THE RADICAL REVIEW VOLUME FOUR NUMBER NINE 1 S 6d November 1965 202/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965

A Spur to Unity NOVEMBER 11, 1965 was a day of humiliation for Africa. The seized inde­ pendence of a white supremacist regime in unliberated Zimbabwe meant that, after so many years of struggle, apartheid had been extended to another part 203 THE CHILDREN OF RAPE: Antonio de of Africa, far from being destroyed in its own breeding ground. Figueiredo The Organisation of African Unity was meeting for its Accra Summit 205 FOR NAT NAKASA: Kathleen Conwell Conference as the crisis neared, and was able to demonstrate its solidarity 208 THIS EMPHASIS ON FREEDOM: N. E. R. with its brothers in Southern Rhodesia and" its determination that their fate Mwakasangula shall not be bargained away ". But that determination has not yet found the 209 tt TWS SIDE OF ETERNITY": A. B. Ngcobo means of action, and as Osagyefo the President of Ghana, said in his farewell 211 COMING TO GRIPS: Lewis Nkosi address to the Conference: "If our Assembly had not been in session at this

218 NO CROPS WITHOUT PLOUGHING?: Martin time what could we have done about the serious situation in Southern Legassick Rhodesia? Could we have in our various capitals agreed on a common 219 course of action? Could we have expressed our resolution to the world as

220 THE TRANSKEI'S ANSWER - 2: L. Jipula we did ...?" At least the world was left in no doubt as to Africa's view, but the 222 SOUTH AFRICA 1965: Candidus Conference is now over and the heads of state are back in their capitals. In 202 Leader; 210 Poems by Paul Theroux; 211 Poem by Breyten Breytenbach; 212 Reviews by Southern Rhodesia the white supremacists have finally rejected Britain's pleas Kenneth Mackenzie, C. F. GoodfeUow, Obi B. and African solidarity on this issue is fragmented and weakened. Who knows Egbuna, Jill Jessop, Raymond Kunene, Mlahleni Njisane and Collingwood August; 217 Words what painful, bloody actions may take place before this new advance of Words Words apartheid is once more beaten back. Yet this chapter of the history of Africa's 219 To the Editors; 223 Jazz Epistle 6 by Lindsay struggle for freedom and unity ends on one note of hope. The tragedy 01 Barrett November 11, 1965 makes is even more certain that decisive steps will be taken towards real African unity in 1966.

AT THE ACCRA SUMMIT, it was a considerable achievement for the proponents of an all-Africa Union Government that they won three-quarters of the

EDITORS: Randolph Vigne and Neville Rubin votes cast on a motion calling for a Commission to examine the proposal that an Executive Council of the OAU be set up. They did not win the votes of LITERARY EDITOR: Lewis Nkosi two-thirds of all members, present and absent, so the resolution could not be DESIGNER: lames Currey adopted. But there is real hope that at Addis Ababa in 1966 such an Executive will be set up. 1965 has seen the matter thrashed out in the honest, Subscription rates World Surface Mail: 1 year R2 - £ 1 - $2.80; frank discussion which characterised the Accra Summit, by happy contrast 6 months RI - 10s. $1.40; Renewal: 1 year with its two speech-laden predecessors. The Southern Rhodesian crisis may R.1.80 - 185. - $2.50. Students in Southern Africa: 1 year R1.50­ have spurred some of the less enthusiastic members towards a realisation of 155.; Airmail: 1 year V.S.A. $6 - S.A. R4. the need for an Executive arm to the OAU. It will certainly have strengthened the resolve of all its proponents. The illegal white supremacist government 12A GOODWINS COURT 1966, t~ OFF ST MARTINS LANE may well still be in power in and a united African response its LONDON wc2 ENGLAND challenge to human liberty and dignity may be achieved. The real achieve­ ment here will not be simply the wiping out of the humiliation of November Published by Gransight Holdings Ltd., 12 Gayfere Street, 11, ·1965, but the taking of the first resolute, combined step towards freeing London, W.l, and Printed by Goodwin Press Ltd. (T.V.), 135 Fonthill Road, London, N.4, England. the eight captive states of southern Mrica from racist domination, direct or indirect. e THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/203 The children The first crop of African writers of rape and artists of Portuguese language are, as much as Luandino Vieira's people of the Luanda slums, the ANTONIO DE product of the Portuguese colonial FIGUEIREDO violation of Angola and Mozam­ bique.

ON 19TH MAY THIS YEAR a jury appointed by the Portuguese indexed; several prominent writers have been banned from con­ Society of Writers and comprising five of Portugal's best authors tributing to cultural periodicals and newspapers; newspaper editors and literary critics, announced that the Society'S 1964 prize for have been prohibited from mentioning the proscribed authors by " short-stories" had been awarded to Luuanda, a book of estorias name, even in ordinary news dispatches. by Luandino Vieira. The author turns out to be Jose Vieira Mateus As so often happens in such political circumstances the Govern­ da Graca, an Angolan who is now serving a 14-year sentence at a ment defeated its purpose. Luandino Vieira's works have indeed a

I penal camp in the islands of Cape Verqe, for political activities very deep significance in the context of Afro-Portuguese culture. against the Portuguese state (of which Angola is only an " overseas This is attested by the fact that he had been awarded several prizes province "). In view of this, the Government demanded that the before in his own country-actually one every year, since 1962. award be cancelled forthwith. He had, curiously enough, been awarded Angola's own "Mota The jury, comprising the writers Pinheiro Torres, Manuel da Veiga" literary Grand Prix in 1964, for this very book Luuanda, Fonseca, Augusto Abelaira, Gaspar Simoes and Fernanda Botelho, the prize having been handed to his family, as the author was refused to yield to Government pressure and stood by their deci­ already a prisoner of PIDE. But there can be no doubt that the sion. When the first-three-named members of the jury were events relating to the dissolution of the Society of Writers have arrested and the second two detained for questioning by the PIDE given to Luuanda a permanent place in the history of Afro­ (Portuguese State Police), they firmly stated that they had acted Portuguese culture and accelerated the process of international within the laws, such as they are, and that it would be dishonour­ recognition of what might well be the first major revelation of an able to Portuguese culture if a jury were to act as a board of Angolan literature. functionaries of repression. This attitude of defiance enraged the regime. Two days after the jury's announcement, the Society's headquarters in Lisbon were completely wrecked by a group of right-wing extremists; the Portuguese Minister of Education, Prof. Galvao Teles, declared IN SPITE OF THE PROPORTIONS and long duration of the Portuguese the summary dissolution of the Society on grounds that the award .Empire and the social and qIltural variety of its component parts, had "deeply offended Portuguese sentiment"-an allusion to the the literary scene in Portuguese African territories is insular and fact that Portuguese troops have been engaged in fighting Angolan arid-a true reflection of the stifling nature of Portuguese colonial­ nationalist guerillas since the outbreak of the movement for inde­ ism. Traditionally the only major contribution of an Afro element pendence in 1961. At the same time the pro-Salazar press pub­ in Portuguese literature has been the poetry of the" creoles" of lished entire pages of cables, letters and statements by individual Cape Verde Islands-but then the Cape Verde Islands are off and corporate supporters of the regime in Portugal, Angola and Africa's mainland in more ways than one. Its culture is as half­ Mozambique, violently accusing progressive intellectuals of treason­ caste as the majority of its 300,000 inhabitants whose society able activities and demanding that even sterner measures should present a unique social phenomenon of relatively widespread educa­ be taken to ensure that they abide by the regime's "Portugal tion against a background of isolation, rich in misery and fertile Uber Alles" edict. As was to be expected the scandal soon had in endemic famines. Up to 1960, in Portugal's two greatest repercussions outside Portugal, especially in Brazil and other Latin "overseas provinces" of Angola and l\lozambique, literacy was American and Latin European countries more closely connected confined to the local settler elite and to 1% only of the African with the Portuguese literary scene. population. A few European writers concerned themselves with observing the social problems of colonial environment and only IN A COUNTRY WHERE the Government, through a long established Castro Soromenho, who lived in Angola, can be said to have risen system of censorship of the daily press, has an almost absolute above the purely sociological interest of the literary essays of local control over the proportions that any given event is to assume~ Europeans. The exceptional coloured poet tried to put across some many wonder whether there were ulterior motives on the part of message of social protest, but the total output of " African" poets the authorities to allow the incident over a literary prize to become of all coloured shades, could produce no more than an interesting the centre of national attention. The fact is that the authorities anthology. Curiously enough the only work of real standard com­ were only too willing to respond to the sponsored campaign of ing from Portuguese African territories is the poetry of Reynaldo public indignation. Over the past three months Portugal has seen Ferreira, a Portuguese settler in Louren~o Marques who died, still a concerted operation of intellectual repression on an unprecedented young, in 1959. But then his poems could have been written in scale~ extending to Angola and Mozambique. All bookshops and Lisbon or anywhere in Europe; and the very fact that he lived in publishers' stores, both in Portugal and the "overseas provinces" Africa for most of his life, without showing any awareness of it, is have been raided and an estimated 100,000 books confiscated; perhaps significant in itself of the insidious apartheid that prevailed hundreds of titles by Portuguese and foreign authors have been in Mozambique, a territory which is exposed to South African influence. In later years, and partly owing to the emergence of a new ANT 0 N I 0 D EFl GUE IRE D 0, secretary of the Portuguese generation of Africans whose education coincided with the nativist Democratic Movement in London, was deported from Mozam­ ferment that agitated Portuguese African territories, Afro-Portu­ bique in 1959 after spending 12 years there. guese poetry showed greater promise. Many coloured and a few 204/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 Luuanda

2 "

Luandino q S I Vieira purely African poets, stimulated by the publishing endeavours of with Grandma Xixi, she had warned them before going into the Casa dos Estudantes do Ultramar (Overseas Students' Associa­ tOWD, with her short and agile step of seventy years, that water tion) in Lisbon, or Angola's" Imbondeiro Collection ", made their was coming without doubt. first gropings towards a cohesive Afro literature. A number of Showers had come down twice that morning. poets, like the Angolans Agostinho Neto and Mario de Andrade First an enraged gale threw itself against the clouds, shuffl­ and the Mozambicans Jose Craveirinha and Malagantana Valente, ing them, making them run from the sea over the Kuanza and gradually gained some recognition abroad. back from the Kuanza over the town of Mbengu. In the back­ The more mbitious prose works, however, remained beyond the yards and doorsteps, seeing such movements, people were won­ grasp of Mricans partly because the censorship of the press in­ dering if the real rain were coming or if it was another trick hibited them from making the first tentative steps, in the form of as in the last two days when the clouds would gather only to shon stories and other literary essays, partly because the local have the wind come and swat them away. True enough Grand­ economics of publishing offered no scope. So far only the Mozam­ ma Xixi had warned them and her old woman's wisdom never bican Luis Bernardo Honwana, the author of " Nos matamos 0 cao lied, but all they could see was the same hot, crazed, somersault­ tinhoso" (" We killed the mangy dog") has had a short story ing wind, scattering bits of paper, dead leaves and rubbish, and published abroad (in Richard Rive's anthology Modern African causing spirals of dust to dance in the streets and then the women Prose, Heinemann Educational Books). Set against this barren would slam the windows and doors in the wind's face and keep background, the work of Luandino Vieira offers the unique feature their children close, for as they said that madness of the wind of being simultaneously the first major native revelation coming brought with it bad luck and diseases from the witchdoctors. from Angola while having qualities comparable to the best Afro­ The estoria of Grandma Xixi and grandson Zeca Santos is American or Afro-European works of real international interest. simple enough. While Grandma was doing her chores in the hut Zeca Santos burst suddenly in at the door as if he were making a casual social call. She is half expecting him and she knows what he is up to. Soon he asks her for lunch. He obviously is without THE PRIZE-WINNING volume Luuanda is a selection of three of money again; and she wonders whether he is just not loafing ten estorias concerned with life in the musseques, the poor quarters around, trying to impress the girls with the colourful shirt on around Luanda where, as elsewhere in Portuguese Africa, the real which he spent too big a portion of his last wages. In her Grandma social and racial encounter between Europeans and Africans takes goodness she scolds him for not looking for work. She asks why place. Luandino Vieira's usage of the local Afro-Portuguese patois, he has not gone to see Mas' Sousa, the local Portuguese shop­ consisting not only of a mixture of Portuguese and native words, keeper who might have advanced them some food on account of but of a picturesque corruption of both, is reflected in the phonetic wages if Zeca worked in the petrol station. At first Zeca Santos emphasis in the book's title Luuanda, as well as in the term estorias is reluctant to talk about Mas' Sousa. Later, trying to stop Grand­ -which is a simplification of the word historias, curiously near ma from nagging him, he decides to provide her with proof that the English word stories, used by the author to define the literary he had been to see Mas' Sousa. He rolls his shirt and shows the form of his cameos of life among his people. mark of a whip lash on his back. And then, still baffled by some The first estoria " Grandma Xixi and grandson Zeca Santos" is confused event, he tells her of what had happened when he went very revealing of Luandino Vieira's compassionate grasp of the to see Mas' Sousa. subtle routine forms of human suffering resulting from social He welcomed him with a friendly smile, and even put his poverty and neglect. This, as well as the other estorias, is not based hand on Zeca's shoulder when he said: on single dramatic events for the lives of the poor in the musseques "... but of course! For the son of Joao Ferreira I always do not usually afford such highlights. The quality of melancholy have something. And how is Grandma? Tell her she should understatement one finds echoed in certain stories by such writers not be ashamed ... the bill is small, she can still come ..." as Alan Sillitoe and in certain modern films, is a natural gift of Mas' Sousa then disappeared inside the store shed, dragging Luandino Vieira's. His compelling pictorial style is revealed in the his big belly inside his dirty shirt, and Zeca Santos stood outside way he takes us into the world of Grandma Xixi and her adoles­ gazing absent-mindedly at the petrol tank, with his big drum cent grandson, in the first paragraphs of their estoria: and measuring handle, not automatic like those down town, no For over two months no rain had fallen and all around the sir. And he saw the two yellow glasses, each measuring five musseque the little children of the November grass, young and litres ... green, were dressed with a red dust skin spread by the warm "I swear Grandma, I swear I didn't do nothing, I didn't winds and the jeeps of the patrols speeding through the streets say nothing! I had only asked him if I could work at the station, and alleys that the straggling huts designed at random. So, measuring the petrol-nothing else. It was only to eat, and to when Grandma, at the door of her hut, felt the beginnings of get food in advance, Grandma! the hot winds which did not want to blow as fast as they used "And Mas' Sousa was smiling, he was saying yes, sir-I to, the neighbours heard her muttering to the grandson, that was the son of loao Ferreira-a good man! And then I don't perhaps two days would not pass without rain. The morning of know what happened Grandma! " that day had been born with clouds, grey at the start, black and Zeca Santos wanted to cry, he felt his eyes fill with water, wild later, mounting over the musseque and all people agreed [continued on page 206 THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/20!5 For Nat Nakasa KATHLEEN CONWELLI

what this society has done to the American Negro was far more terrible than what South Africa was doing to the Black South African. Late one night during these days immediately following his return he said to me: "Kathy, when I was there, there were moments when I wanted to bow to a tenant farmer in Alabama, because I understood the miracle of his survival. They took away his identity and yet he has survived. In South Africa we have a culture that has lasted for generations; we have a language; Nat Nakasa, South African journalist, And then the dream broke, crumbled, we are a people; we are grounded in some­ worked on Post and Drum, 70hannesburg really, in the subtle way that America has thing solid. But they took everything away and was founding editor of The Classic. of letting things, crumble for the sensitive. from you, everything, and yet that tenant He went to Harvard University in 1964 He always had several speaking engage­ farmer still gets up in the morning, the on a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism. ments: social clubs, churches; everyone black man in Harlem still rides the subway." In terms of the South African exit permit wanted to know about South Africa. He Perhaps few of us, I know it is difficult which enabled him to take up the fellow­ once said that he felt like a puppet dangling for me, can understand what it is to be ship, he was forbidden to return to South from a string-he was invited to speak so without a country: to perceive and struggle Africa. He was supporting himself by that people could hear horror stories, the for the simple truths that most of us never free-lance journalism in New Yark when ugliness of South Africa: "What do the allow to exist within us, and be strangled by he committed suicide there in July 1965. white people there do to Africans?" It a society that cannot stand truth. Perhaps We reprint with grateful acknowledgment was always the same question: "Tell us we can never fully sympathise with his Kathleen Conwell's letter to The Harvard what it feels like to be South African." For decision, because we have never gone that Crimson, 11th October 1965. we Americans like to assuage our guilt by far down in our own souls. But Nat Nakasa having listened to the horror of another's wanted to give something to the world, existence. We like to think that we have wanted desperately to give Black people a really contributed something if we have sense of their value, and not in the service THIS IS A LETTER for and to Nathaniel listened to all the gruesome details; it is a of any doctrine of Black Supremacy, but Nakasa from a friend who perhaps knew kind of flagellation. It is what sends some because he knew that if people were to him very well in some ways and not well of us to the Selmas and Albany, Georgias relate honestly, each person in the relation­ at all in others. That is not important. of our own country: it enables us to refuse ship must have a sense of his own worth, of What is important is that his death, his to look inside-to refuse that realisation the value of the way he has used his life. decision at some point to take his own life, that when we ask a Nat Nakasa to recount Without that, there is always a master-slave be understood. the horror of South Africa we have made mentality-the kind of master-slave men­ Nat Nakasa came to America with a him into an object. tality that unconsciously rules all the dream. All that he had learned about this We have said, we will invite you to study relationships between black and white in country while in South Africa had given at Harvard, or we will invite you to speak this Society. He once said he wanted to him the hope of freedom here. He knew at our social hour and in that way we will make a movie, and he described it thus: about the problems of the American Negro, have fulfilled our responsibility to all "I want to make a movie so powerful that but what he had read and heard about had blackness. a black man will come in slumped down, made him believe that the American the way he has been taught to live slumped government was in all sincerity and honesty over, but midway he will begin to sit up attempting to redress these grievances. He straight, and by the time he leaves he will once said to me that when he came to AND NAT NAKASA KNEW THIS, and it killed be walking with his head high." America, for the first time in his life he him. When he came back from the South, I salute you Nat Nakasa, because I be­ could let himself dream things he had never something had broken inside him. I saw lieve you lived bravely. I ask, too, that the 'even dared to think about while he was in him constantly for two or three days after world mourn your dying, and if it cannot South Africa. He said he was like a child his return, and he was in great pain. He seek its own soul far enough to mourn you, when he first came here, full of the excite­ tried, tried so hard to write an honest story that it respect the effort of your living. If ment of being able to walk freely, stay out about the South, because he had perceived we can do that for you, Nat, then perhaps as late as he wanted-simple things that we there the real tragedy of the American we can begin the kind of honest inquiry take for granted were all adventures for Negro. He knew that no magazine would into our own lives that must precede any him. touch what he had to write. He knew that true communion between the races. e 206/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 .Luuanda

continued from page 204] The critical social comment in the following two estorias is but his rage was big and hot, as hot as the crack of the rhino­ perhaps even more subtle. "The estoria of the parrot and the whip on his back, and the heat of his rage dried his tears inside thief" resembles a popular tale. It concerns "a certain Lomelino his eyes, and would not let them come out. dos Reis, Dosreis to his friends and ex-Lolo to the girls" who " ... he then thrashed me, I don't know why Grandma! is caught with seven stolen fat and live ducks by the Police, and I had done nothing! Then, as I was running away, he started describes his funny and shrewd way of getting along with the shouting after me that he was going to report me to the police " law." "The estoria of the chicken and the egg" lives off the old post, because I was a thief like Matias, who had stolen money housewives' dispute as to who is the rightful owner of the egg from the petrol station when he worked there ..." laid in one's backyard by someone else's chicken, especially when " Ih! But is that boy still in jail, is he? " the owner of the chicken happens to be an unfriendly neighbour. " Yes, Grandma - it was Mas' Sousa who handed him to But then such an old story is enacted very effectively in the the police. And he was still shouting after me son of terrorist, musseque where both a lot of people and a few chickens live in that he would charge me too ... that there was no more food for cramped promiscuity - and where, any way, there is a perennial bandits - no more tick!" shortage of eggs. But ultimately the impression left by Luuanda is that although poverty might be suffered gaily, it might well be poverty itself that is the opium of the poor. WHEN GRANDMA WAS FINALLY CONVINCED that Zeca was not just telling another of his stories, even her permanent good and warm humour gave way to the sad noise of the rain falling on the zinc roofs as they both sat silent for a time. Suddenly as if to shake AT ONE STAGE IN HIS YOUNG LIFE Luandino Vieira's desperation off the gloomly atmosphere, she goes to unwrap a parcel, announc­ with the condition of his people must have reached a point when ing that she has some food in store. Zeca, watching her movements, he thought that literature was not enough. In 1960 he set out to realises that she must have gone to collect scraps of food from join Angola's Movimento Popular de Libertacao (MPLA) which the down-town dustbins - but by then he is too hungry and was clandestinely led from headquarters in Luanda by some of his too weak for pride. school friends. It turned out, however, that Luandino Vieira's " Zeca, look my boy ! It looks as if these small roots are manioc. political skill did not match his literary talent. And see this orange, you see, my boy! I found it for you ..." The sentence of 14 years imprisonment pronounced by Angola's Zeca knew she just wanted to take the edge off his hunger and Supreme Military Court on 24th October 1964, contains indict­ he saw her old and bent body, sucked dry by life and the tropical ments that might not even be easily understood in democratic mist, under the fine rain, her hands full of callouses groping in countries, where some of Luandino Vieira's actions would not be the dustbins of down-town. The oranges she had brought with her illegal. The findings of the Court are as follows: (a) that the were all rotten, one could save a small piece from each, and those accused received on the 4th February, 1961, from a Mr Rossan manioc roots ... Brandao, a report on the social and economic conditions obtaining Without even knowing what was happening, Zeca jumped in Angola at the time, which was critical of Portuguese colonial up pushed Grandma aside, and without thinking any more, before (sic) policy, a report which the accused translated into English tears come to his eyes again, he burst out of the hut and shouted and later handed to a BBC reporter in Leopoldville, having sent. back in a shocking voice, as if he had gone mad: a copy of the Portuguese original to Argentine for publication in "They are dahlias, granny! They are flowers, the roots of the magazine Principios; (b) that Luandino Vieira tried to come to flowers." London to establish contact with the Angolan rebel leader Viriato The door, swollen with rain, did not fit back into the da Cruz, his projects being frustrated owing to the fact that he frame. It banged once, twice, and then it swung creaking, as if could not obtain a pasport; (c) that he planned to organise a new it were mourning Zeca's departure, as if it were also sad. movement called "New Angola," set up a clandestine printing Grandma Xixi stood in the middle of the dark smoky hut, look­ press and radio station and acquire plastic bombs to scare (sic) ing at the door, still holding in her trembling hands the dahlia the authorities; (d) that he visited Lisbon where he received a roots, and shaking her head from side to side as if she were a copy of the " Manifesto of the MPLA," several copies of a maga­ puppet in a shop-window. zine called Tribuna Livre and a report on alleged desertions from Luandino Viera's empathetic grasp of the plight of those who the Portuguese Army - all this at an encounter with another of live in the no man's land of Angola'S main racial, class and cul­ the accused in which each of them used one half of the same tural divisions, is shown by the fact that the characters whose box of matches, previously sent by other contacts, a sign of estorias he tells are inarticulate about their own social condition. identification; (e) that he wrote to the Angolan exile Mr Costa The points of reference provided by the better living in down-town, Andrade, then living in Italy, a full account of his conspiratorial as much as the everyday difficulties they might have to face, are projects (in a letter that might have been intercepted by PIDE, taken for granted as more or less a matter of luck. When we though we are not told of this). next meet Zeca Santos he is trying to flirt with the girls or he is For the experienced politician, who is well aware that the roaming around with his pals, always being careful in his walks Portuguese regime is made up of men who never forgave the"' to see the effect of his colourful shirts reflected in shop windows. Dutch for not having killed Gutenberg before he invented the THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/207-

prlnnng press, Luandino Vieira's indictment is a sure indication Tropical World" made up of the multiracial lands which are, that he is the type of naive idealist on whom the PIDE vents or formerly were, parts of the Portuguese Empire. In a study visit the rage and frustration left by the many really feared rebels who to the " Portuguese tropical world," as well as in his native Brazil, escape their net. a former Portuguese colony, Professor Freyre has never found the It is, however, significant that Luandino Vieira should have racial antagonisms that prevail among other peoples, especially aspired to become a member of MPLA, rather than of any of in the United States, South Africa or in Asian and African terri­ the other Angolan liberation movements that have emerged before, tories formerly ruled by the British, the Germans or the Dutch. during, and since, the outbreak of actual fighting. Leaving aside Progressive Portuguese intellectuals share the view that both purely partisan considerations, and without wanting to impute any the regime's propaganda and Gilberto Freyre's theories rely on two illegitimacy to the nationalist stand taken by other groups, MPLA wrong premises. First, such theories are based on a comparison is by far the most interesting of Angolan political phenomena. in negatives. Its origins date back to the middle fifties and although its natural It is apartheid that is an offence to human dignity, not racial course was altered through the influence of political events in tolerance to Africans in their- own land that is a positive virtue. the rest of Africa, and especially in the Congo, in the early The very concept of tolerance is still a reflection of a deeply sixties, the fact is that MPLA is still deeply rooted in the embryo ingrained belief in one's own racial superiority. Moreover, those of a new Angola that was born of the long and painful contact victimised by the insidious forms of racial discrimination that between Portuguase and Africans. It was actually first organised exist in Angola and Mozambique only know and react to their inside the musseques of Luanda. The significance of Luandino own environment - they lack the points of reference of the erudite Vieira's work goes beyond the literary analogies of style and atti­ and much travelled theorists to derive any comfort from their tude one could find between his work and that of Portugal's Aqui­ findings. lino Ribeiro and Brazil's Jorge Amado or even the semblance It would appear, however, that the process of cultural miscegena­ between the musseques and the morros of Brazilian towns. Luan­ tion is not incompatible with the phenomenon of social exploita­ dino Vieira's two published books A cidade e a infancia and tion; nor does it run strictly along the boundaries of race and I~uuanda are not only the revelation of an incipient Angolan culture colour. Owing to a conjunction of negative social factors many but also its product. Portuguese immigrants are resigned to living in the multiracial peri­ pheries around the centre of trade and industry dominated by whites, while being unable to afford the economic luxuries of apartheid. The coexistence that ensues has resulted in the emerg­ THE QUESTION OF WHETHER PORTUGUESE colonialism has produced ence of an elite of exponents of an embryonic multi-r~cial culture. an Afro-Portuguese culture in Angola and Mozambique, is often It is significant that Agostinho Neto, Malangatana Valente, Luis obscured by the primary political nature of the arguments put Honwana are pure blacks; Mario de Andrade, Jose Craveirinha, forward by either the critics or the apologists of Portuguese rule. Viriato Cruz are mulattos; Luandino Vieira, like the Mozambican Normally the arguments of the critics tend to be confined to the poet VirgiIio de Lemos, now exiled in Paris, happens to be a pure ruthless social exploitation of Africans, the long process of evolu­ white. tion from the slavery system to insidious forms of forced labour, However the striking affinity between such men is that they besides which all other sociological features seem irrelevant; on are all, in one way or another, linked with African liberation the other hand the apologist will unconvicingly use the contrast movements. Moreover they have all been persecuted by the provided by apartheid and racial segregation, to make of the non­ Portuguese Government. While Luandino Vieira is in a concentra­ racialist character of Portuguese legislation a propaganda asset. tion camp in the Cape Verde Islands, Jose Craveirinha, Malanga­ Such propaganda- takes two main forms. One is expressed in the tana Valente and Luis Honwana are now in jail in Lourenco official literature that pours out from the Government's institutions Marques awaiting trial on charges of belonging to Frelimo, Mozam­ whereby the Portuguese were somehow endowed with an unique bique's Liberation Movement; Agostinho Neto, Mario de Andrade historical - almost racial - vocation for harmonious contact with and Viriato Cruz, are now exiled leaders of the Angolan liberation peoples of all colours and creeds. This has been effectively con­ movement and, like Virgilio de Lemos, were all former prisoners tradicted by Professor C. R. Boxer, of King's College, London of PIDE. ' University in his studies of Portuguese colonialism (Race Relations This seems to epitomise the drama of Portuguese colonial rule. in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, O.U.P., 1963) and by both The first crop of African artists and writers of Portuguese the American Professor James Duffy, author of Portuguese language, are not the children of the happy, legitimate marriage Africa, and the British writer Basil Davidson. The other line of between Portuguese and natives, of the official Government pro­ apology, more elaborate in analysis and encompassing Brazil and paganda. Such a marriage never took place. Nor are they even the other territories of Portuguese language, is found in the theories children of the natural love implied in Professor Freyre's theories of "Luso (Portuguese)-Tropicalism" advanced by the Brazilian of racial interco~rse in the tropics. They, as much as the people of sociologist Gilberto Freyre. These have been discussed by Pro­ the musseques, are the children of rape - the casual, inevitable, fessor Marvin Harris, of Columbia University, New York, in creatures, of a long Portuguese colonial violation of the oppressed Portugal's African Wards. peoples of Angola and Mozambique. Ultimately the ruthless re­ According to Professor Freyre there exists a distinct "Luso- pression they suffer is an expression of guilt and fear. e 20S/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965

COMMENT This Emphasis on Freedom

N. E. R. Mwakasungula

AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS IfAVE REALISED leave the country, on the same day they ~np ls2uow~ ds!wo.ldwo:) JO l!-I!ds ~ S! ~Jdql that the best way in which democracy can enter it through the back door bringing members of the community. be achieved, democracy which matches with them wors.e type of imperialism or the African culture and personality, is a one­ so-called Neo-Colonialism. IN NONE OF THE ONE-PARTY AFRICAN states party system. In a typical African one­ So at all times the Africans must be does the constitution, which apparently is party state the one party is no longer a united in their states or else they become the bible of the state, enact that there will party in the normal sense but a national prey to the colonialists again and the hard be no free periodical elections. Tanzania movement. won independence becomes meaningless. last month had its General Elections in There are two reasons why it is thought which three former Ministers and six junior in the West that one-party democracy can't Ministers and several other Parliamentarians work. Firstly, very unfortunately too many were dropped out. If there was any coercion people are addicted to social formulae to then all the Ministers should have been which they give the same rigidity as mathe­ WHAT A TRUE AFRICAN PATRIOT has to tell returned or directly nominated. matical formulae, a thing which is totally is that democracy, like belief in God, can In none does the government say worship wrong. be achieved through different ways. Hindus, should be this or that. Paradoxically very Social conditions do change, so what is Buddhists, Moslems, Christians and the important believers in multi-party demo­ good today may not be good tomorrow. like can go to heaven provided that they cracy go as far as saying that members of People behave differently under the same are faithful to their respective religions. certain Christian sects shall not, by con­ conditions. Therefore any attempt at get­ But too often you hear one religion saying stitutional enactment or should not by ting an all the time correct political formu­ the other one is wrong! Who is right practice, be heads of state. In such a state la is not right. then? an ambitious citizen may abandon his choice Secondly, these hostile critics of Africa, Similarly, democracy can be achieved by of sect if he foresees the chances of leader­ with all their cunning, have failed to realise having one party, more than one party or ship. the conditions which made nearly all even in a partyless state. Certainly in such a state the freedom of African States tend to one-party systems Not all Hindus or Christians will go to worship is conditional. Look at Ghana, and yet retain their democracy. heaven merely by virtue of being Hindus or Guinea, Liberia, Tunisia or Kenya if such All ex-colony African States were at war Christians. Those who will go will go be­ a thing exists, even indirectly. with their colonisers, constantly fighting for cause apart from being Hindus or Christians The one-party system works better in their independence. It is a general principle they believed and behaved themselves as Africa because it is essentially based on universally accepted that during war such. African tradition which calls for a deeper differences of different parties should be Similarly, not every so-called multi­ spirit of compromise and goodwill amongst buried for national interests. party or one-party democratic government its community. This compromise is so im­ States which neglect this fact suffer will be democratic merely by virtue of be­ portant because without it Africa will go serious consequences. Kenya's independence ing so-called. But it will be democratic back to multi-party democracy in which was delayed mainly because people in because the leaders of that state follow people, through lack of compromise, go to different parties failed to get together for a democratic ways. the Parliament to oppose for the sake of common goal which was independence. I need not list some multi-party states opposition because they believe their main Zimbabwe People's Republic is still which call themselves democratic but are in job is to differ and create differences. This suffering the same thing to this day. The fact fascist in the literal sense. Yet our is their work and they do it and get paid for leaders are not prepared to come together critics persistently pose the question, " Are it! This, as President Nyerere says, is a for a common purpose. When the time these one-party states in Africa really mockery of democracy. There is no point comes to realise this they will have fought democratic ?" Dear imperialist, the in going to Parliament knowing very well half the battle against the imperialists. answer is simple. If democracy means the that you are going to disagree. In certain countries even after indepen­ existence of opposition parties it is No, but It would be extremely difficult to con­ dence when parties fail to forget their bitter if democracy means government by repre­ vince a one-party African State that demo­ differences to consolidate their efforts to sentatives freely elected by the people the cracy is better practised in multi-party develop their country and to form a stable answer is a jubilant Yes. states when they know very well that South government, chaos reigns. This was the case To test whether an African one-party Africa, Southern Rhodesia and other states with the Congo Republic (Leopoldville). state is really democratic one has to where people are denied their right to vote After getting independence the war does examine if the instruments of democracy have many parties and yet have govern­ not stop there. The. day when imperialists do exist. These instruments are free ments which are based on minority rule periodical elections, free discussions, free­ which is not representative of the people. dom of worship, freedom of speech and It will not take long before others realise N. E. R. MWAKA SUN GULA writes freedom of association. The emphasis is on that Africa is right and therefore they may from the District Court, Kilosa, T an­ the word free. come to change their attitude and probably zania. In addition to these one has to see if in the long run adopt the same practice. e THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/209 "This side ------An appeal to A.B.NGCOBO the United Nations: of eternity" Special Committee on Apartheid on behalf of Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe

THE STORY OF MY COUNTRY is a story of grief, a story of want, a town of Graaff Reinet on 5th December 1924 of very poor parents. story of hunger, homelessness, a story of torture, and a story of He was the last born in a family of boys. endless persecution. During his childhood days, he realised and felt the pangs of There is yet another aspect to it. Its glorious side is the great oppression, exploitation and degradation. He has vivid memories story of resistance, the story of heroes, past and present-the story of the days of his youth. He remembers well, his parents waking of service, of sacrifice, of suffering. up hours before dawn and returning long after dusk from heavy Our struggle against foreign domination started on the very day tasks they had to undertake to ensure one meal a day for the family. the white man landed on the shores of South Africa, appropriating "The only time I used to see my parents in broad daylight was to himself vast tracts of land. on Sundays" he used to state afterwards. He himself was put to The first African victims were the Khoikhoin and the Bathwa onerous duties during the day. He grew up to be a tough man-a people who were renamed Hottentots and Bushmen. They fought man who could take it. Although he never enjoyed perfect health heroically until they were overpowered. Then came the Bantu­ during his childhood days, upon entering school, he became a very speaking Africans who, for over a hundred years, fought heroically good sportsman. In 1943-4, he held the lawn tennis championship in defence of shrines of their gods and the ashes of their fathers. (African) for the whole of South Africa. They fought on the hills, they fought in the valleys, they fought in His parents could hardly afford to keep him long in school. He forests and on the plains. Yes, they fought everywhere. took the post-primary teacher's diploma. Before he could complete This chapter of our history constitutes a glorious episode and it, he was down for the greater part of the year with a chest ail­ affords one mental and psychological relief. Epics have yet to be ment. But when he eventually wrote his examinations, he secured written about it. When we look back into the corridors of history a first place in the first class. This was the beginning of his many and see these heroes, we feel proud to have come out of their firsts in life. loins. We are the heirs of that great tradition. How can we not Because of his outstanding achievement, he was offered a scholar­ feel proud that we are heirs of great historical figures like Tshaka, ship to proceed to high school. He matriculated in the first class Hintsa and Moshoeshoe? What of Cetshwayo, Sekhukhune and and proceeded to Fort Hare University College on another scholar­ Mgungunyane. They stood and faced fearful odds and in true ship. His ability and personality quickly earned him the leadership tradition, they chose to die on their feet than to live on their knees. of the Youth League on the campus and presidency of the Students In this galaxy of names, you find the names of Dingane, Mzilikazi Representative Council. and Makhanda. In the great book of history, the pages that print In 1948, he was acclaimed throughout the country fot an end­ their accounts shall be read with great relish by the generations that of-term speech he delivered in his capacity as President of the follow, for the names of these men have vindicated our very exist­ Students Council. He vividly analysed the situation and as early as ence and have inspired men to action. that, he urged that positive action be implemented. This speech It is not out of romanticism that I have mentioned these great cost him his scholarship. names. I have done so to bring to your notice another name with As a Youth Leaguer, he had by now become a household name. as great a potential. In December 1949, he piloted the 1949 "Programme of Action" I speak of Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe-President of the Pan­ through the Annual Conference of the African National Congress. Africanist Congress and national leader of our people. He is con­ This programme was militant and for a time generated dynamism fined to Robben Island prison under clause 4 of the General Law within Congress. That year he was elected Secretary-General of Amendment Act of 1963,. After completing his three year sentence, the A.N.C. Youth League and became an ex officio member of the he was further imprisoned on this notorious island. National Executive of the A.N.e. He had been earlier found guilty by the mock courts of South In 1952, he participated in the Defiance Campaign-this cost Africa of having organised and marshalled the nation into a posi­ him his teaching job. He could not get employment for a long tive campaign against the Pass Laws-when more than 700,000 time-until he was recommended to take up a lectureship in people responded. It is the same campaign that led the Broeder­ African linguistics at the University of the Witwatersrand. bond-indoctrinated police to open fire at unarmed people in After the Defiance Campaign, he and many others felt that the Sharpeville and Langa, where there were brutal massacres. This is militant Programme of 1949 was being sacrificed and compromised now part of universally known history. on ideological grounds. Sobukwe is the only man who has been held and imprisoned At this stage of his life, he wrote prolifically in a newsletter he without trial under this obnoxious clause. According to the settler edited, The Africanist. He emerged as the chief protagonist of Minister of Justice he is held till "this side of eternity". African nationalism as the only vehicle to a nonracial Africanist Mr. Chairman, Sir, my petition is that this man must be set free. democracy on a continental basis. He wrote, " All people who have made Africa their home must adjust themselves to an extent where MANGALISO SOBUKWE was born in the Cape Province at the small , Africa for the Africans' suggests no menace to them. Failure to do this would mean that they have not yet accepted Africa as their A. B. NG COB 0, treasurer-general of the ·Pan-Africanist con­ home." gress (South Africa), addressed the U.N. Special Committee on Some of his fellow African nationalists with whom he had cam­ Apartheid on 19th April, 1965. His statement has been curtailed paigned at school fell by the wayside. He held his head up and and slightly adapted here. went on. 210/THE: NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965

IIWe Swallow Pallid Grief At the inaugural Conference of the Pan-Africanist Congress, where he was unanimously elected President, he postulated the and Gape at Black 11 basic policy of the P.A.C. . . " Politically we stand for government of the Mncans, by the Africans and for the Africans, with all those who owe their only loyalty to Mrica and accept democratic rule of an African majority being regarded as Africans." LEOPOLDVILLE, CONGO In the same vein, he continued, "We guarantee no minority rights because we are fighting precisely We swallow pallid grief and gape at black, that group exclusiveness which those who plead for minority rights would like to perpetuate." tyrannise the torturers, newly singing He continued, of the terror and the poisoned blood; " It is our view that if we guaranteed individual liberties, we have given the highest guarantee necessary and possible." gather the armies caked hard with blood This is the sort of man the South African settler authorities incar- where they pulled down the rage of black; cerate and hold in prison without trial. command the children now done singing, YOUR PETITIONER HAS THE HONOUR to be the last person outside to take pistols and tears, squeeze the singing prison to have been with Sobukwe. My sojourn with him in Pre­ bullets through the air to hustle blood toria Prison for the greater part of two years was a period of learn­ from peace, from wounds once only black. ing, which I shall never regret. PAUL THEROUX To work with him is a pleasure and to serve him is an honour. His presence in prison animated us and boosted our morale. A humble and unassuming man. Although whilst a lecturer at Witwatersrand University, he could have had a life of comfort, he did not. He led a simple life-travelling third class by train every day. When he was arraigned before the courts in 1960, he refused to The Hindoo Crematorium enter a plea, thus refusing to recognise its authority over him. "The law I am charged under is a law made by the white man and administered by him." He refused to associate himself with white man's dirty work. "If the white man wishes to do his dirty work, let him do so, but he must expect no co-operation from me­ MOMBASA, KENYA my hands must be clean of it," he protested. The huge roof on posts crouched He was taken from Pretoria to Robben Island and when asked over pits and patient stone, groined what he felt about it he said stoically, " If you want freedom, you arches stained with soot and greasy must be prepared to suffer for it ". smoke,· the assistants squatting This man is the conscience of my country-without him we are a people whose conscience is wanting. on the steps, passing a thin cigarette; It is over five years that he has been in prison. Since 21st March and lush below the fire-pits, arches, 1960, he has been behind prison bars. He has been in prison the flowers, grass, even trees receiving longest period to date fqr any politico in South Africa. the ashes supposedly flu~hed to the ocean He has a family-a young courageous wife, Veronica Zodwa, and four children. One girl Thoko (Joy) 12, a boy, Dinilesizwe (sacri­ The only movement: me following two fice for the nation) IQ-what a prophetic name. Then there are children; whole fistfuls of ribs the twins, 8, Dedanizizwe (give us a breather ye nations) and they gave me, burned teeth, innocent Dalindyebo (creator of plenty). gifts, the chalky lumps of jaws; This is his family and if they were here, they would associate themselves with the prayer of your petitioner that Sobukwe must the three of us scooping the cusped be released. skull-scraps caught in heaps near The South African Government suspended the " 90-day" clause the sea on the bunches of flowers; but left clause 4, which affects Sobukwe. crunching through the ashes, going among Some people thought the suspension of the " 90-day" clause was the bones. a sincere manifestation of good will on the part of the South PAUL THEROUX African Government. Why then did they not release Sobukwe-a man who like the "90-day" detainees has never been brought to trial? How long, 0 Lord, holy and kind? e THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/211. _ ••••••••••••••_ window; stared at the river and the island across and the massive drawbridge periodi­ LEWIS NKOSI cally lifting to allow the barges to steam Coming under. "Because I'm Negro white people reports on the look at me and assume that I'm a good September 1965 dancer. This always amuses me because I to grips simply can't dance. I may be a Negro but Conference ont I just can't dance very well...." One knows the joke, if one may call it that; Race and Colour where white liberals are gathered solemnly to discuss the race problem such jokes are at Copenhagen the stock-in-trade of the Negro intellectuals. Unfailingly, the joke, pale as it has become, always draws laughs. What is even more unendurable is that if one has attended the same parties with Mr. Louis Lomax, who brought the house down resoundingly with this particular one, it is impossible not to PERHAPS THE CHOICE of the venue was the From the sixteenth floor window of the remember that he has told it before. Listen­ first indication of the lack of urgency or Europa one stared at the river and the ing to speakers like these, witty, glamorous, immediacy which was to characterise this island across and the massive drawbridge certainly knowledgeable, one felt that an Conference on Race and Colour. Sponsored which lifted periodically to allow the barges incalculable joke had been perpetrated upon by the prestigious American Academy of to steam under. About twenty or more us; for wasn't this being back at some Arts and Sciences and by the Congress for scholars, writers and observers, ,all carrying school debate in which jokes were carefully Cultural Freedom, the conference took place glamorous names some of which appear planted at the right places, properly worked at Copenhagen's plushy Hotel Europa, far regularly on the covers of glossies, sat in the out and timed with split second precision! from any sound of racial battle of Los conference room analysing the whys and Angeles, Manchester or Johannesburg, nor wherefores' of racial hate. "If Mr. Philip does it appear that Dr. Verwoerd's theo­ Mason will take it upon himself to repre­ reticians were ever approached to attend sent the whole of Britain, I'll be glad to THE QUALITY OF THE PAPERS was, to put it and contribute their accumulated intelli­ leave him to answer...." in a pleasantly ambiguous way, astounding! gence' on the subject, something that might No, Mr. Philip Mason, certainly does not It was comforting to hear from the chairman have made the conference seem a little wish to speak for the rest of Great Britain, on the very last day that he found the relevant to the troubled times we live in. though. '.. The light filtered through the contributions of a very high quality, that the whole mess of pottage was going to be served up as a book. Accordingly if this conference seemed to me somehow irrelevant to the urgencies of the race question, (for instance the growing tendencies toward "Colour­ Maoism" not only in the third world but 11Hairy fruit, among many American Negroes), this anthology will presumably have the salutary subsiding water" effect of presenting authoritative informa­ tion on the subject of race: Mr. Ezekiel Mphahlele still serving up his favourite dish on negritude; Mr. Louis Lomax telling us FOR JEREMY SENTILLI all it needs to dethrone Dr. Verwoerd is that American Negroes should march in the the yellow and fat chrysanths in the green bottle streets of New York! are now naked and gray (the dogs are blind) When the West Indian writer, Mr. E. R. every poem begins like this about flowers about dogs Braithwaite, warned in a very passionate and tries to plant its symbol with my hands language that a racial storm was about to symbols of my wizened heap of cells break in Britain, I followed this by a re­ dragged out of house and kneaded by the space around mark to the chairman, Mr. Robert K. A. to grin a mouth Gardiner of Ghana during recess in which - shrivelled into a little hunchbacked clay. I suggested Braithwaite had done very well. But it is not clay, nor is it dust Mr. Gardiner seemed very impatient: "I but bones blood veins and hair don't think he is right. We are not here and what had love, could laugh and copulate to discuss tactics; we are only tryinp; to into a body the pure scare of life, understand the race problem." It was left that could howl and walk and then lie down to CoHn Legum, an invited observer, and till this false light commandeered the eye Dr. Edward Shils, the American sociologist, till chrysanthemums stank, till they were slimy to express their misgivings about the failure the water tight and green with mud . ... of this conference to come to grips with fold over, sweet water, not the guts of plants urgent race problems such as Southern told to cover the watcher's pain Africa, most likely to go up in flames in the and damp this fear near future. Legum expressed astonishment this hairless angel that whites by the glass that a conference such as this one had presented no paper on Chinese intentions, BREYTEN BREYTENBACH their attitudes to colour and their successes or failures in the political field. Perhaps it was for this reason that the chairman of the day, Mr. Gardiner dismissed CoHn Le~ as " a self-appointed critic." ._ 212/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 Were there Books No Heroes?

&the c. F. Goodfellow Arts

it is futile to think that there may somehow be The Imperial Factor in South Africa by C. W. a "change of heart" among South African de Kiewiet (Frank Cass & Co. 45s.). Studying whites, or that overseas pressure can bring about more liberal policies. This is his vision of THERE ARE INEVITABLY two judgments to be the future, and it is a strange one to come made of this important book, first published in the dinosaur from an American academic: 1937, on the occasion of its reappearance in At present, repressive measures appear to 1965. Professional historians will mainly ask have disorganised the African opposition, and how it helps towards an appreciation of the a prospect of a successful revolt seems slen­ period dealt with by the author, the years from der in the immediate future. Once the colonial 1870 to 1885, while the" broader audience will Kenneth Mackenzie territories to the north of South Africa will wonder what it contributes towards an under­ have become independent, however, the col­ standing of modem South Africa, and perhaps lapse of white supremacy will be imminent. of Africa generally. With foreign bases of operation along a two­ Yet the two judgments involved ought not to thousand-mile frontier, and military assist­ be totally divorced, as of no interest one to the ance from outside, guerilla operations in South other: for a very obvious connection between Africa will be extremely difficult to counter­ them arises from the fact that it is illogical to act, as indeed any underground movement look for present guidance to an author who fails South Africa, A Study in Conflict by Pierre L. which has the passive or active support of to interpret his own period satisfactorily. In van den Berghe (Wesleyan University Press, the mass of the population. Furthermore, other words the professional judgment should $8.95) once the fight will have reached the stage of precede the lay. A number of more or less White Laager, The Rise of Afrikaner National­ , large-scale terrorism, Afro-Asian demands for technical grouses will no doubt be heard from ism by William Henry Vatcher Jr. (pall Mall, international sanctions or UN intervention historians, chief among them that the opportunity 63s.) will undoubtedly be stepped up, and become has not been taken to provide a revised edition, A History of Postwa1' Africa by John Hatch more effective. Revolutionary change will so that the book reappears with the same factual (Andre Deutsch, 50s.) thus probably result from a combination of slips as marred the first edition; for example the the following actions: strong international implication that Richard Southey's formative WHY, PROFESSOR VAN DEN BERGHE asks at the sanctions, strikes and passive resistance in the experience had been gained in the "liberal beginning of his book, should a sociologist study urban centres, peasant revolts in rural areas, Western Province" (p.17), and the even more South Africa? Because, he says, " the anachron­ and well-organised sabotage from a foreign­ astonishing blunder of attributing to the year ism of its governmental policies and racial atti­ based underground receiving outside military 1876 the bitter complaint of a Parliamentary tudes gives South Africa the value of a museum assistance and training. Under-Secretary against Britain's spending her piece, of a living political dinosaur ... " Also, He adds that " conditions will become favour­ "blood and money upon these wretched Kaffir he adds hopefully, it will give a good opportun­ able for these developments within five years at quarrels in South Africa," which 'was in fact ity of studying" rapid and drastic change ". the most." voiced a few months after Isandhlwana in 1879 Professor van den Berghe, who was born in White Laager, 'also by an American academic, (p.67). These instances are in fact indicative of the Congo and now works at an American uni­ covers a smaller field in more detail and from a cavalier attitude to the sources which the versity, lived for almost two years in South a historical rather than sociological point of author excuses in his preface by saying that Africa doing sociological research in Natal view. It deals exclusively with white politics­ "footnotes like friends should not be made to (about which he wrote a previous book, Cane­ splits and toenaderings and parliamentary man­ bear too much responsibility for a writer's viZle). In this new analysis of the whole situa­ oeuvres and, in the old days, appeals ,for the judgments." The Imperial Factor in South tion he shows himself once more to be a most "Native problem to be kept out of politics." Africa is best considered as an extended inter­ liberal and sympathetic-as well as discerning­ The writing here is again rather heavy-going pretative essay, based upon a reading of the student of ,the dinosaur. in what is almost an American academic tra­ original sources but containing no serious This book is aimed more at sociologists and dition, but the research is solid and the book is attempt to use them to prove the hypotheses anthropologists than at laymen, and some partcularIy useful in its documentation of the advanced; an essay, furthermore, very much in readers may find the jargon discouraging (South Nazi links and sympathies of leading National­ the literary tradition of historiography, whose Africa is a "society characterised by an extra­ ists. This author's conclusion is also that the epigrams incessantly distract from the argument ordinarily high level of internal conflict, con­ period of Afrikaner dominance is now drawing and sometimes (as in the one just quoted) are tradiction and dysfunction ... with a rigidly to a close. substituted for it. ascriptive and particularistic system of racial John Hatch was the Labour Party's Common­ Essentially the book is important because it segregation and stratification ..." and so on). wealth expevt and is now also on an American is the only introduction in any detail to the But those who persevere will be rewarded for campus. He is obviously well-qualified to des­ period, between the discovery of diamonds and the professor, although he does not add to our cribe this most exciting period in Africa's his­ that of gold, which saw the subordination to information, has some stimulating and clear­ tory, and he has produced a fine book, written European control of the last important indepen­ eyed insights. with sympathy but with an -admirable lack of dent African societies south of the Limpopo: It is interesting, for instance, to find him say­ any sort of sentimentality (about corruption, for the Pedi, the Xhosa, the Zulu, the Tswana, and, ing that the traditional distinction between instance). The field is so large that even in a although under somewhat different circumstances northern racialism and Cape liberalism" could book of 432 pages one sometimes feels one is from the rest, Lesotho. These were the last better be described as a relatively minor differ­ being hurried on just when things are getting years in which the principal resistance to white ence of opinion between two brands of pater­ interesting, but if th'at is a fault it is also a dominance was offered with tribal spears; there­ nalists." He seems to me wise in insisting that compliment. • after came the slow growth of sub-continental THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/213 ~~~~~~~~~~--~~~~~~~~~ intrepi~ "thebbck c~un~t an ~p~~you just as ruthlessly as any white capitalist" and With no pinch the village leading lady philosophises that "one would prefer something nobler than aggressive of salt warfare directed against Katanga, which seems to me to be about the only orderly portion of the Congo." The president, we are told, "runs tuckling to the east, mortgaging the cocoa-crop to Russia. Borrowing money from Peking, China. From Peking! And the Chinese workers ObiB.Egbuna eat only a cup of rice a day. We should be ashamed." The only white "Helper" in the village, a ·German boy, "has maturity beyond his years. Our men have not his ways." The chicken thief has to be Markwei, a great politi­ cal wrangler popularly known as Karl Marx. And a foreign firm refuses to build a petrol station because "they haven't much confidence in the economic stability of the country." Even the local birds have something detrimental to political organisations. How satisfactory is the Nyitso Ca Novel of West Africa) by M. F. C. sing about the social set-up-" Witchdoctor's interpretation offered? The two best chapters Roebuck CMacdonald 21s.). sick." in the book, those dealing with the economic Toads for Supper by Chukwuemeka Ike (Harvill This is a village where people strangle dogs, origins of the Cape-Xhosa and Anglo-Zulu Press 18s.). steal meat, chicken and kerosene, shove their wars, are perhaps the finest analyses in existence grandchildren's hands in the fire, knife each of the processes leading to African dispossession other across meat tables, a village where headless in Southern Africa: pragmatic and free from bodies are found in public paths, of tuberculous dogma, they illuminate the scene as no other young women, lepers and matricides, " an atmos­ historian has yet been able to do. The only MIS S ROEBUCK HAS a rare power of description, phere so charged with exasperation and frustra­ serious criticism to be made he~e is that while an ear for sounds and an eye for narrative tion," that the reader is left with the impression the aggressive and predatory society of the details. I suspect that she even knows her West that here is a beautiful village with the wrong Europeans is brought sharply into relief, the Africa well but the place she has portrayed is people living in it-a whiff of apartheid which, desperately defensive tribes remain faint and not the West Africa there is but the one she even if unconscious, is no doubt responsible for shadowy victims: nevertheless the modem has a near-pathological obsession to see. Result? a mediocre work of this nature being a prize­ enquirer will gain deep insights into the N ear-believable characters in unbelievable winner in South Africa, the author's country dynamics of European dominance from these situations! If this book is declared seditious in of birth, upbringing and education. pages. Ghana (the Nyitso country) and banned, I should not be the least surprised (nor probably THE TREATMENT OF THE OTHER MAIN THEME, would Miss Roebuck) for behind the author's which gives the book its title, is less satisfactory. sparkling style lurks naive but calculatedly destructive propaganda. In my opinion, if there British imperialism is presented as the light ON THE OTHER HAND, Mr. Ike's book is about that failed, whose innate striving towards "a is nothing as stimulating as a lively novel that the most engaging West African novel I have social and economic order in South Africa admits to being a political instrument, there is read in recent years. Unlike the "recognised" characterised by a greater tolerance of race, a also nothing more nauseating than damaging champions of "simplicity" in the Nigerian more ardent trusteeship, a more inspired social political literature that shams a village-tale literary world, Mr. Ike achieves simplicity with­ wisdom" was defeated by forces both external superstructure. out betraying any strain or consciousness of and internal to itself. For the modem student Nyitso is, we are told, the name of a village effort at being simple and, 'what is more, says of affairs this hypothesis may not unfairly be in an unnamed West African state whose capital something. It is refreshing to read someone who, translated into the assertion that the intentions is, curiously enough, Accra. In the local langu­ though he belongs to the old school of "sim­ of British imperialists have, by and large, been age, Nyitso means, "the day before yesterday," plicity," does not regard style as the end but as benevolent, whatever the actual effects of their or, in some contexts, "the day after tomorrow." a means to it. policies. There will be found few to accept this And the hero, Paul, is one of those Africans For this reason, Mr. Ike occupies the ambiva­ interpretation as applied to British policy in the who have graduated in Wisdom because they lent position of enjoying the popularity of the mid-twentieth century, whether in relation to the have been to Europe and back and, in his old scholars (among the Western back-patting Republic of South Africa, Rhodesia, or else­ particular wisdom, resides in what "could be a patrons of Nigerian literature) and enduring the where: if Britain in the end discountenanced middle-class home in a pleasant English suburb." unpopularity of the outspoken younger writers white dominance in Kenya, and if, as remains An ex-political detainee, he emerges out of (in the same quarters). to be seen, she does so in Zimbabwe, the " prison" to build a Tower of Babel out of his Harvill gives the work an excellent blurb­ explanation lies more plausibly in the global native Nyitso and thus rescues his people and "to be engaged to three girls simultaneously, balance of power than in the personal righteous­ a dilapidating village from the clutches of a accused by one ef being the father of her child, ness of successive British politicians. Ninety savage regime, a forerunner ef total overthrow. rusticated by University authorities-these are years ago in South Africa the case for imperial Anti-Pan-African to the marrow, he detests severe setbacks in the career of an undergradu­ benevolence is weaker still, as de Kiewiet might even the word " Africans" because ", Africans' ate." The author's understanding sympathy and have had to admit it he had attempted to prove is a mighty word. It covers multitudes. ... In insight into undergraduate life in Nigeria today it. There exists in the private papers and our village we only go ahead in our own way make this much more than the farce that the confidential minutes of the policy-makers of the and leave the outside people to their generalisa­ hero's predicament implies. The Ezinkwo village 1870s overwhelming evidence of a firm pre­ tions. ... We did not achieve independence to life is sunnily sketched in without vulgar pro­ occupation with Britain's national interest, and fight among ourselves like savages. Leave that vincialising, another rare thing in Nigerian in so far as this basic ingredient was laced with to the Congolese." literature. The characters, whether Ibo or other sentiments, the pinch of humanitarianism Yoruba, student or porter, male or female, in­ was neutralised, to put it no stronger, by a sub­ tellectual or intelligent, are real, living, convinc­ stantial dash of racism. One is driven to ing; and the dialogue, whether pidgin or good suspect that the author, unable to accept the English, literary translation or hard vernacular, dark fact that in much human history there are A PARTY SUPPORTER" gets contracts because he is is good, humorous and richly embroidered with no heroes for those ·who set their standards a party man " and the music teacher is dismissed proverbs like, "The offspring of a snake cannot high, was forced to cast Secretaries of State by the sage headmaster for teaching a song be short." And the puzzlement over the title and High Commissioners in the vacant roles of starting off, "Our noble president, messiah and disappears the moment the key proverb is his plot. In modem terms, this is like believing redeemer," and the dismissal justified because, encountered, "When a child eats a toad, it kills that Mr. Bottomley has the liberation of Zim­ " patriotism couldn't grow in the soil of person­ his appetite for meat." babwe at heart, or that Mr. Wilson wants to ality cults." Such meaningless cliches so pervade At the risk of being quoted out of context, promote economic sanctions against South the -book that one's fingers begin to itch for a my recommendation must surely be that Toads Africa's fascists. • blue pencil. "Now you find," exclaims Seth the for Supper be devoured without a pinch of salt.• 214/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 A meticulous pattern

JillJessop

The Deserter by Kenneth Mackenzie (Eyre & between Japie and his girl friend Martha, when Spottiswoode, 21s) they "sit up" together in her parents' sitting The Story of Sarah by Sylvia Whitehead (Mac­ room, the leng·th of the candle allowed them donald, 21 s) being ·the measure of parental approval. Japie Chance to Die by Lionel Black (Cassell, 16s) of course takes full 'advantage of these plentiful Sunrise over Tanesia 'by Donald Swanson opportunities to demonstrate his gaucheness; (Simondium Publishers, Cape Town, 16s) Martha, who has a kind of unsophisticated sagacity (and the women in this novel are a pretty sensible lot, compared to the men), lets From the cover him run on without ever committing herself. In design of Kenneth the end, !When Japie is in terrible trouble, she OF THE FOUR, The Deserter is the most interest­ comes to him; by this time it doesn't really Mackenzie's novel ing and easily the best. Kenneth Mackenzie's matter, though I suppose it was nice to know. plot is excellent, so are his ideas about his As for Japie, his problem is indecision. He'd characters, so are some of his scenes and images. like to do the right thing, but sometimes it I get the impression, however, that he worked doesn't seem worth the struggle, and anyway he everything out beforehand with meticulous care, can't be sure what is the right thing. He allows then started to write, found his characters himself to be pushed into positions he never weren't quite turning out ·the way he'd intended, wanted to take up, and worse, he allows himself and so forced them into the patterns he had set to do things he later detests himself for. If you for them. With unhappy results for the book. have no general guidelines in life, the nasty More than enough novels are written haphazard­ things you do are all the more detestable, be­ ly, by writers who presumably argue that left to cause you feel they are the result of self-indul­ themselves the characters will somehow work out gence or carelessness. Japie needs to find out all right. So I should congratulate Mr. Mac­ why he should damage other people--or things. kenzie on his control. I do. But it's too firm and When at last he does, he joins those who can inflexible. explain or justify what they do, because they The story is about Japie van N iekerk, a young think they are shaping events, not being shaped South African, who deserts from his Boer by them. husband and her children went out from Eng­ commando after the battle of Spion Kop and It is vital to Mr. Mackenzie's scheme that land to South Africa, and chiefly of the relation­ returns to the family farm, where he finds little Japie should finally evolve a positive policy for ship that developed between herself -and her sympathy for his half-articulated ideas about life. Unluckily he has not equipped him with African servant, Sarah Jantjies. Mrs. White­ not killing people. He (being, I fear, a half­ the necessary strength of intellect or character head's ideas about Africans are the epitome of baked youth, a little too intense and at times to make this plausible. Nor has Japie grown in well-meaning English-speaking middle-class even a 'bit tedious) meanders unhappily from stature during the story. -Condemned to death paternalism-probably the most offensive and sister to mother to English friend's civilised, by the British for killing a British soldier after ultimately the most dangerous of whites' tea-sipping mother to simple but flighty girl the war is formally over, Japie is still trying to attitudes towards non-whites. And yet as she friend-like Hamlet in isolation and uncertainty, explain things to his family. Then he escapes gets to know Sarah better, and to see her but not in brains or charisma. He struggles to and in the course of a remarkable night, dis­ against the background of racialism and suffer­ extract from his emotional confusion a workable covers that he can kill without remorse, that his ing (how many white employers do this ?), she attitude to life and people. His Calvinist back­ father's sexual values are not for him, and that becomes less laughable, her attitudes less repel­ ground cannot help him-the few who might two people can be a physical and affirming lent, her predicament and confusion more mov­ have understood him are committed to the war comfort to each other without saying anything ing. She evolves, like a character in a novel, (like his English friend's mother) or to their own of importance. In fact he has shed his past and 'and in the end the patemalism seems almost to rebellion (like his sister Sannie) or to the life asserted his control over events. Now he is in have switched directions. Only by now it is the they have learnt to accept as inevitable (like his grave danger of being left, perched out on his dominance of one personality over another, and patient and oppressed mother). lonely limb-the least likely of figures to end a has nothing to do with race. He establishes an understanding-if only a novel with. Mr. Mackenzie manipulates the half-acknowledged one - with an African plot shamelessly to avoid this. I sympathise "CHANCE TO DIE" is a thriller that happens to labourer from Basutoland. Together they build with him, but I think if he had allowed Japie be set in Swaziland. It is packed with villainous a dam (though "not a masterpiece of civil to develop more naturally, and to be a little South African ·Government police agents, even engineering," as a British officer remarks later less consistent and predictable up to the last more villainous Communist agents, a ruthlessly on)-here is something constructive, close to the chapter, he might have got away with the efficient but lovable British agent and the inevit­ earth, and concrete. These scenes are among spiritual revolution and left his hero staring able helpless but energetic amateur. Quite good the best in the book. The symbolism is not over­ abstractedly at the ashes of the farm house. As in parts but not wildly plausible. played, and I particularly liked the description it is, he leaves us feeling cheated and a bit of Japie's feelings towards the Basuto in the sceptical. " SUNRISE OVER TANESIA" is simply a distaste­ presence of other people--the mixture of deter­ ful, funny book, whose best line, '" Sonny, why mined solidarity, and anxiety lest his friend don't you go and play outside? ' said the Cap­ should put himself outside the pale and force " THE STORY OF SARAH" I found oddly touching, tain hatefully, whilst they were flying at ten Japie to commit himself on one side or the repellent though many of Sylvia Whitehead's thousand feet" is surely not new. I wouldn't other. I was also impressed by the scenes attitudes are. It is an account of how she, her recommend it for that line alone. • THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965[215 In fact Africans more logically believe that the whole deception was engineered by the whites, Handmalad Romanticising more specifically by Sir George Grey. a a Much more serious than these historical f inaccuracies are the claims made about the 0 power Inaccuracies African National Congress. Surely Mr. Cope should know that in 1912 it was the South African Native Congress that was formed, not the ANC nor did this herald a new and unknown desire to unite the Africans against the invaders. Rayrnond Kunene Cetshrwayo, Sekhukhuni and Xhosa rulers had Mlahleni Njisane earlier tried to forge such an 'alliance, much to the terror of the Boers in the Transvaal. Writing about the ICU, Mr. Cope states that " Kadalie made the fatal move by removing the headquarters from the Cape Town to Johannes­ burg. This deprived Kadalie of the services and advice and guidance of a number of Cape Coloureds ,who had far greater experience and organisational ability than did he or his fellow South Africa by John Cope (Ernest Benn Africans." On the contrary it was when ICU Akan Religion and the Christian Faith by Sid- 37s.6d.). moved its headquarters to Johannesburg that it ney George Williamson (Ghana University Press, flourished. Again, dealing with the All-African Accra, Oxford University Press, London, 30s.) MR. COPE HAS NOT ONLY written a very subjec­ Convention he makes the wildest claim-that it tive book, he has chosen a style that leaves no was organised by Dr. Jabavu. Those who know IN THIS STUDY THE AUTHOR EXAMINES very eru­ doubt as to his inability to write a book at all. the history of this organisation will tell Mr. ditely the impact of a proselytising faith, Christ­ First of all, the chapters are arranged in cate­ Cope that in the first place the Hertzog Bills ianity, -on the religious life of the Akan people gories that suit more the author's convenience were introduced in 1935 and the Mrican of Ghana. The author's background as mission­ than the logic of history. We have P'art One National Congress, represented by Dr. P. kaI ary, theologian, and faculty member of the dealing with SUbjects that demand the back­ Seme, the President General, called the All­ University of Ghana Divinity Department, ground thrown into Part Two. To illustrate African Convention jointly with Prof. D. D. T. makes him eminently qualified .as an authority this, take the subject like "Africans" in Part Jabavu who represented the Federation of on the subject he undertakes to analyse, and One and compare it with " Black Nationalism" African Teachers and the :Cape African Voters also combines training and experience in a dealt with in a much later section of the book, Association. unique manner which explains the profundity P'art Three. "Opponents of the Apartheid with which he handles his subject. Plan" are dealt with in Part One and with no I am impressed by the number of topical apparent logic, the historical forces responsible questions which the inquiry raises, and also by for apartheid are right in the heart of the book. WRITING ON THE NEIGHBOURS of South Mrica, the fact that some of these were the focus of In itself this would not be a serious error except Mr. Cope tells us, "A little over a century ago interest at the Mricanist Congress held in the that we are deprived of a natural historical a clan of Ngunis under Chief Sobhuza moved University of Ghana three years ago. Briefly sequence in the development of the whole con­ away from Pongola to settle in the mountain stated the common theme was whether or not cept apartheid plan. We hear how the Transvaal country of Swaziland." Of course the founder we must expect a reorientation of the analysis Republic practised apartheid, long after we have of the Swazi nation was Dlamini I, who ruled of African problems now that the African is no read how the present day Government is imple­ what is now known as Swaziland, in the 12th longer a chattel or a means to an end (except menting apartheid. century. It was Mbandzeni, not Sobhuza, who in southern Africa). The author's focus of in­ It would be forgivable if the pattern of the in more recent years "played off Boer against terest is on what is to become of the Christian book wai the only aspect to criticise, but Mr. Briton," and finally ceded large portions of the religion in its future interaction with a tradition­ Cope infuriates by his very lack of accurate country to the Boers. al Akan religion and way of life which, as the historical facts. He tells us the old fable that This ignorance of historical facts goes on ad author observes, is now reasserting itself, and the Europeans were pushing into the interior nauseum throughout the book. But we are also at a time when it is in a position to do so whilst similar "late arrivals," the "Bantu," presented with inaccuracies of the most elemen­ effectively in the wake of a recently acquired were pushing into the south. tary type. Contrary to all statistical evidence independence. In the colonial regime Christian­ Of the Ka he claims a primitive origin. "It Mr. Cope states, "Curiously enough Mrican ity or a Christian Church gained ground as the may well have been here (Kalahari) where women are more literate than their menfolk." handmaid of western cultures and the exponent Austrolopithecae evolved into the earliest for­ We are also told that prostitution is rife, when of the religion of the white race (p.xi). Today bear of the Bushman. .. ." Of the Khoikhoi in fact one of the baffling phenomena to all the 'Christian Church must declare u its rele­ he claims "The Bantu in Central Africa were social scientists, is the low level of its occur­ vance for the Akan)J through its own excellence, more advanced than these Hottentots...." One rence among Mricans in South Africa. independent of political power. wonders how Mr. Cope with his claim to know­ Mr. Cope's remark that" these Mrican mine To begin to understand the author's attempt ledge of ancient African history has failed to labourers live under hygienic conditions in large at 'a comparative recapitulation (Chapter VIII) find out that the Mapungubwe culture of the compounds and are adequately and scientifically it is necessary to read the introduction very Transvaal is Khoi Khoi in origin. The Buntu fed, clothed and cared for" shows to what carefully. After reading over and over again of course, are in turn primitive compared to lengths he is prepared to go to shelve the truth. both the Introduction and Chapter VIII I con­ Europeans. Gold mining and iron making are The rural areas ure rightly stated to be over­ cluded that it would have been very helpful if said to be of foreign origin. crowded and eroded, but in another chapter the author had not shirked the task of explain­ The history both of the Zulus, Sothos and their unproductivity is attributed to Mrican ing (and operationalising) Christianity in greater Xhosas in more recent times is to say the least ignorance. In the same breath in which detail by including in the main body of the wholly inaccurate. Romanticising the pre­ Bantustans are condemned we are told that the writing something of a fuller definition of what industrial Mrican communities, Mr. Cope says "government is making strenuous efforts to he distinguishes as "empirical Christianity", "the various tribes were living in a state of replan the rural areas ... but it is an uphill the "Christian faith", and "revelation in relative peace." Moving on to deal with Zulu fight against the traditional cattle-cult, against Christ". To assume that prospective readers history he tells us N andi was waylaid by ignorance, and the general spirit of suspicion will have read the New Testament is also to Senzangakhona when everyone knows that she and hostility to the authorities." assume that they will find it easy to relate the consented in a moment of weakness and luter In one section ,we are told that external New Testament to Christianity as lived and was to regret her mistake for the greater part pressures and a wave of riots and protest demon­ preached by the missionary in Mrica. It is of her life. Mr. Cope also tells us that Dingis­ strations can topple apartheid. In the same doubtful if the rrnssionary majority did ever wayo was ambushed, when in fact he was killed chapter, claims are made that a serious crisis "unlearn the rash and erroneous identification on the orders of Zwide. tends to move the whites into a laager. of empirical Christianity with the revelation in He is just as misinformed about Xhosa Except for a few chapters on the rise of Christ" (xvi). history. Not for the first time one hears the Mrikaner nationalism and the Broederbond, the rumour that the cc great Basuto chief Moshesh rest of the book became an anachronism the THE AUTHOR'S DECLARED intention (p.138) is to ... wished to destroy the power of the Xhosas." moment the ink was dry. • view Christianity in "its manifestation as a 216/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 religion expressed in the Christian society and makes it imperative for the reader to pause over relevant comparative references which belong its historical institutions" rather than in its his reference to Gluckman and Barbara Ward. to Chapter VIII even if the author by assump­ ecumenical and ideal character. His reference Gluckman conjures up the image of "burgeon­ tion (p.168) regards them as "scientific" with to Kraemer raises the expectation that a dis­ ing fears of witchcraft" and "blossoming respect to the "world view" contexts. tinction will be maintained between the ideal magic" with the usual anthropological efficiency Christian faith and the variable forms of Euro­ and sensation. Trend developments no longer THE SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPORTANCE of this book pean Christianity as well as between the ideal lend themselves to such broad generalisations, must also be judged by its most timely appear­ Christian faith and Akan Christian religion cast and for credence and validity we shall be justi­ ance. Quite recently this year the secular author­ against the background of Akan traditional life. fied in demanding more reliable measures of the ity of Ghana (through one of its ministers) de­ The ideal Christian faith in any such analysis "very considerable increase" of witchcraft be­ clared : "The Christian Churches of Ghana and comparison would be neither eastern, west­ liefs reported also by Ward (p.128-9). To keep today should actively join in the Crusade for ern, Akan, nor European; the variable forms impressionism at a minimum it seems obvious national reconstruction at the basis of which are of Christianity would be those practised in (especially in a computer age such as ours) that today's concepts and values symbolic of spiritual, Europe, as observable in the settler elements some use, however primitive, of the statistical intellectual and political emancipation." At the and as lived (and preached?) by the missionary. methods must be made if we want to talk about end of the book one feels that the focus has been These would provide basically different levels what we have today as against what we had very much on the ecumenical and philosophical of substruction. twenty years ago. Is this an increase in intensity differences, and that it does not grapple directly The author emphasises the fact that Akan or is it the extension of these practices to areas with the more vexing questions of state-church religion is very much a way of life, a "world of social behaviour or regions (physical) where relationship. The" dichotomy of mind" (p.128) view" as Busia very aptly describes it. Religion they were formerly non-existent? In fairness to which the author finds seems to be part of the is 'woven into a more or less systemic institu­ the missionary, moreover, if we take the time­ whole inherent conflict which is going to become tional complex in which context it is not conceiv­ span of Christian influences in England, South­ sharper now .that the same church is being called able as a seperable entity. Durkheim observes ern Italy, or Ireland respectively, and compare upon to become (as before) a handmaid of the also that it is not necessarily defined by belief and contrast those influences with the century­ new regime. It is the same dichotomy which in god, and that it gives birth to all that is old Christian activities among the Akan, I feel has led in the more totalitarian white-controlled essential and sacred in society. It is this diffuse that the missionaries deserve better credit than African colonies to "separatist" movements character and integration of such socialised these sensational reports give them. such as are found in South Africa. We are religion with other institutional complexes that Take libation (p.132-3) which to my tortuous accustomed, however, to the accommodative makes it difficult to think of Akan religion in African mind is as interesting as I find the character of the Christian Church and therefore ecumenical and theological terms, and which, Christian Asperges~ and as I think the Akan the new demands made upon it by the new therefore, makes the author's selected compara­ would find the Christian reference to the S ouZs states of Africa should not be very strange nor tive indicants unsuitable. Has Christianity no of the Departed to be. To mention ancestor presumptuous. In Chapter IX (" Akan Critic­ socialised observable concrete indicants, such as worship without explaining how the practice isms of Missions") a careful review is made of are referred to in the Bible's injunction, "By differs from All Souls' Day and All Saints' the criticisms emanating from different strata their acts shall ye know them "? Day anniversaries in the mind of the Akan is of the Akan society, and an old nagging ques­ to leave out an important consideration in the tion comes again to my mind: Can one be THE AUTHOR'S DEPENDENCE on secondary sources analysis. I think all these points are logically African and Christian? •

Congratulations, then, Mr. Schapera on put­ obviously been influenced by what he thought In, ting together such a necessary book. Where are [Would not "had been made to think" be the Schaperas of the other linguistic groups? better, Mr. Schapera?] to be English concep­ The introduction tells us, among many other tions of poetry. But as Lestrade has shown abundance' things, what praise-poems are, and they are [Bantu Praise-Poems (1935), pp.4 fI.] "Tswana " ... a form of traditional literature common praise-poems do in fact have characteristics that in all clusters of Southern Bantu (Nguni, readily distinguish them from normal prose. Tsonga, Sotho and Venda). . .. They are com­ Those he specifies are dynamic stress (metrical posed not only about chiefs, headmen, famous rhythm), parallelism, chiasmus, and linking." Collingwood August warriors, and other prominent tribesmen, but about ordinary commoners also, including wo­ men; there are, in addition, praise-poems of I HAVE ALWAYS FOUND parallelism a charming tribes and subdivisions of tribes ... of domestic characteristic of Bantu poetry. Here are two Praise Poems of Tswana Chiefs translated and animals (notably cattle), of wild animals (includ­ examples quoted by the author: edited by 1. Schapera (Oxford University Press ing birds and insects), of trees and crops, of "(a) letZhoZa bommaeno gobeoZwa~ 45s.) rivers, hills, and other scenic features, and of letlhoZa bommaneo goZaZa balla such inanimate objects as divining-bones. In (you foredoom your mothers to mourn, SEVERAL WEEKS BEFORE I knew such a book modern times some have been composed about you foredoom your mothers to weep all existed a friend who was staying with me made schools, railway trains, and bicycles." night); me get up at some heathenishly early hour in The introduction then goes on to describe the (b) mogatsa-Legwale gaabone moses, order to listen to him reciting the praise-poems general characteristics of praise-poems. Mr. mogatsa-Legwale otshotshe botlhoko of Zulu kings. (Kings, Mr. Schapera, please---­ Schapera is here too polite a man to say what (Legwale's wife does not menstruate, remember these were hereditary monarchs; the needs saying strongly. So, let me do it for him Legwale's wife is afflicted with sorrow)." term " chief" could be left for white man-made and it is this: Thank God, the days are gone Apart from being a good example of paral­ stooges.) when poetry was not poetry that did not con­ lelism, the second, is a good example of poetic To return to the morning of the praises. As form to European poetry in form. The vigour innuendo: What causes Legwale's wife sorrow we were both not quite sober (having been to a of Mqhayi's "formless" poetry is infinitely is the fact that she is infertile and therefore party the night before), I kept on interrupting. more poetic than Vilakazi's effete sonnets which not fit to be anybody's wife. One interlude went on something like this: should be read only at literary tea-parties. This The translations, mainly because Mr. Scha­ ME: Fine, fine. But where do these poems is as far as his politeness allows him to go: pera is at home in the Tswana language, cap­ exist? " Of their' literary art " Tswana scholar [B. C. ture with apparent effortlessness the virility of FRIEND: In the minds of men. Thema, 'The trend of Setswana Poetry (1939); the original poems; this becomes yet more appar­ ME: That's not a very reliable place, you p.44] writes: There is no question about the ent when the pieces are read aloud-as they are know. Oral tradition, and all that. Why don't abundance of poetry in the language, but in meant to be. you write them down? its purely primitive form Setswana poetry has This then is a good book, made easier to FRIEND: You're the one who thinks he can no prosody. There is no question of rhyme or understand (even by people whose knowledge of write. Do it yourself. metre about it, nor that of division into stanzas. Tswana is either rudimentary of completely non­ ME: But I don't know any. In fact I do not think that it would savour the existent) by the use of clearly-written footnotes FRIEND: Go and learn them-like I did­ name 'poetry' if it had to be written in the and thumb-nail biographies of the kings who and stop interrupting me. form in which we find it in the primitive are being praised. Alas, poor me ! I cannot even "go and Maboko (praises generally of chiefs and heroes)." No serious student of Africana can afford to learn ". "This judgement, by a language teacher, has be without a copy of this book. • THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/217 national support ... analyse African problems") to " proYide a regular source of reliable informa­ tion' for those inside South Africa actively en-, aaged in the revolution". Elsewhere Crisis f!f Words Change states that 2,500 copies are to be distri­ buted free in southern Africa, thanks to "several organisations and individuals in Europe and Words Africa". Mahomo's address is 607A Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, W.C.2.

Words HAVING READ WITH PLEASURE Vol. 1 No. 4 of The African Review (edited by Julian Mayfield for New Africa Publications Ltd., Accra), many must be waiting for Vol. 1, No. 3-the Sep­ tember issue- of this "monthly analytical re­ view". It was held back because it contained an article seriously arguing the case for a reconstructed OAU, and it was felt that this would not be tactful reading matter to have Okyeame, published half-yearly from Accra, IN AN INTERESTING REVIEW in the current Nigeria round Accra during the Summit Conference contains an unforgettable story, "The Late Magazine Robin Horton explores the errors of there. The article expressed a view heard in­ Bud ", by Christina Ama Ata Aidoo (whose categorising African sculpture under European creasingly-that the OAU cannot succeed until verse The New African has published) and a headings. Ironically, William Fagg and Margaret all its members come to it freed from neo­ remarkably vivid haunting one by George Plass in African Sculpture~' an Anthology (Dut­ colonialism: the progressive nations should form Awoonor-Williams, "The Funeral", both in ton Vista Paperbacks) tried to get away from a nucleus around which the others could co­ settings of Ghanaian village or town life but "preconceptions about African art as an irre­ here as they shake off their colonial past or with universal themes. Christina Aidoo, in her ducibly different exotic thing-in-itself" by call­ neo-colonial present. Certainly the OAU Sum­ early twenties, is on a five-year African Litera­ ing African sculptures naturalist, abstractionist, mit Conference was attended by some shaky ture fellowship at the University of Ghana, cubist, surrealist, grotesque, Gothic, baroque, claimants to independence, above all by the rep­ Legon, and is teaching and writing. She has rococo. They fail to make the labels apply and resentatives of the ruling parties in Basutoland> finished another play. seem to know it. Mr. Horton, a gifted and Bechuanaland and Swaziland, while their Like her Dilemma of a Ghost (Longmans), dedicated anthropologist who lives on the Niger nationalist, opposition counterparts were among about a young Ghanaian graduate who brings delta with the people whose lives and ways he the poor relations petitioning from outside the his Afro-American wife home to his Clan house, tries to interpret, takes that correct middle posi­ closed sessions. While the representatives of it is in a village setting, but without such ob­ tion. He calls for "serious attempts to work King Sobhuza's traditionalist ruling party, vious contrasts. out a purely formal geometrical scheme for the Imbokodvo, were within, the Ngwane National With another able young Ghanaian writer, description and classification of African sculp­ Liberatory Congress were busy circulating a Ayi Kwei Armah (whose story "Contact" will ture; and intensive ethnographic study of the scandalous letter written by Sobhuza's white appear here in December), Christina Aidoo is cultural contexts of important sculptural styles South African settler ally, Mr. Carl Todd> highly sceptical of most European literary critic­ .. ." Something of the same position should laying detailed plans for rigging the elections ism (seen at its most vaunting and absurd in be taken by students of African oral traditional to ensure that a sufficient number of the " right some London theatre critics' attitudes to J. P. texts. Modern African writing calls for a dif­ Europeans" were returned by Swazi voters Clark's and Soyinka's plays in September) when ferent critical apparatus but one that must under Sobhuza's orders. applied to modern African writing. Awoonor­ as determinedly acknowledge the African con­ While Chief Leabua's Basuto National Party Williams, whose Ghanaian film Hamlet super­ text of the work. representatives were within, Messrs. Mokhehle imposed European art on Africa and vice versa and Kolisang of the militant, pan-Africanist about as uncompromisingly as could be, bites Basutoland Congress Party were attacking them the hands that would pat him on the head with BILLY ORITSETSANINOMI DUDLEY'S telling article (and their pro-Bantustan adviser, Professor his castigation of "the European intellectual "Violence in Nigerian Politics" was written Cowen) in their memorandum, complete with its approach (which) has until recently been be­ for Transition~s special "Violence" issue (No. own scandalous letter (from Chief Leabua to devilled by a certain patronising and condescend­ 21) before the Western Region's appalling and South Africa's Commissioner-General Papenfus: ing hauteur that was repugnant to Africa. bloody election fiasco last month. The NNDP "We shall place this country and its people "Thank God," he writes, "the new interest in showed that a party with 5% electoral support under the wise guidance of the government of Africa will produce less and less of the pedantic can rig an election and win two-thirds of the the Republic of South Africa economically, academics and the seeming humility of the seats, by, in Dudley's phrase" breaking heads in politically and socially, so that you can lead us Jahns ". order to count them." A saving grace was to to true independence."). hear Nigerians publicly debating the issues with OF COURSE some of the wrong hands get bitten no fear of secret police and informers. If there Though it reads like rumour, our note about in the process, but it is an inevitable and healthy is fear it is among some newspapermen. The The African Review should be accurate-more one. The African literature racketeers need this part-Thomson-owned Daily Express followed the accurate ,at least than their description of us as treatment as much as the pedants do. Since bent of its pro-NNDP editor, T. o. Adebanjo. "the now defunct New African" in a note on Drum's first Darkness and Light anthology, Less understandable was the concurrence in his Bessie Head, who contributed one of the best what sins have been committed in the name of policy of Lord Thomson's watchdogs on the items to their V 01. 1, No. 4 from her place of African anthology. I would exclude in advance administrative side of the paper, other than as exile in Bechuanaland. Our being banned in Ronald Dathorne's coming Penguin anthology long-term balance-sheet precautions. Certainly South Africa may have been to blame. of African prose, provided he does not take on the Express~ which was virtually boycotted in trust too much about what someone who hadn't some UPGA strongholds after the elections, read any of it called " the Golden Age of Xhosa must have lost circulation in the short run. As IN A RECENT RADIO TALK the moKgatla-by­ literature." Black Orpheus ran some South some of the press becomes more partisan, and adoption N aomi Mitchison called Bechuanaland African verse "translations by Uys Krige" in the rest as fears erode responsibility, journals "probably the poorest country in the world". from Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and even the Khoisan like Billy Dudley's Nigerian Opinion (Nigerian Bessie Head whose £16-a-month teaching post languages, none of which he knows. Perhaps Current Affairs Society, University of Ibadan, there has come to an end is in great hardship. a poet may render another's work into his own monthly, £ 1 a year) will be needed to tell the She has nothing in the world except her small language from a literal prose translation. A whole truth about Nigeria. son Howard, her friends (mostly political exiles non-poet cannot, which is why Louise Fried­ like herself but elsewhere) and the soul of a mann's version of Vilakazi's verse was such a true writer. A "black" South African, there disaster. Certainly no one should pronounce on Crisis & Change, Nana Mahomo's new has been so far no scholarship or travel grant writings he cannot understand without consider­ monthly, has one of the best cover photographs for her-only misery, which is likely to break able research, which I do not see taking place. ever. The standard is kept up in the text, her if no peace to live and write is found for which aims, among other things, (" to promote Mrs. B. Head, P.O. Box 130, Serowe, Bechu­ Monthly notes on books and the press. unity against white domination ... rally inter- analand, or through The New African. 218/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 ------Reflections MARTIN No crops on Los Angeles­ LEGASSICK without and violence ploughing?

IN THE SOUTH-EAST part of Los Angeles, 30 alleged rioters shot to death, 14 had group] ... had existed, large areas of the Southern California's major artistic creation been convicted of crimes (chiefly burglary community could have been liberated from rises some 100 feet above the tawdry frame or petty theft), and all, apan from three police control, and stores and factories and stucco homes and ugly streets of the students, were in jobs either menial or rather than being burned could have been city's major slum. Simon Rodia, an Italian transient or both. "Employed at one time seized and made the property of the people. immigrant tilesetter, settled in Watts and as a hospital canteen worker" stands as a This organisation did not exist and so we built his Towers over a period of thirty grim epitaph to many. Three quarters were had an uprising instead of a revolution ... years. They are a bizarre creation of con­ born outside California, mainly in the even if a revolutionary Black government crete and metal covered with junkyard south west. had been established in south-east Los ornamentation (broken tiles and dishes, Angeles it would eventually have fallen un­ Seven-Up bottles, sea-shells, old jugs) TO THESE LONG-TERM CAUSES of resent­ less it had spread to other cities. Revolu­ which spring from a walled garden with ment were added more immediate ones. A tionary organisation must be community­ murals of multi-coloured mosaics imprinted referendum in November had repealed an wide but also nation-wide." in some places with his tools, his hands, anti-discrimination housing law; the federal Talk of revolution in America is-at and his initials. Some time after Rodia left anti-poverty programme had been stalled by . present-quite unreal, though what the Watts, a group of concerned art-lovers set local political squabbles over who should pressures of automation will do to the social about incorporating this undefinable and control the patronage; the weather had been structure is still uncertain. Robert Theobald fantastic piece of folk-art into the main­ hot. The police were ever-present and dis­ has suggested the separation of wage and stream of American culture. Now the visitor criminatory. (Police brutality is only symp­ work: a fixed minimum income for all. to the Towers pays 50c admission and can tomatic of injustice: law-enforcement agen­ Others, in Monthly Review, have suggested buy a glossy booklet with professional cies are entrusted with the task of eliminat­ that those who "do not work ... do not photographs, romanticised history, and ing crime and keeping order. Police fears expect to work again ... as they adapt to' suitably effusive praise by celebrated of the septic overflow which American their new conditions of life ... do not critics. society produces in the ghettoes cycle into want to work" are the potential revolu­ The Watts Towers came to public at­ police brutality, and black resentment re­ tionaries in American society. tention after city bureaucrats attempted to inforces police racism and harsh treatment.) But in between the dreams of Theobald pull them down as "unsafe." (Calculation The responses to the uprising-an up­ and the futurism of the revolutionaries, two and tests eventually proved that an earth­ rising which caused 35 known deaths, over factors are working for drastic and non­ quake would have destroyed the City Hall 700 injuries, 1,000 fires and property violent social change. On one side the before the Towers). The rest of Watts ­ damage of $200 million-have been pre­ Federal poverty programme specifies com­ the overcrowded and frustrated ghetto ­ dictable too. A plethora of investigating munity action, community control of funds, remained unnoticed until the eruption of commissions, relief bodies, ad hoc com­ community representation on decision-mak­ August, which occurred, coincidentally, less mittees with grandiose "programs" have ing bodies. Among the "outs ", the new than a month after Rodia's death. The" Los come, belatedly, to integrate Watts into American left - the students, peace­ Angeles riots" have been described, ana­ the mainstream, as the artlovers did earlier marchers, and civil-rights workers - are lysed and photographed in a thousand for the Towers. But with most of them groping from activism to comprehensive journals of a hundred countries; there is no concern for order rates higher than concern social programmes. They too are stressing need for repetition. The images - the for the community of Watts, just as we local, community-based activities: the stimu­ charred remains of liquor stores and pawn­ suspect the succession of well-dressed, gush­ lation of self-help schemes, political educa­ shops, bleak as empty eyesockets, the star­ ing women and earnest reporters who went tion in the ghettoes and among the newly ing hatred of Negro faces - are unfor­ to seek out Simon Rodia in northern Cali­ enfranchised southern Negroes. Both ap­ gettable and eminently tragic. fomia after the Towers had become famous. proaches circumvent, at least partially, the Most of the causes for the outbreak are For most Americans, the solutions to prob­ traditional mechanisms of American govern­ apparent. Most are reflected in the statis­ lems like Watts are just mopping-up opera­ ment. Out of the conflict or co-operation tics: 98% Negro population, largely mi­ tions before the Great Society arrives for that occurs will come a new balance of grants from other states; two-thirds with less all. forces crucial for the domestic future of than high-school education; unemployment the United States. at least three times the average for the city; MARTIN LUTHER KING ARRIVED to speak for But there was another aspect of the Watts 87% of the homes built before 1939. Of the people, but found that even CORE and episode that is significant, especially for SNCC had both feared and scorned Watts: South Africans. The left-liberal Nation the civil rights movement has not yet in­ wrote" Watts has recovered its social iden­ M ART 1NL E GAS SIC K is a former volved the hard core of Negro deprivation. tity ... the sad fact is that most race riots Rhodes Scholar and a South African The left was equally dogmatic; two young have brought some relief and improvement exile now working for a Ph.D. in African inhabitants of Watts, who had been trying in race relations and the Los Angeles riots history at the University of California, for months to raise the community to action, will not be an exception." Certainly the Los Angeles. wrote in Liberator "If [a revolutionary violence was an act of self-assertion, un- THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/219

conscious no doubt, but directed against the disapproval. For the South African opposi-. cate not only the necessary means of change indifference of Los Angeles whites, cocooned tion there is the further dilemma of passi­ but suggest who should, who can, under­ in their self-contained communities north vity or initiatory action. If violence is in­ take the change. of Pico Boulevard, and even driving over evitable is not inaction implicit disapproval? The Watts outbreak left the Towers un­ the ghetto on the Harbour Freeway while " Those who profess to favour freedom and touched. The glossy booklets are still for almost oblivious to its existence. The vio­ yet deprecate agitation are men who want sale; one quotation extracted from the taci­ lence was cathartic, as Fanon has stressed crops without ploughing up the ground. turn and self-contradictory Rodia asserts in another context: an attempt at the des­ They want the ocean without the awful roar "I wanted to do something for the United truction of a relationship. It will also bring of its many waters" said Frederick Douglas States because there are nice people in this relief: jobs, remedial education, housing, over a hundred years ago. country." A recent New Y orker article by which will far outweigh the damage. The Yet the wish is not the act. Instrumental Calvin Trillin records some less patriotic effects of the damage fell, for the most part violence can only be undertaken success­ remarks of Rodia's; but in the last resort anyway, on white property-owners who saw fully by certain groups in any social con­ we must presume that Rodia, like the citi­ their stores burnt only on the television text ... through them and with them if not zens of Watts, and like those who will screens. by them: this was the lesson of the failure change South Africa, created for themselves, of Blanquism. The vectors of conflict indi- in self-realisation, as human beings. _ VIOLENCE IS STILL, then, a major method of domestic interest articulation. But, as such, its nature varies. In Watts the vio­ lence was political only in its repercussions appropriate test of the presence or degree of and its long-term causes. For the most part African (or any other) Socialism? it was anarchic, the concert of its actions To the Editors Is acceptance of the need for foreign invest­ held together only by homogeneity of ex­ ment funds properly equated to acceptance of perience. Leaders, if there were any, could substantial private foreign investment? The only have come from the gangs of restless bulk of intemational capital transfers are public sector or private loans not direct private invest­ youths whose contempt for the laws was ment. pathological. It was violence quite distinct In any event, is the critical choice whether or from any of the recent South African mani­ not to seek private foreign investment? In festations: the intellectualised or quasi­ Kenya's African Socialism principle at least, such investment can be con­ revolutionary sabotage of respectively the trolled, phased out, isolated from domestic poli­ ARM and Umkhonto, or the semi-organised tics and income distribution patterns. Is not terrorism of Poqo. the more crucial issue whether or not to encour­ This violence also poses the same prob­ SIRS,-Miss Harris's intriguing interpretation of age the growth of a large scale African private lems for the American desiring social change Kenya's African Socialism paper suffers from sector? If such a sector is to be encouraged­ the conceptual vagueness and confusion which as Kenya is doing-how is it possible to avoid as for the South African opposition. Should increasingly limits the usefulness of most writ­ increasingly sharp class differentiation? it be approved or disapproved ... or what ing on African Socialism, including the Kenya Is satisfaction from accumulation properly intermediate shades of attitude can be adop­ paper. A number of questions need much more equated with control over means of production? ted? "Tragic but inevitable". "Tragic precise and detailed examination than they are Socialist states accept accumulation of consumer but necessary ". "Tragic but desirable ". now receiving. durables (including homes), insurance and r~ And is disapproval, like most pacifism, not What is the distinction between African tirement claims, bank accounts and government simply an implicit desire not only to pre­ Socialism or social democracy in Africa? To bands (on which interest is paid) as who desire serve a privileged position but to enjoy it what extent are there 'common ideological, insti­ to 'accumulate for-to use President Nyerere's tutional, and programme elements among the tenninology-power instead of use. Indeed, in peace? Or as Martin Luther King, policies of African and socialist states e.g. neither individual, family, nor co-operative echoing in reverse a remark of Goethe's, 'Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Congo-B which repect farms or firms (nor reinvestment by them) are put it in his famous letter from Birming­ the title African Socialism? Those states e.g. inherently incompatible with Socialism (much ham jail "I have almost reached the con­ Nigeria, Cameroun Republic which lay claim to less social democracy) so long as they do not clusion that the Negro's greatest stumbling African (or pragmatic or Ahidjoist) Socialism depend on non-member labour. block ... is the white moderate who is but hardly seem to meet any normal set of Until a more critical and precise set of con­ more devoted to 'order' than to 'justice '; Socialist or social democratic crietria? cepts and criteria is developed and standardised, who prefers the negative peace which is What, if any, are the relationships between writing on African Socialism is likely to re­ the absence of tension to a positive peace Socialism or social democracy and a Welfare main in ,that curious realm of Alice in Wonder­ State? Is not the position of the Kenya paper land in which words mean what the author which is the presence of justice ..." that state expenditure must be concentrated on wishes them to mean at the moment and have Which leads on to a question harder to productive investment not a welfare state one of no stable objective correlatives. answer, and which the social context of its most socialist stands? Surely the structure REGINALD HERBOLD GREEN, East African Insti­ American violence hardly even poses. Here, of ownership--or ,at least of economic control­ tute of Social Research, Makerere University for most, it is a question of approval or rather than the level of welfare services is the College, Kampala. 220/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965 ------The Transkei's L. JIPULA Answer

PART TWO

DURING THE 1963 ELECTIONS there was IN SPITE OF ALL THESE machinations by BOOKS AND THE ARTS general intimidation. Incidents of actual the South Mrican Fascist Government, the assaults on the opposition have been re­ people themselves remain resolute. When corded. In Matanzima's area, for example, the results of the mock general election those who urged others to vote against were announced they showed that of the Matanzima were publicly assaulted. Al­ 45 elected members 38 supported Poto. The Restoration, though many of these cases were reported Matanzima had his greatest support from to the police, no prosecutions followed. the 64 puppet chiefs, who are recognised Matanzima and his thugs were thus able or appointed by the South Mrican Govern­ of Man to brutalise their opponents with impunity. ment and paid by it as its servants. The Elsewhert the people were told to vote or final result was a 54 to 49 victory for face dire consequences, including loss of Matanzima over Poto. Thus the chiefs D. E. Steward " rights" in their areas. On the actual voting supported the Broederbond-backed candi­ day an army of police moved in. Fleets of dates while the people rejected them. The White police toured the length and breadth majority of the people had voted overwhel­ of the land night and day. Planes and mingly against apartheid and the creation helicopters stood at the alert. of a Bantustan. Despite the fraud, corruption and intimi­ In the by-election that took place in Whit~ Lotus by John Hersey (Affred Knopf, un­ New York) dation, the fear of reprisals, attempts were Gcalekaland, following the shooting by made to boycott the elections. This move­ known persons of one of Matanzima's fol­ THE MAN WHO MADE conclusive statements on ment was inspired by the African People's lowers, Chief Mlingo Salakupatwa, in April, Hiroshima, the W'arsaw Ghetto, people who love Democratic Union of Southern Africa 1964, Matanzima's candidate, Paul Majavu, war, and even on the frosty character of (APDUSA) an affiliate of the Unity Move­ was defeated by Poto's candidate, Moses people who are native to the New England ment of South Africa. In Pondoland where Dumalisile, by 7,434 votes. The actual states, has made an important statement on the movement was strongest, impis were votes were 36,137 for Dumalisile and racism in America and slavery as it has existed sent out to intimidate those who showed re­ 28,703 for Majavu. The election itself was anywhere. luctance to vote and cow down the opposi­ the first in the T ranskei Bantustan to be John Hersey wrote White Lotus midstream in tion. But in some areas, notably Mqanduli, conducted on a party political basis. The the passion of the American Oiv'i1 Rights Movement. It should have been written long whole vilages stayed away from the polls. people were called upon to choose between before now, yet that it was written at all is Large sections of the population in Baziya, two policies. Again they voted against absolute proof that the world has passed far Tsmo and Engcobo also boycotted these apartheid. beyond the point df 'a century 'ago when Disraeli sham elections. Here again intrigue, intimidation and cor­ could say, "... race implies difference, Pressure was brought to bear upon all lay­ ruption were used in favour of Matanzima's difference implies superiority, and superiority ers of the Transkei to vote for Matanzima man. On the eve of the by-election, Matan­ leads to predominance." and his men. There was intense intrigue and zima in his capacity as Chief Minister of Hersey compresses hi'S history of the agony manipulation. The chiefs also came into the the Transkei Bantustan sent the following of the African in America into one lifetime, that fray. Chief Havington Zulu, a member of Of a white girl from Arizon'a who, after being letter to chiefs and headmen in Gcaleka- taken into slavery, is given the name White Poto's Party has this to say on the sub­ land: Chief Minister's Office, Lotu's. Her saga ends '3'S she stands alone in ject: Transkei Government, non-violent protest 'aga:inst the racial power "I was nearly dismissed by the Republican UMTATA. which has nearly erased her soul. Government for fighting against rehabilitation. 6th October, 1964. I was called an underground Poqo. Chiefs who White Lotus isa tong al1egory; it is set in Chief/Headman, joined the Democratic Party were threatened what is either a distan'tly possib1e future or in Gcaleka Region, with dismissal from their positions. At Umtata Re: Gcalekaland by-election. an undetermined p'ast. In this novel China I was taken into a dark house and questioned by is to North America exactly as historically North people I could not see. They urged me to sup­ As you are aware the By-election is close America hals been to Mrica. Hersey is port Chief Kaiser Matanzima because he had at hand. I advise 'all chiefs and headmen to absolutely successfu~ because every aspect o'f saved me from dismissal." beware of jackals that will turn against their own people. The usual practice of these jackals White Lotus's life is a11egorical1y correct. He Matanzima himself in one of his more is to lead the people into difficult positions is a master at the deta'iled fantasy of allegorical boastful moments has said: "I have a where they will find themselves chased by the reality; here so completely that every chapter keen eye on chiefs and will protect them. police. These jackals bring about trouble be­ is a further parable, and so the book becomes I have files on all chiefs and headmen and tween the chiefs and their people. a chain of parables which leads down into the Stand with the Government if you wish to darkest pits of racism. I am keen to see how they work." lead a happy and contented life because these Even though he knows Chinese culture L. J IPULA is a member of the Execu­ jackals themselves are being hounded by the intim'ately, John Hersey has not written a book tive of the All-African Convention and is police as they have Communistes sheltered un­ about China. White Lotus is about every now in exile in Lusaka. T he first part of der their blankets. Vote for Paul Majavu, who is supported by horrible rea-Ihy in the sorry history cif race this article was published in The New Paramount Chief Zwelidumile Sigcawi and also relations all over the world so far. • African, August 1965. by the Chief Minister of the Transkei. THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/221

Let all sub-headmen be busy on the day go to jail in the struggle for liberation of to allow the disgruntled quislings to use the of the by-election and see to it that the people all people in South Africa. We are prepared Baboons' Parliament as a platfonn to spread are not misled. (Signed) K. D. Matanzima, to die in carrying out the wishes of the anti-apartheid propaganda. Mter all, Chief Minister of the Transkei. party." apartheid is sacrosanct. It is beyond criti­ Another high-ranking official of Poto's cism, especially by Non-Whites. Besides, Following upon this directive by the ·col­ Party who is also a prominent member of Matanzima and his men have been pressing laborator-in-chief, chiefs and headmen in Steytler's reactionary Progressive Party, the for action to be taken against these " agita­ Gcalekaland got busy. As we have seen from Rev. Benjamin S. Rajuili, said in East Lon­ tors who are against all order." But it would the results of the election, their advice was don not so long ago: " No chief can super­ seem that his masters have decided that in rejected by the people despite the fact that sede the voice of the people. The people are this case discretion is the better part of it is an offence to disobey an order of the now turning against their chiefs who want to valour and to approach the matter with chief. The intriguers were confounded. carry out the wishes and whims of the circumspection. It is a tricky problem for The oppressed people of South Africa South African Government. To those chiefs the Broederbond. have moved on to the offensive. The initia­ who do not carry out the wishes of their I have indicated in this article that the tive is theirs and the Herrenvolk cannot do people the emergency regulations are a Government of South Africa has imposed anything about it. Although the governing boon." upon the people of the Transkei a Bantus­ wing of the Herrenvolk has not acknow­ Much of this coming as it does from tan that the majority rejects. Force, intrigue, ledged this fact, it has by its actions given It incorrigible collaborators is so much lip cajolery and intimidation have been em­ tacit recognition. For example, members of service. But the fact that these turncoats ployed to put the plan into operation as Poto's Party, acting under pressure from have found it necessary to mouth these noble planned; the protagonists of apartheid in the mass of the population, have with im­ sentiments is significant of the mood of the Transkei rely upon the tyranny of punity condemned, rejected and publicly the teeming millions of the Non-White Proclamation 400 for their own personal criticised and characterised as traitors to people who have pledged themselves to security and the maintenance of their posi­ the cause of the liberation of the oppressed, fight for the realisation of a new way of life tions; in the interests of maintaining "law the chiefs who follow Matanzima. Yet, in in South Africa. Under the banner of the and order" the rule of law has been abro­ the face of these "treasonable acts" the All-African Convention, the Unity Move­ gated. But in spite of all this, the demand Government has not been prepared to in­ ment and APDUSA the nation is being for one man, one vote persists. Indeed only voke the tyranny of Proclamation 400 of galvanised for a final showdown with the recently Verwoerd's army moved into Pon­ 1960, which makes any criticism of a chief Herrenvolk and their agents. The ideas of doland where there were threats of another or headman a criminal and punishable equality and freedom have become a living Bare-up against the system. Matanzima and offence. This despite Matanzima's request reality in our country. Even Matanzima his Party have refused to recommend to that its oppressive provisions be applied has to represent his shameful collaboration their mentors the removal of Proclamation against his opponents. as the royal road to freedom. He declares, 400 on the ground that it is there to deal Thus in his election manifesto in respect "The policy of multi-racialism is nothing with Communists who are waiting for an op­ of the by-election referred to above, Moses else but an instrument of African oppres­ portunity to stir up a revolution amongst the Dumalisile was able to demand full owner­ sion." And again, "It is clear that the peasantry. In plain language, conditions in ship of land, abolition of job-apartheid and Democratic Party with its liberal policy is the Transkei are not propitious for the influx control regulations in the urban areas, determined to abolish chieftainship and smooth running of a Bantustan Parliament. universal education as opposed to African, African traditions. The people of the Tran­ Matanzima and other quisling chiefs and Indian, Coloured and European Education skei will defend any attempt to attack their headmen have to be guarded by the police - education to fit the child in a plural traditions and customs." Once again the night and day against the wrath of the society; equal work and equal qualifica­ barbarian is invoking the dead gods of people. Everywhere there is restiveness and tions; repeal of the rehabilitation scheme; tribalism, the kaross and the voodoo cult resentment. There is agitation against the repeal of Proclamation 400 and the institu­ despite the all-encompassing rays of the Bantustan system on all levels. There is tion of a truly national Parliament. He midday sun of scientific and technological agitation against job-reservation, against in­ demanded "one Parliament ... not a developments of the twentieth century. doctrinated schooling, against political apar­ Parliament for Africans in the Transkei theid, against the Rehabilitation Scheme, in Umtata, and a White Parliament in Cape THE QUESTION MAY WELL be asked: Why against quisling chiefs and headmen. This Town." does Verwoerd allow Poto's men to agitate kind of agitation has effects that go beyond Speaking of Proclamation 400 and lack against apartheid? Why does he not have the confines of the Transkei. It has the of freedom of speech and movement in the Democratic Party outlawed and its effect of undermining the system of apar­ the so-called free Transkei, another one members arrested? Verwoerd is truly on the theid as a whole. A great deal of constant of Poto's men, O. O. Mpondo, had this to horns of a dilemma. Logically he should manoeuvering; manipulation and ingenuity say recently: "There is no freedom in the ban and arrest. But to do this would upset is required to keep the caricature intact and Transkei. There has been a state of emer­ his whole plan and defeat the purpose of under control. Thus is Verwoerd's Bantus­ gency since 1960. But we are prepared to the Bantustans. Yet Verwoerd cannot afford tan having a boomerang effect. e 222/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965------South Africa Incident on a CANDIDUS in 1965 Highveld Farm

I HAD BEEN VISITING FRIENDS on a small constables, take the law into their own me that he thought a policeman could have farm on the outskirts of the town and was hands - take it upon themselves to punish a powerful motive in assaulting a prisoner standing at the edge of a ploughed field most severely people who are untried by as a quick and easy way of securing a con­ to watch the sun go down over the flat, any court of law. fession, but he "failed to understand " why limitless highveld. There was no attempt by the policeman a prison warder should hit a man who had All was quiet except for a murmur of involved in this incident to acquire any already been convicted as that motive was voices from a group of Africans about a evidence of any alleged offence or to find not present: therefore he found the stories quarter of a mile away from me. They witnesses. Unauthorised gambling in public of prison ill-treatment difficult to believe. were squatting on their haunches in the or even in private is an offence in South At least 80 per cent - probably more Mrican way, and I surmised that they were Africa and this mayor may not have been - of our police are Afrikaans-speaking gambling with stones or cards. what the Africans were doing. The police and I am told that most of the assaults Suddenly a motor vehicle came tearing did not bother themselves to find out. are committed by young policemen re­ along a sandy track through the veld, break­ The owners of the farm had not com­ cruited from the platteland - the farms ing the silence, and I saw that it was a plained to the police. A liberal-minded and villages of the countryside. It is notice­ police" pick-up" van. The Africans scat­ couple, they were as shocked and as in­ able that such people reveal a curious am­ tered and began to run. The van screeched dignant as I was. They know that Africans bivalence in their attitude towards Africans. to a halt in clouds of dust near the pieces meet on the veld on the periphery of their In the loose, intimate atmosphere of an of sparse, wintry veld where they had been property on Sunday afternoons to talk and isolated farm there is a rough friendliness squatting. gamble. amounting almost to familiarity but this One of the men had not been as quick as "There is simply nothing else for them may turn at any moment into panic-stricken the others, who had disappeared among to do here," they told me. "N0 sports violence if the African oversteps the invi­ some outbuildings and trees inside the farm facilities, no cinemas, almost no transport." sible but very real barrier. fence. This man ran uncertainly for a few White South Africans who witness as­ Many of these lads were brought up from yards. The constable who was driving the saults like this on Africans very rarely com­ infancy by African "nannies" some of van slammed it into reverse gear, -backed plain, either because they concur with the whom they knew more intimately than their towards him and then jumped out. The treatment or through fear of becoming own mothers. But when puberty is reached African by this time was walking slowly " involved with the police." the child slowly realises that this connection along a path. The constable, a small man An Afrikaner lawyer whom I once knew must be broken and his relations with the in the light blue uniform and cap of the - a Nationalist - told me that every black people must become those of his South African police, aimed his fist at the time he visited the local jail to see awaiting older brothers and sisters and his parents. man's face and hit him with all his trial prisoners he witnessed assaults. The Psychologists have deduced that the real strength. The African staggered back. victims rarely lodge a complaint or lay love of the African mother-substitute may The constable slammed his fist again a charge. Every court reporter has seen thus be turned to guilt-ridden hate and and again into the man's face - about prisoners in the dock with the marks of fear. The love-hate attitude persists in adult six times in all - and each time the African assault on their faces. life and may be responsible for the numer­ staggered, until at last he fell to the ground. The police officer to whom I complained ous contraventions of the so-called Immor­ A second constable had got out of the appeared sympathetic and concerned. "We ality Act by people who have not outgrown van and the two of them hauled the man to take a very serious view of cases of assualt their childish love of a black woman. This, his feet and pushed and pulled him to the on prisoners," he said. "Every young of course, has been the theme of many back of the pick-up. One of the constables policeman on assuming duty has to sign a South African novels. opened the back door. They made the special instruction issued by the Depart­ All this is part of the tragedy of the man bend his head and the other police­ ment of Justice forbidding him to punish Afrikaners - of a deeply religious, nor­ man planted his boot on his buttocks and a prisoner. Yet I know that it happens all mally extremely courteous people. gave a hefty and well-aimed shove. The too often. But unless the prisoner himself African fell sprawling into the back of the lays a complaint there is nothing we can IT IS QUITE REMARKABLE how different the van, the door was slammed and locked and do. If the man you saw being assaulted relationship is between the urbanised the van moved off. wants to lay a charge we will call you as a English-speaking South Africans and the witness in a criminal charge. Meanwhile Africans. The English almost always treat I'll investigate the matter departmentally." Africans in a stand-offish, but strictly fair IT ALL HAPPENED VERY QUICKLY - in a manner. Their aloofness does not endear matter of minutes. I should think that them to the Africans; I have known Afri­ every South African over 40 has seen it WELL, THAT WAS SOME WEEKS ago and I cans who prefer Afrikaners, with all their happen at least once in his lifetime. I have heard nothing more. It is easy for a faults, because they feel they are more have had the assurance of a high-ranking policeman accused of assault to plead that human. The English are not as subject as police officer that it happens "all too fre­ his victim resisted arrest. .. Afrikaners to violent reactions and hates; quently" that policemen, especially young A middle-aged policeman recently told at the same time they rarely show any THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965/223

real friendliness and the professed friend­ IT IS NOT AT ALL FAR-FETCHED to assert liness and chumminess of some English­ that the direction that jazz has taken in the speaking liberals is often regarded by Afri­ last few years has brought it, both in sound cans, who are quick in intuition, as the and spirit, closer to the ancient music of false coinage it sometimes is. Black Africa. And in fact there is nothing Ever seen an Afrikaner laughing and 6 so remarkable or strange about this fact joking with a black man (something an since, contrary to common decision of the English South African rarely does) and general western critical forces, the major then kicking him in the backside in the preoccupation of the great innovators in next minute? There you have the essence jazz has been greater spontaneity and flexi­ of the Afrikaner attitude and it is one, bility of expression rather than greater of course, which is carried into public life technical facility for facility's sake. In fact and politics in all kinds of subtle and 00­ the overall technical innovations, discover­ subtle ways. ies, or methods introduced into the world's It may help to explain the pathological musical vocabulary by the experimenters in fear of the Afrikaner politician that his jazz have been always subordinate to the people should be protected from "con­ idea of being able to say that crteain hidden taminating" themselves by social mixing thing. Charles Parker testified to this. with the Africans. Hence the strict appli­ Omette Coleman is in our time re-asserting cation of apartheid in sport and higher this forcefully. Eric Dolphy who died last education and residential and social life. year aged only thirty-five also said this, not Remember too that the Afrikaner has SOUL in defence or explanation, but in comple­ been fed from infancy with stories of Black MEETING '65 ment of his music. treachery and violence - stories handed Even a passing acquaintance with the down from fath'er to son and dating from LINDSAY BARRETT vibraphone and flute music of West Mrican Dingane, the Frontier Wars and Voortrekker countries such as Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and days when a handful of Whites survived Nigeria to mention only a few cannot fail among the hordes of "black savages."

THE" SAVAGES" ARE SUPINE in 1965; they have built up an elaborate code of conduct to avoid being thrashed to within an inch of their lives. The bowing and scraping and rubbing together of the hands and the December 1965 issue oft-used appellation" basie " (" little boss ") are symptoms of the sickness. Sobukwe and Mandela and hundreds of others who took up arms against the White hegemony, bravely but hopelessly, linger on in our AYI KWEIARMAH jails and are only spoken of in whispers. Instead there is the. " petrol boy" who tips "Contact"-a story his cap for a 3c tip and the waiter whose eyes roll if you attempt a political discus­ sion. And all is quiet and Verwoerd and Vorster and Co. are happy and the econ­ Fr. BEDE ONUOHA omy prospers exceedingly ~ith the help of What is African Socialism? underpaid black labourers and many (By arrangement with Andre Deutsch Ltd., London) English-speaking businessmen who back the government to the hilt. But resentment is being stored up, slowly, secretly, deeply, and one day it will surely LEWIS NKOSI explode in a way which will make th'e Los Angeles affair look like a Sunday Doing Paris with Breyten school picnic. At the moment there does not seem much to hope for in South Africa•. 224/THE NEW AFRICAN/NOVEMBER 1965

to impress on the listener the similarity in stricter melodic form of jazz and the more Sonny Rollins is one of the chief expon­ improvisational approach between both intensely rhythmic conceptions of Black ents, and Omette Coleman also. In this musics and whereas differences in instru­ African musics. This may be too much to Dolphy Album, just as on Alone Together ments and instrumentation give rise to nat­ say of one performance but it is not in fact he used the chords of a popular song as the ural differences in tone and presentation, the only such performance in jazz. How­ springboard for a brilliant construction of the closeness of an Ornette Coleman riff to ever it happens to be one of the most beau­ lyric and rhythmic ideas; so two members the monotone elephant-horn calls of tradi­ tiful selections on a superb record. Whether of his band on side one, flautist Prince tion ritual musicians from Guinea (for ex­ it is the most beautiful or not is a matter Lasha, and altoist Huey Simmons have used ample when playing for an initiation cere­ of taste. the popular form of the calypso on which mony) is uncanny. But comparison and On the flip side there is the extraordin­ to build their tune, Music Matador. The smug recognition of similarities still cannot arily updated band performance of Fats result is a free-for-all avant garde calypso ferret out or fathom the yet deeper ties of Waller's old hit Jitterbug Waltz which improvisation which achieves the extr~ord­ aesthetic harmony that has brought musics brings to mind another observation, that inary in providing uncompromising music from two continents so close to each other the most forceful innovators in any art will which even the squares can shake a leg to so easily. On the Eric Dolphy Memorial always examine the historic archives of their should they feel so inclined. Of course I

Album, (Vee Jay, VJ2503 t) there is a ren­ art for valuable material, and of course in am not suggesting that our music is usually dition of an old American pop song " Alone jazz this is especially tactful since as we undanceable. I find Omette Coleman and Together" played only by Dolphy on bass have asserted here the movement forward Sonny Rollins beautiful for dancing. Monk clarinet, a difficult and too often neglected is a movement into history. There is greater is extraordinary for solo dancing. Girl instrument and one of the many reeds he light in the knowledge of our beginningsc there. Boy here. Go now. Why should this mastered, and Richard Davis, a remarkable than there is in the knowledge of our end. be surprising (as so many people seem to bassist. Together they seemed to overlook find it)? Jazz in all its forms is eventually or ignore any need to satisfy stereotyped ritual music. Ritual and rhythmic. Black expectations on the part of their listeners ON ANOTHER TACK, it is equally pleasing to Mrican music is superb for dancing when (fans?) and as a result this performance, if hear in jazz the growing volume of incorp­ meant for dancing and who is to say that none other in jazz, has broken the ground orated tunes, riffs and chord structures from jazz when jumping, (the music itself is a for an even closer rapport between the other black musics of the West of which dance) should not be jumped to! e

T his magazine Subscription rates You will find it was World Surface Mail: 1 year R2 - £ 1 ­ covers Africa $2.80; 6 months RI - 10s. $1.40; worth the subscription in general Renewal: 1 year R1.80 - 18s. - $2.50. Students in Southern Africa: 1 year and South Africa Rl.SO - 158; Airmail: 1 year V.S.A. I enclose '.. in particular $6 - S.A. R4. Name . Address .

ARTS There is no cultural apartheid: And have you no friend poetry, painting, writing, or relation who would THOUGHT sculpture, everything love it for a birthday New ideas and old - or for that matter for a in and about Africa non-birthday - present POLITICS for a non-racialist - T he freedom and or for that matter a LIFE unfreedom movements racialist in need of a lift? Social and ·economic life of Africa in industrial and pre­ where they've moved from 12A GOODWINS COURT Name . industrial Africa and South where they're mOfJing to Address . Africa. And the lands and not leaving behind OFF ST MARTINS LANE in sch it is lived South Africa LONDON WC2 ENGLAND