AMERICA'S LEADING MAGAZINE ON AFRICA

JULY-AUGUST 1990 $4.50 MANDELA SOUTH AFRICA IS FREE. STILL ISN'T.

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A Publication of the RT African-American Institute

\ Ipdate 5 The Editor: Daphne Topouzis African-American Institute South Africa Chairman The Politics of Persuasion 13 Maurice Tempelsman By Patrick Laurence

President Interview Vivian Lowery Derryck The Reverend Smangaliso Mkliatshwa: A Theologian of the People 17 By Margaret A. Novicki

Publisher South Africa Frank E Ferrari The Right's Show of Might 21 By Peter Tygesen Editor-in-Chief Frontline Margaret A. Novicki Paths to Peace 17 Apartheid's Ixmg Arm 25 Managing Editor By Andrew Meldrum Alana Lee Reporter's Notebook Associate Editor Constructing a New Nation 28 Joseph Margolis By Sean Kelly Namibia Assistant Editor Daphne Topouzis Women's New Equality 31 By Colleen Lowe Morna Editorial Assistant Russell Geekie Interview A Decade of Regional Cooperation: Contributing Editors Simba Makoiii and David Zausmer 34 Michael Maren By Margaret A. Novicki Andrew Meldrum Angola Art Director The Final Days? Ready for Peace? 39 Kenneth Jay Ross Page 47 By Colleen Lowe Morna Advertising Office Development 212 949-5666. ext. 728 Reform—or Else? 43 By Carol iMncaster Interns Nicole Diederichs Iiberia Michaet Freeman Doe's Lasl Stand 47 Justin Gunn By Mark Huband Lee Hunnewell Hannah Searing Nigeria 'Hie Babangida Blues 50 Africa Report {\SSN 0001-9836), a non-profit magazine of African affairs, By Tunji Lardner.Jr. is published bimonthly and is sched- uled to appear a! the beginning of Zimbabwe each date period at 833 United The One-Party Debate 53 Nations Plaza. New York. NY. 10017. Editorial correspondence and adver- Party Politics By Andrew Meldrum tising inquiries should be addressed Page 53 to Africa Report, at the above Human Rights address Subscription rates Individ- Tlie Dangers of Dissent 57 uals. USA $24. Canada $30. air rate overseas $48. Institutions. USA $31, By Richard Carver Canada $37, air rate overseas $55. Women Second-class postage paid at New York. NY and at additional mailing Tlie Feminization of Poverty 60 offices POSTMASTER: If this maga- zine is undehverable. please send By Daphne Topouzis address changes to Africa Report at Media 833 UN Plaza, NY, NY 10017. Tele- phone. (212) 949-5666. Copyright s: Why We Didn't See Wembley 64 1990 by The African-American Insti- tute. Inc By Daniel Schechter Culture Photo Credit: Margaret Courtney-Clarke: The Home as Canvas 67 The cover photographs of the By Daphne Topouzis Ibadan market and President Zimbabwe's Women Writers 70 Babangida were taken by Betty Poorest of the Poor Press. Page 60 By Nina Shapiro CEUTA

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Copyright © 1984 by the African-American Institute, Inc. N THE NEWS The Balance Sheet on Africa's Human Development Africa has the lowest life expectan- its approach and recommendations that their quality of life, using a new set of cy, highest infant mortality, lowest lit- offer some long-overdue competition to criteria, namely life expectancy, litera- eracy, and highest population growth the maeroeconomic tables of the World cy, and average purchasing power, rates in the developing world. West and Bank and the IMF, which in recent rather than economic growth. The HDI Central Africa in particular are the years have dominated both the devel- indicators have been selected despite world's worst-off regions, with eight opment debate and policy-making of their limitations, which are acknowl- out of 10 countries ranking lowest in national governments and non-govern- edged in the report, particularly the fact the United Nations Development Pro- mental organizations. The UNDP that they are averages that conceal dis- gramme's just-released 1990 Human report steers clear of the World Bank in parities. Other useful indicators include Development Report. Directed by the this instance and establishes a new access to basic goods and services, former planning and finance minister focus for development strategies of the including safe water and food, as well of Pakistan and World Bank official, 1990s, based on the human develop- as rates of maternal mortality, urban Mahbub ul Haq, the report quantifies ment index. crowding, soldier/teacher ratio, and the and analyzes human development in male-female literacy gap. New Human Development Index 130 countries over the last 30 years, The report's underlying thesis is that including 43 African countries with Up until now, economic and social "income alone is not the answer to populations over 1 million. development was measured in terms of human development." that economic The report's findings on Africa hold per capita wealth—a crude and mis- growth and social well-being are not few surprises: Some 33 African coun- leading indicator, which partly explains automatically linked, and that human tries were listed in the low human ill-conceived and ineffective develop- development progress is possible even development category: another ten ment strategies and projects. Per capita at low levels of income. Tanzania, for (Egypt. Gabon, Zimbabwe, Lesotho. gross national product, says the report, instance, ranks higher on the human Algeria. Botswana. Tunisia. Libya. fails to show how wealth is managed development scale than on its income, South Africa, and Mauritius) fall under and distributed to promote the well- which means that the government has the medium human development index. being of the majority of the population. effectively directed economic resources Ethiopia and Sierra Leone have the The human development index toward improving the quality of life of lowest life expectancy in the world at (HDI) ranks countries according to its people. Nigeria, which witnessed 42 years, along with Afghanistan; Somalia has the lowest adult literacy rate at 12 percent; Zaire has the lowest GNP PER CAPITA AND THE HDI purchasing power at $220; and Niger (SELECTED COUNTRIES) ranks last in the human development index with a life expectancy of 45 Chad years, literacy at 14 percent, and an Laos average income at $452. Tanzania Myanmar These figures are not quite the Viet Nam Zambia worst: One of the back pages of the China report, profiling human development in Sri Lanka Mauritania countries with less than a million peo- Angola ple, reveals even starker figures. In Coted'lvoire El Salvador Guinea-Bissau, for instance, average Jamaica life expectancy is still an astonishing Chile Peru 39 years; Djibouti's literacy rivals Costa Rica Somalia's at 12 percent of the adult Algeria Gabon population; only 9 percent of Equatori- Oman al Guineans have access to health ser- Saudi Arabia Kuwait vices and 21 percent of Bissau- United Arab Emirates

Guineans have access to safe water; 10000 1000 100 0.2 0.4 0.6 Guinea-Bissau also ranks lowest in terms of per capita GNP, at $ 160. Hi GNP PER CAPITA I HDI What is valuable about this report is

AFHICA REPORT • July-August 1990 rapid economic growth in the 1960s, whole over the last 30 years. Poverty in to the report, access to it has declined did not improve the quality of life of its Africa increased by two-thirds in the in one-third of the countries for which citizens accordingly, largely because of first half of the 1980s, so that more current data is available; in eight unequal income distribution and low than half the continent's population is African countries, only 20 percent of social expenditures. The report cites it now living in absolute poverty. !n the the population drink potable water. as a case of "missed human opportuni- rest of the developing world, the num- •Progress in adult literacy has been ties for human development." ber of poor rose by one-fifth during the considerable in Africa, with an average Botswana, which achieved consider- same period. rate of 48 percent, but compared to the able growth, though initially unequally In the 1980s, expenditures on rest of the developing world, it is still distributed, succeeded in significantly health, education, and other social pro- lagging by 12 percent. Kenya wit- improving living conditions for its peo- grams were drastically reduced in nessed the fastest progress with a 60 ple, largely as a result of sound "meso" many sub-Saharan countries, with far- percent adult literacy rate in 1985, or intermediate social policies and ade- reaching consequences. Infant mortali- compared to 32 percent in 1970. quate social expenditures, and is classi- ty rates rose, nutrition levels deteriorat- •Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa have fied under the heading "sustained ed, employment and incomes declined. been declining by 2.4 percent a year since 1980, and between 1980 and 1985. about 270 million Africans became impoverished. As a result, at least 16 countries witnessed a decline in their daily caloric intakes as opposed to Gabon, Niger, and Mauritius, which witnessed an increase of 15 percent. •Mauritius, Cote d'lvoire, and Ghana won points for having among the low- est figures of soldier-teacher ratios, ranking 10, 13, and 14 respectively. At the other end of the scale, Somalia has 525 soldiers per 100 teachers and Ethiopia has 494; Zaire, Chad, and Uganda spend two to three times as much on military spending as on social programs. •Tunisia. Mauritius, Botswana, and Zimbabwe scored high for democratic human development, ranking 60, 81. 58, and 52 respectively. Future Outlook The report concludes that while eco- nomic growth is crucial in a long-term Only 37 percent of all Africans have access to safe water perspective, sustainable social expendi- human development." Gabon, Algeria, To cite some examples: ture on education, health, and food are Senegal, Mauritania, and Cameroon •Average life expectancy across the more accurate indicators of social well- have, on the contrary, done little to continent is only 51 years, with being than income levels. The report improve the lot of their people, even Ethiopia and Sierra Leone at 42 years recommends that military spending be though they have relatively high and Mauritius at 69 years. reduced and resources diverted to incomes. •The highest infant mortality rates development projects. "Needed most In the long term, however, argues (IMR) in the world can be found in are cuts in spending on the military, on the report, economic growth is essen- Africa, with Angola and Mozambique inefficient public enterprises, and on tial to sustainable human development, at 172 per 1,000 live births. Mauritius, mistargeted social subsidies. To create or else there is reversed progress, as is on the other end of the scale, succeeded the enabling framework for more the case in Zimbabwe and Kenya. The in reducing its IMR and child mortality broadly based development, macroeco- last two are listed as countries with rates to 29 from 104 per thousand in nomic policy formulation and manage- "disrupted human development." the last 30 years. ment must improve, and popular partic- •Access to health care is worse in ipation and private initiatives must Human Development Record Africa than anywhere in the developing increase." The report confirms that over the world, as less than half of the popula- "In any concerted international past decade, many countries in Africa tion of the continent has access to basic effort to improve human development witnessed stagnation or a reversal of facilities, excluding North Africa, in the Third World, priority must go to the gains of the 1960s and 1970s, which has made marked progress. Africa. The concept of short-term despite the significant progress •Safe water is still out of reach for 63 adjustment is inappropriate there. achieved by the developing world as a percent of all Africans, and according Continued on puge H

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 IJMTE

SUDAN REFUGEES Some 28 officers of the Sudanese The number of refugees in Africa armed forces were executed by the 10- escalated markedly in 1989, largely as a month-old military government of result of war, according to a report Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Beshir released by the U.S. Committee for by firing squad in late April in Khar- Refugees. In Mozambique, about toum—a bloodbath unprecedented in 420,000 people fled the country to Sudanese history. escape the bitter conflict between the SOUTH AFRICA The accused were charged with government and Renamo. An estimated involvement in a coup attempt and Up to 1 million white South 1.7 million Mozambicans arc internally "high treason and rioting against the Africans are applying for British citi- displaced, while 1.3 million live in legitimate government." and were zenship and could be emigrating to neighboring countries, and an additional killed 24 hours after the alleged coup, Britain in the 1990s in fear of civil war 2.9 million arc dependent on food aid. following military tribunals which and black majority rule, while thou- In neighboring Angola. 43,000 peo- reportedly lasted a few minutes. Their sands of East Europeans are eagerly ple became refugees over the past year bodies were buried in a mass grave. An seeking a new life in South Africa. and the total number of Angolans living additional 16 officers were either sen- Between 500,000 and 1 million in neighboring countries swelled to tenced to imprisonment or dimissed white South Africans are possibly enti- 438.000. The Liberian conflict has from military service. tled to British passports, in addition to caused an estimated 66.000 to 80,000 Al-Beshir claimed that the aborted the quarter of a million who are already Liberians to flee to Guinea, and another coup was the second phase of an earlier British citizens. Britain is presently 55,000 to C6te d'lvoire. The Horn of plot put down in March. Since its issuing close to 2,000 passports from Africa is described in the report as "the accession to power, the ruling National the 13,000 applications it receives each most complex region in the world for Islamic Front has imposed a state of month. refugees and displaced people." The war emergency, suspended the constitution, The fact that about a fifth of all in Sudan has swelled the number of dissolved Parliament, political parties, white South Africans are applying for refugees to 425,000. with 80,0(X) Sudan- and trade unions, and imposed sharia British passports does not necessarily ese fleeing their country last year alone. law, aspiring to establish an Iranian- mean they will be leaving the country Against this grim picture—com- style government. en masse. Rather, it is a reflection of pounded by dwindling resources for Al-Beshir has blamed the coup the fears and skepticism within the refugees among international humani- attempt on an alliance of "leftist secu- white community concerning their sta- tarian organizations, including a crip- lar elements,'" including banned politi- tus, following the dismantling of pling financial crisis in the office of the cal parties and trade unions, and on the apartheid. UN High Commissioner for Ref- Sudan People's Liberation Army While South Africans are making ugees—there are two success stories: (SPLA). He has accused the plotters of provisions to leave, 2,500 East Euro- In Namibia, over 41,000 refugees wanting to eliminate the Revolutionary peans recently queued at the South returned home from Angola. Zambia, Command Council and install a civil- African embassy in Vienna, to obtain and Cuba. Further north, Uganda and ian, secular government. permission to emigrate to what many Rwanda signed an agreement which Reports cast doubt on whether in of them regard as the promised land, could resolve the 25-year-old refugee fact there was a coup attempt in the lured by Pretoria's glossy tourist problem of Banyarwandans in Uganda. first place. Six of the officers involved brochures, which depict life in South were arrested and kept in detention Africa as luxurious and exotic. The MADAGASCAR three days before the alleged coup took South African government is offering A 13-strong armed rebel unit seized place. The Sudanese opposition argued enticing incentives for skilled workers, Radio Madagascar in Antananarivo in that it might well have been a preemp- engineers, computer experts, mechan- mid-May in an attempt to overthrow tive strike by a regime anticipating a ics, lawyers, and other professionals, President Didier Ratsiraka. Five people coup, but it was probably also a result including coverage of about 80 percent were killed and 20 injured in the failed of the recent extensive purge of the of travel expenses. coup attempt, which was reported to be army. Between January and April, over an exact replica of last July's "radio Meanwhile, an Africa Watch report 30,000 East Europeans applied to emi- coup." The coup plotters, who had no released in May argues that Beshir's grate to South Africa, but only 10 per- popular support, planned to replace the "exceptionally cruel and intolerant cent of them will be granted permis- president with Gen. Jean Rakotohari- government" has been responsible for sion, according to the British immigra- son, an opposition leader who has the death of half a million civilians tion authorities. Most of the applicants denied any connection with them. from war and man-made famine since are Hungarians and East Germans, The coup d'etat occurred against a 1986. Millions of others have been who, in the midst of unemployment backdrop of a newly introduced pro- forced to flee the country, while hun- and a depressed economy, are search- gram of political liberalization, which dreds of political prisoners have been ing for a better life abroad. includes the legalization of political detained, tortured, and abused by unof- The South African government is parties independent of the ruling ficial security officers in secret deten- also courting white-collar workers National Front for the Defense of the tion centers. from Hong Kong. Revolution.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 AFRICAN OUTLOOK Just Who Is Mobutu Sese Seko Trying to Please? President Mobutu Sese Seko's sur- In a move widely interpreted as an an unknown number of students at the prise embrace of glasnost, and his attempt to distance himself from the University of Lubumbashi with bayo- promise of democracy and respect of MPR, Mobutu said he would step down nets and machetes during an anti- human rights have been accompanied as head of the party, but remain presi- Mobutu demonstration in which the by increased security maneuvers, polit- dent: "Zaireans want me to continue to students had killed three colleagues ical confusion, and grisly reports of oversee the destiny of the country," he they suspected of being police inform- student massacres in May. ers. This was reported by the Belgian In a nationally broadcast speech in daily, Le Soir. Another daily, La Libre late April, Mobutu announced that he Belgique, described in chilling detail would end a 20-year ban on opposition how on the night of May 11, the "red parties as part of a package of sweep- berets" asked local police to leave the ing changes designed to establish university and then cut off the electrici- multi-party democracy. Thousands of ty throughout the campus. Next, they euphoric Zaireans took to the streets of proceeded to bayonet students and burn Kinshasa to celebrate. But the opposi- their bodies in mass graves. This was tion at home and in exile listened to confirmed by the UDPS founder Mobutu's promises with wariness. Francois Lusanga Ngiele, who men- Their fears were more than justified: In tioned commandos "in civilian dress early May, Mobutu delivered another with silenced weapons, electric torches, speech which lengthened the time- ropes for strangling, and daggers." frame for returning the country to Amnesty International estimates that multi-party rule, throwing fresh confu- between 50 and 150 students were sion into the political arena. A few killed in the government crackdown. A days later, government forces reported- Zairean official has claimed thai only ly cracked down on students in the one student was killed. Belgium imme- southern city of Lubumbashi. who Will political reform boost Zaire '$ ailing economy? diately suspended economic aid to were demonstrating against Mobutu's claimed. In reality, however, this Zaire, pending its request for an inves- failure to introduce reform. Uncon- maneuver will place him above all tigation by international envoys, and firmed reports cite between 50 and 150 legal and political constraints. France has postponed indefinitely the people dead and hundreds wounded Less than a week after his liberaliza- visit of its francophone minister, Alain during the incident. tion speech, two Zaireans were killed Decaux, to Kinshasa. Mobutu's reform program includes by government forces at a UDPS rally Mobutu's professed conversion to the legalization of political parties; the at Tshisekedi's home. The governor of multi-pany politics resulted from his introduction of a three-party system to Kinshasa denied the deaths, but pointed decision to stem unrest last January by replace the monopoly rule of the Popu- out that the government had broken up embarking on what he called a "direct lar Revolutionary Movement (MPR) an illegal demonstration at the party dialogue with the people." The three- (on condition that the latter would be leader's house. Next, Mobutu delivered month exercise led to over 6,100 sub- one of the three parties); the release of another speech that further eroded the missions from unions, businesses, opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi sincerity of the promised reforms, with church groups, and individuals criticiz- wa Mulumba from detention and the measures largely seen as moves to ing the president and the one-party recognition of his Union for Democra- pacify hard-liners of the MPR. who state. The criticism, however, ended up cy and Social Progress (UDPS) as one were angered by Mobutu's earlier fueling demonstrations greater than the of the legal parties; and the setting of promises. ones he set out to put down. elections for April 1991. Mobutu also While renewing his commitment to Mobutu's initial response of raising announced that a transitional govern- multi-party rule, Mobutu stated clearly civil service wages and student grants ment will be created with a new prime that opposition parties would not be was not enough, as expectations for minister, and that the constitution will allowed to hold public meetings or change were widespread. Adding to be rewritten and subsequently marches. Contrary to his initial declara- this internal pressure was a growing approved through a referendum. Other tions, he announced that elections for a intolerance by the international com- reforms included the abolition of the national legislature would take place munity of Mobutu's notorious misman- requirements for Zaireans to call each after the presidential elections and that agement ol" the economy and use of the other "citizen" and to wear abacos multi-party democracy would take two state budget for his own purposes, as (derived from d bus Ic costume) instead years to implement. well as Zaire's poor human rights of suits, thus ending Mobutu's cultural On the night of May 11, soldiers of record. Some observers feel that Mobu- revolution of uutfwnticite. the elite presidential guard massacred tu's political reforms were primarily an

8 AFRICA REPORT • JuSy-August 1990 attempt to appease aid donors, who had stepped up their demands for rigorous financial accountability. Sudan's Economic Woes Mount Mobutu's personal wealth has been estimated to be as high as $5 billion, or With Threatened IMF Suspension over half of Zaire's foreign debt, despite his own claims that he is worth Sudan faces a declaration of non-cooperation or even suspension from the a mere $50 million. Meanwhile, real International Monetary Fund (IMF) if it fails to introduce economic reforms, wages in Kinshasa are 6 percent of including exchange rate adjustments, tightened monetary policy and liberalization what they were prior to independence. of business laws, before the IMF's July 15 executive board meeting. The I percent growth in Zaire's GNP Such an international censure could well increase the country's deep economic has not been able to sustain a 3 percent problems, while accelerating the military junta's apparent course toward becoming population growth rate. Analysts have a fundamentalist Islamic republic. Junta member Col. Mohammed Amin Khalifa also voiced concern thai the president Yunis, while denying the links which exist between the Revolutionary Command has been using the printing press to pay Council and the National Islamic Front, said recently: "Our first enemies are Israel government bills, causing the zaire to and the IMF." drop to 30 percent below the official The economic crisis and IMF ultimatum follow April's failed coup attempt, rate on the black market. which led to at least 28 executions by firing squad of army officers and the pen- Zaire was the continent's third sioning off of dozens of other military figures, as the junta tried to consolidate its largest economic aid recipient in 1988, hold in the run-up to the first anniversary of its own coup against the democrati- receiving $939 million that year. Over cally elected al-Mahdi government. $4 billion in aid has flowed into the Despite a year in power, little has changed since the chaos of the fundamental- country since 1982. Although Mobutu ist-inspired June 30 takeover, which prevented a peace deal from being reached is still viewed as a friend of the U.S. by between the government and the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation President George Bush, a growing Army under its leader. Col. John Garang. number of congressmen have The state of emergency remains in force with a tight curfew in Khartoum and expressed their desire to cut off U.S. soldiers patrolling the streets; all trade unions and political parties are banned; the aid to Zaire, which was Si 10 million in free press is still closed; thousands of politicians, academics, trade unionists, jour- 1988. Prior to his "national consulta- nalists, and others have been arrested. Torture and intimidation are rife. tion" tour. Mobutu seemed eager to With total debts of $12 billion, Sudan's entire borrowings from the IMF of $1.5 deal with the IMF and the World Bank, billion are now long overdue. Junta leader Gen. Omar Hassan al-Beshir has as evidenced by his cabinet reshuffle already rejected the demands from ihe IMF. which is understood to have found and appointment of Kongo wa Dondo this regime more difficult to work with than any other in its experience. as prime minister. Part of Mobutu's rea- One source close to the IMF said: "Sudan has spent years stifling business; son for naming a new prime minister to they must focus on freeing up the economy, removing all these cumbersome con- oversee the transition to multi-party trols, devalue the currency, and stop fueling inflation by printing money. Given rule was to tag much of the blame for that Sudan's external debt is being offered at one cent to the dollar and finds no the people's woes on him. Both the buyers, now is the time for Sudan to confront reality." World Bank and the IMF cut off certain Women are being purged from the civil service and—like the Islamic vigilantes loans to Zaire over the past year. unleashed amid the final turmoil under former dictator Gaafar al-Nimeiry—mem- It remains to be seen how freely bers of the extremist National Islamic Front are playing a leading role in the cre- Mobutu will allow opposition parties to ation of a country-wide network of Libyan-style "popular committees," including operate within the proposed three-party military training for selected recruits. system. While one of these will be the Perhaps the only positive indication for the north of Sudan are early signs of a main opposition party, the UDPS, the reasonable harvest this year, with better than expected rains in some areas. In the other is likely to be the Joint Front of southern war zones, however, the needs remain enormous, although a network of Nationalists, which is closely allied to international relief agencies are increasingly working alongside the indigenous the MPR. This leaves in serious ques- Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, the aid wing of the SPLA. tion the rights and role other parties While millions go hungry, Sudan has begun what could be its final break-up; will have. Mobutu has already hinted for years, the mix of political, economic, social, and religious crises have that the Roman Catholic Church, which inevitably weakened control from the center, but now much of the south is under issued a scorching critique of the state de facto SPLA control. Fighting has intensified in the west between the tribal in response to the "national consulta- groupings of Fur, Messeriya, Baggara, and Rigazat, and major incursions continue tion," should refrain from political to lake place by both Chadian and Libyan forces. action. The UDPS has refused to join a Despite these problems, al-Beshir and his colleagues have maintained a round transitional government in partnership of diplomacy in pursuit of arms supplies and in a vain attempt to counter Garang"s with the MPR. stressing that it should increasingly successful missions through Africa and elsewhere. Al-Beshir even not be up to Mobutu to decide which said he will be in New York for a UN conference on children in September. Pres- groups, or how many, should be legal- sure groups and children's organizations intend to embarrass him by highlighting ized. Along with eighi other parties, the the junta's apparent acceptance of widespread child slavery and other human UDPS has called for a national confer- rights violations. ence to be monitored by Belgium. • • - —Nick Cater

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 Apartheid's Legacy—A Disastrous Ecological Record Contrary to its well-cultivated image of conservation leader. South Africa's environmental record has been disas- trous, mostly due to apartheid, argues a new study released by the Washington- based WorldWatch Institute. The homelands, where half the black population lives, are essentially wastelands, maintains author Alan B. Durning. Overpopulation, fragile land, labor shortage, and poverty have trans- formed them into virtual moonscapes, ranking among the most depleted lands in the world. The study cites a South African government report according to which, in the Ciskei. 46 percent of the land was eroded and nearly 40 per- cent of pastures overgrazed a decade ago. Forests in the homelands are also Guguletu township near Cape Town: Apartheid has perpetuated dependence on wood for fuel threatened by unchecked population tates the transportation of millions of ly put an end to many of the sources of growth and consumption of wood for workers to and from the homelands environmental degradation—over- fuel. If present trends continue, says every day. To obtain fuel, South Africa crowding in the homelands, over- the report, "the forests do not stand a is the only country which still uses the reliance on coal, production of synthet- chance of survival," and might well Fischer-Tropsch indirect liquefaction ic fuels, and scorched-earth warfare on disappear by the year 2020. Mean- method of turning coal into gas and neighboring countries," argues the while, in the southwest of the country, then oil. This technique, which was report. the desert is advancing by over a mile devised and used by the Germans in the "If apartheid is dismantled. South and a half each year. 1930s to boost their war machine, is Africa's industrial might and scientific The apartheid legislation most not only expensive, but environmental- infrastructure, which already make it destructive to the environment has ly devastating, wasting water and coal, the core of the regional economy, could been its energy policy. "To finance the and emitting large quantities of carbon. be tapped to make it a positive force in military superstructure that upholds The Chamber of Mines has turned a the area. The region's abundant natural minority rule% broad areas have been blind eye to criticism, ignoring safety riches, from the minerals of Zimbabwe deeply scarred by reckless mining. procedures and pollution precautions. and South Africa to the fertile soils of Meanwhile, air pollution over the The 750,000 black mine workers labor Mozambique and Angola, could be nation's coal region ranks with the under extremely hazardous conditions. integrated in a complementary way that worst in the world, partly because of an In the gold mines alone, about 46,000 would improve human welfare without energy strategy that aims at minimizing miners have died since the beginning degrading the environment. Commer- dependence on anti-apartheid oil of this century, more than one man cial forestry plantations that are soak- exporters," argues the report. About 85 every day. In addition, mining is ing precious water resources in the arid percent of the country's commercial allowed near squatter settlements, Transvaal Highveld could be shifted energy comes from coal—a depen- thereby exposing the black population onto the coastal plains of Mozambique. dence which can be attributed to to toxic substances leaking from mine Hydroelectric potential in Angola and apartheid, and which makes South wastes. Asbestos-related diseases are Mozambique could replace South Africa the most energy-intensive coun- common and in one particular mine, African coal. Surplus maize production try in the world. Coal is subsidized by 780 out of 3,500 workers had asbesto- in Zimbabwe could ride a refurbished the 85,000 black coal miners who earn sis. The government has not yet insti- rail system to help feed the region." one-tenth of the wages of their British tuted a legal exposure limit to asbestos. Apartheid's environmental disasters counterparts. Miners' wages are so low Apartheid's environmental toll has will not disappear overnight, the report and the price of coal so artificially not spared wildlife. In the northern bor- acknowledges, and land redistribution, cheap, that South Africa exports coal, der, the military has decimated the ele- which is essential to arrest rural decline, which accounts for 10 percent of its phant population and Renamo and will undoubtedly be difficult to carry foreign exchange. Coal-run plants emit Unita have long relied on ivory to buy out. But there is room for hope. Concern sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that guns. Only 14 out of 50 tons of ivory for the environment is increasing among cause acid rain and can have a devas- are legally exported each year. a growing segment of the white commu- tating effect on crops and forests. The abolition of the Land Act, the nity that squarely blames apartheid for South Africa's fuel needs are unusu- homelands, the Population Registration the country's ecological disasters, as ally high, as a result of the apartheid Act, the Group Areas Act, and other well as among the black population, and system of migrant labor that necessi- apartheid legislation, "will automatical- particularly the unions. •

10 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT...continued Required, instead, is long-term devel- OBITUARY: opment restructuring. Also required is A Tribute to Willie Musarurwa ii perspective of at least 25 years for Willie Musarurwa, the veteran Zimbabwean journalist whose work on behalf of Africa to strengthen its human poten- the African nationalist cause made him internationally known, died in Harare on tial, its national institutions, and the April 3, of a heart attack at the age of 63. momentum of its growth," argues the Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa was born in November 1927, in the Zvimba area report. "The international community of central Zimbabwe, into a peasant family. His keen intelligence and determina- should earmark an overwhelming share tion helped him succeed in the discriminatory Rhodesian education system, of its concessional resources for Africa becoming one of the very few blacks to graduate from high school. He went on to and display the understanding and qualify as a teacher and to take a correspondence course in journalism. patience needed to build African In 1953, he began freelancing for Rhodesia's white-dominated Herald, Sunday economies and societies in an orderly Mail, and other publications. Musarurwa's lively and provocative articles describ- and graduated way." ing blacks' lives gained attention and, in 1957, he became editor of the African It is now widely accepted that struc- Weekly and later of the African Daily News, where he championed the cause of tural adjustment programs across African nationalism. Africa slashed the wrong expenditures, Musarurwa won a fellowship in 1961 to study at Princeton University. He was removing the social safety net of the active in Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) and served poor and impoverishing those who as the party's information and publicity secretary. As a result of his political activ- were living on the edge of poverty. ities, Musarurwa was detained without charge or trial by Rhodesian Prime Minis- ter Ian Smith's government for 10 years and 10 months, until December 1974. Musarurwa remained active during that time, managing to produce a newsletter while in prison, which clandestinely circulated throughout the country. In 1979, Musarurwa attended the Lancaster House talks in London which led to Zimbabwe's independence and acted as co-spokesman for the Patriotic Front. Following the purchase by Robert Mugabe's government of controlling interest in the Zimbabwe Newspapers in 1981, Musarurwa became the first black editor of the Sunday Mail. The newspaper became highly regarded by both black and white readers for its sharp articles, astute editorials, and witty columns. He was summar- ily fired in 1985, as a result of political differences with the government. Unable to find journalistic work in Zimbabwe, Musarurwa formed a successful public relations and business consultancy firm. Recently, he wrote articles denouncing the moves toward a one-party state in Zimbabwe and criticizing the Herald and Sunday Mail for their sycophantic coverage of the Mugabe govern- ment. Recognizing Musarurwa's widespread popularity, Mugabe declared him a national hero after his death and honored him with an elaborate state funeral. For days. Musarurwa's picture appeared on the front page of Harare's Herald newspa- per, the same newspaper that had refused to publish his articles for the past five years. Mugabe praised Musarurwa for "harnessing media resources to the benefit and advancement of the cause of African freedom and self-rule." Musarurwa is Still not granting women the attention they are due survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and seven children. Journalists have established a fund in Willie Musarurwa's name to be used to train budding Zimbabwean Senegal cut its social spending per per- journalists. son by 48 percent in the period 1980- —Andrew Meldrum 1985, Somalia by 62 percent, and Madagascar by 44 percent. The report argues that subsidies for basic food- education and economic and public national censuses, particularly agricul- stuffs and services of up to 3 percent life, as well as women's "invisible" tural surveys," recommends UNDP. of GNP can be reinstituted, without contribution to society, the report does While there is a male/female HDI. data overburdening the budgets of poor not break any new ground in address- limitations severely restricts its useful- countries. ing the neglect of women's needs in ness in assessing the real state of the The study has been criticized for national policies and development condition of women. establishing criteria such as life strategies. "The low value attached to Despile Africa's bleak stature in the expectancy, literacy, and purchasing women's work requires a fundamental report, there is promise: Human devel- power whose weight is arbitrary and remedy: If women's work were more opment progress in low and middle for lacking essential elements in the fully accounted for, it would become income countries such as Ghana, Zim- quality of life index, such as political clear how much women count in devel- babwe, and Botswana can be applied freedom, human rights, and individual opment. To do that requires much bet- elsewhere. The underlying message is self-respect. In addition, while recog- ter gender-specific data on develop- that, above all, Africa's hope lies in its nizing the basic gender inequalities in ment. There is a need to redesign human development. •

AFRICA REPORT - July-August 1990 11 SOUTH AFRICA INVESTMENT South Africa's gold mines, the A report entitled 1990 Africa Invest- nation's top industry and the world's ment Climate Survey was recently largest gold-producers, are facing a released in Washingion D.C. by the decline as a result of drastic cuts in Africa Investment Promotion Partner- profit margins from 70 percent in 1979 ship, providing a compilation of invest- to a record low 15 percent. This has ment climate indicators for 39 countries been attributed to depressed gold across the continent. This country-by- prices; declining ore grades; soaring country comparison of key indicators is production costs of up to 12 percent; LIVESTOCK the first of its kind, and includes tax and high inflation; and competition from African livestock and wildlife are customs duty exemptions, infrastructure, the U.S., Canada, and Australia, whose threatened by a highly destructive legal agreements, laws, and regulations combined output last year exceeded insect pest, the New World screw- governing foreign investment. The sur- that of South Africa for the first time worm—a fly whose parasitic larvae vey is intended to serve as a reference since 1911, according to a new report ravage livestock and at times, humans. tool for businessmen to make a first published by Consolidated Gold Fields. Immediate action is necessary to avert assessment about investing in Africa. South Africa's output currently a disaster and protect some 70 million "While Africa attracts less U.S. for- accounts for 37 percent of world pro- livestock in North Africa alone, eign investment than other regions, it duction, compared to 70 percent in according to the UN Food and Agricul- also ranks as the most profitable region 1979, and there are fears that produc- ture Organization (FAO). At present, for U.S. companies and their sub- tion could fall by as much as half in the the pest is confined to Libya over an sidiaries," argues the report, underscor- 1990s, leading to several mine clo- area of 7,200 miles. An estimated $84 ing the fact that, on a selective basis, sures. Already. Freegold, South million is needed over the next two there are profitable opportunities in Africa's largest gold mine, has closed years to eradicate it. certain sectors of African countries, down two shafts to cut costs. The pest, which was until recently particularly in the mining and extrac- Kennedy Maxwell, president of the only prevalent in the Americas and tive sectors, where returns are as high Chamber of Mines, has warned that up which has proved to be the most as 22 percent. The survey also high- to 18 out of South Africa's 31 gold destructive of parasites, was introduced lights the increasingly competitive pos- mines, employing over 116,(XM) labor- in Africa through an infected animal ture of several African countries, argu- ers, will be operating at a loss by July if from South America about a year ago. ing that the investment climate in gold prices do not rise above this year's According lo Dr. James E. Novy of the Africa is "vastly different" from only a predicted $400 per ounce. The cost of U.S. Department of Agriculture, "based few years ago, with governments now gold in some South African mines is on the economic losses experienced in offering investors a variety of incentive also $400, even if the national average the Western hemisphere, it is estimated packages, pre-constructed factory is $276 per ounce (the world average is that $200 million annually in losses shells, and export processing zones. currently $250 per ounce). Once the could be experienced in the North lowest cost producer of gold in the African region if screwworms were to AUTO INDUSTRY world, South Africa is now the highest. spread." Kenya and Nigiera have taken a New mining strategies are being The U.S.-Mexico Screwworm Erad- major step toward the establishment of proposed to arrest the decline, includ- ication Commission combats the pest full-fledged automobile industries with ing a move from exporting gold in the by using the sterile male technique, the development of new, locally made form of bullion to selling it as jewelry. releasing sterile male flies irradiated cars. Kenya recently unveiled the first The government has recently with gamma radiation, which prevents models of its Nyayo Pioneer 1, 2, and 3, announced new regulations and tax the eggs from hatching, thereby break- constructed almost exclusively from concessions to encourage this strategy; ing the life cycle of the parasite. The local components. The plan entails the other mining houses are now selective- organization is now selling the fly to creation of a company in which Mit- ly mining high-grade rock. the FAO, but the logistical problems of subishi will own 5 percent of the shares. Many South Africans are counting getting the sterile flies from Mexico to Some 3,000 cars will initially be pro- on a price rise based on the present Africa are said to be daunting. duced at a cost of KShs 160,000 trends of supply and demand. But, "It is still technically feasible to ($6,700) each. according to Maxwell, "even if ihe eradicate the screwworm, but once it The first-ever Nigerian-made vehi- price of gold rose to between $430 and becomes established in tropical Africa, cle is intended to provide an affordable $450 an ounce, our industry would be that will be impossible at any price," option to the Peugeot, which costs crucially dependent on the dollar/rand recently warned FAO Director-General N 140,000 (over $18,000). With a mar- exchange rate remaining at its present Edward Saouma. ket price of N35.000 to 20,000, the level," highlighting the fact that the cri- "The damage to wildlife, including new vehicle is expected to meet an esti- sis will not be resolved by a simple already endangered species, would be mated national demand of 100,000 cars price windfall. Degussa AG. the West devastating. This is truly a now-or- per year. The prototype, however, has German metals refiner and trader, never situation." The parasite also been criticized for its low headroom, expects gold prices to remain at their infects humans and can cause madness low ground clearance, and use of present range of $360 per ounce. and death. imported parts.

12 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 SOUTH AFRICA THE POLITICS 0F PERSUASION fly PATRICK LAURENCE Fnc \1i"c';'"ipaci Visuals ettlement of the South African conflict is still a long way off, S but the government and its long-standing adversary, the African National Congress, have taken the first important steps on the road to peace. The preliminary talks between government and ANC representa- tives in Cape Town from May 2 to 4 ended amicably. Both sides agreed to continue the "peaceful process of negotiations." Held at Groote Schuur, the dignified and historic official resi- dence of South African heads of state, the meeting was characterized by public bonhomie between men who only a few months ago were bitter foes. Extrapolating from the official statement, it is clear that the Groote Schuur talks focused largely on the contentious issue of violence: Gov- ernment delegates pressed the ANC to abandon its continued public com- mitment to "armed struggle." argu- ing that its repeated justification of armed resistance added to the cli- After the African National Congress and the mate of violence; ANC men tackled South African government's "talks about talks" the government on the shooting by in May, the issues of violence and the fate of police of "unarmed civilians" seeking political prisoners remain contentious. Apart to exercise their democratic right to from these matters on the negotiating table, both protest. F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela face political Since then, there have been fur- problems in the days ahead—for the South ther acts of violence in contravention African president, a restive right wing, and for of the Groole Schuur pledge to Patrick iMurence is a specialist writer on the the ANC leader, fall-out from the "Stompie Johannesburg Star, South African correspon- dent w/Thc Economist, and a contributor to affair." The Guardian of London and'The Irish Times.

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 13 eschew "violence and intimidation and threatened to pull out of the from whatever quarter." negotiations. Later, however, after In Welkom, a mining town in talks with the Minister of Law and South Africa's "Deep South," police Order, Adriaan Vlok, he agreed that killed 12 blacks hardly more than two the talks should continue. "He [Vlok] weeks after the Cape Town talks. outlined steps he would take to stop Four blacks were shot dead when the massacres," Mandela said. police stopped an attempted anti- The spiraling violence since the apartheid protest march by militant Groote Schuur accord has been fed youths from Thabong, a black town- from another quarter: a series of ship on the outskirts of Welkom, into bomb and grenade attacks by insur- Welkom itself. More Thabong resi- gents. The targets have been eco- dents were killed by police when nomic and military, not civilian. The young black people, angered by the most spectacular was a limpet mine police shootings, went on the ram- attack on a gasoline depot near the page in Thabong. The angry youths Transvaal town of Louis Trichart. In contributed to the death toll, murder- addition, there have been a series of gun and grenade attacks on police- men by unknown assailants. No one has claimed respon- sibility officially. But the grenades have been identified by police as similar to those used in the past by the ANC, suggesting that ANC guerrillas ra- ther than insurgents of the rival Pan Africanist Congress are responsible. The grenades are of Soviet origin. The PAC is armed with Chinese-made grenades. These attacks have raised anxiety levels in the white community and given the right-wing ANC rally: The attacks have raised anxi- ing Thabong's former mayor, 67-year- leaders an opportunity to attack de ety levels in the white community and old Albert Pakathi, apparently Klerk for not dealing firmly with "ter- given right-wing leaders an opportunity to attack de Klerk for not dealing (irmly because of his membership in the rorism"; they have not, however, pre- with "terrorism" Zulu-based movement, Inkatha, and cipitated threats from the govern- setting fire to the property of suspect- ment to break off the negotiations. ed collaborators. The commitment to peace talks Police action in Thabong caused has not merely held fast in the face of ANC leader Nelson Mandela to speak violence—there has been actual of a massacre of black civilians and to progress. A joint government-ANC accuse the security forces of regard- working committee was established ing every black person as a military under the Groote Schuur agreement. target. He declared that the shoot- Its brief was to find a mutually accept- ings were inimical to the peaceful res- able definition of what are, and what olution of South Africa's problems are not, political offenses, in order to

14 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 SaratvJane Poole speed up the release of political pris- what the government calls "anti-ter- oners, the granting of immunity to rorist units." In what may be a precur- political offenders, and the return of sor to future developments, the ANC exiles. They completed their work on has given its protection to two fugi- schedule, handing in their recom- tive South African policemen, Dirk mendations on May 21. Coetzee and David Tshikalange. Although members of the commit- According to their own testimony tee declined to give details of their before a judicial inquiry into political report, it was clear that a modus killings, they were members of a vivendi had been reached. Jacob police "death squad" which, acting on Zuma, the ANC's intelligence chief, orders from above, assassinated the told journalists: "The issues are pro-ANC human rights lawyer Grif- behind us." The agreement is expect- fiths Mxenge. ed to accelerate the emergence from As the former adversaries moved prisons all over South Africa of men closer together on the need for an and women jailed for politically moti- agreement, de Klerk and Mandela vated actions. The ANC puts the vied for world sympathy and support. number of political prisoners in Their rivalry, however, was not incon- South African jails at 3,000. sistent with their commitment to But according to a front-page negotiations. They were meeting to report in The Star, South Africa's strengthen their position at the nego- biggest daily newspaper, the working tiating table, not on the battlefield. committee agreement heralded an I)e Klerk left South Africa soon even more dramatic development: a after the Groote Schuur talks on a general amnesty for all political pris- nine-nation tour of Europe. His for- oners, including those jailed for mally declared objective was to offenses leading to loss of life. The inform his European hosts—who Nelson Mandela's problem was to defend general amnesty—which is undoubt- included President Francois Mitter- his wife and to prevent (he "Stompie edly under consideration in highest rand, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and affair" from adversely affecting the ANC government circles—will, it is antici- Prime Minister Margaret Thatch- table, each faced internal problems. pated, extend to South African agents er—of his policy initiatives and to ask De Klerk had to deal with vociferous serving long sentences in Zimbab- them to reappraise their policies condemnation as a "traitor" by the wean jails. One is a woman, Odile toward South Africa. "I have not right wing. Mandela had to contend Harrington. Some of Harrington's co- come to Europe with a shopping list," with criticism from the black con- prisoners are under sentence of he said. His undeclared objective, sciousness movement and the PAC death. Mandela had "highly sensi- however, was to set the scene for the who insisted that the time was not yet tive" talks with Zimbabwe's Robert lifting of European Community- opportune for negotiations, and that Mugabe in Harare while en route approved sanctions. De Klerk seems "premature" negotiations inevitably back to South Africa from his seven- to have made a favorable impression led to compromising the long-term nation tour of African countries in on most of his European interlocu- interests of the bulk of the black pop- May. tors. ulation. An amnesty which includes the Mandela, who was in Africa while On May 26, the day that de Klerk return of captured South African de Klerk was in Europe, kept up his returned to South Africa, Andries agents from Zimbabwe and possibly cry for the maintenance of sanctions, Treurnicht, leader of the right-wing Botswana will make the release of contending that the movement away Conservative Party, addressed an imprisoned ANC bombers more from apartheid was not yet "irre- estimated crowd of 60,000 rightists at palatable to right-wingers. If it versible" and that sanctions should the Voortrekker Monument, the holi- includes a reprieve for Barend Stry- remain in place until it was. Mandela est shrine in Afrikaner folklore. "The dom, the former policeman and self- left for Europe early in June, confi- third freedom struggle has begun," styled "White Wolf' who cold-blood- dently promising to reverse whatever Treurnicht said to roars of approval. edly shot and killed seven black civil- gain de Klerk may have made. From Since the first two "freedom strug- ians in Pretoria, then it will pre-empt Europe, he headed for the United gles" were fought on the battlefield by much of the fury of the right wing at States with the same mission: to rally the 19th century Boer Republics, the the freeing of ANC saboteurs respon- support behind the ANC in a bid to import of his declaration was clear: sible for the death of white civilians. equalize its resources with those of While the rightists would prefer to A general amnesty may, moreover, the South African government. oppose de Klerk at the polls, they include members of South Africa's As de Klerk and Mandela edged would, if necessary, resist militarily. police and army "death squads" or their way toward the negotiating Treurnicht accused de Klerk of

AFRICA REPORT • July-Augus! 1990 15 surrendering the rights of whites to Democratic Party. Two further fac- rose House—the Peace of Vereenig- self-government, of following a tors may help de Klerk considerably. ing which ended the Anglo-Boer War course which would lead to their sub- There is evidence to show that the of 1899-1901, or what Afrikaner jugation by the black majority. He idea of a negotiated settlement with nationalists call the Second War of pointedly quoted one of Afrikaner- the ANC is becoming more accept- Freedom, was signed there. The dom's finest modern poets, N.P. van able to whites with the passage of explosion was presumably meant to Wyck Louw: "If you put a proud time. Its "acceptability rating" has symbolize the start of the Third Free- nation in chains, uprising becomes its more than doubled since May 1989, dom Struggle. right." rising from less than 25 percent to Historical precedent is not auspi- The right-wing rally, attended by a more than 55 percent. White anxi- cious for armed rebellion by whites, disparate array of white supre- eties about black rule are to some however. The only two major rebel- macists, ranging from members of extent negated by a growing percep- lions by whites in modern South Treurnicht's Conservative Party to tion of the rightists as "wild men," African history—the 1914 rebellion zealots of Eugene Terre'Blanche's whose precipitate actions will hasten by some former Boer generals and neo-Nazi Afrikaner Resistance Move- rather than forestall disaster. the 1922 Rand Revolt by disgruntled ment, refocused attention on two crit- If the Conservative Party does not white miners—were speedily ical questions: whether the Conser- defeat de Klerk at the polls, or if crushed. vative Party, as the parliamentary rightists give up hope of doing so, If de Klerk faced potential prob- wing of rightist forces, could defeat lems from the right, Mandela had de Klerk's ruling National Party at intense worries of his own as he set the polls, and, if not, whether the The right wing will out for Africa, Europe, and America, rightists would take the course of mil- have one last chance in a bid to counteract whatever gains itary rebellion. de Klerk might have made on the De Klerk is committed to seeking of defeating de Klerk international front. On May 25, Man- the approval of whites for his hoped- before the rules of the dela's wife, Winnie, was found by a for deal with black nationalists court to have been present on the through either a parliamentary elec- game are altered night that four abducted youths were tion or a referendum. He must do so through the admission assaulted in one of her Soweto homes. The assault took place in by 1994 at the latest. Thus, the right of black voters. wing will have one last chance of December 1988. One of the youths, defeating de Klerk before the rules of Stompie Mokhetsi, was later found the game art1 altered through the dead in Soweto. admission of black voters. armed rebellion then moves more Jerry Richardson, the coach of the The Conservative Party's chance sharply into focus as a possibility. Mandela United Football Club, of of a ballot box victory seems slight, The chances of a coup by the which Mrs. Mandela was the patron, especially if de Klerk opts—as he is South African Defence Force, or ele- was found guilty of murdering Stom- almost certain to do—for a referen- ments within it, appear to be minimal. pie. The three youths who survived dum. The Conservative Party As Deon Fourie, professor of strate- told the court they had been assault- obtained only 31 percent of the white gic studies at the University of South ed by Winnie Mandela, who they said vote in last year's general election. Africa notes, the prevailing ethos in beat them with a sjambok, or heavy The National Party won 48 percent the Defence Force is loyalty to the whip. Judge Brian O'Donovan found and the strongly pro-reform Demo- government of the day, rather than to that their testimony had the "ring of cratic Party, 21 percent. In a referen- a political party or an ideology. truth." dum, the expectation is that the Attempted rebellion by rightists, Mandela's immediate problem National and Democratic Party sup- however, cannot be ruled out. Many was to defend his wife and to prevent porters will vote in favor of a settle- rightists own their own weapons. the "Stompie affair" from adversely ment, provided de Klerk, with the Their private armory has been sup- affecting the ANC. Another related help of Mandela, can assuage their plemented by the theft of weapons difficulty was looming, however. anxieties about black domination or from the Defence Force, carried out There were suspicions, voiced openly mismanagement of the economy. under the instructions of Piet in Parliament by the Conservative The Conservative Party's share of Rudolph, a fanatical rightist. Rudolph, Party, that Winnie Mandela had not the white vote has remained fixed at who is on the run from the police, has been prosecuted because of a secret 31 percent, according to opinion boasted of his involvement in the deal between Mandela and de Klerk. polls. While it has won Afrikaner vot- theft of Defence Force arms in tele- Opponents of an ANC-government ers from de Klerk, the National Party phone calls to newspapers. settlement were preparing to exploit has compensated by winning votes In a later call, the fugitive rightist the suspicions in a bid to discredit the from the English-speaking white claimed responsibility for an explo- two leaders and wreck the negotia- community at the expense of the sion in Pretoria. His target was Mel- tions. O

16 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 T V W The Reverend Smangaliso Mkhatshwa. A THEOLOGIAN OF THE PEOPLE By MARGARET A. NOVICKI

Secretary-General of the Institute for Contextual Theology and patron of the United Demo- cratic Front, the Reverend Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, a Roman Catholic priest, has been at the forefront of the struggle to end apartheid through his religious and community-based activities, ones for which he was imprisoned and tortured. In this exclusive interview with Africa Report, the Reverend Mkhatshwa analyzes the polit- ical climate in South Africa in the wake of Nelson Mandela's release, assessing the strate- gies of both the government and the Mass Democratic Movement. He also explains the history behind the violence in Natal, and offers the MDM's perspective on policy options for Western governments at this point in the nation's history.

Africa Report: What is your assessment of the current politi- sense that he has at least made it possible for people to begin cal situation in South Africa following the May talks about talks to operate openly, to organize politically, and to express their between the government and the African National Congress dissent through protest marches, even though people are still [ANC]? What is the next step? being shot by police. One must be aware that with the talks Mkhatshwa: Naturally, everybody is very interested in what about talks that took place, there is still a long way to go. The is going on in South Africa. In assessing that situation, one can fact that those talks took place at all is a sign of hope about the adopt one of two attitudes: One can be very euphoric and future, and therefore this process needs to be encouraged. But I therefore run the danger of being rather simplistic in interpret- don't think de Klerk needs to be rewarded because all that he ing what is taking place in South Africa today. If one adopts has done is to give in to internal and international pressure. that attitude, there is a real danger that one can conclude that That pressure, therefore, needs to be maintained, so that he apartheid is dead and therefore there is no longer any need to doesn't slip backwards, that he rather continues to allow the continue with the various forms of pressure, whether economic, political process to take place more and more. political, diplomatic, cultural or whatever. In fact, he must be encouraged to accelerate that process Or one can adopt a more realistic view, being aware that because people's expectations have been raised. If, for the main pillars of apartheid are still in place, very intact. instance, the ANC is not able to deliver, there could be some What F.W. de Klerk has done has some significance in the real problems if people begin to be disillusioned and impatient

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 17 and quite understandably so. After having waited for over 338 advice, to the pressures and sc on, and unlike my predeces- years, you can understand if people are a little bit impatient sors, I am a reasonable fellow tc deal with. You've got to recip- and they'd like to see results. What happened in May in Cape rocate as well, I've made some concessions, and if you are Town wasn't really negotiations. It was a preliminary discus- really concerned about change taking place in South Africa, sion which was important to help clear the air, to help build up you must stop applying economic sanctions because you are some form of trust between the two parties to try and find com- hurting the very same people you are trying to help. Make mon ground before coming to the nuts and bolts of the real things a bit easier for me, stop isolating us, encourage us, and issues. the only way to encourage us is to stop applying economic Africa Report: Will there be further talks about talks? sanctions." Mkhatshwa: Yes, there will be more than just talks about Now the international community can say: "Yes, we shall talks because they have set up joint committees to study, for reward you because you are reasonable, sensible, and so on." instance, the implications of lifting the state of emergency, to Or they can say: "Not yet.. .we appreciate what has happened look into the whole question of political prisoners and their and we would like to encourage you by not intensifying the release, those in exile and the implications of their return, and sanctions that are already in place. If you introduce more so forth. Much more work will be done by these joint special changes and even faster, we shall have no option but to lift the committees, rather like what happened in Namibia. sanctions and even invest much more actively in the country, to Africa Report: International and domestic pressure led to de help rebuild the economy, to restore confidence of various Klerk's moves, and de Klerk's trip to Europe and an upcoming countries in South Africa, and diplomatically also to ensure that visit to the U.S. are obviously intended to ease that pressure. we give you the necessary protection and encouragement to What is his strategy at the moment? do even more." Mkhatshwa: Like any good politician, de Klerk will want to The international community needs to be very careful that it exploit the situation. His trips abroad are an opportunity for doesn't fall into de Klerk's trap. It must also be a little more hon- him to say: "I've been a good boy, I've been sensitive to est in the sense that some countries have been doing a roaring business with South Africa and have been looking for an excuse, however small it may be, to say now we can go ahead and do good business. Africa Report: What is your view of where the U.S. stands in all of this? Inkatha impis: "We all know that there are people called the war- lords who are actually the ones that are responsible for the vio- Mkhatshwa: At the best of times, U.S. policy has been a bit lence, they are leading the impis who attack people, murder, ambiguous. The measures it has applied need to be left where maim people" they are. The U.S. should encourage this process [that de Klerk Anna Ziemmskj/lmpaci Visuals

has begun]. Nelson Mandela will be visiting the U.S. and I hope he will be carrying the same message, namely that the U.S. is certainly one of the players in our part of the world in the quest for peace, and therefore we would want them to tell de Klerk to do much more and quicker. But at this stage, the U.S. should not lift any sanctions, it shouldn't ease any pres- sures that are in place. Africa Report: The release of Mandela and unbanning of political organizations has created a whole new situation for the Mass Democratic Movement. What is the line-up of forces within the MDM now? Are most people solidly behind the ANC? Is the movement more unified or less in light of the ANC's talks with government? Mkhatshwa: First of all, if democracy means anything at all, it means tolerance of other people's opinions and respect for their right to differ. What is happening in South Africa is the normal process of democracy, but what we really need to be looking at is, as you soy, the line-up of Forces. Without any doubt whatsoever, the ANC, with its allies, the MDM, Cosatu, the United Democratic Front [UDF], enjoys by far the most massive support in the country and this manifests itself in many different ways. The ANC is setting up structures which could not exist six months ago and the recruitment drive is in full swing. If you look at the rallies, for instance, that have been taking place in the country to receive Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and the others, there is no doubt that the ANC enjoys the most massive support in the country and one can virtually say that it is the alternative government in the making. Secondly, de Klerk, almost without even consulting any- body, immediately identified the ANC as the negotiating part- ner. He is no fool. Through intelligence and other ways, he must have concluded that the ANC is the force that he needs to be talking to- Further, the armed struggle has been basically waged by the ANC. The pressure we have been talking about has been waged by the ANC over the years. It is very clear to me, therefore, and to many other people that in terms of power, influence, and size of membership, the ANC is by far the dominant force in the country. It is stronger than the National Party itself, stronger than anything else that exists in the country. It is true that there are other much smaller forces that also exist, and they must be allowed to say that they are not happy about certain things. But at the end of the day, the question we have to ask is: Who is going to set the agenda and the pace and the tempo of change? To whom will the vast majority of the people in South Africa listen? And I am one to Sowetans celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela: "There is argue that the ANC is that force that is going to really decide no doubt that the ANC enjoys the most massive support in the country and one can virtually say that it is the alternative gov- what happens in South Africa finally. ernment in the making" Africa Report: What is behind the violence in Natal? What steps are being taken by the ANC and Inkatha to address it? Mkhatshwa: It is grossly unfair to expect Mandela to sud- In 1984-85, the whole thing was sparked off by Inkatho's try- denly solve that problem. It started years before he was ing to force people to take out membership. There were other released from prison. The government itself with all its machin- socio-economic factors—people being displaced, unemploy- ery and security apparatus has not managed to solve that situa- ment, poverty—but the dominant factor is political: Inkatha's tion, either because it didn't have the will to do so or simply desire for hegemony in that area and its unwillingness to brook because it suits government interests. But having said that, any opposition from anybody, certainly not from the progres- there definitely is concern within the ANC, MDM, and UDF sive elements. So that is what it boils down to. about that situation, that if must be brought under control as Many efforts at peace have so far failed. Some clergymen soon as possible. came together and encouraged Cosatu, Inkatha, and UDF to Why have so many peace efforts failed? There are several set up a peace process and so on. There has been a monitor- reasons. First of all, it is very clear that it is a political conflict ing group based at the University of Natal, some MPs also got between the Inkatha movement on the one hand and the pro- involved to try and bring about normality and find out what the gressive forces represented by Cosatu, ANC, UDF on the other. facts were, there have been peace rallies, prayer rallies, all

AFRICA REPORT'July-August 1990 19 sorts of things. The government sent in more reinforcements. Mkhatshwa: I have been very much guided by the Mass Some of the reasons why this exercise has not succeeded is: Democratic Movement and by what has been happening in the One, the difficulty of the Cosatu-UDF alliance in trying to reach country because I believe as a contextual theologian, you need any agreement with the Inkatha movement under the leader- to be sensitive to what is happening around you. For instance, ship of Gatsha Buthelezi. Even though some agreements had when the United Democratic Front came into being in 1983, it already been reached, they were never really implemented. So was very clear that there had been a real strong desire for the there has been that problem—the failure of the recognized different organizations to be brought together into some form peace process to actually get off the ground. of front. All the anti-apartheid organizations of different kinds Secondly, the attitude of the police. The vast majority of the and ideologies had to be brought together if we really wanted people will tell you that in the conflict in Natal, the police have to be effective, and that is why I was elected one of the patrons not played an unbiased, impartial role. They have definitely of the UDF. I have worked very closely with that front because I been very partisan in favor of Inkatha. There are many affi- believe in its main objectives—to bring people together to con- davits before the law courts in which some of the war tinue the struggle against apartheid. lords—Inkatha members—have been mentioned and evidence Because of my participation in anti-apartheid activities, I has been collected for everybody to see, but nothing happens. eventually got myself into big trouble. When the state of emer- But I think the problem at the moment is one of distrust. If gency was declared, I was taken in during the year 1986-87. I people took Mandela's call literally to throw their weapons into was tortured. They would never tell you exactly why you have the sea, they would be wiped out, they would be physically been detained, but there are always very vague allegations, attacked by Inkatha. De Klerk has sent in some more troop rein- such as, "The minister of law and order is satisfied that you forcements, people are still dying, but there seems to be an have engaged in activities that are prejudicial to the mainte- improvement in the situation. I believe myself that if the govern- nance of law and order and the security of the country," and so ment has the will and the desire to stop all that, it will stop with- on. But they don't actually substantiate that. in days. When we went out of detention, we continued our work We all know that there are people called the war-lords who because we just had no choice but to continue resisting are actually the ones that are responsible for the violence, they apartheid. I got actively involved in civic associations which try are leading the impis who attack people, murder, maim peo- to organize people locally. They fight for better living condi- ple. The role of the police, especially the special constables, tions, rent, good roads, garbage collection, but also if some- has been very questionable. It is common course that they have one is detained, they take up that issue. The civic association supported the Inkatha movement almost openly. It is true that plays a role that is both civic and political, and they are in con- de Klerk has sent in members of the Defence Force to try and tact with other civic associations around the country. So for bring some order in that situation, but people continue to die, instance now, when the ANC is trying to embark on a recruit- and practically all those that are dying at the moment are all ment campaign, the civic associations are playing quite an opponents of Inkatha. important role. Rather than talking about "black-on-black violence" which I have also continued to run a parish because I felt that it gives a false picture of what is happening, we need to look at would be dangerous for one just to be involved in academic the socio-economic factors which are responsible for that vio- work without remaining with one's feet on the ground, and the lence. We need to look at the ideological and political conflict only way to do so is to continue to be in contact with the grass- between the two groups. It is a conflict between one group that roots people. And it also helps one to translate the ideas, theo- is totally opposed to apartheid and would like to dismantle that ries, and so on into practice and therefore one can see whether system, and another group which operates within the structures certain ideas reflect the aspirations of the people or they are of apartheid; in spite of what they might say, the truth of the just in the clouds. matter is that they are financed by apartheid, they continue to Then I got involved in the National Reception Committee for exist thanks to the support given to them by the apartheid not just Mandela alone, but for all the ex-Rivonia trialists. We regime. have been trying to organize their program, speaking engage- Africa Report: Is the process toward one person, one vote ments, all their needs to the best of our ability. irreversible? Has de Klerk accepted it or is he still talking about In closing, I would only emphasize that it is important for group rights, protection for minorities, etc.? people, organizations, and governments that have been sup- Mkhatshwa: I would like to believe that the process is irre- portive in the struggle against apartheid to continue doing so versible. It just depends on how many obstacles are placed in until apartheid has been destroyed. That is very important. its way. I think de Klerk for quite some time will continue with What you can do as people involved in the media is to help this group rights thing, partly as kind of a political posturing, so people understand what the real issues are and what the situa- he doesn't lose the support of his constituency too soon. He tion in South Africa is really all about. must reassure them that he is in control of things and so on and The Western countries should listen in a very sensitive way is not going to sell them down the drain. I do feel that with the to the voice coming from the majority of the people in South passage of time, he probably will give in and the real serious Africa and stop choosing leaders for us, in terms of promoting peace process or negotiations will get under way. How soon is people that do not enjoy the support of the majority of our peo- anybody's guess. But I would imagine that in the near future the ple. We are very hopeful that Mandela is such a statesman, a serious negotiations will begin, because it is in everybody's man of such absolute integrity and determination, that if he is interest to ensure that that actually happens. given the chance, he can do a great job. Mandela is a symbol Africa Report: The last several years haven't been easy for as a leader of a movement, and he must not be seen in isola- you, having been imprisoned and tortured. How do you see tion from that movement. Political support, diplomatic support, your role as a churchman in the struggle at the moment? and even material support should actually be increased. O

20 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 THE RIGHT'S SHOW OF IGHT South Africa's right wing staged a rally in late May to denounce F.W. de Klerk's efforts toward dismantling apartheid. While some 60,000 of the faithful attended, the blustery self-righteousness of the politicians failed to inspire an uprising, suggesting that even the conservatives may have realized that change is inevitable.

By PETER TYGESEN istory repeats itself, so They decided on a show of the saying goes, once strength against de Klerk's H as tragedy, once as reforms. They talk of war. farce. As South Africa's far- For years, they predicted right Conservative Party on that the "sell-out" leadership May 26 launched the Third of the National Party was Liberation War of the Afrikan- going to hand over power to er people, it was still difficult the blacks. On February 2, to assess which stage was their fears came true. On this reached in this people's torn "black Friday," de Klerk history. unbanned the Communist But it was apparent in their Party and the nationalist orga- show of horses, guns, and nizations, the ANC and PAC, century-old flags that these are rid- and promised the quick release of ers of a lost cause. For all their fear AWB leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, Pre- Nelson Mandela. He immediately set toria: The right-wing urgently began plan- up talks with these "forces of evil." and frenzy, their vision is blurred ning a massive protest campaign against and their dream of white supremacy de Klerk's policies From the right's perspective, the end long ago became a violent night- old dream of an Afrikaner nation is of everything Afrikaners had stub- mare. being finally crushed. The verligte bornly fought for over 300 years was To blacks, however, the show is (enlightened) of the Afrikaner tribe near. one with deadly consequences: They don't really mind. Followers of Presi- The right wing urgently began are occasionally gunned down in dent F.W. de Klerk's National Party, planning a massive protest cam- cold blood, just to prove the point. they are confident that they can paign. At the forefront was the drive White supremacy is dying in strike a deal with the black leader- to collect a million signatures against South Africa and with it the century- ship that will ensure their people de Klerk's policies. After three partnership in a thriving nation. months of planning, they set the Feter Tygesen is a Danish journalist who has followed events in South Africa since 1980. He Their opposition, the verkrampte scene for the largest gathering of freelances for the Danish Broadcasting Corpo- of the tribe, are clinging to the Afrikaner protest since the Nats won ration and contributes regularly to the Danish Weekcn-avisen and various Scandinavian dogma of apartheid amid South power in 1948. papers and magazines. Africa's confusing whorl of change. By May 26, everything was ready.

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 21 Early that morning, they sent their cruise Welkom's streets at night car- track?" they asked. "Can the govern- khaki-clad horsemen parading rying automatic rifles, pump shot- ment control the right-wing elements through the streets of Pretoria, urg- guns, and pistols. in the police?" "How fast is the right ing people to join their vergadering at According to Hennie Miiller, lead- rising?" the Voortrekker monument on the er of the White Security organiza- Then came the bomb attack outskirts of town. Prominent among tion, his "8,000 able men" were only against Melrose House. the 720-strong horse-commandos there to protect life and property. The surge of right-wing backlash were members of the ultra-right Leaders of local black organizations, was to culminate in the mass rally at Afrikaner Resistance Movement however, claimed that they were Voortrekkerhoogte. Never before (AWB), proudly brandishing pistols beating up any black person on the had the Conservative Party orga- while parading their swastika-like streets after dark. nized such a coalition of the splin- banners. When two blacks were killed in tered right. Two nights before the gathering May, allegedly by the white vigi- Some followers of Rudolf's Boere- at Voortrekkerhoogte, an explosion lantes, the black community called a statparty were no doubt among the rocked the capital. A hand grenade consumer boycott of white-owned clear-eyed, khaki-clad youths stalk- had badly damaged the historic Mel- shops. Shopowners1 combined losses ing the Voortrekker amphitheater on rose House, where in 1902 battered came to Rl million ($400,000) a day Saturday afternoon, listening with Boer generals had signed the Peace and the atmosphere in Welkom went dull vigilance to representatives of of Vereeniging, or rather, their defeat from bad to worse. White vigilante the country's four provinces deliver by the British. patrols were increased and the AWB "freedom manifestos" and to the Bitter-einders of the tribe have still sent in its hoods. main speaker, chairman of the Con- not forgiven the generals for their Suddenly, the tense situation servative Party, Dr. Andries Treur- humiliating acceptance of that exploded. A mob of angry black min- nicht. Dull, because nothing new was defeat. Piet "Skiet" (Shoot) Rudolf, ers demonstrated against harass- said. Vigilant, because in fringe poli- spokesman of a minuscule right- ment by white foremen for wearing tics everybody is a potential sell-out. wing falange, phoned The Pretoria ANC badges. Mine security guards And fringe it is. Even in this hour News proudly claiming responsibility fired on them with teargas and bird- of doom for their belief in institution- for the bombing. He vowed to contin- shot. In the ensuing pitched battle, alized racial superiority, these ue attacking similar "symbols of two whites were killed. activists do not work for, hope for, or humiliation." I.aw and Order Minister Adriaan even think of white unity. Nor do Rudolf phoned from hiding. A Vlok raced to the scene. In a deal, their leaders. They never say it out month earlier, he had pulled off a White Security leader Miiller loud, but "white" is inherently seen spectacular weapons raid from noth- promised to keep his men off the as being Afrikaans, the volk. Thus, ing less than the Air Force headquar- street for three months, in return for they have become a minority within ters. The theft provided him with an more police and a promise from Vlok another minority. undisclosed number of R5 assault to persuade the black leaders to give Beneath this lies fears, rooted in rifles, a light machine gun. numer- up the boycott. A few days later, a socio-economic facts: The Afrikaners ous automatic shotguns, 30 9mm rally in the township resolved to stop were for centuries the underdog of automatic pistols, and thousands of the boycott. But as people walked white South Africa; their families rounds of ammunition. With his home from the rally, militant youths became the hungry armies of job- action, Rudolf had humiliated the and police clashed in a battle that left seekers during industrialization and government. He had successfully 13 blacks dead and more than 100 economic recession. And it is the staged a public relations stunt paral- injured. Afrikaner who, once again, is threat- lel to the famed Boer guerrilla war- Fear gripped the nation. Near Pre- ened by poverty in de Klerk's new, fare that for years kept the Imperial toria, three black men were gunned reformed South Africa. British army at bay. Had the battle down on a dark street by khaki-clad Their numbers of poor whites begun again, this time against the whites claiming to be traffic police have grown dramatically through the Nationalist government, as well as checking permits. One black sur- late 1980s due to the sanctions- the ANC and the country's black vived to tell the tale. Similar inci- induced recession. Recession knows majority? dents ensued, but with no survivors no color bar. In the Witwatersrand In dusty Welkom, a fast-growing to expose the details. area alone, the private charity organi- gold-mining town on the barren Newspapers focused on the far zation Operation Hunger is now feed- plains of the Orange Free State, it right, filling pages with chilling ing 800 white families daily. Co-direc- certainly looked so. But here the tar- reports of the AWB's "secret training tor Mpho Mashinini, a black South gets were people, not weapons or camps" and pictures of target-shoot- African, ponders the paradox: "Here buildings. ing, frenzy-eyed young men and I am, feeding their children in order Organized bands of white vigi- women in khaki. "Will the right be for them not to go to school hungry, lantes had earlier this year begun to able to throw the peace process off schools where my children are

22 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 denied access because they are con- are grossly overstaffed. The enter- sidered inferior." prises are inefficient and the depart- Most of those in the food lines are ments provide a "service" that usual- Afrikaners. They are not interested ly (but not always) is superior to in politics at all, says Mashinini. those offered in other African coun- "They are only struggling to sur- tries. vive." Forced by an insufficient tax base Sociologists say that the storm and by strained private corporations troopers of the extreme right organi- complaining of poor public back-up, zations like the AWB, the White Lib- the Nationalist government will lay eration Party, Boerestatparty, World off thousands of civil servants and Apartheid Movement, and others, privatize the large public steel, come from the social stratum just power, and transport corporations. above the desperate beneficiaries of Once privatized, these too will most Mashinini's food parcels. likely pare down their bloated staffs. The wider right, i.e., the Conser- The fired ones will almost exclu- vative Party, draws the bulk of its sively be Afrikaners. These will support from blue-collar workers in immediately recognize increased mining and industry, from the poorly government expenditure on service paid civil service (including the for blacks as another reason for their police), and from the farming com- redundancy. munity. They are the foremen of the And so it was a vast compounding Eugene Terre'Blanche, head of AWB, factories and the mines, just one little of anger, fear, and loathing that drew with swastika-like symbol step above their black workers, and the crowd to Voortrekkerhoogte, to they know that their children will Dr. Treurnichl's consoling promise never get similar jobs. They respond of a new rise for Die Volk. to growing black self-esteem as a They met in a haze of greasy threat. It is they who already have mists from gas-fired braai barbe- lost privileges lightening up dull and cues, loaded with boere-sausage and dirty jobs. It is their neighborhoods mammoth steaks. There were black that will be "invaded" by up-and-com- cast iron pots, like those used in any Chairm.m of the Conservative Party ing black families when residential rural household all over Africa, with Andries Treurnicht (left) with the mayor segregation goes, not the more potjiekos (stew). And there was every of Boksburg: He promised a new rise of expensive neighborhoods of the bet- kind of chauvinist minority propa- "Die Volk" ter-off supporters of the National Party. Nationalist supporters are gener- ally farmers of the better land, pro- fessionals, businessmen, and white- collar workers. They are educated and able to send their children to col- lege. Most of them can afford the high-standard service in private hos- pitals, schools, and old-age homes. But Dr. T.'s common volk cannot. The working-class Afrikaners are the candidates for ending below that dreaded poverty line when unem- ployment strikes. This threat could easily become reality as a result of another Nation- alist scheme: privatization. Afrikaner poverty was crippling in the 1930s and 1940s, and like any other African tribe after winning power, the Nats funneled their unemployed people into public service. Today, govern- ment enterprises and departments

AFRICA REPORT -July-August 1990 23 ganda available, from the World gathered "the nation" by buses and adding, "and almost everybody Apartheid Movement, via the Boere- trailers from every dusty dorp, they knows that." statparty demanding a Boer Repub- never drew more than 60,000. Equally, "almost everybody" has lic comprising the present Transvaal During the day, it became clear, felt the consequences of the faltering and Orange Free State, to the oranje- too, that they still hadn't been able to economy. "Almost everybody" also workers' call to all true Afrikaners to collect the promised 1 million signa- knows that if the underprivileged of do all work themselves and avoid tures. In spite of this campaign being South Africa's various social strata employing any blacks. "The recent launched in February, the goal is still shall retain the status quo, let alone stay-aways have amply proved that so far ahead that the number up to improve their living standards, whites are capable of taking over now has not been published, even growth is required; lifting of sanc- many of the tasks traditionally though the accepted age of signato- tions is required; a new constitution- assigned to blacks," a poster proudly ries has been lowered to 13 years. al dispensation is required. The right proclaims at their stand. has never come up with any alterna- Some elite. As the crowd good- tive for economic growth. naturedly wandered past the stands Meyer feels that the right conse- above the amphitheater, they resem- Newspapers focused quently has no chance of ultimately bled a cross between bored Sunday threatening the negotiating process visitors to an outdoor equipment on the far right, filling toward a new constitution. "The best show and proud families scouting pages with chilling way to beat them is to talk to them. bargains at a garage sale in the coun- They have no arguments that hold ty next door. reports of the AWB's up." Their talk centers on battle: battle "secret training Leading Nats consequently sleep against "symbols of humiliation," bat- camps" and pictures well these nights. Never in the last 10 tle against the Brits, battle against years have they felt more secure in the blacks, battle against the govern- of target-shooting, their task. ment. As Dr. T. lumbered through frenzy-eyed young Every Afrikaner rebellion has his 15-page speech, obviously feeling been lost and this one shows no the need to get a lot off his chest on men and women in signs of being different. Both Boer this brilliant day, the crowd turned khaki. wars were lost. Later, two armed dormant, satisfied with his assur- Afrikaner rebellions took place, and ances that nobody can push a Boer both were crushed—all of this even around. before the country had an Afrikaner Yet the rally was not the culmina- In spite of the seriousness of the government, as it does now. tion of the day. The organizers had to message, that "the government is In the battle of Welkom, the far rush the performers, the enormous selling out everything we have right won nothing. On the contrary, church choirs, the taped quotations fought and worked for," no speaker it seriously antagonized the business of Afrikaner heroes, and finally Dr. T. managed to incite the masses into community. Lives were lost. Unable himself, through their acts in order wild dances or hoarse cries for to enforce their own goal of "wanting to finish ahead of scheduled time. blood—all they did was to add to a to protect life and property," the far Cutting the taped German marches feeling of self-righteousness. Ending right was forced off the streets by an short, they wanted to ensure that the the rally, Dr. Treurnicht made them increased police force. They have rally would be over well in advance of take a vow. They repeated after him been reduced to negotiations them- the first match in this year's rugby that they would "take the message of selves; their complaints of intimida- season, which was kicked off a few war to every corner of this great tion by blacks at work will be investi- miles down the highway. country." But sunset found the volk gated by a tripartite body comprising Minutes after Dr. T. had finished cheering at the rugby stand, more the mine owners, the black miners' outlining the relentless efforts "our loudly than they had at the rally. union, and the ultra-conservative people" will invest in overthrowing They were not seen eagerly gather- whites-only miners' union. the present government, or at least ing signatures, distributing pam- When the chips are finally down, in collecting signatures, chaos broke phlets, or practicing marksmanship so government thinking goes, the out in the parking lots as hundreds at the rifle ranges. beleaguered conservatives will even- of cars and screaming horses In other words, the rally was a tually join the negotiations. One jammed the exits. flop. senses an unspoken "and if they Ebullient organizers had publicly Why? "All the right has to show is don't join—that's tough luck for declared they expected a "massive an ideology of the past, apartheid, them...." But the Nats probably are turn-out," adding that they would be which has been shown to fail dismal- serious in wanting the right-wingers disappointed if "no more than ly," says Rolf Meyer, the deputy min- out of the fringe and into the negoti- 100,000 attended." In spite of having ister of constitutional development, ating room. O

24 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 Anglican priest and ANC activist Michael Lapsley was badly wounded by a parcel bomb in Harare in late April. A frightening warning to anti- APARTHEID'S apartheid campaigners in exile, the attack demonstrated that despite President de Klerk's initiatives and the start of talks with the ANC, there remain elements committed to the liquidation of apartheid's opponents at home and abroad.

By ANDREW MELDRUM

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 25 t was the end of a festive day. than 30 minutes before help arrived tise and follows the pattern of previ- Michael Lapsley, Anglican priest to take him to the hospital where ous murders which we now know I and African National Congress both his hands were amputated and were the work of the security police member, had been feted at a braai later, one eye was removed. or other semi-official organizations," (barbecue) as his many friends in The ANC priest became the latest said Dr. Max Coleman of the Inde- Harare bid him farewell and wished victim in the series of vicious sabo- pendent Board of Inquiry into Infor- him success in his new post as a tage attacks against anti-apartheid mal Repression. "It therefore does parish priest in Bulawayo. activists in South Africa and in neigh- not appear to me to be the work of Many of the guests hadn't seen boring countries. The April 28 bomb- the extreme right. More likely is that Lapsley since he returned from a ing sent a chilling signal that despite it was carried out by units set up by speaking tour of Canada in which he the exposures of South Africa's death the state and working within cells articulated the ANC's point of view squads, anti-apartheid activists are originally set up with state sanction." and encouraged Canadians to keep still at risk. One of the key factors leading up the pressure on their government "With talks between the ANC and Coleman to his conclusion was that to maintain economic sanctions the South African government and Lapsley had received a letter on ANC against South Africa. all these disclosures about the death stationery which told him to expect The party had been a happy one squads, it appeared that the threat of some anti-apartheid religious books with singing and readings, in addi- such bombings had been reduced," to arrive in the mail. tion to food and drink. In the early said a distraught ANC member in A similar pattern of letters preced- evening, Lapsley returned to his Harare. "We had been thinking more ing parcel bombs was used in the home in central Harare to continue about returning to South Africa than attacks which killed ANC members packing up items he would take to of the danger of another bomb by Ruth First in Mozambique in 1981, Bulawayo. Pretoria's agents. We were wrong. Jeanette Curtis Schoon in Angola in And then it happened. Lapsley This is a terrible act against Michael 1985, and John Dube in Lusaka, Zam- was opening a parcel of books sent and a warning to all ANC members bia, and in the attempted murder of from South Africa when an explosion here and anywhere else that we must ANC lawyer Phyllis Naidoo in ripped through his hands to blow a not let our guard down." Lesotho in 1979. hole in the ceiling. Lapsley lay on the Lapsley's ANC colleagues said A new wave of assassinations of floor, bleeding profusely, for more they had no doubt that the parcel anti-apartheid activists in South bomb was part of the South African Africa has also begun, according to Andrew Meidrum. a contributing editor to Africa Rrport, is an American journalist who government's continuing campaign the Weekly Mail newspaper, which has been based in Zimbabwe since 1980. He to strike key members of the organi- reported that seven anti-government also writes for'Yhv Guardian ofhmdon. zation. campaigners were killed in South "Mike was tragically the target of Africa in April. the centralized, coordinated network Lapsley, 41, has begun a lengthy of sabotage emanating from the Pre- recuperation in which he is learning toria regime," said Father John I.am- to deal with the loss of both hands ola, also an Anglican priest who is and one eye. He has impaired vision administrative secretary of the in the other eye and his hearing was ANC's Department of Religious also damaged by the force of the Affairs. "This was not an act of the blast. lunatic fringe of the far right. It was "He is recovering quite well and part of the government's ongoing we are happy with his progress," said campaign to hit strategic supporters Jonah Gokova, chairman of Harare's of the liberation movement. In Liberation Support Committee. Laps- Mike's case, we think his bombing ley has been read some of the letters may have been intended to throw the that have come in, including a mov- ANC's team in Cape Town off-bal- ing letter from fellow victim Albie ance as they entered into the meet- Sachs who lost his right arm in a car ings with de Klerk. Many of them bomb in Maputo, Mozambique, in know Mike well." 1987. Experts in South Africa concurred The parcel bombing of Lapsley is that the bombing appears to have the latest in a string of such violence been carried out by a long-estab- against the ANC in Harare. In July, % Albie Sachs with Thabo Mbeki, ANC lished sabotage ring with official 1982, Joe Gqabi, the ANC's represen- £ director of international affairs: Sachs links. tative in Zimbabwe, was assassinat- £ lust his right arm in a car bomb in "This attack appears to have been ed. The SADF destroyed the ANC's 2 Maputo in 1987 carried out with considerable exper- offices in downtown Harare with

26 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 bombs," said one Natal when he was deported by the ANC member, "I government in 1977 for his anti- was planning to go apartheid activities. He then worked back to South at the Anglican Theological College Africa. Where will I in Roma, Lesotho, until he was be safe?" warned of death threats against him Lapsley helped there. After a period as a member of found "Heal The the Society of Sacred Mission in Eng- Wounds," a Harare land, lapsley came to Zimbabwe in organization pro- 1982 where he studied for a masters viding relief to vic- degree in political theology at the tims of such South University of Zimbabwe. His thesis African violence. was published as a book, Cooption or After successfully Neutrality?, a study of the role of rebuilding a bomb- Rhodesian Anglican Church leaders damaged apart- during the struggle for majority ment block in here. Harare and aiding As the vicar of an Anglican parish the families of vic- in Mbare township, Lapsley encour- tims, Lapsley en- aged Zimbabweans to actively sup- couraged "Heal port the anti-apartheid movement. The Wounds" to Since 1987, he worked for the provide assistance Lutheran World Federation. In addi- to rural villagers in tion to his grassroots organizing and eastern Zimbabwe solidarity work in Zimbabwe, he who have been went on anti-apartheid speaking attacked by Mo- lours of New Zealand, Australia, and South African-planted car bomb in Avondale shopping cen- zambique's Ren- ter, Harare: The parcel bombing of Uipsley is the latest in a Canada. string of such violence against the ANC in Zimbabwe amo rebels, saying "He is a very good writer and an that they, too, are excellent speaker," said Father John victims of South Osmers, an ANC chaplain in Lusaka. explosives in 1985 as part of simulta- African-sponsored aggression. "They tried to kill a very capable, neous raids on the capitals of "It's a grim irony that Michael will dedicated person. They tried to cut Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. A now himself need the kind of support down a person very important to the bomb in a television set killed an that he helped organize in "Heal The ANC." ANC member's wife in May 1987, Wounds,'" said an ANC member. Osmers suggested that Lapsley and a car bomb seriously injured Lapsley, a native New Zealander, had enraged Pretoria because he is anti-apartheid activists Jeremy and was a chaplain at the University of white and a Christian priest and Joan Brickhill in October 1987. I^ter therefore foiled attempts to portray that year, a mortar attack was the ANC as godless terrorists. launched at a house used by the Like Lapsley, Osmers is also from ANC. Lapsley's ANC New Zealand and was also the victim In January 1988, a ear bomb of a parcel bomb in 1979 in I^esotho exploded at an ANC house in Bui- colleagues said they which blew off his right hand. He awayo, killing one Zimbabwean. had no doubt that the said he expects that Lapsley will pull 'ITiree Zimbabweans—two white and through the vicious bombing with one black—have admitted that parcel bomb was part his commitment intact. bombing and have been sentenced of the South African "His Christian faith has prepared to death. They gave testimony of a government's him. Also his faith in the ANC will network of South African agents in help him," said Osmers. "He knows Zimbabwe who carry out violence continuing campaign he is part of a long line of struggle against ANC members here. to strike key with many victims. He knows that he As a result of the bombings, ANC is part of a movement that will lead to members in Harare keep very low members of the true freedom and justice in South profiles and many operate under- organization. Africa. I'm sure that Michael will ground. come through this ordeal with his "I personally know five people dedication even stronger than who have been killed or injured by before." O

AFRICA REPORT* July-August 1990 27 Helen Picard amibia South African Casspir armored vehicles are now used by Namibian police to is the patrol the Angolan border N quietest place on ent, but no less important, changes earth," insists are also taking place. On a hill above Horst Sayler, a Windhoek stands the old Tinten- long-time visi- palast, once the administrative head- tor. "You can quarters for the German colonial stand on a hill- government (and named for the vast top not far volume of ink expended on official from Wind- documents produced there). Namib- hoek and actu- ia's new government is spread ally hear the throughout the Tintenpalast and sev- silence. Of course," he adds—with eral nearby buildings, the most just the barest trace of nostalgia—"it important of which is, ironically, an was even quieter in the old days." edifice set aside by the South African Strolling down the Kaiserstrasse colonial regime for the "Administra- in Windhoek, across from Dr. Hen- tion of Whites." drik Verwoerd Park (many of the Since Namibia received its inde- place-names are in the process of pendence from South Africa on being changed), one would be March 21, the principal task of its inclined to agree. Silence in Africa's new administration has been two- newest capital city seems in very fold: the dismantlement of the short supply, indeed. apartheid-ridden bureaucratic struc- Construction crews are working ture left behind by Pretoria and the seven days a week to change the face creation of a functioning government of Windhoek in time for the city's to take its place. This has meant, for observance of its 100th birth- a start, drafting new legislation to day—October 19th. The downtown replace the old South African laws, as area is being virtually rebuilt with well as establishing a budget to fund modern shopping centers, pedestri- the new government. The result is an malls, widened sidewalks, elevat- that a lot of fresh ink has been put to ed walkways, and hundreds of new paper in the Tintenpalast during the tree plantings. weeks since independence. Many of the older structures are The new legislation has been the being retained and here less appar- subject of extended debate since the National Assembly was formally s Sean Kelly is a retired Voice of America corre- Construction crews are working seven spondent who HOW lives in southern Africa and days a week to change the face of Wind- opened by President Sam Nujoma on * travels extensively throughout the region. hoek May 15th. The process has been | CONSTRUCTING

After Namibia's independence in March, the nation is REPORTER'S witnessing a storm of activity—from a construction boom NOTEBOOK to the dismantlement of apartheid structures. The Swapo government's policy of reconciliation and a solid infrastructure left behind by South Africa are two strong pillars upon which Namibia's future is being built. By SEAN KELLY

28 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 lengthy, the speed deliberate. "We Hamutenya, "and we are bound to serve under a government which is could move faster," says Hidipo honor their contracts. They are led by blacks." The UN suggests that Hamutenya, Namibia's minister of Namibians and we will not throw their departure may create new information and long-time them into the streets, but we are employment opportunities for those spokesman for the ruling South West going to have to do a lot of shifting civil servants who remain—as will, Africa People's Organization and shuffling." As President Nujoma for instance, the diplomatic service. (Swapo). "We could railroad legisla- put it in his opening address to the On May 9th, Namibia's newly estab- tion. We have the votes to do it. But National Assembly: "Most govern- lished Ministry of Foreign Affairs our democracy is young and we ment officials from the former began running help wanted ads for would like to give it the opportunity administration will be retained, diplomats in the local press. A uni- to work. I will be happy if we can although not necessarily in the same versity degree would be required, complete the government's legisla- posts, structures, or institutions." said the ministry, "or comparable tive program by the end of July. If One potential problem area experience in a senior managerial not, we will simply sit though August involves those many officials capacity." to get it done." employed under the South African During the same week, the Pressure for change is mounting, regime in 11 separate ethnic-based Namibian government made two particularly within Swapo. "As an administrations—the so-called Sec- other significant announcements in African liberation movement, our ond Tier Authorities created by Pre- the local press. According to the task was much easier," says toria in its pursuit of homeland-style Times of Namibia, no Namibian citi- Hamutenya. "Once we identified the ethnic self-determination in Namibia. zen will henceforth be required to enemy, we dealt with him according- The homeland policy is rapidly com- refer to another as "baas" and refer- ly. But UN resolution 435 forced us ing apart in South Africa and it fell ence to black Namibians as "kaffirs" to do business with the very people considerably short of achieving eth- will be equally prohibited. In a sepa- we opposed. Now we are dealing nic self-determination in Namibia. rate notice, the Namibian Broadcast- with an opposition party where there "Despite 10 years of ethnic gov- ing Corporation announced that all is ingrained suspicion and distrust. ernment, all secretaries of the vari- television news bulletins will be People say we are not moving fast ous authorities are white," says a broadcast in English from June 1. enough, but the government is bare- United Nations report prepared for Both announcements reflect the ly in place and we need the enabling Namibia's government, "and of over abundant changes now taking place legislation to make the changes we 40 posts of head of department, less in Namibia. The South African legacy want." than six are held by non-whites." Far is being accepted where it is useful Roger McGuire, until recently in from advancing development, the and modified or discarded where it is charge of the American Embassy (a UN found that the ethnic administra- not. Racism in a constitutional new ambassador has yet to be tions tended to fragment essential democracy with 11 major ethnic named) in Windhoek and previously services in areas such as education, groups (including whites) is obvious- director of the U.S. Liaison Office, health, and agriculture. This resulted ly no longer going to be tolerable. agrees with those who feel more in "a waste of scarce resources and a Attitudes do not lend themselves to time is needed. "If it took 12 years for hindrance to socio-economic devel- change by legislation, but where resolution 435 to be implemented," opment." Namibia's government can take A NEW NATION

he says, "six months doesn't seem Abolishing the 11 ethnic adminis- steps to ease racial tensions, it will too much to ask for the new bureau- trations will, says the UN, "give rise probably seek to do so—with some cracy to get itself organized. Even to some redundancies, but many of caution. "Blacks may want to see though Namibia doesn't have to start the people affected can be absorbed things turned upside down from scratch, the system it inherited by the unified regional and district overnight," says Minister of Informa- was not all that efficient." administration which will be estab- tion Hamutenya, "but we will not The civil service is a case in point. lished." Others may want to leave, practice racialism in reverse." "We have 47,000 civil servants left notes the UN report in all candor, Swapo's decision to make English over from the previous regime," says "because of their unwillingness to the official language of Namibia can

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 29 also be seen as a rejection of South tourists from South Africa, but the northern part of the country. Africa's legacy. Afrikaans has—in Namibia has already taken steps to One of them, Omega in the Caprivi recent years, at least—become the draw visitors from further afield. strip, has been serving as a relief lingua franca among Namibia's vari- After a shaky start in April, Namib center for thousands of San tribes- ous linguistic groups, particularly in Air has taken over the twice weekly men left unemployed when the rural areas where English is rarely service between Windhoek and South African army pulled out. Other spoken at all. This gives rise to the Frankfurt previously flown by South military installations are being demand (especially by those who African Airways, using a fueling stop turned into rehabilitation centers for speak Afrikaans) that South Africa's in Cape Verde. Namib Air, the new ex-combatants from both sides. official language be retained in national airline of Namibia, flies a There are plans to form a "develop- Namibia. "How," asks the white man- more direct, non-stop route across ment brigade" made up of unem- ager of a Caprivi game lodge in a pro- Africa, thus cutting three and a half ployed veterans—Swapo ex-freedom nounced Afrikaans accent, "will you hours off the old flight time. Howev- fighters, as well as those who served get an Ovambo to read the news on er, the early Windhoek-Frankfurt in South Africa's SWATF and television in English? It just won't flights had to follow the old route. In Koevoet forces—who will be trained happen, man." the rush to inaugurate the new ser- at the former military bases for gain- It will, of course—but with time vice, someone forgot to obtain the ful civilian employment in agricultur- and patience. Swapo, having lived necessary overflight clearances. al and construction work. most of its life in exile, knows that This problem has since been Even the dreaded Casspir and Afrikaans has virtually no usefulness resolved and passengers flying in the Strandwolf armored vehicles left north of the Limpopo and Namibians brightly painted Namib Air Boeing behind by the departing South do want to be able to talk to the rest 747SP (owned, serviced, and flown Africans are now being put to civilian of Africa. The teaching of English by South African Airways) speak use. Newly painted bright blue, they has therefore become a matter of highly of the service. Departure and have joined the Namibian police special priority with Namibia's new arrival times in Windhoek, according units patrolling the area along the government. to Namib Air, "have been carefully border with Angola. Hamutenya says his Ministry of planned to tie in with connecting Being the last African colony to Information is working jointly with flights to and from Johannesburg, gain independence has made it possi- the Ministry of Education to develop Cape Town, and other regional desti- ble for Namibia to learn from the a series of English lessons by radio nations." To make the sanctions- experience of others. "We have a that will ultimately be broadcast avoidance advantage even clearer to mineral-based economy," says throughout Namibia. The level of potential customers, Namib Air adds: Hamutenya. "Other African nations English teaching will soon be raised "...it is obvious that the service will inherited similar situations. When in schools, helped to some extent by appeal to more than just people trav- the price of copper and other miner- the first contingent of Peace Corps elling to and from Windhoek. Espe- als went down, so did their volunteers to arrive in Namibia, all of cially to businessmen and diplomats economies. We intend to diversify whom will be experienced English flying from or to other southern from the very beginning with agri- teachers. African centers, the Namib Air ser- cultural development as our main pri- Among the good things left vice must surely be the best option ority. You will see some changes behind by South Africa is Namibia's available." within the next six months." excellent road, rail, and communica- Two round trips to Frankfurt a Other lessons learned? There is, tions system, all of which will be week obviously leave some unprof- for instance, the Namibian govern- helpful in developing tourism. Driv- itable down time for the leased 747 ment's official policy of reconciliation ing through Namibia is a tourist's and Namib Air is already looking among former enemies. "Yesterday," dream, even if one has to whip out an around at other destinations, includ- said Hamutenya, "a water pipe broke Afrikaans phrase book at a restau- ing New York. Edward Mounten of in my house. When the plumber rant or filling station (a case where Namib Air's marketing office in came to fix it, he had a map of all the the government's efforts at expand- Windhoek admits that a U.S. connec- pipes in the house and he finished ing English will certainly pay off). tion is a definite possibility, but prob- the job in a couple of hours. I lived in Major highways and secondary ably not in 1990. "We need to spend Angola for 10 years. It would have roads are excellent and well-main- more time working out the Frankfurt taken weeks to fix the pipe in Luanda tained, as are the camping sites and run," he says, "before we take on because when the Portuguese left, roadside inns—testimony to the fact anything more ambitious." they took all the maps with them. We that many visitors in the past arrived South Africa left behind a consid- are hoping in Namibia that the peo- from South Africa by car. This may erable amount of debris from its ple who have the maps will want to no longer prove to be the case. It is more than 23 years of war with stay. If that happens, our policy of still too early to tell how indepen- Swapo. There are a lot of empty mili- reconciliation will have proven a suc- dence may have affected the flow of tary bases in Namibia, particularly in cess." O

30 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 NAMIBIA

WOMEN'S

embodied in tnewonstituuon. But the true achievement of political and economic equality with men cannot be legis- lated, and Namibian women will face tough challenges if they are to stand up and be counted.

By COLLEEN LOWE MORNA rieda Ipinge is a middle-aged told her she would have to work on all her life for this special day, woman who lives in Wind- that public holiday, because he Ipinge—for the first time in her F hoek's sprawling, high-density would be entertaining some white life—spoke back to her boss. "I am suburb of Katutura, employed as a South African traffic police called in going to take my holiday," she told domestic worker by a white Namib- to help with the independence cele- him, "because the law is on my side." ian policeman. brations. Namibian women indeed turned A day before the country became Before, Ipinge would have humbly out in large numbers for the colorful independent on March 21, her boss submitted. This time, she thought independence celebrations. On the Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean free- twice about it. A single parent living morning of March 21, women from lance journalist based in Harare. in dismal quarters who had waited all walks of life and social strata

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 31 banded together and walked down public affairs, they were written by "Apartheid and Affirmative Action," Windhoek's main Kaiser Street car- men. Namibia is thus unique in the document says that "it shall be rying banners such as: "Discrimina- Africa, and even the world, because permissible to have regard to the fact tion Against Women is Unconstitu- the five women members of its con- that women in Namibia have tradi- tional!" and "The hand that rocks the stituent assembly played an active tionally suffered special discrimina- cradle should also rock the boat." role in drafting the constitution. tion." Discriminated against by both One of these women, Pendukeni Women, this sections says, "need colonial and traditional systems, sep- Ithana, secretary of the ruling South to be encouraged and enabled to play arated by war, race, and ethnicity, West Africa People's Organization a full, equal, and effective role in the Namibian women today face the (Swapo) women's council, sat on the political, social, economic, and cul- future with more optimism than at 21-member standing committe which tural life of the nation." any time in the past. No Namibian hammered out the details of the con- All told, says Monica Koepp, an woman is under the illusion that the stitution. educational psychologist and com- journey ahead will be easy. But com- "In the corners, or even in public, mittee member of a non-governmen- pared to before, when the country some men made jokes that the tal organization called Women of fell under illegal South African occu- women were trying to take over," Namibia, the constitution is "an pation, the road certainly looks more recalls Ithana, who is also the coun- amazing piece of paper." But she clear than it has ever been. try's new deputy minister for wildlife stresses, "It is still only a piece of Under the former government, conservation and tourism. But, she paper." Namibia was carved up into 11 eth- adds, "that accusation did not come Ithana agrees. Now that the con- nic "homelands," with the 6 percent out clearly, because people were stitution has been approved, she white population owning 60 percent afraid of being called undemocratic, says, laws—like paid maternity leave of the country's best land. Men had and this word 'democracy' was being and equal pay for equal work—have little option but to look for jobs in the sung through and through." to be effected. While drafting a con- towns, mines, and commercial The first issue to be tackled was stitution that made everyone equal farms. the legal status of black Namibian before the law, Ithana laughs, she A January 1990 UN report on women. "On reaching the age of 18, herself earned 10 percent less than women and children in Namibia every person, whether male or her male counterparts. underlines the lack of reliable statis- female, attains the legal age of major- Even when these imbalances are tical information on this subject as ity, and is treated equally before the redressed, there will be more deep- the country enters nationhood. law," says Ithana, a former Swapo seated issues to tackle. Despite their But in a preliminary survey, the military commander. role in drafting the constitution, report concludes that "the main The Namibian constitution, she women only constituted 7 percent of obstacle has been that women, points out, is unique in referring to the constituent assembly, which has because of the war, the migratory "he and she"—not just "he"— now become the national assembly. labor schemes, or death, have often throughout. It also gives foreign men There is only one woman minister, had to bear the sole responsibilities married to Namibian women the and two women deputy ministers, in for their families. They have suc- right to citizenship—a remarkable President Sam Nujoma's 32-strong ceeded in that duty only by holding provision in African and even global cabinet. several jobs which, because of their terms. Although women played an active lack of education, have been semi- or Some women legal experts are role in the independence war, Nujo- unskilled jobs, and therefore poorly disappointed that Namibia did not ma recently paid tribute only to the paid." take the opportunity to fully incorpo- contribution made by women in feed- Meanwhile, under the colonial rate the 1981 UN Convention on the ing the cadres. system and traditional law, black Elimination of All Forms of Discrimi- Many women are disappointed by women remained minors all their nation Against Women in the consti- the fact that there is no specific min- lives: first under their fathers, then tution. A similar UN declaration on istry for women in the new govern- their husbands, and finally their children appears in the extensive ment. "People explained it by saying sons. chapter on "Fundamental Human that in other African countries, The key to change for Namibian Rights and Freedoms." As one UN women's ministries have become a women is the new constitution, staffer in Windhoek put it: "Every- corner where all women's issues are approved by the country's seven- one can agree on the rights of chil- pushed," says Lindy Kazamboue, party, 72-member constituent assem- dren. The rights of women are a who has worked with women's bly following UN-supervised elec- trickier issue." groups for years, primarily through tions here last November. Because However, Ithana is quick to point the church. most constitutions in the world came out that the chapter on human rights Kazamboue does not buy that into being decades or centuries ago, makes some special mention of argument. "The problem is," she before women took an active role in women. Under a section titled says, "if you have a good constitution

32 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 UN women partic- Africa Territorial Forces, as well as ipating in UNTAG, the hated, 2,500-strong Koevoet especially Eva Ahti- crack unit. saari (wife of the spe- Despite the conduct of these sol- cial representative diers, notes Helena Martin, who Martti Ahtisaari), works for a private sector foundation are credited with that is supporting women helping to play a entrepreneurs in Oshakati, they pro- mediating role. The vided jobs for impoverished women. newly created Wo- Many set up small bars called "Cuca" men's Desk of the shops after a popular brand of influential Namibia Angolan beer. Others worked as Council of Churches cleaners or domestics for the army. has also been hold- "There was no work here, only ing meetings to urge war work," Martin say. Because the women to bury their past government paid no attention to political differences community development, "women in the interests of the are at a loss as to what to do now," more crucial tasks says Martin. "They have no skills or ahead. ideas of how to help themselves." The development This, according to Ida Hoffman, a challenges that prominent member of the Swapo women face are Women's Council, is one of the most indeed daunting. dangerous legacies of colonialism in According to the UN Namibia. "The ex-government did report, half of all not only kill us in a big mass," she urban Namibian says, "they also blocked our minds women are em- so that we could not think clearly for ployed as domestic ourselves." workers, earning an The new government, she says, Nainibian women turned out in large average of about $100 a month. A has promised a new life for women, numbers for the colorful independence survey carried out by Kazamboue, but changes will only come about if celebrations who is also a social worker, showed women "stand up to be counted. and no affirmative action, nothing not only a high proportion of single Development starts with individuals. will ever change." mothers in Windhoek's high density Change will only come if we first Namibian women themselves suburbs, but also revealed that 64 change ourselves." remain deeply divided along political percent of families living in sublet For her part, Hoffman has turned and class lines. A church organiza- quarters are women and their chil- her tiny matchbox house in Katutura tion called Women's Voice, which dren. into a day care center where she used to provide leadership training, Rural women, who constitute the looks after 170 children each day folded after both Swapo and the main bulk of the country's farmers, have while their mothers go to work. With opposition Democratic Turnhalle been condemned to subsistence independence on the horizon, a Nor- Alliance (I)TA) accused the group of farming, without any government wegian non-governmental organiza- furthering the other's ends. support. "I have never been visited tion donated $200,000 to build a Similarly, the Women of Namib- by an extension worker," notes Eliza- dream-like creche with classes and ia—primarily a middle class Wind- beth Petros, a farmer whose hus- playrooms about 20 times the size of hoek-based group—ran into prob- band works in the northern Namib- Hoffman's home. lems when it was accused first of ian town of Ondangwa. "I have never Showing a visitor around the new supporting the DTA, and now of sup- received credit, 1 have never used premises, Hoffman chats excitedly porting Swapo. Women have been in fertilizer, and I have never produced about how she hopes to set up a the forefront of the Parents Commit- any crops for sale." reading room which parents and tee, set up to protest the treatment of In the towns of the northern their kids can use during their Swapo cadres suspected of being Ovamboland province, which were leisure time, and how she has asked South African spies while in exile. most affected by war, women have President Nujoma to open the new Tension between this group and the been severely affected by the with- facility. As she opens each new door, Swapo Women's Council has been drawal of the 20,000-strong South Hoffman mutters under her breath, plainly evident at various women's African Defence Force, and disband- "we have a wonderful lord, my dear, fora. ing of the 5,400-strong South West a wonderful lord." O

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 33 N T R V W A DECADE OF REGIONAL COOPERATION

By MARGARET A. NOVICKI Ten years ago, the countries of southern Africa joined together to form the Southern African Development Coordination Conference, a regional bloc to develop the economies and infrastructures of its members and lessen their dependence on South Africa's trade and transport routes. After a decade, SADCC has scored a number of successes in its efforts to implement its $6.5 billion program of action. Outlining its achievements in the various economic sub-sectors, SADCC Executive Secretary Simba Makoni also points out where the organization has fallen short of its goals and looks ahead to the region's future when South Africa is free. David Zausmer, managing director of the Beira Corridor Group, examines the strides made in rehabilitating Mozambique's transport corridors—an essential linchpin in the region's trade network.

Simba Makoni Executive Secretary, SADCC

Africa Report: This year, SADCC celebrates its tenth anniver- action. It grows every year, and now we are talking about 500 sary. What are the major accomplishments of SADCC's first discrete projects, some very large multi-million dollar port and decade? railroad projects, some very small feasibility studies or pilot Makoni: Our major accomplishments fall into four categories. projects over 1 1 different economic sectors in all our nine coun- The first is that we have managed to hold ourselves together tries, at an estimated cost of about $6.57 billion. It is important and to strengthen our relationships, on fhe political, but even that we could even agree on a high-priority set of projects with- on the personal level. There is a team of people now who 10 out people saying, "Ours is more important than yours." years ago didn't know each other except in name or in the offi- And we have gone ahead to implement concretely some of cial mold who are now personal friends—ministers, presidents, these projects. In transportation, our railroads are working bet- senior officials, a whole army of SADCC persons—but outside ter, our ports have greater capacity now, more of our goods an even bigger army of SADCC citizens who see themselves as are flowing through our own ports and railway systems than belonging to each other. That regional identity, that common were going through South Africa two or three years ago. We family spirit, that unity, is our single largest achievement. are now connected with each other by our national airlines We have, of course, made progress on our program of several times a week. We don't have to connect via Johannes-

34 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 burg, we don't have to wait several days. In telecommunica- Africa Report: Are you satisfied with the role the donor com- tions, we are dialing direct on satellite earth station links, radio munity has played in supporting SADCC? Has the level of aid microwave links, without having to transit through Johannes- been sufficient? burg, London, Lisbon, or Paris. Makoni: No, in absolute quantitative terms. We need a lot of Agricultural production is growing through systems being resources. I have referred to our program being about $6 5 bil- developed in SADCC research stations and programs. An lion. We have managed to raise both from our own countries early warning system enables us to link all our countries and if and from the international community about $3-3.2 billion of there is a drought coming in Mozambique, we know that Zim- that. We are just hovering on the 45-50 percent mark. That's babwe will have enough maize, or if a flood is coming in Tan- not good enough, but on the other hand, in the climate of the zania, the Malawians should have more maize. 1980s, with depressed world economies across the board In the area of human resources development, we have a except for Japan and Germany, declining aid budgets in vari- few institutions for high-level training like the veterinary school ous countries including the U.S., one has to be realistic with at the University of Zimbabwe, or the agricultural engineering one's expectations. We are not unhappy, but things could be faculty at the University of Sokoine in Tanzania. But we have better. more at the technical level for the people who deal with the The one aspect I am not particularly happy about and for everyday work of our railroads, our telecommunications, our which we are probably partly responsible, is that we have gen- agricultural machinery, and so forth. This is just a quick run- erated a lot of political and moral and material support from down of the SADCC program of action. the international community. But 1 regret to say that a large We have very strong friends in the world—countries, official measure of this support has really not come to us on our own institutions, individuals, private voluntary organizations, U.S. account. It has come to us as sympathy support against AID, World Bank, Unesco—all of whom constitute the family of apartheid. People saw our countries being destabilized, being SADCC's international cooperating partners. These are all very aggressed, being attacked by South Africa, and this was their important developments in our region for the period we have response. It was not their response to SADCC, and that is just come through and more importantly in the period we are going to be the next major challenge in terms of our interna- entering, where the world is getting smaller and more integrat- tional relations. ed. The global village is becoming a reality. That is how we People have to accept SADCC for what it is, and we have a look at ourselves in the last 10 years. lot of positive aspects in our own light—SADCC as SADCC, Africa Report: In what areas has SADCC not made as much with or without South Africa. So while one appreciates the progress as you would have liked? amounts that we have been receiving, the spirit behind the fig- Makoni: For an economic development organization, the ures is not a very comforting one, because if it remains the capacity to distribute goods and services—basically industry, basis for that support, when apartheid goes, then so also will investment, trade—must be a high priority. While it has been a the funds go with it. We have a case to generate support with high priority for SADCC, we have not demonstrated that high or without apartheid, and I want to be able to look at the next priority with concrete action on the ground. That is one area. It two years and come to the U.S., Canada, the EEC, or the is a disappointment, but it is one which we understand. The cir- World Bank and say that SADCC deserves support in its own cumstances behind cooperation in industry and trade are much right because it is doing the right things. It is doing the more complex than building railroads which cross borders, or necessary things for the survival and betterment of the nations interconnecting electricity lines and things like that. of southern Africa. That is both a challenge and an area of dis- But we are working on it now. We have started with a clear- appointment because there are a lot of people who have read ly articulated policy position, to which all our governments are a us in the opposite image of apartheid. We exist in our own party, on the pattern of industrial development we are aiming right. That's the message I want to get through and that is the at, how it will utilize the resources of our countries, how it will basis on which I want to have relationships with governments link our economies, and how it will fund the supply of goods and institutions. and services to our different markets in the different member- Africa Report: SADCC was set up in part to provide alterna- states. The challenge is now to translate it into practical projects. tives to South African trade routes. Once South Africa is free, We have even identified priority sub-sectors in terms of how will SADCC reorient its strategy? Will there be excess where we want the investments to go—to fertilizers, pharma- capacity in the region? ceuticals, agricultural equipment and machinery, telecommuni- Makoni: This is part of the problem I mentioned earlier. Peo- cations, transportation equipment—in order to sustain the ple seem to understand us as doing things because we are run- bringing together of our economies. Then the trade facilitation ning away from apartheid. Before 1982, the transport systems mechanisms associated with it have been identified—export of Mozambique and Angola used to carry Malawi, Zimbab- prefinancing, export credits, payments, clearance, and tariffs. we, and Zambia's traffic, even before the Tazara came on, So the policy framework is there and the challenge is now to and not the South African systems. The basic reason for our translate it into programs and projects. That is going to be our rehabilitating the Beira corridor is not because we abhor Port major preoccupation and our challenge for the 1 990s. Elizabeth or Durban because they are apartheid ports. It is But it is an area of some disappointment, as is human because it doesn't make economic sense for Zambia's copper resources development. We have not made the impact that we to go from Ndola to Port Elizabeth or to Cape Town, when could have made in the training of our people, equipping them Beira or Nacala or Lobito are there, and that basic economic with the skills and the capacities that are necessary for the kind sense will not change because de Klerk has been replaced by of management that we need, not only of the national con- Mandela. cerns, but of the regional capacities and institutions we are That was the economic sense which existed pre-UDI in developing. These are probably two areas of some tempered Rhodesia, during the colonial times, and that economic sense progress. will remain. The majority of the projects that constitute the

AFRICA REPORT-July August 1990 35 SADCC program of action are premised on long-term economic system to the Zimbabwe-Zambia power system. This is because viability and economic sense. That is the central criterion for us. it makes better sense. Botswana was importing 60 percent of To use transportation as on example, we have not estab- its power from South Africa, one of the highest cost power pro- lished any additional capacity. Most of our programs in trans- ducers in the world. We have Cahora Bassa, Kariba, and port, especially railroads and ports, are to bring us back to the Kafue gorge sitting there, and Cunene and Ruacana between capacity we had before UDI, before aggression and destabi- Angola and Namibia. Our desire to connect these systems is lization, and before our infrastructures were decayed by strife not just to remove Botswana's dependence on this hostile and war. So we are not installing any new capacity at the neighbor, but because it is more economical for Botswana to moment. If that capacity was needed in 1976—and Zimbab- burn Cahora Bassa power than to burn South Africa's coal we's economy has been growing in the last 10 years, as has power. Malawi's and Zambia's—then certainly at the very minimum, it This is how we have been approaching our programs now is not more than we need. It may even be less than we need. and how they will be structured after apartheid when South The second point is that there are areas where we are intro- Africa is among us. They must make economic sense first and ducing new capacities. We are connecting Botswana's power foremost. •

David Zausmer, Managing Director, Beira Corridor Group Africa Report: Why was the Beira Corridor Group founded? problems that individuals had were similar to what others were Zausmer: The basic idea behind the Beira Corridor Group having. So by channeling everything through one organization was that we were utilizing South African trade routes, which as a user lobby, we could then create a dialogue on a personal are a lot longer than Mozambican trade routes. To go from level and that is very important. Harare to Durban in South Africa is 1,200 miles and from We work very closely with the Mozambicans. One of the Harare to Beira is 360 miles. So we would get a saving, and things that we are interested in is in trying to increase the we estimated it at about $1,000 a container, by utilizing usage of these transport routes. Our belief is that it is a Mozambican transport routes. Mozambican responsibility to market them, but businesses The second point was that regionally, our economies had to need to have information if they are going to utilize a transport be developed, and one of the main ways of doing so was by corridor, especially if it is going throjgh a bandit war. We pro- reinstituting capital assets which were there already. The obvi- vide all that information so that the businessman gets a bal- ous ones were the Mozambican transport corridors, because anced view of what the situation is, and from his balanced Zimbabwe had already committed its troops to guarding the oil viewpoint, he is able to assess the economic savings against pipeline. That really set the grounding to it. the risk of attack. Our group was set up in 1986, and the Mozambicans set There have been no major attacks on the Beira Corridor, or up the executive authority in 1985. What we found was that it major losses of cargo, for the last two and a half years, so it was necessary for users to get together to interact with the shows that our armies have succeeded in what they have tried executive authorities not only in Mozambique, but also in Zim- to do. Bit by bit, our usage is increasing which shows that con- babwe, because Zimbabwe Railways, Zambia Railways, fidence is being restored to the bus'ness sector, and a lot of Botswana and Malawi Railways are involved, to present one companies are now going and investigating to see what usage common user front. It is more efficient that way and a lot of the they can make of it. It will take us another five years, but if we

36 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 can do it through a process of gradual growth so that fhe users all. So we've got 240 shareholders from Malawi, Zimbabwe, can grow together with the Mozambicans as the suppliers, Botswana, and shortly from Zambia, and we pool our then we will achieve the objective we are after. resources. Our organization is set up with three executive Africa Report: Who comprises the Beira Corridor Group? staff—myself as managing director, a general manager, and a Zausmer: It's composed of 240 shareholders from the corpo- security expert who travels with the regional armies across the rate sector, for example, companies like Colgate-Palmolive, transport routes to get the information necessary to allow the Caltex, Lonrho, a lot of insurance companies and banks. They people to make their decisions. We've then got a support staff pool their resources not only for their individual benefit as of about nine and a representative in Beira so that we can get importers and exporters, but in the case of the banks, because businessmen backwards and forwards to have a look. they recognize the necessity of stimulating the economy over- There are currently six on the board of directors from

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 37 Malawi and Zimbabwe, who are all businessmen as well as reopen all these Mozambican transport routes and the Lobito many having been former government officials. The idea is that corridor and you've got all the South African ports, then come by mixing business and political sectors on our board of direc- the time of a democratic South Africa when everything moves tors, we have access to just about every board room and to freely, aren't we going to have excess capacity? The answer to most of the politicians in the region, so we can facilitate that that is no because we need to generate a capacity which can dialogue. Our budget is about $300,000 a year, because we serve not only our current requirements, but our requirements only need to keep the executive and support staff going. If we for the next 50 years and can be easily expanded. The way need specific advice, we get it From consultants who operate in the systems have been designed means that they will serve the that field- You don't need a lot of money to run a lobby like that expansion in our economic activity for that next 50 years. because of the way it was set up and because of the access we Africa Report: The BCG seems fairly unique as a regional have to our businesses and to our politicians. cooperative endeavor involving the private sectors of a number Africa Report: What are the major problems on the trans- of countries. port corridors? Zausmer: Yes, it is unique in various ways in that it is a con- Zausmer: One of the main points is that our transport system glomeration of the regional private sector. It also works closely is contiguous and an event that happens on one route affects with regional governments, and we have a mutual trust of each the remaining routes. The Beira system goes through central other. We've both got the same objectives. Initially, it was a lit- Mozambique into Zimbabwe, and then links up into Zambia or tle difficult to work out exactly what our role should be, but we by road into Malawi. Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's main manufac- evolved it to fit in with the role that government has to play, turing center and that is linked through our sugar-producing and that individual companies are playing there. It's possibly area, which is in the southeastern corner of Zimbabwe, to the more than unique just for southern Africa, it may be unique port of Maputo by the Limpopo railway line, which had fallen world-wide, which is something that we are proud of, especial- into disrepair. ly of the fact that it actually does work. The Mozambicans ask A project was put into place, which is being funded by us for help, we ask the Mozambicans for help in various things, Britain, Canada, and various others, to rehabilitate that rail- so together we are managing to do what we set out to achieve. way line, which is about 318 miles long, the main reason Africa Report: How would you assess the regional security being that we can access the port of Maputo in Mozambique, situation? Are developments in South Africa having an effect? but we have to go through South Africa. That may not be politi- Zausmer: The change in the southern African climate is hav- cally acceptable, but it is a reality, and an expensive reality. If ing an effect. South Africa seems to be playing more of a role we can utilize that Limpopo railway line, then we've got a of benign neighbor. It doesn't necessarily mean we trust them direct link which is probably about 360 miles shorter. There- entirely, but one of the results has been the independence of fore, all of our sugar can be sold far more profitably. Namibia. Hopefully, something will now happen with Angola and Mozambique. Mozambique is going through peace nego- There is a security problem on the Limpopo at the moment tiations. The security situation h still an unknown quantity in from Renamo, but it is guarded by the Mozambican armed that there are attacks on trains, mainly Mozambican, not Zim- forces and the Zimbabwean national army. It is not functioning babwean trains, along the Beira route. There are attacks on the at the moment—you can move a train up and down it, but not road. We are aware of the security situation, but it is not deter- commercially. They are guarding the reconstruction teams and ring our companies from utilizing the transport routes. the parts of the railway which have been reconstructed and Africa Report: What role would you like the American pri- various strategic things like bridges. In total, about 192 miles vate sector to play in the region? out of the whole 31 8 have been rehabilitated. Zimbabwe start- ed at one end and Mozambique at the other, and the idea is to Zausmer: It is difficult because of the size of our market. The meet in the middle. That will provide immense savings on the existing companies can actually satisfy demand. While our transportation costs of sugar, steel, and ferrochrome. access to overseas markets is expensive, then it is not an ideal In the north, there is the Nacala railway corridor which links manufacturing center for world exports yet. It's coming. The Malawi with the port of Nacala. Nacala was rehabilitated by Mozambicans are looking at setting up export manufacturing the Finns and is the deepest water port on the coast of East zones on the coast, which will provide an ideal opportunity to Africa, and probably the best port on the coast of eastern service Middle Eastern markets, the Indian subcontinent and Africa because it doesn't require dredging. Half of that railway various places, and indeed South Africa itself. There is current- line was rehabilitated and then the security situation got to the ly a role being played by the American private sector, and extent that people were unable to operate it because of Ren- we'd like to see increased involvement, but we will only get amo, so the rehabilitation team pulled out that when we are able to offer what a business requires. Busi- But in August, Dhlakama said he was no longer going to nesses have shareholders they have to answer to. attack the Nacala railway line and in December, the Malawian Utilizing local domestic investment in combination with for- government said it was now open for operation. They currently eign investment—that is the sort- of thing that American busi- send one train a week each way. It is 360 miles, and the rea- nesses could tie into. But it is up to us to be specific about our son it takes so long to get that distance is that in the unrehabili- requests for investment, to target specific companies or specific tated parts, which is about half of it, you are unable to travel areas. One of the things that I noticed is that the African-Ameri- faster than about five miles an hour. It is also necessary to can business community is interested in increasing its ties with make sure that the track is clear, that there are no land-mines or southern Africa, which is a logical thing to do and one which sabotage on it caused either by Renamo or just bandits. That we are going to try and push. Our offices are open to any line is going to be crucial for Malawi, but also for Mozam- American company that comes to Zimbabwe or wants to get bique, because as its economy develops, it is going to need to down to Mozambique. If we can't answer their specific ques- transport its produce throughout the country. tions, then we will put them in contact with people who can. One of the questions that a lot of people have is that if we We are proud of what we've got and we want to build on it.O

38 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 ^^^NGOLA READY FOR PEAC Exploratory peace talks were held in Portugal in April between the Angolan government and the Unita rebels, kindling hopes that peace may finally come to the war-torn southern African nation. While the future role of Jonas Savimbi remains a sticking point, both parties to the conflict seem to have a renewed interest in finding a solution to the war. By COLLEEN LOWE MORNA

war—first against the Portuguese, now against U.S.-sponsored rebels —Angolans are ready for peace. After a long break punctuated by heavy fighting country-wide, officials of the ruling MPLA and Unita forces met once more for "exploratory" talks in Portugal in late April. In brief comments after the two- day talks, which were held under a heavy cloak of secrecy, Angolan For- eign Minister Pedro de Castro Van- Dunem "I-oy" expressed confidence that more discussions would follow. "Everyone, everywhere, very much wants this problem to be resolved," he said. But, on a more cautious note, Por- tuguese Foreign Ministry Secretary t is hard enough to get running less fortunate punctured holes in the of State Jose Durao Barroso under- water in Luanda at the best of main water pipe along Luanda's lined the deep divisions between the I times. When Unita rebels sabo- beach-front Marginale, scooping out two sides. There was a long way to taged the main aqueduct servicing the remaining drops in bottles and go, he said, before the 15-year-old Angola's capita] city in early April, it pots. Some filled their buckets from conflict could be ended. became impossible to get water even muddy puddles. Others, in despera- If the last year in Angola has at the $120 a night Presidente Hotel. tion, resorted to fetching salt water proved anything, it is the danger of Diplomats rushed to the city's few from the sea. treating the country's internal prob- dollar shops to buy crates of mineral Offices emptied out. Tempers lems too simplistically. water from Lisbon and Paris. The snapped easily. To even the deaf, the News on December 22, 1988, that underlying message could not have Angola had agreed to the withdrawal Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean free- lance journalist based in Harare. been more clear. After 30 years of of 50,000 Cuban troops in exchange

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 39 for South African forces leaving the provinces of Huambo and Bie had to ofQuindando. south of the country and Namibia's be suspended. Some analysts speculated that fol- independence met with widespread In a major show of strength, gov- lowing Namibia's independence on euphoria at home and abroad. As a ernment forces early this year retook March 21, Angola would seek per- political stamp of approval, donors the southeast town of Mavinga, gate- mission from its Swapo allies to meeting months after in Luanda for way to Unita's Jamba headquarters, launch a final onslaught on Jamba via the annual conference of the South- and even cast a few bombs into the Caprivi strip. ern African Development Coordina- Jamba itself. Savimbi had to cut But three factors prevented this tion Conference (SADCC) pledged short a trip to Portugal to return to from happening. First, Namibia has $93 million toward the reconstruc- base, and is reported to have been been extremely cautious about tion of the crucial Benguela railway injured in one of the attacks. becoming embroiled in Angola's war; line. In response, Unita cut off Luan- indeed, in his independence speech Six months later—on June da's water supply and hit Gove dam, (much to the disappointment of 22—Unita and the Angolan govern- which supplies electricity to south- Angolan officials). President Sam ment signed a ceasefire agreement ern Angola and northern Namibia. Nujoma did not even mention Ango- in front of 17 African heads of state Shortly before the talks in Portugal, la's role in providing bases for guer- gathered at President Mobutu Sese Unita stepped up attacks in the rillas of the South West Africa Peo- Seko's palace in Gbadolite, Zaire. north, temporarily seizing several ple's Organization. For a few blissful days, the anti- towns and shooting down two heli- Second, military strategists within Unita propaganda in Luanda ceased. copter gunships providing cover for the Angolan government fear that Ordinary Angolans talked excitedly a supply convoy heading for the town the less structured Unita becomes, about linking up with relatives in remote parts of the country whom they had not seen for years. "For the first time in years," recalled an NGO representative in Luanda, "Angolans actually started to see their country as one whole." But the honeymoon was short- lived. Within weeks of the Gbadolite accord, both sides presented differ- ent interpretations of the agreement, and accused each other of launching full-scale offensives. "There is gener- al agreement now," says a Western diplomat in Luanda, "that Mobutu played a confidence trick by telling different stories to different sides" in an effort to score a quick diplomatic success ahead of a crucial trip to Washington. The consequences on the ground have been devastating. In a major blow to the country's diamond indus- try, which had been making a steady recovery over the last few years, in August Unita raided a diamond mine in Cafunfo run by a foreign company, RST International. The company subsequently withdrew 300 foreign workers and closed down operations at the mine. Meanwhile, attacks along the Benguela railway line—always one of Unita's favorite targets—prevent- ed rehabilitation work from resum- ing. Flights by the International Red Cross to the central, war-devastated

40 the more akin it will become to the ment is still frustrated about not win- Jonas Savimbi: The Unita leader has firmly refused—as one diplomat put scattered and ruthless Renamo ning U.S. recognition, it has made it—"to walk into the sunset" rebels in Mozambique. Third, and diplomatic headway in isolating perhaps most important, by early Unita on the rest of the continent. this year both sides were once more "When your only friends are the grudgingly conceding that there is Americans," comments a West Euro- no military solution to Angola's war. pean diplomat in Luanda, "it is not a Although Unita could conceivably very comfortable situation to be in." go on fighting for some time, the Even then—as witnessed during hammering at Mavinga was sober- talks between U.S. Secretary of State ing. While the rebels are still getting James Baker and President Jose $40 to $50 million a year from the Eduardo dos Santos at Namibia's U.S., they have lost official and even independence celebrations—the U.S. some diplomatic support from South is prodding Unita toward the confer- Africa. Now reassessing its interests ence table. in the region, and with a keen eye on The Angolan government is also business possibilities in this well- under considerable pressure to do endowed southern African country. the same. In a visit to Luanda soon South Africa has even offered to play after Namibia's independence cele- peace-maker between the two sides. brations, Soviet Foreign Minister Although the Angolan govern- Edward Shevardnadze made it clear

that the Soviet Union, which has already rescheduled $2 billion owed by Luanda, is not keen to go on spon- soring its war efforts. In addition to the 1.5 million Angolans displaced by war, another 1 million peasants, who would normal- ly be self-sufficient in food, face the specter of famine this year. Despite Angola's membership in the IMF and World Bank last September, the economic reform program is at a standstill, with the country's exchange rate still pegged to its ridiculous 1975 rate of $1 = 29.92 kwanza (about one-hundredth the black market rate). Analysts say that as long as the war drags on, the government will not have the guts to push through an austerity program, which would mostly hurt the MPLA's urban stal- warts. Until Angola bites the bullet, however, it cannot draw on IMF funds. A donor conference, scheduled for this year, has been indefinitely postponed. Donors say that until there are signs of concrete measures to end the war, they are not going to

In addition to the 1.5 million Angolans displaced by war, another 1 million peas- ants face the specter of famine this year

41 ing through Zaire, and the govern- ment because it wants to keep tabs AN APPEAL FOR WAR'S VICTIMS on the Zairean leader—analysts say that as the talks proceed, mediators Every day for the past few months, church workers at the Catholic mis- will increasingly take a back seat. sion of Munhino, nine miles from Angola's southern provincial capital of Of greater importance now is the Lubango, put a pot of gruel to boil on an open fire. By lunch time, any- substance of the discussions. The where up to 500 people from as far as 15 miles away, gather for a plate- ful. MPLA's preferred solution, evi- "We do what we can," says Stawomir Zastepowski, the Polish priest in denced in its interpretation of the charge of the mission, "but it is not enough." Gbadolite accord, is for selected According to latest figures released by the UN's World Food Pro- Unita members to be absorbed into gramme, in addition to the 1.5 million Angolans displaced by war, the MPLA, with Savimbi going into 96,000 Angolans are in critical condition, and another 685,000 are "at "temporary and voluntary retire- risk" as a result of the prolonged drought. ment." Field workers like Zastepowski believe the figures are conservative for The Unita leader, on the other Huila province alone. The provinces of Benguela, Namibe, Kuanza Sul, and Cunene are also seriously affected. hand, has firmly refused—as one Yet there has been little backup. At a conference last September, diplomat puts it—"to walk into the donors stumped up a mere $10 million out of the $270 million which the sunset." Unita, which initially said it government had requested in emergency assistance. did not recognize the government as Part of the problem was tactical. According to one field worker, "the legitimate, demands a ceasefire, fol- Angolans shot themselves in the foot by not getting the appeal together lowed by the drafting of a new consti- earlier. Alarm bells went out in February, yet it took seven months to put tution and multi-party elections. out the request." There are now some signs of com- By then, most donors were coming to the close of their fiscal year. To promise. After the Mavinga affair, make matters worse, the government presented what many donors Unita has said that it is willing to rec- saw as an unrealistic wish list, including requests for flood victims and returning refugees, along with the more urgent needs of drought vic- ognize the "legitimacy of the tims. Angolan state," and has dropped its Even at the best of times, say UN officials, Angola has trouble drum- demands that government forces ming up donor funds. Because it earns $2 billion a year from oil sales, withdraw to pre-Christmas positions. "the country is seen as rich,"say s one UN staffer. The government is also being But politics also comes into the picture. As long as the U.S. refuses to more conciliatory. Sources say that in recognize Angola, donors say other Western countries give aid reluc- a recently released nine-point peace tantly. Competition for funds m countries like Sudan and Ethiopia—and plan, handed to U.S. Secretary of more recently, in Eastern Europe—are also cited as excuses. State Baker in Windhoek, the MPLA For its part, the Angolan government is trying to correct past mis- takes. A streamlined appeal now going out to donors via the office of takes a softer stand on Savimbi. the UN Secretary-General will ask for a bare minimum 200,000 tons of Major ideological changes are food—twice what Angola has been requesting in a normal year, when also expected at the party's third some extra food is needed for "deslocados" unable to feed themselves congress, to be held before year-end. because of the war. Under the theme "Broadening Efforts have also been made to ease traditional restrictions on the for- Democracy," the party says in eign press, and to take individual donors on tours of the south. recently released draft theses that Soon after Namibia's independence celebrations on March 21, Cana- although it feels that a one-party sys- dian MP and special southern Africa representative Walter McLean tem is best for Angola now, it does accompanied 12 truckloads of grain transported from Zimbabwe, through the Caprivi Strip, to Lubango. This road link between Zimbabwe not exclude a "future evolution and Angola has only recently become accessible with the withdrawal toward a multi-party system." of South Afncan troops from southern Angola, and Namibia's indepen- The MPLA, one of the most heavi- dence. ly Soviet-influenced in Africa, The purpose of the trip, according to McLean, was to show other declares its intention to convert from donors that it is possible to get supplies from food-surplus Zimbabwe, a vanguard to a mass party, to regard and move them to southern Angola relatively cheaply and efficiently. Marxism-Leninism only as a "path of —C.L.M. orientation." and to limit the holding be trapped in an embarrassing hold them. Eventually, the govern- of higher office to three terms. Benguela-type situation where funds ment gave in to Unita demands to Although the congress is sched- were pledged and projects approved, meet in Portugal, though it had uled for December, sources say the only to gather dust on the shelves. favored Cape Verde. Although both MPLA might bring the date forward, With Mobutu's capabilities now in sides still nominally recognize if that will help break the current question, the first delay in getting Mobutu as mediator—Unita because stalemate. Such gestures, analysts down to talks again was where to vital supplies from the U.S. are com- say, may be Angola's only hope. O

42 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 DEVELOPMENT

To prod sub-Saharan nations to democratize, should donor countries and institutions tie their aid to political as well as economic reforms? While improvements in governance are crucial to achieving sustained economic growth, the role of donors needs to be carefully thought out so as not to hinder Africa's budding efforts toward political pluralism.

fly CAROL LANCASTER

hould rich countries and inter- tics: efforts at structural adjustment adjustment. Over 30 African coun- national institutions providing in Africa, begun in the 1980s as a tries now have stabilization and/or S concessional assistance and result of the deepening economic cri- structural adjustment programs with debt relief to sub-Saharan Africa link sis, the desperate need of African the IMF and World Bank. their aid to political, as well as to eco- governments for foreign financing, But structural adjustment has yet nomic, reforms? This is the question and the increasing tendency of gov- to produce a clear-cut success in sub- of the day, raised and debated in the ernments, the IMF, and World Bank Saharan Africa. Sustained economic media, in policy discussions within to condition their assistance on eco- reform programs in Ghana and else- the U.S. government, in public docu- nomic stabilization and structural where have contributed to healthy ments by international economic institutions, by African intellectuals, and by development experts. This question emerges from two rather separate trends in world poli-

Carol Lancaster is the director of the African Studies Program in the School of Foreign Ser- vice at Georgetown University. OR ELSE? AFRICA REPORT'July-August 1990 43 growth rates (of 5 percent or above Rules and regulations are frequently tioning of their help on continuing in Ghana) over several years. Howev- implemented by government offi- political liberalization. The fact that er, an examination of the compo- cials in an arbitrary and capricious democracy could break out in East- nents of this growth suggests that it fashion. Above all, investors require ern Europe, where it was least is based on an expansion in capacity predictability on the part of their expected, suggests that it could hap- utilization in agriculture and indus- host governments. This is not pre- pen elsewhere. Why not encourage it try, large aid inflows, some invest- sent for them in much of Africa and in Africa by conditioning aid on politi- ments in mining—likely to produce so they go elsewhere. cal liberalization there? quick and profitable gains—and in Without an improvement in gover- In answering this question, there the informal sector. Significant new nance, sustained growth will not are several important issues to con- investment in manufacturing and sider. First of all, what is the objective agriculture have not yet material- of tying aid to political reform? Is it to ized. Indeed, in Ghana, domestic sav- Is the pluralism so promote more open, democratic soci- ings and investment remain among often thought to be eties as an end, for the good inherent the lowest in the world and disinvest- in them? Or is it to promote econom- ment in industry continues as ineffi- necessary for a suc- ic development? cient firms collapse in the face of cessfully functioning A corollary to this question is import competition. An increase in which reforms are necessary for private, productive investment is a democracy sufficiently meaningful political liberalization? critical element in the success of developed in Africa to What, in the words of Robert Dahl, structural adjustment; without it, support democracy? would it take to ensure that African there will be no sustained economic governments are "responsive to the growth. The question is why the preferences of their citizens"? To investment has not occurred and ensure citizens basic political rights, what can be done to encourage it. occur, for behind problems of eco- the following conditions are usually This is where the problem of gover- nomic mismanagement and corrup- regarded as necessary: freedom of nance arises. tion are problems of leadership, expression (implying media, univer- Investors, African or foreign, put interest group pressures, patronage sities, and public fora free to raise their resources at risk to make prof- politics, a lack of transparency and and debate political issues and to crit- its. In many lines of investment, par- probity in government decision-mak- icize government) and freedom of ticularly in manufacturing, investors ing, and an absence of public assembly; an independent judiciary will gain profits only over a period of accountability. The Economic Com- enforcing the rule of law; and an years and so will invest where they mission for Africa acknowledged the opportunity on the part of the public have reasonable confidence that problem of governance in its recent to change the political leadership business conditions will not alter dra- report, An African Alternative through periodic, free and fair elec- matically. In many of these aspects, Framework to Structural Adjustment tions. Much of the experience of Africa remains uncompetitive with Programmes, as did the World Bank independent Africa suggests that it other parts of the world. The logis- in its recent long-term study, Sub- may be difficult to fulfill these condi- tics of doing business in Africa are Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sus- tions within the framework of a one- still difficult, with transport and com- tainable Growth. Thus, the problems party state. A multi-party state may munications facilities poor and unre- with structural adjustment and be unavoidable. liable in many countries. Physical renewed economic growth in Africa As attractive as the idea of political infrastructure is still inferior to that raise the question: Should aid be liberalization is for Africa, there are in other parts of the world. African linked to political reform? some potential problems. First, open labor is becoming cheaper, but in The question is also raised as a political competition may center on many places is still uncompetitive result of the recent changes in East- ethnic, regional, or religious cleav- with the disciplined, literate, and ern Europe and the West's response ages dangerous to national unity. At often skilled labor in much of Asia or, to them. Eastern Europeans have independence, the fear of ethnically more recently. Eastern Europe. combined their dramatic moves based politics (far from groundless) But above all, investors lack confi- toward economic and political liber- was the justification for the one-party dence in African governments which alization with appeals to the West for state. Is there reason to believe that say they want private investment, but economic help (less concessional the dangers of ethnic politics have by then act, at times unintentionally, to assistance than commercial loans, now declined in importance or that discourage it or which are riddled debt restructuring, technical assis- ethnic politics would be less disrup- with corruption. Perhaps the most tance, and private investment). The tive of national unity today than at important obstacle to private invest- Western Europeans and the U.S. independence? Does the answer to ment and growth in Africa is that have responded with some money this question differ from country to everything is open to negotiation. and some promises, and the condi- country? If so, why? The tensions

44 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 resurfacing in Eastern Europe and structural adjustment is an issue? judges, legislators, journalists, trade the USSR suggest thai even when It is very possible that where unionists; support for non-govern- they have been suppressed for structural adjustment programs mental groups which would be decades, ethnic politics do not disap- become the subject of open political important in a pluralist political sys- pear as potent and often destructive debate or a major issue in political tem, for example, professional, political forces. campaigns, where articulate, power- youth, and women's groups; support Second, is the pluralism so often ful groups and individuals are pre- for independent public policy thought to be necessary for a suc- dominant (whose interests are research institutions which could cessfully functioning democracy suf- threatened by structural adjust- develop the alternatives to govern- ficiently developed in Africa to sup- ment), these programs will be dis- ment policies necessary for open and port democracy? Third, are powerful carded along with those politicians informed debate. political groups prepared to abide by supporting them. President Babangi- These would not be new activities democratic rules rather than resort da of Nigeria has acknowledged this for the U.S. government, which has to the use of force lo gain or retain threat by attempting to exclude it funded similar programs for four political power? Where societies lack from the upcoming national election decades in Asia and the Far East powerful, organized groups with campaign. It very nearly defeated through the Asia Foundation. It has diverse and sometimes competing President Diouf of Senegal. There not financed these sorts of activities interests, a dominant group or coali- may well be a trade-off between polit- in Africa (except in a small way in tion can function as an autocracy, ical liberalization and economic liber- South Africa). This alternative would even in democratic camouflage, pro- alization in sub-Saharan Africa. not be coercive and would leave deci- moting the interests of its own A second major issue is how aid sion-making in the hands of the supporters and depriving others of should be linked to political liberaliza- Africans, but it would probably not economic opportunities as well as tion. Conditioning foreign aid on bring about major political reforms political rights. political liberalization would add an quickly. Are Zaire, Liberia, Sudan, or additional degree of coercion to rela- A further alternative for support- Somalia sufficiently pluralist soci- tionships between African govern- ing democracy in Africa would be for eties in which powerful groups are ments and foreign powers, which is aid donors to provide African govern- willing to play by democratic rules? already there in conditioning aid on The answer is clear in these cases. It economic reforms. Perhaps, a INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL is less so regarding Kenya, Nigeria, degree of coercion on economic COOPERATION & DEVELOPMENT Senegal, or Cote d'lvoire—although reform in exchange for additional in each of these cases, ethnic or reli- resources is warranted, but there are gious-based politics remain a possi- limits beyond which such condition- Teach Children in bility and a threat. ing becomes counter-productive, Fourth, it is possible that democ- both in terms of short-run relation- ratization in African societies can ships between aid donors and recipi- ANGOLA harm rather than hurt the success of ents, and in terms of the long-run Run a Health structural adjustment programs, interests of Africans who, in the last generally regarded as critical for analysis, must be responsible for Campaign in restoring economic growth in the making their own decisions affecting region. Open political debate would their destinies. NAMIBIA inevitably include the major issue More important, conditioning aid with which so much of the continent on political reform puts the initiative 10 month group programs is now struggling—structural adjust- of deciding which reforms are appro- ment. Structural adjustment pro- priate and workable in the hands of begin fall 1990 and include grams are controversial (not the foreigners, particularly government intensive documentation, least because of the foreign involve- officials and international civil ser- language and technical ment in them), painful (particularly vants. There are few who are well training before travel; for vocal and influential groups), and enough informed to make such deci- public presentations in often emotive and ill-understood by sions about what will work politically USA upon return. the general public. The largest group in Africa's complex and changing benefitting from them—rural farm- societies. Also courses to ers—are typically the least articu- An alternative to conditioning for- Mozambique, Brazil, & late, the least well-organized, and eign aid on political liberalization USA. For free brochure: among the least politically influential would be for aid donors to deploy a group nationally. Would they orga- IICD, P.O. Box 103-K, portion of their aid in support of the Williamstown, MA nize, articulate, and vote their eco- many changes useful to promote nomic interests in an election where democracy in Africa: training for 01267. (413) 458-9828

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 45 ments with additional aid after Developed countries nance. The question of whether moves toward democratization had extending structural adjustment been implemented. This approach have their economic lending to include economic gover- would contain a degree of coercion, and political interests nance would be effective in stimulat- but would leave decision-making and ing investment can only be answered initiative in the hands of the Africans. in Africa and are still in practice. Where other factors If the objective of linking aid to often willing to put (infrastructure, labor costs and pro- political reform is to promote the them ahead of their ductivity, potential profitability of an success of structural adjustment, investment) are favorable, improved more limited reforms may be suffi- interests in economic economic governance could be help- cient and appropriate. These reforms reforms. ful and perhaps decisive in encourag- could be targeted at economic gover- ing investors. And it may only take nance and would include: transpar- one or two large and profitable ent government budgeting (no more investments in Africa to re-ignite hidden accounts for the discre- can be traced to the support of devel- investor confidence in the region. tionary use of a Mobutu, Doe, or oped countries of their African In any case, improved economic Ahidjo); well-planned investments clients' desires to avoid reforms. governance is unlikely to worsen appropriate to national economic President Mobutu of Zaire has economic conditions in Africa or needs and priorities (no white ele- demonstrated the most skill in hurt broader prospects for invest- phants dedicated to the everlasting manipulating his three patrons to ment and growth. At a very mini- memory of a particular leader or for- avoid serious reforms. But he is not mum, it would ensure a more effi- eign aid donor); open and competi- alone. Presidents Houphouet-Boigny cient use of existing resources. And tive bidding for large public invest- of Cote d'lvoire and Traore of Mali something needs urgently to be done ment projects (no more Turkwell have sought (and obtained) French to make structural adjustment suc- dams in Kenya, Inga-Shabas in Zaire intervention to avoid painful policy cessful—if initially only in one place. or Ivorian sugar projects); and the reforms. The alternative is further decline. consistent and fair implementation of Developed countries have their The linking of concessional regulations governing investment. economic and political interests in resources to economic reforms has Extending the conditions of for- Africa and are still often willing to put been with us for most of the decade eign aid to economic governance them ahead of their interests in eco- of the 1980s. It now appears that gov- implies that foreigners would nomic reforms. It remains to be seen ernments are beginning to think assume the role of ensuring public whether the economic decline in the about linking any additional aid accountability by African govern- region and the decrease in East-West resources to political reforms. This is ments on issues of economic gover- tensions will so erode foreign eco- an attractive notion to Western gov- nance through close coordination of nomic and political interests there ernments and to many Africans and their aid and export policies, that they will be willing to center one strongly suggested by the expe- through monitoring recipient gov- their economic support for African rience of Eastern Europe. There may ernment economic decision-making governments largely on progress be some useful and workable and policy implementation, and toward reforms. reforms to be achieved through this through reducing or raising their aid Another problem with adding eco- approach, particularly in the area of levels based on the performance of nomic governance to the list of aid economic governance. African governments in this area. In reforms required by foreign govern- But linking economic support to theory, this is what is happening now ments and international institutions broader political liberalization can be with IMF stabilization and World is operationalizing the concept. What a dangerous and destructive Bank structural adjustment pro- are the policies that should be approach to forcing desirable grams. The conditions of these pro- reformed? How can we tell when changes in African societies because, grams could be formally extended to they are changed? Should aid be con- thus far, it is so poorly thought out on include economic governance. ditioned on a sliding scale of reforms both sides; because foreign officials An approach linking additional or on attaining an absolute level of are not well-positioned to advise foreign aid to economic governance reform? These are difficult, but not Africans on effective political is not without problems. The most impossible questions to answer. changes; and because Africans, in difficult problem may be getting for- The final and most critical ques- their desperation to obtain additional eign governments to cooperate in tion is whether reforms in economic concessional resources, may agree their policies vis-a-vis the Africans. governance would be effective in to changes which in reality they can- There is a considerable degree of promoting investment and growth in not or will not implement or which informal cooperation now, but many Africa. There are obstacles to implemented, will prove unsustain- of the failures of implementation of increased investment in Africa, other able and generate further political economic reform programs in Africa than problems of economic gover- and economic instability. O

46 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 LIBERIA

As Africa Report went to press, the Iiberian government and the rebels of the National Patriotic Front had agreed to discuss peace proposals in the six-month-old civil war that threatened to topple President Samuel Doe. After taking virtually every major city, Charles Taylor's rebel force was poised to move on Monrovia, the nation's capital, leaving the Doe government with limited options. ByMARKHUBAND | he campaign by insurgents of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), which began on December 26, represented the most serious threat ever faced by Iiberian President Samuel Doe, who \ himself came to power in a violent coup d'etat in 1980. Since then, Doe put down as many as eight attempts to overthrow him. The war started when a small group of rebels crossed from C6te Riot police putting d'lvoire on Christmas day and the down an anti-gov- ernment demon- day after launched an early morning stration in Mon- attack on an army barracks just rovia: American across the border. The rebels concern over aid has recently been increased the size of their fighting overshadowed by force to well over 2,000, with many criticism of the Doe more under training. regime's human At first, the war was centered on Nimba county in northeastern Liberia, where the Gio are the domi- nant ethnic group. The Gio have long been in conflict with the Krahn peo- Mark Huband is a freelance journalist based i Abidjan, Cote d'lvoire.

REPORT • July-August 1990 pie of President Doe, who was accused of favoring his own ethnic group—the smallest in Liberia —when allotting government posts. Although the conflict was not essentially ethnic, there were reports of ethnically based killings and mutilations by both the armed forces and the rebels. The killings were believed to have been the direct result of an ethnic conflict which broke out within the army, as Krahn soldiers carried out vendettas against members of other tribes who were also fighting in the Armed Forces of Liberia. The conflict escalated quickly in January, forcing up to 250,000 refugees to flee into neighboring Cote d'lvoire and Guinea, though some people returned to Nimba county as the fighting spread south and away from the original war zone. Villages which were deserted and crumbling after the armed forces had set fire to them in a bid to flush out the rebels are now showing renewed signs of life as people return to plant the rice crop before it is too late in the season. But villages and towns in the south of the country have been dev- astated. In two villages north of Buchanan, for example, government troops butchered villagers after accusing them of helping the rebels. Survivors said that up to 200 soldiers attacked the villages of Siathon and Ellen Johnson-Sirlcaf: Liberia's most prominent dissident in the U.S. would be Kpueton, killing inhabitants as they welcomed back under a National Patriotic Front government ran out of their homes. Behind Siathon, decaying bodies, including attack and drove the army south, The Liberian government alleges one child, were dumped in a heap. At pushing them to the coast. that, in 1983, Taylor set up a phony least 34 people died, their bodies left The rebel force represented one company with two other Liberians to rot in the sun or in the surround- section of the hundreds of Liberians living in New Jersey, and embezzled ing forests where they ran while try- who fled the country after Doe came S900.000. The government claims he ing to escape. to power in 1980. The rebel leader, fabricated a contract for the company Survivors who managed to reach Charles Taylor, 42, was active among to supply spare parts for heavy a nearby hospital said the army shot Liberians in the United States equipment owned by the govern- at everybody, indiscriminately, even against the William Tolbert govern- ment. He fled Liberia in October as they were running away. A boy, ment when he first arrived there in 1983, just before the scheme was dis- Emmanuel Weh, 12, said: "I ran from 1971. He took a degree in economics covered and was arrested in the U.S. the house with my brother. Suddenly from Bentley College in Waltham, in 1984. I felt my arm burning, but I just kept Massachusetts, and returned to He was imprisoned for 18 months running. My brother died." At the Liberia in 1980 to become head of while awaiting extradition, but hospital, doctors amputated his the government's General Services escaped in 1985 from the Plymouth entire right arm, which was com- Agency, the department which is County House of Correction, in Mas- pletely shattered by bullet wounds. responsible for distributing funds to sachusetts, by sawing through the The rebels arrived one hour after the ministries. bars of his cell and lowering himself

48 AFRICA REPORT • July August 1990 to the ground with a rope made of "dismal" human rights record. year after the Liberian and Libyan bed sheets. After escaping from the It was those issues which built up governments signed a bilateral trade U.S., he made his way back to Africa resentment toward Doe and helped and investment cooperation agree- and began planning the current the NPFL secure almost immediate ment in Tripoli after eight years of insurgency. support from thousands of Liberians cool relations. The NPFL is the largest Liberian in the country who say they have The American government dissident group, though its leader- been victim to the abuses and preju- responded to the claims of Libyan ship is in dispute, as there are many dices of Doe and his ethnic group. involvement in January by sending dissidents not involved in the fight- Millions of dollars have gone U.S. military advisers to aid govern- ing who have long been critics of missing from ministries, with the fig- ment forces, but the advisers were Doe. To some, Taylor is regarded as ure put at up to $3 million for 1988 withdrawn when their presence having taken on the role of redeemer alone. The failure of a U.S. team of became public during the time that without having the backing of Liberi- financial advisers, Opex, to restore the armed forces were being accused ans opposed to Doe. order to the country's finances led to of atrocities against civilians. Divisions among Doe's opponents relations with the U.S. turning sour, Charles Taylor, the rebel leader, were revealed most clearly when although relations between the two denied any Libyan involvement in Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa launched countries have traditionally been the conflict. Politically he is on the his unsuccessful coup attempt in close. Liberia was founded by freed right, and has declared that Liberia 1985. Splits between conservatives, American slaves in 1847, and since will retain a free market economy if socialists, and different ethnic 1980, the Doe regime received $500 he takes power. At his first press con- groups were largely responsible for million from the U.S. ference for foreign journalists, he the failure to seriously threaten the By mid-1989, arrears in the repay- said: "We have never trained in Doe regime. ment of aid to the U.S. had reached Libya. We do not receive any assis- Taylor has publicly criticized $7.1 million, highlighting the seri- tance from Libya. We have trained those Liberian dissidents who did ousness of the economic mismanage- people from an original core group not join his forces, even though ment. New U.S. aid to Liberia was trained in a certain place. But it was there are a substantial number who stopped altogether until the arrears not Libya, nor Burkina Faso. Libya question his right to be leader. He are paid back. must not be blamed." has accused dissidents who remain American concern over aid has At the time of writing, Taylor had in the United States of being "politi- recently been overshadowed by criti- rejected the possibility of negotiating cal gurus" who are only prepared to cism of the Doe regime's human an end to the conflict, which has left talk, but not to act. However, he has rights record. The lawyers' Commit- up to 4,000 dead. He said, "If we have said he would welcome Liberia's tee on Human Rights recommended to fight for three years we will even- most prominent dissident in the U.S., in 1989 that Liberia should lose pref- tually remove Doe. Legally and ille- Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former min- erential trade treatment unless its gally, we are going to go after him. ister of finance, into the government human rights record improved. How- Any negotiation which keeps Doe if he were to take over. ever, Liberia remains strategically remaining in power is a no-go." Taylor said that the NPFL intends important to the U.S., and strong Meanwhile, he said he intends to to hold elections. "We are going to action had been resisted in the hope maintain Liberia's close relationship the ballot box," he said, "and will per- that the Doe regime would improve. with the U.S. The United States, he mit opposition groups in all districts But the conflict has brought the said, is "a big brother, father, uncle, of the country to operate." He added, human rights issue to the fort-front, and friend to Liberia." 'There is no plan to change the form particularly with the accusations of Attempts by the Liberian govern- of government. My plan is to take government atrocities carried out ment to pressure the United States over the reins and clear up the gov- against civilians alleged to have into overseeing a negotiated end to ernment and the country." helped the rebels. The conflict also the war failed. A Liberian govern- Since the violent coup in 1980, exposed the uncertainty felt among ment delegation was in Washington President Doe, the former master American foreign policy-makers in May, but largely failed to gain sergeant who took over as head of about the direction Liberia will take access to top White House officials. state and ordered the televised once the war is over. This failure reflected the United killing of 15 defeated government Since January, the NPFL has States' gradual withdrawal of support ministers on a beach near Monrovia, received a constant supply of for the Doe government. However, saw the standing of his government weapons. While rebel leaders claim there was no suggestion that Taylor steadily decline. It had a reputation they have relied on capturing Ameri- managed to secure American back- for economic mismanagement in can- and Romanian-made weapons ing, although representatives of the government, rife corruption, and from the army, there were strong rebel force did have contact with what the U.S. Lawyers' Committee claims that they were also supplied congressional representatives and for Human Rights has described as a by Libya. The claim came nearly a senators in the U.S. in late May. O

AFRICA REPORT- July-August 1990 49 ByTUNJILARDNERJR. THE son for the change is the need to stop President Babangida's early mystique as an intrigues, domination, and internal honorable soldier determined to put an end to colonization of the Nigerian state by corrupt and heavy-handed government and the so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible economic mismanagement has been badly for 90 percent of the problems of tarnished, as demonstrated by the recent coup Nigeria." attempt. With cynicism rife among civilians and His solution was a unilateral and the armed forces, questions are now being raised conditional excision of five northern regarding the government's commitment to end states—Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano, and Bauchi—from the Federal military rule by 1992. Republic of Nigeria. Immediately ast April's attempted coup in artillery exchanges, the insurrection exposing the political naivete of the Nigeria was as much a violent was put down, but the coup plotters insurrectionists, this pronouncement L and personal display of anger had achieved one significant victory. contributed to the ambivalent public against the man—President Ibrahim For the few hours that they con- response to the coup attempt. Nigeri- Badamosi Babangida—as it was a trolled the radio station, their fleeting ans might want change, but they cer- brazen attempt at overthrowing his manifesto had again brought to the tainly do not want another civil war, administration. fore burning national issues that sim- which would have been the likely out- The story very briefly is this: In ply refuse to be wished away. come of the proposed secession. the wee hours of Sunday, April 22, a Major Gideon Orka's (the alleged But then, what do Nigerians want small band of soldiers gained control leader of the coup attempt) inelegant for the 1990s? Public reaction in the of the offices of the Federal Radio but pithy broadcast was partly an bustling city of Lagos on the day of Corporation in Ikoyi, a few blocks attack on the integrity and whole- the coup provided an abstruse but from Dodan Barracks, the residence someness of the president and a poignant statement of the nation's and office of Gen. Babangida. By 2 quick-fix solution to the nagging faith in the self-proclaimed messiahs am, they had gained access to the North/South, Muslim/Christian in green fatigues. While some crowds barracks and assaulted the presi- problem of political power and eco- gathered to watch the pitched noon- dent's private quarters. nomic control. time battles between dissidents and The president escaped and after He said: "It is our strong view that loyalists, some others simply went to 12 hours of fierce fighting and this kind of dictatorial desire of the beach, and while some listened Babangida is unacceptable to Nigeri- ruefully to the counter-broadcasts of Tunji Lardner, Jr. is a Nigerian journalist cur- ans of the 1990s and therefore must the incumbents, others were grateful rently freelancing in New York. He recently returned from several months in Nigeria. be resisted by all. Another major rea- that the coup attempt had failed. But

50 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 the universal feeling was one of anger (SAP) to the exclusion of all others son why politicians and soldiers alike at the military for again disturbing became the Babangida blueprint for aspire to power in Nigeria. civil society. Nigeria's economic recovery. In Babangida, Nigeria has a con- Some five years ago when The free-market imperatives of summate soldier-politician who has Babangida eased out the tyrannical SAP have undoubtedly opened up used the centralized configuration of duo of Generals Muhamrnadu Buhari certain sectors of the Nigerian econo- The free market imperatives of the Struc- and Tunde Idiagbon in a palace coup, my and stimulated economic growth. tural Adjustment Profiram have opened up public expectations and confidence And even Babangida's critics con- certain sectors of the Nigerian economy and stimulated economic growth were high. The military as an institu- cede that some aspects of SAP have tion still seemed a credible and disci- had a salutary effect on Nigeria's eco- plined alternative to fractious and nomic culture. However, Nigeria's venal politicians. Indeed, they have problems have not been entirely eco- the weight of historical tenure behind nomic—most problems center them and the helmsman was regard- around the political economy. And it ..the shortest route to/ ed as a brave and patriotic soldier is at the heart of this continuum that :£'. Nigeria's economic reCC committed to galvanizing Nigeria. major cardiac surgery is needed. BABANGIDA "We have witnessed our rise to greatness (and] a decline to the state of a bewildered nation," he said in his first address to the nation. "This gov- ernment is determined to unite this country. We will not rule by force. Fundamental rights and civil liberties BLUES will be respected, but their exercise must not degenerate into irrational Nigeria inherited a unitary and state power to impose his own whim- expressions, nor border on subver- highly centralized mentality of gover- sical vision on Nigeria. Over the sion." nance from the British, and so in years, his steady accretion of power Five years on, the Babangida spite of a federal structure, the center in the office of the presidency has magic and mystique is rather badly has been the near absolute locus of resulted in an insidious dictatorship frayed at the edges. More than any power. And in addition, the Nigerian that is sure to harden given the other Nigerian leader, Babangida has economy is driven almost exclusively events of last April. sailed the choppy and often turbulent by oil, with the public sector account- Clearly the enormous consolida- waters of politics with navigational ing for well over 90 percent of the tion of power during Babangida's charts that very often only he can gross domestic product. The num- presidency has set off alarm bells. In decipher. His Machiavellian grasp of bers add up to an essentially weak the office of the President are the fol- realpolitik and his commitment to private sector that cannot politically lowing: the chairmanship of the free-market policies has resulted in counterbalance the public sector Armed Forced Ruling Council the boldest attempt to date at restruc- because it derives most of its wealth (AFRC). the council of ministers, turing the Nigerian economy. from the patronage of the state. national council of state and the Coming off the starting blocks in And the state in turn predominates national security council, the minister 1985, he broke the IMF deadlock that in nearly all aspects of political and of defense, the police, the central had crippled the Buhari administra- economic life by its control of the bank, budget affairs, and the pro- tion, and in another of his populist "national cake" (as national bud- posed elite military forces, the nation- moves, played to the gallery of public getary allocations are known). It is al guard. opinion by throwing ihe IMF issue this direct access to the bulk of Nige- His supporters argue that his per- into the public arena tor debate. The ria's wealth that has made govern- sonification of a strong presidency is anti-IMF lobby won a pyrrhic victory, ment so powerful, and government necessary for the success of his twin the IMF loan was rejected, and officials so corrupt. The struggle for agenda of liberalizing the economy instead the World Bank-inspired that center, in spite of the usual patri- and returning Nigeria to a civilian Structural Adjustment Program otic platitudes, has been the real rea- democracy in 1992. And further-

AFRICA REPORT -July-August 1990 51 more, a strong center is needed to Sanni Abacha, Chief of Army Staff, in farm economics of the SAP that pre- put the lid on the perennial religious a counter-coup announcement, that cipitated multiple riots across the and ethnic squabbles that have said "at this stage, let me reiterate country last May. In explaining the plagued Nigeria. For a while, this our commitment to pursue vigorous- massive and spontaneous upheavals argument seemed tenable due to ly the transition program. No amount to the military, Babangida claimed Babangida's deft handling of political of threat or blackmail will detract that "detractors want to humiliate and appointments (always a ready index from the federal military govern- disgrace the military out of office and of ethnic balancing) and his constant ment's attention in this regard. We destroy the credibility of the military reassurance that he would hand over are set to hand over power to a demo- as a group." to a new breed of Nigerian politicians cratically elected government in Perhaps so, but now in the wake of dedicated to serving the country and 1992." the coup attempt, it is more probable not themselves. Gen. Domkat Bali, the respected that after over 20 years of intervening But lately, public optimism has former minister of defense removed in the civil polity, the Nigerian army hardened into a familiar knot of skep- early this year in another of Babangi- is succumbing to the inevitable rav- ticism about the sincerity of govern- da's famed cabinet reshuffles, noted ages of internecine power struggles. ment, and more about the real inten- that "the supremacy which ought to The army, decimated by consecutive tions of Gen. Babangida. His twin be with the AFRC has been usurped purges and coups, has lost a great agenda has come under blistering substantially by the presidency." deal of its esprit de corps and internal criticism. Sam Aluko, a respected Many fear that the administra- cohesion. "The problem with the economist, has consistently argued tion's vaunted transition program has armed forces today," said retired that the government could do better. already been usurped by President Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina, former Given the circumstances, "there is an Babangida's strategems. Certainly chief of army staff, "is their lack of alternative even to death, which is liv- his constant tinkering with the pro- dedication to duty and the duty of ing—SAP is the kiss of death." gram and the AFRC's rejection of six professionalism. Perhaps, no profes- And truly, the majority of Nigeri- emergent political parties last year, sion is as abused." ans have been alienated from the sup- coupled with his imposition of two A divided army is just part of a posed benefits of the economic- government-sponsored political par- slew of problems that the Babangida restructuring. The administration's ties—the Social Democratic Party administration is currently faced with once-bold developmental initiatives, and the National Republican Conven- as it rounds the curve on the final like the Directorate of Food, Roads, tion—hint darkly at post-electoral sprint to 1992. A large, young, and and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) control, which in some quarters restive population increasingly ask- and the National Directorate of down south means as the coup lead- ing bolder questions and fired by the Employment, have more or less suc- ers put it, "the domination and inter- pro-democracy movements else- cumbed to the invidious political will nal colonization of the Nigerian state where seems determined to organize of the Nigerian governing elite and by the so-called chosen few." and challenge the traditional pater- are increasingly being viewed as In spite of this simmering discon- nalism of Nigerian governments. pork barrel projects that serve no tent, politicians and other pundits rec- The age old North/South dichoto- one but their inventors. ognize that for now Babangida's tran- my hasn't let up either—it is now And as for the other agenda—the sition plan is the only game in town. tinged with religious fundamentalism transition to civilian democracy in Politicians have fallen into line with on both sides—and into this boiling 1992—public faith in the program is the bipartisan structure, and despite cauldron add two parts repression of at best ambivalent. While some sec- some vagueness from the public, the press, three parts curtailment of tors of the Nigerian intelligentsia seem committed to making the show free speech, and four parts deep-seat- have quietly quibbled about the irony goon. ed cynicism about the health of the of a patently non-democratic and anti- But there will be very muted political economy. Altogether a grand constitutional institution such as the applause—if any—from a large sec- existential crisis for the military in military bequeathing a democratic tion of the Nigerian public, who have power, a moral collapse of their tradi- legacy, such arguments were never grown cynical about politicians (mili- tional role, and serious doubts about voiced too loudly until now. The tary and civilian) and government's the validity of their continued rule. abortive coup threw that debate and genuine concern for real growth and "The army has no moral justifica- other niggling questions into the pub- development in Nigeria. They can tion to rule this country," declared lic arena, one of which is now being readily point to the wall-to-wall cor- another erstwhile chief of army staff, asked with increasing stridency, "will ruption in government, and the con- Gen. Gibson Jallo, in the aftermath of Babangida succeed IBB [his ini- spicuous display of wealth concen- the botched coup. Handing over to a tials]?" trated in a few hands that has become morally committed and administra- The coup plotters seem to have the hallmark of all Nigerian govern- tively competent civilian government thought so, in spite of government ments to date. in 1992 might well be Babangida's reassurances, including one by Gen. Particularly galling is the animal biggest challenge yet. O

52 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 ONE-PARTY

Robert Mugabe speaking at an election rally: "The election victory is a mandate for all our policies including the establishment of a one-party state" While President Robert Mugabe interpreted Zanu-PF's landslide election win as a mandate for the establishment of a one-party state, a recent debate between cabinet ministers and government critics highlighted the ongoing controversy regarding the role of freedom of association in Zimbabwe's political future.

By ANDREW MELDRUM

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 53 undreds of eager Zimbab- erally considered to be one of the Next came Jonathan Moyo, the weans packed a large hall to government's most capable minis- University of Zimbabwe lecturer in Hsee two cabinet ministers ters and most dedicated socialists. political science, who quickly dis- debate the country's future with two "I want to describe the govern- counted the government's achieve- well-known government critics. Enti- ment's achievements in its first 10 ments in health, education, and wel- tled "Zimbabwe 1980-1990: Hopes, years of independence, its failures, fare, saying that considering the Achievements and Prospects," the and then its prospects," said Chung. drastic neglect of the majority of Zim- forum proved to be a very timely She said the Mugabe government's babwe's population by the previous event. great improvements for the black Rhodesian government, any majori- Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party majority in the areas of health, edu- ty-rule government would have had decisively won the country's national cation, welfare, and agriculture were to improve those services. elections at the end of March and major achievements since indepen- Moyo said the people of Zimbab- Mugabe declared the win a mandate dence. On the failure side, Chung we had fought the long and bloody to establish a one-party state. Yet the frankly stated that the Mugabe gov- war against minority rule in order to elections were marked by violence ernment had allowed corruption to win democracy. and controversy and showed signifi- reach the highest levels of govern- "We should judge this govern- cant opposition to Mugabe's party. ment. ment's record by asking if it has culti- Then, on April 18, Zimbabwe marked "Highly placed personnel have vated a climate in which democracy its 10th anniversary of independence become car salesmen," said Chung, can grow. Right now, the question of with more official calls for a one- referring to Zimbabwe's "Willow- a one-party state is the issue of the party state, although national nurses' gate" scandal in which five cabinet moment. The prospects and conse- and teachers' strikes indicated popu- ministers last year lost their jobs quences of one-party rule are the lar dissatisfaction with the status after exposures of their involvement issues of the day," said Moyo. "Con- quo. Zimbabweans of all walks of life in an illegal car sales racket. trary to developments worldwide, were discussing the election results, The other mistakes highlighted including on our continent, Zimbab- the prospect of a one-party state, and by Chung were the failure to build a we is moving toward single-party what had been accomplished during truly socialist system in Zimbabwe rule. The president has used every a decade of independence. and the slow pace of economic available forum to put forth his view Therefore, people responded growth. She said an estimated in favor of a one-party stale, saying enthusiastically when the Zimbabwe- 300,000 young Zimbabweans leave he believes it will bring about unity German Society brought Senior secondary school each year and and oneness, so we can live together Political Affairs Minister Didymus more than three-quarters of them as one family." Mutasa and Education and Culture cannot find jobs. Moyo said Zimbabweans should Minister Fay Chung face-to-face with "Only one out of nine Zimbab- be "critical" of such rhetoric, particu- some of the Mugabe government's weans is in paid employment," said larly of a referendum on a one-party most outspoken critics, Jonathan Chung, "and it is becoming increas- state. Moyo of the University of Zimbabwe ingly difficult for those employed to "The very idea of a referendum on and Michael Auret, director of Zim- support the rest. The number of jobs a one-party state is flawed," he said. babwe's leading human rights group, is not growing and yet our population "Freedom of political association is a the Catholic Commission for Justice is growing rapidly. Full employment basic human right and it should not and Peace. is needed and for that we need to cre- be possible to vote it away. It does Young professional Zimbabweans ate 1 million jobs immediately and not matter what proportion votes in and university students, as well as then 300,000 every year after that. favor of a one-party state. We should older white liberals and expatriates, The only way to create that number be morally bound to respect the right filled the seats in the hall and then of jobs is to industrialize." of any individual to belong to a differ- spilled over onto the floor. Many Turning to Zimbabwe's prospects, ent political party." expressed the view that the Mugabe Chung said that as "an incurable opti- Moyo's appeal brought a thunder- government has grown increasingly mist," she believes that if the govern- ous round of applause and then came remote and said they looked forward ment were to establish a truly socialist Michael Auret of the Catholic Com- to seeing the ministers directly con- system, it would solve the problems of mission for Justice and Peace. fronted by their critics. corruption and unemployment. Auret's organization had crusaded The evening began with a 10- "Socialism is the only possible way for for majority rule during the Rhode- minute presentation by each of the Zimbabwe." sian regime and now, he said, it laud- panelists. The first to speak was Fay A warm round of applause fol- ed the "miraculous, dramatic Chung, a Chinese-Zimbabwean gen- lowed her address, as those in the improvements and the remarkable Andrew Meldrum, a contributing editor to audience judged that she had been progress in health, education, and Africa Report, is an American journalist who forthright and sincere, even if they welfare, and solid gains in economic has been based in Zimbabwe since 1980. He also writes for 'Hie Guardian of London. were not convinced by her remedies. rights."

54 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 On the negative side, Auret noted first 10 years of independence," he Zanu-PF operated in a truly demo- that corruption had permeated the said, "and that is its president, cratic manner when it openly dis- lower levels of government so that it Robert Gabriel Mugabe." couraged members from challenging was becoming a factor in daily life. A buzz of disbelief swept through party leaders in the election pri- "And in the field of human rights, the hall, to which Mutasa responded, maries. He was also asked if this was the government does not have a very "That's right, our president is our the kind of democracy that would good record," said Auret. "The emer- greatest achievement. Only he was exist in a one-party state. gency powers designed by the Smith able enough to transform our libera- "If Zanu-PF says we are not to crit- government to oppress the majority tion struggle and marshall it into a icize or challenge the party leader- are still in place and used by this gov- government. Our president is head ship, then that is our own housekeep- ernment to detain people without and shoulders above everybody ing rule," said Mulasa. "As far as a trial and to break strikes. In 1983-85, else." one-party state is concerned, I do not government forces carried out brutal Mutasa gave a short speech see what the problem is. As things attacks on the civilian population of extolling the virtues of Robert are now, most of our people in the Matabeleland in which thousands of Mugabe, claiming, for example, that rural areas are uneducated peasants people died and many more suf- it was the president who magnani- and do not understand all this talk fered. For the most part, the govern- mously permitted the Justice and about other parties, so why should ment officials who inflicted such mis- Peace Commission to work freely in we have a multi-party state which ery on so many people are still in the area of human rights in Zimbab- will only confuse them?" those same positions and that is an we, "something that would never be Education Minister Chung point- indictment on the government." tolerated anywhere else in Africa." ed out that Zanu-PF was virtually Auret reiterated the Justice and While diplomats and aid workers assured a victory in a referendum for Peace Commission's well-known appeared perplexed by Mutasa's pre- a one-party state as the party's public stand against a one-party sentation, university students staunchest supporters were in the state. showed no such qualms. Their titters rural areas where 75 percent of the "Why would this government, grew to become bursts of openly country's population resides. She which has such great mental capaci- scornful laughter. Applause was added that more than half of the peo- ty, want to take up something which matched by hoots of derision when ple in the rural areas are illiterate has been rejected throughout the Mutasa ended his talk. and are unlikely to vote against world?" he asked. "This government The debate heated up as the audi- Mugabe's ruling party. could forge a political system unique- ence posed questions to the pan- "Our leaders are not supposed to ly African and uniquely Zimbabwean, elists. Mutasa received much antago- take advantage of a bad situation," yet it appears intent on picking up nistic questioning. He was asked if retorted Moyo. 'There should be an Eastern Europe's rejected baggage." The audience, although cool to Auret at first, cheered his delivery at its finish. An expectant hush fell over the hall as Didymus Mutasa rose to speak. Mutasa has a reputation as a heavyweight power at the top of Zanu-PF. For years, he had served as Speaker of the House in Parliament, but following the March elections, his power became more evident as he was appointed senior minister of political affairs. "I will not dwell on the failures of the government. To fail is human and in order to fail you first have to try, so any failure .,._,, , , fcdgar lekere speak- by the govern- in* at a pre-election meilt means that it campaign rally: He has tried," said P""ed a credible 17 . , percent of the presi- Mutasa. dential vote, but apa- "I want to tell thy was one of the what has been the biggest winners, with , only 54 percent of country s greatest r,,gist(.red voters achievement in its going to the polls AFRICA REPORT-July-Augusi 1990 element of vision in our politics with about it. We can take the vote as a Europe's failed single-party states leaders fostering a climate in which mandate for us to go ahead and are dismissed as "un-African." democracy will flourish. The only establish a one-party state. Or we "The only way to reason against advantages of a one-party state are could decide to give the people one-party rule is to use African those which the leadership in power another chance to vote. It is up to our examples. Show how bad the system would enjoy." central committee to decide...How- has been in Zambia, Kenya, and Cheers arose from the audience ever we do it, we will do so with a Malawi," said a party official. "But it to back Moyo and the heckling of clear conscience that we have the appears that these are the very gov- Mutasa increased. Mutasa attacked people's backing." ernments with which we are develop- the audience for being over-educated Mugabe's statement seemed an ing closer relations. I've come to the and critical without having the coun- unequivocal assertion that the coun- conclusion that Zanu-PF wants a one- try's best interests at heart. try would be directed to a one-party party state with a capitalist system The invigorating debate brought state. But many of Harare's diplo- favoring those in power. Socialist together many of the issues current- mats, journalists, and analysts had rhetoric will be used to cover over ly featuring in Zimbabwe, yet it was maintained that the move toward sin- that reality, just as in Kenya." not covered in the capital's daily gle-party rule was not at all certain, The unveiling of Mugabe's new newspaper, or on the radio or televi- due to opposition within the 160-per- government gave an indication of the sion news, all of which are govern- son central committee. shape of things to come in a one- ment-controlled. Mugabe and the party leadership party state: old wine in new bottles, "I was delighted to see such a live- close to him are "absolutely deter- with a few new twists. Although ly discussion of the issues and so mined" to have a one-party state as slightly trimmed down, the cabinet of many Zimbabweans actively ques- soon as possible, said one Zanu-PF 41 still seems a bit large and tioning the issues," said an American insider. He said that opposition with- unwieldy when the pressures are aid worker. "Yet I couldn't help won- in the party had dwindled. mounting for dramatically reduced dering if such a meeting would be The resistance within Zanu-PF to government spending. But as possible if a one-party state is estab- a one-party state remains largely Mugabe maneuvers toward a one- lished." with members who previously were party state, it is unlikely he would Zimbabwe's election results, and in Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe want to tip the balance of his careful- particularly the way in which they African People's Union (Zapu). This ly aligned regional forces in govern- were interpreted by Robert Mugabe, puts the old Zapu members in a ment. The Ministry of Political indicate that the country is headed quandary. To adamantly oppose a Affairs has a handful of government toward a one-party state in the near one-party state would not stop ministers—one senior minister, two future. Mugabe and would only put them ministers of state, and three deputy A jubilant Mugabe welcomed his back on the outside of power. They ministers of state—to run the party's presidential victory and Zanu-PF's well remember how disastrous it was affairs through government offices. landslide win of 116 of 120 parlia- for the people of Matabeleland when One of the biggest cabinet mentary seats. Yet Edgar Tekere's Zapu was excluded from the work- changes is at the Ministry of Health, opposition Zimbabwe Unity Move- ings of the system from 1982 to 1987, where the appointment of Dr. Timo- ment (ZUM) made a good showing and so there appears little other thy Stamps signals the government apart from the two seats it won, and choice for them but to go with the will abandon its embarrassed atti- Tekere himself polled a credible 17 flow toward one-party rule. tude toward the AIDS crisis and percent of the presidential vote. The Former Zapu intelligence chief launch an all-out campaign to control overall turnout of the poll—54 per- Dumiso Dabengwa perhaps best the epidemic. So, too, the assign- cent of registered voters—showed illustrated this dilemma. He opposed ment of Denis Norman as minister of that apathy had been one of the the resolution for a one-party state at transport indicates the country's biggest winners. the party congress in December, but crippling road, rail, and bus prob- Mugabe brushed aside such was voted down. When, following the lems will be tackled with vigor. On reservations and those about cam- March elections, Dabengwa was the other hand, the appointment of paign violence and the possibility of named to Mugabe's new cabinet, he Witness Mangwende to agriculture, voting irregularities. He emphatical- delayed in accepting the post for lands, and resettlement does not ly declared that the election triumph about a week. His reluctance to make it clear what the government empowered Zanu-PF to proceed quickly take the position shows the intends to do about the simmering with plans to establish a one-party difficulty he has in either embracing land issue. state. leadership in Zanu-PF or in rejecting So, with the election results in and "It's a mandate for all our policies such participation. the new government installed, Zim- including the establishment of a one- Those who have argued against a babwe appears to have stepped into party state," said Mugabe. "It's one-party state in the central commit- its second decade firmly on the entirely up to us how we can go tee say that the examples of Eastern march to a one-party state. O

56 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 HUMAN RIGHTS THE DANGERS

"DISSENT While Life-President Kamuzu Banda's iron-fisted rule has relied upon the systematic suppression of dissent, Malawi's Western allies have never seen fit to publicly criticize its human rights record. With the continent's moves toward democratization and the aging Banda nearing the end of his career, Africa Watch argues that now is the time to put on pressure.

By RICHARD CARVER

he current vogue for human the African Charter on Human and dent Kamuzu Banda uses to legit- rights does have its dangers. In Peoples' Rights. imize his quarter-century of personal T February, Malawi, previously The irony of this will not be lost on rule. Mapanje will have plenty of time indifferent to international criticism Jack Mapanje, Malawi's leading poet. to reflect on the political theater and particularly to the OAU, ratified For some time, he has observed the behind the Addis Ababa signing cere- theatrical methods —such as praise- mony, since he is currently in his Richard Carver is research director of the human rights organization. Africa Watch. song and dance —which Life-Presi- third year of detention without trial.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 57 With Mapanje at Mikuyu Prison opera autocrat, with his taste for Young Pioneers, a paramilitary youth are several dozen other political pris- homburg hats and three-piece suits group with powers of arrest. Malaw- oners, including a neurosurgeon, and his conviction that Malawian ians often have to present a party some civil servants, a handful of for- children should learn Latin and card before they can board a bus or mer cabinet ministers, and one man, Greek. However, for the people of enter the market. They may be com- Machipisa Munlhali, who has been Malawi, his capricious style of rule is pelled to buy party cards for their detained for 25 years. They may be deadly serious. children—as well as contributing to wondering whether the Malawian The Kafkaesque nature of the frequent collections for President delegation in Addis Ababa was famil- Malawian system is illustrated by the Banda. iar with Article 6 of the charter they sad case of Blaise Machila. A col- Those in detention are the brave have just signed: "No one may be league of Jack Mapanje's in the ones who try to defy this systematic arbitrarily arrested or detained." English department of the University political control. One such is Mar- Malawi's attitude to the right of of Malawi, he had a long history of garet Marango Banda, a former free expression, guaranteed in Arti- mental illness. After Mapanje's radio presenter and prominent lay- cle 9, has been equally derisive. arrest, he became distressed and woman in the Anglican church. The Mapanje's own collection of poems, began claiming that it was he who apparent reason for her detention is Of Chameleons and Gods, was had denounced his friend to the that she criticized alleged corruption banned when he was arrested in authorities. He was admitted as a vol- in the national women's organization, September 1987. His detention was untary patient to a mental hospital, the Chituko Cha Amai Mu Malawi probably intended to pre-empt a fur- where he began to criticize Banda (CCAM). The leader of the CCAM is ther volume of poetry, entitled Out of and other political leaders for Mapan- Cecilia Kadzamira. Margaret Banda Bounds. Mapanje's poems join a list je's arrest. was arrested in 1988 on her return of prohibited publications which The hospital authorities sum- from a visit to Britain and is still held includes works by (ieorge Orwell, moned the police. Machila's mental in poor conditions at Zomba Central Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, state made him abandon the caution Prison. She is 62 years old and suf- and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as which is usually second nature to fers from diabetes and high blood the Kama Sutra and, indeed, just Malawians. He repeated his attacks pressure, but she is being denied about anything that anyone might on the leadership. Machila was dis- proper medical attention. actually want to read. charged from the hospital that night, Margaret Banda, like a dispropor- In a major political trial of the arrested, and detained at Mikuyu tionate number of political prisoners, 1970s, one of the counts against the Prison. That was in January 1988. comes from the Northern Region. defendant, a former secretary-gener- More than two years later, he Under British colonial rule, north- al of the ruling party, was possession remains there in solitary confine- erners were better taught in the mis- of a copy of Animal Farm. In vain, ment, his mental health apparently sion schools, with the result that he pleaded that he had studied it as worse than ever. He is permanently they came to dominate the civil ser- a set book at school and had forgot- chained and naked. vice and educational system after ten to throw it away when it was Banda's power rests upon the sys- independence. This is resented by banned. tematic suppression of dissent. Can- the Chewa-speaking political elite Once on a visit to Meharry Medi- didates for Parliament must be from the Central Region, including cal College in Tennessee, where he approved by Banda himself. Despite Banda and Kadzamira. Chewa is an has studied, President Banda was his professed enthusiasm for educa- official language of Malawi, whereas presented with a book which he rec- tion, he usually chooses candidates Tumbuka, the language of the north, ommended to his cabinet as suitable of low educational attainment. The is not. Periodically, Banda engages in reading matter. It was later discov- effect has generally been a docile a purge of northerners in the civil ered to general embarrassment that Parliament. In 1964, soon after inde- service and education system. it was already on the Malawi Censor- pendence, there was a major split in The most recent purge began just ship Board's banned list. the cabinet, with a number of minis- over a year ago. A quota system was Improbably, this list even includes ters forced into exile. Since then, the introduced to reduce the number of the Simon and Garfunkel song, only time when Parliament has northern students at the university "Cecilia." The reason is that Banda's begun to voice independent opinions and northerners were expelled from unpopular "Official Hostess" is called was in the early 1980s. The four most the national schools examination Cecilia Kadzamira. At one time, outspoken members of Parlia- board. In early 1989, Banda made bowdlerized versions of the song cir- ment—three of them cabinet minis- two speeches denouncing northern culated, satirizing the domestic life ters—were promptly murdered in a civil servants for allegedly channel- of the president and hostess. These faked car accident. ing development aid to their region days, Cecilia prefers to be known by Life in Malawi is under the close and ordered all teachers to return to her middle name of Tamanda. control of the ruling Malawi their region of origin. The redeploy- Banda might seem like a comic- Congress Party and the Malawi ment of teachers is unworkable and

58 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 unpopular in all parts of the country. Article 2) against Asians, who are Malawi and "trying to assume the A number of senior civil servants effectively restricted to the towns. functions of a world government." from the north were retired without However, Malawi's ratification of Malawi had enjoyed "25 years of pension benefits—they were fired. the African Charter is not only a joke peace and calm through its united The country's only neurosurgeon, in poor taste. It is also part of a reori- and disciplined people under the George Mtnfu, dared to criticize this entation of Malawi's foreign policy wise, pragmatic, and dynamic leader- to Banda's face and has been away from its long-standing alliance ship of His Excellency the Life Presi- detained ever since. Several dozen with South Africa and toward its dent Ngwazi Dr. H. Karnuzu Banda." other northerners have also been frontline neighbors. At one time, Malawi believes "in resolving any detained in the past year. The case of Malawi was an essential rear base for problems through...contact and dia- Thoza Konje is typical. A 42-year-old the Mozambican rebel group Ren- logue and not confrontation." There- manager for ihe Sugar Company of amo. It was the route by which South fore, in something of a non sequitur, Malawi, he was arrested after a gov- Africa supplied Renamo bands oper- Africa Watch's request was refused. ernment informer had eavesdropped ating in northern Mozambique. Banda is now in his 90s— on a bar room conversation in which Although certain figures in the although in Malawi you would be he criticized the redeployment of Malawian regime are still closely locked up for suggesting such a teachers. bound to South Africa, it has gradual- thing. Recent visitors say that he is Even beyond Malawi's borders, ly dawned on the government that increasingly frail. For the past dissent is dangerous. In October Renamo was preying on Malawi's decade, politics in Malawi have 1989, an exiled journalist named own trade route to the Mozambican focused almost entirely on the suc- Mkwapatira Mhango died after his port of Nacala. cession to Banda. When he dies, Lusaka home was firebombed. His The withdrawal of support for power is likely to fall into the hands two wives and five small children Renamo means that Malawi is no of Cecilia Kadzamira and her uncle, were also burned to death. Only longer the pariah that it once was. In John Tembo, who have been impli- three weeks earlier, Banda had particular, a new axis has emerged cated in some of the worse excesses denounced him publicly. In 1987, his between Lilongwe and Harare. Zim- of recent years. The likelihood that brother, Goodluck Mhango, was babwean troops guard Malawian Banda is nearing the end makes it detained after Mkwapatira had writ- convoys in Mozambique, and Zim- more, not less important, that ten an article in a foreign magazine babwe recently expelled the exiled Malawi's allies apply pressure for an alleging corruption in Kadzamira's Malawian opposition leader Edward improvement in respect for human leadership of the CCAM. Yapwantha. In particular, President rights. Orton Chirwa, Malawi's first attor- Robert Mugabe and his wife Sally, Malawi's principal Western ney-general, and his wife Vera, a law head of the women's league and allies—Britain, West Germany, and lecturer, might be surprised to learn newly elevated to the party Polit- the United States—have made no that Malawi now subscribes to Arti- buro, seem to admire the Malawi public criticism of Banda's human cle 7 of the African Charter, which Congress Party and especially the rights record. His pro-Western for- guarantees the right to a fair trial in women dancers, the mbumba, who eign policy and free market eco- an independent court with a defense greet Banda on every public occa- nomics have won him favor. Malawi's lawyer. In 1981, Orton and Vera Chir- sion. allies have been prepared to over- wa were abducted from Zambia and The danger is that once Malawi's look, for example, his whimsical dis- later put on trial before a "traditional foreign policy is deemed acceptable missal and imprisonment of senior court" composed of untrained judges to the rest of Africa, no one will look Reserve Bank officials, although this answerable to the president. They too closely at Banda's brutal meth- might seem inconsistent with pru- were not allowed to call witnesses in ods of suppressing internal dissent. dent economic management. their defense nor hire counsel. They Despite its foreign policy shift, However, at a time when one- are still serving life sentences at Malawi remains as closed as ever to party dictatorships are tumbling Zomba Prison and only avoided exe- outside scrutiny. Just as it was sign- almost weekly, the Life-President cution because of a rare international ing the African Charter, it expelled should be told that human rights outcry. the only two resident foreign corre- standards are to be applied universal- Banda, an elder of the Church of spondents. ly and that the United States is not Scotland, is not one for religious tol- In the offices of Africa Watch, only interested in castigating tyran- erance (Article 8). The Jehovah's news of the ratification was greeted nies of the "left." A good first step Witnesses are banned as a threat to with wry amusement. A little earlier would be to insist that journalists and the "prevailing calm, law, and order." Malawi's diplomatic representative human rights organizations be given It is claimed that many Witnesses in London had written in response to free access to the country. Then the are still detained at Dzeleka. a request by Africa Watch to visit the world will be able to judge how well Malawi also practices institutional country. He accused Africa Watch of Malawi is sticking to the charter it racial discrimination (banned under recycling "malicious stories" about has recently signed. O

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 59 THE FEMINIZATION As poverty levels in Africa continue to worsen, new evidence indicates those getting poorest fastest are women. While reflective of the continent-wide economic decline, the impoverishment of women is also due to governmental neglect of women, drastic cuts in social spending through structural adjustment programs, and cultural denigration of women's role in society.

n alarming trend with poten- tially devastating economic, A social, and environmental consequences is developing across Africa, with evidence showing that nearly two-thirds of Africa's fast- growing, poverty-stricken popula- tion consists of women. The picture becomes bleaker considering that between 1970 and 1985, the number of Africans living in abject poverty rose by 75 percent to about 270 mil- lion, or half the population of the continent, according to the Interna- tional I.abor Organization. Poor shelter, malnutrition, dis- ease, illiteracy, overwork, a short life expectancy, and high maternal and infant mortality rates mark the lives of the poorest of poor women and | their dependent families. Poverty is I growing faster in Africa than in any | other part of the world. Even more ^ alarming, perhaps, is the fact that

60 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 OF POVERTY By DAPHNE TOPOUZIS the feminization of poverty is Women heads of households tend to caring for their children and their becoming increasingly structural, have more dependents, fewer bread- own health. According to the UN advancing well beyond the reach of winning family members, and Fund for Population Activity's State policy-makers and development pro- restricted access to productive of the World Population 1990, rural jects. As a result, it is becoming vir- resources. "Female members of a African women tend to have more tually impossible for women to poor household are often worse off children in order to lighten their escape the cycle of crushing poverty than male members because of gen- load with food production. in which they are entrenched. der-based differences in the distribu- And last but not least, armed con- If this trend is not reversed, how- tion of food and other entitlements flicts in Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, ever, about 400 million Africans will within the family," adds the 1990 Mozambique, and civil unrest in sev- be living in absolute poverty by Human Development Report. eral other countries have left Ihou- 1995, argues the newly released The poverty crisis has been fur- sands of women widowed, displaced, UNDP 1990 Human Development ther aggravated by ill-fated agricul- or abandoned to a life of permanent Report, and up to 260 million could tural policies or a neglect of agricul- emergency as refugees: An estimat- be women. ture by national governments, rapid ed two-thirds of the 5 million adult The feminization of poverty is population growth, and pressure on refugee population on the continent only beginning to be recognized as a land available for cultivation—all of are women. "When armies march, pressing problem in Africa and else- which have contributed to declining there is no harvest," reads one where in the world, and there are as productivity and food consumption African saying. As a result, women yet no statistical indicators or fig- in many African countries. Between refugees often become almost totally ures available to help identify the 1980 and 1985, per capita income in dependent on relief from interna- magnitude of the crisis. At best, Africa declined by 30 percent, taking tional organizations whose re- studies on poverty refer to it in pass- into account the negative terms of sources for them are currently on ing, but more often, they fail to trade. The first victims of food short- the decline. appreciate the ramifications of this ages and famine tend to be women shift in the pattern of poverty on with young children, which is not The Plight of Rural Women overall economic development. surprising, considering that just From near food self-sufficiency in The reasons behind the increas- under half of all African women and 1970, Africa over the past two ing concentration of poverty among 63 percent of pregnant women suffer decades has witnessed a marked women in Africa are as varied as from anemia. decline in food production and con- they are complex. A combination of The adverse effects of the eco- sumption per person, while real per prolonged drought and ihe debt cri- nomic recession and remedial struc- capita access to resources has sis have triggered large-scale male tural adjustment programs should decreased accordingly. African migrations to the cities, leaving one- be added to the list of factors that women, who produce, process, and third of all rural households headed have contributed to the impoverish- market over 75 percent of the food, by women. In some regions of sub- ment of women. Structural adjust- suffer greater deprivations than men Saharan Africa, up to 43 percent of ment has in many cases increased and continue to be ignored by all households are headed by unemployment in the cities, and national policy-makers and interna- women, according to the UN 1989 women are again the first to be laid tional aid organizations. World Survey on Women in Develop- off in the formal sector. Austerity Thus, even though the past two ment. measures have also decreased years have seen bumper crops in This phenomenon is transform- women's purchasing power and many Sahelian countries, women ing the family structure and socio- removed subsidies on basic food- farmers have not benefitted from economic fabric of African societies stuffs. Thus, already overworked this, and the poorest among them across the continent, placing addi- women have no choice but to work are still unable to grow enough food tional financial burdens on already even longer hours to keep their fami- to sustain their families. One of the poor and overworked women. lies afloat, often at the expense of reasons is that, as a whole, they

AFRICA REPORT* July-August 1990 61 remain excluded from access to ing their environment in order to The vast majority of urban women improved technology, credit, exten- survive. Poverty, overpopulation, work in the informal sector where sion services, and land. Landless, and environmental degradation are earnings are meager, and there is no unskilled, and illiterate rural women not only inextricably linked, but they legal protection or job security: In often live precarious lives on the continually reinforce one another. Ghana, 85 percent of all employment edge of impoverishment, regardless in trade in 1970 was accounted for by of how hard they work. Urban Women in "Pink Collar Jobs" women; in Nigeria, 94 percent of the Women in developing countries Women are still a minority in the street food vendors are women. work twice as many hours as men public sector in Africa: In Benin and These women earn substantially less for one-tenth of the income. In East Togo, 21 percent of public sector than their male counterparts and Africa, women spend up to 16 hours employees are women, while in Tan- often live on the edge of poverty, so every day growing, processing, and zania, their share in formal employ- that a slight deterioration in econom- preparing food, gathering fuel and ment was 15.6 percent in 1983. Poor ic conditions, such as price rises of water, and performing other house- urban women have little professional essential foodstuffs, can directly hold chores, in addition to caring for training. As a result, they are threaten their survival, as well as their children and the extended fam- reduced to low-wage, low-status, or that of their families. In Dar es ily. In Malawi, women put in twice as "pink collar" jobs, which include Salaam, argues the 1990 Human many hours as men cultivating clerical, teaching, and social ser- Development Report, poor women maize, the main cash crop, and the vices. In Kenya, 78.9 percent of the had to cut back from three meals a same number of hours in cotton, in female work force in the service sec- day to two. In extreme cases, poor addition to doing all the housework. tor is employed in pink collar jobs, urban women have resorted to beg- In South Africa's homelands, while only 6.1 percent is employed ging, prostitution, and other illicit women walk from three to five miles in high-paying jobs. The economic activities in order to survive. every other day to collect fuelwood crisis has had a profound effect on weighing up to 65 pounds, according these women, with unemployment Structural Adjustment to Apartheid's Environmental Toll, a rising by 10 percent annually in the Structural adjustment programs report released by WorldWatch Insti- period 1980-1985. In Botswana and prescribed by international financial tute in Washington, IXC. Environ- Nigeria, the rate of unemployment institutions have largely failed to mental degradation affects women among young women under 20 was integrate women into economic directly, as they have to walk longer 44 percent and 42 percent respec- development and have imposed distances to fetch fuelwood and tively in 1987, as opposed to males of drastic cuts in education and health water. In turn, impoverished the same age group, at 23.5 and 22.2 services, thereby exacerbating exist- women—most of whom live in eco- percent. For those who retained ing inequalities and marginalizing | logically fragile areas—have little their jobs, wages were often slashed women further. A recent study con- s alternative but to continue degrad- by one-third. ducted by a group of experts set up by the Commonwealth Ministers Responsible for Women, entitled Engendering Adjustment for the 1990s, argues that women in devel- oping countries "have been at the epicenter of the crisis and have borne the brunt of the adjustment efforts." Particularly alarming is the fact that for the first time in many years, maternal and infant mortality rates are beginning to rise and girls' school enrollments are starting to fall. "If you educate a man, you sim- ply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family," said J.E. Aggrey, a Ghanaian educator. Few, however, have taken Women spend up to 1 6 hours a day growing, processing, and preparing food, gathering fuel and water, and performing other chores, in addition to caring for their children and the extended family

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 this message seriously: Illiteracy in membership. In a British- Africa is four times as high among funded cotton growing women as among men, and the high- project in Bura, Kenya, er the level of education, the lower women have no access to the percentage of girls. In Cote plots where they can d'lvoire, 82 women among 707 stu- grow food, and malnutri- dents completed university studies tion has increased among in 1983. In 13 out of 18 African coun- their children; at an inte- tries for which figures are available, grated rural development expenditure per pupil in primary project in Zambia, school decreased dramatically, up to women have little time to 40 percent, between 1980 and grow food and care for 1984/5. their families because Women's health has also suffered they have to work long severe setbacks as a result of struc- hours on their husbands' tural adjustment programs. In Nige- cash crop, to mention but ria, where health fees and social ser- a few examples. vice subsidies were slashed, health The devastating care and food costs have spiralled by drought, famines, and 400 to 600 percent, according to a the economic crisis of the recent report in West Africa. About 1980s pressured African 75,000 women die each year from governments and devel- causes related to pregnancy or child- opment organizations birth in Nigeria alone—that is, one into recognizing the vital woman every seven minutes, role women play in eco- according to the same source. In nomic development. Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Malawi, Most African govern- Mali, and Mozambique, one out of ments now have a min- five 15-year-old women dies before istry, bureau, or depart- she reaches 45 years of age for rea- ment dealing with \t. sons related to pregnancy and child- women's affairs and some legislative In many African countries, women still birth. adjustments have been made to cannot own the land they cultivate or get improve the socio-economic status access lo credit Women in Development of women. These initiatives, howev- nization of poverty is tackled as an Between 1965 and 1986, women er, have not reached the most vul- economic and social problem rather were neglected by development nerable and impoverished of than as a purely developmental or planners largely due to misconcep- women, not least because their exclusively a women's problem. tions and misdirected efforts and as needs are multi-sectoral and are There are some encouraging initia- a result, hardly benefitted from unlikely to be met by a single gov- tives in Ghana, Tanzania, and Nige- development aid, argued a 1988 ernment department, while being ria, where farmers' cooperatives are World Bank report. Thus, it was ignored or given token recognition obtaining loans for poor women taken for granted that all households by other ministries. from local banks. are male-headed, that women do not In essence, women's economic However, a formidable task work, and that by increasing the contributions remain largely over- awaits national governments and income of a household, everyone looked and equitable development development workers: Access to pro- will benefit. Rural development pro- strategies have yet to be translated ductive resources such as land, capi- jects geared toward women tended into effective plans of action. In many tal, and technology, fair wages, train- to emphasize training and health, countries, African women still cannot ing, and education and basic health hygiene, nutrition, and child care, own the land they cultivate or get care are essential conditions if neglecting to help women improve access to credit. In Lesotho, women African women are to break out of their capabilities as farmers. Women lack the most basic legal and social the vicious circle of poverty and were barred from access to credit rights: They cannot sign contracts, underdevelopment. Equally press- and improved technology because it borrow money, or slaughter cattle ing, however, are policy-making and was the men who were addressed as without their husbands' consent. legislative reforms to combat dis- the real producers. Sustainable development has to crimination against women and A case in point is the Sedhiou Pro- become synonymous with equitable change male attitudes regarding ject in Senegal, which provided cred- development, and economic recov- women's contributions to social and it to cooperatives but refused female ery will only come about if the femi- economic life. O

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 63 WHY WE DIDN'T SEE WEMBLEY The whole world was watching on television when rock stars paid tribute to Nelson Mandela at the London gala in April—the whole world except the U.S. Why didn't a single American network carry the concert, or even the news that it was not being covered? Was the reason political, com- mercial, cultural, or just a reflection of the American media's neglect of African issues? By DANNY SCHECHTER his time rock-and-roller Little Steven was determined that his T political message not be cen- sored. Invited to return to London's Wembley Stadium for a second glob- ally broadcast concert honoring Nel- son Mandela, the founder of Artists United Against Apartheid—the group responsible for the 1985 anti- at least the visual he planned to wear America was willing to do so? apartheid anthem "Sun City"—had would make it into America's living There seem to be several answers, special pro-sanctions tee-shirts print- rooms. and they have to do with both how ed up for the singers to wear on cam- He figured wrong. What Little the concert was marketed and the era. Steven and the many musicians who political character of the event itself, Two years earlier, the musician appeared on stage at Wembley on as well as that of American television. had returned from London to discov- April 16 did not count on was that not To those of us at "South Africa Now," er that the political remarks he made one American TV network would a public television series which regu- at the concert—which had been broadcast the four-hour superstar larly reports stories from the region shown worldwide—had been edited concert that the BBC was carrying in not seen on the networks, the lack of out of the American TV broadcast of Britain and transmitting worldwide. reporting on the event and the failure the 1988 Mandela birthday concert. This time, there would be no contro- to broadcast it is more evidence of At the time, he expressed his displea- versy about the American broadcast TV's lack of commitment to the South sure with a New York Times Op-Ed because there was to be no American African story. page article arguing that the event broadcast at all. A word first about the concert. had been sanitized politically for Why? Was there a lack of interest The idea was hatched by two of the domestic consumption. To make sure among the American people? Was people involved in creating the 1988 it didn't happen again, he figured that there some conspiracy to suppress Mandela show. Mike Terry, the untir- the event? Why was it that 63 other ing organizer of Britain's Anti- Danny Schechter is executive producer of South Africa Now." countries broadcast it, but no one in Apartheid Movement, and Tony

64 AFRICA REPORT • July-Augusl 1990 Hollingsworth, a concert producer, communications difficulties, not to major appearance outside of South felt with some justification that the mention ego factors. Stevie Wonder Africa made him "bankable." He earlier 11-hour birthday bash did is travelling in Africa...the Stones are thought wrong. generate lots of pressure for Man- in Japan...So and so is recording, Radiovision International, a Los dela's release. After the ANC leader someone else is on vacation and Angeles-based company with a track walked so defiantly to freedom in unreachable, etc. record for selling TV rights for rock early February, they thought a sec- There were political problems, shows worldwide, had the job of find- ond concert would be a great way to too. The producers were determined ing a TV buyer. One television trade celebrate his freedom and call on the to have a multi-racial bill, but who magazine, Cablevision, says it didn't world to keep the pressure on. When should get priority? Big-name musi- do a very good job, either by over- a BBC executive expressed interest, cians, or artists who have been pricing the event, or failing to hype it they were on their way. involved with the cause for a long properly to overcome its "short win- First, they sought approval from time? A few musicians met both crite- dow," the short time period between the African National Congress and ria, but most did not. South African its announcement and the broadcast the "International Reception Commit- musicians were particularly anxious which means less time for promotion. tee" that the ANC had established to to contribute their talents, but only a In the same article, the magazine get all the political mileage it could few were well-known internationally. indicted the cable industry for not from Mandela's release. Its 31 The ANC decided that to maximize carrying the show, for not acting patrons included prime ministers, their input, South African artists more aggressively "to demonstrate former presidents, jimmy Carter would perform together in two 25- once again its ability to go where among them, and personalities minute blocks. Not everyone was sat- broadcast won't." including Jesse Jackson and the 1987 isfied with this arrangement. On If the leading cable industry maga- European footballer of the year. The show day, both Hugh Masekela and zine tended to blame non-political fac- veteran anti-apartheid crusader Arch- Miriam Makeba were conspicuous tors, Variety, the journal of the enter- bishop Trevor Huddleston had con- by their absence. Some South African tainment industry, pinpointed political vened the committee. When artists grumbled that some of the approached to support another rock white stars were using the event to show, he was enthusiastic, as was the boost their careers. The ultimate irony is ANC. In their eyes, the concert that South African would be a global event, a platform Getting the Right Bill broadcasters were from which Mandela, for the first (retting the right bill was crucial if time, could speak directly to a world the event was to find a television willing to carry the audience—and in prime time at that. buyer in the United States, the most event—with all of its And so Wembley II, officially lucrative television market in the known as "An International Tribute world. A U.S. sale represented the oppositional con- for a Free South Africa," was born. concert's profit potential, but it tent—while American The organizers had just 54 days to depended on what the concert pro- make it happen on the Easter Mon- ducers had to sell, and that always TV looked the other day date they had settled on. It was a comes down to one thing—big way. vast undertaking, with Hollings- names. worth responsible for production and In the music business, only a few factors as central in the decision by the reception committee for its poli- musicians are considered "A Acts," broadcasters not to carry the event. tics. The ANC was not even the finan- with enough name value to draw top Variety blamed their skiltishness and cial beneficiary. Like the globally tele- dollar and land a TV sale. With stars a lack of consciousness as well. vised Mandela birthday concert in like Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, "We've talked to everybody," 1988, six charities—the same ones Anita Baker. Natalie Cole, Neil Radiovision exec David Wyler told which shared a surplus of £600,000 Young, Lou Reed, and 1990 Grammy Variety. "American TV is the least then—were designated as the recipi- Winner Bonnie Rain among many risk-taking, the most conservative in ents of any potential largesse. The others, Hollingsworth had an impres- the world." It's hard to believe that organizers now say there wasn't any. sive lineup, but would it impress the powerful networks that have been The producers did an impressive handful of TV programmers who able to send cameras to the moon, job. Seventy-two thousand tickets would have to agree to shell out a sig- and fill the airwaves with far more sold out quickly, the fastest sell-out in nificant acquisition fee? He hoped trivial programs week after week the venue's history. Enormous pro- that his real headliner would put him couldn't find the air time if they want- duction and technical details were over the top and make the event irre- ed to. A Radiovision executive told handled smoothly. There were more sistible: Nelson Mandela, live, was me that most of the TV executives he problems in booking artists, never an the star of the show. He thought that approached were worried about the easy job given schedule conflicts and the hoopla surrounding his first political character of the event.

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 65 There are many ironies with that later. "It's a scandal," fumed Little apartheid political movements and concern. A commentator writing in Steven. "It's shameful and embarrass- Africa-oriented agencies tend to be the London Guardian argued that the ing." Equally embarrassing was the dismissive of popular culture as BBC only broadcast Mandela's lack of news about the blackout itself. somehow not serious or appropriate speech because he has been accord- A New York Times story reported that for a great leader to associate with, ed a personal status above politics as the concert would not be shown in they cannot deny its ability to mobi- a world symbol and celebrity, "with a South Africa, without mentioning that lize people or raise their awareness. strong appeal to the non-political." its readers in America would not get A rap song against apartheid will Apartheid in most parts of the world to see it either. reach a bigger audience than a UN is not a controversial issue with The pity is that Americans missed report. Popular culture may also debatable pros and cons, but a moral a great show. The Wembley concert goose the news media. For some issue that invites universal condem- was inspiring for its energy and pas- time, a decline in news coverage of nation. sion. To The Washington Post, "it African issues has angered Africans, A second irony involves race. appeared that the use of grandiose and worried their supporters over- Some programmers apparently rock shows for consciousness-raising seas. Over the last year, I've attended declined to take the show in part had evolved another notch." The link four conferences that discussed this because of the perception that Man- between politics and music was problem. Many heard complaints dela's non-racialist message would be strong, although there were some about ignorance, indifference, and of interest only to a narrow audience, contradictions, including a virtually racism in the newsrooms and among primarily black. The ultimate irony is all-white crowd. the media gatekeepers who give that South African broadcasters were But Nelson Mandela was received assignments and decide what to air. willing to carry the event—with all of as a conquering hero, and spoke only The consensus among the critics is its oppositional content—while Amer- after a seven-minute screaming ova- that the TV networks could devote ican TV looked the other way. (The tion. His remarks projected great dig- more time to African issues if they ANC decided not to permit a South nity and presence, calling for contin- had the will to do so. African broadcast because of its sup- ued pressure on the de Klerk govern- TV networks influence public port for the UN's cultural boycott.) ment. "Reject any suggestion that the awareness by what they choose to The bottom line is usually eco- campaign to isolate the apartheid sys- show and how they choose to play nomics. Variety's story explained that tem should be wound down," he particular issues and programs. rock concerts overall are not big rat- urged. His speech was page-one When the networks descended en ings getters—and hence not consid- news in every newspaper in Europe. masse to cover Mandela's release in ered super-lucrative. Yet other less In the United States, only USA Today South Africa, their saturation cover- political rock shows with a con- gave it that visibility, perhaps because age was popular. A Times Mirror poll science have gotten air time. An it caters more to mass interests than at the time showed more Americans AIDS music benefit was carried a day elite concerns. interested in South Africa than later during prime time on CBS. Pub- What the world didn't see was Lithuania. But when the electronic lic television was no more receptive Mandela's visit backstage to meet the eye moved on to Eastern Europe, than its commercial counterparts. artists and express his appreciation coverage declined and soon interest PBS turned down an opportunity to for their involvement. Only "South waned as well. broadcast the Wembley concert with- Africa Now" covered those emotional It's clear that when an issue is not out much consideration. PBS often remarks. "Over the years in prison I on television, it doesn't exist for most carries performances by non-A-Iist have tried to follow the developments Americans. That's why the South artists, but claimed in this instance in progressive music," Mandela told Africans have not lifted their restric- that its programming guidelines pre- them. "Your contribution has given tions on TV coverage. But the ulti- vent it from carrying benefits. This is us tremendous inspiration...Your mate challenge may be less to con- not an issue that seems to excite its message can reach quarters not nec- vince Pretoria's censors than to make programmers. In 1986, PBS was criti- essarily interested in politics, so that New York's news managers account- cized for refusing to broadcast anoth- the message can go further than we able. There are few publications with er pop-culture anti-apartheid event: politicians can push it...We admire media critics who regularly monitor the award-winning "Making of Sun you. We respect you, and above all, Africa coverage, or lobby for more of City" documentary. we love you." He thus blessed a con- it. "South Africa Now" is doing that to The artists at Wembley were tinuing marriage between pop cul- the extent that a small budget and the shocked when told about this total ture and liberation politics which reach of PBS stations allow. But more TV blackout, encompassing every remains a vital force inside South is needed: The media is political and cable and broadcast network includ- Africa where music and the arts are its treatment of the Mandela Tribute ing MTV, which begged off in part an active component of anti-apartheid is another depressing case in point of because it had committed to airing an political work. how timid and out of step we are with all-star muscular dystrophy benefit While some politicians in anti- the world. O

66 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 Margaret Courtney-Clarke: THE HOME AS CANVAS By DAPHNE TOPOUZIS

Photojournalist and author Margaret Courtney-Clarke's new book, African Canvas, records an art form virtually unknown to the rest of the world. The artists are rural women living in remote villages of seven West African countries, who use their fingers and pigments from the earth and plants, to decorate their houses, their clothing, and their bodies in intricate motifs.

Africa Report: What is the scope and objective of your book? that we would eventually have a document about it. I did some Courtney-Clarke: The objective of the book was to record an preliminary research and found that because it is a very imper- art form—house decoration—which I believe is going to die manent art form—mud dwellings, earth colors, and pigments sooner or later. This is what I did in my previous book, entitled wash away every year with the rains—it is an artistic tradition Ndebele: The Art of an African Tribe. Today, the Ndebele peo- that has gone virtually unnoticed. ple do not paint their houses anymore and their artistic tradition Africa Report: Where is this art form most prevalent and how has been lost altogether. This gave me the urgency to go out far back does the tradition go? and look for other art done by women and record it, in the hope Courtney-Clarke: It is a tradition which is carried out by rural

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 67 women who live far from cities, in poor and remote areas. This terns which only they know and understand the significance of. is because people in those areas cannot afford to build cinder Since this tradition is passed from generation to generation of block houses and since they lack roads and transport in gener- women, sometimes they themselves do not know the origin of al, tin roofing, and other building material do not reach them. these abstract motifs. As a result, they are forced to build with mud, which is abun- Africa Report: What impressed you most about the mural art dant everywhere. In terms of how long the tradition has been you documented? going on, it is hard to say because there is so little documenta- Courtney-Clarke: What struck me most was that these tion on it. women live in conditions of extreme hardship, working long Of all the countries I visited, Ghana was the richest in house days in the fields, in the home, taking care of the children, and decoration. There is house decoration in northern Nigeria in spite of all that, they still find the time and the spirit to deco- among the Hausa people, but it is done by men and there has rate their homes. What impressed me was the pride these been quite a lot of coverage on that. The Nigerians have also women have when they beautify their surroundings, which are incorporated bicycles and airplanes and things like that, and a often drab and barren. decorated house is a status symbol: A wealthy businessman will Africa Report: How can this tradition be preserved? hire a painter to decorate his home. These are reasons quite dif- Courtney-Clarke: Unless local governments do something ferent from the women painting their homes in the countries I drastic, the tradition will disappear. The Arts Council in documented. The Dogon in Mali also decorate their houses, but Ghana, a government-subsidized organization, could encour- again this is done by men. I wanted to stick to what the women age it and I believe it could become an extraordinary tourist are doing since they have been totally ignored and their art has attraction for the country. At the moment, all we ever hear not been documented. I have included a chapter on pottery, one about in Ghana is Ashanti art. Any tourist that goes to Ghana on mud cloth painting in Mali (bogbohmfini), and another on goes to Kumasi to see the Ashanti gold, cloth, and pottery, all body art or uli, which can be found in Nigeria and Cote of which is done by men. But transportation to northern Ghana d'lvoire. Foremost, I tried to concentrate on clay art. does not lend itself to tourism. If the government rebuilt that Africa Report: To what extent has religion influenced this art road, you could have tourist buses going up there by the hun- form? dreds. For instance, the Arts Council could select five villages, Courtney-Clarke: It depends on the area. Islamic religion sponsor the women to continue this tradition—which would not influences everything the women do and dictates what they can- require grea! sums of money—and organize it. Today, there not do—for instance, they are not allowed to represent the are few tourists who get as far as Bolgatanga, and there is no human body or animals. So they have used parts of the human way that they could ever hear or know about the existence of body in a very repetitive motif and have created abstract pat- this art. ' )

There's only one airline that qffers direct seven-hour service to West Africajrom the U.S.: and new Business Class service is available. For information and reservations, call your travel Excerpts from African Canvas "As a photojournalist with a funda- to mural art either were outdated, some- allowed me to enter the world of those I mental interest in art and design, I want- times by 20 years of more, or discussed it encountered." ed to travel and record that particular as simply a "backdrop" for anthropologi- * * * aspect of African culture (observing and cal or architectural studies. No one had "The African has always had to com- analyzing the socio-political problems seriously endeavored to bring to public bine mythical and cultural practices, such and harsh realities of modern-day Africa attention the existence of a traditional as animist and Islamic ideologies, with is a task for specialists). My first project rural life in Africa as expressed through socio-political and economic influences. was the photography of colorful mural art women's art and its relationship to those The architecture of West Africa incorpo- in a southern African ethnic group living who live in the dwellings. The numerous rates all these factors as well as the partly in South Africa and partly in their publications on African art deal primarily African's own concept of form and designated "homeland" of KwaNdebele. with masks and wood carving, bronzes space. Together, it reflects the culture, When those photographs were published and terra-cotta work, gold weights, and sedentary or nomadic peoples, family, in Ndebele: The Art of an African Tribe in jewelry, textiles, embroidery, tools, and and powei and wealth. 1986, I received letters from photogra- utensils—all made by men. Wishing to "Building techniques are similar to phers, designers and writers around the make my own contribution to this neglect- those used throughout Africa: The men world who had never heard of this ed art by women, I set out for West Africa are responsible for the heavy construction startling African tradition of combining in 1986, convinced I would find what I work, whereas women gather the materi- the arts of painting, sculpture, and archi- was looking for, although I was not sure als and carry out the plastering. A tecture. exactly where to look. My journey cov- woman plans her own living space ered a period of three years and exacted "Curious about a few pictures I had according to the principles and customs such a toll on my health and personal life seen in books, I next began to research that she brings with her from her father's that I would never wish to repeat it; yet, I mural painting by women in West Africa. settlement, such as raised sleeping plat- discovered more mural decoration—and It soon became clear that because of the forms and structures to accommodate even more enduring spirit among its mak- nature of this impermanent art form cooking methods. To complete her design ers—than I had expected. For primarily —mud walls, clay canvases, and indige- concept, the women will then finish the financial reasons, I chose to travel alone. nous pigments—not to speak of industrial- wall surfaces—with the collaboration of This magnified the difficulties of the trip in ization and modernization in a rapidly co-wives and relatives—by applying many ways—not the least the sense of changing world, this art was vanishing at relief work or decorative patterns which danger—but it was probably this very an alarming rate. The few articles and are symbolic of the female role and the vulnerability as a woman alone that paragraphs in books that made reference world around her." •

Air Afrique. Flights leave JFK twice a week. Superbfirst-class service agent, localAir Afrique/ Air France office or 800-237-2747. Remember: ^^ Africa begins with Air Afrique. ZIMBABWE'S WOMEN WRITERS While independence raised expectations of sexual equality, ten years later Zimbabwean women feel disillusioned, as traditions keeping women in a subordinate role remain strong. But women are expressing their frustrations in a new way—in an outpouring of literary and artistic achievement. By NINA SHAPIRO ing number of female authors, among them award-winning Tsitsi Dangaremb- ga, playwright Bertha Msora, poet Free- dom Nyambaya, and novelist Barbara Makhalisa. Some women wrote in the past, but the new authors are distin- guished by a consciousness of gender, according to Musa Zimunya, chair of the University of Zimbabwe English depart- ment. The previous writers developed tra- ditional themes and accepted conserva- tive views of women. Today, women are writing about themselves and, in doing so, are challenging the traditional images of women. The writers' movement is part of a larger influx of women in the arts. Women are making inroads in theater and film-making. In the fine arts, women are taking up sculpting for the first time. small magazine advertisement ground, their works share a common Moreover, the growing number of for budding women writers theme: the mistreatment of women by women artists has prompted Zimbabwe's A recently struck a chord in Zimbab- men and by society. In a country with no National Gallery to contemplate putting we. Letters streamed in from across the unified feminist movement, women are on an all-woman show. country telling of unpublished novels, adopting a decidedly feminist tone. Many point to the establishment of poems, and essays. The flood of letters was only one mea- black majority rule as the driving force Many were from young women, like sure of the excitement generated by Zim- behind women's newfound artistic inspi- the 18-year-old who boasted of 64 babwe Women Writers, comprised of ration. As he took power 10 years ago, poems, five in Shona. Another teenager published and unpublished authors. President Robert Mugabe pledged to wrote in to say that she was on her third Begun in March as an outgrowth of writ- bring about equality for women. A series novel. ing workshops sponsored by the Zim- of laws enacted since then has strived These women were not of the elite. babwe-German Society, the British Coun- toward that goal. The cornerstone of Many were from the rural areas or the cil, and the Alliance Francaise, the women's emancipation, the Legal Age of townships. Some did not have a high dynamic group has created a stir in Majority Act, declared all people, school diploma and few had any specif- male-dominated literary circles. In two regardless cf gender, adults at the age of ic training in writing. Yet, some of them months' time, the group has boosted its 18. membership from 45 to 115 and held a had compiled a substantial body of The laws spurred women on to com- reading of new works before an audi- work. pete in traditionally male arenas, said a ence of hundreds. The advertisement, placed by a local politician, Jane Ngwenya. group of women writers formed earlier Even the organizers of the group are "Women are becoming more and more this year, revealed that women through- astounded by their own success. "We confident," she said. out Zimbabwe are telling their own sto- are so overwhelmed," said the chair, However, with independence also ries. And regardless of the author's back- Sylvia Mabaso-Kwalso. came disillusionment. The war raised Nina Shapiro is a Zimbabwe-based freelance The group's formation comes at the women's expectations for equality. writer. end of a decade that has seen a grow- Women, many of whom fought as sol-

70 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1990 diers alongside men, believed their role A young writer, Gloria-Anne Francis, ordered to lift a gargantuan rock as her in society was forever changed. But, read a poem that also questions tradi- punishment. She dislocated her hip when the war ended, women found they tional expectations of women. "Why sit bones in the process and lost both legs were still expected to defer to men. Tra- with legs crossed? Why cook? Why because of resulting complications. ditional custom, which demanded sub- resist confrontation with men?" Francis, After the war, Dadzarira was startled mission from women, proved stronger 17, asks in "Why, Why and All My by the lack of recognition women than the new laws. Womanly Ambitions." received for their part in the fighting. "In our society, women are regarded Francis, who began writing when she "Women were told they were equal over as under their husbands," said Emilia was a little girl composing her own bed- there in Mozambique," she said. "They James, a member of a collective whose time stories, said she wrote the poem told us we could hold guns. But, after the work was highlighted at the Zimbabwe after observing her friends' parents. "In war it was not the same." Women were Women Writers reading. Scholastica so many homes, it's always the girls in no longer considered equal. Nyakudya, another member of the col- the kitchen and the guys outside playing "But, I can do what he can do. I can lective, said, "They expect us to do football. Why aren't the girls outside hold a gun. I can work. I can drive. I can everything in the house and then they playing football?" she asked. be an engineer. I can be everything." treat us like children." Francis said she hopes the poems will Nyakudya, 19, another member of The new women's literature reflects convince her peers to be less timid. the group, rebelled against her family women's unease with their secondary "Women must compete with men, not for when she refused to become her uncle's status. At the reading, held in April, their maleness, but for their power," she second wife. Faced with the prospect of many women spoke of sexism in and out- said. marrying a man at least 30 years her side the home. Many of the women in Zimbabwe senior, she eloped with her boyfriend In an expression of the changes Women Writers had never shown their instead. wrought by independence, attitudes work before. Not all considered them- James, 21, also fought her traditional toward sexism crossed racial bound- selves writers as such. role. Married at 17, a mother at 18, aries. Romey Bucheit, who is white, Into this category fall a group of James was ordered by her husband to described a boyfriend who flaunts his women who have been trained at maintain a farm in the countryside while new lover. Maria Kaz Mushaw, who is Harare's Danhiko School, a secondary he worked in town. But, James wanted black, pictured the long-suffering wife of school for veterans of the independence an education. When her husband for- a philandering husband. war. Not all of the dozen women in the bade her to go back to school, she "What I really find interesting is that it group fought as soldiers, but they all par- divorced him. "I have noticed that you didn't matter whether what was being ticipated in the liberation movement want me to suffer. You just want me to said was by a black woman or a white somehow, whether by bringing food to bear children for you," James told her woman," said Miriam Patsanza, a film- the soldiers or carrying messages of husband. maker who taped the reading. "Ten enemy movements. Reminiscent of the Still, some women went along with years ago, people's problems were Western consciousness-raising groups of the demands placed upon them. Chris- problems of color. Today, there is a com- the 1960s, these women meet regularly tine Chaya was pressured at 17 to marry monality of concerns." to discuss issues like rape and contracep- her boyfriend of four months. "My moth- "Women are providing an alternative tion or to share their own experiences. er said I couldn't come back if I didn't voice," Patsanza continued. "They are These are the authors of the poem, marry. I had no place to go," she said. raising issues men are not addressing." "Independence," which describes She learned that a forced marriage is Those issues include the way women women's disillusionment after the war. bound to run into trouble. "The wives relate to men and the impact of the econ- "Our tradition had not changed," the don't know the husbands very well. omy on women, she said. poem says. "We were still second to Sometimes the men will find other Despite the concurrence of views men...We had to wash and to cook and women. If the women complain, the hus- among women of different races, there to clean the house. We had to bear a bands say they are allowed to have was a glaring difference in their work. child every year." many wives according to our tradition." Black women are uniquely concerned The women said they tried their hand The Danhiko group said their lives with the demands of traditional African at writing because they felt compelled to were typical of women in Zimbabwe, a culture. express their frustration. Their lives, they place where women's equality is still a Mushaw, in her short story "The said, were the inspiration for their work. new idea. But no longer, they said, were African Woman," illustrated the sexual Gladys Dadzarira, a member of the they willing to submit passively to their double standard which stems from the group, felt she has earned an equal fate. Writing was one way of fighting custom of a man having several wives. In standing with men. Already a mother of back. the story, a husband blatantly conducts two at 1 8, Dadzarira, now 33, was per- And publishers are taking notice of extramarital affairs, while expecting his suaded to leave her children behind and what these women have to say. One has wife to stay at home and care for his four join the revolutionary forces. Trained to already expressed interest in publishing children. The brutish husband arrives fight in Mozambique, she never got the an anthology of the works produced by home from an infidelity one night to be chance. While bathing in a stream one Zimbabwe Women Writers. Another reg- shocked by his wife's unaccustomed morning, she was abducted by enemy ularly sends a representative to the assertiveness. Refusing to cower to his soldiers. group's meetings to encourage the bullying any longer, she announces that After watching the soldiers destroy a women. What began as a group of she has found a job and from now on village, burning huts and shooting vil- women trying to hone their writing skills will come and go as she pleases. lagers indiscriminately, Dadzarira was has turned into a literary sensation. O

AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1990 71 BEAUTIFUL I&ZZOLI BOOKS ON .V) AFRICAN AND AFRO-AMERICAN ARTS

AFRICAN CANVAS: Art of West African Woman -AFRICAN CANUAS Photography by Margaret Courtney-Clarke C Mi/ MUIVILV '. " Foreword by Maya Angelou. The photojournalist of the highly acclaimed Ndebele book now captures the dazzling mural art of West African women. Over the past three years, Courtney-Clarke has traveled alone through Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Paso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali, documenting the art painted by women, primarily dynamic wall decoration. The motifs and patterns reflect a tradition that has been passed on for generations hut is now in jeopardy as thousands abandon their rural homes, seeking a better life in the cities. 204 pages. 11" x 11". 181 color photographs. $60.

NDEBELE: The Art of an African Tribe Photographs and text by Margaret Courtney-Clarke NDEBELE Noted photojournalist Margaret Courtney-Clarke(who was born and raised in South Africa) has created a beautiful photo essay about the remarkable art of the Ndebele people, primarily mural art, painted on the walls of their homes in striking geometric forms. Ms. Courtney- Clarke's book is both a stunning collection of photographs and an important document of a dying art form. "A beautiful and moving book. The author's photographs need no justification beyond the artistry of their subjects. But an awareness of the circumstances surrounding the art makes the achievement of Ndebele women even more powerful." — The New York Times. 208 pages. 11" x 11". 180 color photographs.

THE BLACK TRADITION IN THE AMERICAN DANCE Richard A. Long BLACK The evolution of black dance analyzed through such dance legends as TRADITION Josephine Baker, Geoffrey Holder, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell, Martha Graham, and Balanchine. "A loving, N AMERICA historical tribute to the men and women whose talent helped forge the American dance tradition."—Ebony. "Beautiful and informative." — DANCE Essence. "An authoritative text with a lavish array of well-chosen photographs. This work is highly recommended for dance and black studies collections."—Library Journal. 192 pages. 8V2 x 11. 200 illus., 100 in color. Hardcover. $25.00

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