About the African Union The African Union spearheads Africa’s development and integration in close collaboration with African Union Member States, the Regional Economic Communities and African citizens. AU Vision is to accelerate progress towards an integrated, prosperous and inclusive Africa, at peace with itself, playing a dynamic role in the continental and global arena, effectively driven by an accountable, efficient and responsive Commission.
About ACCORD The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) is a non-governmental institute headquartered in Durban, South Africa. ACCORD Salim A hmed Salim: s on of frica specialises in conflict management, conflict analysis and conflict prevention, and intervenes in conflicts through mediation, negotiation, training, research and conflict analysis.
About the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) is a private diplomacy organisation founded on the principles of humanity, impartiality and independence. Our mission is to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve armed conflict through dialogue and mediation.
About the ISS Salim Ahmed Salim: The Institute for Security Studies is an African organisation that aims to enhance human security on Son of Africa the continent. It does independent and authoritative research, provides expert policy analysis and advice, and Edited by Jakkie Cilliers delivers practical training and technical assistance.
About the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation was established in June 1996, as a permanent tribute to Mwalimu Julius K Nyerere’s contribution to sustainably improving the quality of human relations. The Foundation is an intellectually and politically independent body and works to promote peace, unity and people centred development throughout the world, and particularly in Africa.
ISBN 9780-1-920678-07-4
Contents
Acronyms and abbreviations ...... 1
Foreword: Celebrating Salim Ahmed Salim, a committed pan-African...... 3
1 Salim and Africa’s liberation...... 7
2 Salim in Tanzania...... 31
Photographs ...... 46
3 Salim’s service at the UN...... 51
4 Salim at the Organization of African Unity ...... 67
Conclusion: Salim in his own words ...... 87
Notes...... 95
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa i
Acronyms and abbreviations
ACCORD African Centre for the Constructive Resolution ACCORD of Disputes AEC African Economic Community ANC African National Congress ASP Afro-Shirazi Party AU African Union CCM Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party) DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo Economic Community of West African States’ Military Observer ECOMOG Group FLS Coalition of the Frontline States Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambican Liberation FRELIMO Front) IMF International Monetary Fund ISS Institute for Security Studies NAM Non-Aligned Movement NGO non-governmental organisation NIEO New International Economic Order OAU Organization of African Unity PAC Pan-Africanist Congress PAFMECA Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 1 Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) PLO Palestinian Liberation Organization REC regional economic community Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (National Resistence RENAMO Movement of Mozambique) SADC Southern African Development Community SPLM Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SWAPO South West Africa People’s Organization TAZARA Tanzania–Zambia Railway Line UN United Nations UNGA UN General Assembly UNHCR UN High Commission for Refugees WCG Western Contact Group of the UN Security Council ZANU Zimbabwe African National Union ZANU-PF Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front ZAPU Zimbabwe African People’s Union
ZNP Zanzibar Nationalist Party ZPPP Zanzibar and Pemba People’s Party
2 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Foreword Celebrating Salim Ahmed Salim, a committed pan-African
I am pleased to have the opportunity to write this foreword on the public life of Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, a distinguished son of Africa and a committed pan-African, who served his country, Tanzania, and the entire continent with distinction. His engagement in the struggle for a free, united, integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa remains a source of inspiration for current and future generations.
Salim’s life is a story of tenacity, compassion and perseverance, spanning more than seven decades. Born in 1942 in Zanzibar, he became active in politics at a young age as a founder of the All-Zanzibar Student Union, which he served as its first vice- president. At the age of 22, the youngest African ambassador, he represented the United Republic of Tanzania in Egypt, India, China and the UN in New York. Salim also assumed high-level political responsibilities at home before his election to the leadership of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) for three consecutive terms. His dedication to Africa continued unabated as he served as chairperson of the African Union Panel of the Wise and in other prominent African institutions, such as the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation.
Under the leadership of the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Salim, his compatriot the late brigadier-general Hashim Mbita and others of his generation at the UN (and other global and continental platforms) are remembered for their work in the decolonisation movement and the fight against apartheid in southern Africa. Salim took an active part in galvanising support for the leaders of the liberation movements in southern Africa and contributed to the mobilisation of continental and international pressure against the apartheid regime.
When Salim assumed the leadership of the OAU as its secretary-general in 1989, he brought to the role a wealth of international experience and a keen recognition for the need to transform Africa from being the playground of the superpowers to
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 3 becoming a relevant player that charts its own destiny. His landmark 1990 report on the fundamental changes taking place in the global landscape and their implications for Africa remains a continental road map and one of his greatest legacies to the continent. The declaration adopted by the OAU summit in the same year outlined most of the priorities now contained in the African Peace and Security Architecture and the African Governance Architecture.
As OAU secretary-general, Salim worked tirelessly to help our leaders lay the legal foundation that led to the institutional transformation of the OAU into the African Union (AU) and the adoption of its vision for a united, integrated and prosperous Africa – a continent at peace with itself, driven by its own people and representing a dynamic force in global affairs.
Salim never accepted the status quo if it perpetuated suffering. For example, during his tenure as OAU secretary-general, he became critical of the way that the OAU principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states hampered continental institutions from preventing grave injustices against African people. His view was that when our forebears met in Addis Ababa in May 1963, they had not intended the non-interference clause of the OAU Charter to mean there should be no interference irrespective of the situation. The AU Constitutive Act still maintains the non-interference clause among its core principles. However, it has also enshrined in the Act the commitment to non-indifference, upholding the right of the Union to intervene in solidarity to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Salim has also been a keen advocate of Africa’s financial independence. Very critical of our organisation’s excessive reliance on partners, he constantly warned that ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. It is therefore a fitting tribute to Salim’s tenacity that our leaders have now agreed on the principle of alternative sources of funding, as well as on the need to address the issue of illicit financial flows from the continent.
Salim Ahmed Salim has made a great contribution to this continent. As a tribute to his remarkable public life, this book is most welcome. Let us draw inspiration from his devotion to the continent, from his humility and leadership qualities, and his willingness to contribute as much as he could without asking for recognition.
From my personal interactions with him and watching him at work, there are many lessons to be learnt from Salim’s public life, in particular his warmth and humility.
4 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Upon my election as Chairperson of the AU Commission in 2012, I consulted with a number of former leaders of the OAU and AU, and also requested to come and see Salim in Tanzania. He refused, instead insisted that he would come and see me in Pretoria, which he did and provided invaluable insight into the work of this critical continental institution. May this publication receive the widest possible coverage on the continent and beyond.
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Chairperson of the African Union Commission Addis Ababa, May 2015
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 5
Chapter 1 Salim and Africa’s liberation
Vasu Gounden and Daniel Forti
Salim Ahmed Salim’s contribution to Africa’s liberation struggles is one of the defining facets of the Tanzanian diplomat’s distinguished career. In his various capacities at the UN and the then OAU, and while serving in Tanzania, Salim played a pivotal role in supporting, coordinating and ramping up global efforts to eradicate colonialism and apartheid.
Salim was a protégé and emissary of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, whose visionary, values-based and principled leadership served as a driving force behind the continent’s independence and liberation struggles. Following in Nyerere’s footsteps, Salim advanced the moral, political and socio-economic justifications for African independence in the 1960s and 1970s. He played an integral role in shaping the global narrative in support of liberation. Salim had the confidence of Nyerere, who was committed to the issue of Africa’s liberation.
Introduction and context
Under Nyerere, Tanzania’s foreign and domestic policies were deeply rooted in Africa’s struggle for liberation and independence. And even before Tanzania’s independence in 1961, founding president Nyerere’s political party, the Tanganyika African National Union, had acknowledged the importance of an international alliance and solidarity in the fight against colonialism and oppression.1 In September 1958, the party rose to the forefront of the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, a subregional mechanism steeped in the philosophy of non- violence, which coordinated nationalist movements in what was then British East and Central Africa.2
Nyerere’s political philosophy, which guided his party’s approach, was premised on an explicit commitment to equality, basic rights and dignity, and the struggle against colonialism. He often referred to the indignity of human subjugation above
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 7 all the other failings of colonialism.3 In the early 1960s, a broader philosophical shift in support of the armed struggle took hold as the colonial and apartheid governments launched increasingly violent and repressive strategies against the newly independent African states and liberation movements, which had the effect of eliminating opportunity for meaningful dialogue. Newly independent Tanzania quickly became a political and military mecca for freedom fighters and refugees.4 This militant influx manifested itself in Tanzania’s dedicated commitment to the liberation of southern Africa. The OAU’s decision to locate its Liberation Committee’s headquarters in Dar es Salaam affirmed Tanzania’s position at the vanguard of the African liberation struggle. These developments shaped the young Salim’s thinking and approach.5
Salim’s contributions to the struggle can be measured through his efforts, both direct and indirect, in articulating the meaning and essence of the liberation struggle at the global level, and in bolstering efforts to secure financial and material support for liberation movements such as the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambican Liberation Front – FRELIMO) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). But his most significant contribution was as a master diplomat and strategist, in which capacity he systematically charted and advanced a decades-long diplomatic offensive on behalf of the liberation movements and the people subjugated to colonial rule. In the process, he had to navigate turbulent waters as Portugal, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), South Africa and their Western supporters had much greater financial, military and institutional resources. Hence, the deflection of these assets required determination, courage and deft skills. Salim negotiated many of the critical provisions, and developed the documents and resolutions that aimed to enshrine the basic human rights of southern Africa’s people by securing their dignity, independence and self-determination.
His first diplomatic appointments were to countries deeply embedded in the thinking and philosophies of the NAM.6 Salim was ambassador to Egypt (1964–1965) and to India (1965–1968). Then he worked as director of the Africa and Middle East Division in Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (1969). During his appointment in 1970 as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN, he served as the focal point for several of the institutions that played key roles in the liberation struggle. These were the OAU’s Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa (Liberation Committee); the UN Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration
8 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (UN Special Committee on Decolonization); and the Coalition of the Frontline States (FLS). Although these organisations each had their own mandates, were composed of different stakeholders, and faced different institutional and political obstacles, Salim worked hard to ensure they all had a unity of purpose, voice and practice.
The OAU and the Liberation Committee
Formed during the 1963 OAU Conference of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, the Liberation Committee became the OAU’s coordinating mechanism for harmonising and implementing African initiatives against colonialism and apartheid.
The Liberation Committee began as a body of nine member states; it later expanded to include 23. Formed at the behest of a joint memorandum by various national liberation movements, the committee displayed exceptional unity at the time, given the often diverging perspectives of its member states.7 It was no easy task for the committee to present a united diplomatic front for liberation, and to channel material and financial support to the liberation movements, which experienced a number of setbacks, including clashes among the various rival movements in each country, funding shortfalls from OAU member states and violent oppression by the colonial administrations against their subjects.8
The 1969 Lusaka Manifesto on Southern Africa served as the cornerstone of the OAU’s approach to combating colonialism and apartheid.9 This manifesto was heavily influenced by the ideologies of Nyerere, the Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, and the Mulungushi Club. An immediate predecessor to the FLS coalition, the Mulungushi Club was an informal grouping of heads of state from Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and the then Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]), which all took an interest in advancing the liberation of the southern African states. Part of the Lusaka Manifesto reads as follows:
If peaceful progress to emancipation were possible, or if changed circumstances were to make it possible in the future, we would urge our brothers in the resistance movements to use peaceful methods of struggle … but while peaceful progress is blocked by actions of those at present in power in the States of Southern Africa, we have no choice but to give to the peoples of those territories all the support of which we are capable in their struggle against their oppressors.10
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 9 In presenting peaceful negotiations and the armed struggle as ‘two sides of the same coin’,11 the Lusaka Manifesto served as one of the guiding policy documents that would shape Salim’s strategic approach.
UN Special Committee on Decolonization
The impetus for the UN’s actions against colonialism began with UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 1514 of December 1960, which declared that ‘the subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights … all peoples have a right to self- determination …’12 This resolution, titled the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, served as a landmark document by asserting that colonialism could no longer be recognised as a legitimate or representative form of governance.
Resolution 1514 would serve as the departure point for the establishment of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and as its implementing instrument the following year.13 The mandate of the committee, which expanded from an initial 17 member states to 24 in 1962, was to examine, monitor and recommend the best means to achieve the goals of UNGA Resolution 1514. The resolution had established that people’s self-determination was a basic human right and called for all countries to take immediate steps to transfer all powers to the people of non- independent countries and territories.14 With the majority of its members coming from African and Asian countries, the composition of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization allowed for a large degree of unity of purpose and vision. From 1960 to 1980, representatives from Africa and Asia held the position of committee chair for all but two years. Salim served as chair from 1972 to 1980.15
The 1970 Programme of Action,16 adopted by the UNGA in Resolution 2621, set the stage for Salim’s tenure with the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. Three key features resonate from this programme. First, the continued policies of colonialism and apartheid posed a significant impediment to international security and therefore necessitated the sustained engagements of the UN Security Council and the UNGA. Secondly, such illegal regimes were violations of the UN Charter. Thirdly, it was imperative for the entire UN system to undertake a sustained, multidimensional programme of action as a means of achieving the full implementation of its 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.17
10 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa The founding documents and statements were essential in framing UN engagement on these issues, and served to legitimise the struggle for liberation. During his tenure, Salim improved collaboration between the OAU’s Liberation Committee and the UN Special Committee on Decolonization, which the former Tanzanian second vice-president, Rashidi Kawawa, once referred to as the ‘two liberation committees of historic importance in the struggle against colonialism’.18
The Coalition of Frontline States
The FLS emerged in December 1974 as a small but ideologically coherent grouping of southern African states that led the continent’s diplomatic and military approach to decolonisation. Initially comprising Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Angola, the coalition later came to include Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The alliance reflected the urgent need for ideological coherence between heterogeneous states for ‘power in unity amongst the poor’,19 which was conceived as a direct rebuke to the neo-capitalist underpinnings of colonialism and apartheid. The coalition, which was born out of informal consultations between Nyerere and Kaunda during the 1960s, responded to a number of emerging trends in the struggle for liberation. These included the countries’ proximity; the increasing regionalisation of diplomatic and military actions against colonialism and apartheid; the collapse of Portugal’s colonies and the 1975 independence of Mozambique (which opened up a new military front against Rhodesia and, later, South Africa); and, finally, what many saw as the institutional paralysis of the OAU in achieving consensus on liberation policies.20 The FLS coalition established itself as a predominantly informal alliance and held summits as the means for collective decision making. As chairman of the coalition, Nyerere was one of its most powerful and persuasive forces.
Although the FLS initially drew its approach from the Lusaka Manifesto, the Dar es Salaam Declaration, developed at the 1975 OAU extraordinary meeting of its Council of Ministers, formally recognised the FLS coalition as representative of the OAU’s positions on decolonisation and liberation, and redefined the coalition’s strategy in pursuing the independence of the oppressed countries. The Dar es Salaam Declaration clarified that the issues of Namibia and Rhodesia, defined in the context of decolonisation and majority rule, should be separated from those of racial discrimination and legal apartheid in South Africa. Given the dominant regional role played by South Africa in perpetuating the situations in Namibia and Rhodesia, the Dar es Salaam Declaration strongly advised the FLS to directly negotiate with the
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 11 Pretoria government over the situations in Namibia and Rhodesia without sacrificing the coalition members’ commitment to the armed struggle or their unwavering opposition to all forms of apartheid. The declaration also argued that the proximity of the FLS to the countries in question meant the coalition was ideally positioned to spearhead the OAU’s stance on these cases.21 The ideological and diplomatic positions espoused by the FLS were to become driving forces behind Salim’s approach to decolonisation.
These institutional influences were instrumental in informing Salim’s actions and decisions in his quest to ensure southern Africa’s liberation from colonialism and apartheid. Although each of the various bodies – the OAU, the UN and the FLS coalition – operated in its own framework and context, Salim played a critical role in ensuring the coherence and interplay between them throughout his diplomatic career.
Salim’s role in support of decolonisation
In April and May 1976, Salim led an ad hoc group of six members from the UN Special Committee on Decolonization to Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, Maputo, Gaborone and London to hold consultations on the decolonisation efforts in Rhodesia and Namibia. These consultations, which engaged heads of state and government officials, representatives from the OAU executive and its Liberation Committee, and members of the various liberation movements, were important steps towards improving collaboration between the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the newly formed FLS coalition. The report produced by the High-Level Ad Hoc Group was significant, in that it articulated the diplomatic positions of the FLS coalition with respect to the situations in Rhodesia and Namibia, and therefore became the basis for improved collaboration between the groupings.22
One of the recommendations from the 1976 consultations was that the Special Committee on Decolonization
… should continue to maintain a close working relationship with the Governments of the four front-line States and other concerned Member States, the General Secretariat of [the] OAU and the national liberation movements … so as to enhance further the capacity and competence of the Committee to contribute positively to the endeavours of the people still under colonial and alien domination to secure freedom and independence.23
12 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Salim embodied the ideal advocate for the FLS’s strategy on southern Africa’s liberation within the UN system. Not only was he an influential member of the Tanzanian government and a leading figure on issues of decolonisation, but as the chair of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization he also had privileged and unrestricted access to a host of stakeholders, governments and non-governmental actors. Salim’s various influential positions at the UN quickly became an invaluable tool for advancing the FLS coalition’s diplomatic agenda.
Given the relative military superiority of South Africa and Rhodesia in the region, the FLS capitalised on their comparative diplomatic and moral advantage by extending their struggle to the international arena.24 The coalition’s collective diplomatic efforts heightened the coherence and prominence of the global solidarity movement. The shared positions of the Special Committee on Decolonization and the FLS were most apparent and effective in the situations in Rhodesia and Namibia.
The Special Committee’s declarations and actions against colonialism in Rhodesia aligned with the key negotiating positions advanced by the recognised Zimbabwean liberation movements (i.e. ZANU and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union [ZAPU] and, later, the ZANU Patriotic Front, ZANU-PF) and the FLS. The close unity of these bodies’ policies should not be understated in the context of the Rhodesian liberation struggle. After over 10 years of violent and destabilising civil war between the Rhodesian minority regime and the Zimbabwean liberation armies, the Ian Smith government, prodded by Pretoria’s policies of détente, began a series of diplomatic overtures to end the violence in the early 1970s. In response, the FLS and the UN Special Committee on Decolonization adopted a number of positions to engage both the liberation movements and the Rhodesian regime. These groups sought to promote unity between the competing liberation movements and to up their collective diplomatic bargaining power with the Rhodesian authorities. The FLS and the Special Committee on Decolonization were unequivocal in their demands for an inclusive negotiated settlement and subsequent transition to majority rule as the only acceptable outcome.
Salim’s calls to mobilise material and financial support for the liberation movements and the FLS were needed to help intensify the liberation war burdening the minority regime. These collective efforts supported the ripening of conditions, with the aim that the Smith regime would be incentivised to engage in an inclusive dialogue, as opposed to continuing its military campaign. The united front posed by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the FLS also served as an important
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 13 counterbalance to the joint peace initiatives undertaken by the US and UK between 1976 and 1980.
Among their shared negotiating positions, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the FLS articulated four key demands concerning Rhodesia. First, they lobbied for majority rule before independence. Secondly, they underscored the urgent need for unity among Zimbabwe’s liberation movements. Thirdly, they advocated widespread economic sanctions against Rhodesia. Lastly, and related to the role of economic sanctions, was the need to dismantle the Rhodesian military and police forces as preconditions to negotiations.
Salim’s tenure as the 1975 chair of the UN Security Council Special Committee on Sanctions against Rhodesia and his subsequent spell in 1976 as president of the Security Council were instrumental in securing the unanimous passing of UN Security Council Resolution 386 in support of newly independent Mozambique. This resolution was drawn up in response to Mozambique’s commitment to close its Beira Corridor route and shared borders with Rhodesia in support of the economic sanctions plan against Rhodesia, passed in UN Security Council Resolution 253. Although this commitment was a tactical advantage for the liberation movements in the battle against the Smith regime, closing the trade route and borders would mean serious short-term damage to the country’s economic health. Salim therefore appealed to all UN member states to provide immediate financial, material and technical aid to buoy Mozambique’s economy and support the sanctions.25 These shared positions and common actions were essential in strengthening the bargaining positions of the liberation movements in the run-up to the 1979 Lancaster House Conference, which laid the foundation for the country’s eventual transition to independence and majority rule.
As for the liberation struggle in Namibia, the FLS coalition viewed Salim’s coordinating role in the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as among the most important dimensions of its broader strategy to support the end of South Africa’s illegal occupation of Namibia.26 Unlike the case with other liberation struggles, Namibia’s situation fell squarely within the purview of the UN. In 1966 the UNGA resolved to revoke South Africa’s administrative mandate over Namibia and placed it under the control of the UN Council for Namibia as a result of South Africa’s failure to fulfil its legal and administrative obligations. However, it was not until two years later that the UN Security Council would recognise the legitimate struggle of Namibians against South Africa’s illegal occupation.27 This position was
14 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa strengthened by the 1971 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, the 1973 UNGA recognition of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) as the sole representatives of the Namibian people and the 1976 UNGA endorsement of SWAPO’s armed struggle as a legitimate means of achieving self-determination.28
Against this background, the FLS coalition, through the UN mechanisms, sought to mobilise the UN member states – specifically through the Security Council’s Western Contact Group (WCG) of Canada, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the UK and the US – to diplomatically coerce the South African government into negotiations with SWAPO. UN Security Council Resolution 385, adopted unanimously in January 1976, would serve as the foundation for the FLS coalition’s negotiating position. This resolution called for South Africa to guarantee and support ‘free elections under the supervision and control of the UN to be held for the whole of Namibia as one political entity’.29 Such positions sought to counter South Africa’s continued insistence on implementing an ‘internal settlement’, which would exclude SWAPO and maintain South Africa’s political and administrative influence over Namibia’s affairs.
Salim’s role in the UN Special Committee on Decolonization positioned him as an ideal focal point for the pursuit of Namibia’s liberation. The committee was strategically positioned in the UN to engage the UN Council for Namibia, the UNGA, the UN Security Council, the WCG, as well as SWAPO, the FLS and the OAU. His consultations and dialogue were crucial in informing all of these parties with a view to facilitating the UN plan for Namibia’s independence.30 Salim held regular consultations with all of these stakeholders during the shuttle negotiations between SWAPO and the South African government from 1976 to 1981. He also ensured that the UN Special Committee on Decolonization echoed the key bargaining positions of the FLS to the UNGA and that the committee served as a counterweight to the WCG, which was mandated to diplomatically direct the South African government into negotiating on an inclusive settlement for Namibia.
Salim was also willing to put pressure on and speak out against certain UN bodies when their shuttle diplomacy proved ineffective. For example, following Pretoria’s rejection of UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim’s report and UN Security Council Resolution 435 (which called for the creation of the UN Transitional Assistance Group to implement the UN’s support for free Namibian elections),31 Salim noted the failures of the WCG and attempted to pressure the Security Council by proposing a resolution for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa in September 1978.32
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 15 It is pertinent to note that during this period, Salim was also the chairman of the Group of the FLS and Nigeria at the UN. In that capacity, he was actively involved in discussions and strategising with SWAPO, as well as in negotiations with the WCG.
Salim was also active in supporting the liberation movements while he served as Tanzania’s foreign minister, deputy prime minister and minister of defence, and eventually as prime minister between 1980 and 1989. His various roles included consulting and coordinating with leaders of liberation movements (such as the ANC) over plans and courses of action. As minister of defence, Salim oversaw military operations by Tanzanian forces in various front-line countries, including Mozambique, where Tanzania sent its soldiers to support the government’s efforts to resist the South African regime’s destabilisation activities. As deputy prime minister and minister of defence, he guided Tanzania’s efforts to facilitate the movement of ANC cadres from Angola to other front-line states, as well as within South Africa’s borders. He also worked closely with SWAPO leaders during the final negotiations that led to Namibia’s independence in 1994.
As a focal figure to whom many stakeholders turned, Salim faced the daunting challenge of building relationships with several countries and individuals with a wide range of perspectives. For example, his relations with certain Western-aligned countries were complex and challenging during his tenure, as the UN Special Committee on Decolonization since he took a firm stance against member states that were reluctant to act in support of the liberation movements.
Perhaps most crucially, Salim developed strong, lasting relations with the Nordic countries during his tenure. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden were among the most ardent supporters of the liberation cause and active members of the Special Committee on Decolonization. The Nordic countries adopted a multi- pronged approach in their contributions, affording the liberation movements and the African states in the FLS and OAU much diplomatic, financial and material support. Describing the contributions made by the Nordic countries to the liberation struggle, Salim said:
The Nordic countries were much more vigorous and much more supportive in a very serious manner. The support was not only political and diplomatic, but also tangible, through financial and other assistance to the liberation movements. They did act as bridge-builders, promoting understanding not only between East and West, but also between North and South.33
16 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa The Nordic countries were among the leading financial contributors to certain key projects, such as the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and UN Development Programme projects in the FLS countries, especially those focusing on the provision of humanitarian and technical support on issues such as education and health. (For example, they funded the ANC’s Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College for South African refugees in Morogoro, Tanzania.) The contributions made by the Nordic countries encompassed institutional aid for government and NGOs, as well as support for individual social and political leaders.
Salim consistently managed to reach compromise and consensus with the Nordic countries on key diplomatic issues during his tenure with the Special Committee on Decolonization. He and his Nordic counterparts often compromised through the use of the diplomatic phrase ‘by all possible means’. Whereas Salim diplomatically supported the armed struggle, the Nordic countries could not make explicit references to this. Hence, the phrase ‘by all possible means’ neither overtly included nor excluded the armed struggle.34
In late 1972, Salim, then chairman of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and working in tandem with his African colleagues, effectively lobbied a broad section of UN member states to allow Amílcar Cabral, secretary-general of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to speak at the UNGA. However, such was their mutual respect that Salim and his colleagues decided to defer to the legal reservations voiced by the Nordic countries, who expressed concerns about the precedent that would be set if a representative of a liberation movement were to address the General Assembly. When Salim relayed these concerns to Cabral, the PAIGC leader declined the opportunity to speak. He was killed a few months later. Reflecting on these events, Salim noted that ‘there was no question of doubting [the Nordics’] integrity or sincerity towards the liberation movement’.35 Salim’s ability to maintain such relationships was essential in supporting the liberation movements, and ensuring an open dialogue and greater coordination between the liberation movements, the FLS coalition, the OAU and the UN.
Among his many contributions to South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, Salim spearheaded the campaign to reject the South African delegation’s credentials to the UNGA – a memorable instance of his ability to afford diplomatic support to the independence struggle. From 1970 onwards, various delegates from African and Asian member states expressed strong reservations concerning the continuous
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 17 approval of the South African delegation’s credentials. The 1970 draft resolution written by the UNGA Credentials Committee contained a provision that accepted all credentials ‘except with regard to the credentials of the representatives of the Government of South Africa’.36 The president of the 26th Session of the UNGA in 1971, Ambassador Edvard Hambro of Norway, interpreted the amendment as a condemnation of the South African government’s policies, but noted that it did not affect the delegation’s rights and privileges of membership of the UNGA.37 Despite consecutive draft resolutions from the Credentials Committee to reject South Africa’s credentials during the 27th and 28th sessions of the UNGA, the successive presidents of the sessions adhered to Hambro’s interpretation of the draft resolution. In August and September 1974, when Salim chaired the informal Africa Group of Member States in the UNGA, he adopted a more resolute approach:
This time, however, African delegations were determined to see to it that a mere warning was not enough and thus we had agreed to have the rejection of the credentials to be interpreted as tantamount to the eviction of South African participation in the assembly proceedings …38
During a meeting of the UNGA Credentials Committee, a month before the 29th Session of the UNGA in 1974, the delegates of the Africa Group, represented at the meeting by Côte d’Ivoire, emphasised that since the South African government refused to recognise the basic rights of the majority of its population or to comply with several UNGA and Security Council resolutions, then its delegation had no right to represent the people of South Africa in the UNGA.39 During the UNGA’s next plenary session, the Credentials Committee’s draft resolution was adopted along with another draft resolution that called upon the UN Security Council to review the relationship between the UN and South Africa in light of the South African government’s constant violations of the UN Charter and its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.40 In his interpretation of the resolution, the UNGA’s president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, then Algeria’s foreign minister, noted that it would be
… [a] betrayal of the clearly and repeatedly expressed will of the [UN]GA to understand this to mean that it was merely a procedural method … [This] is tantamount to saying in explicit terms that the GA refuses to allow the delegation of South Africa to participate in its work.41
The UNGA therefore revoked South Africa’s credentials to participate in the General Assembly, although the regime retained the benefits of its membership, as the General Assembly cannot expel a member without the decision or recommendation
18 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa of the Security Council. Salim viewed this triumph as among the most significant of his contributions, noting the global importance of the UNGA’s repudiation of the South African government and the support its decision would confer on the liberation struggle and its movements, such as the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC).42
Generating legitimacy and material support for liberation movements
In their efforts to hold back the waves of decolonisation and independence that were sweeping through Africa in the early 1960s, the colonial and apartheid governments of Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa undertook increasingly brutal and violent means of repression. In response, the original, largely peaceful politics of nationalism and struggles for independence that had transformed much of the continent at the end of the 1950s were increasingly discredited and perceived as inadequate to eliminate the prevailing systems of oppressive governance in southern Africa.43 This led to the emergence of a number of popular militant movements defined by their uncompromising commitment to armed struggle and liberation. However, many challenges soon emerged, including identifying which movements were legitimate representatives of the oppressed, and selecting those movements that were eligible for the limited financial and material contributions from the OAU and the UN, and their international partners.
The OAU Liberation Committee was the first port of call for recognising liberation movements across the continent. Its policy of recognition was among the most defining responsibilities of the OAU, as the committee not only determined which movements would receive financial funding from the Liberation Committee’s coffers, but it was also crucial for building ideological and strategic coherence among the various movements.44 Although the Liberation Committee recognised and funded a number of liberation movements, it was faced with the challenge of allocating its scarce resources to several movements in the same country (e.g. between ZANU and ZAPU in 1972 in Zimbabwe), or to withdraw its funding for political reasons (e.g. from the PAC in 1968 due to an internal leadership struggle).45 A central component of its strategy was lobbying the UN to grant recognition and support for the liberation groups, specifically through their participation in multilateral events and forums.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 19 Salim played an integral role at the UN in enhancing the standing of the liberation movements in the organisation. For example, UNGA Resolution 2878, signed in December 1971, was formulated directly from an earlier resolution of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization.46 The UNGA resolution endorsed the committee’s recommendation to enable representatives of approved liberation movements to participate in ‘an appropriate capacity, in [the UNGA’s] deliberations’ regarding the liberation movements’ territories.47 This observer status enabled the liberation movements to more actively intervene in the debates at the Special Committee on Decolonization, granting them opportunities to present motions and influence the committee’s resolutions.48
Resolution 2878 was key, in that it conferred legitimacy on the liberation movements, thereby increasing their access to UN funding, material resources and its global support network. At the impetus of Salim, the UNGA’s Fourth Committee on Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories adopted a similar policy position.49 The Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola), the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), the PAIGC and FRELIMO were the only movements recognised at the adoption of Resolution 2878. Later, SWAPO, the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), the Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe), the ANC and the PAC were among others that were accorded the same observer status.
The UN Special Committee on Decolonization undertook visits to liberated areas, an initiative championed by Salim, which also added to the legitimacy of and resources available to the liberation movements. The committee’s visit to the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau in 1972 successfully discredited the perception that liberation movements were ineffective and disorganised. Before the UN Special Mission to Guinea-Bissau in April 1972, the Portuguese colonial authorities had denied requests for study visits, undertaken campaigns of misinformation and refused to transmit information on the treatment of its colonised subjects. In 1971 the PAIGC extended an invitation to the UN Special Mission to visit the areas of Guinea-Bissau under its control. The Portuguese government protested on the grounds that the proposed visit would be a ‘violation of its sovereignty’ and declined all responsibility for the delegation’s safety.50
20 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa As Salim noted,
... [the Portuguese] continued to stick to the myth that there was nothing like liberated areas. Besides, they held the myth that Portugal was pluri-continental and that all Portuguese colonies were part of Portugal. In order to defy that myth and give legitimacy to the liberated movements, we decided to send a team into the liberated areas.51
From 2 to 8 April 1972, the UN Special Mission, comprising representatives from Ecuador, Sweden and Tunisia, visited the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau under the control of the PAIGC.52 Their findings were of historic importance. The report verified the efficacy of the PAIGC liberation movement, describing how it had established viable administrative, political, social and judicial institutions in the areas under its control.53 Salim later commented that as a result of that mission, the UN made a dramatic breakthrough in generating greater understanding among the international community of the liberation movements’ legitimacy.54
Within a month of the return of the UN Special Mission, the UNGA had recognised the PAIGC as the only authentic representative of the people in the territory. Soon afterwards, in September 1973, the National Assembly of Guinea-Bissau declared its independence and over 70 UN member states afforded the country diplomatic recognition.
This mission was the first of many that Salim would undertake to ensure the participation of and coherence between the liberation movements, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and other international stakeholders. The success of these missions, combined with, more broadly, growing recognition of the legitimacy of the liberation movements, would soon lead to many of the movements becoming active participants in the deliberations of the Special Committee on Decolonization, thereby shaping and informing the committee’s positions and resolutions.
Securing material support was one of the most daunting challenges for the liberation movements. Under Salim, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization took upon itself the moral and practical duty of mobilising and coordinating contributions from UN member states. As the focal point of decolonisation activities in the UN, and because of Salim’s connections to the OAU and the Tanzanian government, the Special Committee on Decolonization became the ideal node to undertake these responsibilities efficiently. In his address to the 1973 UN–OAU International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 21 Southern Africa, Salim, in his capacity as political chairperson of the event, forcefully articulated that,
... the need of the liberation movements for external assistance is most serious and acute; the plight of the peoples struggling under colonial rule and their urgent need for assistance in their struggle should also be brought to the attention of the public …55
These commitments were echoed a few months later in a UN Special Committee on Decolonization resolution in August 1973, which urged all specialised agencies in the UN to urgently provide all possible moral and material assistance to support the liberation movements.56
Over the next few years, Salim was critical in supporting greater institutional collaboration between the UN Special Committee on Decolonization and the Security Council, the UN Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Council for Namibia, the Special Committee Against Apartheid, as well as the various specialised UN agencies, including the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UNHCR, the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, among others.
These collaboration efforts were vital for the provision of material contributions and to develop programmes of action in support of the liberation movements and people affected by colonial regimes. Salim’s efforts also helped to deny the colonial authorities the privileges of participating in the UN mechanisms.57 Furthermore, Salim’s successful campaign to grant the liberation movements’ official recognition in the UN enabled their representatives to use the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as a platform to engage and access a host of potential financiers, including member states and multilateral institutions.58 This invaluable participation enabled the liberation movements to develop and get access to funding for projects from international partners and institutions.
The UN’s material and financial support also promoted greater cooperation between the UN and the OAU. Although the OAU’s Special Liberation Fund was viewed as an essential component of the institution’s support for southern Africa’s liberation, the fund was in constant arrears owing to the delinquency of certain OAU member states. In 1977, for example, the fund was $13 million in arrears, a figure that had grown to $16 million by 1982. The liberation movements therefore accepted that
22 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa they could not rely on the OAU as their only source of funding.59 To ensure a sense of African agency when it came to material and financial contributions, as well as the urgent need to support the OAU’s liberation fund, Salim remained unequivocal in his requests that all material and financial contributions be channelled through the OAU Liberation Committee or directly to the liberation movements themselves.
A number of examples highlight the benefits of such sustained contributions. Salim recalls the critical importance of a cooperation agreement between the OAU and UNHCR, signed in 1973, to protect refugees from South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe displaced in Tanzania and Zambia by financing their education, training, resettlement and employment opportunities.60 The Special Committee on Decolonization helped the ANC and the PAC through direct subsistence to support their participation at UN events and conferences. It also helped raise financial assistance for the families of political prisoners and South African refugees, arranged direct support for the liberation movements abroad (by way of providing living expenses, travel support and subsidising administrative fees), and provided technical support for projects in the front-line countries for education, food production and sustainability.61
The UN Development Programme’s National Liberation Movement Trust Fund, developed with the support of the Netherlands government in 1973, was implemented through a cooperation agreement with the OAU. This fund supported education and training in the front-line countries in projects that focused on agriculture, food production, healthcare and vocational trades, specifically benefiting the people of Namibia.62 These projects, which lasted for many years, became invaluable sources of relief and support for the liberation movements and affected people. The contributions Salim made to heighten the legitimacy of, and provide material support for, the recognised liberation movements exemplify his strategic acumen in diplomatic circles, and his ability to facilitate cross-institutional cooperation and collaboration.
Salim’s role in shaping the global narrative on liberation
Salim helped to shape and drive the global narrative in support of the liberation struggle. A global coalition of liberation fighters, international organisations, religious movements, activists and ordinary citizens shifted worldwide public opinion in favour of the liberation struggle, added to the calls for diplomatic and financial actions to be
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 23 taken against the colonising countries and channelled urgent material and financial resources to the liberation movements.
For many years, the colonising powers in Lisbon, Salisbury (now Harare) and Pretoria readily denied the prevalence of human-rights violations in their territories, condemned the liberation and nationalist movements as terrorist organisations, and forcefully claimed that external support for the liberation struggle was in direct violation of sovereignty. These powers also misled international officials, and provided false information about the conditions of the people and the actions of their governments and the liberation movements. This constant campaign of disinformation and misinformation was implicitly tolerated by major international powers, including the UK and the US, whose lucrative financial and military interests in the oppressed countries largely determined their reluctance to speak out against abuses in the colonised nations.
Salim also played a crucial role in shaping the global narrative on decolonisation by expanding and supporting the watchdog responsibilities of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. The committee’s reports, which were framed against member states’ commitments to implement the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, played an integral part in holding countries accountable for resisting implementation of UNGA Resolution 1514.
Many liberation movements fervently argued that the oppression and racial discrimination experienced throughout southern Africa was a direct function of a system of global economic exploitation. However, the offending powers roundly denied these claims in a Cold War context that crudely pitted communism against capitalism.63 Throughout the 1960s, many African states in the OAU and UN were ardent in their calls for economic boycotts and isolation of the colonial governments and South Africa. Many non-African and African countries continued trading with South African entities. In support of the OAU’s campaigns for disinvestment and economic isolation of oppressive powers, beginning in 1965, the Special Committee on Decolonization generated detailed working papers and reports that highlighted the intricacies of foreign economic and other interests, and their role in sustaining colonialism and apartheid. Following UNGA Resolution 2873 of 1971, Salim secured greater capacity for the subcommittee of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization that was responsible for these investigations. Under Salim’s leadership from 1972 to 1980, the Special Committee on Decolonization increased the quality and scope of the reports, and supplemented them with technical papers
24 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa detailing the nature and scope of foreign economic interest, and its role in sustaining colonialism and apartheid.
These reports were crucial, in that they exposed and documented the system of mutual benefit among the colonial governments, economic monopolies, multinational corporations and other foreign economic entities that operated without regard for the legitimate rights and interests of African citizens.64 They enabled Salim to assume a watchdog role in the UN, empowering the Special Committee on Decolonization, the UNGA and the Security Council to take firm resolutions decrying the continued economic links between colonial governments and other (mostly Western) powers. The reports’ accuracies owed a great deal to Salim’s commitment to directly engage with the liberation movements, which provided primary evidence that would otherwise have been unattainable.65
Similarly, the Special Committee on Decolonization’s reports detailing the colonial powers’ military activities were crucial for not only exposing the illegal and disproportionate means of repression, and the system of global influences that maintained it, but also for providing concrete evidence to justify the liberation movements’ commitment to the armed struggle. These detailed findings and working papers, many of which were instigated or overseen by Salim, comprehensively examined each power’s military policies and structural organisation, documented changes in military expenditure, exposed the nature of military equipment, and assessed the nature of the powers’ military cooperation with other military forces and international organisations. The reports contextualised these developments and findings in the broader political and economic context of the colonised states, a strategy that ensured the reports would capably debunk claims that the powers’ military actions were motivated by self-defence or protection against terrorist activities. For example, the UNGA 1972 report notes:
In the view of the [General Assembly’s] recognition of the legitimacy of the struggle of the colonial peoples to exercise their right to self-determination and independence by all necessary means at their disposal, the Special Committee is of the opinion that the military activities of the colonial powers … which are aimed at suppressing liberation movements, constitute acts contrary to the spirit and to the letter of the Charter of the United Nations …66
These reports highlighted international military linkages that impeded the decolonisation process, such as the collaboration between Portugal and NATO, the recruitment of foreign mercenaries by the Rhodesian government, and the
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 25 role of the South African military to destabilise the liberation movements and the FLS coalition.67 They provided substantial first-hand evidence to support the development and ratification of the UN campaigns for sanctions against Southern Rhodesia in 1975 and South Africa in 1977 (UN Security Council Resolution 418).
In the inaugural edition of Decolonization, published by the UN in June 1974, Salim wrote about the information asymmetry that confronted the liberation movements:
A major difficulty liberation movements face in their struggle against colonialism is that they are unable to obtain adequate coverage of their views in the outside world. This prevents the world community and world public opinion at large from getting a realistic and proper perspective of the movements’ efforts, goals, and aspirations …68
Throughout his tenure with the Special Committee on Decolonization, Salim placed a distinct emphasis on strengthening and expanding the dissemination of timely, accurate information about the liberation struggle. This crucial media campaign, motivated by UNGA Resolution 2879 of 1971, was also informed by Salim’s consultations, in his capacity as chair of the committee, with international NGOs, which collectively advocated a more comprehensive and coherent media campaign. The recommendations of the 1972 Mission Report to the liberated territories of Guinea-Bissau suggested that first-hand information should be used to place more diplomatic pressure on the government of Portugal.69 Salim subsequently spearheaded a multifaceted media campaign in cooperation with stakeholders in the UN Secretariat, the OAU Secretariat, liberation movements and NGOs to provide information on the critical issues concerning decolonisation in southern Africa.
This invigorated campaign involved a number of media, including multi-stakeholder conferences and consultations, advocacy campaigns, printed literature, films and television reports, interviews, press conferences, and broadcasts of key events and working sessions. Conceived as an important and underutilised form of soft diplomatic power, the media campaign sought to advance the perspectives and aspirations of the liberation movements, to accurately detail the situations in the colonised territories, to place more systematic and widespread pressure on the colonial powers and their backers, and to promote the efforts of the UN and OAU in the decolonisation process.
Increased institutional and stakeholder coordination served as a secondary, but nonetheless important, goal of the media campaign, for it also supported greater
26 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa coherence in the UN (especially through its regional information centres), between the UN and the OAU, between the UN and the liberation organisations, and between the UN, NGOs and activists. From 1975 onwards, Salim also ensured that the media campaign and all related activism would place particular emphasis on the situations in Rhodesia and Namibia to directly support the approach undertaken by the FLS coalition and the OAU. A number of the media-related initiatives directly influenced the broader dimensions of the liberation struggle.
The 1973 UN–OAU International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, spearheaded at the request of the OAU and UN member states, was a landmark event that enabled liberation movements to participate on an equal footing, alongside NGOs and activists, with supportive governments and intergovernmental organisations at the same table.70 The OAU Council of Ministers and the UNGA endorsed and urged the implementation of the Oslo Programme of Action, which contained 127 detailed recommendations developed by the conference participants. The event marked an important milestone in promoting greater coordination and advocacy. It was also crucial in exposing the discrepancies between the aspirations and needs of the liberation movements, and the limited resources of the international solidarity movement at the time.71
Similarly, the 1977 International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, held in Maputo, Mozambique, was instrumental in mobilising global opinion in support of the international solidarity movement and coherently aligning the actions and programmes of the various stakeholders. The conference, which was motivated by the recommendations of Salim’s 1976 ad hoc committee to the FLS countries, which among others, recommended hosting another global solidarity conference in one of the newly liberated countries, was crucial, convening over 500 delegates from a large cross section of the international community.72 In his opening speech to the delegates, Salim, who served as the conference’s vice-chairperson, acknowledged the significance of the conference’s location in Maputo and highlighted that regardless of differences in methodology and tactics among the various stakeholders in attendance, there was unanimous consensus that irreversible momentum was building towards independence for Namibia and Zimbabwe. The consequent Maputo Programme of Action, which highlighted a significant unity in purpose and objectives among the delegates, became a core part of the OAU and UN’s policy programmes from 1977 for the liberation of Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 27 In the UN, Salim strove to ensure that all media focused to some extent on liberation. These media included publications such as Decolonization, which highlighted key geo-political developments in the region and UN activities related to these issues; the UN Yearbook and Monthly Chronicle; the UN’s thematic radio programmes, such as ‘Perspective’, which was broadcast in more than 140 countries and 12 languages; UN Africa; feature films produced independently and by the UN; and broadcasts of UN working meetings and international conferences.73
Salim raised the level of collaboration with UN information centres around the world, which became critical for effectively disseminating and receiving information about developments in southern Africa, and for coordinating the publicity of key international solidarity campaigns and activities.74 Through his continual consultations with leading NGOs, Salim also ensured the participation and coordination of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization’s activities during the annual International Week of Solidarity with the Colonial Peoples of Southern Africa Fighting for Freedom, Independence and Equal Rights.
Conclusion
Over the course of two decades, Salim was one of the pivotal coordinators of the continent’s liberation struggles, raising awareness of the liberation movement worldwide. His unwavering leadership, steadfast commitment and skilled diplomacy were essential for navigating the storms that had previously impeded the liberation movements’ progress towards independence. His efforts helped to coalesce regional, continental and global diplomatic efforts in support of the liberation struggles. His urgent efforts in institutionalising dialogue and collaboration between representatives of the liberation movements and diplomats were critical in legitimising the struggle and affording greater influence to the movements in diplomatic circles.
Salim was also a key conduit of material and financial support for the liberation struggle, lobbying for and channelling contributions of non-African countries to the movements and the front-line countries that directly and indirectly combated the colonial and apartheid forces. Finally, Salim was a leading advocate for disseminating information about the liberation struggles through the media and mobilising global solidarity to put pressure on the colonial governments.
28 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa About the authors
Vasu Gounden is the founder and executive director of ACCORD. An experienced conflict-management trainer, he has been involved in preparing conflicting parties across Africa for negotiations, including rebel groups in Burundi and the DRC. He has provided mediation support to the South African facilitators of the Burundi peace process, which included former president Nelson Mandela, President Jacob Zuma and Minister Charles Nqakula. He was an adviser on mediation strategy to Botswana’s former president, Ketumile Masire, during the Inter-Congolese Dialogue process. Gounden was also involved in the Madagascar mediation in 2012/3. He serves on the boards of several global institutions involved in conflict management. He has addressed the UN Security Council on matters relating to conflict management and has been elected by the World Economic Forum as one of its Global Leaders for Tomorrow. He has a master’s degree in law from Georgetown University, Washington DC, specialising in international negotiations, mediation and arbitration.
Daniel Forti joined ACCORD in 2011 as a research intern, then worked as a junior researcher from 2012 until 2015. His research has contributed to several issues relating to peace and security in Africa. Forti’s research interests include AU–UN cooperation, national dialogues and issues of social cohesion, multi-stakeholder negotiations and US foreign policy concerning sub-Saharan Africa. He graduated from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy in 2012, where he gained a bachelor’s degree in public policy studies with cum laude honour.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 29
Chapter 2 Salim in Tanzania
Gaudens P Mpangala and Lucy Shule
This chapter reviews Salim Ahmed Salim’s early life and his rich contribution as a civil servant for the Tanzanian government, where he worked for more than 30 years.
As was the case in other colonial territories, the rise of African nationalism and nationalist consciousness in Tanganyika and Zanzibar began in the 1940s, after World War II, and reached fever pitch in the 1950s.1 Tanganyika was first colonised as part of the German East Africa colony from 1885 to 1918. By the 1880s, Zanzibar was under Arab rule. After defeat in World War I, Germany was compelled to relinquish its colonies in Africa and the League of Nations handed them over to other colonial powers as mandatory territories.2 Tanganyika was mandated to the British and from 1945 to 1961 it was a trusteeship territory under the UN. Unlike Tanganyika, however, Zanzibar was a British protectorate. Due to competition between the imperial powers, the sultanate accepted the imposition of a British protectorate in Zanzibar.
Even though the British controlled both Tanganyika and Zanzibar, two different forms of administration were exercised in these colonies. Whereas the British governor in Tanganyika was directly responsible to the Colonial Office in London and periodically to the UN, Zanzibar’s British resident was accountable to the Colonial Secretary, whose decisions had to consider the sultan’s interests.3 This arrangement created a different response among the liberation movements that operated on the mainland and in Zanzibar. It also shaped the post-independence political landscapes, as well as the views of Salim, who grew up in Zanzibar.
In Tanganyika and Zanzibar the emergence and growth of the nationalist movements in the form of nationalist political parties occurred through the transformation of civil- society organisations that were established in the 1920s and 1930s. A law allowing the creation of trade unions was passed in 1931.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 31 Among the mainland organisations were the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union, traders’ associations, such as the African Traders’ Association, and civil-servants’ associations, such as the Tanganyika Territory Civil Servants’ Association. In Zanzibar, there were a number of ethnic organisations, trade unions, and cultural and semi-political organisations that existed before the formation of the liberation movements.4
Salim’s early influences and education
Salim was born on 23 January 1942 at Mwembeladu Hospital, in Unguja. At that time hospital facilities were insufficient in Pemba, his parents’ home, hence his mother had to travel to Unguja and returned home after delivery. Salim’s father was from Pemba, where he worked as a clerk in the Clove Growers’ Association; his mother hailed from Unguja – the other main island that constitutes Zanzibar.5 During an interview Salim confirmed that he spent most of his childhood in Pemba, although at different periods he would travel to Unguja.6 Salim’s parents lost their first two children, twins, before Salim was born and, he is therefore the eldest son in a family of 18 siblings. Salim’s mother died when he was only five, so he was largely raised by stepmothers.
Salim attended standard one to eight in Pemba from 1948 to 1956 at Uweleni Primary School,7 as well as at Darajani and Mashimoni primary schools in Unguja. During those years he was active in drama, debating and the Boy Scouts, where he became a troop leader and acquired several proficiency badges. Participating in the scout movement helped the young Salim acquire life skills. He recalls that they were trained in swimming, cooking, caring for and helping others, communication skills and, most importantly, respect for elders. The experience as a scout moulded his leadership qualities and instilled a sense of personal discipline.
From 1957 to 1960 Salim attended secondary school in Unguja (standard 9 to 12), first at the Government Boys Secondary School (now Benbella High School) and then at King George VI Secondary School (Now Lumumba College). Getting admission to secondary education in those days was not an easy matter. The entry examination to qualify for secondary education was highly competitive and only a few students were admitted. In the year Salim sat the exams, only he and one other student from his district, Mkoani,8 managed to get admission. Salim believes that a combination of luck and effort got him through to standard nine, the first year of secondary school.
32 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa During his early school years, Salim acknowledges that there were a number of people who nurtured him outside the classroom. Among these was Mr Francis X Salvi, a professional colleague and close friend of his father. Salim’s father had not had higher education but was committed to his children acquiring the best education that circumstances would allow. Salvi personally provided extra tuition for Salim and his siblings.
Salim finished secondary school in 1960. By that time he had become involved in youth and student political activities. Applying for further education was of secondary importance to the efforts he wished to devote to achieving Zanzibar’s independence. By the time of his final school exams, he had already made up his mind to join the independence struggle.
It was only much later, during his tenure as High Commissioner of the United Republic of Tanzania to India, that Salim used the opportunity to further his education. From 1965 to 1968, he enrolled for undergraduate studies at St Stephen’s College at the University of Delhi, where his studied mainly through correspondence in history, English and English literature.
Much later, while posted in New York, Salim continued his studies by enrolling in a master’s degree in international affairs at Columbia University, New York. He pursued this study programme while serving as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN, with the associated pressing and unpredictable demands of the UN Security Council.9 With financial assistance from the government of Tanzania, he managed to complete the graduate programme in 16 months – just before Tanzania become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in January 1975.
Zanzibar and Tanzania: Struggle for independence
Salim’s interest in the nationalist struggle was awakened when he was 17 by Julius Nyerere. As a schoolboy, Salim was the founding vice-chairperson of the All Zanzibar National Students’ Organization and secretary-general of the Youth’s Own Union, the youth wing of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP).10 His positions in these organisations provided Salim with the opportunity to attend a rally held by Nyerere at Mnazi Mmoja, Zanzibar, in 1959. Nyerere was visiting Zanzibar to promote PAFMECA.11 His mission was to mobilise Zanzibaris to unite in the struggle for freedom, equality and dignity of every human being – and, in so doing, to shrug off their differences as islanders. In Salim’s own words, ‘I was impressed by Mwalimu’s understanding of Zanzibar’s political situation and the way he
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 33 summarised it in a deeper and succinct manner … That message has remained a guiding principle in my life.’12
The role Salim played as an activist in the independence struggle escalated after he left school. He was influenced by the pan-Africanist vision and his grand ideal was to work for the unity of the people of Zanzibar. He was unhappy with the regionalised divisional interests that caused tension between Unguja and Pemba, and the ethnic and racial divisions that prevailed in Zanzibar. For example, before their merger to form the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) in 1957 the African Association (which had established its Zanzibar branch in 1934)13 and the Shirazi Association (which was formed in 1930) had been separate organisations. These divisions were reflected in the violence that accompanied the elections to Zanzibar’s Legislative Council. With the exception of the first election of 1957, subsequent elections, in January 1961, June 1961 and July 1963, were characterised by violent conflicts.14
After completing standard 12 at school, Salim had become involved in journalism. His intention was to use his writing to help raise nationalist consciousness and unite the people in the struggle against colonialism. The struggle against British rule had reached its peak. He became editor of the ZNP’s newspaper and, later, the Umma party’s newspaper, and was subsequently an editor of Sauti ya Vyama Tisa, a newspaper published by an alliance of the opposition parties. In addition to these responsibilities, Salim was also secretary-general of the All Zanzibar Journalists’ Organisation.
In 1961, at the age of 19, Salim was one of three young men who had the opportunity to go to Cuba.15 The ZNP leaders Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu and Ali Sultan Issa, who were part of an extensive international network of revolutionaries, nominated Salim and his colleagues to go to Cuba, where the ZNP opened a Zanzibar office in Havana. (They also opened one in Cairo.16 ) Salim and his comrades were to make Zanzibar’s struggles known to the rest of the world, especially in the Caribbean, and Central and South American countries. There Salim witnessed the impact of the Cuban Revolution in the removal of external domination and establishment of a society where black and white people enjoyed equal rights and opportunities. Cuba consolidated his socialist orientation.
After almost a year in Cuba, Salim returned to Zanzibar, where he was expected to stay for a week or two before returning to Havana. Upon arrival in Zanzibar, however, he found that the British colonial authorities had imprisoned Babu, then the ZNP’s general secretary. The circumstances in Zanzibar made it impossible for Salim
34 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa to go back to Havana, since his presence was needed in Zanzibar. Salim acknowledges that Babu, whom he had met in 1958, played an important role in educating the people, and especially young leaders like Salim, about national and international affairs.
Journalism exposed Salim to several international platforms. Together with Rajab Saleh, a Zanzibari journalist and member of the ASP, Salim went to Indonesia to attend an Afro-Asian journalists’ conference in 1963. After the conference he travelled to China, where he briefly met Zhou Enlai, China’s premier, and other national leaders.
For Salim and other ZNP members, such as Issa and Babu, things did not work out as expected. The party had members from different classes and backgrounds. Babu and the other party leaders felt the ZNP was being taken over by conservatives loyal to the sultan and that it was not true to its original political objectives. The leftist faction, including Babu and Issa, walked out of the ZNP in early 1963 when conservative forces in the party would not agree to the need for broader representation of all Zanzibaris. After breaking away from the ZNP, they established a new political force, the Umma Party.17 Salim says that this was a ‘spontaneous decision, not pre-planned.’ He recalls that two days before the walkout, he had submitted to the ZNP leaders funds to be used for party activities that he had raised from his recent trip to Asia.
A few months after its establishment, the Umma Party formed an alliance of opposition parties with the ASP, called the United Front of Opposition Parties. Other alliance members were the Afro-Shirazi Youth League, Umma Youth, the All Zanzibar Journalists’ Organisation, the Zanzibar and Pemba Federation of Labour and the All Zanzibar Students’ Union. Karume was the new alliance’s chairperson and Salim its executive secretary.
Zanzibar’s nationalist struggles culminated in independence from Britain on 10 December 1963 as a constitutional monarchy with the sultan as its head of state. Since the ZNP-ZPPP (Zanzibar and Pemba People’s Party) alliance collectively enjoyed a majority of seats, they constituted the new independent government, despite the fact that the majority of the Zanzibaris had voted for the ASP. The ASP and its supporters felt robbed and scarcely a month later, during the violent Zanzibar Revolution of 12 January 1964 the ASP, in alliance with the Umma Party, overthrew the sultan’s government and established the People’s Republic of Zanzibar.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 35 Shortly thereafter, in April 1964, the new republic merged with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, and in November that year, the new state was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania, with Zanzibar as a semi- autonomous state. Closer union between Zanzibar and Tanzania was forged in February 1977 when the Tanganyika African National Union on the mainland and Zanzibar’s ASP amalgamated to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party, or CCM). Since then, the CCM has remained Tanzania’s ruling party.
Salim’s ambassadorial roles
To date, Salim is the youngest Tanzanian to have been appointed to represent the government in a foreign country. In 1964, at the age of just 22, Salim was appointed by President Karume as Zanzibar’s ambassador to Egypt. Initially Salim’s own preference was to stay in Zanzibar so he could be involved with the domestic developments of the country. Nevertheless, he was prevailed upon to take the position in Cairo. Although de facto he served as an ambassador, de jure he could not do so formally because, following the establishment of the union with Tanganyika, Zanzibar ceased to be a sovereign state. In June 1964 Salim was appointed by Nyerere as ambassador of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to Egypt, where he served until 1965. He was then appointed Tanzania’s High Commissioner to India.18
Salim’s experience in Zanzibar’s domestic politics laid the foundation for his far- reaching accomplishments in international affairs and in the Tanzanian government. As a young political activist, as well as through the roles he played in the youth and student movements, Salim worked with a cross section of influential political leaders, including, as mentioned, Babu and Karume.19 His education, talent and exposure, and the role he played in the nationalist struggles impressed presidents Karume and Nyerere. Having been inspired by Nyerere and his grand ideas earlier, Salim met Nyerere again when he was ambassador to Egypt at the first OAU summit, in Cairo.
With the 1964 Zanzibar revolution now complete and against the backdrop of the Arusha Declaration (1967), Zanzibar’s government was determined to build a new society. One of the steps adopted by the government was to nationalise and redistribute land to the poor, and launch a housing project. In mainland Tanzania the Arusha Declaration ushered in the policy of socialism and self-reliance.20 Its basic principles were fast socio-economic development on the basis of human equality
36 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa and dignity, nationalisation of the major means of production and building a self- reliant society devoid of neo-colonial control.
As High Commissioner to India, and subsequently as ambassador to Egypt and then to China, Salim was actively involved in the promotion of economic ties between Tanzania and these countries. All three were developing countries, and relations with them were based on a shared sense of equality and solidarity – very different from relations with the West at the time. Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser had similar policies to Tanzania’s in terms of supporting armed liberation in southern Africa and it was not surprising that nearly all the liberation movements in southern Africa established offices in Cairo and Dar es Salaam.21
Particularly under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, India had very good relations with Tanzania and helped the country establish and develop small-scale industries. Similarly, good relations between Tanzania and China led to Nyerere being the first African head of state to visit China, and Tanzania was also among the first African countries to be visited by a Chinese leader, Premier Zhou Enlai, in 1965. Among the developments that show the flourishing Sino–Tanzanian relations was China’s decision to construct a modern textile factory in Tanzania, the Urafiki Textile Industry, and a facility to manufacture agricultural implements. Of even greater significance was the construction of the Tanzania–Zambia Railway Line (TAZARA) during the 1970s, which linked the port of Dar es Salaam with central Zambia. At the time that it was completed the TAZARA was the longest railway line in sub-Saharan Africa and the largest single foreign-aid project undertaken by China.
Salim’s positions in Tanzania
In addition to the various diplomatic positions he held, Salim led a number of prominent and strategic Tanzanian ministries and departments. He served as prime minister, minister for Foreign Affairs and held the positions of Minister of Defence and National Service.
Salim was recalled from India in 1968 to be the first director of the newly established Department of Africa in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of his experience in international affairs. In April 1969 he was posted as an ambassador to China, and in early 1970 to New York as the head of Tanzania’s Permanent Mission at the UN.
While serving as Tanzania’s representative at the UN from 1970 to 1980, Salim played a significant role in advocating for the rights of developing countries in several
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 37 ways. It was during Salim’s leadership at the UN that Tanzania (and Sri Lanka) tabled the first resolution in the UNGA in 1974 on the militarisation of the Indian Ocean.22 From Salim’s outstanding record of service at the UN, many people within and outside Tanzania advised him to stand for the position of UN secretary-general, as recounted in Chapter 3.
As president of the UNGA, Salim had reached the high point in his career at the UN and aspired to contest for the position of secretary-general. Conscious of Salim’s prospects to become UN secretary-general, Nyerere sought to assign him another position back home. He made Salim a proposal that would force his hand to either return to Tanzania or remain at the UN.23 Respectfully, Salim decided to return home in 1980. Through his presidential powers, Nyerere nominated Salim a member of parliament and subsequently appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs. Tanzania was just recovering from war with Idi Amin’s Uganda (1978 to 1979) and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Salim helped guide Tanzania’s response to the violation of its territorial integrity by Idi Amin’s regime, which had tried to annex the northern Tanzanian province of Kagera. This response led to the overthrow of Amin’s government in April 1979.
The war with Uganda added to the economic crisis that Tanzania faced. Since 1979 the country had been in a long tug of war with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which prescribed that Tanzania adopt and implement the structural adjustment programmes. Nyerere’s government refused to accept the conditionalities, as they were a threat to the principles of the Arusha Declaration and Tanzania’s independence.24 This decision aggravated the situation. As a result, Salim worked hard to solicit assistance from Algeria, Libya, Scandinavian countries, Cuba, China and India, and argued for Tanzania’s case against harsh World Bank and IMF conditionalities at the UN and other international forums.
Salim was Tanzania’s prime minister from April 1984 to November 1985, succeeding Prime Minister Edward Sokoine, who was killed in a road accident. Tanzania was in an economic crisis with all the attendant social challenges. His immediate task as prime minister was to continue with the anti-corruption efforts initiated by Sokoine shortly before his untimely death. Many doubted his suitability to meet this challenge given his diplomatic background. Some people dubbed him ‘TX’ – referring to the motor-vehicle plate number identification then given to expatriates. His first undertaking was to visit various regions and districts, particularly in areas such as Kigoma, Mtwara and Songea, where the impact of the economic
38 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa crisis was particularly evident. Some people lacked even basic clothing. Salim discussed the situation and the way forward with Nyerere and subsequently sought supplies of clothes from countries such as China, and prodded for measures of liberalisation to remove unnecessary economic restrictions. He concluded his term in November 1985, when the general elections were held. In recognition of his work at the national and international levels, Salim was awarded Nishani ya Jamhuri Ya Muungano wa Tanzania, the Order of the United Republic of Tanzania.
During the 1985 elections, Salim was elected as Member of Parliament for the Mkoani Constituency in Pemba’s South Region. His record as an MP shows that he was an effective representative who always aimed to serve his people. When he was elected, the socio-economic conditions of the Mkoani District were poor. Health and education services were in a deplorable situation. There was only one good road from Chake Chake to Mkoani and the various feeder roads were almost impassable. There were no funds for solving these problems and the situation in Mkoani District was similar to the other districts of Pemba.25
To help improve the socio-economic conditions of his people, Salim undertook various initiatives to raise funds. He established the Mkoani District Development Fund, a non-profit trust. Salim was the chairperson of the trust, which paid for various development projects, such as health, education, water supply and road construction.26 He also worked closely with Tanzania Electric Supply Company to ensure that power was distributed to as many people as possible. Salim’s determination to develop Zanzibar was not limited to Mkoani District but extended to other districts in Pemba. District and regional party secretaries asked him to visit their areas and discuss how they could initiate development projects.
In October 1985, Nyerere retired as president and handed over to Ali Hassan Mwinyi, although he retained control of the party for several more years. From 1985 to 1989, Salim served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Defence and National Service in the government of Mwinyi. The major challenge that Tanzania faced was the economy and eventually the new government was forced to implement structural adjustment programmes in 1986. The impact was also felt in the armed forces, where there were shortages, some of them acute, including equipment, vehicles and uniforms. Through his connections, Salim was able to purchase vehicles for the military and worked to improve their living conditions despite the economic hardship that the country was facing.27
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 39 As Minister of Defence and National Service, Salim ensured adherence to the policy of Tanzania’s government to provide military support to Mozambique’s Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO). At the request of the government of Mozambique, Tanzanian forces were dispatched to northern parts of Mozambique to counter the scheme of South Africa’s apartheid regime aimed at destabilising and dividing the country through support to the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO). He also continued to work closely with other liberation movements, like the ANC and SWAPO, in their efforts to end apartheid and colonialism in their countries. It was a critical period because the Tanzanian economy was not performing well and other African countries were unwilling to provide such support.
Of all the institutions that Salim worked in during his career, he acknowledges to have most enjoyed working as Tanzania’s Minister of Defence and National Service. He appreciated the professionalism and discipline of the armed forces and underscores the fact that national service contributed to strengthening Tanzania’s unity, patriotism and national integration. He recalls fondly how he used to spend nights at various army camps, in particular Makutopora National Service Camp in Dodoma when attending party and parliamentary meetings. He enjoyed interacting with officers, rank-and-file soldiers, and recruits from different parts of the country, both from the mainland and Zanzibar, all working for a common purpose.
By the time he left to take up his position at the OAU, Salim was deeply involved in the CCM’s activities. He was a member of the party’s National Executive Committee and the Central Committee, and Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Secretary for the Defence and Security Commission. Two issues were of concern to Salim. First, to strengthen the party’s supremacy, leaders had to be conversant with foreign-affairs issues and practices, as the ruling party was the key player in formulating and implementing foreign policy. The second concern was the need for the country to strengthen its economic base. Given his vast experience in Tanzania’s foreign affairs, Salim was in a position to predict what would happen in Tanzania’s foreign-affairs trajectory, as the economy was increasingly dependent on international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF.28
Recognising Salim’s experience, integrity and commitment, many Tanzanians tried to persuade him to stand for the presidency in 1985 as he was Nyerere’s preferred successor. In July 1988, Salim was elected as secretary-general of the OAU – a post he eventually held for an unprecedented 12 years.
40 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa In 1995 Nyerere again urged Salim to stand as presidential candidate after Ali Hassan Mwinyi had completed two terms of office but the nomination eventually went to Benjamin Mkapa. Although the general elections of 1995 were the first multiparty elections to be held after the 1992 lifting of the ban on political parties other than the CCM, the CCM candidate Benjamin Mkapa won 186 of the 232 constituencies.29
Back to Tanzania from the OAU
After his term of office as secretary-general of the OAU came to an end in September 2001, Salim returned to Tanzania. He had served the pan-continental organisation for three successive terms. During his tenure at the OAU, Salim was not actively involved in domestic politics in Tanzania. He elaborates: ‘You cannot become OAU secretary-general while at the same time engaging in the politics of your own country … you become an activist of all African countries.’
Upon his return to Tanzania, Salim, now very much a pan-Africanist, had no political role until President Mkapa appointed him as member of the National Executive Committee of the ruling party. Subsequently, President Jakaya Kikwete selected Salim to the National Executive Committee and recommended his name for Central Committee membership. In addition, Salim continued to serve his nation as well as perform various other functions at the continental and international levels.
He has been the chair of the board of directors of the Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy and chancellor of the Hubert Kairuki Memorial University. In 2011 Kikwete appointed Salim, together with 29 other commissioners, to serve in the country’s Constitutional Review Commission, a function that they successfully completed in 2013.
Salim’s other responsibility has been chairing the Board of Trustees of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation. Nyerere established the foundation in 1996 to foster unity, peace and development based on the dignity, equality and respect of all human beings.30 Nyerere used the foundation during the Burundi peace negotiations, first in Mwanza in 1996 and later in Arusha, from June 1998 to August 2000. After Nyerere’s death in October 1999, Nelson Mandela took over the mediation process,31 maintaining the foundation’s role and the Tanzanian facilitators to mediate the conflict. Since then the foundation has continued to play an important role in various conflict-resolution initiatives in the Great Lakes region.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 41 When Salim took over as leader of the foundation, he continued to implement its objectives, as set by Nyerere, mainly by organising seminars, workshops and conferences at the national and international levels, including the 2002 and 2004 international conferences on the Great Lakes region held in Kampala, Dar es Salaam and elsewhere. The number of countries constituting the Great Lakes region increased from six to 12 during this period. In Tanzania the foundation has coordinated the Civil-Society Organisation Forum and the Great Lakes Region Civil-Society Organisation Forum. Joseph Butiku, executive director of the foundation, chairs both forums. At the national level, the foundation is active in organising seminars, workshops and conferences on issues of political, economic and social development.
At the continental level Salim continues to be a member of the OAU’s Panel of the Wise and has continued to mediate and facilitate in conflict resolution. In 2005 Salim was asked by the then AU Commission chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konaré, to become the special envoy to Sudan. As he mediated the Darfur conflict in Sudan from 2005 to 2007, Salim’s main goal was to reconcile the conflicting parties, and he and his team took various initiatives to that end, including preparing the Darfur Peace Agreement.
The complexity of the large number of actors with interest in the Darfur conflict eventually defeated these efforts. The initial negotiations between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Khartoum government succeeded, according to Salim, in part because there were fewer actors – John Garang, representing the SPLM, and Ali Osman Taha, on the part of the government. Salim compares the initial Darfur negotiations with the Abuja process – which he was facilitating – where, ‘… there was something like 12 or 13 observers32 … some [observers] were helping in the negotiations, while others were aggravating the conflict …’ Salim asked: ‘What sort of decision will you [as a mediator] make? ... you cannot negotiate in the presence of so many observers.’ Likewise, the armed groups in Sudan were proliferating, each with its own interest, and multiplied from initially two to 19.
The other lesson that Salim highlights is the question of timing. He sees that there has not been much success in most African conflicts, particularly the Sudan conflict, because the time for resolution is not ripe. Conflict resolution becomes easier when
42 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa the combatants voluntarily choose to end the conflict. Hence, Tanzania’s intervention of December 2014 was largely timely because, for the first time, the parties to the South Sudan conflict, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, had committed themselves to addressing the factors that cause the conflict between them. He sees the Arusha process as a step towards greater settlement: ‘Arusha is not the ultimate … it has created conditions for further discussions …’ He is convinced that the current South Sudan crisis will be resolved when the leaders reconcile their differences and realise the suffering that their people are going through.33
Salim has chaired and been a member of a number of commissions and diplomatic missions for the UN, Commonwealth Secretariat and the AU, including the following:
• Commonwealth Expert Group on Democracy and Development, 2002–2003
• Commonwealth Observer Group for the National Assembly and Presidential Elections in Nigeria, 2003
• UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, 2003–2005
• Commonwealth Observer Group to the Presidential Elections in Gambia, 2006
• Commonwealth Observer Group to the Presidential Elections in Rwanda, 2010
Salim was also the co-chair of the Eminent Persons Group on Small Arms and Light Weapons, and a member of the Eminent Experts Group appointed by the UN secretary-general following the Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. He was also on the Policy Advisory Commission of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Following an invitation from the president of the African Development Bank, Salim served as African Water Ambassador since 2002, with responsibility for advocacy, sensitisation and mobilisation of support.
Throughout his service in the Tanzanian government, Salim has remained a strong believer and advocate for leadership ethics, integrity and commitment to serve the people. Undoubtedly, this could be one of the key explanations for Nyerere’s trust in Salim. Responding to a journalist’s question in a recent interview as to why he has been so quiet of late, Salim responded: ‘It is not necessary that every time one has to comment on issues. Even keeping quiet is a way of expressing opinion.’
Salim continues to maintain the importance of upholding leadership ethics and that Tanzanian leaders should serve their citizens, and not their own interests.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 43 Conclusion Immediately after Zanzibar’s independence in 1963, the January 1964 revolution and the subsequent union between then Tanganyika and Zanzibar in the same year, Salim was assigned to represent the United Republic of Tanzania government in Egypt, India and China before being recalled home for various duties. This is different from many other diplomats of his generation who gained some experience in the government service before being posted externally. Salim symbolises the post-independence generation of youth leaders who grew up under Karume, and later Nyerere, whose vision and ideas on politics and development were shaped by a deep sense of nationalism. Salim’s contributions at the national and international levels are closely linked. Emerging from the liberation struggles, Salim developed from activist to diplomat and built a strong foundation for Tanzania’s reputation in international platforms. Throughout his service to the government, he raised Tanzania’s profile in international affairs. The confidence and discipline that Salim acquired during his childhood and as a young adult laid the foundation for his later achievements. His passion for unity, peace, honesty and integrity engendered the highest level of personal and professional commitment to the service of the nation. In recognition of his work, Salim has been awarded honours and decorations mostly from African countries, and six Honoris Causa Degrees from Universities in Africa, Asia and Europe.34 There are few people of Salim’s calibre in the 21st century in Tanzania and Africa in general.
About the authors
Lucy Shule is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy at the Mozambique-Tanzania Centre for Foreign Relations, Tanzania. She has a doctorate from the University of Newcastle, Australia, a BA and an MA from the University of Dar es Salaam. She has experience in defence and security issues, and has initiated and managed programmes on gender equity and equality, peace and stability as well as governance and democracy. She is a recipient of several awards and is a member of numerous professional organisations. Her research interests and the focus of her writing are in the areas of conflict resolution, international relations, diplomacy and Tanzanian foreign policy.
44 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Professor Gaudens P Mpangala is the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at Ruaha Catholic University in Tanzania. Formerly a professor of sociology at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, his research interests include the political dynamics between the mainland and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Ugunja.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 45 Salim A Salim (left), Chairman of the Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization, and Frank O Abdullah (Trinidad and Tobago), a member of the committee, 22 August 1977, Lagos, Nigeria.
President Castro addressing the Assembly. SG Kurt Waldheim (Assembly President), Salim A Salim (United Republic of Tanzania) and William B Buffum, Under-Secretary- General for Political and GA, 12 October 1979, United Nations, New York.
Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim, Recardo Alarcon (former Permanent Representative of Cuba to the UN and Former President of Cuba National Assembly) and president Fidel Castro in Cuba, (1979).
Right: Zehdi Labib Terzi (right), Permanent Observer of the PLO to the UN, conferring with Salim A Salim (United Republic of Tanzania), President of the General Assembly, before the meeting began, 26 November 1979, United Nations, New York.
46 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Right: Salim Ahmed Salim receiving a standing ovation at the conclusion of 34th Session of General Assembly of which he was the president.
Below: Salim Ahmed Salim chatting with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of the newly independent Zimbabwe.
Tanzanian envoys having informal talk in the Dar es Salaam International Airport VIP lounge shortly after arriving in the country to attend a meeting of all envoys which was addressed by President JK Nyerere. From left: Chief Likumbuzya (Stockholm), designated Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim (China), Mr P Muro (London), Mr G Rutabanzibwa (Washington), Mr P Katikaza (Principal Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Mr A Sykes (Ottawa), Mr R Lukindo (Moscow), Mr DMN Mloka (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 47 African Union Special Envoy and Mediator in the Darfur Crisis Salim Ahmed Salim with Rebel Fighters of the Justice and Equality Movement.
African Union Special Envoy and Mediator in the Darfur Crisis Salim Ahmed Salim and United Nations Special Envoy Jan Eliasson listening to a Darfur rebel leader. Above: President of UN General Assembly Salim Ahmed Salim with His Holiness Pope John Paul (II) in the office of the President of General Assembly in New York, 1979.
Left: OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the OAU Summit in Lusaka, Zambia 2001.
48 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim greeting Chairman Yasser Arafat at the OAU Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, 2001.
OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim with Muamar Ghadafi at the OAU Summit in Zambia.
Right: Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim chatting with United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Images used with kind courtesy from Salim Ahmed Salim and the African Union image archives
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 49
Chapter 3 Salim’s service at the UN
Naana Marekia
Salim Ahmed Salim, whose career spans over 50 years, has a legacy few can match.1 It is a legacy that has distinguished him as one of Africa’s most senior diplomats and statesmen. He served at the UN during exciting but also challenging times, both for Africa and the rest of the world. The 1970s and early 1980s was a time when several African states were consolidating hard-won sovereignty and asserting their positions in global diplomacy. Salim’s career at the UN coincided with the height of the Cold War, when objectives and interests were defined primarily within a context of East–West relations. The pursuit of national interests during this period was intricately linked with the dynamics of regional solidarity and the complexity of global alliances. As Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Salim engaged in a balancing act and navigated his way through tortuous consultations, negotiations, compromise and, when necessary, intransigence.
Having begun his career at the age of 22, Salim served his country in numerous ambassadorial positions.2 In 1964 Salim received his first official appointment with his posting as Tanzania’s ambassador to Egypt. He was subsequently appointed as Tanzania’s High Commissioner to India from 1965 to 1968 and ambassador to the People’s Republic of China in 1969.
In January 1970, he was appointed as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, where he served for more than 10 years. During his UN posting, he was concurrently accredited as ambassador to Cuba, and High Commissioner to Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Salim is also the longest- serving secretary-general of the OAU, with a record three consecutive terms from 1989 until 2001, where he oversaw the transformation of the OAU into the AU. From 2004 to 2008, Salim served as the AU special envoy for Darfur. Most recently, from 2007 to 2013, he served as a member of the AU’s Panel of the Wise, the body that advises the chair of the AU Commission and the organisation’s Peace and Security
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 51 Council on issues relating to conflict prevention, management and resolution. Salim continues to support the work of the panel.
This chapter focuses on the legacy of Salim’s career at the UN, focusing on his appointment as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN as the start of his career as a global diplomat. The chapter identifies and briefly describes the positions that Salim held, outlines the dynamics of international relations and global politics during his tenure at the organisation, and highlights his global contribution, which had a major influence on African politics and global diplomacy. Although this chapter singles out Salim’s legacy as an individual, it implicitly acknowledges that the Tanzanian diplomat always worked as part of a larger, cohesive team – one that was made up of other Africans as well as people from many other parts of the developing world. As Permanent Representative of his country, Salim continuously received the support and guidance of the government of Tanzania, and in particular of its president at the time, Julius Nyerere.
Salim’s career portfolio at the UN
Salim was appointed as Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the UN just nine months into his term as the Tanzanian ambassador to China. As he had not had any experience working at the UN, the appointment, by his own admission, was unexpected. Nevertheless, he accepted it with optimism and enthusiasm, recognising that the UN offered an opportunity to realise the African agenda he wanted to promote – particularly that of self-determination.
As Permanent Representative for over a decade, Salim headed various organs of the UN. He was president of the 34th Session of the UNGA (1979); of the 6th and 7th emergency special sessions of the UNGA (1980); and the 11th Special Session of the UNGA (1980).
He also held key positions in various special committees – in June/July 1972 he was chairman of the UN Special Mission to Niue (an island in the South Pacific); Drafting Committee member of the Political Committee of the Ministerial Conference of Non-Aligned States in Georgetown, Guyana, in August 1972; and chairman of the Political Committee of the International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, based in Oslo, in April 1973.
One of Salim’s notable roles was as chairman of the UN’s Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting
52 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (the UN Special Committee on Decolonization). He held this position from 1972 to 1980, and during this time the committee played a central role in steering many colonies and non-self-governing territories to full sovereignty and independence. He was also chairman of the UN Security Council Committee on Sanctions against Southern Rhodesia (1975).
In January 1976, Salim served as the president of the UN Security Council. He also played important roles in various special committees. He was chair of the High-Level Ad Hoc Group of the Special Committee on Decolonization, in April and May 1976, and chair of the Drafting Committee of the Fifth Conference of Heads of States of Government of the Non-Aligned States, Colombo, in August 1976.
In May 1977 Salim was vice-president of the International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, and chaired the committee for that conference, held in Maputo. He was also president of the International Conference on Sanctions against Apartheid in South Africa (1981), President of the Paris International Conference against Apartheid (1984) and he served on the Palme Independent Commission on International Security Issues, as well as on the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues.
Salim’s bid for the position of UN secretary-general
In 1981 Salim presented his candidature for the position of secretary-general. His bid was unsuccessful despite overwhelming support from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the South Pacific. The US and China, in their positions as permanent members, used their veto powers against each other’s preferred candidates. The US consistently voted against Salim’s candidature, preferring the Austrian candidate, Kurt Waldheim; China voted against Waldheim, in support of Salim. The UK and Russia abstained;3 France voted in favour of Salim. The process of voting in a secretary-general requires the support, or at least non-opposition, of all the permanent members of the Security Council and a majority vote from the UNGA.
The protracted election process was repeated 16 times over a period of five weeks, at which point Salim asked the then president of the Security Council, Uganda’s Permanent Representative, Ambassador Olara Otunnu, to communicate to the Security Council that he did not wish his name to be considered for a subsequent vote. It had become evident to Salim that the US was unrelenting in blocking his candidature, so he opted out to allow other interested African applicants to bid for the position in his place. By stepping down, he also wanted to show that it was
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 53 unlikely any African candidate would be supported by the American administration at that time, even though there were suitable potential candidates, such as the then UN Director-General for Development and International Economic Cooperation, Kenneth Dadzie, from Ghana. In the end, Peruvian diplomat Javier Pérez de Cuellar was elected as a compromise candidate, the first UN secretary-general from Latin America.
Nonetheless, despite stepping out of the ring, Salim paved the way for future African candidates. It became increasingly difficult for one permanent member of the Security Council to block competent candidates when there was strong support from other members. And, in 1992, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt was elected as the first African UN secretary-general, followed by Kofi Annan of Ghana in 1997. These appointments came about as a result of action by the OAU and the NAM (discussed in the following section) to mobilise support for the candidacy and election of an African secretary-general.
The Cold War era: Dynamics of international relations and politics
In the 1970s, in the early years of Salim’s career as a UN diplomat, the world was polarised by the dynamics of the Cold War. The Third World, as the developing world was referred to at the time, was divided along the lines of countries backed by the capitalist West (i.e. US allied states), those backed by the communist East led by the Soviet Union and China, and, increasingly, a group of non-aligned countries. Economic needs made Third World countries vulnerable to the influence of wealthier states. The idea of non-alignment was therefore developed as a result of Third World countries seeking emancipation from external political, social and economic interference and/or dependence.
In addition to global tensions between capitalist and communist forces, international politics was undergoing great changes. The first was the advancement in decolonisation and calls for self-determination for all nations. Secondly, Cold War rivalry had intensified and its dynamic was struggling to adjust to a progressively evolving and complex pattern in international relations, where alliances were no longer simply charted by the US and the Soviet Union. Several Third World countries were either newly independent or in the process of gaining self-rule, which meant they had the freedom to develop new policies, structures and ideologies, and various states were opting to do so as non-aligned countries. Consequently, the
54 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa third major global political change was that African representation at the UN, and the support of the OAU and NAM, had given Africa increased prominence and influence in national and international decision-making processes. Self-determination as a right, not a privilege
Under Salim’s chairmanship, the UN Special Committee on Decolonization played an essential role in steering many colonies and non-self-governing territories to full sovereignty and independence.5 In the 1970s, the various liberation struggles had gained momentum in Africa and other occupied territories. In the eight years that he served in this capacity, in keeping with the spirit and letter of the 1960 UNGA Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Salim and the committee strongly advocated and campaigned for the self- determination, decolonisation and freedom of all people, not just in Africa, but also elsewhere in the world.
The right of nations to attain self-rule has always been top of Salim’s agenda. He had staunchly supported the struggle for independence, particularly in Africa, before his UN appointment. According to Salim, during the initial years of his career, self-determination was generally understood to be interchangeable with independence as a decolonised state.6 However, while leading the UN Special Mission to Observe the Act of Self-Determination in Niue, Salim and other advocates of self-determination realised that the concept could mean outcomes other than solely independence.7 The people of Niue asked the UN delegation led by Salim to negotiate on their behalf to be recognised as a New Zealand entity, instead of demanding full state independence. UNGA Resolution 3285 was consequently adopted, recognising the right of Niue to self-governance, but with economic and administrative support from the New Zealand government. A subsequent resolution was adopted recognising the right of a nation not only to opt for independence, but also to choose self-determination in a less rigid sense.8 This resolution, however, only applied to the smaller colonised islands of the Caribbean and South Pacific.
Similarly, the Special Committee on Decolonization supported the initial attempts for Puerto Rico’s bid for self-determination by reconsidering its status as a decolonised state, despite non-cooperation from the US, which maintained that Puerto Rico had already been decolonised and was part of the US ‘commonwealth’. Although the UN had approved Puerto Rico’s association with the US in 1953 by removing it from the list of non-self-governing states and acknowledging the country as a commonwealth state, the Special Committee on Decolonization set a precedent
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 55 when it called for the US to recognise Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination and independence. The reasons the committee gave for reconsidering Puerto Rico’s status were the ‘failure [of the US] to include independence as an option and harassment of [Puerto Rican] pro-independence organisations’.9 The type of autonomy Puerto Rico wanted was to be recognised as a freely associated state, which constitutes ‘its existence as a sovereign nation in a joint governing arrangement with [the US] that either nation can unilaterally end’.10
As chairman of the Special Committee on Decolonization, Salim, together with his colleagues, employed innovative strategies and took initiatives that would contribute to the liberation of people oppressed by colonial rule. For instance, in 1972, in response to the continued denial by the Portuguese colonial government over the existence of the liberated areas in Guinea-Bissau, the committee decided to dispatch a team to the territory (as mentioned in Chapter 1). According to Salim, the Portuguese government’s position was that any claims of liberated areas in Guinea-Bissau were unfounded.11 Salim reacted to the case by arranging for a delegation of UN diplomats to travel to the areas of Guinea-Bissau that had been claimed as liberated, to determine their status – despite strong resistance by the Portuguese government. He then organised a high-profile meeting of the Special Committee on Decolonisation in Conakry, in neighbouring Guinea. The prestigiously staged Conakry meeting was organised to divert the attention of the Portuguese government from the mission he had sent to Guinea-Bissau. The purpose of sending the mission was twofold. Firstly, the intention was to prove that liberation was spreading even though the colonial oppressors sought to deny these initial stages of autonomy. And, more importantly, it was to give liberation movements everywhere a sense of legitimacy.
During a Special Committee on Decolonisation meeting in Lusaka, in April 1972, Salim said that the mission had
... dealt a decisive blow to the Portuguese propaganda machinery by bringing vividly to the attention of the international community the true situation in the territory and making it abundantly clear that the collapse of Portuguese colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands is both inevitable and imminent.12
After the successful Guinea-Bissau mission, the Special Committee on Decolonisation called for representatives of liberation movements to be recognised
56 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa as UN observers, rather than simply petitioners. They were consequently acknowledged as ‘the authentic representatives of their respective people’13 in the UN Fourth Committee.
Salim credits the success of Africans at the UN in the 1970s to African unity and solidarity despite linguistic divides at a time when the world was polarised by the dynamics of the Cold War. By his own admission, working at the UN during the ‘coldest days of the Cold War was a complicated affair, but it was an opportune time for Africans’.14 When African members jointly took a particular stance, the position was by and large adopted and sustained. Whereas actions and decisions taken by members at the UN were thoroughly scrutinised and interpreted – or misinterpreted – by the major powers, Africans consistently made decisions that were in conformity with African interests.
The Non-Aligned Movement and the benefits of solidarity
One of the most significant initiatives during the Cold War period, particularly for developing countries, was known as the New International Economic Order (NIEO), which was adopted under UNGA Resolution 3201 in 1974. This resolution was founded, along with several other principles, ‘on the full respect of the principles of sovereign equality of states, self-determination of all peoples, inadmissibility of the acquisition of territories by force, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States’.15
The NIEO was a sponsored campaign by the NAM that sought to improve commercial relations between developed and developing countries. It resulted in a developing countries’ manifesto for revising the global system of economic relations.16 The NAM was formed during the Cold War ‘as an organisation of States that did not seek to formally align themselves with either the US or the Soviet Union, but sought to remain neutral’.17 The manifesto was established during an NAM conference in Algiers in September 1973, where
... leaders of the NAM requested a Special Session of the UNGA to address issues associated with international trade in raw materials. At this Session in April 1974 the Group of 77 (G-77) secured the adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action for [an] NIEO despite lacking the support of the United States and a small group of advanced industrialised countries.18
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 57 Salim acknowledges the presence of the NAM at the UN as having played a key role in pushing the agendas of developing countries and bringing the world’s attention to the injustices these countries faced. The NAM, therefore, played an important role in affirming the freedom, independence and solidarity of developing countries.
The movement was established ‘during the collapse of the colonial system and climax of the independence struggles of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other regions of the world’.19 It became a foreign-policy orientation widely adopted by African and other developing countries. Because non-aligned countries sought to avoid and reject blocs, alliances and coalitions established around the Cold War rivalry and confrontation zones,20 the struggle for freedom and human dignity was a key initiative for the NAM, and its members unified to support each other in this endeavour.
In the 1960s, a collaboration of internationally recognised visionaries, such as President Sukarno of Indonesia, Indian premier Nehru, President Josip Tito of then Yugoslavia and Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, gave the NAM the clout and prominence it needed to push the movement’s agenda. The founding fathers of the OAU, particularly Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, played an equally important role in the combined accomplishments of the NAM. Two other notable African leaders associated with it were President Nyerere and President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. At the UN, the NAM was recognised as a legitimate bloc in the same manner that the Eastern European, Western European, Asian, Latin American and African groups were recognised.
In 1974 Salim addressed the UNGA on behalf of the African group, condemning the failure of the US, UK and France to cast their vote against the expulsion of South Africa from the UN for its consistent violation of the UN Charter and the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Salim’s own words:
It is my privilege to speak on behalf of the African group of the United Nations, as Chairman of that group for this month ... these supporters of South Africa are powerful nations indeed, and obviously they do not wish their motives to be questioned, but we can certainly state that, by their collective action, France, the United Kingdom and the United States have reinforced apartheid in South Africa, have given the regime of Mr Vorster a long lease of life at least at the United Nations, and have – notwithstanding their protestations – sacrificed the principles of human dignity and human morality for the expedience of vested interests – short-term interests at that.21
58 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Although South Africa was not expelled from the UN, it was subsequently suspended from participating in the UN’s work.
Salim’s global contribution
Salim played an integral role in decolonisation processes, in lobbying for universal equality and dignity, and in supporting peace-and-security initiatives in various parts of the world. During his initial years at the UN, Salim quickly established himself as a diplomat committed to the cause of self-determination and liberation for all people, and at the same time as a leader (from the developing world) dedicated to balancing out economic, political and other systems that polarised the world at that time.
Although Salim is mostly acknowledged for his accomplishments in and for Africa, he was also actively involved in lobbying for the rights of non-African nations during his tenure at the UN. For example, in 1971, while chairing the UN Special Committee on Decolonization, Salim became involved in the process of regaining China’s seat in the UN. China had, for almost two decades, unsuccessfully made efforts to have its lawful rights restored at the UN, but had been met with strong resistance by the US and others.22 In his address to the UNGA on the issue of China’s representation, Salim argued his position in the following terms:
The seat in the United Nations which has been unlawfully occupied by the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek should have belonged to representatives of the People’s Republic of China for a period of 22 years now. This should have been the logical outcome after the new Chinese nation was born with the victory of the popular forces led by the great leader of the Chinese people, Chairman Mao Tse-tung and the flight of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of a feudal and reactionary regime. During the past 22 years there has been steady and spectacular progress in China and a growing realisation of the significance of China as a great power.
But thanks to the systematic opposition of the United States, the people of China’s representation has not been realised. At this late stage of our debate there is no point in providing the Assembly with a detailed recollection of the various manoeuvres by which the United States of America succeeded in avoiding the proper representation of China in the United Nations. It is all on record and everyone is aware of it. Suffice it to recall that throughout the 1950s, largely under the influence of the United States, when the question of representation should have been settled according to the law and practice
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 59 of the United Nations by simply considering whether the new government of China exercised effective authority within the territory of the State, the matter was kept off the agenda of the General Assembly.23
Together with other diplomats, including the Zambian and Congolese ambassadors to the UN, Salim pushed diligently for the restoration of all the lawful rights of China and this culminated in UNGA Resolution 2758. The resolution brought a settlement to the political, legal and procedural recognition of China,24 which Salim recalls as one of his greater achievements as chairman of the Special Committee on Decolonization.25 In a speech he gave on the eve of the resolution, Salim said:
During the 1960s, United Nations membership having grown so as to make it difficult for the United States to continue taking for granted its control of the majority, the ‘important question’ device was invented to thwart the anticipated trend in favour of, according to the People’s Republic of China, its lawful rights. This manoeuvre worked satisfactorily until last year, when it finally became obvious that no amount of United States persuasion or threat could continue to stop the growing trend towards the restoration of the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China.26
However, according to Salim, his support for China was considered a vote in opposition of America – a perspective he categorically disagrees with.27 Support for China, he believed, was not undertaken in opposition to the capitalist agenda or in favour of the communist agenda. Instead, for Salim, it was just unconscionable that the UN as an international entity could exclude a country with, at the time, a population of about 800 million people:
Given the current contacts between Peking and Washington and the projected visit of President Nixon to China, the world had every reason to expect that the position of the United States on the question of Chinese representation would reflect the more realistic approach that the Administration seemed to be embarking on by giving due recognition to the importance and significance of the People’s Republic of China. But we were to be disappointed. For it would seem that all that has changed in so far as the United States’ position on this question of representation is concerned is tactics. The strategy, lamentable as it is, is the same. And it is to dabble in further manoeuvres, procedural and otherwise, calculated to make it impossible for the 800 million Chinese people to be represented in our Organization.28
60 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa In the same year that China was admitted into the UN (1971), the former chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, was invited to address the UNGA. Salim, together with other UN diplomats who supported Palestine’s struggle for self-determination, prepared the conditions for Arafat’s visit by mobilising majority support at the UNGA, despite strong resistance – again, mainly from the US. Salim and other supporters of an independent Palestinian state also supported Israel’s right to exist, but condemned the oppression of Palestine. During this address, Arafat delivered his renowned ‘gun and olive branch speech’.29 After this speech, the PLO was granted observer status at the UN, and Palestine’s right to self-determination was recognised.30
Salim’s involvement in global interventions, however, did not deter him from proactively engaging with the liberation struggle at home in Africa. The abolition of apartheid in South Africa was particularly high on his agenda. According to Salim, the struggle against apartheid and supporting the independence of the people of southern Africa was a universal cause:
Even those who misused their responsibility under the Charter and cast their vetoes against the expulsion of that regime [South Africa] from [the UN] condemned that regime and its system of apartheid and racial segregation, which is based on the dangerous concept of racial supremacy.31
Recognising the importance and urgency of ending apartheid rule and colonialism in southern Africa, the UN set up three organs to address the issue of the liberation of the people of southern Africa. As chairman of the Special Committee on Decolonization, and in close cooperation and coordination with the ambassador of Nigeria, Edwin Ogbu, in his capacity as chairman of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid, the President of the UN Council for Namibia and Ambassador Paul Lusaka of Zambia, Salim and his African diplomatic colleagues at the UN pursued every opportunity to have the matter addressed expeditiously. They worked collaboratively on issues regarding apartheid and colonialism in southern Africa, including making joint statements to the press. As a result, there was better coordination among African countries and the global community – including academics, congressmen, diplomats, religious leaders and ordinary citizens – for the liberation of the people and the abolition of apartheid.
The Special Committee against Apartheid adopted a resolution that called for economic and other sanctions on South Africa. However, some Western countries, notably the US and the UK, strongly opposed the imposition of sanctions, claiming
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 61 that they would be more damaging to the livelihoods of the African people than to the South African administration. In spite of the resistance, though, the UNGA passed an overwhelming majority vote for the isolation of South Africa.
After a long-drawn-out negotiation process at the UN Security Council, the first on the programme of sanctions to be adopted was an arms embargo against the South African government. Other sanctions were subsequently imposed incrementally, but more important, according to Salim, was the general mobilisation of the international community against apartheid rule. Some member countries of the UN went even further to declare apartheid a crime against humanity, and this played a significant role in the abolition process.
In addition to the role he played in this process in southern Africa through his various UN positions, Salim also attributes the incremental successes gained during this period to African countries’ support of the ANC, the PAC and other liberation organisations for the armed struggle in South Africa. According to Padraig O’Malley, ‘between 1976 and 1986 the ANC viewed [an] armed struggle as the central and supreme feature of its operational strategy’32 if passive resistance continued to fail. The Lusaka Manifesto of Southern Africa, adopted in 1969, asserted that African countries would prefer to negotiate an end to the situation, rather than enter into an armed struggle. However, if an agreement was not reached in favour of southern Africans’ liberation, African countries would support an armed struggle. In essence, the guiding position of Salim and fellow Africans at the UN rejected the status quo and demanded urgent change.
Salim credits Nordic countries for their support of the ANC and of the liberation struggle in general, which they mainly fulfilled by supplying humanitarian aid. By denouncing apartheid, the Nordic countries helped transmit a deeper understanding of the core objective of the struggle, which was that it ‘was not about black people fighting white people; it was a struggle against injustice’.33 Illustrating this non-racial objective is the fact that a number of white Europeans and Americans, and notably Indian South Africans, supported the liberation struggle. White South Africans were also actively involved in the movement to end apartheid and were members of the ANC.
Key positions at the UN
Salim recalls his role as president of the UN Security Council as his most fulfilling during his tenure at the UN. During his term there, he had the opportunity to use the
62 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa council as an important supportive organ of the decolonisation process. As chairman of the High-Level Ad Hoc Group of the Special Committee on Decolonization, he made mission visits to the UK, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Ethiopia.34 He notes that the difference between this position and that of president of the UN Security Council was that the Special Committee on Decolonization gave recommendations, whereas the Security Council had the power to make decisions. While serving as president of the Security Council, he used his strategic position to influence the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 435 for the independence of Namibia and played a vital role in Zimbabwe’s liberation process.
From 1979 to 1980, Salim served as president of the UNGA for the 34th Special Session, 6th Emergency Special Session, 7th Emergency Special Session and 11th Special Session (sessions on Afghanistan, Palestine and development). According to Salim, serving in this capacity gave him access to high-profile, influential individuals such as Pope John Paul II, President Fidel Castro and other world leaders, who met him in New York to engage on crucial issues before they addressed the UNGA. During his three terms as president of the UNGA, Salim consistently lobbied for civil liberties and national sovereignty for all people.
Conclusion
The period in which Salim served at the UN was, by his own admission, the most exciting and opportune time as an African. The contemporary global issues, particularly those that affected developing countries, coupled with the power and influence of the UN at the time, meant that it was strategic to have a representative from a developing nation at the UN advantageously positioned to inform and transform global policies. Salim also played an important role in the transformation of the UN and in the perception of how developing countries could produce world leaders. This was borne out by the election of two consecutive UN secretary- generals from Africa – arguably testament to a changing perception of Africans as global leaders.
Salim’s involvement in the reinstatement of China at the UN, some of the unorthodox means he employed to support the African liberation movements and his encouragement of liberation-movement leaders, such as Yasser Arafat, to address the UNGA – which had been unprecedented – are examples of initiatives Salim undertook, deliberately or not, that possibly had an influence on the UN
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 63 taking a more pragmatic approach to issues. It seems from the resistance he faced, particularly from representatives of developed states, that before his involvement in high-level positions at the UN, the system there favoured a non-controversial, equivocal approach even to crucial and urgent matters, such as oppression and apartheid rule. This frustration is evident in Salim’s words:
We speak not in anger but in anguish, not with rancour but in utter dismay, not with malice towards those who have chosen to frustrate the Security Council’s action [to expel South Africa from the UN for crimes against humanity] but certainly with injured feelings. It is not for me here to condemn their action. That is an exercise I am quite prepared to leave to the forces of world public opinion and, above all, to history – for history cannot and will not absolve such callous indifference to the collective will of the international community. Above all, it is for the people of South Africa themselves to pass judgement on the repercussion of this action and they have spoken in very forceful terms.35
Salim’s contributions to Africa, and especially to the abolition of apartheid, must be acknowledged. During his tenure as chairman of the Special Committee on Decolonization, Salim brought the world’s attention to injustices in Africa, at a time when the predominant Cold War communist vs capitalist agenda could have deprioritised action in support of the liberation struggle. Moreover, his involvement with the NAM and the establishment of the NIEO during this period were indications of his commitment not just to political autonomy, but also to economic freedom and social justice.
Although Salim recounts his tenure at the UN as being characterised by optimism, he admits it was not without its challenges. He was appointed to the UN at a very critical time for Africa – when African nations were either newly independent or still under colonial rule. One of the main challenges that Salim recalls was the cynicism of Western countries and their leaders about the liberation struggle in Africa:
Senior US administration officials in the National Security Council doubted that the situation in southern Africa [would] change. They believed that Rhodesia would continue to be run by Smith or people like him, Mozambique and Angola would continue to be run by the Portuguese, Namibia would continue to be occupied by the South African apartheid regime, and no significant changes would take place in South Africa itself. Their view was basically that the status
64 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa quo would be maintained and therefore the administration need not take any significant policy change as far as southern Africa was concerned. At the same time, however, in order to ‘appease’ African and similar-minded delegations in the UN, the United States [could] simply continue to talk in terms of sharing the need for changes and their abhorrence of the policy of apartheid.36
Equally challenging for Salim was the issue of racial prejudice. It is important to remember that during that period in world history, the world had not fully embraced the idea of racial equality, let alone the notion that a black African could be in a position of influence in a prestigious global institution. For instance, when Salim supported the reinstatement of China, the backlash against him from some US members was heavily marked by racist and xenophobic affronts. Salim wrote to the then US ambassador to the UN, George Bush Snr, enclosing one particularly vicious letter as an example of the racism. Bush’s response to this was unequivocal: he denounced the context of that letter and made it clear that those views did not represent the views of the people of the US, a reply that Salim found encouraging.
Salim also notes that the issue of unequal and unfair representation at the Security Council was a major challenge for Africa. And the fact that no African state is a permanent member of the Security Council today continues to pose a challenge for the continent.
Although Salim remains modest, if not reticent, about his accomplishments, it is immediately evident that his many successes were the result of his unique personal attributes. By his own admission, Salim was rather inexperienced when he was appointed to the UN, but he was clearly willing to learn, constructively engage and compromise where necessary. The latter quality is evident in the way he dealt with the case of Niue’s bid for self-determination. Salim supported the people in their rejection of full autonomy out of respect for their freedom of choice, despite his personal preference for full independence.
Salim also emphasises that the guidance and support of Tanzania’s then president, Nyerere, gave him the inspiration and confidence to engage as he did in the forums of the UN. Salim had the back-up and counsel of his head of state when he articulated national, regional and global issues. In the same vein, the solidarity of the African group at the UN served as a powerful anchor for Salim. He remembers with pride and nostalgia the contribution made by African ambassadors who transcended their geographical and linguistic divides.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 65 Salim’s tenure at the UN raised the profile of Africa and that of other developing and newly independent states, and he has played an integral role in the recognition of the right to self-determination and dignity of all nations.
Salim is one of Africa’s most celebrated leaders – if not for anything else, for his courage and tenacity in advocating the rights, freedom and dignity of all people in the face of strong resistance from powerful global actors.
In Salim’s own words: ‘The tide of change cannot be reversed, especially where justice for all mankind is involved. There is no halfway where justice is involved. We are either all for justice or against it.’37
About the author
Naana Marekia has a master’s in peace studies from the University of Bradford, UK, and a B.A. in international relations from the United States International University – Africa. Marekia is currently a programme consultant for South Sudan and Sudan at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. She previously worked at the Nairobi Peace Initiative-Africa as the programme coordinator for the Research, Learning and Policy Programme, where she was project coordinator for a joint NPI-Africa and West Africa Network for Peacebuilding research project on transitional justice. She also served as the Kenya project manager on a study on violence and political transitions in collaboration with Africa University’s Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance, in Zimbabwe, and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. Naana has taught and facilitated sessions on sustainable peace, justice and reconciliation after protracted violence at the NPI-Africa Peacebuilding Institute.
66 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Chapter 4 Salim at the Organization of African Unity
Hallelujah Lulie and Jakkie Cilliers
Salim Ahmed Salim assumed leadership of the OAU as secretary-general in 1989 – a time when the continent was going through a major transition. This was influenced and defined largely by the changing structures of multilateral diplomacy and ruptures in the international system. During this tumultuous period, the political configurations and landscape had changed significantly from when the organisation was established in May 1963 under the leadership of Kifle Wodajo, an Ethiopian, who was designated interim secretary-general from 1963 to 1964.
By the time Salim stood for the position, Wodajo had been succeeded by Diallo Telli, Nzo Ekangaki, William Eteki Mbomoua, Edem Kodjo, Peter Onu and Ide Oumarou.1 Oumarou, Salim’s predecessor, was a Nigerian diplomat, government minister and journalist. He held the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1983 and 1985 before assuming leadership of the OAU in 1985.
In July 1988, Oumarou contested to serve for a second term as secretary-general, but lost his bid for re-election to Salim. In his campaign, Oumarou had mobilised most of the francophone countries and continued to have the support of the Nigerian leadership. However, Salim was elected by a majority of more than two- thirds of the OAU member states after only three rounds of voting, which was, at that point, unique in the history of the elections for the position of secretary-general. Often, the elections took several rounds of voting, sometimes lasting right through the night. Salim had managed to build a support base that bridged the traditional francophone-anglophone divide that had plagued African politics since the OAU was founded. His decisive victory also served to recognise Salim for his outstanding profile in multilateral diplomacy and international relations.
In his bid for the position, Salim was not merely a candidate of Tanzania, however, since he was proposed on behalf of the Southern African Development Community
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 67 (SADC). The man who had led the campaign to draft Salim into the election was the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who had urged the president of Tanzania to agree to Salim’s candidature. Most ambassadors at the OAU viewed Salim as a strong and credible candidate who would bring new dynamism and momentum to the OAU’s agenda in a changing world.
Against this background, Salim was elected secretary-general of the OAU on 27 July 1989 and took up office in September. This was a time of global flux and seismic change. Shortly after Salim’s appointment came the fall of the Berlin Wall – an event that had been preceded by waves of popular revolt in Eastern Europe since 1986. Then, two years later, on 26 December 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist. The Cold War had defined world politics, diplomacy and security for more than four decades. Now Africa was free from the proxy wars that had ravaged the continent, particularly in the Horn and in southern Africa, although its effects would linger for generations.
Salim had been deeply involved in the struggle for Africa’s political independence. As explained elsewhere in this volume, he had been appointed in 1970 as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the UN and was elected as president of the UN Security Council in January 1976. While at the UN, Salim served as president of the 34th Session of the UN General Assembly, led the UN Security Council Committee on Sanctions Against Rhodesia, served as president of the International Conference on Sanctions Against South Africa and led the Paris International Conference Against Apartheid in 1984.2 He also chaired the UN Special Committee on Decolonization in 1972 and 1980. With regard to fighting colonialism and apartheid, Salim’s work at the OAU was very much a continuation of what he had done at the UN.
The fall of the Berlin Wall unleashed a chain of unexpected developments. With the US having apparently triumphed over the former Soviet Union, the diktats of the so- called Washington Consensus would henceforth prescribe development solutions to Africa’s challenges. Convinced of the predatory nature of African governance (which had flourished under Cold War conditions), the IMF and the World Bank now placed their emphasis on macroeconomic stabilisation, trade liberalisation and the expansion of market forces in domestic economies.
The various structural-adjustment programmes that were led by the international financial and monetary institutions took place at heavy political and social cost, and there was a marked need for Africa to enhance South–South cooperation, while
68 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa reactivating and redefining dialogue and cooperation with the global North. Rather than alleviating poverty, the effect of these policies was often to deepen suffering and insecurity. The result was to weaken governance in many countries on the continent by forcing governments to cut back on provision of security, healthcare, education and other services – developments that set the stage for future instability.
The end of the Cold War also opened the way for the rise of multiparty democracy and for an end to apartheid. Despite these developments, however, only very tentative initiatives were taken in Africa to seek the contribution of civil society to the socio-economic and political transformation of the continent. The role of the state in Africa was overwhelming and it allowed no space for civil-society initiatives.
On the liberation front, Namibia gained its independence on 21 March 1990, barely six months after Salim had taken over leadership of the OAU. Earlier that year Nelson Mandela had been released from prison in apartheid South Africa and the ANC unbanned.
During his first term in office, Salim would be an active observer to the democratisation process in South Africa that culminated in non-racial elections in 1994. The OAU had played an active role in working for an end to the minority regime in South Africa, and Salim invited Mandela to address the 26th Assembly of OAU Heads of State and Government, held in Addis Ababa on 9 July 1990.
In his speech to the state representatives, Mandela paid tribute to the OAU and its contribution to the termination of apartheid. He sketched out his grand vision for a non-racial and inclusive democracy in South Africa based on individuals’ rights and the need for an economic transition that would result in a speedy and visible improvement in the quality of life of its people.3
Through its observation mission in Johannesburg, the OAU monitored the ups and downs of the negotiation process in the run-up to democracy, followed the violence that accompanied it and supported the political transition. In Salim’s view, the presence of the mission had a ‘moderating effect on violence’ and demonstrated Africa’s attachment to the struggle to end the last vestiges of colonialism and institutionalised racism on the continent.4 The organisation had to maintain a delicate balance, however, between supporting the legitimate demands of the anti-apartheid movement in and outside South Africa, while encouraging talks and helping the process of political transition.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 69 Salim visited South Africa in 1993 – the first OAU secretary-general to do so. He saw the energy that the liberation of South Africa could bring to the transformation of the OAU and used that momentum to help the organisation. Eventually the end of apartheid and the emergence of a democratic, non-racial South Africa had a tremendous impact on the development of the continental organisation.
The growth of a multiparty system of government in many African countries during this period posed many challenges, since few leaders were prepared for popular participation in national government. It was a time of uncertainty and confusion. In the absence of a consolidated democratic political culture and strong institutions, electoral competition would often became a source of instability. Many of these experiments resulted in hybrid regimes – autocratic regimes that went through the motions of regular elections and political contestation, but were often subject to narrow elite control.5
Independent civil-society actors also started to emerge in Africa, many of whom were calling for the transformation of the continent and for the OAU to serve the broader interests of Africans. Although they were proud of the OAU’s achievements in support of Africa’s struggle against colonialism and apartheid, many Africans viewed the organisation as a club of heads of state. Calls for the OAU to get closer to the concerns of ordinary African people echoed across the continent.
The 1990 Report on Fundamental Changes
An important first step in the transformation of the OAU was to make the organisation more visible, knowledgeable and relevant. With this in mind, Salim undertook an extensive programme of travel and consultations, meeting with African heads of state and civil society (e.g. businesspeople, lawyers, women activists), who had expressed their willingness to help the organisation meet its objectives.
To chart the course of the OAU after the demise of communism, Salim and his team set out their understanding of the implications of the changing world in the 1990 Report of the Secretary-General on the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World and their Implications for Africa.6 This was submitted to the 26th Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Addis Ababa, 9–11 July 1990. The report made it clear that ‘the present international situation makes it imperative for Africa to map out a strategy in order to face the challenges of the 1990s and lay the foundation for sustained development in the 21st century’.7
70 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa The Report on Fundamental Changes reflected to some extent the discussions Salim had had with African leaders and concerned Africans whom he had met during his many travels. Salim had come to a firm resolve that Africans should rely essentially on their own abilities and resources to change their destiny. The international community could help and support African efforts, but he increasingly argued for African ownership and African leadership. During the Cold War, Africa had been broadly divided between pro-Eastern Europe/pro-Russia and pro-United States, reflecting broad international ideological and strategic polarities. According to Salim, what was lacking, however, was an inward-looking pro-African group that represented and pursued African interests on the continent and on the international stage.8
The 1990 report would serve as something of a road map for Salim’s tenure at the organisation. It addressed issues such as ending conflicts, fostering democratisation, promoting regional economic integration, and deepening and expanding African unity and integration. The report and the subsequent declaration underlined the need for Africa to assume leadership and ownership when responding to the continent’s numerous peace-and-security challenges. It called for African solutions to African problems. It set out the foundations for the integration of the OAU and its security projects in the years that followed. The Abuja Treaty of 1991, as it was known (the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community), and the 1993 Cairo Declaration, which established the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, were all built on the words and spirit of the report and its declaration.9
As Salim subsequently noted, ‘the end of the liberation struggle, the economic crisis and the developments in the world have made it necessary for the OAU to review its priorities in the world order marked by increasing complexities and uncertainties’.10 In contrast to a global trend towards regional integration and the establishment of trading and economic blocs elsewhere, Africa was making little progress and found itself deep in poverty, debt and dependency.
Getting a decision or declaration passed by the OAU Council of Ministers or the assembly was a difficult task. However, unlike other proposals made by the secretary-general, the 1990 report was well received, and the assembly discussed the report and came up with the Declaration on the Political and Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World.11
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 71 The declaration was a milestone because it acknowledged the need for Africa to reposition itself urgently in a new global order. It sought to examine Africa’s political, social and economic situation ‘in the light of the rapid changes taking place in the world’ – and their impact on Africa. It also recognised the legitimate demands of African people for democracy, human rights and economic integration. Africa had to adapt to the changes taking place globally. When addressing the assembly, Salim emphasised that Africa could not be ignored if it acted collectively.
With this as his strategic vision, Salim’s leadership at the OAU would begin with the protracted process of laying the legal and structural foundation for a more proactive organisation that could respond to the contemporary challenges faced by the continent. The OAU would subsequently pursue two main objectives: ‘Economic integration through the African Economic Community and the vigorous pursuit of peace and stability for the African continent through its Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution’.12
These efforts eventually led to the OAU being transformed into the AU.
Salim’s contributions to peace and security
If the 1980s are referred as a lost decade in economic terms for the African continent,13 the 1990s were arguably the most unstable and violent.
In the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a sharp decline in the interest of the international community to engage with Africa and intervene when stability broke down, despite a series of conflicts that ravaged the continent in Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Angola.14 Even Africans themselves appeared unwilling to respond to conflicts in neighbouring countries.15 Besides the lack of appropriate normative frameworks and organs, the continent faced serious resource constraints in its responses to these conflicts.
Among his most significant contributions to OAU policy was that Salim recognised it was time to challenge the way the sacrosanct non-interference policy of the OAU was understood and implemented. What constitutes internal affairs and what constitutes issues of concern for Africa had been the focus of a major ongoing debate since the early days of the OAU, and this had reached its peak in the mid- 1990s. According to Salim, the non-interference clause in the OAU charter had been deliberately misinterpreted for decades. He argued that it had never been the intention of the OAU heads of state and government, when they met in May 1963
72 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa in Addis Ababa, to say there should be no interference in the affairs of other states, no matter what happens. In his words, ‘The whole idea of non-interference was to prevent the big brothers of the continent from interfering in the internal affairs of the small ones. It was ridiculous that many African leaders used that to escape discussions on issues with continental implications.’16
He believed, and repeatedly stated that the principles of development, democratisation and greater respect for human rights would not be achieved without continental peace and stability. Salim also insisted on presenting the issue of peace and security in conjunction with socio-economic transformation and integration, and the need for popular participation in the processes of government and development. He made a direct link between security and human rights, and the observance of the rule of law and accountability, and repeatedly pointed out that if leaders addressed these concerns they would help to prevent internal conflicts in Africa.17
Salim consistently brought attention to the changing nature of conflicts in Africa. Conflict had shifted from being characterised by interstate wars between countries to armed conflict within countries. This was one of the important points in the 1990 Declaration on Fundamental Changes. This shift in the type of conflict, he argued, required a more creative and dynamic approach. When the OAU was established in 1963, there had been no provision for dealing with internal conflicts. Assuming most conflicts would be between states, as opposed to internal ones, leaders had created the OAU Commission on Mediation, Arbitration and Consultation. However, this commission was not put into operation. Salim’s efforts contributed to a paradigm shift in acknowledging intrastate conflict as the number-one threat to human security on the continent.18 For him, the OAU was conceived as a framework for collective regional security in the wider sense, and in a more specific sense as a strategic plan for promoting regional cooperation in the political and diplomatic fields, thereby providing the necessary institutional dynamism to promote security, stability and development in Africa.19
Salim’s priority in terms of peace and security was mostly driven by the need to create a proactive continental organisation that could work towards the peaceful and speedy resolution of conflicts in Africa. Such an organisation would create an enabling environment for development, democratisation and greater respect for human rights, and help resolve the many other critical challenges that confronted the continent.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 73 The 1990 Report on Fundamental Changes specifically highlighted the need for permanent institutions and organs to deal with the challenges posed by African conflict and instability. The subsequent OAU declaration also noted the urgent need for Africa to build capacity for the peaceful and speedy resolution of conflicts: ‘The Declaration sought to put Africa at the centre of attempts to deal with conflicts, by emphasizing that the continent bore primary responsibility for resolving its problems, even if it was to expect international solidarity and assistance.’20
The report also made it clear that it was Africa’s responsibility for dealing with continental conflicts and urged continental actors to play a central role in preventing and resolving conflicts. At the same time, it acknowledged the importance of international support and the mandate of the UN.
The OAU’s Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa was held in May 1991, in Kampala, Uganda. The outcomes of the conference reflected Salim’s push to re-emphasise the way in which the OAU’s non-interference principle was perceived and for a broader, more inclusive approach to addressing problems of insecurity. One of its most crucial outcomes was that the conference stated that ‘the security, stability and development of every African country [are] inseparably linked with those of other African countries’.21 The conference also adopted various principles on matters of peace and security in Africa, calling for a greater role to be played by the OAU in these issues.
Two years after the OAU Declaration on the Political and Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World, Salim oversaw a process to draft a proposal to establish a permanent institution for African conflict prevention and resolution. The proposal was first presented at the 28th Ordinary Session of the OAU, held in Dakar, Senegal, in June 1992. Salim went to Dakar emboldened by the success of the Report on Fundamental Changes.
The report he presented at the Dakar meeting contained various institutional options and specific recommendations for the type of mechanism he envisaged. Salim recalls:
We had lots of expectations and thought of the Dakar meeting as a formality to approve the proposal. When I formally presented the proposal for the establishment of the mechanism and included the notion of peacekeeping
74 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa operations, minister after minister bashed the idea and the secretariat, claiming that peacekeeping was not Africa’s business. They said it was the UN’s mandate and business.22
The result was the in-principle establishment of a mechanism for preventing, managing and resolving conflicts in Africa, but a request that the secretary-general undertake an
... in-depth study on all aspects relating to such a mechanism, including institutional and operational details as well as its financing … and submit them for the consideration and decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government at its Twenty-Ninth Ordinary Session.23
Salim subsequently established a team that discussed discreetly with key ambassadors a consensual document. This retained the essence of what he wanted to achieve in terms of how Africa dealt with its conflicts while watering down the section on peacekeeping. The revised version was unanimously endorsed by the 29th Ordinary Session of the OAU Heads of State and Government Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, 28–30 June 1993.
Though 1994 heralded the end of one chapter in African history, with democratic elections in South Africa, it also witnessed one of the most horrific atrocities in modern Africa: the Rwandan genocide. Salim was adamant to break from Africa’s dependence syndrome and get out of a belief that ‘the rest of the world will always be there’. He noted that the indifference to the Rwandan genocide by the international community, including the UN, was an indictment to everyone. ‘It was a failure for Africa, the United Nations and humanity at large,’24 he said.
During this period, despite the optimism and euphoria that followed the technical end of colonisation and institutional racism on the continent, many member states of the OAU were experiencing violent conflict with dire economic, social and humanitarian implications. Such conflicts destroyed the lives and hopes of millions, and set the possibility for continental unity, integration and prosperity back by many years.
Together with the Report on Fundamental Changes, the 1993 Cairo Declaration laid the foundation for the 1999 Sirté Declaration (adopted at the 4th Extraordinary Session of the OAU Assembly) to establish the AU, speed up the implementation of an African Economic Community (AEC), establish a pan-African Parliament and other structures, and move ahead on cancelling Africa’s debt. The Cairo Declaration
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 75 provided the necessary legal and institutional precedence for the creation of the AU’s Peace and Security Architecture,25 including the AU Peace and Security Council, the African Standby Force, the Continental Early-Warning System and the Panel of the Wise.26
In a paper he published in 2002, Salim says the creation of the new mechanism established as a result of the Cairo Declaration signified a shift from the ‘don’t interfere’ to ‘collective concern’ for the peace, security and stability of the people of Africa. He argues that the doctrine of ‘what happens to my neighbour is also my responsibility’ should replace the old non-interference approach and make the issue of internal conflicts a matter of continental concern.27
The 1990 Report on Fundamental Changes was bold, in that it pointed to the need to accept sovereignty as a responsibility and preceded the doctrine of the responsibility to protect by several years. In the report, Salim argues:
While the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states should continue to be observed, it should, however, not be construed to mean or used to justify indifference on the part of the OAU. African solutions to African problems must be given a new momentum in African politics and international relations.28
These considerations would subsequently find their way into the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which, in Article 4(h), would enshrine ‘the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity’.
In the mid-1990s, the subject of peacekeeping dominated the OAU’s debates on conflict prevention and management. Following the adoption of the Cairo Mechanism, the General Secretariat repeatedly pushed for an effective and realistic OAU peacekeeping policy and response system. However, repeated attempts by Salim to convince the Assembly and Ministerial Council of the OAU of the need for peacekeeping capacity were met with scepticism and opposition:
A number of countries rejected the concept in principle, arguing that the UN should be the only institution responsible for peacekeeping, others questioned the OAU’s capacity, especially its lack of financial resources to fund such operations, to conduct peacekeeping operations ... The unfortunate reality, which the OAU Secretary-General is confronted with on a daily basis, is that
76 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa conflicts such as those in Somalia and Rwanda, and those still unfolding in Liberia and Burundi, cannot be put on ice whilst Africa and the OAU develop its peacekeeping capacity over coming decades.29
Though the Cairo Declaration was a milestone, it did not give sufficient attention to conflict-management tools for Africa. The resolution envisaged a mechanism to deal with conflicts in Africa through a new institutional dynamism, ‘enabling speedy action to prevent or manage and ultimately resolve conflicts when and where they occur’. But, at the same time, that mechanism upheld ‘the sovereign equality of Member States, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, the respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States, [and] their inalienable right to independent existence’.30
Anticipating and preventing conflicts, and undertaking peacemaking and peacebuilding functions to help resolve ongoing conflicts were the main objectives of the declaration. The document notes that the emphasis should be on the prevention element of the mechanism. As a compromise to the peacekeeping proposal put forward by Salim, the Cairo summit also endorsed civilian and military missions of observation and monitoring of ‘limited scope and duration’.31 It also states that the continent should focus more on ‘preventive measures, and concerted action in peace-making and peace-building’ and that these would ‘obviate the need to resort to the complex and resource-demanding peacekeeping operations, which our countries will find difficult to finance’.32
Salim persistently pushed the agenda of an African peacekeeping operation and argued that ‘world events have demonstrated that even though the OAU may wish to focus its efforts on the prevention of conflicts, it cannot exclude itself in some circumstances from undertaking activities of a peacekeeping nature’33. His persistence paid off. The OAU summit in June 1995 in Addis Ababa adopted a decision that, for the first time, provided for limited peacekeeping operations, under exceptional circumstances, to be conducted by the OAU itself.
In a landmark decision to develop the OAU’s role in conflict management on the continent, the first meeting of chiefs of staff of members of the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism took place in June 1996. The meeting focused on two crucial issues: strengthening Africa’s capacity in the field of peacekeeping under the aegis of the UN, and the modalities for limited peacekeeping operations undertaken by the OAU.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 77 Salim said that ‘the future of conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa depends in large measure, on the establishment of a viable indigenous capacity for peace’. Limited capacity and lack of financial resources are still major constraints on the role that African countries can play in responding effectively to conflicts. One of Salim’s significant achievements was getting approval of his proposal to create a special fund, managed according to the OAU’s financial rules and regulations, to finance the OAU’s operational activities in conflict management and resolution. The proposal was for a fund made up of financial appropriations from the regular budget of the OAU, voluntary contributions from member states, and from other sources in Africa. This would later become the peace fund under the AU’s Peace and Security Architecture. However, it proved difficult to get voluntary contributions from member states, and a number of them did not pay their mandatory annual contributions. As a solution, Salim persuaded leaders to sanction member states, meaning they could not participate in the OAU sessions or vote in decisions unless they had fulfilled their financial obligations to the organisation. The result was that many more member states started making contributions and settling their debts.35
The 1993 Cairo Declaration also created a platform for constructive cooperation and working relations between the OAU and the various regional economic communities (RECs). It recognised the positive role that could be played by neighbouring countries in the various subregions of the continent. Salim believed in enhancing the role of RECs in conflict prevention and resolution efforts of the OAU, and noted that certain problems could be solved at the regional level and others at the continental level. Shortly after he assumed his role as secretary-general, the Economic Community of West African States’ Standing Mediation Committee established a Military Observer Group (ECOMOG), to resolve the civil war in Liberia.36 Salim actively endorsed the role of ECOMOG.37
Within months after he became secretary-general, Salim took his first trip, at the end of 1989, to Senegal to discuss the crisis between Senegal and Mauritania. In the years that followed, he undertook several official visits to countries affected by conflict and instability. He took a particularly active role in the efforts aimed at resolving the Ethiopian–Eritrean war of 1998–2000. He visited the Department of Peace, Security and Political Affairs, as part of his visit to the units of the OAU General Secretariat soon after assuming office as secretary-general in 1989, and asked the department to prepare a file on the question of Eritrea. The fact that
78 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Ethiopia was the host country of the OAU should not, according to him, stop it from having a file on the dispute that it had with Eritrea.
The OAU was actively involved in the peace talks between the two states that led to the peace agreement that was signed in Algiers in 2001. This was a rare interstate conflict in a decade dominated by intrastate conflicts. Salim noted that no conflict should be simplified and each needed to be dealt with prudently and by acknowledging its specific realities: ‘Every conflict has its own characteristics, has its own features, has its own specificities, and the OAU has endeavoured to address each situation in its own reckoning.’38
Salim made direct links between bad governance, human-rights violations and insecurity. On many occasions he emphasised the need to build a culture of tolerance and democratic values:
This continent, more than any other, has gone through the suffering of slavery, of colonialism, and of apartheid. When our people fought for freedom and independence, they did so in order to have a better tomorrow, not to exchange masters.39
Under his watch, the agenda for human rights was presented as an intrinsic part of the African struggle for a stable and united continent:
There can be no alternative to showing respect for the fundamental human and civil rights, such as the right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of worship, freedom of the press, freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention as well as the ending of torture in all its forms.40
One of the final achievements of Salim’s leadership at the OAU was organising the first OAU–Civil Society Conference, held in Addis Ababa in 2001.41 Salim tried hard to include civil society in the promotion of peace and security in the continent, including humanitarian organisations, peace-and-development foundations and institutes, universities and professional groups.42
As part of his efforts for the participation of civil society in the prevention, analysis and resolution of conflict on the continent he was vigorously opposed by some member states. It was a time when civil society’s involvement in these issues was considered unacceptable. Salim even recalls an incident when an African ambassador walked out of an OAU meeting, opposing the presence of a member from a civil-society group.43
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 79 With the support of the ANC’s secretary-general, Salim started collaborating with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The first joint project between the ISS and the OAU was a continental experts meeting, held in Kempton Park on 21 May 1997 in support of the Ottawa Process, which led to the adoption of a ban on anti- personnel landmines.44 The ISS would work closely with the OAU’s Department of Politics, Peace and Security in subsequent years, helping the OAU draft policies and formulate its stance on early warning, peacekeeping, security-sector reform, counterterrorism and related issues.
Working for African integration and unity
Salim made numerous significant contributions to pan-Africanism, which helped bring about integration and unity in Africa. He was enthusiastic about continental integration and advocated the freedom of movement of African people. Promoting continental integration and unity at a time when the continent was experiencing numerous violent conflicts, severe poverty, tribalism, epidemics (like HIV/AIDS) and economic stagnation was a difficult task. Salim was well aware of the challenges he faced, but was convinced and remained realistically optimistic that Africa could and would overcome them. His philosophy was to do what you can now and other opportunities would follow in time. He believes that change is always possible if pushed in the right way at the right moment. He regularly referred to Europe, a continent that had experienced over the centuries the worst conflicts and suffered from tribal, imperial, national, religious and linguistic divisions. None of these challenges, he noted, had prevented Europe from pursuing and achieving continental integration.
Inspired by the 1990 Declaration on Fundamental Changes, the OAU Abuja summit of June 1991 resulted in the treaty of the AEC, which laid the foundation for the formation of the AU in 2002. The Abuja Treaty came into force after it was ratified in May 1994. It provided for the AEC to be established by means of a process that involved the coordination, harmonisation and integration of the activities of the RECs. The AEC provided a framework for continental integration using the RECs as its building blocks. The creation of the AEC was envisaged in six stages, starting in 1994, which would lead to its full political and economic integration over 34 years. Salim personally promoted the treaty to member states though official visits and by organising platforms in Addis Ababa and elsewhere.45 Salim said:
80 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa The signing and coming into force of the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community was a manifestation of a determination to advance our collective destiny, and a reaffirmation of a strong faith in each other. It marked a resolute effort aimed at fostering closer cooperation and integration among the peoples of our continent.46
In an address to the Pan-African Congress on 3 April 1994, in Kampala, Salim underscored the importance of continental integration:
The commitment to the establishment of an African Economic Community is not just a desire to follow what is happening elsewhere in the world, but it is an imperative emanating from a deep-seated conviction that the welfare and prosperity of the African peoples could better be enhanced through the integration of the economies of Africa … The community is by far the single most important project for Africa. Though it, the OAU hopes not only to bring prosperity to Africa, but also to bring people of Africa together in a larger unity transcending ethnic and national boundaries.47
Salim repeatedly referred to the Abuja Treaty as the OAU’s most important project – and rightly so.
He also played a central part in the OAU’s adoption of the Sirté Declaration on 9 September 1999, which was passed at the Fourth Extraordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of African Heads of State and Government, held in Sirté, Libya.48 This declaration to replace the Charter of the OAU, called for the preparation of a constitutive act for the AU.
Salim is an ardent pan-Africanist. In his address during the opening session of the last summit that he would attend as secretary-general, the 37th OAU summit in Lusaka, Zambia, Salim appealed to African heads of state and government to ‘find that innermost strength to move our continent to a new level of unity, which irrespective of country, race, creed, ethnicity and religion, can galvanise our people for action’.49
Initiating a programme of reform and renewal
Acknowledging the prevailing dysfunctions and even the failures of the OAU, and in a quest to bring new vitality and dynamism to the organisation, Salim initiated a major programme of reform and renewal in 1999 with the approval of the Assembly of Heads of State. This took account of the magnitude and urgency of
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 81 the challenges facing the continent, and the emerging opportunities heralded by the approaching new millennium. Rapid advances in information and communication technology, as well as shifts in organisational culture meant that restructuring was necessary for any organisation that hoped to survive in the new era. It was also a period when most OAU member states had embarked on radical programmes of institutional reform and renewal, so it did not make sense for the continental body to continue in its old ways while constituent members were adapting to new methods of work.
The programme was given added impetus with the adoption of the Sirté Declaration. The complex task of establishing the AU, the aim of which was to form a stronger pan-African organisation that could cope with the challenges of the time, reinforced the objectives of the restructuring exercise to encompass the entire organisation rather than restricting it to only the secretariat.
By January 2000, the restructuring exercise had become a process of change management, underscoring the institutionalisation of the reform process and indicating a reorientation from simply being a short-term project-based undertaking to one that would introduce new systems and methods of work to the organisation. The objective was to reinvigorate through a culture of efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness in the way the organisation functioned and to sustain the innovations that had begun with the first steps taken in the restructuring exercise. The cardinal spirit of this exercise was to ensure maximum participation in the change process by staff and management at all levels.
Conclusion
Salim would serve as secretary-general of the OAU for 12 years, from September 1989 to September 2001 – an unprecedented three terms. He retired from the organisation shortly before it was transformed into the AU in July 2002.
His first term was pivotal in the transformation of the OAU. Under Salim, the OAU changed from being an entity that was focused on decolonisation and containing the damaging effects of the Cold War to one that developed an African agenda for peace and democracy, and created a position for Africa in global politics.
Salim was perceived as a genuine pan-Africanist who transcended regional and linguistic differences. It was therefore no surprise that he received letters of support for a second term even before the elections took place in Cairo in 1993, when he was unanimously re-elected. At the OAU summit in Harare in 1997, he emerged
82 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa as the clear winner at the elections to serve for a third term, during which he consolidated the gains he had already achieved. In 2001, in Lusaka, Salim decided not to stand for another term. The summit decided that Salim should be granted a special decoration for his services. This was awarded at a ceremony held at the OAU headquarters. In his last address to the OAU, Salim claimed that efforts to reposition the continent and the OAU had resulted in maintaining the relevance of the OAU internationally: ‘Our credibility and legitimacy have come as a result of the seriousness with which we have approached the affairs of our continental organisation.’50
When he assumed office, Salim set out a clear agenda on how to revitalise the OAU to secure its key place in multilateral diplomacy. His diplomatic skills and pan-African credentials gave him the opportunity to traverse the continent and create a common platform that transcended religion, ethnicity and cultural-linguistic divides. The success of this agenda led to his re-election for a second term without contestation.
Similarly, during the election for his third term, Salim had developed a profile and a reputation for leadership that inspired unity of purpose among the African francophone and anglophone countries. From this position of cross-cutting support, Salim was able to orchestrate the strategic shift from the OAU to the AU, which would have a special focus on regional integration and economic development. His contribution to the advancement of democracy, peace, security and stability on the continent is undisputed. During his tenure at the OAU, Salim sought to enhance institutional understanding of the OAU and increase Africa’s relevance on the global stage. With the liberation of Africa complete, the OAU started on the next leg of its journey – towards the political and economic development of the continent.
One of the most evident results of his quest to enhance South–South cooperation was developing relations with China. In this area, Salim was able to benefit from the role that he had played at the UN. He made it a personal initiative to enhance cooperation between China and Africa in the areas of trade and investment, and cooperation on issues of global importance. His efforts bore fruit as Beijing’s relations with and presence in the continent grew dramatically. In October 2000 the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation was inaugurated, and its first ministerial conference was held in Beijing.
Salim’s successor as secretary-general of the OAU was former foreign minister of Côte d’Ivoire Amara Essy, who was elected to succeed him at the AU summit in Lusaka in July 2001. Essy served in that position for a year and was then appointed
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 83 as interim chairman of the AU Commission. Essy and his successors, Alpha Oumar Konaré, Jean Ping and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma were able to build and expand upon this solid base. The emergence of China as a major global power and its growing involvement in Africa increased the relevance of Africa in the global arena.
Through Salim’s efforts, the office of the secretary-general of the OAU had gained a much more visible role than previously. In the absence of the organs, institutions and special envoys that the AU now has in place, the task of promoting and popularising OAU decisions, and its involvement in efforts such as peace talks, were firmly on the shoulders of the secretary-general. Salim travelled extensively to promote the Abuja Treaty and the Cairo Declaration. He made many official visits to the member states of the OAU to discuss their internal issues and the broader agenda with regional and continental implications. During his tenure, Salim visited virtually all the countries of Africa.
The effort to conceptualise Africa’s challenges and institutionalise appropriate responses to them are perhaps Salim’s most important legacy at the OAU. He made visible contributions on peace and security and regional integration, and asserted Africa’s position internationally. Most importantly, he played a leading role in redefining the OAU and laying the foundation for its eventual transformation to the AU.
Salim acknowledged that conflict threatened not only human rights and social order, but also prospects for survival and economic development – and even the sovereignty of some states. The OAU was not fully effective in responding to the conflicts on the continent in the 1990s and the clauses of the Cairo Declaration were not properly implemented. The organisation faced serious problems in terms of the political will of member states, and challenges in terms of its levels of expertise and personnel, and particularly financial resources. Salim’s continuous attempts to convince continental actors of the importance of an African peacekeeping mechanism succeeded despite initial reluctance and opposition to develop particular structures for the maintenance of peace and security. Consequently, by the end of the 1990s his efforts had evolved into a more effective and proactive set of institutions, mechanisms and facilities for conflict prevention and management of conflict resolution.
His conceptualisation of the new geopolitical balance of forces and the fast- changing economic and political map of the world of the 1990s helped the continent respond to international changes. The Abuja Treaty showed a determination to
84 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa advance a collective destiny for Africa. It marked a resolute effort aimed at fostering closer cooperation and integration among the nations of the African continent.52
After leaving the OAU in 2001, Salim continued his work for global peace through his involvement and leadership in numerous regional and international civil-society groups, think thanks, advocacy groups and research institutions, much of which he did in various capacities linked to the AU.
Today, Salim continues to be a respected global and continental statesman, and consistently supports the AU Peace and Security Architecture. He led the AU’s peace efforts in Darfur and was, for many years, a member of the AU’s Panel of the Wise. He also led numerous election observation missions across the continent. Salim was elected as chairman of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and chairs the Prize Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. He serves as chair of the international board of trustees of Africa Humanitarian Action and is a member of the Foundation Council of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Until the end of 2014, he also served as president of the Advisory Council of the ISS.
The authors appreciate comment and input received from Saïd Djinnit and John Tesha.
About the authors
Hallelujah Lulie is a researcher at the Peace and Security Council Report Program of the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa. He has written and published on topics that include media and democracy in Ethiopia, the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), and Ethiopia’s role in the Horn of Africa.
Jakkie Cilliers is the executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Security Studies. He is an extraordinary professor in the Centre of Human Rights and the Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 85
Conclusion: Salim in his own words
Remarks by Dr Salim Ahmed Salim on the African Union’s celebration of HE Salim Ahmed Salim, former secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity, 2 December 2014, Mandela Hall, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Excellency, Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Madam Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma; Excellency the vice-chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr Mwencha; Excellency, Ambassador Kongit, representing the honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom; Excellency, AU commissioner, Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui; Excellencies, ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps; distinguished representatives of ACCORD, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the Institute for Security Studies and the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation; Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for the recognition you have given me and this recognition is more of a tribute to our collective efforts.
It is indeed an honour for me to join you on this auspicious occasion. I am deeply humbled by the honour accorded to me this morning. Allow me to thank you sincerely for the kind and generous remarks, and for the recognition given to the modest contribution I have made in the service of this great continent.
I am fully aware that in its more than 50 years of existence, our continental organisation has had a number of distinguished secretaries-general and chairpersons. I am also fully cognisant of the fact that this continent has produced many gallant daughters and sons who have made outstanding contributions to the well-being of our people and to the development of our nations.
I interpret the occasion of this morning as an opportunity to concretise and review the shared experiences of our continent, with an intention of galvanising our efforts
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 87 to realise our desired destiny. My personal contribution is therefore only a vague shadow of the realities that we need to celebrate, assess, rectify and consolidate.
The continental organisation has been the anchor of the responsibilities I have been charged with for the better part of my life. Whether as an ambassador in Egypt, India or China in the 1960s; or a Permanent Representative at the United Nations in the 1970s; Minister of Foreign Affairs for my country in the 1980s; or secretary- general of the OAU in the 1990s; a member of the Panel of the Wise in the 2000s, my assignment, my working brief, the mission given to me has always been to promote, defend and realise Africa’s goals and ideals. In other words, I have been involved and/or associated with the OAU, and later the African Union, all my working life. In that sense, I have been part of this institution since its first summit in 1964 in Cairo, Egypt.
As we look back in history, it is a fact that we have made a lot of progress in pursuit of our continental endeavours. We have every right to celebrate. It has been a long journey in which all of us have travelled, confronting hardships, with our fallen heroes making the ultimate sacrifices, others taking up the baton to continue with the struggle. This was the journey for Africa’s liberation, the journey for the dignity and freedom of our people, the journey for the unity and integration of our nations, the journey for peace, security and prosperity of all Africans.
Out of all these, one thing which had made Africa triumph was the unity and cohesion of our states and of our people. The faith that our people had in this unity constituted a significant contribution towards the attainment of our objectives. It is important to safeguard this unity and cohesion but we should go beyond that.
Today we find ourselves where we are. In occasions such as this, we need to be clear on the true meaning of this moment, particularly in relation to where we have come from. Like that legendary Ghanaian bird, the Sankofa, which, in order to determine its direction when it feels disoriented when flying in high altitudes, turns its neck backwards while continuing to fly forward. In that flight mode, it acquires the full bearing of its past, present and future. Perhaps, once in a while, we do need such Sankofa moments as a continent!
Remarkable change has taken place in Africa since 1963. Indeed, long narratives and eloquent statements have already been given about the continental transformation of the past 51 years. There is this new African who is free, outside the bondage and shackles of colonialism and apartheid, striving to improve her/his
88 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa welfare, determined to forge linkages and unity, and committed to ensure peace, security and sustainability. These are tangible and physical embodiments of some of our gains, which are outstanding when compared with the centuries of our being denied full humanity.
Signs are occurring across the continent that issues which are seemingly normative as well as marginally relational, and even considered to be routine, are now acquiring a material force. A new dawn is rising in Africa – it is less the Africa monopolised by states, rather it is the Africa of the people of Africa. Voices are becoming more assertive. Collective force driven from within is becoming more revealing and even causing organised change. The people are crossing boundaries and trading among themselves. Women from Uganda and Nigeria are involved in high-value international trade with their Chinese counterparts. Their colleagues in Togo and Benin are hiring industrial establishments in Germany to print indigenously designed fabric. Youths across the continent are collaborating in music and film, creating a dynamic industry in art.
We have made some success but we still have problems – some of them critical. These problems can be divided into problems which are basically African, like civil strife, poverty, endemic corruption, fragile and failed states, the new phenomenon of extremism in our societies, and so on. But we have problems which are universal, as exemplified by the burning issue of climate change. These are challenges that affect Africa as part of the international community, thus the continent has to work together with the international community.
The phenomenon of extremism of all types has now grown more ominous in the last five years or so. We can ignore this phenomenon only at our peril. It is important for us as the whole continent to see what can be done to deal with this.
The issue of systemic economic and political alienation of the majority of African people that comes with the impressive record of economic growth and democratic progress has led to considerable tension in countries – tensions between urban and rural, between ethnic groups, between the rich and the poor, between the security forces and the people, and even more worrisome tensions across religious lines. Without tackling this challenge, we may not be able to resolve the problem of extremism and its accompanying threats, like terrorism.
The challenges that face us now, like what is going on in some of our countries, should not continue to be a one-country challenge. If we want to see the benefits of
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 89 tremendous economic and political gains that our continent has been experiencing in recent years to bring sustainable prosperity to all, we cannot allow totally unacceptable situations to continue.
Let me emphasise: whatever the causes, whatever the excuses, nothing can justify the horrendous terrorist acts being perpetrated against innocent civilians, including women and children. We therefore not only need to condemn these acts of extremism but to work tirelessly within the continent and with the international community to put an end to this menace.
The challenges facing our continent are continuing to expand and evolve. What is happening in some of the West African countries with Ebola demands serious reflection on what more can be done in relation to our crisis preparedness against various threats, old and new, man-made and natural disasters. We should be able to make use of the experiences gained to deal with the Ebola crisis, which, besides causing significant human casualties, threatens to destroy all the gains that have been made by the three affected countries, including some which have done extremely well in post-conflict reconstruction. Although the African Union and individual African states have started to fully mobilise the response to this new threat in terms of preparedness and dispatching medical and humanitarian support to the affected countries, we still have not been able to provide a concerted effort that we should have. As, in other conflicts and challenges facing our continent, we need to do more on this.
Clearly, these challenges cannot be effectively overcome by one country or a combination of a few countries. It is always important to work together as an international community but with African states and the African Union playing a key role. Fortunately, in many cases this is the case but we still have to walk the talk when it comes into financing those solutions by ourselves. While we talk a lot about dignity and rights, we talk a lot about the African renaissance, about the sufferings we have gone through, etc., we also need to take into account that there is a price for everything. And the price of this is that we must be prepared to meet our commitments and where necessary to sacrifice more.
We recall what the late president Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria stated at the OAU summit in 1963: ‘We must all be prepared to die a little for the liberation of our continent.’ In this case, we must be prepared to meet our obligations. It is scandalous that until today, after all we have gone through, we still have a problem where some members of our organisation do not fulfil their financial obligations.
90 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa The African Union is trying its best. We thank our friends in Europe, our friends in America, our friends in Asia and Latin America.
However, it is for me incomprehensible that Africa, which is endowed with considerable resources, continues to be in a situation of almost total dependency on external actors when it comes to dealing with crisis situations in our continent. In other words, the anachronism, which continues to remain today, where, for example the programme budget of our continental organisation has to be funded almost more than 90% by the European Union and others. This situation is both unsustainable unacceptable.
We cannot continue to expect our institution, with so many mandates and responsibilities, to deal effectively with our problems when member states do not invest in the institution. We recall the high-level panel, led by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the chairperson of the High-Level Panel on Alternative Sources for Funding for the AU, who late last year presented the findings and recommendations. There are a number of good recommendations in trying to limit the external funding dependency the institution has, but, unfortunately, implementation, as usual, will be a formidable challenge. Without political will and determination, we will lack any implementation that will result in fundamental and necessary changes. This can be applied to an array of challenges our continent continues to face. We need to take this matter seriously and work towards attainment of our goals and responsibilities.
Some have called this century an African century. A century that we would see Africa rising to its rightful position as an important factor in global affairs. I believe that this is possible, achievable and, most of all, necessary. Indeed, this should be the clarion call of the new generation of young people, who, unlike in our times, have more privileges of global interconnectivity, including advanced communication technology, to use for fulfilling their generational mission.
Improvement of good governance is indeed the number-one issue. We must never retreat from the struggle to ensure that we have capable and evolving systems that will ensure all those who lead, at whatever level, especially national leaders, be held accountable and act in a manner which makes them truly servants of the people who have elected them to power. Good governance, democracy, accountability and transparency should be nurtured and sustained, and above all be made an essential component of our societies. Africa should be at the forefront for the protection and
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 91 respect of human and people’s rights. What we need now is to embrace the culture of democracy and make our democratic gains work for our people.
To achieve this, it is imperative to build democratic institutions, improve our educational system and strengthen civil societies. I would like to pay a special tribute to all the institutions around the continent that have been working hard to support the African Union in its democratic endeavours, [and to] national and grassroots organisations and institutions that have been working hard entrenching democratic values in our people.
Indeed, we must continue to work together in striving for uplifting the lot of our people. Economic and social transformation is a prerequisite condition. In recent years, Africa has had strong economic growth records, largely attributed to the comparative advantage that we have on natural resources and the demands fuelled by the strong growth in the largest emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.
However, this growth has not translated into further reduction of poverty or income and wealth inequality, as we expected. We must guard against the growing inequities in our societies, which cause resentment and despair among our people, and especially the millions of unemployed young people. If we fail to redress this imbalance, we run the risk of explosion and conflict. We must gradually but firmly eliminate the contradiction of a very rich continent inhabited by the poorest people. The wealth and resources of our countries must be used to serve our people and not benefit a few individuals. We must promote openness and accountability in the utilisation of our resources, like oil, diamonds, gold, timber and other natural resources, so as to ensure that they serve as national assets and not as a curse, as is sometimes the case in some of our countries.
Creating quality livelihood opportunities for our young people is one of the most pressing challenges facing Africa’s stability and hence prosperity. Many of our conflicts in the future will be driven by the gap between aspirations of the people and the realities on the ground. This in particular relates to the youth of the continent. We need to recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the role of youth and women based on the changes that are taking place in the continent. It is encouraging to see that by and large there is some realisation and recognition of their capacity and aspirations, but we need to do more. We need to cultivate and empower them, so that they feel ingrained into our societies. We need to provide conditions where the youth aspire to do better for themselves and their country. We need to make young people believe that tomorrow will be better, because if not, we
92 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa will then lose the raging battle with extremists and criminal enterprises that radicalise our youth.
At the same time, the youth themselves have a responsibility to make sure they are at the forefront to achieve those aspirations and expectations. They should also have to understand where we are coming from. We expect them to understand our history and learn from it in making their contribution.
The women of our continent have been the most resilient and dynamic force. They constitute more than 50% of the entire population. They have played a crucial role in the struggle for independence and liberation wars. In conflict situations they bear a disproportionate burden of suffering. They have played and continue to play a pivotal role in all facets of economic and social development. But their full potential has yet to be utilised. This vital process needs to be encouraged and intensified. This powerful force, when properly empowered and allowed to make full use of their potential will unleash an irreversible movement towards the political, social and economic emancipation of the continent. They would certainly make a major contribution in the struggle against poverty, including in the important area of ensuring that Africa is self-reliant in food production.
It is encouraging that in many African countries there has been some development in recognition of women’s roles and positions in our societies. A number of women representations in both local and national decision-making positions has grown. In some countries, like in my country, Tanzania, the need for a 50% representation of women in Parliament and other decision-making bodies is no more a question of why but rather how.
However, empowering women to take positions of leadership by itself is not enough. We need to ensure that our societies fully embrace the values of gender equality as central to our democratic progress, as well as human progress. We cannot continue celebrating the modest achievements in this aspect while at the same time allowing the unspeakable dehumanisation of our mothers, sisters and daughters. We have for so long abused both social and religious norms as tools of legitimisation of unspeakable and intolerable indignity towards our women and girls. A developing society need neither tolerate nor understand such indignity.
As we look to the future, therefore, we should aim for an Africa which is free, an Africa which takes care of its own responsibilities and, working in tandem with the
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 93 international community, an Africa which does not tolerate extremism of any kind – and an Africa where our young people, who are the majority, feel they have a future.
It is time that we pay more attention to the nuances of the forces and dynamics underlying the achievements, as well as the challenges. We need to ask ourselves – what have been the drivers of these changes? What are the ideals, norms and values guiding these endeavours? What relationships have been forged among the people, leaders and within institutions? How are all these being nurtured and steered towards realising our shared vision?
Before concluding, I would like to pay a special tribute to the chairperson of the Commission, Madam Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, for the way she has steered the organisation with the support of her colleagues, the various commissioners. Her devotion and commitment to the continent are clearly inspirational. I would like to thank all African colleagues here, who for many years since my times as the secretary-general of the OAU have been supportive and active in our collective efforts and struggles in the service of our continent. I believe that what we are all striving for is to alleviate the misery and suffering of our people, but even more profoundly to galvanise the momentum for the realisation of our collective vision.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, especially my dear wife, Amne, for being there for me all these years. Without their understanding, support and encouragement, it would not have been possible for me to pursue the role and responsibilities that I have been entrusted with all these years.
Thank you all for your kind attention.
94 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa Notes
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Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 97 44 W Mangwende, The OAU: An analysis of 52 The composition of the team was crucial: the function, problems, and prospects of countries perceived as neutral were the organisation, Zamberia, XII, 1984/5, selected to ensure the credibility of whatever www.archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20 findings were to emerge, see JH Mittleman, Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20 Collective decolonisation and the UN University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol12n1/ Committee of 24, The Journal of Modern juz012001004.pdf, 35 (accessed 5 May African Studies, 14:1, 1976, 50. 2014). 53 United Nations Special Committee on the 45 MA El-Khawas, Southern Africa: A Situation With Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of challenge to The OAU, Africa Today, 24:3, Independence to Colonial Countries and July–September 1977, www.jstor.org/ Peoples, Resolution A/AC.109/400, 1972. stable/4185705, 32 (accessed 5 May 2014). 54 Interview between Salim Ahmed Salim and 46 AAE Santos, The role of the Decolonization Tor Sellström, in T Sellström (ed.), Liberation Committee of the United Nations in southern Africa – Regional and Swedish Organisation in the struggle against voices, Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Portuguese colonialism in Africa: 1961– 2002, 243. 1974, The Journal of Pan African Studies, 55 SA Salim, Remarks in the programme of 4:10, January 2012, www.jpanafrican.com/ action and conference proceedings of the docs/vol4no10/4.10TheRole.pdf (accessed 1973 UN–OAU International Conference 5 May 2014). of Experts for the Support of Victims of 47 United Nations General Assembly Resolution Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern 2878, 20 December 1971. Africa, Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand 48 AAE Santos, The role of the Decolonization (eds), Scandinavian Institute of International Affairs, 1973, 54–55. Committee of the United Nations Organisation in the struggle against 56 United Nations Special Committee on the Portuguese colonialism in Africa: 1961– Situation With Regard to the Implementation 1974, The Journal of Pan African Studies, of the Declaration on the Granting of 4:10, January 2012, www.jpanafrican. Independence to Colonial Countries and com/docs/vol4no10/4.10TheRole.pdf, 255 Peoples, Resolution A/AC.109/437, 1973. (accessed 7 May 2014). 57 E Reddy, The road to democracy in South 49 JH Mittleman, Collective decolonisation and Africa, Volume 3, Part 1, International Solidarity, Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2008, 110. the UN Committee of 24, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 14:1, 1976. 58 AAE Santos, The role of the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations 50 Decolonization, publication of the United Organisation in the struggle against Nations Department of Political Affairs, Portuguese colonialism in Africa: 1961– Trusteeship, and Decolonization, 6:2, 1974, The Journal of Pan African Studies, December 1975, www.un.org/en/ 4:10, January 2012, www.jpanafrican.com/ decolonization/pdf/decolonization/decon_ docs/vol4no10/4.10TheRole.pdf (accessed num_6-2.pdf, 17–18 (accessed 22 May 7 May 2014). 2014). 59 MA El-Khawas, Southern Africa: A 51 Interview between Salim Ahmed Salim and challenge to the OAU, Africa Today, 24:3, Tor Sellström, in T Sellström (ed.), Liberation July–September 1977, www.jstor.org/ in southern Africa – Regional and Swedish stable/4185705, 41 (accessed 5 May voices, Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2014); EK Mashingaidze, The role of 2002, 243. liberation movements in the struggle for
98 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa southern Africa, 1955–77, in Unesco, The to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1972 decolonization of Africa: Southern Africa (A/8723/Rev.1), Volume 2, 3. and the Horn of Africa, working documents 66 Ibid., Volume 2, 169. and report of the meeting of experts held in Warsaw, Poland, from 9–13 October 1978, 67 United Nations General Assembly, Report Unesco Press, www.unesdoc.unesco.org/ of the Special Committee on the Situation images/0004/000459/045919eo.pdf, 34 With Regard to the Implementation of the (accessed 6 May 2014). Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1979 60 SA Salim, Remarks in the programme of (A/34/23/Rev.1), Volume 1, 144. action and conference proceedings of the 1973 UN–OAU International Conference 68 Decolonization, a publication of the United of Experts for the Support of Victims of Nations Department of Political Affairs, Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Trusteeship, and Decolonization, 1:1, June Africa, Olav Stokke and Carl Widstrand 1974. (eds), Scandinavian Institute of International 69 United Nations General Assembly, Report Affairs, 1973, 54–55. of the Special Committee on the Situation 61 E Reddy, The road to democracy in South With Regard to the Implementation of the Africa, Volume 3, Part 1, International Declaration on the Granting of Independence Solidarity, Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2008, 113. to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1972 62 Ibid., 114. (A/8723/Rev.1), Volume 1, 32. 63 EK Mashingaidze, The role of liberation 70 Resolutions adopted by the OAU Council of movements in the struggle for southern Ministers at the 21st Ordinary Session, May Africa, 1955–77, in Unesco, The 1973, www.africa-platform.org/sites/default/ decolonization of Africa: Southern Africa files/resources/the_council_of_ministers_ and the Horn of Africa, working documents of_the_organization_of_african_unity_ and report of the meeting of experts held in twenty_first_ordinary_session_decision. Warsaw, Poland, from 9–13 October 1978, pdf (accessed 7 June 2014); JH Mittleman, Unesco Press, www.unesdoc.unesco.org/ Collective decolonisation and the UN images/0004/000459/045919eo.pdf, 25 Committee of 24, The Journal of Modern (accessed 6 May 2014). African Studies, 14:1, 1976, 51. 64 United Nations General Assembly, Report 71 Papers and documents of the 1973 UN– of the Special Committee on the Situation OAU International Conference of Experts for With Regard to the Implementation of the the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Declaration on the Granting of Independence Apartheid in Southern Africa, Olav Stokke to Colonial Countries and Peoples 1972, and Carl Widstrand (eds), Scandinavian (A/8723/Rev.1), Volume 2, 3; see also JH Institute of International Affairs, 1973, 6. Mittleman, Collective decolonisation and the UN Committee of 24, The Journal of Modern 72 United Nations General Assembly, Report African Studies, 14:1, 1976; Decolonization, of the Special Committee on the Situation a publication of the United Nations With Regard to the Implementation Department of Political Affairs, Trusteeship, of the Declaration on the Granting of and Decolonization, 6:2, December 1975, Independence to Colonial Countries and 51. Peoples, 1976 (A/31/23/Rev.1), Volume 2, 65 United Nations General Assembly, Report 7; see also UN General Assembly, Report of the Special Committee on the Situation of the International Conference in Support With Regard to the Implementation of the of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia Declaration on the Granting of Independence (S/12344/Rev.1), 22 July 1977.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 99 73 United Nations General Assembly, Report 7 Now the Uweleni High School. of the Special Committee on the Situation 8 His classmate was Khamis Muhidin Vuai. With Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence 9 Registered as a full-time student in to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1977 international relations, Salim studied 16 (A/32/23/Rev.1), Volume 1, 61–62. courses. He passed most of them with an A grade, despite his onerous duties as 74 These included communications with Accra, an ambassador to Tanzania’s Permanent Addis Ababa, Athens, Baghdad, Bucharest, Mission at the UN. Belgrade, Cairo, Copenhagen, Dar es Salaam, Geneva, Islamabad, Kathmandu, 10 The ZNP and ASP were formed in December Khartoum, Kinshasa, Lima, Lusaka, Manila, 1955 and February 1957, respectively. Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, 11 PAFMECA was formed in Mwanza, in Paris, Prague, Rabat, Rome, Tehran and September 1958 following a meeting Yaoundé. See UN General Assembly, Report between Nyerere, then leader of the of the Special Committee on the Situation Tanganyika African National Union, and With Regard to the Implementation of the other nationalist leaders from Kenya, Malawi, Declaration on the Granting of Independence Uganda, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe. Both to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1976 the ZNP and ASP were represented in that (A/31/23/Rev.1), Volume 1, 70. meeting. See SA Salim, Remembering Mwalimu, in H Othman (ed.), Sites of Chapter 2 memory: Julius Nyerere and the liberation 1 J Iliffe, The age of improvement and struggle of southern Africa. Dar es Salaam: differentiation (1907–1945), in Kimambo and Zanzibar International Film Festival, 2007, AJ Temu (eds), A history of Tanzania, 1969. 24–31. 2 Rwanda and Burundi were also part of 12 SA Salim, Remembering Mwalimu, in H German East Africa and were handed over Othman (ed.), Sites of memory: Julius to Belgium after World War I. Nyerere and the liberation struggle of southern Africa. Dar es Salaam: Zanzibar 3 H Othman, The union with Zanzibar, in Saïda International Film Festival, 2007, 24–31. Yahya-Othman (ed.), Yes, in my Lifetime: Selected works of Haroub Othman. Dar es 13 The African Association was formed in Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota, 2014, 163–169. Tanganyika in 1929 as a social and cultural organisation for the African elite living in 4 JMS Magotti, Simba Wa Vita Katika Historia ya Tanzania: Rashid Mfaume Kawawa. Dar Tanganyika’s urban areas. es Salaam: Matai and Company, 2007, 15– 14 H Othman, The union with Zanzibar, in 17; H Othman, Zanzibar’s political history, Yes, in my Lifetime: Selected works of in Yes, in my Lifetime: Selected works of Haroub Othman. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Haroub Othman. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota, 2014, 163–169; Zanzibar Elections Nyota, 2014, 154–155. Monitoring Group, The 1995 Zanzibar 5 Salim’s maternal grandmother was a elections report. Zanzibar: ZEMOG, 1995; L Manyema believed to be from Kigoma; his Cliffe (ed.), One party democracy: The 1965 paternal grandmother was a Nyamwezi Tanzania general election. Nairobi, 1967. from Tabora (both in mainland Tanzania). 15 Others were the Ali Mahfoudh, who later His paternal grandfather was originally from became a colonel and chief of operations Oman. and training in the Tanzania People’s 6 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 5 Defence Forces, and Mohammed Ali Foum, February 2015. who went on to serve in various diplomatic
100 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa positions at ambassador level in the 25 Mkoani District Development Fund, file DPM/ Tanzanian government. MOD/U.712P.O. 16 GT Burgess, Race, revolution and the 26 Ibid. struggle for human rights in Zanzibar: The 27 Interview with Gabriel Chifupa, Dar es memoirs of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Salaam, 4 February 2015. According to Hamad. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. Chifupa, the armed forces were able to buy 17 The word ‘umma’ means the people, in the goods at preferential prices. sense of something owned by all people in 28 Salim advises on foreign affairs, Daily News, the country. 14 March 1987. 18 After the new union had been formed, 29 JE Nyang’oro, A political biography of Foreign Affairs became a department of Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of the the union and appointments to Tanzania’s United Republic of Tanzania. Trenton: World diplomatic missions were to consider Press, 2011, 92–93, 129–132; interview nominations from both the mainland and with Ahmed Kiwanuka, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar. 2 February 2015; interview with Gabriel 19 See www.jamiiforums.com/jukwaa-la- Chifupa, Dar es Salaam, 4 February 2015. historia/611580-usichokijua-kuhusu-dkt- 30 GP Mpangala and R Mawazo, Historia ya salim-ahmed-salim.html (accessed 28 Mkombozi: Mwalimu Julius Kambarage January 2015). Nyerere. Dar es Salaam: Mwalimu Nyerere 20 JK Nyerere, Freedom and liberation: A Foundation, 2012, 243–250. selection from speeches, 1974–1999. Dar es 31 JW Butiku, The facilitation of the Burundi Salaam: Oxford University Press, 2011; JK peace negotiations, in GP Mpangala and Nyerere, Our leadership and the destiny of BU Mwansasu (eds), Beyond conflict in Tanzania. Harare: African Publishing Group, Burundi. Dar es Salaam: Mwalimu Nyerere 1995. Foundation, 2004. 21 Some of these movements were South 32 The international and regional observers Africa’s ANC and the Pan-African Congress, included the UK, US, Germany, France, Mozambique’s FRELIMO, the South West Japan and Eritrea. Africa People’s Organization from Namibia, and the Zimbabwe African National Union. 33 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 3 February 2015; interview with Salim Ahmed 22 Letter from Salim Ahmed Salim, Tanzania’s Salim aired by the Tanzania Broadcasting Permanent Representative to the UN Corporation, January 2015. to the UN secretary-general, ref. no. TZNY/D.100/2, 15 May 1974. 34 See www.newstimeafrica.com/ archives/25566 (accessed 30 January 23 The proposal was that if Salim thought that 2015); www.bloomberg.com/research/ returning home to take the new position stocks/people/person.asap?personld=1006 would not interfere with his plans, then he 547&ticker=BHARTI (accessed 31 January should come back. If he felt that it would 2015). interfere, then Salim should remain at the UN. 24 GP Mpangala, Major issues in Tanzanian Chapter 3 economic history, Part II: 100 years of 1 Society for International Development transformation of peasant agriculture, Forum, East Africa Today: An interview with 1891–1990; Dar es Salaam: Institute of Salim A Salim, 2 June 2013, www.sidint.net/ Kiswahili Research, University of Dar es content/east-africa-today-interview-dr-salim- Salaam, 2000. salim.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 101 2 UN, Biography of Salim Ahmed Salim, April 16 G Evans and J Newnham, The Penguin 2002, www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/salim- dictionary of international relations, London: salim-bio.htm. Penguin, 1998, 268–369. 3 Salim describes an abstention from a 17 Nuclear Threat Initiative, Building a safer permanent member of the Security Council world, Non-Aligned Movement treaties as a positive response because it implies and regimes NTI, www.nti.org/treaties- that even if the member disapproves of the and-regimes/non-aligned-movement-nam/ candidacy, they are willing to tolerate the (accessed 13 August 2014). possibility of a successful election. 18 Globalization and Autonomy, Mondialisation 4 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August et autonomie, http://globalautonomy.ca/ 2014, Dar es Salaam. global1/glossary_entry.jsp?id=EV.0027 (accessed 14 August 2014). 5 UN, Biography of Salim Ahmed Salim, April 2002, www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/salim- 19 Government of India Ministry of External salim-bio.htm. Affairs, History and evolution of Non-Aligned Movement, http://mea.gov.in/in-focus- 6 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August article.htm?20349/History+and+Evolution 2014, Dar es Salaam. +of+NonAligned+Movement (accessed 13 7 Ibid. August 2014). 8 UN Resolution 3290 (XXIX) on the Question 20 G Evans and J Newnham, The Penguin of American Samoa, Guam, New Hebrides, dictionary of international relations, London: Pitcairn, St Helena and Solomon Islands. Penguin, 1998, 377–378. 9 RL Barsh, The international legal status of 21 Excerpt from speech given at the Plenary Native Alaska, Alaska Native News, July Meeting Regarding the Expulsion of the 1984, 35, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ South African Regime from the UNGA, 2 Political_status_of_Puerto_Rico#cite_note- November 1974, New York. aitc.org-64. 22 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s 10 US House of Representatives 110th Republic of China, Struggle to restore Congress, Second Session, Report 597, China’s lawful seat at the United http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PoliticalstatusofP Nations, www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/ uertoRico#citenote-ReferenceA-55. ziliao_665539/3602_665543/3604_665547/ t18013.shtml (accessed 13 August 2014). 11 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August 2014, Dar es Salaam. 23 Excerpt from speech given by Salim at the UN on the eve of the UN Resolution on the 12 E Duncan and E Keefer (eds), Foreign Admission of China, 25 October 1971. relations of the United States, 1969–1976 volume V, United Nations, 1969–1972, 24 Ibid. Washington: United States Government 25 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August Printing Office, 2004. 2014, Dar es Salaam. 13 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August 26 Excerpt from speech given by Salim at the 2014, Dar es Salaam. UN on the eve of the UN Resolution on the 14 Ibid. Admission of China, 25 October 1971. 15 UN, Gathering a body of global agreements, 27 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August A/RES/S-6/3201 – Declaration on the 2014, Dar es Salaam. establishment of a New International 28 Excerpt from speech given by Salim at the Economic Order, www.un-documents.net/ UN on the eve of the UN Resolution on the s6r3201.htm. Admission of China, 25 October 1971.
102 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 29 Israel & Judaism Studies, The Education private company that was tied to the Website of the New South Wales Jewish apartheid regime in South Africa. Another Board of Deputies, Yasser Arafat, www.ijs. Cameroonian, William Eteki, replaced org.au/Yasser-Arafat/default.aspx (accessed Ekangaki and held the position of secretary- 20 August 2014). general from 1974 to 1978. Subsequently, 30 Council on Foreign Relations, Arafat’s Edem Kodjo from Togo took over the speech at UN General Assembly, www.cfr. leadership from 1978 to 1983. Kodjo was org/palestine/arafats-speech-un-general- succeeded by the then acting secretary- assembly/p13823 (accessed 12 August general, Peter Onu, a Nigerian, who served 2014). as the interim secretary-general from 1983 31 Excerpt from speech given at the Plenary to 1985. Ide Oumarou from Niger replaced Meeting Regarding the Expulsion of the Onu and led the OAU from 1985 to 1989. South African Regime from the UNGA, 2 Oumarou’s bid for secretary-general was November 1974, New York. strongly supported by the francophone countries. Interestingly, he was also 32 P O’Malley, The heart of hope, move to supported on the basis of his ethnicity and armed struggle, operational strategy and MK’s role in ANC, in The O’Malley archives, religion by the federal government of Nigeria. www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/ Tanzania’s leaders had pleaded with Nigeria site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06l to support Onu as an official candidate for v02963.htm (accessed 12 August 2014). the post of secretary-general since he was the only alternative candidate to Oumarou. 33 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August In the end, Nigeria took the unusual step 2014, Dar es Salaam. of withdrawing the candidacy of its own 34 UN General Assembly, President of the 68th national, Onu, and gave its support to Session, UN General Assembly, President Oumarou. of the 62nd Session, Salim A Salim (United Republic of Tanzania), http://www.un.org/en/ 2 UN, Biography of Salim Ahmed Salim, April ga/president/bios/bio34.shtml (accessed 20 2002, www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/salim- August 2014). salim-bio.htm, accessed 25 August 2014. 35 Excerpt from speech given at the Plenary 3 Speech by ANC Deputy President Nelson Meeting Regarding the Expulsion of the Mandela at the 26th Assembly of OAU South African Regime from the UNGA, 2 Heads of State and Government, 9 July November 1974, New York. 1990, Addis Ababa, http://www.anc.org.za/ 36 Interview with Salim Ahmed Salim, 7 August show.php?id=4842, accessed 25 August 2014, Dar es Salaam. 2014. 37 Excerpt from speech given by Salim at the 4 Address by Secretary-General of the OAU UN on the eve of the UN Resolution on the Salim Ahmed Salim to the 7th Pan-African Admission of China, 25 October 1971. Congress, 3 April 1994, Kampala. Chapter 4 5 Lise Rakner, Alina Rocha Menocal and 1 Diallo Telli, a national of Guinea, replaced Verena Fritz, Democratisation’s third Wodajo as secretary-general from 1964 to wave and the challenges of democratic 1972. Telli handed over the leadership of deepening: Assessing international the OAU to Nzo Ekangaki, a Cameroonian, democracy assistance and lessons who led the organisation from 1972 to learned, Overseas Development Institute, 1974. Unfortunately, Ekangaki did not 2007, www.odi.org/publications/201- finish his term of office due to controversies democratisation-challendes-democracy- that emerged over his relations with a assistance, accessed 25 August 2014.
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 103 6 OAU, Report of the Secretary-General on 18 Salim A Salim, African conflicts: Their the Fundamental Changes taking place in management, resolution and post-conflict the World and their Implications for Africa, reconstruction, Development Policy June 1990. Management Forum Occasional Paper No. 1, Addis Ababa: DPMF, 2002. 7 Ibid. 19 Jeremy Levitt, Conflict prevention, 8 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 management and resolution in Africa – September 2014, Dar es Salaam. regional strategies for the prevention of 9 OAU, Declaration on the Political and displacement and protection of displaced Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the persons: The cases of the OAU, ECOWAS, Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the SADC and IGAD, Duke Journal of World, 1993, AHG/DECL.3 (XXIX). Comparative International Law, 11:1, winter 10 Address by Secretary-General of the OAU 2001. Salim Ahmed Salim to the 7th Pan-African 20 Sam Ibok, Conflict prevention, management Congress, 3 April 1994, Kampala. and resolution in Africa 2000, http://unpan1. 11 OAU, Declaration on the Political and un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/ Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the CAFRAD/UNPAN011836.pdf, accessed 25 Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the August 2014. World, 1993, AHG/DECL.3 (XXIX). 21 The Kampala Document, Article 11.A.ll, 12 South African Institute of International Africa Moves to Launch a Conference Affairs, The OAU and peacekeeping, on Security, Stability, Development and SAIIA International Update No. 14/96, Cooperation in Africa, 19–22 May 1991. Johannesburg: SAIIA. 22 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 13 Robert H Bates, John H Coatsworth and September 2014, Dar es Salaam. Jeffrey G Williamson, Lost decades: Lessons 23 Assembly of Heads of State and from post-independence Latin America for Government, 28th Ordinary Session, 28 today’s Africa, National Bureau of Economic June–1 July 1992, AHD/Decl.19 (XXVIII). Research Working Paper No. 12610, 24 Address by Secretary-General of the OAU October 2006. Salim Ahmed Salim at the White House 14 Jeremy Levitt, Conflict prevention, Conference on Africa, Washington D.C., 26 management and resolution in Africa – June, 1994. regional strategies for the prevention of 25 See AU Peace and Security Department, displacement and protection of displaced www.peaceau.org/en/, accessed 22 persons: The cases of the OAU, ECOWAS, September 2014. SADC and IGAD, Duke Journal of 26 OAU, Declaration on Establishing Within the Comparative International Law, 11:1, winter OAU a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, 2001. Management and Resolution, Cairo: OAU, 15 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 June 1993. September 2014, Dar es Salaam. 27 Salim A Salim, African conflicts: Their 16 Ibid. management, resolution and post-conflict 17 Sam Ibok, Conflict prevention, management reconstruction, Development Policy and resolution in Africa 2000, http://unpan1. Management Forum Occasional Paper No. un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/ 1, Addis Ababa: DPMF, 2002. CAFRAD/UNPAN011836.pdf, accessed 25 28 OAU, Report of the Secretary-General on August 2014. the Fundamental Changes taking place in
104 Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa the World and their Implications for Africa, peace and security in Africa, 6 March June 1990. 2002, www.uneca.org/eca_resources/ 29 South African Institute of International speeches/2002_speeches/030603salim. Affairs, The OAU and peacekeeping, htm, accessed 25 August 2014. SAIIA International Update No. 14/96, 43 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 Johannesburg: SAIIA. September 2014, Dar es Salaam. 30 OAU, Declaration on Establishing Within the 44 Towards a landmine-free Africa, proceedings OAU a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, of the First Continental Conference of Management and Resolution, Cairo: OAU, African Experts on Landmines, World June 1993. Trade Centre, Kempton Park, 19–21 May 31 Ibid. 1997, www.issafrica.org/publications/ other-publications/21-may-1997-towards- 32 Ibid. a-landmine-free-africa.-proceedings-of- 33 South African Institute of International the-first-continental-conference-of-african- Affairs, The OAU and peacekeeping, experts-on-landmines-kempton-park-19-21- SAIIA International Update No. 14/96, may, accessed 25 August 2014. Johannesburg: SAIIA. 45 Ibid. 34 Address by Secretary-General of the OAU 46 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 Salim Ahmed Salim to the Closing of the September 2014, Dar es Salaam. Third Regional Peace-Keeping Course in Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 June 1997. 47 Address by Secretary-General of the OAU Salim Ahmed Salim to the 7th Pan-African 35 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 Congress, 3 April 1994, Kampala. September 2014, Dar es Salaam. 48 OAU, Sirté Declaration, 4th Extraordinary 36 W Ofuatey-Kodjoe, Regional organisations Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and the resolution of internal conflict: The and Government, 8–9 September 1999, ECOWAS intervention in Liberia, International www.au2002.gov.za/docs/key_oau/sirte.pdf, Peacekeeping, 1:3, Autumn 1994, 263. accessed 25 August 2014. 37 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 49 Statement by Secretary-General of the OAU September 2014, Dar es Salaam. Salim Ahmed Salim at the opening of the 38 Salim A Salim, African conflicts: Their 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of management, resolution and post-conflict Heads of State and Government, Lusaka, reconstruction, Development Policy Zambia, 9 July 2001. Management Forum Occasional Paper No. Ibid. 1, Addis Ababa: DPMF, 2002. 50 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 39 Salim Ahmed Salim, personal interview, 7 51 September 2014, Dar es Salaam. September 2014, Dar es Salaam. 40 OAU, Reflections on the work of the OAU 52 Ibid. Liberation Committee by Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the OAU, 1994. 41 Statement by Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the OAU, at the opening of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, Lusaka, Zambia, 9 July 2001. 42 Salim Ahmed Salim, The architecture for
Salim Ahmed Salim: Son of Africa 105 About the African Union The African Union spearheads Africa’s development and integration in close collaboration with African Union Member States, the Regional Economic Communities and African citizens. AU Vision is to accelerate progress towards an integrated, prosperous and inclusive Africa, at peace with itself, playing a dynamic role in the continental and global arena, effectively driven by an accountable, efficient and responsive Commission.
About ACCORD The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) is a non-governmental institute headquartered in Durban, South Africa. ACCORD Salim A hmed Salim: s on of frica specialises in conflict management, conflict analysis and conflict prevention, and intervenes in conflicts through mediation, negotiation, training, research and conflict analysis.
About the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) is a private diplomacy organisation founded on the principles of humanity, impartiality and independence. Our mission is to help prevent, mitigate, and resolve armed conflict through dialogue and mediation.
About the ISS Salim Ahmed Salim: The Institute for Security Studies is an African organisation that aims to enhance human security on Son of Africa the continent. It does independent and authoritative research, provides expert policy analysis and advice, and Edited by Jakkie Cilliers delivers practical training and technical assistance.
About the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation The Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation was established in June 1996, as a permanent tribute to Mwalimu Julius K Nyerere’s contribution to sustainably improving the quality of human relations. The Foundation is an intellectually and politically independent body and works to promote peace, unity and people centred development throughout the world, and particularly in Africa.
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