Decolonization and beginnings of Swedish aid http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.naip100004 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Decolonization and beginnings of Swedish aid Author/Creator Sellström, Tor Publisher Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Uppsala) Date 1999 Resource type Articles Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Sweden, Southern Africa (region) Coverage (temporal) 1960-1970 Source Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Uppsala) Relation Sellström, Tor. Sweden and national liberation in Southern Africa, Vol. I. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999. 58-84. Rights By kind permission of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (The Nordic Africa Institute). Description Part of a study on National Liberation in Southern Africa: The Role of the Nordic Countries, hosted at the Nordic Africa Institute Format extent 28 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.naip100004 http://www.aluka.org Decolonization and Beginnings Decolonization and Beginnings of Swedish Aid Limited, but Changing Views Without colonies or a colonial past,1 Sweden was in the post-war period situated far from the political awakening of the colonized peoples in Africa and Asia. The decolonization debate at the United Nations and in other international fora was certainly followed with increasing interest in the media and, in particular, by the student and the youth movements. Before 1960, no Swedish political party had, however, in its programme taken a stand on questions concerning national liberation or economic development in the Third World. During the 1950s, foreign policy questions did not play a prominent role in the Swedish parliamentary debate, and the ruling Social Democratic Party did not present any international visions corresponding to the domestic 'people's home'.2 Attention was concentrated on the United Nations and issues related to national security in a divided, bi-polar world. Not everybody in the Social Democratic leadership was happy with this situation. As early as December 1950, the international secretary Kaj Bjbrk warned against a lack of popular participation and political understanding of foreign policy matters in the social democratic journal Tiden, arguing that it opened space for Communism: 1 During a brief period in the middle of the 17th century Sweden broke into the West African slave trade. The Swedish Africa Company established and held Carlsborg fort near Ghana's present capital Accra in 1650-58 and 1659-61. About a thousand slaves were sold during this colonial adventure, but this was-as stated by Lasse Berg in his fascinating book Nir Sverige Upptiickte Afrika ('When Sweden Discovered Africa', Rab6n Prisma, Stockholm, 1997, p. 60)-"thanks to a mixture of luck and incompetence" not more. In the West Indies, Sweden held the island of Saint-Barth6lemy from 1784 to 1878, when it was sold to France. Noting Sweden's non-colomnal past, it should be remembered that many Swedes were employed by the European colonial powers and directly or indirectly contributed to their conquests, particularly in Africa. For example, a majority of the more than 800 Scandinavians who during the last two decades of the 19th century served the Congo Free State were Swedes. A number of them were directly employed by the Belgian King Leopold II as officers in his infamous Congo Free State Army. On Swedes in the Congo Free State, see Lars Ericson: Svenska Frivilliga: Militiira Uppdrag i Utlandet under 1800- och 1900-talen ('Swedish Volunteers: Military Missions Abroad During the 19th and 20th Centuries'), Historiska Media, Lund, 1996, pp. 176-184. 2 SDP's political progranme from 1944 did not mention the situation in the colonial world. At its founding congress in 1951, the Socialist International demanded "national sovereignty and independence" for the colonies. Decolonization and Beginnings of Swedish Aid We do not have an active democratic participation in foreign policy. [I...] If we want to create guarantees against a Communist recovery during coming international tensions, much larger doses of education and opinion-making [...] are needed.1 Nevertheless, in the 1950s the Social Democratic Party played a passive and subordinate role among its sister parties in the Socialist International, particularly vis-a-vis the British Labour Party. As late as in 1960, an editorial in Tiden stated that it is quite natural that the British labour movement [...] must take the lead regarding the realization of socialist internationalism, helping the less developed countries and creating correct and forward-looking relations with them. The tasks for our country in high politics are, of course, limited.2 First of May in Stockholm 1960 (from left): Artur Lundkvist, Kanyama Chiume of the Mala m Congress Party, Prime Minister Tage Erlander and Stn Andersson. (Photo: Pressens Bild) 1 Kaj Bj6rk 'Vara Intemationella Fbrbindelser' ('Our International Relations') in Tiden, No. 10, December 1950, pp. 580-581. th6rk, who was SDP's international secretary from 1947 to 1955, later joined the Ministry tor Foreign Affairs, serving as the government's spokesman on Southern African questions in the 1960s. 2'Internationalismens Krav' ('The Demands of Internationalism') in Tiden, No. 1, January 1960, Tor Sellstrbm Reflecting the changing times, such positions soon met strong opposition within the labour movement itself. The chairperson of the Social Democratic Women's League, Inga Thorsson, indicated a new course in May 1962, declaring that the [socialist] parties in the [...] European NATO-affiliated countries have in their practical policies [...]functioned rather as support troops for a conservative order than as clear alternatives to both the Communist and the capitalist ideology. [...] The political stands and resolutions taken by the [Socialist] International are, altogether, so influenced by NATO and imbued with the atmosphere of the Cold War that the organization to my mind at present does not constitute a useful instrument for cooperation between generally radical-socialist parties in the world. [...] The Swedish [Social Democratic] Party has [...] on the whole abstained from taking an active role in the formulation of decisions and declarations within the Socialist International. [...] The question now posed is whether the party should repair its international machinery, more forcefully dedicate energies to [...] contributions over the borders and do so following a Swedish, independent course.1 Thorsson outlined policies that would be followed by the Social Democratic Party under Olof Palme in the 1970s. Important foreign policy changes had, however, taken place around 1960. In a surprising turnabout2 Sweden had as the first Western country in December 1959 voted in favour of Algeria's right to self- determination in the UN General Assembly. In addition, on the First of May 1960-shortly after the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa-the Social Democratic Labour Day marches in Stockholm included for the first time a separate international section. Demonstrating under banners of 'Brotherhood over the Borders' and 'Freedom for Africa', it was led by Kanyama Chiume, a prominent leader of the Malawi Congress Party3 and a member of the Steering Committee of the All-African Peoples' Conference (AAPC). Both Prime Minister Erlander and Chiume addressed the meeting and proceeds from the sales of the traditional First of May pins-a modest amount of 5,000 SEK-went to "the African liberation movement", or AAPC.4 As far as can be established, it 1 Inga Thorsson: 'Sverige, Svensk Socialdemokrati och Omvrlden' ('Sweden, Swedish Social Democracy and the World around) in Tiden, No. 5, May 1962, p. 267. 2 See Denker op. cit. 3 At the time, the Malawi Congress Party-born out of the banned Nyasaland African Congress in September 1959-was one of the more militant nationalist organizations in Southern Africa. 4 Stockholms Arbetarekommun 1960: 'Verksamhetsbersttelse' ('Annual report of the Social Democratic Party district in Stockholm'), p. 11 (LMA) and Dagens Nyheter, 2 May 1960. The first AllAfrican Peoples' Conference (AAPC) was convened by Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah in Accra in December 1958. Invitations were extended to nationalist organizations, political parties and trade union movements throughout Africa. Representatives from some twenty-eight countries participated, among them Kamuzu Banda (Nyasaland-Malawi), Kenneth Kaunda (Northern Rhodesia- Zambia), Patrice Lumumba (Congo-Zaire), Tom Mboya (Kenya), Ezekiel Mphahlele (South Africa),