, and the same with songs, and itlcourse drama that came from the 'A LI,Icnl,,. 'I ht,,show was quite successful and 1 mist ntent1,-that this is where the name Amandla! startedSo after the Festival we were requested bythe Movement, the ANC-, to tour Tanzania andafter that tour Zambia as Amandla! Then,because; the NEC was satisfied with the effortfrom Nigeria, it was decided that Comrade Lin-diwe Mabuza and I sit down to write the CulturalMemorandum. We sat down to draw that uh inLusaka; we had a meeting with the NEC and itwas decided at the time that there should he astanding Cultural Group of the African NationalCongress. In 1978, this Group was called andput together in Luanda and they went to the I I thYouth and Student Festival, the World Youth andStudent Festival in Havana.At the time. then, I was in Botswana, and I gota call from the United States and I joined HerbHalpert of the Tijuana Brass, the famous Tijuana
Page 29 of 38 Brass, and Hugh Masekela. We had a nationaltour of the United States culminating with arecord in Los Angeles at the end of the tour. Wethen parted and I went back to Botswana, and in1979 I went back to the United States to do arecord with Caephus and from there I went toGermany to open up a Festival there calledHorizon 79.That was West Germany?That was actually not West Germany but WestBerlin. After that I went back to Botswana andcontinued teaching the students that were thereand playing in the local halls, trying to raise theconsciousness of the people there, I mean, so thatthere could be a concert-attending audience.There wasn't a concert-attending audiencebecause, on the weekends, Batswanas who wereliving double-standard lives, they were farmers,they went to the cattle post on the weekends andyou never had an audience. Botswana, I meanGaborone, was a very small little town then. Ofcourse it has since sprouted and has several clubs,most of which I have opened with groups thathave formed there, and it's a jumping town.Then in 19801 was called by the National Ex-ecutive Committee to give direction to the bandof the group that went to Cuba in '78. It was justfelt that they were not playing the music of thepeople of South Africa, the indigenous music ofthe people of South Africa, Umbhaqanga. So Iwent to Luanda. Actually at the time I was onmy way getting to London to go and do a record,but I went to Luanda; when I got to Lusaka andhearing what I was wanted for, I went to Luan-da, and when I got there I found that there werethese 40, about 40, talented youngsters who weresinging and dancing, and I had to fours a show.One cohesive show that was a political show butalso had all the dances and all the music of SouthAfrica. I worked at this show night and daywriting scripts, doing the choreography, in-troducing other dances that I knew, writing newmusic - and in the middle of all this I was againin a car accident and I was laid up in hospital forsome time.We were supposed to go on tour of the Scan-dinavian countries, so the show was unfinished.I asked the doctors to let me go, if they felt thatI could go, of course, I was on POP - I hadplaster of Paris from my neck down to my toes- I was just one big flat piece of plaster and Iwas staying at a hotel. I used to be taken out ofthe hotel daily to where the rehearsals were. Iwasn't allowed three days by the doctors a week,but as time went on I had to go there almost dai-ly because it was nearing the time of the tour.I went and completed the show. Somebody elsehad tried to complete the show but it was dif-ferent, so we had to get back to the line of theshow and what it was supposed to be and thenit was completed and sent off to tour the Scan-dinavian countries. It was a success. It was a greatsuccess, and they came back all very happy andof course the following year I was hospitalisedagain, but came back when they were in Zambiaand joined them, and I have been doing that,changing the show wherever, improving it everyyear since then to date.Amandla! was a result of the efforts of thestudents and the young people from home andalso the initiative from you, a combination of bothfactors ?Yes, there were songs that they were singing, thatthey formed in Cuba in '78, and dramatic scenesthey had made, and there were a few musiciansyou could say were playing professionally athome who were also helping. So that there wasa show, a sort of variety kind of show, whereyou had people singing, but they weren't justsinging whatever songs they knew. A few songsthey had written and of course they had writtena few of the dramatic acts, sketches.So with that, that was the inspiring point, Idecided to add on and write a much morecoherent show, which is in theatrical form, yousee. I added scripts, I wrote some songs and add-ed dances, put out a lighting chart, put out a soundchart, put in costumes, you know, differentcostumes with different dances with differentethnic groups from home and entrances and ex-its, really just a whole professional show, youknow. That's how Amandla! came about. I diduse some of the material that was available andI added on a whole lot of material.Can you tell us something about Dorkay Housein Johannesburg?Around 1955, a musician by the name of GwigwiMrwebi, who was at the time working for Drumcame over to St Peter's with a few other musi-cians, MacKay Davashe, well-known composerand saxophone player, and I think they carne with
Page 30 of 38 Mr Ian Bernhard and there was the late comradeDuma Nokwe. They came to St Peter's becausethe Huddleston Band had acquired some moneyfrom some donors, anonymous donors whowouldn't give their names, and we had well over 1000 that was supposed to be some money thatwas going to help us with our music, that is ourtutors, where we can learn our instruments andtheory. So they wanted to work with the Hud-dleston Band and there was the advantage of thismoney because they were going to have a unionof musicians and where we were going to betaught all of this.Then of course Father Huddleston called us,and we had a meeting with these people, and weagreed that we'd share premises with them, andGwigwi Mrwebi went and found the premises,the present Dorkay House, and there we weresharing half of it. The Huddleston Jazz Hand wassharing half of it and Union Artists were shar-ing the other half.We were paying 35 per month and this iswhere we met most of the professional musicians.At the same time I realised, as treasurer of theHuddleston Jazz Band, we would run out ofmoney very soon, so it was best that we pull out35 a month and join in as members and let theprofessional people go on and raise money forthe officers. So we abandoned the idea of shar-ing the rent of 35 per month, because the rentwas 70 a month and we joined as members andDorkay House has since been the place that hasbrought about most artists converging there andwhere King Kong started from. That was it.Amandla! has toured quite a number of countries.Can you tell us more about these tours, yourreception, and the reaction of the internationalconrnuotity towurds the ongoing struggle in SouthAfrica?In 1980, Amandla! toured the Scandinaviancountries: Sweden, Norway, Finland and Den-mark, and Holland. They they came back. Ofcourse, these were national tours - in each coun-try they went from town to town. Then in 1981,they were in Zambia and Mozambique. Then in1982, we went to the GDR, Soviet Union,Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Then, in 1983, wewere back in the Scandinavian countries, plusHolland and Belgium and of course we had beento Mozambique and Libya. In 1984, we went toBrazil, Rio de Janiero, and in 1985 we went tothe GDR, to the UK, Ghana and Nigeria, and in1985 was Moscow, UK. Now '86 was GDR,Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.And of course you went to the Youth Festival?The Youth Festival in Moscow - that's wherewe attained - were given a diploma as best per-formers, and of course in all the places we havebeen going to, I must say that one thing that youwould notice that most of them were not English-speaking countries but we have been successfulin projecting the message of our people, beingable to tell the people about our struggle throughsong and dance. In all these years I have beenperforming, the only English-speaking countrieswe have been performing for were Zambia andTanzania - Tanzania was also in 1981 -until we got to the UK, Ghana and Nigeria. Buteverywhere we went to the people understoodthe show and they understood the message.What are the politics behind Amandla ? What I'mtalking About is the question of arts and politics,of the artists and the liberation struggle of SouthAfrica.Yes, I'll firstly talk about the nature of the show,the structure of the show. We have music, drama,poetry, dance and song, and the show starts witha drama showing South Africa, the old SouthAfrica before the settlers, the colonisers landed;how we used to live, freely, a free and uninter-rupted life. Then of course we go away to showcity life and how derogative and oppressive it is.We are showing the pass laws, we are showingthe police harassment and we are showingthievery, we are showing stabbings, people dy-ing in urbanised South Africa. I mean we showfrom the free and uncolonised South Africa, weshow the advent of the colonials, the colonialistsand the introductions of slavery up to Johan-nesburg, of course, which is a typical exampleof an urbanised industrial South Africa. Thatshows already the political change that was com-ing about in South Africa, the introduction ofslavery and the resistance of our people from thattime on.The show is actually a documentary that is tell-ing of the history of South Africa and our strug-gles. We are highlighting some of the flashpointswithin our struggle, we are showing the historyof South Africa, but you can't tell the history ofSouth Africa without talking about the history
Page 31 of 38 of the African National Congress, so we show theformation of the African National Congress, weshow the drawing up of the Freedom Charter,we show the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe,we show the students' strikes in '76 and we showthe peoples' resistance to the forced removals andall the fiashpoints and highlights as our struggleunfolds. Our songs in the show are songs ofpraise for our leaders, songs of praise for someof our cadres for what they have done, songs ofencouragement to our leaders and our people,songs of unification for our people to gettogether, songs of condolence to those who havelost friends, relatives and all our cadres, songsof encouragement to our people and songs ofresistance against the pass the laws, the forcedremovals and all the other atrocities that are in-flicted on our people. The dramatic scenes arealso depicting some of these atrocities.And we don't have a catalogue of grievancesin Amandla! we also have songs and dramaticacts that are showing our aspirations and theplight of our people, what they are looking for-ward to, I mean a free and democratic SouthAfrica. We show what we envisage to be a freeand democratic South Africa at the end of theshow so that we don't end up with a tragedy. Wehave hope and our songs also have that hope andthat light showing. Of course, whilst we are go-ing around on our tours, we have all thesemeetings after our performances. We have in-terviews with newspapers, radio and television,and because of the show, the people understan-ding what our plight is in South Africa, what weare actually fighting against, the people tend tounderstand more what they probably have beenreading about or have been seeing on TV and bymeeting South Africans, actually people who arecoming out there, it has been easier for peopleto understand and to accept what our fight isabout, so that we have been able to mobilise awhole lot of people because it is even easier toget people to come to a show than to come to ameeting. People come in for the entertainmentand they leave the place having been entertain-ed but they also leave the halls being educatedabout our struggle. That has been the job ofAmandla! Also we have been able to expose theoppressed culture of our people. In our country,South Africa, the present regime does not allowour people to sing about the status quo. Our songsare censored before they can be recorded or evenplayed over the radio. That goes for our books,our poetry, even our painters have to paintbehind closed doors and they never have a chanceto exhibit what they have painted, people havebeen arrested just for drinking out of cups withANC colours.We don't have schools for art, we don't havemusic auditoriurirs, or theatres, cinemas to go to,we are self-taught all the art forms really, thatwe are involved in. We don't own the means ofproduction - that is, our people are exploitedby the recording companies, they are exploitedby the TV stations and jobs are few and far apart.As a South African, a Black South African, youare self-taught or you grab from your fellowmusicians or artists what you can, otherwise youare out on your own, and on the other hand, thepass laws are always harassing you because musi-cians have not been accepted as workers.We are trying to bring about a consciousnessamongst our artists to be aware that they arecultural workers and that they really fall amongstthe working-class so that they are able to formunions and be protected by unions and that is ourtask at the moment.In other words, what you are saying is that theact of national liberation, struggle for nationalliberation, led by the ANC, is also an act ofcultural revival?Yes, it is true that the artists in Amandla! underthe leadership of the African National Congresshave so far made an example to most of our ar-tists at home that have shown them that the ar-tists have a role in this revolution. That theyshould not stand in the wings and wait for thesoldiers and everybody else to fight and thenwe'll come up to entertain them. We have a moralresponsibility like everybody else; before we areartists we are South Africans, and we feel thatwith art, which is our weapon, we should be ableto employ this in the struggle. Artists should, likepoliticians or military men, be able to performsongs, dances and whatever paintings or pictures,that are relevant to the struggle, otherwise wedon't have any way of identifying ourselves asSouth Africans. I mean we could be anywhereelse but in South Africa, because what we willbe singing about is what we are about, that is whowe are, and who we are - we are a people instruggle.Thank you very much, Comrade Gwangwa.
Page 32 of 38 Page 33 of 38 NUSAS & THE ANCThe following communique was issued from ameeting between the African National Congressand the National Union of South AfricanStudents. It was signed by Brendan Barry, thePresident of NUSAS and Mac Maharaj, amember of the National Executive Committee ofthe ANC.Delegations of the National Union of SouthAfrican Students and the African National Con-gress met in Harare from the 30th March to the1 st April, 1986. The delegations were compos-ed of the President of NUSAS and representativesof the Universities of Cape Town, Natal (Dur-ban and Pietermaritzburg), Rhodes, Stellenboschand Witwatersrand, and a representative of theSouth African Students' Press Union on the onehand, and two members of the National Ex-ecutive Committee of the ANC and represen-tatives of ANC youth and students on the other.The meeting took place at the request ofNUSAS, acting on the mandate of students ateach of the university campuses, on the basis thatthere would be no solution to South Africa'sproblems without the participation of the ANC,which is recognised by the majority of the SouthAfrican people as their genuine representative.The ANC appreciated the significance ofNUSAS' decision to meet the ANC, and thedemocratic manner in which it was taken. Themeeting discussed a whole range of issues perti-nent to the solution of the crisis in our country.The discussions were in the main guided by thequestions and concerns posed and expressed bystudents at the campuses represented. Thedelegations agreed that apartheid is the centralcause of conflict in our country and that thePretoria government is incapable of resolvingSouth Africa's problems. Apartheid cannot bereformed. As such, the creation of a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa on the basisof one person one vote lies in the hands of thedemocratic forces of our country.The delegations reviewed the educational crisisand came to the conclusion that this crisis canonly be resolved through establishment of a non-racial, non-militaristic and democratic educa-tional system which will be realised throughstruggle This forms part of the efforts to securea peaceful and prosperous future for all SouthAfricans - Black and White.The meeting expressed concern at the on-going militarisation of our society, the use ofbrute forcq in a vain attempt to quell popularresistance, the continued occupation of Namibiaand destabilisation of neighbouring countries bythe apartheid state. In this respect, the call byNUSAS and other democratic organisations forthe withdrawal of troops from the townships andfor an end to conscription was seen as an impor-tant contribution to the overall efforts of thedemocratic movement for a peaceful future.Both organisations agreed that one of the ma-jor objectives of the moment is to secure the un-conditional release of all political prisoners anddetainees, including Nelson Mandela.The ANC outlined its strategy and tactics, andexplained the central role of armed struggle asa means of defending the people and advancingthe struggle for the seizure of power by thedemocratic majority. The ANC further em-phasised the need to mobilise all the people ofSouth Africa for united mass political actionagainst the apartheid regime.The delegations agreed that the real interestsof the majority of White South Africans do notlie in the system of racial domination and nationaloppression. Both were at one that White SouthAfricans have an important role to play now inthe endeavour to achieve a non-racial anddemocratic society. In this respect NUSAS hasan important contribution to make within its con-stituency and as part of the national democraticmovement.The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere,with a positive and productive interchange ofideas.
Page 34 of 38 NAFCOC & THE ANCThe following communique was issued by themeeting of the National African FederatedChambers of Commerce and the African NationalCongress, in Lusaka, on May 27th, 1986 It wassigned jointly by Sam Motsueyane, President ofNAFCOC and President Tambo of the ANC.During the weekend of 24th to 26th May, 1986,delegations of the National African FederatedChambers of Commerce (NAFCOC) and theAfrican National Congress (ANC), led by theirtwo presidents, met in Lusaka, the capital of theRepublic of Zambia.Meeting in a cordial atmosphere, the twodelegations discussed a wide range of issues ofconcern to all the people of South Africa.The two delegations agreed that an urgent taskfacing all our people is to find a solution to thecrisis which has engulfed our country.In this regard, the NAFCOC delegation ex-plained that their organisation has, for manyyears, been involved in various efforts to en-courage a peaceful resolution of the conflictwhich is now tearing our country apart. NAF-COC is committed to continuing these efforts.For that reason - and acting on the decisions andspirit of its national council, which were endorsedby its 21 st annual conference - NAFCOC decid-ed to send a delegation to meet the leadership ofthe ANC. Bound by its own decisions, NAFCOCwill continue to act as a catalyst and will, asbefore, seek contact and dialogue with other peo-ple within the broad spectrum of the leaders ofour country.The NAFCOC delegation explained that thepurpose of these efforts is to help create the situa-tion when it will be possible for all genuineleaders of the people of South Africa to enter in-to dialogue aimed at a just and agreed resolutionof the fundamental problems facing our country.The delegation further explained that organisa-tions that are currently banned as well as leadersthat are imprisoned necessarily have to be partof these discussions if the dialogue is to bemeaningful.The NAFCOC delegation also explained that,as an organisation of Black business people, itsmembers are affected by all the problems facingthe Black community in general. NAFCOC istherefore committed to do everything in its powerto ensure that the Black people of our countrylive in freedom and equality with our Whitecompatriots.The ANC expressed its appreciation for the in-itiative taken by NAFCOC to enter into dialoguewith it to discuss these vital issues. The ANC ex-plained its own commitment to strive for a united,democratic and non-racial South Africa, and ex-plained that it sees NAFCOC as playing an im-portant role in the creation of such a societywithin the context of the decisions of its own na-tional conferences.The delegations agreed that the meeting con-stituted a valuable experience which helped toclarify the respective contribution each organisa-tion was making in the effort to create a peaceful,happy and prosperous society.Denwnstration at the University of Cape Town
Page 35 of 38 Dear Comrade Editor,Richard Elphick, the author of Kraal and Cas-tle, wrote: "In 18th century England's mostcelebrated insults, Lord Chesterfield declared DrSamuel Johnson to be no more than a 'respectableHottentot"' and: "Lord Salisbury, 19th centuryBritish prime minister, created an uproar amongIrishmen and sensitive Englishmen when heequated Irish and Hottentot capacities for HomeRule. "In twentieth century Canada, Slim Evans,leader of the On to Ottawa Trek, declared PrimeMinister Bennet "unfit to run a Hottentot village"let alone this vast dominion of North America.Both 'Hottentot' and 'Trek' are words whichhave their origins in South Africa. The formerhas since been replaced, by 'Coloured' and'mixed race' and thelatter has been taken intoouter space, conquering, in the words of RonaldReagan, new frontiers.The reason for this European familiarity withthe South African people is quite simple. Dur-ing the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeanplundering was primarily aimed at the Americasand the Far East. Thus, to or from the East,enough replenishment could be found at the Capeof Good Hope to make further stops on theAfrican coast almost unnecessary.Khoi warriorCompany ProfitsThe Dutch, who first started settling here per-manently in 1652, were in the employ of theDutch East India Company governed by a boardof directors, 'The Gentlemen Seventeen.' Alltransactions were of course conducted for max-imum profit with least expense to the Company.What started as bartering soon degenerated intowholesale plundering.The first full-time administrator of the Cape,Jan van Riebeeck, was transferred to another
Page 36 of 38 Dutch possession after he was found guilty oftheft. That is, in addition to stealing stock for theCompany, he stole some for himself. Subsequentadministrators didn't behave any better, butnever allowed themselves to be caught.As for the bosses in Holland, they wereperfectly happy as the replenishment stationshowed increased annual profits. Their missionwas not to proselytize; they were out to makemoney at the least expense to themselves. Whenenough stock had been pillaged for breeding andtrading, the local tribes became redundant in theCompany's scheme of things.The Dutch couldn't very well employ them tolook after the animals that were essentially thetribesmen's own. Instead free burghers (citizens)were brought from Holland, along with rebelsfrom the Dutch East Indies (as Indonesia was thencalled in Europe), to mind the herds.This left the Gorachouqua, Goringhaiqua andCochoqua tribes (or what was left of them) ab-solute beggars, living on the fringes of a landformerly their own.Thus without examining the causes of the wret-chedness of this society, learned scholars in Vien-na, Berlin and London wrote volumes ofliterature on the degeneracy of a people who, forEurope, had come to represent Africa south ofthe Sahara. One Dutch historian, Olfert Dapper,never set foot in Africa but succeeded in writinga 400-page history of the Western Cape on thebasis of accounts related by sailors in 1668.To this day the myth is perpetuated in SouthAfrica's schools that the history of the Khoi-Khoiis so permeated with barbarism and degeneracythat it is best for them to forget their past and con-centrate on the future, where at some nebulouspoint, 'Coloureds' will be equal to Whites. If noton earth, then through sufficient piety we'll beable to work our way into heaven to be equal notonly with the Whites but with all angels.As such, most 'Coloureds' are loath to talkabout their Khoi-Khoi ancestors. If any ancestoris mentioned, it is usually a White male. As forthe Khoi woman, who was his wife, she is con-veniently omitted. Quite recently a 'Coloured'woman was very offended when I simply askedwhether her parents had previously lived inNamaqualand before emigrating to Canada. Thereason for that anger was that such a place oforigin would give immediacy to her Khoi-Khoiancestry. She had become a victim of a self-perpetuating myth.The fact of the matter is that official historybooks used at schools completely omit our heroessuch as Chiefs Autshumayo or Gonnema, whovaliantly led their people against Dutchoppressors.The Heritage of LanguageAnother myth commonly held in the West is thata person's cultural background is distinguishableby appearance, hair or skin pigmentation. Henceanthropologists in Cape Town argue that thereare only so many thousand 'pure' Klioi-Khoialive by judging hair texture, facialcharacteristics, build and so on, as opposed tothe vast majority who do resemble these few buthave somewhat less kinky hair, straighter nosesor whatever. By this procedure they have reducedus to, and equated us with, pedigree dogs whichhave to display prescribed characteristics in orderto be classified as 'pure.'While it may be true that through inter-marriage/cohabitation cultural effects from bothparents are rubbed off on the offspring, one'scultural roots are essentially with one's mother.The vast majority of us have adopted Afrikaansas a first language. Yet, it is still spoken with therhythm, idiom and accent of Khoi languagepreviously used in a given area. For example,in the Boland area a term like 'eitsa,' expressingadmiration, has been adopted by the Afrikaners,especially their women, to display appreciationfor a job well done, beauty, or something of im-portance. The full expression is 'eitsi eimib'literally meaning 'not from here, but from afar.'In our own idiomatic Khoi-Afrikaans, the expres-sion used for admiration is We van hier rond nie,'meaning the person who is praised is 'not fromhereabout.'Through this example I wish to show thefollowing paradox: - that the oppressor hasadopted some indigenous words to suit himself,while the oppressed has taken the language of theoppressor in its totality and rearranged the samewords to fit the patterns of a language long con-sidered dead except in the north-west Cape andNamibia.Adam Small, a noted South African poet, triedin the late sixties to establish authenticity for ourKhoi-Afrikaans by insisting that ours is a patoisand comparable to pidgin French and Englishspoken around the world. How wrong the man
Page 37 of 38 was! As a slave he wanted to give his master'slanguage greater authenticity and power andtherefore reduce the worth and stature of his ownlanguage. At the same time he wanted his masterto recognise his manhood, without first comingto grips with himself and his own being.In addition, 'Coloured' teachers have forgenerations tried to thrash this language from themouths of little children and replace it with themaster's Afrikaans.Cultural TraditionsThree hundred and fifty years of oppression andcultural enslavement have not completely remov-ed all vestiges of our Khoi culture. Buchu is stillan elixir used from Namibia to the Kei river.Traditional medicines are applied at the onset ofillness, and as a final attempt when Westernmedicines fail as a cure. Even women servantsrefuse to touch cold water during monthlysickness. The coming-of-age birthday celebra-tion has replaced the traditional initiationceremony. Still, the list of taboos and observa-tions are as exhaustive and complex as any otherAfrican people's.The argument that so many people brought asslaves to the Cape intermarried with the localKhoi-Khoi that an authentic local identity waslost, holds no water whatsoever. With the excep-tion of the Cape Muslims, who were able to re-tain their religion and culture because ofeconomic reasons, the vast majority of slaveswere dispersed across the Cape Colony, wherethey adopted the speech and habits of indenturedKhoi-Khoi labourers. Of course this new bloodbrought changes to the physical appearance ofthe indigenous people but its cultural contribu-tion was quite minimal.-As for the Cape Muslims earlier mentioned,their good fortune to have remained a relativelyhomogeneous group after an absence of 350 yearsfrom their homeland is almost entirely due toeconomics. As skilled artisans, tailors, painters,blacksmiths and so on, their services were verymuch in demand in cosmopolitan Cape Town.Hence the community could retain some stabili-ty in exile thousands of miles away from Djakar-ta. If, however, they had been dispersedthroughout the Cape Colony, as happened withother unskilled slaves, this common identitvwould not have been able to withstand the testof time.In addition, C R Boxer, author of ZeevarendNederland in Zi; jn Wereldijk 1600-1800, informsus that in 1612 "Muslim women are less suitableas wives (for the Dutch colonists), because theydeliberately abort children fathered by Christianmen."Today in the West, the 17th century scorn andrevulsion expressed in the term 'Hottentot' whichcame to mean "a person of irredeemablesavagery" or "the very depths of human degrada-tion," has been replaced by a feeling of compas-sion for a people who are supposedly caught bet-ween the forces of Black and White. Good-intentioned as this sympathy may be, it issomewhat misplaced. Sympathy should be withall South African Blacks.'Khoi-Khoi' Means 'People of People'The time has come for 'Coloureds' to take stockof themselves and view their position entirelywithin a Southern African context. We arenowhere between two opposing forces. As partof the oppressed we have only been given third-rate status as compared to the vast majority ofBlacks who occupy a fourth-rate position.Anachronistic as this may sound now, therecan be no greater or dignified name to callourselves by than by the name our ancestors wereknown by to themselves and others: as the"People of People," that is, as Khoi-Khoi. Allother names, whether 'Hottentot,' 'Coloured' or'mixed race,' were forced upon us. Whetherthese names were used by the Dutch, English orBoers is immaterial. To this day they remain in-sults. Similarly, the term 'so-called Coloured'is intended to negate this whole succession ofname-callingThere is much that can be learnt from ourNama neighbours in Namibia. Most important,that it is possible to be eloquent, sophisticatedand worldly in the twentieth century while re-taining our awareness as a people of Africa.Nicholas Waterboer and Adam Kok have beenmade caricatures by the oppressor's historybooks, but they were our leaders and part of ournational disillusionment with broken promises.Archibald CrailCanada
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