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YUSUF MOHAMED DADOO SOUTH AFRICA'S FREEDOM STRUGGLE Statements, Speeches and Articles including Correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi Compiled and edited by E. S. Reddy With a foreword by Shri R. Venkataraman President of India Namedia Foundation STERLING PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED New Delhi, 1990 [NOTE: A revised and expanded edition of this book was published in South Africa in 1991 jointly by Madiba Publishers, Durban, and UWC Historical and Cultural Centre, Bellville. The South African edition was edited by Prof. Fatima Meer. The present version includes items additional to that in the two printed editions.] FOREWORD TO THE INDIAN EDITION The South African struggle against apartheid occupies a cherished place in our hearts. This is not just because the Father of our Nation commenced his political career in South Africa and forged the instrument of Satyagraha in that country but because successive generations of Indians settled in South Africa have continued the resistance to racial oppression. Hailing from different parts of the Indian sub- continent and professing the different faiths of India, they have offered consistent solidarity and participation in the heroic fight of the people of South Africa for liberation. Among these brave Indians, the name of Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo is specially remembered for his remarkable achievements in bringing together the Indian community of South Africa with the African majority, in the latter's struggle against racism. Dr. Dadoo met Gandhiji in India and was in correspondence with him during a decisive phase of the struggle in South Africa. And Dr. Dadoo later became an esteemed colleague of the outstanding South African leader, Nelson Mandela. Thereby Dr. Dadoo not only bridged India and South Africa but also Gandhi and Mandela. The reference to Dr. Dadoo made by Nelson Mandela in his very first public statement following his release from prison last year was a touching tribute to this leader. But it was also a great deal more. It was an affirmation of the vision of a multi-racial and just South Africa which was dear to the Father of our Nation and is Nelson Mandela's goal. I am glad Shri E.S. Reddy has brought together a selection of Dr. Dadoo's writings which are bound to increase awareness in both the countries of their revolutionary mutuality. New Delhi R. Venkataraman August 10,1990 (President of India) FOREWORD TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN EDITION Dr Yusuf Dadoo was my compatriot and soul mate - nothing divided us in our commitment to the cause of South Africa's freedom - not religion, nor ideology and not ethnicity. He was one of the most outstanding leaders in our movement remembered by all, in our country and by many beyond. He inspired us. He was bafa begiya.1 His contribution to the people's struggle was so highly valued that he remains today one of only three South Africans to be honoured with the Isitwalandwe which was bestowed at the Congress of the People in 1955. The two other recipients were Chief Albert Luthuli and Father Trevor Huddleston. Yusuf Dadoo's contribution to the struggle began in 1938 with the founding of the Non-European United Front in Johannesburg. Right from the outset, his vision took in the common degradation of disenfranchised South Africans and he focussed his attention on uniting all democrats into a single cohesive force against racism. As early as 1940, a square in Orlando was referred to as Dadoo Square, in recognition of his tough approach to colour discrimination. Yusuf worked closely with Dr Xuma against the Pass Laws, and with Chief Luthuli in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign; and he was a tower of strength to Oliver Tambo during all those years of exile. At the time of his death, he headed the South African Communist Party, a party he joined in 1939. His prolific speeches and writings brought together in this volume, record his leadership on all fronts. We miss his leadership today as we plan to move South Africa into non-racial, non-sexist democracy. Nelson Mandela September 1991 1 A person who dies dancing DEDICATED TO NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA INTRODUCTION Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo played an outstanding role in the South African liberation movement for over half a century - in persuading the Indian community to link its destiny with that of the African majority, in building the unity of all the oppressed people and democratic whites of that country in a common struggle against racism, in promoting fearless and militant resistance to the oppressors, and in developing the international outlook of the movement and international solidarity with it. He led the non-violent Indian passive resistance movement - uniting Gandhians, Marxists and others. He was a founder and leader of the Non- European United Front, and of the Communist Party when it was revived as a clandestine organisation. And since going into exile in 1960, he played a key role in promoting underground and armed struggle in South Africa and a world-wide anti-apartheid movement. His contribution was recognised by the national Indian organisation and by the Communist Party which elected him chairman. It was acknowledged by the African National Congress which awarded him its highest honour, Isitwalandwe- Seaparankoe in 1955, and elected him the Vice-Chairman of its Revolutionary Council and later of its Politico-Military Council. It was also recognised by the racist regime which imprisoned and restricted him on numerous occasions. Dr. Dadoo began his political activities as a young pupil in South Africa in his teens. Inspired by the spirit of defiance of injustice that Mahatma Gandhi tried to impart in the Indian community in South Africa, he took part in demonstrations against anti-Indian measures by the racist regime and organised a meeting of students to hear Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, the Indian poet and national leader, who saw, already in 1924, that the struggle of the Indian community is linked with that of the African and Coloured people. Though he came from a prosperous Indian family, he developed a sense of solidarity with the African people suffering inhuman exploitation, and took an interest in the African trade union movement (ICU). He even helped African workers in his father's business in their strike for better conditions. In later years, during his sojourn in India and in Britain as a student, he not only identified with the Indian national movement and the anti-fascist and anti- colonial movements in Europe but actively participated in them. He was first arrested in 1929 in London in a demonstration for Indian freedom. The unity of the oppressed people and democratic whites, advocated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the League against Imperialism, and the united front against fascism which was espoused by progressive leaders in Europe, were an inspiration to him. He saw clearly that such unity was essential in the struggle against racism in South Africa. Returning to South Africa in 1936, he soon began to confront the authorities, as well as the rich traders in the leadership of the Indian Congresses who saw the future of the community in an accommodation with the racist regime and kept aloof from the struggle of the Africans. He began to organise the community for resistance and at the same time pressed for unity with the Africans and the Coloured people in a common struggle. In 1938-39 he became the founder and secretary of the Transvaal Non-European United Front and leader of the Nationalist Group of the Transvaal Indian Congress. Above all, he fully dedicated himself to the struggle for freedom and equality for all the people of South Africa. His first two trials in South Africa were, in fact, not in the struggle of the Indian community but for his work as a leader of Non-European United Front. From the dock of the racist courts, he denounced the oppression and exploitation of all the black people in South Africa. In 1944-45 he was associated with Dr. A. B. Xuma, President of the African National Congress, in a campaign against the humiliating pass laws imposed upon the African people, and was again arrested for leading a procession. In 1946-48, he led the Indian passive resistance movement in which over two thousand people courted imprisonment, and served two terms of imprisonment with hard labour. Even during that difficult struggle, which was to have a great impact on the liberation movement, he and his colleagues helped the great African mineworkers` strike of August 1946. A number of Africans, Coloured people and whites went to prison in solidarity with the Indian people. Out of that experience came the Xuma-Naicker-Dadoo pact for cooperation between the African and Indian Congresses. His determined efforts to promote cooperation in struggle, despite all difficulties, contributed greatly to the joint action of African and Indian Congresses in the stay-at-home on June 26, 1950, in protest against apartheid, and then to the historic Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952 in which he was the first, together with Nelson Mandela, to court imprisonment. Banned and restricted, he continued clandestine activities to strengthen the Congress Alliance of the 1950`s and helped the formation of the underground South African Communist Party. The Sharpeville massacre, the outlawing of the African National Congress and the State of Emergency in 1960, created a new situation. Going abroad at the insistence of the liberation movement, he made a great contribution, in cooperation with the leaders of the African National Congress, to the organisation of armed struggle and to the building of a world-wide anti-apartheid movement. Oliver Tambo, President of the African National Congress, pointed out at his funeral in 1983: "...it would be wrong to conceive of Comrade Dadoo only as a leader of the Indian community of our population.
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