SOUTHERN AFRICA in Transitiont

"SOUTHERN AFRICA IN TRANSITIONt "SOUTHERN AFRICA IN TRANSITIONt MH INTERNATIONAL CONFEMECE AprilnU- 13, 1963 University, Washington, D.C# s-red by ?TY OF AFRICAN 40th Street kJN. Y. CULTURE 4 / 'Ni- I Co Ck,ý 1:21 k ali J4 "SOUTHERN AFRICA IN TRANSITION" Sponsored by rth International Conference The American Society of African Culture April 11 7 13, 1963 Howard University, Washington, D.C. SOUTH WEST AFRICA: Political Parties and Nationalist Demands by MICHAEL SCOTT I shall try to be objective in introducing this subject of political organisations in South West Africa, although anything I can say from first hand experience dates from a period before there were any political parties in South West Africa. I was declared a prohibited immigrant thirteen years ago after my return from reporting to the Chiefs who had asked me to convey their petition at the 1947 session of the United Nations General Assembly. Clearly those most qualified to give an account of the political situation in South West Africa and the history of the parties that have grown up there are the representatives of those parties themselves, and those who have themselves been a part of the struggle of the people of South West Africa to liberate themselves. But there are some important considerations which an impartial student of politics and anyone wishing to arrive at a true evaluation of current movements ought to bear in mind. Criticism, especially from those who are on the side of the liberation of South West Africa, will not be unwelcome to those leaders who genuinely have the cause of their people at heart. But equally those who are outside the internal conflicts have a responsibility to make sure that their Judgments are not arrived at without taking into account all the factors/- 40 c ,qý - ~ tk 0 A-~ Q-1 ci'u- e,, - 2 - factors many of which may be outside the personal appreciation of those who have not lived under that particular yoke of oppression nor experienced all the weight and practical difficulties which have to be borne by those trying to organise any effective resistance at all from within. As Tshekedi Khama often used to remind one "Only the toad under the harrow knows where each tooth pike goes". Foremost among these difficulties are those of communication, both of language and distance. South West Africa is a territory the size of France or the State of Texas with a total population of less than half a million - less than that of a medium sized town in Europe or America - divided into at least five African groups (Herero, Nama, Berg Damara, Bushmen and Ovambo), three European groups (German, Afrikaans and British) and a group of mixed race known as the "Basters". The Africans are again subdivided into smaller language groups and the policy of segregation and apartheid followed by successive South African Governments under the Mandate'has reinforced these divisions. Under -the reservation and pass laws system the Hereros for example have been confined to eight different and widely separated localities, to move from which it is necessary to. obtain a pass even in the event of urgent sickness. In addition there is the unusual circumstance that politics in South West Africa have tended to become centred (too much many would say) in the United Nations, and have been influenced by the ways in which South West African questions have been dealt with by the U.N. South West Africa Committees that have been set up and by the International Court of Justice, which was seized of this question for two years before it decided that it had the competence to adjudicate on it. And this, after other proceedings at the U.N. which included three advisory opinions from the Court, has taken in all seventeen years. Only when these conditions have been experienced will the difficulty of building an organisation to withstand and overcome these physcl, political and cultural barriers be appreciated. It/- - 3 - It can be seen therefore that the conditions out of which political organisations in South West Africa have grown were determined much more than in South Africa itself by firstly, the indigenous social system of tribal organisation, secondly, by the strict segregation system imposed by the Administering Power much more rigidly than in its own territory, and thirdly, by the deprivation of any opportunity of political expression for Africans within the framework of the constitnttion and its consequent orientation around the United Nations. The U.N. has become the centre of gravity of South West African politics and politicians to the neglect, some now say, of the tasks of political organisation and action within the territory itself. At the time prior to the appeal to the United Nations against the claim to the incorporation of the Territory into South Africa there were no political organisations in being other than the tribal councils which were advisory to the Chiefs. The Hereros and the Namas, who had borne the brunt of the German colonial policy of expropriation and oppression were the most politically conscious people in the territory and the Chiefs Hosea Kutako and Nucanor Hoveka of the Hereros had very able councillors. For example, Festus Kandjo who had in his mind a complete map of the Herero lands as they had existed before the Germans came and could list the villages and even locate the wells and landmarks and holy places which had originally belonged to them. The political consciousness of the Herero and Nama people was born out of the hard school of suffering and deprivation which forms one of the worst chapters in the whole history of Colonialism in Africa, that has yet to be begun to be reversed. The undoubted fact that this political consciousness and the first attempts at organised opposition and resistance were tribal in character and method should not be dismissed contemptuously because the requirements of today make it necessary to find forms of political organisation which will overcome the barriers and limitations of tribalism. In fact, in the present day situation the multiplication of "national" organisations has become an obstacle to unity and progress and hence to the liberation of South West Africa from the most ancient as well as most modern form of racial oppression thqt exists anywhere in the world. The early tentative socio-political organisations of fifteen years ago begun by teachers like Berthold Himumuine and his African Improvement Society only came to fruition in the late 1950's as far as political action in South West Africa was concerned. And it was not until 1959 that the first foundation was laid of a nation-wide political organisation, the South West Africa National Union. Tribal barriers and the physical and cultural differences that separated early leaders, as well as the conditions of oppression, difficulties of communication, raising funds and operating efficiently and secretly as the conditions required, must all be taken into consideration before judgments are reached on these early attempts to build an effective national organisation. This first attempt has been described by the President of the Soutk West Africa National Union, Mr. J. Kozonguizi, as well as the violent opposition which met its first political action in resistance to the enforced removal of the inhabitants of the Windhoek location in 1959. Since I have not succeeded in obtaining other organisations' accounts of their origins and appraisal of events and policies pursued, I cannot do other than reproduce the first hand account given me by Mr. Kozonguizi whose competence, honesty and dedication to the cause of his people's liberation has always greatly impressed me ever since I was first told about him when I went to Bechuanaland to meet representatives of Chief Hosea Kutako to urge that their representation t the United Nations should be supplemented. At that time Chief Tshekedi Khama was still alive and he joined me addressing the representatives of the Chief and emphasising the iportance of their being adequately represented at the United Nations. This/- - 5 - Tis to him was a matter of importance not only to the people of South West Africa but to all Africa qnd particularly to the liberation of Southern Africa in which his own Bamangwato people's destiny was inevitably bound up. At this point, before reproducing the account given me by Mr. Kozonguizi, it will not be out of place to refer to the important part played by Bechuanaland through Tshekedi Khama, the Regent and the other five chiefs of that territory who made representations to the United Nations, took up the question vigorously with the United Kingdom Government and who made possible my journeys to and from South West Africa and to and from the United Nations. The political competence and high degree of statesmanship revealed in the documents exchanged with the United Kingdom High Commissioner and the Minutes of the discussions between these Chiefs, including Frederick Mahareru of the Hereros, are an essential part of this history and must be woven into its texture if a full appraisal is to be had of the interplay of politics on personalities and personalities on politics in South West Africa. Nor should the young politicians who today are inheriting the heavy responsibilities of leadership of this struggle for African liberation be deprived of the inspiration of knowing how their forbears dealt with these problems at that early and formative period of the history of organised resistance. The record of these can be found in the official printed record of the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly for 1947 on pp. 139 - 193, with the South African Government's reply on pp.

Load more