FOLLOW THE MAN WHO FOLLOWED HIS CONSCIENCE
AMERICA Tills authorized eolleetorV video fea- uires aii r\rlnsKe itttmipw with N4?wm Mandela and ne1v
Plus musical tribute* l>yi Stevif Jolinn| Aretha F Ladysmith Black and many
A portion of the proeeeda from i'ach sale will In* donated to The I\el
Running time: *>(> minutes.
Produced In \m-
A Publication oithe ^REPORT African-American Institute The Update 5 African-American Institute Editor: Tunji Ijxrdner.jr. Chairman South Africa Maurice Tempelsman The ABCs of Apartheid 13 By Peter Tygesen President Vivian Lowery Derryck John Samuel: Ending Apartheid Education 18 By Margaret A. Novicki Publisher Namibia Frank E. Ferrari Bridging the Gap 23 Editor-in-Chief By Colleen lu>we Morna Margaret A. Novicki New Ghanaian Order Page 34 South Africa Production Editor The Pariah's New Pals 28 Joseph Margolis By Colleen Lowe Morna Assistant Editor Land and the Landless 31 Tunji Lardner. Jr. By Patrick Laurence Assistant Editor Ghana Russell Geekie Flt.-Lt. Jerry Rawlings: Constructing a New Constitutional Order 34 Contributing Editors By Margaret A. Novicki Michael Maren Andrew Meldrum Benin Daphne Topouzis A Victory for Democracy 39 Art Director By George Neavoll Kenneth Jay Ross A Vote for Democracy Msgr. Isidore de Souza: Building a New Benin 43 Advertising Office Page 39 By Margaret A. Novicki 212 949-5666. ext. 728 Nigeria Interns New Breed, Old Politics? 46 James D. Beaton By Obinna Anyadike Goncalo L. Fonseca Jessica M. Forsyth Kenya Khady Sene Daniel Levinson Wilk Sedition by Edition 49 By Lucy Hannan Africa Report (ISSN 0001-9836). a non-profit magazine of African affairs. Dances with State 53 is published bimonthly and is sched- uled to appear at the beginning of By Holly Burkhalter each date period at 833 United Nations Plaza, New York. NY. 10017. Editorial correspondence and adver- Somalia tising, inquiries should be addressed Starting from Scratch 56 to Africa Report, at the above address. Subscription rates: individ- Lawyer vs. the I-aw By Peter Biles uals. USA $24, Canada $30, air rate Page 49 overseas $48 Institutions. USA $31, Food Canada $37. air rate overseas $55. Second-class postage paid at New The Forgotten Famine 60 York, N Y. and at additional mailing By Nick Cater offices. POSTMASTER: If this maga- zine is undeliverable, please send address changes to Africa Report at Mozambique 833 UN Plaza. NY, NY 10017. Tele- Railway of Refuge 63 phone: (212) 949-5666. Copyright •£- 1991 by The African-American Insti- By Andrew Meldrum tute, Inc. Culture The Alphabet War 67 Photo Credits: By Denis Herbstein The cover photographs of stu- dents in South Africa were Book Reviews taken by Avigail Uzt, Dave Hart- South Africa as Seen by Journalists 70 man, and Steve Hilton-Barber 1 ttur> from Somalia By Jeremy Boraine of Impact Visuals. Page 67 MELILLA Tunis CEUTA Bamako ^r I Niamey GAMBIA- BURKINA FA5O GUINEA ) * ^Ouagadougou GUINEA-BISSA Bissau Conakry \--rL^ ^S~~~^X BENIN Freetown Porto Novo ETHIOPIA SIERRA LEONE tVOHV J j / NIGERIA COAST /GHANA(V S Lagos CENTRAL AFRICAN Addis Ababa REPUBLIC CAMEROON Bangu * /"SOMALIA EQUATORIAL GUINEA Yaounde Malabo UGANDA) I Kampala/ KENYA SAO TOME Ej>> ^•Libreville PRINCIPE^ r1 GABON ^ Brazzaville • Kinshasa SEYCHELLES IS Victoria o MAURITIUS Port Louii REUNION SWAZILAND Mbabane LESOTHO Maseru Copyright © 1984 by the African-American Institute, Inc IN THE NEWS South Africa: Reforms Yes, Contrition...Certainly Not Ever since South African President struction" is at the core of his reforms; ple in jail for longer, you could have F.W. de Klerk's historic address to Par- the latter and more delicate task of rec- shot many of them to death, but the liament in February, his promise of onciling a fragmented society rent asun- ideas for which they stood—that they major reforms, and ultimately the aboli- der by economic racism is proving wanted freedom in the land of their tion of apartheid, has triggered deep much more difficult. For. unlike the birth and a say over their own introspection about the morality of ready economic and legalistic indices of lot—could not be destroyed that way." apartheid. As a policy for four decades, apartheid that President dc Klerk is tin- Talking to The New York Times, it was convenient to make a case kering with, the more invidious legacy Prof. Sampie Terreblanche, a liberal for rcalpolitik without moralizing of apartheid poses stark moral choices. economist at Stellenbosch University, racism—it was after all the law. the most prestigious Afrikaans academ- But since the renunciation of ic institution, said, "It is a bizarre stale apartheid as national policy, the ruling of affairs. The unwillingness, the National Party has inevitably been unpreparedness of de Klerk and his forced to confront the moral dilemma it people to make a confession for the has wrought. Did apartheid fail because National Party and its guilt for this suf- it was unsustainable, or did it collapse fering. They are convinced about the under its own deadweight of evil? unworkability of apartheid, not about Whatever the answer, the exigency the immorality or exploitative character of survival has prompted the govern- of apartheid." ment to attempt to recast itself as the If the secular institutions of state benign catalyst of change in South have been somewhat reticent about Africa. The first move has been to proffering a full-blown apology, the redress the legalistic aspects of sectarian institutions, specifically the apartheid—Parliament has been given redoubtable Dutch Reformed Church, until June to pass legislation that will would seem to have undergone a "road scrap the more than 15,000 regulations to Damascus" experience. For decades, and 200 laws that have for 42 years The Dutch Reformed Church: "Some of us are sorry" the church provided ethical covering- been the legal armature for the So far, de Klerk and his National fire for the proponents of apartheid by grotesque society that apartheid has Party have strenuously tried to deflect invoking biblical justification for created. responsibility for the ethical dimen- eugenics—blacks were genetically In apartheid, there has been a perni- sions of apartheid. Their public position inferior, therefore it was morally right cious redistribution of resources; with has been that apartheid was devised that they should be treated as such. whites outnumbered five to one. 87 per- essentially by God-fearing men who are For all the moral anguish that some cent of the most fertile land has been now giving it up because of its imprac- members of the congregation might reserved exclusively for the 5 million ticality. and certainly not because it was have felt, the proselytisni of the church whites, leaving the remaining 13 per- morally wrong. But not all members of was a long time coming. For years the cent of mostly arid land for 30 million the party agree with that position. church was the sectarian custodian of blacks. Some 17 million blacks have Deputy Foreign Minister Leon Wesscls Boer bigotry and economic privilege. been arrested since 1948 for straying in February told a stunned Parliament And in the eyes of many blacks, this into white-held lands, another 3.5 mil- that "we now know that we hurt our fel- sudden epiphany, including the surpris- lion blacks have been forcibly dispos- low countrymen." Calling apartheid "a ing public apology from one of its high sessed of their homes. Forty thousand terrible mistake that blighted our land," priests last November, is a crock of South Africans have been driven into he said. "I am sorry for having been so belated platitudes. exile, and over 80.000 blacks have been hard of hearing for so long." Addressing a multiracial church detained. The net total, minus death and And a week after the president's conference in Rustenburg on behalf of misery, has been the patent failure of landmark address to Parliament, his Dutch Reformed Church and apartheid as a philosophy. Finance Minister Barend du Plessis, in Afrikaner brethren. Willie D. Jonker. a Recognizing this a year ago, de a prepared statement, gave a trenchant Stellenbosch theologian, confessed to Klerk announced that "the time for denunciation of apartheid and in the "my own sin and guilt, and my personal reconstruction and reconciliation |had) process a self-indictment of his party by responsibility for the political, social, arrived." The former task of "recon- saying, "You could have put more peo- economical and structural wrongs that AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 have been done to many of you." And restrictive and legalistic subterfuge to for forgiveness? Possibly. It would cer- in a formalized document known as the explain his position, saying that apolo- tainly be in their favor to do so, and it is Rustenburg Declaration, the church gies and analyzing the past could "go an integral part of any plan for national branded as sinful and evil "the heretical too far." reconciliation. "Just three words," says policy of apartheid which has led to But the issue refuses to be wished Rev. Beyers Naude, a Dutch Reformed extreme suffering for so many of our away. In a government white paper minister speaking to The New York land." It ended with a call on govern- issued recently, the suggestion was that Times, "we are sorry"—will do more to ment "to join us in a public confession blacks should forget the past and, "In restore meaningful relations between of guilt and a statement of repentance the interest of peace and progress, the blacks and whites in South Africa than for wrongs perpetrated over the years." present situation [regarding land resti- all the sermons I or anyone else could But for many whites like Koos van tution] should be accepted." The pre- preach." der Merwe, the Conservative Party sent situation being inter alia, that white Enos Mabuza, chief minister of the whip, there is absolutely nothing to farmers have an average holding of Kangwane homeland and member of apologize for. Speaking to The Wash- 1,700 hectares of which 286 hectares is the African National Congress, as ington Post, he said: "We are First arable, while blacks have on the aver- reported in The Independent of London, World people like yourself," referring age 13 hectares, of which only 0.9 agrees that an apology from the govern- to the reporter. "The creator has hectares is arable. And added to this is ment and substantial political change dumped 5 million of us among 30 mil- the fact that white farmers receive would boost its credibility among lion Third Worlders." It is partially that about 50 times more financial assis- blacks, especially among the more mili- familiar rationale of some kind of a tance than black farmers. tant and skeptical youth sector. "It is not "manifest destiny" and therefore some Will black South Africa accept the enough, however," he added, "just to sense of divine justification for "present situation?" Highly unlikely. have piecemeal gestures from certain apartheid that was up until now the Will black South Africa accept a plea quarters." • moral argument for "separate develop- ment." With that argument in tatters, the r more astute reasons for the economic A Makeover for Libya's Qaddafy racism that is apartheid are in open con- flict with the politics of change. In the Operating under the canopy of the a lesser degree the U.S. But by far his biography F.W. de Klerk—The Man Gulf war, Libya's Colonel Muammar greatest successes have been on the and His Times, written by his older Qaddafy has been quite busy brushing continent where he has striven for brother, Prof. Wiliem de Klerk, the up his image. The ad hoc agreements of strategic influence, by supplying money elder de Klerk says, "to my mind, it the war have enabled him to play the and materiel to various war efforts. remains a pity that there has not been role of a respectable pan-Arab states- After Iraqi military support in 1987 an open and firm confession that man, busying himself with the initial enabled Chad's Hissene Habre to rout apartheid was an error. I think F.W. quest for a diplomatic solution, and Libyan bases in southern Libya, owes it to South Africa." with the war's outcome, camped on the Qaddafy recoiled from direct military De Klerk and the National Party are side of the victors. involvement in the crisis, but continued unlikely to make a public show of con- His strong condemnation of Iraq's to support rebel forces opposed to the trition, ostensibly because they would invasion in consonance with pro-West- regime in Ndjamena. rather move ahead with reforms and as ern Arab states initially startled some His support for the Patriotic Salva- Renier Schoeman. the chief spokesman observers who had expected a reflexive tion Movement (PSM), led by Gen. of the National Party put it, "We should pro-Iraq position in reaction to U.S. Idris Deby, has since paid off hand- be judged by our [present] deeds." But involvement in the dispute. That would somely. With an aloof France standing the real reasons hinge on the very sur- have been fine with "the old Qaddafy." aside and watching, claiming through vival of the party, and ultimately the the new and not necessarily improved Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevene- preservation of the white status quo. De Qaddafy is carrying out business, espe- ment that "arms deliveries are not Klerk probably fears that an unreserved cially with the West, more diplomatical- enough to define a case of downright apology will play into the hands of ly these days. military aggression," Gen. Deby's white right-wing extremists, and possi- Qaddafy"s position on Iraq was part- forces overthrew Habre's eight-year-old bly also undermine the exclusively ly informed by a long-standing rivalry government in early December last white constituency that the National with Saddam Hussein for preeminence year. Party represents. within the Arab world, and Hussein's However, Qaddafy's other military And worse still, a mea culpa with sponsorship of covert operations to adventure in Liberia has not yielded the implicit expectation of penance will undermine Qaddafy's government in expected returns. Under President open the floodgates of compensation retaliation for Libya's support for Iran Blaise Compaore, Burkina Faso has and restitution for 30 million dispos- during the Iran-Iraq war. become a recipient of considerable sessed blacks. In the months after his The fluid alliances formed during Libyan aid and the conduit for funnel- February address, de Klerk, under pres- the war also provided him with the ing arms to Charles Taylor's insurgen- sure from the church and liberal voices, opportunity to share common ground cy. That effort has been stymied with has waffled variously on the meaning with the West, and he succeeded in the unprecedented intervention of of "sin" and "restitution"—preferring a some rapprochement with France and to Continued on page 11 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 LIBERIA 15. the Front of Association for Renew- al (FAR) was formed. The umbrella Remember the ongoing "Liberian group, consisting of the Togolese crisis?'" Well, it is no longer a strictly League of Human Rights, four indepen- Liberian affair. In the last three months, dent student organizations, and five hostilities have spilled into Sierra other pro-democracy groups, called for Leone with the very real threat of the right to create political parties domestic turmoil and regional disloca- increasing signs thai the cease-fire might immediately, a general amnesty, and a tion. Late in March, Freetown reported soon snap, with violence erupting again national conference on Togo's future. border incursions by members of in Liberia, and possibly beyond. Several thousand demonstrators Charles Taylor's National Patriotic But a crucial decision by Burkina heeded a call by FAR to carry out a pre- Front of Liberia army. And although Faso's President Blaise Compaore to viously banned demonstration on Taylor initially denied involvement in send troops to join the Ecowas contin- March 16. When the group attempted to the incidents, his foreign minister, gent represents a loss of major logisti- enter Freedom Square in the capital, it Ernest Eastman later tried to pul a soft cal and military support for Taylor's was challenged by military vehicles. spin on the accusations. army, and might alter the balance of The government reported that a police- Speaking at a news conference in forces in Liberia. For now. the regional man was stabbed to death and a child Abidjan, he said that Taylor regretted spread of the crisis is giving post-dated killed in the ensuing battle. the clashes, specifically the incident validity to the military intervention by On Sunday, March 17. FAR called when "some of our boys went into the Ecowas. for a two-day general strike for the fol- Sierra Leone section and perhaps over- lowing Wednesday. By this point, indulged." Sierra Leone's military com- TOGO Eyadema had seen enough and agreed mander, Maj-Gen. Mohammed Sheku is the President of the Republic to meet with the group in an attempt to Tarawali, later reported the capture of Again Legitimate?." the front-page broker an end to the demonstrations. 83 members of the NPFL army. headline of one of Togo's new indepen- After meeting with FAR representatives In the wake of the first raids on the dent papers asked in March. The answer the next day. the president accepted in border towns of Zimmi and Potoru to from anti-government demonstrators principle an amnesty for political pris- the south-east of Freetown, there was was a resounding no when 26 bodies oners, promised to take measures to speculation that renegade members of were dredged from a lagoon in the capi- allow alternate political parties to form the NPFL militia were responsible for tal, Lome, in April. The protesters rapidly, and agreed to meet with stu- the looting and the scores of civilians quickly identified the dead as victims of dents to discuss their grievances. He killed. But the insurgency is rapidly police beatings. Authorities denied the also agreed to a national forum that assuming a domestic identity. Another charge and declared a national day of would take place from June 10 to 20, rebel leader. Corporal Foday Sabanoh mourning, but the incident is believed to with a mandate to appoint a transitional Sankoh, has emerged to claim responsi- have further strained President Gnass- government and legislature and set a bility for the latest incursions and the ingbe Eyadema's 24-year-old reign after date for elections. occupation of Koindu, another border widespread riots, which began in The agreement helped to calm the town. March, forced him to grant several con- violence, but did not put an end to stu- Speaking to the BBC, Sankoh staled cessions to opposition groups. dent protests or labor strikes. When the that his group, the Revolutionary Unit- Four days of unrest, which left at bodies were fished out of a lagoon on ed Front of Sierra Leone, intends to least two dead and 100 injured, began Thursday, April 11, demands for politi- overthrow the incumbent regime on March 13 at the University of Lome cal change were stepped up. The next because of President Joseph Momoh's when a group of Eyadema supporters day. political parties were declared refusal to bow to popular demands for threw stones at several hundred stu- legal. The following Monday, leading multi-party elections. Observers feel dents demonstrating for multi-party opposition figures met and demanded that while this crusade is certainly democracy, according to a student rep- that the national constitutional confer- opportunistic—feeding off the crisis in resentative. The riots quickly spread to ence be held prior to the planned June Liberia—the call for multi-party other schools in Lome and the working date. democracy is consistent with events class suburb of Tokoin. as protesters Since Eyadema first agreed to the elsewhere in Africa. reacted angrily to the use of soldiers in creation of a multi-party system in President Momoh. meanwhile, is not restoring order. October 1990, following violent taking any chances: an appeal and a des- On March 15, several thousand demonstrations which left between perate trip to Lagos have yielded some Togolese marched to the American four and 17 dead, he has progressively results. Nigeria and Guinea—Sierra embassy, demanding the release of stu- lost the ability to control the pace or Leone's neighbor to the north—have dents detained two days earlier. Togo's direction of events in Togo. The presi- deployed troops to help contain the Human Rights League claimed that 15 dent's conduct will certainly be a fac- spread of hostilities. His other appeal to students were being held and that 12 tor in determining if Togo will make a the U.S. "for certain items'"—presum- had "disappeared" during the two pre- smooth transition to multi-party ably military assistance—was being vious days of government crackdowns. rule—one Lome resident reported that sympathetically considered. Since the The protest was broken up by baton- a pamphlet was being widely circulat- deadlock at the all-important March 15 wielding soldiers and police. ed which declared that civil war was conference in Monrovia, there are While rioting continued on March at hand. AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 AFRICAN OUTLOOK And Another One Bites the Dust, This Time in Last October, when as an initiator of serious rioting broke out in the streets World Bank and the IMF, the govern- a historic UN conference on children, of Bamako. ment had not paid its civil servants for Mali's President Moussa TraonS rose to That crisis prompted the demilita- months. give a keynote address in the General rization of his government, and the This round of demonstrations began Assembly, he looked resplendent in his beginning of Traore's political engi- on Friday. March 22, when students grand boubou. With measured elocu- neering that, by 1979, had him installed staged a protest to demand the payment tion and before 70 other heads of state, as a civilian president and the Mali Peo- of scholarships, and an independent he made an impassioned appeal to the ple's Democratic Union (UDPM) as the inquiry into the prison deaths of student world to save its children. singular authority in Mali. leaders and other government critics. That role—grand African states- In 1980 during another of the period- Troops reportedly shot and killed 28 man—was how the 54-year-old former ic demonstrations against his govern- demonstrators, triggering riots that lieutenant preferred to cast himself, and ment, the death and subsequent martyr- spilled tens of thousands into the the imperial protocol of high office dom of Abdul Karim Camara became streets. evident at that conference seemed Over that weekend, the violence to suit his remote and detached per- and deaths mounted, forcing the sonality. Traore government into dialogue In subsequent months, that with the leaders of the pro-democra- detachment manifested itself as a cy movement and wresting conces- serious lapse in his understanding sions and promises of democratic of the forces of change in a conti- reforms. But in reply to the raucous nent attempting to redefine itself. In demands on the streets for his resig- the new political lexicon of change, nation, Traord told a French radio the military coup that overthrew his station (on Sunday),"'I will not government on March 26 lies some- resign, my government will not where between a Liberian-type sce- resign, because I was elected not by nario—bloodshed and carnage— the opposition but by all the people and the Benin scenario—the of Mali." inevitability of quick democratic He displayed the same obstinacy reforms. in last year's Franco-African sum- When the Malian capital, mit in which French President Mit- Bamako, convulsed in violent terrand laid out the new political demonstrations on January 21 and conditionalities for francophone 22 after the government had moved Moussa Traore: "My fate is now in God's hands" Africa, namely multi-party democ- to blunt the drive for multi-party the rallying cry of students of succeed- racy. Traore reportedly viewed the "wind democracy. Traore (wildly underesti- ing generations, including the ones that from the East" with deep apprehension. mating the resolve of the coalition spilled out onto the streets recently. By Monday, the anti-government pushing for change) said that "the street As with previous demonstrations, protest was billowing out of control, [was) not the appropriate place for the underlying causes of the rebellion with reports of at least 200 people dead, political struggle." were economic. Situated south of the and the entire country all but paralyzed After his avuncular appeals failed to Sahara desert, Mali has suffered from by a general strike called by the Nation- placate the riotous mobs, he simultane- recurring drought that has decimated its al Union of Malian Workers. The next ously imposed legislative restrictions once-large livestock resource, and for day, the army, under the command of on free speech and political activities the 73 percent of the 8 million people Lt.-Col. Amadou Toumani Toure, and then unleashed his armed forces, involved in agriculture, the drop in moved lo restore order by arresting first the police and next the army, in a world prices of cotton and groundnuts renegade soldiers loyal to Traore, and rapid escalation of violence. (that make up 90 percent of export announcing Traore's arrest and the This was not the first time since receipts) has been disastrous. overthrow of his government. 1968—when Traore led a handful of And with a per capita income of Following his arrest, Traore is young officers in the overthrow of the $190—making it among the world's 10 reported to have said "my fate is now in charismatic Modibo Keita—that the poorest countries—the onerous legacy God's hands." Perhaps so. but the fate military had been called to quell civil of 22 years of uninspired, repressive, of the country is in need of more metic- disturbances. Following the death in and reportedly corrupt leadership made ulous attention, and according to detention of Keita (widely acknowl- it ripe for such a change. What helped Demba Diallo, head of the Malian edged as the father of Mali's indepen- ignite this simmering discontent was League of Human Rights and a leader dence) in 1977 under Traore's rule, also the fact that despite help from the Continued on page II 8 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 INTERVlElAf: CARLOS VEIGA, PRIME MINISTER OF CAPE VERDE he massive electoral victory in February by the Movi- Africa Report: In the last couple of years, the PAICV gov- mento para a Democracia over Partido Africano da ernment began adopting a comparable policy of economic T Independencia de Cabo Verde (PAICV). while and political liberalization known as extroversao da eco- instructive for the rest of the continent, was of particular nomica favoring export development and greater civil liber- import to lusophone Africa. It signaled the changing of the ties. How does the MPD economic program differ from thai old statist/Marxist guard that had jealously preserved the of the PAICV? privileges that went with being veterans of independence, to Veiga: Over the last few years, the PAICV was attempting to a young and vigorously pro-capitalist generation, that has narrow the differences between us; the MPD is in fact com- grown weary of unfulfilled promises. Personifying this prised of former PAICV members who dislanced themselves change is Carlos Veiga, a 41 -year-old lawyer, who now from the party to defend ideas like human rights and econom- heads the new government in Praia. In a post-election inter- ic liberalization. Later the PAICV absorbed these ideas, view, he spoke with Carol Castiel about his party's victory, adopting them as their own. Nevertheless, we did not believe and the direction of his government. that the same persons who governed for over 15 years would be capable of pursuing such a radically different set of poli- Africa Report: What factors led to the Movement for Democ- cies [than they originally supported). Although Cape Verde racy's (MPD) victory over Ihe ruling African Party for the never installed a permanently repressive system, there was a Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV)? Some analysts specu- form of societal control which became violent at certain late that the churches and the emigrant vote were critical. times when the regime fell it was warranted. In these violent Veiga: I wouldn't say it was Ihe emigrant vote—the number of moments human rights were not respected—there was tor- emigrants who voted was very small. Nor were the churches a ture, arbitrary jailing, and prison deaths. principal factor because we won by a large margin in islands On the other hand, one hears a lot about economic liberal- such as Sao Vincente where the Catholic Church doesn't have ization, yel we continue to see the state dominate the econom- much influence. We won because we were able to articulate ic sector. Most of the companies are state-owned; the manage- and respond to the popular dissatisfaction simmering for many ment of these parastatals has not changed. Even among mixed years which the PAICV failed to perceive, because it distanced enterprises in which the state is a partner, the management is itself from the population. We knew about the dissatisfaction still similar to a parastatal operation. Thus the slate ends up in particularly in Praia and Sao Vincente. Throughout the course all sectors of life—cultural, sports, social, and economic. The of our work, we verified that this malaise extended to all Cape MPD says no. We affirm that it is necessary to completely Verde. Our biggest virtue was to be able to voice this discon- change this, to release energies and private initiative. tent and articulate the need for change. Therefore, the PAICV Africa Report: The church has expressed its dissatisfaction ended up losing because in these last 15 years it was incapable with the PAICV. particularly over the abortion law. In of satisfying the people's yearnings. The MPD represented exchange for its significant support for the MPD, does the hope for the concretization of these yearnings. church now expect a revocation of the law, or at leasi a refer- Africa Report: What is Ihe MPD's ideological platform? endum on the issue? Veiga: We don't like to define ourselves ideologically—our Veiga: The MPD made no promisies whatsoever to the supporters are united on the basis of the common principles churches. We had contacts with representatives of ihe of liberty, multi-party democracy, social solidarity, justice, churches as did the PAICV. In relation to the abortion law. peace, and national consensus. Our political program seeks in our position is that the law was approved without having the first place to institute, consolidate, and render irreversible been publicly discussed. a true Western-style multi-parly democracy where there are competing political forces whose well-defined statutes are Africa Report: The MPD's massive victory resulted in over regulated by the constitution. two-thirds majority in Parliament [56 seats for MPD and 23 for PAICV]. Given this lopsided proportion, is there a risk From the economic point of view, we defend a mixed that the MPD, formerly the opposition, could commit the economy whose guiding force is private initiative. The state same errors as if it were a single party? would interfere only in the most strategically and socially Veiga: No, we have a commitment to pursue policy based on indispensable spheres. Thus, the most important factor would consensus. Despite the fact thai we have a large majority be private initiative. We also insist on establishing and guar- which will permit us to draft a new constitution, we want to anteeing fundamental human rights. proceed on the basis of dialogue and consensus. We will open Our foreign policy plans to reinforce human rights and a and will take every initiative to generate dialogue. We know pluralistic democracy. However, we will also target greater the danger of falling into the trap of acting as though a sole economic integration at the global level and bring the emi- political party exists. However, the opposition will be asked gration issue to the forefront. We believe that the emigration to express itself frequently—we will take into consideration question is an extremely important one for Cape Verde. Dur- the position of the opposition without putting up any barriers. ing the last 15 years, there has been a feeling of distrust Africa Report: In forming your government, you have between the state and the emigrant community. We will have adhered to the policy of administrative reform promulgated to entice emigrants to Cape Verde, as well as encourage under the PAICV government. For instance, you have rear- investment and lending of technical expertise. In return, we ranged and reduced the number of ministries. What are the will also have to support the emigrants in their various "host" implications of these changes? countries so that they can improve and stabilize their situa- Veiga: We wish to emphasize the idea of regional and local tion. The better off they are. the belter off we are. Basically governance. We believe that the development of Cape Verde these are the broad policy outlines we have traced. depends primarily on local power. • AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 MAXIME FERRARI, SEYCHELLES ADVOCATE OF DEMOCRACY r. Maxime Ferrari has held various top cabinet posts nomic reform. Can you comment on that vis-a-vis the United in Seychelles since independence in 1976 and during States, as well as the international community? D the first seven years of the 13-year-old one-party Ferrari: In the Seychelles, the United States doesn't want to rule of President Albert France Rene. Ferrari left the coun- make trouble. They have a [satellite] tracking station and try shortly after resigning from his post as minister of plan- they are getting on fairly well with Rene. They are prepared ning and external relations in 1984. He spent the next five to close their eyes to the problem of what they call minor years as the regional representative and director of the Unit- human rights violations. I was told at the State Department ed Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) regional office that there is nobody in detention, that there are no political for Africa. Since his retirement in 1990, he has devoted his prisoners. The only thing is that there is no democracy. I got time to promoting multi-party democracy in Seychelles. In very upset because it is an awful thing to say from the mouth December last year, he formed the Seychelles Institute for of an important diplomat—the only thing is that there is no Democracy, an apolitical organization dedicated to return- democracy! ing democracy to the country by allowing freedom of speech I think the aid donors should use carrot and stick diplo- and the press, a multi-party system, and respect for human macy. I've worked too much myself in international cooper- rights. He also helped to form the Rally of the People of Sey- ation to say, "no aid." Aid is necessary. Food aid should chelles for Democracy (RPSD), which elected his son, Jean- always be given without conditions, but economic aid Francois Ferrari, as its chairman in April. should be restricted more and more with countries who refuse to make structural changes. This is the policy of the Africa Report: You have been organizing support for multi- French government, and it seems to be the policy of most party rule in Seychelles from outside the country, but what is European countries, and I think also the United States. But the extent of the democracy movement in Seychelles? Are the United States is forever making exceptions. Recently people being mobilized? they made an exception for Kenya, because Kenya was nice Ferrari: Yes, buf it is being done with great difficulty. For during the Gulf crisis. instance, one of the leading members in Seychelles is my Africa Report: Do you think that after the UN Security son [Jean-Franc.ois Ferrari]. He was arrested three times in Council listed the Seychelles as one of the 18 nations most November for distributing leaflets in the streets. He tried to affected by the Gulf crisis that it is going to be harder for the have a newspaper and they turned it down, so he distribut- Western governments not to give aid? ed those tracts and the police arrested him. At a certain Ferrari: No, I don't think anybody is going to give. The stage, the president signed a detention order. It was con- French foreign ministry told me that they are not going to firmed that the chief of police refused to arrest my son. The give anything. president sent for him and received him for about an hour Africa Report: Although the president has stated that he has and said: "You cannot expect me to institute multi-party no intention of abolishing the single-party system, hasn't the democracy because 1 do not believe in it. I do not believe government's economic policy been liberalized over the last in the virtues of a multi-party system." These were his own year? words. Ferrari: In the Seychelles, there was always some sort of Africa Report: Do you think that there is the potential for free market but it was polluted by a sort of imposition of cen- violent upheaval in Seychelles that has been seen in other trally planned prices. He is moving away from that because parts of Africa over the last year? of the failures—not because of pressures coming on him. Ferrari: I don't think so because the economy is not too bad, Africa Report: Your forte is the environment. Could you although it has deteriorated. elaborate on the linkage you made in the RPSD plan of action Africa Report: What about the Gulf crisis? Tourism has for Seychelles between environmental protection and peo- dropped substantially; isn't that going to play a role? ple's participation? Ferrari: Yes, tourism is down by about 47 percent—I think, Ferrari: My experience as a government minister in a according to the latest figures I have—which must be very small developing country for 10 years, and five years as the bad. The effect will be even worse because payments usually regional representative of the United Nations Environment come two or three months later. So things are bound to get Programme in Africa, has convinced me, along with more very bad in the next few months—economically. As people and more people now, that development has failed in talk more and more, there is a chance that they might come Africa. Everybody is responsible for it. It is not only down into the street. And of course this is what I'm hoping Africans who are responsible, but the aid donor is also for because this would be the pattern of what has happened in responsible. The international organizations, the World Eastern Europe, and what happened in Mali—except there Bank, the United Nations, the UN organs like FAO. UNDP, they arrested the president. But in a number of African coun- all are responsible. I think that this has failed for two main tries, it's turning out like that and that's the best thing that reasons. We have not considered the environmental issues could happen—that you have demonstrations, with as little in our economic planning and development activities, and violence as possible, and force the man out. more and more, I am convinced that we have not done it in Africa Report: In a communique that you signed, which democracy. In other words, we have done things, so called, grew out of the March meeting between Seychellois opposi- for people. We have not done it with people. We have not tion movements in Belgium, the international community had people's participation. To me, people's participation is was urged to tie aid to the Seychelles to political and eco- the basis of democracy. • 10 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 provided by U.S. special forces from a $5 million out of a $10 million military Continued base in Ndjamena. There are reports aid package that had been withheld by Ecowas iroops and the imposition of a that Baghdad also backed the contra the U.S. since last year due to his dete- ceasefire. army, whose main brief was to destabi- riorating human rights record. The State In other less hostile initiatives, lize the Tripoli government. Department, which had earlier justified Qaddafy is seeking to mend fences with But without any clear proof of their the payments by alluding to Kenya's Egypt as a possible entree back to good operational success, they were, with the improved human rights record, did a relations with the U.S., and with a nod routing of Habre, suddenly cast out of volte-face when the story behind the from France, better relations with Togo, Chad with literally nowhere to go. The junket unravelled. Cameroon, Niger, and Zaire. He has U.S. hastily organized an evacuation of Said a senior State Department offi- had less success with Nigeria, his popu- the dissidents, with no clear destination cial, "We compromised our human rights lous and strategically important neigh- in mind. The CIA was then faced with policy in Kenya somewhat but we felt we bor to the south, which continues to the problem of finding a home for the had little choice. We feel a humanitarian view him with deep suspicion. Libyans. responsibility for these people." In the But for all his current brinkmanship After a brief stopover in Nigeria, the meantime, while the U.S. is seeking per- and public relations efforts, he is still rootless army was herded to Zaire, manent resettlement through the office of the target of numerous covert attempts where longtime American ally Presi- !he United Nations High Commissioner to undermine his government. One such dent Mobutu Sese Seko provided short- for Refugees, another exiled Libyan has operation came to light recently, with term succor. Mobutu, apparently smart- stepped forward to take over the peri- the overthrow of Habre. ing from U.S. congressional criticism patetic "eontras." In the wake of Habre's hasty depar- of his abysmal human rights record, The New York Times reports that the ture from Ndjamcna, an awkward lega- was hoping that his hospitality would exiled Prince Idris of Libya has offered cy of some 600 armed Libyan guerril- secure the release of a $4 million mili- to take control of the paramilitary force. las, part of a secret army deployed tary aid package that Congress had pre- In a statement released at the Rome against Qaddafy by the Central Intelli- viously blocked. headquarters of the royalist Libyan gence Agency, became "hot potatoes" When this did not happen, he government in exile, royalists slate that as one Pentagon official described allowed Libyan agents access to the "having received pledges of allegiance them. "eontras," who somehow persuaded from leaders of the force, Prince Idris The anti-Qaddafy force—originally about 250 of them to return home. The has stepped in to assume responsibility captured Libyan soldiers and desert- remaining 350 were then moved on to for the troops' welfare." For the time ers—were organized and funded by the Kenya for a more secure asylum. For being, home for the commandos is still CIA a la "eontras," with special train- his unusual hospitality, President Kenya, but from all indications that ing in sabotage and land navigation Daniel arap Moi's government was paid might soon change. • its barracks after establishing an unlimit- the fears of the democrats that there has Mali Continued ed multi-party system, social justice, and been merely a change of the guard. of the uprising, "Mali is at the hour of total democracy." And Sacko certainly has his work cut renewal." However, the presence of prominent out for him: As head of most government The new government quickly moved members of the old guard, notably operations, he will have a tough job pla- to establish links with the pro-democra- Traore's former aide-de-camp, Lt.-Col. cating frustrated and impatient Malians cy coalition, and set up a 17-member Oumar Diallo, and Lt.-Col. Cheikh who have high expectations and want military Council of National Reconcili- Oumar Diarra. former director of the immediate economic redress. Added to ation, with a pledge to work with the Defense Ministry, in the new dispensa- that, he has to constantly fend off conser- democrats toward rapid political tion raises some disturbing questions vative elements in the military, while at reforms. "One of the essential aims of about the sincerity of the military as a the same time playing midwife to the our arrival," said Toure, "is to install catalyst for democratic change. birth of a new republic. multi-party politics, real democracy in The pro-democratic opposition real- In three months, he is expected to con- the style of certain other countries." ized this dilemma, and has been unre- vene a conference of Mali's political par- When? "When the conditions are right," lenting in its political pressure, 'if they ties, to lay the groundwork for the writing he said. hang on to power, we'll fight them as of a new constitution. There is general Having met with the coup leaders, the we fought Moussa Traore, and we'll optimism that with the overthrow of democratic coalition group, Mali's Com- beat them as we beat Moussa Traore," Traore, Mali can now begin a new chap- mittee of Pro-Democracy, stated that said Diallo. But casting fiery rhetoric ter. Said a French foreign ministry they were "satisfied with this first con- aside, by threatening another general spokesman. Daniel Bernard, Mali's future tact," and Diallo expressed confidence strike, the opposition forced the institu- "appears promising and full of hope." in "this group of patriotic officers." But tion of a transitional government head- And for Traore and his 22~year trav- some observers are wary of the situation ed by a civilian. esty of governance, history will proba- in spite of the 43-year-old officer's The interim prime minister, bly remember him, in the words of a assurance that "the army will no longer Soumana Sacko, a senior official with Le Monde editorial, as a "soldier wiih- meddle in politics." "The army," said the United Nations Development Pro- out imagination [who] aged badly in Toure in a radio broadcast,"will return to gramme, for now seems to have allayed power." • AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 11 UP'TM- SOUTH AFRICA WEST AFRICA As legal aspects of apartheid crum- At a recent meeting in Dakar, Sene- ble, sanctions are becoming more diffi- gal, French Cooperation and Develop- cult to justify to the West. Although ment Minister Jacques Pelletier there has been surreptitious trading announced that the CFA franc was not between South Africa and the West for likely to survive the introduction of a years, the facade of sanctions was In the last few months, there has single European currency. For the dele- nonetheless maintained. Weli, not any- been a flurry of trade delegations to and gates at the conference—agriculture more. Last December, the European from Pretoria. South African business ministers from West and Central Community lifted its ban on new leaders have fanned out armed with Africa—this was truly disturbing news. investments, thereby setting the tone contracts for investments and joint ven- For the 14 francophone countries that for the announcement in mid-April that tures. South African businessmen are utilize the CFA as legal tender, and the economic sanctions would be lifted. suddenly finding themselves welcome 36 others that use it as convertible cur- Although many members of the in places as far away as Senegal and rency, the significance of that message is European Parliament in Luxemburg Nigeria. They have infiltrated recent far-reaching. The CFA franc, with solid were against the move, the foreign min- Preferential Trade Area (PTA) and French support, has been largely insulat- isters were unanimous on the issue and SADCC meetings either individually or ed from the wild inflationary fluctua- asserted their position by blocking open through one of the several South tions that the various structural adjust- debate on the parliamentary floor. African Chambers of Commerce. ment programs have induced. The revocation ends a five-year-old At the head of one such group is the With some national currencies los- ban on the import of gold coins, iron, South African Minister of Mineral and ing as much as 1.000 percent of their and steel, but falls just short of a com- Energy Affairs, Dr. Dawie de Villiers, pre-SAP value in the last five years, the plete reprieve by its adherence to the who has been touring Africa with oil CFA franc has been a buffer currency United Nations embargo on arms sales. and mining co-operation at the top of for a significant portion of the conti- While U.S. sanctions remain in place his agenda. His most notable achieve- nent. The price tag for France has been because of South Africa's non-compli- ment was the promise of an oil deal considerable; in 1982 for instance, the ance with some of the conditions set by with the Angolan government from French subsidized the CFA franc to the Congress, the mood in the West is cer- which South Africa can expect to tune of Si billion and Pelletier's unset- tainly anti-sanctions. obtain 100 million barrels of oil a year. tling message was essentially the end of The Japanese are also getting in on Pretoria has also opened a trade mis- French monetary subsidy. the act. A high powered group of busi- sion in Lome, with a few others project- Put within the context of European nessmen, the Federation of Economic ed for Lusaka and Libreville, to add to economic integration, it signals the Organizations (Keidanren), is sched- the already highly active ones in Antana- waning if not the end of the cozy bilat- uled to visit South Africa and meet with narivo, Maputo, Abidjan, Kinshasa, eralism of many African states and their government, members of parliament Harare, and Windhoek. De Beers Con- erstwhile colonial masters. The new and black leaders. solidated Mines and its Swiss offshoot, rules for doing business with a unified For the African National Congress De Beers Centenary AG, has been quite Europe are expected to be under the grappling with organizational and ideo- visible in sub-Saharan Africa, drawing various Lome conventions that docu- logical restructuring, these changes Angola's Endiama into the Central Sell- ment trade regulations between the threaten an important canon, and its ing Organization and obtaining prospect- European Community and the African, reaction is crucial to its image abroad. ing rights in previously unthinkable Caribbean, and the Pacific group of Even on the continent, ANC represen- locations such as Tanzania. countries. tatives shuttling between capitals are Other South African companies Mindful of this new regime, the finding their pro-sanctions position a finding their way into African markets heads of state of Togo. Senegal, and hard sell to many African governments include Soekor, South African Air- Nigeria—Gnassingbe Eyadema, Abdou intent on resurrecting trade ties with ways, Sun International, Gencor, and Diouf, and Ibrahim Babangida, respec- South Africa. Eskom (currently involved in the reha- tively—met early this year to discuss Coming on the heels of the EC bilitation of the Cahora Bassa Dam in plans for the accelerated integration of announcement. Nigerian President Mozambique). the two major regional economic Ibrahim Babangida announced that African governments have been groups, the Economic Community of Nigeria was "gratified by the recent quick but cautious in responding to the West African States (Ecowas) and the positive developments" in South Africa South African initiative by sending West African Economic Community and would consider lifting sanctions to their own trade delegations to Johan- (CEAO). reward initiatives toward dismantling nesburg. The stalling of the peace pro- The obvious need for a unified eco- apartheid undertaken by his South cess in Angola and the collapse of talks nomic organization—once obviated by African counterpart, F.W. de Klerk. with Namibia over the future of Walvis the strong French presence in the Politically, this reads as a major policy Bay still cast ominous shadows. region—will be given a fillip with the shift for Nigeria, with an almost certain Nonetheless, there are few who do not demise of the CFA franc. The ensuing domino effect for the rest of Africa. admit that sooner or later, the role of vacuum argues for the introduction of a Economically, it signals the opening up South Africa in Africa's economic new sub-regional currency that Ecowas of new trading frontiers. recovery will become vital. is expected to fill. 12 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 THE A OF APARTHEID United Nahons/Coniact Created by apartheid's architect, Hendrik Verwoerd, bantu education has left a bitter legacy not only for blacks who have suffered from inferior schooling, but also for the nation, which needs an educated work- force to fuel economic growth. Looking toward the post-apartheid era, the government and the African National Congress have begun the arduous task of reconstructing the educational system. By PETER TYGESEN f all the legacies obviously an understatement. Madi- community above certain forms of apartheid's da is seated in his tiny 10 by 15 foot labor." planners have office, beneath a gaping hole in the Four separate education systems left for future ceiling created by yet another batch were set up with four different syl- South African of thieves. A cold wind gushes labuses for white, Coloured, Indian, governments to through a shattered window, a rem- and black. In line with Verwoerdian rectify, the de- nant of the all too frequent shootings thinking, the four departments were liberate miseducation of the country's in the embattled township. not allocated equal funding. In recent blacks may well prove to be the worst. The horrendous physical degra- years, the difference has been nar- The "bantu" education system dation of South Africa's black rowed, but the de Klerk government designed for blacks has left South schools is only the tip of the iceberg. is still spending eight times as much Africa with a majority of its people The magnitude of South Africa's on educating a white child as on a functionally illiterate and its econo- education problems is staggering. black child. my shackled by a lack of skilled man- As cabinet ministers openly admit Bantu education was designed as a power. that the application of apartheid in cornerstone of apartheid. It also Recently, the African National education was a "terrible mistake," proved to be a powder-keg of discon- Congress and President F.W. de the creation of bantu (black) educa- tent so explosive that when it ignited, Klerk's government established a tion seems to have been the biggest it blew away the entire system. joint working group with the goal of mistake of all. It was the 1976 revolt of integrating the existing 14 education- One out of every five black chil- schoolchildren that initiated the polit- al departments and producing imme- dren has no access to school. Of the ical upheaval which has reached its diate and short-term solutions to the remaining four, a second is likely to final stages today, when the Afrikaner crisis. The group is faced with a drop out of school during the first two government is finally negotiating daunting task. years. Statistically, a third student will with their parents in the ANC. Surveying the muddy courtyard of drop out before finishing seventh Inflamed by the imposition in 1976 of Soweto's Morris Isaacson High grade. Consequently, more than 50 Afrikaans as the language of instruc- School, headmaster Gabriel Madida percent of South Africa's 30 million tion in high schools, black students expresses pleasure at having stu- blacks are functionally illiterate. took to the streets. As they quickly dents attend classes again. "Things "This is not because the system expanded their protest to target the are almost back to normal here now," failed," says Stan Kahn, a former entire system of bantu education and says Madida. "There is a promise in director of the Funda Center, an edu- apartheid itself, they had indeed initi- the air this year that things will get cational resource center in Soweto. ated the first full-scale attack against better." "On the contrary, it succeeded." the Nationalist government since it "Back to normal" for Madida Kahn explains it is a wonder that any banned the liberation movements in means that students are at school and blacks have become educated at all, 1960. are not boycotting classes. To him, as they are forced to learn in a sys- Students, a new generation of "getting better" indicates a hope that tem designed to lower their aspira- them, were once again on the front- the students will stay and study. But tions and are confronted by constant lines of the anti-apartheid revolt very little appears normal to a visitor turmoil and strife in the schools. when it picked up steam in the mid- to the school. Every window is bro- Depriving blacks of a proper edu- 1980s. Under the slogan, "liberation ken and every book is gone from the cation was a deliberate goal of first, education later," the schoolchil- library. "Vandals," explains Madida, apartheid. South African Prime Min- dren became the foot soldiers of the shrugging his shoulders. "Poor peo- ister Hendrik Verwoerd was the ideo- townships' bloody street battles. ple need to make a living." logical architect of apartheid and one After such adrenaline-pumping Soweto has plenty of poor people of his cornerstones was a separate activities, it has been difficult to get and some have made a living out of and completely different education children back to school, according to tearing his school apart. They come system for blacks. "The natives will today's community leaders. Town- at night, hold a gun to the chin of the be taught from childhood to realize ship activists too easily resort to lone watchman, and start ripping out that equality with Europeans is not proven old ways of mobilizing windows and bricks to sell and to use for them," Verwoerd declared to Par- schoolchildren for mass actions, they in building their ramshackle huts in liament in 1954. say. In addition to getting schools nearby squatter camps. Second to this political objective of back in session on a regular basis, "Things have been pretty bad teaching blacks to accept the status the community leaders must disman- around here," sighs Madida. This is of being inferior creatures came the tle the now fully entrenched Verwoer- teaching of the 3 Rs. This could, how- dian plan of four separate and Peter Tygesen is a Danish journalist who free- lances for the Danish Broadcasting Corpora- ever, be kept to a minimum, accord- unequal educational systems. tion and contributes regularly to the Danish ing to Verwoerd, as there was "no With more than 35 years of vast Weeken-avisen and various other Scandina- vian Papers and magazines. place for the African in the European differences in syllabuses, teaching 14 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 methods, and funding, these depart- take immediate action. In February, The ANC representatives on the ments have grown into autonomous the two leaders met for a full day to joint group put forward a list of and entrenched bureaucracies. discuss educational matters and they demands to the government which Although they have the same objec- agreed that the inferior education included the establishment of a sin- tive of educating the country's chil- provided to South Africa's blacks gle education department and a sin- dren, there is hardly any communica- must be ameliorated. gle curriculum for all races, the tion between them. The departments At this meeting, the government establishment of interim structures are governed by different cabinet agreed in principle to put apartheid in until the first is achieved, and steps to ministers and even fall under the aus- education to rest, and to create a sin- end the present crisis manifested by pices of three separate houses of par- gle, unitary education system for all the high failure rate. The ANC dele- liament—white and black education races. Potentially more significant, gates also called for new school build- in the white house, and Indian and however, was the creation of a 10- ings in black areas, a program to Coloured education in their respec- member working group, tasked with upgrade the training of black teach- tive houses. not only making proposals for achiev- ers, and the provision of adequate To make matters worse, each of ing this aim, but also addressing books and other supplies to black the 10 black homelands has its own immediate policy questions. In estab- schools. education department, with even less lishing that group, de Klerk for the 'Hie government agreed in princi- money available than that allocated first time has allowed the ANC to ple to these demands, but it remains for black education in South Africa take part in formulating government to be seen how they will be imple- proper. policy. mented. And the de Klerk govern- To untangle this huge bureaucrat- Still, participants in this exercise ment has already indicated that fun- ic mess, the political activists must doubt each other's motives. "Al- damental changes in the education find another battlefield, says educa- though there is consensus on the system cannot take hold immediately. tion expert Kahn, in order to free the need for a new system, we are still a When asked how long it might take schools for teaching. And education very long way from defining what once the government begins the job must finally be planned according to that new system will be," said Sheila of creating a new, non-racial educa- the needs of the communities, not Sisulu of the anti-apartheid South tion system, the minister of national the wishes of the oppressors. African Council of Churches educa- education, Louis Pienaar, said it could Neither of these aims is likely to tion program. "The government saw not be achieved overnight. be fulfilled immediately. Events out- it as a question of rationalization, we "Il might take a generation to side Kahn's Johannesburg office all saw it as a moral crisis." equalize. It is a question of political too clearly highlight this. Across the Lindelwe Mabandla of the ANC's attitudes and money," Pienaar told street at the prestigious Witwater- education department agreed: "The Africa Report. There is no question srand University, black student government's major problem in edu- that time is running out. Throughout activists occupied administration cation is legitimacy. The people have the 1980s, South Africa's economy offices for a week. Their battlecry of become so cynical about the govern- grew at a sluggish average annual rendering the university "unadminis- ment promising this and promising rate of 2 percent, well short of the 2.8 trable" was a conscious echo of the that. The crucial point is whether percent population growth rate and 1984-85 slogan, "Make the townships government is ready to consult with far below the 5 percent rate ungovernable." the people or not." economists say is needed to maintain In nearby Alexandra township, In the 1991/92 fiscal year, there the country's economic status quo. school activists made their point. will be no increase in real spending After sanctions, the lack of a Teaching in the township had on education, but spending on black skilled and sophisticated labor force become virtually impossible since education will rise 10 percent, while is South Africa's major impediment to the schools had not been provided that for white education will fall by 10 economic growth. Even when the with enough textbooks and teachers. percent. Mabandla said the budget's country made its living from harvest- Months of pleading with the white special $72 million allocation to build ing corn and mining gold, the white administration proved fruitless. But new schools in black areas is the first population could not itself provide when hunger-striking students col- concrete result from the joint work- enough technicians and professionals lapsed at the doorstep of the ing group. to keep the economy ticking. In the Transvaal Provisional Authority's Mabandla is cautious about 1960s and 1970s, nearly 25,000 office, the minister finally intervened whether the government will satisfy skilled whites annually were attracted and promised prompt action. popular demands. "Unless the gov- to the country by its easily available Faced with a brewing crisis of ernment seriously involves the peo- jobs and high living standards. such dramatic proportions and ple in decision-making, this exercise Today, this living standard is prompted by last year's poor exam is not going to take us anywhere," he declining, and since the major unrest results for black students. Nelson said. "We are waiting to see what hap- began in 1985, South Africa has been Mandela urged President de Klerk to pens." a net exporter of educated whites. AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 15 LESSONS FROM ZIMBABWE At Hatfield Girls High in suburban Harare, the schools quickly became virtually all-black. In school's first black headmistress found an old letter 1981, there was a brief controversy as parents in while moving into her new office, Dated 1981, it wealthy white suburbs questioned whether the was from an irate white mother who was talcing children of their domestic; servants had the right to her daughter out of swimming classes because attend the local schools. The government ruled the gill would have had to share the pool with "yes" and soon the children of household servants black students. were seated next to the children of privilege. Graced with a sense of humor, the new head- In order to further integrate schools, the govern- mistress posted the letter on the staff bulletin ment quietly began busing students from over- board with a note, "Look how far we've come," crowded township schools to the spacious, previ- Zimbabwe's educational system has come a ously all-white suburban schools. long way indeed since majority rule in 1980, and Nearly 11 years after independence, the town- in both its successes and failures are lessons for the ship schools remain all black, while the schools in South African educational system as it embarks formerly all-white areas have two or three white on a new course. kids per class of 35. Most white students are now The major change in Zimbabwe's education being sent to private schools. The government has system was the eradication of racial discrimina- permitted the new private schools, provided that tion in access to education. Robert Mugabe's gov- they educate a percentage of black students to ernment made primary education free for all stu- prevent any all-white enclaves. dents and the percentage of children attending "In Zimbabwe, in three or four years, schools primary schools jumped from 40 to 93 percent. went from being all-white to nearly all-black," Before independence, just 12.5 percent of the said former teacher Colleen Dawson. "The speed entire primary school enrollment continued on to with which it happened and the lack of incidents secondary school, as a result of the very limited is a credit to Zimbabwe." places available for black students. The Mugabe There was a shortage of teachers and the gov- government opened a secondary school for every ernment began training thousands of teachers in 10 primary schools and within a few years, nearly accelerated courses. People with only high school 100 percent of those attending primary school level qualifications were also pressed into service continued on to secondary schools. This necessi- and teachers were recruited from England and tated a quantum increase in numbers, from 150 Australia. secondary schools in 1980 to 1,500 today. Even now, many primary school teachers are In rural areas, new schools were built with classified as "temporary" after many years in the funding from the government for materials, and classroom since they still have only the equivalent labor was provided by the communities them- of a high school diploma selves. In urban areas, the previously all-white Following the swift transformation of the educa- With the declining role of gold and Consequently, South Africa will "Every single high school gradu- agriculture in the economy, the coun- face a shortage of 200,000 workers ate who comes out of the system try desperately needs well-educated with appropriate degrees, diplomas, these years," Sheila Sisulu points out, blacks. or comparable qualifications at the "has had his or her entire schooling The "wisdom" of Verwoerd's end of the decade, according to in the post-Soweto uprising era. This apartheid has prevented this. In 1985, economists. has been a period of constant turmoil only 8.1 percent of the country's grad- Even drastic measures cannot and unrest in the schools, with not uate medical personnel, 7.4 percent quickly alleviate this shortage, as the one single year of uninterrupted of accountants, and 0.1 percent engi- student material is too poor, fettered learning." As a result, the number of neers were black. In 1987, only 26 by the dismal bantu curriculum and blacks who fail their high school blacks graduated with engineering additionally hindered by the political matriculation, or graduation, exam, degrees and 26 in computer science. disruptions. has been rising over the last few 16 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 tion system in terms of race and numbers came level and A-level examination system is proving the more difficult task of reshaping the content so to be a problem. that what was taught would be more relevant to "The exams are good in the sense that those an independent Zimbabwe. who pass them are sure that they have reached ''Many course syllabuses were rewritten with the same level of education as in the past," said independent Zimbabwe in mind; for instance, Dawson. "But the drawback to the system is that general science was re-oriented toward agricul- there is no back-up for those who do not pass the ture and health care, physics was re-directed exam." toward energy use and telecommunications, and Zimbabwe's unemployment level is so high, chemistry was re-oriented toward mining and currently estimated at well over 50 percent of the industrial-chemical processes like fertilizer produc- potential workforce, that only those students with tion," said Dawson, who taught sciences at town- five good O-level passes can get into polytechnic ship schools from 1981 to 1990. "History was com- schools and apprenticeship programs. Those who pletely rewritten to be oriented toward the whole have failed must try again or join the ranks of the population, as opposed to just recounting the his- unemployed. tory of white settlers." Zimbabwe's raging unemployment is an eco- Rewriting curriculums, syllabuses, and text- nomic problem, but it is also an educational one. books takes time, and many of the newly Each year more than 200,000 students finish sec- designed courses and books are only now being ondary school, but there are only 10,000 job open- introduced in the schools. ings. This discrepancy is producing social and South Africa will have a special problem in political pressures. The government cannot con- rewriting its curriculum, said Dawson, who recent- tinue to spend a quarter of its budget on the edu- ly moved from Zimbabwe to South Africa and is cational system, especially when the economy now the commissioning editor for science books at cannot absorb the high numbers of graduates. Heinemann's Publishing. The Mugabe government is currently going "In Rhodesia, there was separate administration through a painful re-think on education and is set- of black and white education and certainly there ting up a new system of school fees. were dramatically different rates of how many "Perhaps one of Zimbabwe's lessons is not to black or white students would continue on to sec- expand too quickly," Dawson said. "Expansion ondary school. But there was not a separate cur- should only be as fast as the system can maintain riculum such as South Africa's bantu education," teachers and books in the classrooms. Expansion Dawson sold. "Those blacks in Rhodesia who did should only be as fast as what the economy can get into secondary schools got the same syllabus support. The economy should be able to absorb and studied for the same examinations as the graduates into the job market. When the educat- white students. ed cannot find jobs, it does not augur well for the "In that way. South Africa has a much bigger stability of the society." • gulf to bridge in terms of the difference in the quality of education oifered to whites and to blacks." —Andrew Meldrum Zimbabwe's continued reliance on the British O- Harare, Zimbabwe years. This year, 67 percent failed. well as respond to the need to offer a the country's economy requires. As well as trying to ease the better post-apartheid education for "We are happy that things are problem, the country's education blacks. It means drawing up new cur- finally moving after so many years of system will have to struggle to riculums, writing new textbooks, and continuous crisis," said Sheila Sisulu serve nearly 50 percent more stu- staffing and equipping new schools. on the establishment of the govern- dents, as it is estimated that the bur- It will be an exacting test for the gov- ment-ANC working group. "Nobody geoning population will cause ernment to see if it is truly commit- yet has a detailed proposal for a solu- enrollment to increase from the ted to a post-apartheid, democratic tion," she said, indicating that she 1990 level of 9.5 million to 14 million South Africa. It is a fearsome chal- herself has much lower expectations. in the year 2000. lenge for all, but it is clear that equali- "Whatever is done, I'll be happy as South Africa's education system ty in education is what the country's long as the situation does not deterio- will have to cope with that increase as black majority demands and it is what rate." O AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 17 N T R V W JOHN SAMUEL: Ending Apartheid Education Margafe! A Novick! As the African National Congress's director of edu- cation, John Samuel is a member of the recently established joint working group whose task, with government participation, is to look at ways that the historical backlogs created by decades of bantu education can begin to be redressed. Dr. Samuel, who visited the U.S. with a delegation of South African educators under the auspices of the African-American Institute, spells out the immedi- ate needs including classroom and textbook provi- sion, as well as longer-term issues, such as the type of education and training that will be relevant in a post-apartheid era. By MARGARET A. NOVICKI 18 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Africa Report: How would you characterize the cur- business sciences totally inadequate when it comes to rent educational crisis in South Africa? What is the lega- going on to further study at universities. There are a host cy of bantu education? of sub-surface consequences to apartheid that quite often Samuel: The word crisis has been used to describe the we don't see, but which are nevertheless going to be educational situation in South Africa, but quite frankly, it some of the major challenges. doesn't quite do justice to the extent of educational dam- There is a significant skills shortage, some of which age in South Africa. To describe it more in terms of a has been caused by the nature of training provided and national disaster would convey both the scale and the because it has been so narrowly focused. For example, depth of what's actually happened. in the technical area, you are trained probably to do The more obvious manifestations of apartheid educa- one particular kind of activity—hammering in a tion can be seen in the unequal provision of educational nail—and you're trained just to hammer in a nail; you're resources, by indicators like teacher-pupil ratio, inade- not even taught what a hammer is, or what a nail is. quate provision of classroom space—the usual portrayal What is important is to begin to diversify training as of apartheid education. But what is probably more sig- well. nificant are its hidden consequences—for example, the What we face at this current juncture is an education- huge disparities between the levels of training and edu- al system that is not only in deep crisis, but that has also cational development so that now we have vast dispari- generated huge backlogs of lasting inequalities and ties between the numbers of white graduates and black major challenges. It is against this background that we graduates, and the number of whites and blacks who have a number of options. One, we can sit back and are trained and skilled. That's one level of the less obvi- wait for things to change. Two, we can intervene now ous consequences of apartheid. and bring maximum pressure to bear on But when you look at the social consequences of government—political intervention—to begin addressing apartheid, what apartheid has done in education is set immediately the historical backlogs. It is important for us in motion a series of processes that have led to a larger to do exactly that because not only will we be address- number of people being excluded from education than ing the historical backlogs, but if we are strategic, we included. We have close to 8 million adults who are illit- will also begin laying the foundations for fundamental erate. We have large numbers of young people unable change that will lead to the creation of a democratic, to continue their education. We have a million and a non-racial educational system in South Africa. half children that can't get into schools. It was precisely for that reason that the deputy presi- More than that has been the consequences to educa- dent of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, put together a very tion in implementing the grand design of apartheid struc- broad-based delegation of educators, educational orga- turally. To illustrate: What we've had over the years is a nizations, and mass-based organizations to meet with shifting of the educational population from the urban to the president [F.W. de Klerk] to impress upon him the the rural, so that the majority of children in schools today absolute urgency for the state to address immediately the are not urban-based, they're rural-based. They're in the various manifestations of the educational crisis. homelands, they're in rural areas, they're in farm Out of this February meeting emerged a joint working schools. That provision of education in the rural areas is group between government and the educational delega- vastly inadequate, even when compared to what's pro- tion, whose task is to develop a set of proposals that will vided for blacks in the urban areas. These are the chal- be presented early in June to the president and to Man- lenges we face as we begin to reconstruct education in dela. Then, government will have to provide some form South Africa. of response to that in terms of what it wants to do both in Another long-term consequence is the skewed distribu- the short and the medium-term. tion of the kind of education that's being provided, so The thrust of the work of the education delegation is in that at the higher education level a large number of our three directions: one, to address the historical backlogs students go to areas such as social sciences and liberal and the immediate manifestations of the crisis in terms of arts. A very small number go into natural sciences and school provision, classroom provision, textbook provi- technology. There's a very major imbalance in the kind sion, and some of the more obvious manifestations in of education that has been provided. terms of disparities. Secondly, to begin to shift toward At the high school level, it tends to be guided toward one educational system. That's a key issue. And thirdly, subjects that have very little relevance in terms of career to look at what kind of long-term changes will begin to options or it's under-provided for. For example, children construct a new educational order in South Africa. It is study subjects like economics and business sciences, but within that framework that the joint working group is they don't do mathematics, which renders their study of attempting to give detail to those three fundamental pil- AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 19 lars of the educa- Samuel: What we need to do is to bring as much pres- tion delegation sure to bear on the issue of addressing the immediate proposal to the backlogs. And this is not just confined to education, it's What we are president in Feb- in many other arenas—housing, health, land, etc. One ruary. of the fears that many of us have is that if we do not doing here is Africa Report: address the historical backlogs now, whenever a new setting in What is your political dispensation is ceated in South Africa, a new sense of the gov- South African government will face an enormous task of motion a ernment's commit- having to correct the imbalances, as well as lay the foun- process that ment and interest dations of a new society. That would somewhat over- in this process? whelm any new political oispensation. will result in Samuel: Having What we are looking at is a scenario that lays out shifting the committed our- some immediate short-term gains and some medium-term selves to the joint developments that will lecd toward our long-term objec- parameters of working group, tive. And our long-term objective must always be one education. we need to enter educational system, a democratic South Africa, a non- the discussions racial, non-sexist South Africa—that's the overarching with a sense of principle that drives our short-term gains. cautious open- And we don't have time on our side. We are dealing ness. I don't think that we can expect government necessar- with an alienated young population that no longer ily to make some of the long-term changes. That is going to believes in the provision of state education. We are deal- be the task of a new political order in South Africa. But ing with a level of parental impatience with the inability what we definitely need to do is to shift government from of the government departments to address some of the the paradigm that it has been locked into for the last 20 to more obvious manifestations of the educational crisis. 30 years—which is essentially the paradigm of apartheid. We're dealing, in fact, with political constituencies who Government clearly realizes that it is dealing with a situa- are also beginning to question both the ability and will- tion in which, one, there is no overall plan as to what to ingness of the state to move along. What we need to be do, and two, there has been a realization that they cannot able to do is shift government along on this issue. continue to run education the way they did in the past, that Some of our immediate areas of concentration are in they need, for example, to involve communities. classroom provision, maintenance of classrooms, provi- There is a realization on the part of government that it sion of textbooks to ensure that some kind of schooling is not business as usual. Part of this is probably manifest- can continue, and the greater involvement of parents ed in its willingness to create this joint working group. So and teachers in the running of the schools. And then, I am not romantic that we will make immediate and addressing the education needs of children in squatter startling gains—but that what we are doing here is set- communities, because there's been a rapid process of ting in motion a process that will result in shifting the urbanization and we have vast communities of displaced parameters of education. people in urban areas. They are urbanized and they One's got to see this initiative of the joint working have to be provided with school facilities. At the group in a larger context. It is not as if we are putting all moment, government has been making minor provisions, our eggs into one basket. Clearly, other aspects of the because their argument has been that these people are struggle will continue. We'll continue to bring pressure to not their responsibility. We're also looking at improved bear on government, we'll continue to shift the political provision in rural areas, at farm schools, and a much context. I think it's strategically wrong to see this initiative more urgent schools building program that will address as the only one at play in the country. It's one initiative. the tremendous shortage of school provision. Another It's a more direct political intervention that seeks to push short-term issue is more effective utilization of education- government further than probably what it would have al resources. At the moment, if you look at teacher-pupil achieved on its own. There is general consensus on the ratios, you have huge disparities. In the Transkei, for extent of the crisis, on the need to intervene in the crisis, example, you have a teacher-pupil ratio of between 1 to and on the need to shift to one educational system. 80 to 1 to 100 in primary schools. The average teacher- Africa Report: Given that reform of an entire pupil ratio in white schools is 1 to 25. inequitable educational system will take some time, what If you look at the absolute number of teachers and the immediate steps can be taken to begin to improve the sit- absolute number of students we have in South Africa, we uation? come out with a reasonably favorable ratio—1 to 35. 20 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 But because education is structured along apartheid number of different things that need to be done simulta- lines, our resources are being vastly under-utilized. neously. One certainly is that political organizations, We're very concerned, not only about human resources trade unions, church organizations, women's organiza- but also physical resources. So you have technical col- tions, and so on must continue to reinforce or to assist in leges (technicons) that are under-utilized, teachers col- the creation of an appropriate climate that would turn leges that are under-utilized, because their criteria for education to the national agenda. This is very important. admission are based to a large extent on race or other Unless you actually have the right social climate in the criteria that exclude a kind of moving population. This is country, efforts will not in fact be successful because that something that government can address immediately, short-term. Africa Report: Is curriculum revi- 7 sion being looked at in the short- term? Samuel: Yes. Take, for example, looking at the social relevance of what is being taught. In areas like history and the social science sub- jects, literature, and so on, we can begin. And we should begin encouraging our teachers to chal- lenge the basis of the existing cul- ture. Even on a short-term basis we can begin strengthening the teach- ing of mathematics, science, and language, because one of the objectives of apartheid education was to deliberately under-educate our children in these areas. For example, in 1990, of the total stu- dent population of about 200,000 schoolchildren in high school, only 12 black children cultural awareness would not "Some of our immedi- obtained an A-grade pass in mathematics. Twelve out of exist. That has to be undertaken, ate areas of concen- 200,000! tration are in class- and it is the responsibility of room provision, Africa Report: What is the impact of a generation of mass-based organizations to maintenance of class- rooms, provision of school drop-outs during the township rebellion of the actually do that. textbooks to ensure 1980s? How can you address what represents nearly an Secondly, one needs to begin that some kind of schooling can entire lost generation of youth? to look at, even now, a range of continue" Samuel: That's going to be one of the major challenges programs that will address the we face not only long-term, but also immediately. Clear- out-of-school youth-—these could be educational, they ly, in the context of the 1980s, it was very difficult to could be training, vocational, technical, and so forth. actually begin to focus on this issue, precisely because of We need to begin to look at a national strategy. We the intense repression and resistance. Many of us have have to involve the young people themselves in this. talked about this issue, but are somewhat overwhelmed What we've got to do as a storting point is to create a by both its nature and the possible interventions. We base of confidence with young people so that they begin have a historical obligation to address this because to participate right at the outset and they are not seen as many of the young people were driven by a singular beneficiaries but really as participants in the program. determination to end what was not only a terrible period The danger that we've got to guard against is further of repression, but a social system that was vastly unjust alienating the youth. We've got to find ways of integrat- and repressive. In fact, the adult generation has an obli- ing youth back into the mainstream of our society. Now gation to not only accept our responsibility in education, is the time for that. I don't think we can wait. It is a host but also to ensure that that generation of young people of different kinds of interventions. In some cases, it will of the 1980s does not lose out in the long-term. be education; in other cases, it may be just providing Having said that, what do we do? I think there are a space for these people to find their own solutions. We AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 21 must be careful not to have too many preconceived demands. We are not against training. But it is how you notions of what we should do, but develop it in a partici- train and how you relate that training to the economic patory manner that will ensure that the youth feel that it's and social goals of the country. That is where one of the not yet again somebody doing something for them just major challenges for a future educational system is going as objectives or recipients of aid, but as really active to lie in South Africa. participants. Africa Report: What do you hope to achieve by your Africa Report: To what extent will you be looking at visit to the United States? What role do you see for the experiences of other countries such as Zimbabwe for U.S. in aiding your educational reform? models in educational reform? Samuel: In trying to answer that question, one needs to Samuel: We're looking just about everywhere, in fact. disaggregate the United Stales because there is a whole Some experiences are more pertinent and more relevant range of different actors. There is the U.S. government to our experiences. For example, we're looking at that has a reasonably large aid program in education in beyond the borders outside Africa to Latin American South Africa, approximately $40 million. Then you have experiences, to some of the European countries and some the U.S. foundations which also make significant inter- of the southeast Asian countries. Yes, I think it is very ventions. Then you also have the broad community, the important for us to take advantage of many prior lessons American people who've been involved in anti-apartheid that have oc- activity. There are different roles for different actors in the curred in educa- United States. The danger tion, because we What we are hoping to achieve [in the U.S.] is to that we've got are not going to highlight the challenges. I think the story of apartheid create something education has been told. One may need to re-tell it. But to guard that's so spectacu- in a way, we need to move beyond that. We need to against is fur- larly new and dif- move to the challenges: What can we do to begin ferent. We need addressing the consequences of apartheid education? ther alienating to pay careful That is where the international community, including the the youth. attention to what's U.S., can play significant roles in terms of how they worked, what has strategically intervene. Clearly, the major obligation must We've got to not worked, and remain on the plate of the state. We don't expect the find ways of why, bringing that U.S. to come in there and put right the historical imbal- international per- ances, but rather complement that major thrust in many integrating spective to bear different ways, for example, by providing aid that would youth back on how we begin enable us to develop curriculum reform, to develop learn- addressing some ing materials, research into curriculum reform and into the main- of the critical change. That is where I see the contribution of founda- stream of our issues that are tions, of the U.S. government, and so on, in supporting r society. going to be long- and complementing our majo educational gains by rein- term challenges forcing them with qualitative educational input in terms for South Africa. of training, research, and materials development. Central to one of those long-term issues is the role of We always tend to look at the issue of resources education in relation to work creation, employment, and almost entirely in terms of money, but I think we need to skills training, because there is a kind of seduction in broaden that and look at resources in terms of people. some of the arguments that basically seek to imitate what There may be ways and means of us tapping into exist- seem to be the economic miracles of southeast Asian ing human resources that would help us in this process of countries. There can be very little doubt that we need reconstruction. You've had a wealth of experience in the skilled and trained people, but I think it's very important U.S. You've had to deal with inequalities in education how we skill and train our people. and broader social inequalities. I'm not saying the South While one can point to some of the economic mira- African experience is exactly the same as the American cles of some of the southeast Asian countries, you can experience, but there are similarities. We need to exam- also point to some pretty horrendous social conse- ine those similarities and see how you've responded, or quences, where, for example, the labor movements have haven't responded, to those issues. People who've been been suppressed. We want to avoid that situation. In involved in that could be invaluable resources to us as attempting to create a democratic society, we should be we attempt to find solutions to our vast problems in South driven by that principle and not see the narrow Africa. • 22 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Redressing the imbalanc which have resulted fron decades of South Africar occupation is no easy task: For example, whites earn a p^ $750 for blacks* One year after independence, the Namibian government is \ doing all it can to tackle the legacy of discrimination oA to agriculture. BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA Barely a week goesT>y 10 Namibia Unicef program officer Macharia York in June 1990, donors pledged an without one more seminar on how to Kamau, "between gross national initial sum of $220 million—roughly create jobs, build more and better product per capita, which should nor- equivalent to South Africa's budget schools, or vncrinnte more kids mally indicate the ability of a country cut. But the amount of donor funding before the end-of-ycar (U-adline. For to provide for its people, and the is expected to average $160 million although the new Namibian govern- actual figures that indicate whether for the subsequent three years, ment has not been able to deliver all or not a country is able to deliver." against an estimated need of $270 that the majority of the electorate Thus, for example, the infant mor- million each year. would have hoped for in the first year tality rate in Namibia, at 105 per The difficulty of securing aid, and of independence, President Sam 1,000, is the same as that for Tanza- the urgent need to create jobs, Nujoma and his team are making a nia—one of the poorest countries in underscored the huge investment concerted effort io redress some of Africa—and much higher than conference held in Windhoek earlier the more glaring imbalances of the Botswana's, with which the country this year. But that has meant com- past shares a similar per capita income. promises such as moving softly on Under South African occupation, Literacy, at a mere 35 percent, is way land reform and nationalization of Namibia was carved up into 11 rth- below that of both countries. the big mining companies which in nic "homelands," with the (> percent The new government's room to the past have siphoned off huge prof- white population owning 60 percent maneuver has been severely restrict- its from Namibia and are the main of the country's land. Men had little ed. Despite the country's enormous source of government revenue. In option but to look for jobs in the potential, the economy stagnated in line with the government policy of towns, mines, and commercial 1990, and was expected to go into national reconciliation, care has also farms, leaving women and children recession in 1991. The poor perfor- been taken not to force any whites to tend the cattle and till the land. mance is partly explained by falling out of their jobs. Yet, as a result of veterinary prices for Namibia's main mineral However, a start has been made restrictions, black peasant farmers exports, drought in some parts of with the dismantling of the 11 ethnic could not sell their cattle south of a the country, and steep increases in administrations (which themselves "red line" that effectively meant they the price of oil as a result of the Gulf led to considerable duplicity and could not sell commercially, and little war. wastage). These are being replaced attention was paid to peasant farmers However, it is also explained by by regional and district administra- in this vast, semi-arid country. the current recession in South tions, implementing a uniform and In towns, racial discrimination, Africa, which has profound effects on equal set of policies from the center. compounded by generally lower lev- Namibia, because the country Finance Minister Otto Herrigel els of education, condemned blacks belongs to the rand monetary area, has resisted pressure from private to the lowest paying jobs, and cur- and therefore has no control over its rent unemployment is estimated at monetary policy. The presence of 40 percent. With a per capita income United Nations election supervisory The government of $1,200, the huge, mineral rich forces, estimated to have spent $300 is morally country of less than 1 million people million in the country, helped to is regarded as one of the richest in delay the recession, which is now obliged to meet Africa. But this average figure masks catching up. huge disparities. In an effort to extricate itself from some of the Whites enjoy a per capita income South Africa's financial clutches, expectations of $16,500—similar to most Western Namibia has established its own cen- countries. On the other hand, blacks tral bank, but it will be at least two created by working in the modern sector of the years before it has its own currency. independence. economy earn an average of $750 a Meanwhile, the country has to con- year, while the average wage of those tend with a $232 million per annum dependent on subsistence agricul- cut in budgetary support from South companies to cut taxes, on grounds ture is a mere $85. The low economic- Africa, and an inherited debt of $192 that the government is morally status of black Namibians, coupled million. obliged to meet some of the expecta- with a health system geared toward However, because of Namibia's tions created by independence. The whites, and toward curative, rather relatively high per capita income, 1990/91 budget indicates a major than preventative medicine, explains efforts to get the country classified reorientation in spending priorities. the disparity in other social indica- as "least developed," which would With defense spending reduced to tors. put it in line for more concessional 4.8 percent of the budget, the gov- 'There is an incongruence," notes donor funds, proved unsuccessful. ernment has been able to realize a "peace dividend" of $114 million. Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean free- At a UNDP-sponsored donor con- lance journalist based in Harare. ference for Namibia held in New Allocations to health (13.7 percent of 24 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Unemployed youths: Formal employment in Namibia has historically been severely restricted for blacks the budget) and education (18.2 per- this issue is scheduled to take place The Agronomic Board, which pur- cent of the budget) show a consider- in mid-1991. chases all agricultural products, is able increase over the past. In the interim, however, several looking to set up more collection A broad policy statement issued measures are being considered to points in the rural areas to encour- soon after independence places the improve the lot of peasant farmers. age surplus production. A major new highest sectoral priority on agricul- According to the new permanent sec- development in 1991 was the ture and rural development, educa- retary for agriculture, Vilho Ngi- announcement by the government tion and training, and health and hipondoka, provision of water holes that it planned to put up $5 million housing. The paper pledges to in various parts of the north will for the purchase, processing, and ensure that every citizen has "equal unlock new grazing areas. The gov- sale of millet, which never passed access to public facilities and ser- ernment has also approached donors through commercial channels vices, as well as to an acceptable to "assist us with veterinary services, before. standard of living." so that we can shift the red line to the Greater attention is also being Although agriculture accounts for border with Angola, and so that peas- paid to relevant research. For exam- a mere 10 percent of Namibia's GDP, ant farmers are free to market their ple, an NGO recently found that, 70 percent of the country's cattle in the same way as commercial with better seed, the production of people—largely women and chil- farmers," the Namibian official millet can be doubled. dren—rely on it for a livelihood. noted. Formal employment in Namibia Unlike Zimbabwe, there is no fund in Extension officers, being trained has historically been severely Namibia for buying back land from en masse, are to be deployed to agri- restricted for blacks. Out of a poten- white farmers for resettlement by cultural development centers in each tial labor force of 400,000. only peasant farmers, and the country's district. Consultants in Windhoek 184,793 people are in formal constitution forbids the expropria- are studying how the present land jobs—the majority working as farm tion of land. In the long-term, the bank, which in the past provided hands, domestic workers, or miners. government is determined to bring credit only to commercial farmers, A new draft labor code, expected about a more equitable distribution can be adapted to serve small-scale to be published mid-year, will define of land, and a major conference on fanners. domestics and farm hands as work- AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 25 ONE COMMUNITY'S SOLUTION In Windhoek's sprawling black township of Katu- guage. They wanted to prepare their children for tura, it is rare to find kids with a definite plan for this." their future. Esther Avula is an exception. A confi- Initially, the school included the Afrikaans dent and bright-eyed nine-year-old who speaks language as a subject, because parents figured fluent English, she says: "When I grow up, I want that as long as it remained the lingua franca of to be a lawyer, so that I can help people in trou- the country, their kids wculd need it to get by. ble." But, according to Shejavali, who is also the wife Avula is one of a thousand kids attending the of the head of the Council of Churches of People's Primary School (PPS), an innovative Namibia (CCN), Abisai Shejavali, "the children attempt by the local community to overcome themselves refused to learn Afrikaans, and so some of the shortcomings of the apartheid educa- we stopped teaching it." tion system including disparity of access, ethnic Some discussion took place over whether or not divisions, instruction in Afrikaans, and the Nation- the school should be offering instruction in indige- al Christian Education philosophy. nous languages. "The problem," recalls Shejavali, According to Selma Shejavali, headmistress of "is that there are so many different indigenous; the PPS, when parents came together in 1986 to languages." And one of the aims of the school was launch an independent primary school, "it was a to break the ethnic barriers in education. "This is kind of cry that they were not satisfied with bantu the first school in Katutuia where children from all education, and that they wanted to do something ethnic backgrounds are able to mix. We decided about it." instead to emphasize to parents the importance of A primary concern was to set up an English respecting and teaching the home language at language school. "Parents hated Afrikaans home," she says. because it was the language of the South African A key policy of the school has also been to for- government, which they rejected. In addition, bid corporal punishment, and in meetings with Afrikaans is not an international language. Par- parents, to discourage the Ideating of children at ents knew that when Namibia became indepen- home. "If a child comes from a fighting environ- dent, English would become the official lan- ment, plus a fighting family, and then goes to a ers for the first time, and create a white than on black children. Under sudden switch to English as the special department within the min- Namibia's new constitution, primary medium of instruction. istry to ensure that they work fair school education is now compulsory. Urgent efforts are also underway hours and are given time off. In line Creating sufficient capacity in the to review curriculum, based on the with a constitutional provision for short term is a tall order, as illustrat- authoritarian South African "Nation- affirmative action to help redress the ed by a recent newspaper report that al Christian Education" philosophy disparities created by apartheid in 7,000 pupils in the populous north- which justifies white supremacy. For Namibia, the draft also proposes set- ern Ovamboland were without places starters, corporal punishment has ting up an employment equity com- at the start of the 1991 school year. been abolished in schools. New mission, to investigate complaints of A key objective, however, is to pre- guidelines have been issued for discriminatory practices in employ- vent the huge dropout rate from junior secondary schools, and a ment. The commission will also grade to grade each year. Thus, com- National Institute of Educational require that enterprises set quotas munity initiatives are being encour- Development is being established to for the hiring of blacks and women, aged, and double seating practiced in review curriculums more fully. which it will monitor. some schools. To improve the quali- Grassroots efforts at reform are However, a major requirement, if ty of education (85 percent of teach- also being encouraged. And the gov- black Namibians are to compete with ers in black schools are without ernment has established a commis- their white counterparts, is a teacher training), the government sion, consisting of several well- revamping of the education system, has embarked on a comprehensive known international academics, to in which—in the past—six times in-service teacher training program, make recommendations on higher more was spent on the education of made all the more important by the education, considered key to the 26 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 fighting school, the child can only turn out to be a of my friends are finding it hard to learn English," lighting child," says Shejavali. says Avula. "I am happy that I can speak this lan- Before independence, the school had no choice guage." but to follow the government curriculum. But, Curriculum changes have so far only been according to Shejavali, "we only used this as a introduced at Junior secondary school level, but guideline, and the school has always encouraged are scon to follow in primary schools. When that critical thought." happens, says Shejavali, "we will be well-placed A teacher of many years experience, the head- to make changes." In the meantime, she adds: mistress relates an instance in which one of her "We know that emotionally we are with our gov- first grade pupils asked why there were two hospi- ernment, and that whatever we do here, we don't tals in Windhoek. Impulsively trying to dodge the have to do it with fear." question, Shejavali replied that there are many Since independence, the PPS has also been people in Windhoek. given the major task of catering for about 500 chil- "But why is one for blacks only and the other for dren of returning Namibian exiles. "Some parents whites?" the pupil pressed. "It turned out," She- are still looking for jobs, some don't have homes javali recalled, "that the child had had an eye yet, some are outside Windhoek, and some come problem which could not be treated at the Katutu- from English medium schools. We at the PPS have ra hospital. He had to be taken to the white hospi- tried to make the transition for these children as tal for a few hours to have an operation. The dif- smooth as possible," the headmistress noted. ference between the two hospitals deeply With the huge increase in number, donor funds affected the child." have been made available to the school for new Faced with such situations, Shejavali said, "I classes and hostels, now going up around the had to tell the truth. We discussed these things ramshackle buildings where the CCN started. openly. This is one thing that would never happen One of the hopes of the school, which has strug- in government schools." It also often put the school gled financially, is that the government will take in trouble with the government authorities, who over payment of teachers' salaries, which are regarded the PPS as a brainchild of the (now rul- about half what other teachers receive. Even so, ing) South West Africa People's Organization. teachers at the school have been among the first But Shejavali notes, the school's foresight has to participate in an in-house teacher upgrading been vindicated. With independence, English has program being run by a non-governmental orga- been declared the formal language of Namibia. nization to help teachers in Namibia to cope with As other schools struggle to make the language the new demands in education, • change, the PPS is at a distinct advantage. "Some —C.L.M. country's future manpower require- presence of sophisticated equipment An immunization campaign, ments. for complex operations at the launched with huge political support These will also hinge on having a Oshakati hospital in Ovamboland, in the middle of last year, has suc- healthier nation. As in the case of while only 2 percent of the children in ceeded in providing basic protection education, disparities are marked. the province had full immunization. It to the vast majority of Namibia's chil- While whites enjoy a health care sys- also explains why—despite Namib- dren. tem comparable to that in industrial- ia's relative wealth—the country is Hundreds of community health ized countries, a recent Unicef sur- still battling against outbreaks of dis- workers are being trained, some in vey found that, in mid-1989, there eases like measles and malaria which neighboring countries like Zimbab- were only 22 doctors and four spe- have been brought under control in we and Botswana. A huge seminar cialists in the whole of Ovamboland, many parts of the Third World. on primary health care was held in a ratio of 1 to 21,000. One of the government's first Oshakati in February to map out an Another shortcoming of the past actions has been to outline a primary implementation strategy. administration, notes Christine health care strategy, including the Mutirua, a former nurse, and her Mutirua, head of the ministry of promotion of proper nutrition and team have worked overtime to pro- health family and community health adequate supply of safe water, mater- duce local educational materials. division, was "the curative approach, nal and child care including family Packing up for the day after a recent with very little emphasis on preven- spacing, immunization against major interview she reflected: "We are tative medicine or primary health infectious diseases, basic housing overwhelmed. But there is a good care." and sanitation, education, and com- feeling to it—slowly, but surely, we This explains anomalies like the munity participation. are making progress." <) AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 27 Although the African National Congress and the Organization of African Unity continue to take a hard line on ending sanctions against the de Klerk government, self-interest has caused some The Pariah's New southern African states to begin cozying up to By COLLEEN LOWE MORNA South Africa. Increasing financial difficulties and s political reforms gain little prospect for Western investment have momentum in South Africa, the gap between turned neighbors' eyes to the economic giant, a rhetoric and reality is potential engine for the region's growth. wideninAg on the rest of the continent. Officially, most African governments and their regional organizations hold hoek, onlookers were surprised at (SADCC), the Internal Security Act the view that it is not yet time for the huge turnout of West African offi- remains in place and black South sanctions against Pretoria to be lifted. cials and businessmen, resplendent Africans still do not have the vote. But last year, trade between South in caps and flowing robes, at a recent "Our position is a very simple Africa and the rest of Africa doubled. investment seminar. Their interest one," he said. "The international com- The enthusiasm with which was not in Africa's youngest nation, munity must continue to isolate African countries regard their south- but in the window it provides on South Africa, as sanctions were intro- ern neighbor and vice versa is Africa's largest economy next door. duced to force South Africa to repeal becoming difficult to contain. For "At conferences and in public fora, all apartheid measures. That has not example, in Zimbabwe—which has the self-righteousness over sanctions been achieved." taken one of the most hardline still reigns," comments a Harare A communique issued at the close stances on South Africa in the sub- economist. "But the reality is that it's of the SADCC conference which, in region—the only queue to be found a practical decade. No one, including addition to the 10 member countries, in Harare is that outside the South the politicians themselves, is really brought together 13 donor countries African trade mission, where Zimbab- paying much attention to what they and 25 regional organizations, weans are prepared to spend hours in are saying." affirmed that it would be "necessary the sun waiting for a visa. The reasons for maintaining the for the international community to Around the corner, prominently boycott on South Africa are well- maintain the measures taken against displayed at the embassy of Angola founded and have been clearly articu- apartheid until the system is com- (which until recently was at war with lated. pletely dismantled." South Africa) are photocopies of a Following the unbanning of the Responding to repeated sugges- newspaper article suggesting that the African National Congress and tions in the corridors by Western white-ruled economic giant might release of Nelson Mandela in 1990, donors that SADCC start dialogue soon become Luanda's largest trad- South African President F.W. de with forces in South Africa other than ing partner. Klerk early this year proposed to just the liberation movements, A South African journalist passing repeal the Group Areas Act, the Land SADCC executive secretary Simba through Harare recently was pleas- Acts, and the Population Registration Makoni retorted: "There is no basis antly surprised to find that he had no Act—the last main institutional pillars for SADCC to relate to any institu- difficulty obtaining a visa to Ghana. of apartheid. tions of apartheid. When a popular What's more, he received royal treat- But, as Mandela pointed out at a dispensation, to which the people of ment in Accra. press conference in Windhoek dur- South Africa as a whole, but especial- In the Namibian capital, Wind- ing the annual consultative confer- ly the majority, is put in place, then ence of the Southern African Devel- we will be able to engage with those Colleen Lowe Mortta is a Zimbabwean free- institutions" lance journalist based in Harare. opment Coordination Conference 28 AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1991 Almost simultaneously, the Orga- nomic problems and little hope of Houphouet-Boigny opened the door nization of African Unity ad hoc com- attracting foreign investment from to new ties with South Africa when he mittee on southern Africa, meeting in the West, African countries see South allowed Pretoria to start a trade mis- Harare, and taking an even more Africa as a motor for growth. Individ- sion in Abidjan and granted SAA land- hardline position than the liberation ual citizens, frustrated by low pay and ing rights. movements had been pushing for, working conditions at home, but • Pretoria has since opened a trade issued a similar statement. At a press restricted from working in industrial- mission in Lome, Togo, and high- ized countries, are also hungrily eye- level contacts have been made with ing Big Brother down south. other francophone states, including For its part. South Africa is desper- Cameroon and Gabon. The two major ately in need of many of the raw mate- anglophone West African countries, rials found in neighboring countries, Ghana and Nigeria, have kept up the including oil, water, and hydroelec- verbal distance. But their embassies Pals tricity. The country's manufacturers, in southern Africa are battling to conference attended by OAU secre- although sophisticated by African keep their nationals from fortune- tary-general Salim Salim and standards, are not competitive in seeking in South Africa's nominally Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Western markets and are seeking independent homelands, not to men- the OAU urged the international com- outlets for their wares. They are also tion South Africa itself. Some reports munity to maintain sanctions and all enticed by the idea of cashing in on suggest that Nigeria, the African forms of pressure against the de $15 billion a year in Western aid con- heavyweight, will soon be seeking a Klerk government. tracts to the rest of Africa. softening of the OAU stand on South Behind-the-scenes lobbying by Equally important, contacts with Africa. African governments and the South the rest of Africa are seen by South •In southern Africa, the most dra- African liberation movements was Africa as crucial to gaining interna- matic turn in relations has been with largely responsible for a decision by tional acceptability. Economic Angola. Because of sanctions, South the EEC and Commonwealth not to ties—in the current climate of struc- Africa has been forced to buy oil at a ease sanctions further. (In April, the tural adjustment and pragmatism premium and develop expensive coal- EEC lifted sanctions.) —are seen as being the best route. based alternatives. South Africa is To what extent Western sanctions This coincidence of interests is hungrily eyeing Angola as a future are being observed in South Africa, illustrated in a number of recent source of oil. Now desperately trying and with what effect, is a hotly debat- developments: to pull itself out of a war and failed ed issue. But by far one of the most •In August last year, South Africa socialist policies, Angola sees South visible new developments in the made one of its biggest diplomatic Africa as a potentially lucrative mar- country—apart from new-found rela- coups when Madagascar, once a ket and source of technology. tions with the Soviet Union and East- staunch critic of Pretoria, invited Already, the huge South African- ern Europe—is Pretoria's growing President de Klerk on a state visit, based diamond mining conglomer- links with African neighbors. which included the signing of a recip- ate, De Beers, has signed an agree- Although trade figures with the rocal air link agreement. The main ment with Angola's diamond mining rest of Africa are not made official, motivation for Madagascar—a poor parastatal, Endiama. government sources in South Africa island with little going for it other • Mozambique, which was histori- have been leaking information to the than its water and beaches—was to cally close to South Africa and is also effect thai by 1990, trade with Africa capture a share of the South African pushing for peace and market accounted for 10 percent of South tourist market before others stepped reforms, has gone out of its way to African exports, compared with 6.5 in. woo South African investors. Govern- percent in 1984. •Kenya, which despite its conser- ment officials have attended two Members of the Pretoria-set up vative government has opposed South investment seminars in Johannes- Southern African Customs Union— Africa, licensed South African Air- burg, a consultancy firm has opened Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and ways (SAA) to begin regular weekly in South Africa to assist businessmen Namibia—have always had close eco- flights to Nairobi to facilitate tourism wishing to go back to Mozambique, nomic links with South Africa. What and trade. The agreement was tem- and inquiries are pouring in. South has been most significant in the last porarily suspended following a Africa has also recently resurrected a year is the number of countries that stopover in Nairobi by Mandela, dur- preferential trade agreement with previously took a hard line on South ing which he protested the move as a Mozambique, enabling the country Africa and which have now softened breach of sanctions. But the short- to export to South Africa manufac- their stance. lived nature of President Daniel arap tured goods which it would find diffi- The reasons vary from country to Moi's retreat testified to the power of cult to sell elsewhere. South Africa country. But a common thread seems self-interest over lofty political ideals. has been involved in the rehabilita- to be that, faced with mounting eco- • In West Africa, President tion of Maputo port, and of late has AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 29 started extending "soft aid," such as relations with South Africa. The fact To complicate matters, during the setting up a technical training school that the country widely advertised its SADCC conference, Makoni denied in Maputo. recent investment conference in the any SADCC participation in the Vic- •Zambia, another critic of South African press and that over half toria Falls conference. But it later sur- apartheid, but also a SADCC coun- the participants came from South faced that the SADCC regional busi- try striving to save itself from eco- Africa illustrates the mutual interest ness council, which is also based in nomic ruin, has lifted a ban on South that the two countries perceive in Gaborone, funded many of the dele- African transport routes, put in place dealing with each other. gates who attended. to encourage use of Dar es Salaam During the SADCC conference Another controversy has been and Beira ports, neither of which which preceded the Namibia invest- sparked by press reports that South has proved efficient. The South ment gathering, executive secretary Africa's electricity parastatal, Escom, African Trade Organization (Safto) Simba Makoni excused the behavior attended a meeting of the SADCC recently paid its first official visit to of his member governments on the energy sector. SADCC officials deny Lusaka, and is discussing joint ven- ground that "there is a distinction this. What cannot be denied, howev- tures with the Zambian Industrial between the policies of national gov- er, is thai Escom is pushing ahead and Mining Corporation, a state ernments and those of SADCC as a with plans for a regional power enterprise overseeing a wide variety collective body." grid—once a SADCC dream—and of interests. Safto is also looking into But contradictions are also starting has already successfully cut deals funding improvements of Mpulungu to emerge at the regional level. For with Zambia and Zimbabwe. port on Lake Tanganyika, which example, when the east and southern Meanwhile, Transnet, South would give South Africa easy access Africa Preferential Trade Area held a Africa's recently privatized transport to central African markets, through summit in Mbabane, Swaziland, parastatal, has been actively scouting a route considerably cheaper than recently. South African businessmen out business opportunities in the going via sea to the Kenyan port of were invited as observers. But when region. One of SADCC's biggest Mombasa. Safto, the South African Chamber of achievements has been to rehabili- •Of all the SADCC countries, Zim- Business, and National African Feder- tate shorter transport routes, particu- babwe has retained the most hard- ated Chambers of Commerce invited larly through Mozambique, which line public stance against South African businessmen to a conference the region is starting to use. Africa and thus contributed to a mas- in Mbabane in March to discuss busi- But, trading on its efficiency and sive disinvestment of South African ness prospects in the region, the PTA the fact that regional rail lines fre- companies in the past few years. secretary-general declined to attend. quently rent its freight cars, the rail However, with the possible exception Swaziland's King Mswati, current division of Transnet is aggressively of Namibia, nowhere else do old ties chairman of the PTA, also failed to marketing the South African alterna- run as deep as between white Zim- show up to open the conference. tive. One attractive technique being babweans, still a dominant force in Earlier, the Confederation of Zim- employed—in light of the hard cur- the economy, and the ruling elite in babwe Industries (CZI) invited South rency shortages in the region—is to South Africa. After a long hesitation, African businessmen to attend a offer barter deals such as exchang- the country has recently launched a regional business conference, ad- ing hardwoods, palm oil, coffee, and structural adjustment program, and dressed by three Zimbabwean minis- even second-hand rails in payment of is desperately seeking foreign invest- ters, including the senior minister of services. ment. South Africans are not being finance, economic planning, and According to press reports, South overtly encouraged to come back, development, Bernard Chidzero, in Africa's department of foreign affairs but they are not being discouraged Victoria Falls. has also recently put to nine out of either. According to financial sources Soon after, the minister of state for the ten SADCC states a plan for a in Harare, South Africa has quietly regional and international coopera- southern African common market been extending preferential trade tion, Simbi Mubako, said that the centered around South Africa, and terms to the country. time was "not yet ripe" to make over- reminiscent of the old Pretoria •Newly independent Namibia is tures to the captains of South African dream of a "constellation" of neigh- trying to reduce its excessive eco- industry, as this would undermine boring states with a focal South nomic dependence on South Africa the "push for political change in the African star. through establishing its own central region." Regional officials take comfort in bank, as well as encouraging local In a sharp reply, the head of CZI, assurances by the liberation move- farming and manufacturing. But, as John Deary, pointed out that Man- ments that a democratic South Africa evidenced by the fact that it has dela has addressed gatherings of the will join the existing organizations joined the custom union, and is mov- same businessmen. "How can Mr. and not seek to dominate them. Ana- ing cautiously on introducing its own Nelson Mandela be said to be slow- lysts caution, however, that at the cur- currency, Namibia has decided to ing down political changes?," Deary rent pace of developments, such a adopt a pragmatic approach in its asked. position might be too complacent. ) 30 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Although President de Klerk's promise to repeal the Land Acts has been Landless hailed as a major step By PATRICK LAURENCE toward ending apartheid, his government's plans he pending repeal of South apartheid without properly compen- regarding land reform re- Africa's Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 sating its victims. main highly controversial. has been presented as a major step The Land Acts reserved barely toward the fulfillment of President more than 13 percent of South Africa While blacks insist that F.W. de Klerk's promise to rid the for black ownership. In the remain- land must be restored to statute books of racially discriminato- ing 87 percent, white interests were the people from whom it ry laws by the end of June. supreme. The land outside the But. ironically, his plan of action, "native reserves" was under white was wrested, the de Klerk as outlined in the White Paper on control. government, utilizing his- Land Reform, is seen by a wide Vast tracts were owned but not range of opposition forces as a move always occupied by whites. Black torical myths to justify its to protect the beneficiaries of people were allowed in the areas out- present distribution, con- side their reserves or reservations Patrick /Murence is a specialist writer on the under sufferance on terms dictated cedes only that blacks will Johannesburg Star. South African correspon- by whites. dent of The Economist, and a contributor to now be free to buy land. The Guardian ofhmdon and The Irish Times. For nearly 30 years, from the mid- AFRICA REPORT * May-June 1991 31 1950s to the mid-1980s, successive of hectares of land without charge to The myths, as much as considera- South African governments, inspired [black] people who now occupy tions of realpolitik, explain the by the vision of "grand" or territorial some of the most fertile and water- refusal of the de Klerk administra- apartheid, sought to clear white- rich areas in South Africa." tion to consider restoration of land, designated South Africa of black set- Then came another statement except by removing the restraints on tlements or "black spots." These denying that the land had been divid- blacks to participate freely in the were small areas of land scattered ed between white and black on a 86- land market and making loans and throughout South Africa where, for to-14 ratio and insisting that the divi- aid available on a non-racial basis. historical reasons, blacks had sion was instead 40-60. Its stand has, however, served to acquired ownership rights. "If one includes Botswana, unite the quarrelsome black opposi- According to the Surplus People's Lesotho, and Swaziland and the [trib- tion organizations in the same way as Project, 3.5 million people were al] homelands, non-whites own more the original Land Acts united them forcibly moved, sometimes at gun- than 60 percent of the land," the Con- years ago, temporarily at least. point, from "black spots" and herded servative Party averred. It gave no The Pan Africanist Congress into their allotted tribal homelands. explanation for its inclusion of three (PAC), declaring that the land was But the de Klerk administration's independent neighboring countries usurped from the indigenous people White Paper dismisses the notion of in its equation of land distribution in by "settlers," says it is illogical to restoring their land to these uproot- South Africa. expect people to buy back land ed people as impractical, arguing The Conservative Party's view of which was stolen from them. As PAC that the present position should be the past, and, in a more refined man- President Clarence Makwetu puts it, accepted in the interests of "peace ner, van der Merwe's, rests on—to repeal of the land laws without resti- and progress." use a phrase of the French historian, tution for their victims is grand One of de Klerk's trouble-shoot- Marianne Cornevin—historical falsi- apartheid "dressed up in new ers, the smooth-talking minister of fication. clothes." education and training, Stoffel van The falsification consists of a The African National Congress der Merwe, argues disingenuously series of interrelated historical (ANC) insists that restoration of land that whites had to give up land as myths, which combine to offer a jus- to the victims of forced removal is well and that they too suffered. tification of the present distribution indispensable to a credible land poli- This argument impresses few peo- of land. In her book Apartheid: Power cy. The White Paper, it says, ple outside the governing National and Historical Justification, Cornevin "absolves the white population of all Party. Whites were not moved at gun- identifies the myths which have been responsibility for the long, tragic his- point and they were usually paid huge imbibed by whites and which are tory of black dispossession." sums, often after long periods of hag- integral to their view on the land The importance of land to blacks gling, as distinct from the meager and question. is reflected in the slogans of their arbitrary payments made to blacks. The myths include: oldest nationalist movements, the Van der Merwe's sophistry •The view that whites and blacks ANC and PAC. echoes the more crudely expressed in South Africa arrived simultaneous- ANC members often chorus view of Andries Treurnicht's ultra- ly. "Mayibuye i'Afrika" to one another. It right Conservative Party. Fulminat- •The belief that blacks were foot- is at once a lament and a war cry. ing against the government White loose migrants until they met the The slogan means "Africa, may it Paper, the Conservative Party whites. return to us" and implicitly asserts evokes history to justify the status •The perception of the great war- that the land was taken away by colo- quo in land distribution. rior chiefs, Shaka, Dingane, and Mzi- nial interlopers. PAC members greet "We acquired our land through likazi, as no more than bloodthirsty one another with an open-palm salute lawful occupation of large tracts of tyrants. and the words, "Izwe Lethu, i'Afrika." uninhabited land, through agree- •The legend that only the advent They translate it as: "The land, ments, through cession, through of whites saved blacks of lesser Africa, is ours." Its political message barter, and to a lesser degree, tribes from complete destruction by is obvious. through justifiable conquest," the the warrior kings and the "hordes" The land question is central to the Conservative Party said in an angry which they stirred into action. PAC's quarrel with the ANC. Black statement. These myths—which as Cornevin nationalists or Africanists in the ANC The whites did not exterminate shows in detail have been integrated broke away in 1958. They formed the indigenous peoples to wrest their into history textbooks used at white PAC the following year because they land from them, the Conservative schools—justify white possession of believed that the ANC had compro- Party added, although the whites land one way or another: as joint col- mised on its commitment to fight for were themselves the targets of onizers of it, as the destroyers of the return of the land to the indige- attempts to wipe them out. tyranny, as the settlers of uninhabit- nous people by its acceptance of the "Whites have given away million ed land, or as peace-makers. Freedom Charter of 1955. 32 AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1991 ber of the ANC Youth heid. But, the White Paper hastens to League and thus a man add, repeal of the Land Acts and who once subscribed to related discriminatory laws will not Africanist views. At the affect the status of the "homelands." Rivonia Trial of 1963-64, It is striking that de Klerk's he described himself as February 1 speech—in which he an "African patriot," indi- promised to clear the statute books cating that he was not of the remnants of discriminatory deaf to his Africanist past. legislation "within months"—makes He is therefore unlikely to no mention of the Status Acts, the preside over any softening laws which granted "independence" of ANC views on the land to four of the 10 tribal homelands. question. These laws, however, went further Political organizations than that—they deprived millions of on the left representing blacks of South African nationality on black interests have been the grounds that they were nationals supported by a wide of the four independent territories, range of pressure groups even though many were outside and university professors. their tribally allotted "homelands." In a declaration, they have The Status Acts were compared at called on the government the time to the notorious Nazi law to go ahead with its plans which deprived Jews of German citi- to repeal the Land Acts, zenship. but to impose a moratori- Responding to pressure at home um on all related measures, includ- Squatter camp: 3.5 million people have and abroad over these laws, the gov- been forcibly moved, sometimes at ing its contentious decision not to ernment offered blacks deprived of gunpoint, from "black spots" return land to the victims of South African nationality an opportu- Where the ANC Youth League apartheid. nity to reclaim it via the Restoration Manifesto of 1944 and, to a lesser Rejecting the government's mid- of South African Citizenship Act of extent, the ANC's 1949 Program of April deadline for representations on 1986. Action asserts the primacy of black its White Paper, they say: 'The inten- The Restoration Act was open African rights to the land, the Free- tion of the proposed land reform is to only to people permanently resident dom Charter eschews the language legitimize and entrench the legacy of in South Africa and, initially at any of African nationalism. apartheid while repealing the laws rate, was hedged with restrictions It speaks to the "people of South which created it." and red tape. Hence, only a minute Africa" rather than the "African peo- Equally as important, a report by proportion of the estimated 9 million ple" and says: "South Africa belongs the government's own Law Commis- blacks who lost South African nation- to all who live in it, black and sion has endorsed the concepts of ality have since regained it. white...the land shall be shared affirmative action and "expropriation A request by the Transkei, one of among those who work it." of property with compensation" to four nominally independent states, The PAC contends that the ANC meet the aspirations of all South for the blanket restoration of South was misled by white liberals and Africans. These sentiments, as Mike African nationality to its designated white communists when it accepted Robertson of the University of Natal citizens, appears to have fallen on the Freedom Charter. It says that has observed, are "markedly simi- deaf ears. these whites, uncomfortable with lar" to those expressed in the The issue, however, will not disap- and threatened by the nationalist African National Congress's consti- pear. As the ANC has observed, the creed of the original ANC, success- tutional guidelines, published in homeland system is part of the fully sought to dilute it. 1988. apartheid system which President de The differences are not merely of The White Paper on Land Reform Klerk has committed himself to erad- historical interest. They remain per- raises another question of central icating. tinent today. The ANC, anxious not importance to de Klerk's pledge to The ANC will not allow him to for- to be outbid by PAC zealots on the remove discriminatory laws from the get his pledge. Nor will the millions land question, is jus! as adamant in statute books: the future of the 10 of people who were deprived of its repudiation of de Klerk's land tribal homelands. South African nationality during the reform policy. The Land Acts, as the White heyday of grand apartheid and who It is important to remember Paper frankly acknowledges, provid- remain, even today, technically alien another point: The ANC leader, Nel- ed the legal framework for the policy in South Africa, the land of their son Mandela, was a founding mem- of separate development or apart- birth. O AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 33 N T R V W Flt.-Lt. JERRY RAWLINGS: Constructing a New Constitutional Order Betty Press Ghana's post-independence history has been turbu- lent, with civilian and military governments alike afflicted by corruption and maladministration. The Rawlings government, widely credited with having instituted accountability in politics and having re- vived a moribund economy, is now looking at return- ing the nation to constitutional rule. In this exclusive interview with Africa Report, Flt.-Lt. Rawlings outlines the steps that have been taken to date in the nation's efforts to devise a democratic system appropriate to Ghana's unique history and circumstances. The Ghanaian leader also spells out the next stages in the process which will lead to elections and a new constitution. By MARGARET A. NOV1CKI 34 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Africa Report: There has been a lot of speculation Rowlings: Our move toward a new democratic order about the direction Ghana's political development will has already involved the following processes: one, re- take over the coming years. You've said you're winding awakening the consciousness and confidence of our up the provisional phase of your government and estab- people through calls on them to wake up and play their lishing a new democratic order. What will the new order rightful roles. We have attempted to achieve this through be composed of? processes of mass socio-political and economic mobiliza- Rowlings: If there is any speculation, it will be by those tion involving the majority of ordinary people of our who are so impatient to see business as it was in the past country who, in the past, were driven into limited and resume immediately without incorporating remedial marginalized roles which their circumstances compelled designs to deal with identified defects. This is to enable them to accept. them to get out of a so-called "democratic" system what Two, the creation of appropriate frameworks and plat- those who have manipulated it in the past think democra- forms for all sections of the population to express their cy offers to them. Allowing things to happen this way is views on the way forward in our search for functional to bring to waste all the experience of the people, espe- and sustainable democracy using the intermediation of cially the possibilities we have experienced these past the National Commission for Democracy leading to the 10 years. A responsible provisional government should issue of a report on the people's views. lead our nation into the future bearing in mind our past Three, running of government along such policy lines and present experiences and the prospects they provide and within such an administrative and institutional frame- for the future. When this is done, we can hope to devel- work of decentralized authority as to provide a living op a new order whose contents respond to the new aspi- possibility for those who will be involved in shaping the rations of Ghanaians. content and practices of the new democratic order. The content of the new democratic order has not been The next steps which have already been announced predetermined by the PNDC [Provisional National are the following: One, convening of a consultative Defense Council] as it leads the people to identify and assembly to discuss the content of the next democratic shape its elements. We will not be tempted to voice what constitution. Two, the legal drafting of the new democrat- we expect to be the sound and sustainable contents of ic constitution which will go on side-by-side with the the new order ahead of the open deliberative process deliberations. Three, the voters' register will be re- which will take place during the sittings of the consulta- opened as part of our preparations toward the holding tive assembly. This assembly will soon be convened by of national elections. Dates will be announced as soon the government as the next stage of our action program as factors have been fully assessed. designed for the attainment of a home-grown democratic Africa Report: What is the timetable for the transition system considered relevant and appropriate for our cir- period and what will the role of the PNDC be in the pro- cumstances. cess? As a government, we will not remain silent forever Rowlings: The period during which all these will be when it comes to shaping the contents of the new order. done will represent the period for the transition. We We are not short of ideas—we have firm ideas of what have chosen to follow a timetable of key events to be our people need and do not and a comprehensive issues executed within periods determined on best effort possi- paper articulating such ideas is currently being prepared bilities, rather than laying down a rigid timetable of cal- after receiving the report of the National Commission for endar dates unrelated to realities.The major known role Democracy [NCD]. Government's paper will be issued of the PNDC is the management of the transition—what to the nation through the consultative assembly to reflect is left to the people to decide is whether or not the our own thinking on what the majority of the people PNDC, as a process or a governing body, will have a seem to opt for. role beyond the transition. Even so, this document will not attempt to constrain Africa Report: The NCD is to convene the consultative the consultative assembly to think in any particular direc- body to discuss the content and form of the new constitu- tion; it will attempt to cause the assembly not to ignore tion. Who will form this body? the views and aspirations of the broad masses or majori- Rowlings: I must correct you here. The NCD has com- ty of our people whose interests we have always sought piled and presented a report based on the contributions to champion and protect within the context of an on- of the many individuals, groups, and organizations who going revolution of thoughts, attitudes, and actions. either submitted memoranda or spoke at public fora on Africa Report: What steps have been taken so far and Ghana's political future or both. This document has been what are the next steps and the ultimate goal of the pro- published and therefore made available to the public. cess—multi-party elections? It is not the NCD's task to convene the consultative AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1991 35 assembly which will use this report as one of its basic civil populace in other areas, I can only say that this is working documents, together with previous constitutions long overdue. Nowhere can you have freedom without and other relevant source material. As with all such pre- the courage to defy. vious assemblies, the government will legislate for the We had our explosions in 1979 and managed under establishment, composition, and functions of the consul- very trying conditions to contain and prevent the anger tative assembly. of the explosion from taking its natural course. Most of We expect to have this law ready by mid-year. It will those whose economic and political activities laid the follow the precedent of similar bodies in the past by foundations that resulted in the revolt seem to have very drawing its membership from the political and adminis- short memories. However, the healthy development of trative districts throughout the country, as well as from that popular revolt has been put to a good overall use various identifiable groups or organizations. It is our and will have to be politically consolidated. intention this time to include all such bodies in true demo- The emerging revolts and defiance in some of our cratic traditions. We have involved them in the earlier African countries and elsewhere, therefore, come as no discussion processes and they have to continue. The out- surprise to some of us. I can only hope that the leader- come of the consultative assembly's work will then be put ship and governments in those areas recognize the into shape by a team of legal draftsmen, to become our trends quickly and either bow out or create the condi- draft constitution by the end of this year. tions for democracy to prevail. Better now—though long Africa Report: The goal of your government has overdue—than wait for a violent outburst. Our economic always been to ensure people's participation in the pro- relationship with the North is injurious enough as it is. To cesses by which they are governed. How would you rate add the insult of depriving our poor people of their right your success in this regard over the last 10 years? What to the dignity of freedom and justice even in our poverty has changed under your leadership in the Ghanaian is like adding insult to injury. body politic? To answer the question more directly, I will say we Rowlings: It is difficult to be objective without seeming began our process long before the current calls for to be rather vain about our achievements and without democratization became fashionable. In some countries, going into numerous little details. But broadly speaking they may simply reflect a desire for change, where and allowing for the inevitable teething problems regimes had long become static, dictatorial, and non- involved in instituting and testing out new systems, we responsive. But it is sometimes hard to tell whether this can justifiably claim that among our ordinary men and arises from a real perception of a need for new systems, women there is an increase in confidence, self-respect, or merely a wish for new personalities to head old or and sense of responsibility, as well as a practical under- slightly modified systems. standing of the basic purpose for and machinery of gov- Where the calls are directed toward developing coun- ernment at the district level. tries by the major economic powers as a condition for People are no longer intimidated by local problems, financial aid, the question arises as to whose definitions economic, social, or environmental, but are ready to of democracy we are talking about. Those countries tackle them. People have also discarded the notion of which claim to be models of democracy have some glar- central government as the only remote source of develop- ing discrepancies between democracy as defined and ment and now understand that the progress of their democracy as it is practiced in reality. Thank God that areas depends primarily on generating local initiative some sections of these donor communities are fast realiz- and resources, using them efficiently and with a proper ing that democracy, like technology, must be appropri- sense of priorities, and mobilizing their communities to ate. take part in planning, execution, and monitoring. This is In Ghana, some of the internal voices calling for a the most fundamental requirement for taking the process return to democracy really mean the patterns of the toward the national level. democratic practices of our sad past so that they can Africa Report: We've seen a lot of political ferment in return to the old ways by capturing the route back to the the neighboring countries, with increasingly bold calls political center stage. But I would say that Ghana is for democratization. Are there any similarities with the going through an exciting process of evolving democrati- Ghanaian situation? zation which will enable us to say to other nations: "This Rowlings: In reference to the ferment and calls for is ours, an organic consequence of our culture and histo- democratization, I see this as a very encouraging devel- ry." Perhaps this will be the difference between ours and opment. Starting with the demystification of the military others. and its dictatorship in places like Uganda and Liberia by Africa Report: In the past, elections were "vulgarized" the mass of the people and the general defiance of the in this country, with a lot of corruption and political 36 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 opportunism. If a multi-party system is introduced, how can one ensure that this does not resurface, that the principles of accountability that your government is known for will be continued? Rowlings: Several of the individuals and groups favor- ing a return to party politics have suggested that we retain the system used during the dis- trict level elections of the mounting of political plat- forms, publicity, etc. being provided by the NCD equally for all candidates. In this way, no candidate is disadvan- taged because of lack of funds. It would also be a good thing if we can also educate the people not to sell their votes secretly to people who are rich or sponsored by "My vision of Ghana is one of a democratic society in which the rich. the people are determined to work to sustain democracy without fear and inhibitions" No amount of constitutional checks and balances can completely ensure accountability unless at the same time finance, planning, legislation, and socio-economic devel- ordinary men and women have the self-confidence and opment. They have opened the eyes of many people to vigilance necessary to challenge wrong-doing and to the practicalities and responsibilities of government. We hold officials accountable. We, in our time, have intro- now have a people with a much deeper political aware- duced new systems to expose wrongs which the old ness, and this is the basic ingredient necessary for fur- inept machinery was unable or unwilling to deal with. ther progress. They also provide useful lessons for the new order which Whether there will be national elections prior to presi- must also come with a revised state structure and dential elections is not for me to say. This will depend on machinery. the outcome of the consultative assembly's deliberations. Africa Report: What is your view of the multi-party Africa Report: What is your view of the call for a ref- versus no-party debate? erendum on Ghana's political future? Rowlings: I do not want, at this stage, to send out any Rowlings: A referendum, by its nature, must be a yes signals which will influence the debate one way or or no affair, or must at least deal with a very limited num- another. Ghanaians have experienced both forms of ber of simple options. I fail to see how the complex government in several variations and should be capable options presently before Ghanaians can be reduced to of weighing the options. It is my hope that whichever such terms. Are we prepared for the consequences of option is finally chosen will be accompanied by an this over-simplification? If, to be fair and comprehensive appropriate set of checks and balances to cope with our with our search for democracy, we were to subject each previous experiences. issue before us to a separate referendum, how long will Africa Report: What is the role of district assemblies it take us to be there? Will the same voices not be heard in the transition process? Will a national assembly be loudly complaining of a foot-dragging approach to elected prior to presidential elections? democracy? To attempt to do so would be such an over- Rowlings: We have had various forms of local govern- simplification that many vital issues would be overlooked ment in the past. The district assemblies have not only and the people would have no chance to express their enabled a much wider representation of the people, preferences. We have no intention of being stampeded ensuring that the smaller communities in a district have into superficial exercises. their assemblymen and women, but they have much Africa Report: How do you see the role of the military greater authority and responsibilities in the areas of in the transition process and the new political order? AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 37 How do you ensure that it plays a positive rather than ties which may be tapped by the consultative assembly if disruptive role in the evolving democracy? they should choose not to ignore these experiences and Rowlings: The new military, that is, since the revolt of therefore seek to find a positive role for this important May/June 1979, has been partly responsible for the organ of state both in times of peace and in times of democratic process and stability that has been achieved strife. so far. I do not know of any profession that carries as Africa Report: What is your vision of a true democrat- heavy a political burden as the military—to have sworn ic order for Ghana? Can it develop in conditions such as to die for their fellow men and to defend the territorial Ghana's, with continued economic and social integrity of this country. inequities? Such a responsibility as offering your life for man and Rowlings: I have always had a vision of a truly demo- country presupposes that you are doing so for ideals cratic order not just for our country, Ghana, but for all and principles of freedom, justice, and democracy. Such countries of Africa and indeed of the Third World. I ideals are difficult to die for unless they stop being mere guess every positive citizen of the world is entitled to concepts and become more meaningful realities reflect- develop such a vision of the environment in which he ed in our lives. While it is good and sensible to be pre- lives and in which his children will develop. My vision of pared to die for such ideals, it is even better to prevent Ghana is one of a democratic society in which the peo- the socio-economic injustices for which human beings ple are determined to work to sustain democracy without have to die. fear and inhibitions. Democratic values and principles The military has been one of the institutions that has should urge the people and their government to see been misused by both civilian and military governments. democracy both as a means and an end. Our military, since the revolt, has ceased to be a politi- The democratic rights of the people to meaningful cally isolated institution, neither can the military nor any existence should translate into rights and responsibilities other institution for that matter exist in a vacuum. of all concerned. Social, cultural, spiritual, material, and The economic successes that we have achieved so far environmental development must be seen to be comple- are the direct result of a democratic atmosphere that mentary to each other in the pursuit of national activities evolved from the revolt. We are not unaware of the loud within the new democratic order. Freedom and justice and articulate minority who are waiting to manipulate should not be applied to individuals depending on their the grassroots power out of the people's hands. We will status in society. True peace and security will be the net do everything possible to manage and consolidate that result of the observance of the rights of all and not the basic power in a structured and constitutional frame- imposition of the will of the strong in the society. work. Democracy for the envisioned Ghana must, both in The military has played its complementary role as theory and in practice, be a government of all the peo- equal partners with its civilian counterparts in managing ple—weak, strong, rural, urban, rich, poor, literate, illit- affairs during the transition to constitutional rule. This erate—and not the minority, for the whole people, espe- role has included participation in government at central, cially those in the majority, but without ignoring the regional, and district levels even though at all these legitimate concerns of the minority and not just for some, stages they have been in the minority. They have played and by the people through appropriate representative roles in direct development, especially in areas of infra- structures which involve as many people as possible and structural rehabilitation and expansion. The new not by usurpers of the people's rights. But even with an improved road access into the Afram Plains—a potential ideal political system and a well-informed, committed, breadbasket for Ghana—would have been very difficult and confident people, all our plans can be disrupted without the pioneering activities of personnel of the Field overnight by some sudden speculation on the world Engineers Regiment, for example. They have participat- commodity markets or by pressures, sometimes subtle ed in the maintenance of the national interest, both mili- and sometimes not, by multinational corporations or tary and otherwise. major economic powers. The series of attempts initially made by previously But until such time that a just world economic order is entrenched interests to disrupt our democratic march was established, we cannot wait apathetically without mak- repulsed by the military in partnership with the police ing the effort to establish our own truly democratic sys- and cadres of the revolution and they have also worked tem backed by a sustainable economy. We know it is with their civilian counterparts to search and destroy acts fragile through no fault of ours. We know that it can be of those who harm the national interest through econom- casually disrupted if the supposed interests of a major ic, social, and environmental crimes. These experiences power happen to conflict with ours. But we have the of our present military constitute a wealth of opportuni- pride and determination to persevere. • 38 AFRICA REPORT • May June 1991 %r A VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY By GEORGE NEAVOLL MargarMA Many were surprised when Mathieu Kerekou decided to run in Benin's first free presidential elections, fearing that the unfolding democratic experi- ment might be jeopardized. When the votes were tallied, however, despite v violence and intimidation in the former president's home region, Prime "Minister Nicephore Soglo emerged as the clear victor, in an election widely praised as fair and a potential model for Africa's evolving democracies. he showers that precede Kerekou supporters armed with shot- had been prevented from observing the rainy season in West guns, whips, sticks, and iron bars the vote. Africa brought a sense of attacked alleged Soglo supporters "Our supporters and sympathizers anticipation to the people of shortly after the polls opened. Two have been subject to administrative BeniTn in March. Anticipation was in persons were killed and dozens harassment and intimidation as well the air for another reason as well. For reportedly injured, forcing a momen- as outright death threats. Facing the first time since Benin's indepen- tary halt to the election. That evening, such an atmosphere of total insecuri- dence in I960, the people were voting as the unrest continued, a 7 pm to 6 ty and terror, all of the people repre- in a free election for president. am curfew was imposed in the city. senting us in the voting stations were Despite the geographical and The next day, Kerekou-supporting forced to leave," the president said. political divisions in the country, this thugs again roamed the streets of The presidential statement was simple fact gave the people a pride Parakou, seriously injuring at least signed "General Kerekou," though and a determination that were palpa- four people in machete attacks and the new constitution had required ble. Regardless of the outcome, noth- sending more than 20 people to the him to give up his military post in ing would deter them from having hospital. order to run in the election. their democracy. This was as true in American election observers saw International observers said they the north, around President Mathieu crowds at the Parakou train station saw no evidence to support Kere- Kerekou's home base of Natitingou, on the night of the vote and the fol- kou's claims. Instead, they reported as it was in the south, around Prime lowing morning, trying to flee by some polling places had delayed the Minister Nicephore Soglo's political train to their home towns in the start of voling to await the arrival of base in the nominal capital of Porto south. Earlier, the observers had wit- Kerekou observers. In one instance, Novo. nessed the apparent intimidation of at least, election officials waited one The first round of voting on March voters, as well as other election irreg- hour before the polls were opened. 10—among 13 candidates vying for ularities, at Gogounou, also in Bor- No one can be certain how much the the presidency—proceeded without gou prefecture. At one point, men outbreak of violence and other inci- evidence of intimidation or fraud. brandishing sticks and chanting dents of intimidation in the north Even a rock-throwing incident when "Votez Kerekou!" were stopping traf- influenced the election there. There Soglo campaigned in Natitingou fic. At one polling place, about 25 can be no doubt, however, about the wasn't as serious as it first had young men and boys were gathered outcome. Soglo's 68 percent of the seemed. Passions apparently were inside, watching voters. (They left vote overwhelmed Kerekou's 32 per- ignited when someone tore up a cam- when the American observers cent. paign poster in front of a crowd. It appeared.) The three-sided voting Benin's long road to democracy wasn't clear later whose poster it was. screen was in the open where it was began in June 1989 when a group of When neither Soglo nor Kerekou possible to see for whom one voted. Beninese leaders informed Kerekou won a majority of the vote on March Both Soglo and Kerekou con- that the country could no longer tol- 10, a run-off was scheduled for demned the violence. Soglo said it erate the political and economic cata- March 24. Although it was generally was "absolutely outrageous," and clysm that had followed 17 years of peaceful, the election was marred by promised that those responsible Marxist rule. Kerekou, who had violence in the northern prefectures would be punished. Kerekou later seized power in a 1972 coup and of Ataeora and Borgou. Security claimed that "flagrant violations" of declared Benin a socialist state with a forces reportedly stood by without the electoral law had occurred in cen- Marxist-Leninist philosophy two interfering when voting was disrupt- tral Zou prefecture, where Soglo sup- years later, was forced to relinquish ed by pro-Kerekou gangs in the pre- port was strong. Kerekou supporters control to a transitional government. fectural capitals of Natitingou and At first, he seemed to go along Parakou. With the exception of these with the change. The entire Kerekou incidents in the north, voting obser- cabinet was dismissed, allowing the vation teams from several coun- transition team headed by Robert tries—the U.S., France, Canada, and Dossou, dean of the University of Germany—invited by the transition Benin's law faculty, to take over. government reported no evidence of Kerekou was allowed to keep his fraud or intimidation in either the office, but was to be president in first-round or run-off elections. name only. The violence in Parakou began, A national conference for recon- according to state radio reports, when struction in Feb- Woman in ruary 1990 drafted George Neavoll is editorial Page editor of the n Wichita (Kan.) Kagle. He was a member of the ™M ,?r2°r a new constitution March 10 U.S. voting observation team in presidential establishing a Benin, organized by the African-American Institute. election multi-party de- 40 AFPICA REPORT • May-June 1991 A Human Rights Lodestar Few would have thought that the small sliver of a commission immediately became actively in- nation that is Benin would become a lodestar in volved in the transition to multi-party politics. the African continent's drive to democratize, but In addition to investigating complaints of vic- its successful transition from dictatorship to multi- tims of human rights violations, the commission party democracy is not the only accomplishment saw civic education as one of its most important that has made it worthy of emulation. The defense tasks. "During the elections," said Agbantou, "we ot human rights is another, issued appeals to the people to vote in calm and Arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, and other discipline. We spoke out against the violence in human rights violations were hallmarks of former the north of the country, and we organized President Mathieu Kerekou's 18-year rule. In 1989, observer teams throughout the country for each toward the end of the Kerekou era, a group of election. We also translated the Universal Declara- lawyers, judges, diplomats, and professors got tion of Human Rights into eight national lan- together and decided to organize a seminar on guages, printed, and distributed it." human rights to pressure the government on the Now that the fever of the elections has subsid- issue, ed, the commission is involved with several The timing was propitious, explained Saidou longer-term projects—revising the family code Agbantou, president of what ultimately evolved governing marriage and inheritance and drafting into the Benin Commission on Human Rights, a business and commerce code. A seminar is in because the government was virtually bankrupt, the works on teaching human rights and an it had just entered negotiations with the IMF and awareness of the contents oi Benin's new constitu- World Bank for a desperately needed structural tion in primary and secondary schools. An inter- adjustment loan, and its image was sorely in need national conference on the creation of an African of some polishing on the human rights front. human rights court is also on the drawing board. "We wanted to force the system to move quick- The commission remains on the look-out for ly toward democratization, and we thought a human rights violations both at home and human rights commission created by law would abroad. "We sent telexes of support to the Malian be a way of pushing the government along from League of Human Rights during the recent unrest dictatorship to more respect for human rights," there, and also to [Togolese President] Eyadema to said Agbantou, a lawyer and former president of protest against his government's actions," said the Benin section of the Association of African Agbantou. But all these activities cost money, and Jurists. Indeed, his group of human rights activists thus far, the commission is operating on a shoe- managed to do just that. They prepared a law string. "We just got an office, and we have a com- constituting the commission, which was adopted puter and lax now, but support from donors and by the National Assembly just prior to start of the private foundations would help us a lot,'" the com- year-long transition to democratic rule. mission president says. The Benin Commission's objective is not unusu- Nonetheless, Agbantou is justifiably proud of his al—"the promotion and safeguarding of human young organization, and sees it as a model fox rights," but it is unique in the African continent, other African countries, as long as there is sufficient because it is a non-governmental organization, "political will." "We seized the opportunity when the and hence independent, yet with immunity from country was having problems. If all had been prosecution and endowed with the right to bring going well, President Kerekou never would have up on charges anyone who obstructs the investi- accepted the creation of such a commission." gation of known or alleged human rights viola- Now the democratically elected Soglo govern- tions. Whereas a government can always ban the ment has taken office, unseating Mathieu Kere- activities of any organization, private or otherwise, kou by the ballot box. But the Benin Commission only the National Assembly, having created it by on Human Rights' work goes on. "We can't know law, can alter the commission's mandate. yet if he [Soglo] will respect our democracy and its Needless to say, the Kerekou government was rules," says Agbantou. "Democracy is a perma- far from pleased with the formation of the commis- nent struggle. We must be vigilant to see that there sion and in fact tried to block it from becoming is respect for the rule of law. We have a constitu- operational, by raising complaints that its mem- tion, its themes are noble, but if it is not respected, bership was biased in favor of the south, Nonethe- then it's not worth the paper it is written on." • less, upon its inauguration on March 30, 1990, the —Margaret A. Novicki AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 41 mocracy, and took a less sanguine view. "If Kere- carded a green (Kerekou) ballot or a embracing the kou is returned to office, Benin will white (Soglo) one. principle of be the laughing stock of the world," a Even with the problems that "government of Natitingou resident said. occurred, Benin's first free presiden- the people, by Beninese election officials were tial election in 31 years of indepen- the people, for determined a different world view dence was a "watershed event," said the people." An would prevail, however, one in which the head of the U.S. observer team, interim govern- Benin would be seen—regardless of Carl Schieren, vice president of the ment was named, who won the race for president—as African-American Institute. The Insti- to be headed by a the catalyst for a continent-wide tute assembled the American observ- prime minister, Ni- democracy movement. er team at the behest of the State cephore Soglo. By the time a Beninese citizen had Department, acting upon a request In a December 2, voted for president, he or she already from Benin's transition government. Ballots 1990, referendum, had voted three or four times in the On the evening after the election, for the voters approved the democratic election process: first, in Monsignor Isidore de Souza, Roman March 24 new constitution by a mayoral elections, then in the consti- Catholic bishop of Cotonou, appealed presidential election more than 90 percent tutional referendum, in parliamen- for reconciliation. The bishop, who margin. Parliamen- tary elections, and finally, in the first also heads the High Council of the tary elections on and second rounds of the presidential Republic that has overseen Benin's February 17, 1991, election. transition to a democratic govern- were to precede the At Boriyoure, the polling place in ment, said it was time not for retribu- March presidential Natitingou where I observed both tion, but for healing. election. the opening and close of balloting, That feeling may have been On the week- 470 of 669 registered voters, or 70.3 behind the new government's deci- end of the parlia- percent, had voted for president. A sion to grant Kerekou "personal mentary vote, similarly high turnout was recorded immunity" for any crimes committed Kerekou re- nationally. during his 19-year rule. The former ,} neged on his Some observers, Beninese and dictator is alleged to have ordered tacit agreement foreign, expressed dismay after the the deaths and torture of political to stay out of March 10 election that the largely opponents, and to have stolen mil- the presiden- discredited Kerekou had done so lions of dollars from the state. tial race. His well, taking 27 percent of the vote as "If we succeed [in] this transition announcement that he would opposed to Soglo's 36 percent. There to democracy, we are sure many enter the race after all as an indepen- could be little doubt, however, that other African countries will follow," dent candidate was a "jolt" to the "like- the election was eminently fair. Francis Loko, minister-counselor at lihood of a smooth transition to demo- The March 24 run-off election was the Beninese embassy in Washington, cratic rule," wrote journalist William fair as well, even taking into account said before the presidential balloting. Keeling from Benin's political and eco- the scattered incidents of violence in In the past year, at least nine coun- nomic capital of Cotonou. The the north. Everywhere else, the elec- tries have held multi-party elections, president's decision "shocked" the tion went as smoothly as the first and at least 12 others have adopted other candidates already in the race, round had gone two weeks before. In reforms intended to pave the way for Keeling wrote. some places, the turnout was even such elections. The week before For many younger Beninese, higher. In Cotonou, where many vot- Benin's first-round presidential ballot- Kerekou was the only leader they ers had had to wait in long lines ing, the former Portuguese archipela- ever had known. His campaign slo- before, more polling places were pro- go colony of Sao Tome and Principe gan, "You know me well, I know you vided this time. held its first presidential election. well," struck a responsive chord, The election procedure most criti- "More governments introduced especially in the north, among those cized by observers was the disposi- multi-party politics in the last year who didn't know any of the others tion of unused ballots. Even in the than in the previous 25 years com- running. March 10 election, it would have bined," Salim Lone, editor-in-chief of In the prefectures of Atacora and been possible to determine, through Africa Recovery, a United Nations pro- Borgou, covering the northern two- the process of elimination, for whom gram, said recently. thirds of the country, many Beninese one had voted by examining the bal- Will Benin's experience speed the readily admitted, as first-round lots the voter had discarded. The transition of other African states to returns came in, that they thought problem was acute in the March 24 that pluralistic political system that is Kerekou was a scoundrel. He was a election, with just two candidates run- the ideal? Perhaps. At least, the northerner, though, they said, which ning. Election officials and onlookers democratic tide is flowing, and Benin is why they voted for him. Others easily could see whether a voter dis- is riding the crest of the tide. O 42 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 T R V W Msgr. ISIDORE DE SOUZA: Building a New Benin During the year-long transition to democratic rule, Mon- signor de Souza, the Catholic bishop of Cotonou, served as president of the High Council of the Republic, the quasi-legislative body which supervised the interim gov- ernment and the unfolding electoral process. After the presidential election, the prelate spoke with Africa Report about Benin's political history, the holding of free elections, and the tasks ahead for the Soglo government. By MARGARET A. NOVTCKI Africa Report: After 1 8 years of repressive rule, Benin who didn't last more than a year in Dahomey, which has just held democratic elections in which the chal- came to be known as the colony which changed gover- lenger unseated the incumbent. How did this come nors most often. I'm telling you this history to explain about? why after independence Dahomey was the champion of De Souza: I can't explain the current situation without coups d'etat—because already during the colonial peri- referring back a bit to Benin's history. Dahomey, as od, the Dahomeyans had a reputation as a people who Benin was known, was colonized by France in 1 890. didn't submit easily, who openly denounced what was During the colonial period, Dahomeyans benefited from going on, who didn't accept 100 percent the colonial education which enabled them to serve as administrators presence. throughout French West and Equatorial Africa. At the We achieved independence on August 1, 1960. time, Dahomeyans were French subjects—not citi- Since then, political life in this country has been very tur- zens—without any rights, but after the Second World bulent. In 1963, there was the first coup d'etat by Gener- War, a nationalist movement was born of those Dahome- al Soglo but instigated by the politicians. After that, we yans who were opposed to what they saw as exploita- had a series of successive coups—governments which tion and oppression. Two French governors were sent lasted a year, six months. The military intervened back AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 43 and forth on behalf of one or another politician, so we and to lead the transition, we let the president stay as decided to put three—Maga, Apithy, and Ahomadeg- head of state for the year and we put in place a 30-mem- be—in power together in a presidential council. ber assembly to exercise legislative power and supervise Unfortunately, that arrangement didn't work and there governmental actions, and then we elected a prime min- was a military coup. But this time the military decided to ister to exercise executive power. Their main tasks during hold on to power, and that is how Kerekou got in. In the the transition were to put the country back to work, assur- beginning, he wasn't Marxist-Leninist. Initially, the peo- ing the payment of salaries, to instill some sense of ple accepted him enthusiastically. But everything began morality in the body politic, which had been totally cor- to change. The partisans of the Youth League [an rupted, to privatize the economy and attract banking extreme leftist faction, les Ligueurs] succeeded in impos- institutions, and to bring the economy back to life. ing the Marxist-Leninist ideology. We rapidly became We couldn't do everything in this transition period, disenchanted, because human rights were no longer but the economy did come back to life thanks to discus- respected. There were arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, sions with the World Bank and IMF, and aid from West- torture, a sad period. Banks, businesses, schools, ern countries. Then we organized local elections and a land—everything was nationalized. constitutional commission began drafting a constitution. As long as the government could pay the civil ser- It was drawn up, explained to the people, and then vants, the situation continued—until 1989, when the gov- adopted in a referendum. Legislative elections were ernment itself went bankrupt. The civil servants were no organized, and then presidential elections, which have longer being paid, the economy had collapsed. When- brought us to this point. ever there were problems like this, the president con- Africa Report: As president of the High Council of the voked a conference—whether of the intellectuals, the Republic, the body charged with overseeing the electoral cadres, etc. It wasn't the first time he had done so, but process, how do you assess the conduct of the elections? what was different this time was that it was not just a De Souza: One could have expected a low turnout for conference of cadres, it was opened to all strata of soci- the presidential elections beccuse the people could have ety. Before the conference, feeling the pressures of popu- lost interest by that time. There had been local elections, lar discontent, he was forced to renounce Marxist-Lenin- then the referendum, then legislative elections, and then ist ideology, and to separate the party from the state. the first and second-round presidential elections. But curi- That eased tensions a little, but it wasn't enough because ously, the presidential elections had the highest the students weren't going to school, there were strikes, turnout—67 percent. Thus, the people had been well and government had ground to a halt. sensitized to the importance of voting; they turned out In this atmosphere, the national conference took enthusiastically and voted responsibly. place. It was supposed to only reflect on solutions to the Regarding the legislative elections, I must reproach our country's economic problems. Kerekou at the time cer- politicians for their attempts to influence the electorate. tainly wasn't intending such major changes as those There were 13 parties, and we therefore had 13 ballots. which occurred. But during the conference, someone For an illiterate population to distinguish between 1 3 bal- posed the question: What is our mandate? We decided lots was a problem. The parfies were very active and to declare the sovereignty of the conference—that what- money played an important role. They spent millions of ever the conference decides must be accepted and put CFA to conquer the electorate. We tried to limit regional- into practice. At that time, we were going through a diffi- ism in the elections by having each party present a list in cult period: Would we finish the conference or not, all six provinces. That forced the smaller parties to regroup peacefully or in civil war? These were 10 very difficult and form alliances and the people to think more in terms days. Nonetheless, the conference went ahead and in of the nation than the region. This succeeded more or less, the end resulted in a total political transformation. Our but nevertheless, the regional factor was important. The leftist, Marxist-Leninist, authoritarian government was legislative elections went very smoothly, no violence. transformed into a totally liberal one—without a single The presidential elections were a little difficult. There drop of blood being spilled and in a spirit of popular were 13 candidates, there were divisions, regionalism enthusiasm. We held our breath until the president's clos- played a part, as did money and political demagoguery. ing speech because there were certain forces—inside While the elections were peaceful, the results showed and outside the country—who did all they could so that the strong influence of regionalism. The winners won the the conference wouldn't succeed, because of the exam- most votes in their home regions. In the first-round presi- ple it would set to other countries. dential elections, there was a little of that, but in the final The second to last day, we elected the prime minister round, it was more obvious, pitting the two northern and after the closing, I learned that the previous night, provinces against the four in the south. This reawakened opponents had almost launched a coup. It is even said old divisions, a pity, because now we will have to deal that Kerekou came to the closing ceremony with two with this problem. speeches in his pocket, one which would call everything Two people died in the north. Buildings and homes into question, and another where he accepted every- were sacked and burned, people were wounded. But thing. In the end, it was the latter speech he gave, to despite the violent incidents, the elections went normally everyone's joy. and we in the HCR decided to invite foreign election A transitional period of one year was announced, observers so that at the international level people would 44 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 know that it wasn't a masquerade, but that the elections is better than civil strife. Look at Liberia—hundreds dead, were serious. the country destroyed—is that any kind of example, or Africa Report: Regionalism played an important part what happened in Mali, where they shot into crowds with in the elections. Some might use this factor to argue that sophisticated weapons? You don't have the right to be multi-party elections breed division along ethnic or head of state. Levy taxes on the people to buy arms to kill regional lines. What would be your response? them? No! To stay in power at that price? It is obvious that De Souza: It took centuries for France to accept the Moussa Traore had no love for his country. concept of nationhood, and even today at the dawn of We see other countries that are trying to move peace- the 21st century, one still hears talk of Brittany demand- fully from one regime to another. The first who convoked ing its identity, the Basques demanding their identity. a national conference after such experiences was Omar Thus there is regionalism in France. Even in the U.S.! If Bongo of Gabon. Today, in Congo, they are in the midst one were to say that regionalism is a sign of a lack of of looking at a similar path. I am convinced that non-vio- readiness for democracy, then neither France nor the lence demands much more, but is more effective than U.S. are ready for it. If we say that electoral fraud—buy- violence.In Liberia, after all this violence and Doe was ing votes—is a sign of unreadiness for democracy, then killed, they find themselves around the negotiating table. what about the U.S.? In the U.S., billions are spent. What did the fighting solve? The great winner of these elections is the people, not Africa Report: What are the biggest problems facing the politicians, because those who tried to influence the the new government in Benin? vote with money were very much mistaken. I know a can- De Souza: We, the Beninois, are under an illusion that didate who spent tens of millions of francs and he still because we have changed presidents, everything has lost the legislative election! I know a village where when changed. No. It is rather now that the real sacrifices will they knew that a given candidate was coming, they begin. It is only by our own manpower—not by crossing quickly put up his posters, and cheered him. He gives a our arms, and not by such an electoral victory, but by speech, they applaud, then he says, "Good, this village hard work—that we will change this country. Thus the is for me." He passes out the money and leaves with the most urgent task ahead is to put the people to work. conviction that they will vote for him. The villagers start And in order for this to happen, the Beninois have to the same game when they hear another candidate is get rid of the civil servant mentality. In the U.S., nobody's coming. At the end, after having receiving the money, dying to become a civil servant. They'd rather enter the they vote for whomever they want! So the thieves them- private sector, have their own business. Here, the dream selves were robbed! is to become a civil servant. That can be explained by The people were the great winners of these elections our colonial history where Benin provided administrators because they showed themselves to be disciplined and throughout West Africa. As agriculture wasn't very well calm, except for a few exceptions, and for the most part, developed here, we didn't want to work the land. We've voted with dignity. Our elections were as serious as those got to go beyond this mentality. Everybody's got to look which are held in a democratic country of the North. for work and not sit around waiting for a job from the Africa Report: How do you see the increasingly vio- state. Not everyone with a diploma can be employed by lent demands for democracy in Mali, Togo, etc.? the state, because where's the money to pay all of them? De Souza: I have to say that I admire President Kere- Civil servants don't produce anything exportable that kou, not for his errors over his 18-year rule, but for the would earn foreign exchange. end of those 18 years and the transition period. When The state has to create the necessary conditions so there were strikes, and people were throwing stones, he that private initiative can flourish. Measures have to be could have unleashed the police to fight against the peo- undertaken to encourage people to open up small and ple. It was he who convoked the national conference, medium-sized enterprises where the products can be and after what amounted to a civilian coup, he could absorbed by the internal market, with a little left for have refused to resign and reimposed himself by force. export. Forget about these huge factories that cost mil- He called the conference and let it carry out its work up lions of dollars and that are operating at only a quarter to its conclusion, respected its decisions, and did so dur- or a fifth of capacity. Also a big helping hand to agricul- ing the entire year of transition—I take off my hat to him. ture is needed, so that we can at least feed ourselves He was under enormous pressure from his head of instead of always holding out our hand for aid. state colleagues in Africa, and internally as well, to stay We need to put our people to work, so that our new on. But he said no. Had he not run for president in the freedom doesn't become anarchy, that people work end, he would have been praised and cited as an exam- toward the common good. For that to happen, there has ple for all of Africa. I was pained to see him finish the to be reconciliation. A lot of injustices occurred in the way he did because he doesn't deserve such a fate. We past—corruption, thievery, torture—and its victims may went from a very tough regime to a liberal one legally want to redress past wrongs. But we must work very and without a single drop of blood. hard to create a spirit of friendship, brotherhood, and I can't ask other heads of state to follow Benin. But if peace instead of simply applying blind justice to redress they are intelligent, they can see it is possible. If they really the past. The new president must form a national unity love their people and if they aspire to multi-partyism and government. He must appoint the right persons to the to freedom, they should look at what happened here. That right jobs, and from there go forward to rebuild Benin.• AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 45 NIGERIA i l.f^i 'Jtti President Babangida's new brand of politics for the transition from military to civilian rule depends on drawing in a "new breed" of Nigerian politician from the grassroots, while excluding the old breed of wealthy and ambitious businessmen. But to cynical Nigerians, the new breed looks suspiciously like the old, dressed up in new clothes. There is still a year to go before two periods of democratic adminis- gories of former office-holders from Nigeria's soldier-president Ibrahim tration, 1960-66 and 1979-83, expired standing in 1992. Babangida hands over to a civilian in a swamp of corruption and mis- The second term is moneybags, government, but the hullabaloo of management. Both the Westminster the club of wealthy and ambitious politicians at the hustings is already and the presidential systems of gov- businessmen Babangida wants to in full swing. Local government elec- ernment have been tried, and have prevent from hijacking his goal of tions were held last December, con- failed. Now it is the turn for the politics from the grassroots. To testants are limbering up for the gov- Babangida brand of democracy. achieve this, he set a rigorous qualifi- ernorship race later this year, and The premise of his transition pro- cations test for aspiring political par- the list of presidential aspirants is gram is that the fault does not lie ties and then disqualified all 13 aspi- ever-increasing. Party politics is up with the inadequacies of any particu- rants on the grounds that they either and running again after eight years lar system but with the politicians. looked suspiciously like the old par- of military rule. The hope is that this There are two key terms in Nigeria's ties in new clothes or lacked national time it is in the right direction. As the current political lexicon. The first is appeal. It was a brave decision, but radio jingles remind listeners in col- new breed, the virtuous and patriotic left Babangida with little option but loquial Knglish, "We don tire for party men and women whom to create two artificial parties from wahalla in this country" (We are fed Babangida wants to see emerge. To scratch—the National Republican up with trouble). that end, he has banned most cate- Convention (NRC) and the Social Out of 30 years of independence, Democratic Party (SDP)—and dress civilians have ruled for only 10. The By OBINNA ANYADIKE them up with constitutions and mani- 46 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 festoes. It is these two parties which 1979, he also provided a constitution joined by recently retired senior pub- are the basis of the government's which sought to guard against sec- lic servants. They also appear to lauded "new political order." They tarianism. have got themselves successfully are conceived as sterile vessels in However, the newly formed par- classified as "new breed." Under the which to contain the rough and tum- ties were basically a continuation of government's own admittedly ble of Nigerian politics, and surpris- the political groupings at indepen- ambiguous rules, they should be ingly they have come to life. dence. The largest of these were the unable to stand. But the National But how successful has Babangi- National Party of Nigeria (NPN) Electoral Committee has remained da's experiment really been in giving drawing most of its support from the strangely silent on the issue. Howev- Nigeria a fresh political start? Ideo- north; the United Party of Nigeria er insipid the government's creations logically, the SDP and NRC are prac- (UPN) led by the former western may be, the politically ambitious tically indistinguishable. Publicly, premier, Obafemi Awolowo; and the know that they are the only game in they make much of the fact that they Nigerian People's Party headed by town. have been allowed to review their the respected Ibo leader Nnamdi In the last chaotic national elec- manifestoes handed down to them Azikiwe. These party machines have tion of 1983, six parties stood. by the government. But nobody is proved enduring, and current poli- Babangida has sought to simplify under any illusion that substantial tics is a hangover from that period. matters by allowing only two. This changes can be made while the man- The SDP and NRC are broadly was intended to exclude ethnicity as ifestoes' authors are still in office. alliances of the associations officially a tool for mobilization after 1992. In particular, the government has dissolved in 1989. The largest of However, the politics of what is made it clear that its painful struc- these in turn were reincarnations of known in Nigeria as the Second tural adjustment policy is inviolate, the former discredited political par- Republic were an interplay of despite the fact that it is a surefire ties, front groups for banned but alliances within a federal system that vote-loser. The acquiescence of the influential individuals, and the ubiq- had broken the political hegemony parties to the government's wishes uitous "moneybags." Having found of the big three ethnic blocs. has earned them the title of the Yes themselves shut out after spending The parties operated under the Party and Yes, Sir Party (in the case an estimated $40 million in trying to knowledge that none could rule with- of the NRC, which is seen as the gov- get themselves selected as parties, out cross-ethnic support, and the ernment's favorite). The willingness their leaders and foot soldiers did the potential clout of a united minority of the politicians to compete on the next best thing and gate-crashed the group's vote. The NPN made a stren- government's terms has confirmed, political program. Although the gov- uous effort to capture Ibo support. for the habitually cynical Nigerian, ernment insisted that this should be The NPP controlled the middle-belt their oppor tunism. Ethnicity and religion rather than ideology OLD POLITICS? are the na- tion's basic political building blocks. The country on an individual rather than an asso- Plateau state in a protest vote against is divided into three main ethnic ciation basis, there is no doubt that northern influence, while the north groups: the Muslim Hausa-Fulani in they operate as cohesive blocs within itself was split by the success of the the north (who traditionally have the parties. People's Redemption Party in Katsi- been politically dominant), the main- The SDP comprises an Awolowist na. ly Christian Yoruba of the southwest, faction, and the legacy of the loose Under the spectacularly corrupt and the Ibos in the southeast. alliance that formed to challenge the civilian administration of Shehu Sha- At independence, each group was NPN in the 1983 election. The "god- gari, the prospects of government represented by a political party more fathers" of the party are a handful of contracts were more important than regional than national in outlook. wealthy but disqualified individuals, hometown loyalties. After the 1983 The resultant social polarization was in particular a retired major-general election, the country was well on the one of the causes of the country's from the Obasanjo era, Shehu Yar' way to a single-party state and the slide into a brutal civil war in 1966. Adua, who is widely believed to nur- northern intelligentsia had been pre- When Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo ture presidential aspirations after the pared to vote against an NPN out of handed over power to the civilians in ban is lifted in 1996. The NRC is control. more directly the heir of the NPN. Obinna Anyadike is editor of "Nigeria Econo- Much of the period of the Second my," a London-based financial newsletter, and These groups, jockeying for influ- Republic coincided with an oil price contributor to The Economist and The Inde- ence within the parties, have been pendent. boom. But in the present climate of AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 47 economic austerity, regionalism and and the issue of its presidential nomi- ture. If it does not scrap the system, especially religion have taken on a nee is far from clear. The battle is it is highly unlikely that any elected fresh importance. The rise of Islamic between recently retired finance government would choose to do so fundamentalism, matched by the mili- minister Chief Olu Falae from Ondo given the advantage it provides an tancy of the Christian churches, has state in the southwest, and the party incumbent administration when vot- proved deeply destabilizing. Since the chairman himself, Babagana Kingibe ers are forced to declare their loyalty government attempted to negotiate from Borno state in the north. The publicly. Nigeria's entry into the Organization latter was a member of a political In the same vein, there has been of Islamic States in 1987, there have association backed by Maj.-Gen. pressure for the government to been periodic bouts of serious reli- Yar'Adua, and he has the general's make the National Electoral Commit- gious rioting. Christian leaders com- support. tee an independent body before the plain about perceived northern and For the government and the par- handover to civilian rule. The com- Muslim domination under Babangi- ties, the turnout at the local govern- mittee's forerunner, FEDECO, did da's government, while their Islamic ment elections was disappointingly not acquit itself with much honor counterparts publicly insist that they low. The official figure was 20 per- during the civilian regime of Shagari. will not accept a Christian president. cent, but in some wards booths Several of its decisions were judged The national census, to be held in closed without doing any business. blatantly partisan in favor of the rul- October, will be politically explosive, The public's response can either be ing NPN, and after the 1983 elections as its result will determine the interpreted as general apathy or a its offices and officials were the tar- regional balance of power. That has rebuff of the choices presented. gets of enraged mobs in Oyo and traditionally resided in the north, Rather than the issue of effective Ondo states. based on extrapolating colonial cen- local government, this first outing for There is a common saying in sus figures. Since independence, the political parties was really about Nigeria that you cannot change the there has only been one attempt at a personality contests, in which party country until you change the Nigeri- headcount, which proved a fiasco. heavyweights staked their claim to an. Babangida's experiment in politi- The fear in Nigeria is that whatever higher office by delivering the vote cal engineering is aimed at changing the result in October, civil disorder in their states. the politicians. Whether that can be will follow and the transition pro- The government's reaction was to achieved by legislating political par- gram will be derailed. announce that from September—just ties into existence, or sending party The SDP is regarded as the party before the crucial governorship elec- officials back to school at the Demo- of the south and the NRC that of the tions—state subsidies will end and cratic Studies Centre to become vir- north. This is an oversimplification. the parties will be forced to finance tuous and diligent, is a different mat- As a general guide, the north/south themselves with ceilings on individu- ter. It has, however, been a brave split was borne out by the local gov- al donations to limit influence-ped- attempt. ernment elections in December, dling. As intended, the surprise deci- The transition program hangs on although both parties managed to sion jolted the parties into life. Both the emergence of the "new breed." capture at least a third of the vote in are now conducting membership But to most Nigerians, they look most states. The apparent regional drives to capture support and mem- very much like the old breed, and a identification of the parties hinges on bership fees. good deal less charismatic. As one who will be their presidential nomi- The government is also studying leading businessman and former nees. its use of the open ballot system. It politician scathingly observed: "I'll The delicate subject of ethnicity in had argued that it was easier to tell you what the Nigerian new breed Nigerian public office is managed by administer and less amenable to rig- is. He is 60 years old, he is a known the process of "zoning" key political ging, but several of the election crook and vagabond, he has no back- positions in turn to the various results were contested by both par- ground, he is a wheeler-dealer, and regions. Therefore, to clear the way ties. The polls were, however, merci- he is a politician. Ever since indepen- for a northern presidential con- fully peaceful. Understandably dence he has been going for election tender, the NRC zoned the post of though, Nigerians are averse to and losing. His people never wanted party chairman to the south. Its queueing in the sun all day behind him in office and he has never strongest presidential hopefuls the photograph of their chosen can- served. Today he is a new breed." appear to be the former security ser- didate. The NRC, which claims large The "new breed" have also vice boss under Shagari, Alhaji middle-class support, has com- demonstrated a disturbing willing- Umaru Shinkafi, and Jubril Aminu, plained loudest. ness to jump through whatever hoop the present petroleum minister. 'Hie government has procrastinat- the government puts before them. The reverse is the case in the ed, but appears likely to introduce a Nigerians hope that this is motivated SDP, where a northerner was elected secret ballot, with all the risks that by a sincere belief in the business of party chairman. But the SDP is a less entails for public order, in the next politics rather than the politics of cohesive alliance of political factions round of voting for the state legisla- business. 3 48 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Gitobu Imanyara, ^^kKENYA editor of The Nairobi Law Monthly The Moi government's use of a major colonial legacy, its legal and judicial system, to silence crit- ics of its repressive one-party rule is being undermined by the very people Joseph MargoliS who know it best—the lawyers. Since 1987, The Nairobi Law Monthly's crusading editor, lawyer/journalist Gitobu Imanyara, has been in and out of detention for his campaigning on behalf of the rule of law and democratic practice. Sedition by Edition By LUCY HANNAN I n Kenya, "urban guerrillas" are the courts by a small section of the having a measure of success besieg- legal community, the guerrillas are ing the government. It's prov- battling against the legal thuggery of ing a strange a government which has depended war but, claim for a long time on disposing of its the "guerril- critics through the court system. las," uniquely Repression and intimidation have appropriate for been cloaked in what the govern- Kenyans. ment hopes is seen as legal re- The battle is spectability, with critics and scape- one of law, legiti- goats regularly processed through a macy, and legal well-established route to rot in jail. wrangle, and the The judiciary is infamous for its slav- ammunition for ish allegiance to the state, and Ken- both sides comes yan jails are designed for rotting. from an identical But the 1990s have seen a visible source—the legal break from the secrecy and cowed machinery and the resignation of the past, with a relent- Kenyan constitution. less push toward a new multi-party Fought tenaciously in system. The most publicized aspect of this "debate" is the manner in relating to the running of the maga- which Moi's one-party state has been zine. Arrested, charged, remanded, increasingly confronted by its own released, he has yet to be tried. He claim to legitimacy by a group of peo- As the calls was also detained for three weeks ple most ably equipped to do so: the under the National Public Security lawyers. While they are not alone in for democracy Act as a leading advocate for a multi- their opposition to a government party system, when President Moi's considered repressive by even its and a new po- one-parry state was shaken by pro- mildest critics, they have, above all litical agenda democracy demonstrations and riots others, managed to capture the in July 1990. attention of an international commu- persist, there These repeated but spurious nity wedded to a language of "legiti- is a relentless charges levied against him have pro- macy." vided the state with an opportunity to In March, one of Kenya's best search by the punish Imanyara without having to known legal guerrillas was brought government for prove him guilty. His appeal for bail to court to be charged for the second was denied, and appeals repeatedly time with sedition, and now awaits "the enemy." "adjourned." It is a common and his fate under the appalling condi- effective practice designed to demor- tions of Kamiti Maximum Security alize and silence critics—and has Prison. Gitobu Imanyara, lawyer and generally proved very successful. journalist, editor of The Nairobi Law by Moi's own minority tribe, the Bail is routinely refused by the Monthly, was seized by eight plain- Kalenjin, in public offices and para- courts when the prosecution for the clothes police officers on March 1, statals, concluding the editorial with: state objects to the application. The and taken for a "weekend away" with "We raise this issue in the full knowl- defendant, then remanded to a maxi- the Special Branch (political police) edge that it will cause anger in cer- mum security prison, is effectively before being produced in court and tain quarters, that we may be kept as a political prisoner while the charged with publishing a seditious accused of being 'seditious,' and that wait for trial is deliberately pro- publication. there will be further calls for the ban- longed. His abduction caused consider- ning of this publication...." Over the last year, however, peo- able distress among the legal com- His comments could not be con- ple are proving less easy to intimi- munity who believed—going on the sidered more prophetic—although date and more eager to expose the record of deaths and torture in such accuracy is not so much treatment they are subjected to. Four police custody—his life was in seri- remarkable as an indictment on the people charged with sedition in July ous danger. Only two days before, he thoroughly predictable tactics of the 1990 are still being "remanded in had been attacked on the street out- state and the Special Branch. When custody" in prison conditions they side his office by a group of young he was produced in court on March likened to "Nazi camps." George men who hurled rocks and threat- 4, the editorial provided the basis for Anyona, Professor Edward Akong'o ened to kill him. During the attack, a the charge. But it was no secret that Oyugi, Isiah Ngotho Kariuki, and number of Special Branch officers, the basis of the interrogation was the Augustus Njeru Kathungu—all ex- maintaining around-the-clock sur- publishing of the manifesto of the detainees—recently complained of veillance on the editor, watched the new party. torture and inhuman treatment. assault without making any attempt Nobody has illustrated the sorry The judge refused to let them to intervene. state of human rights in Kenya by detail complaints of torture, but could Imanyara's "crime" was to publish personal example as publicly, tena- not stop Anyona from throwing light news of the formation of a new politi- ciously, and creatively as the editor on life inside a maximum security cal party by former Vice President of The Nairobi Law Monthly. He prison: "We have been placed in a Oginga Odinga, despite a black-out established the magazine in 1987 to block consisting not of remand pris- by the rest of the national press. As provide a much needed forum for oners but of convicted prisoners, the well as featuring the formation of the scholarly legal debate and human majority of whom are lunatics...We party and printing its manifesto, rights issues, which could not fail to are being kept incommunicado and Imanyara's accompanying editorial incur the wrath of a government are kept in cells throughout and only posited that one of the greatest prob- which treats criticism as tantamount allowed out for a few minutes daily to lems facing the country was to treason. empty our bowels...We have to wipe favoritism exercised on an ethnic Since setting up the magazine, ourselves with our hands...We are basis. He listed positions dominated Imanyara has alternately been made to wade through urine and charged with "subversion," "sedi- human feces while queueing for the Lucy Hannan is a freelance journalist currently tion," and "contempt," and has faced toilet in our bare feet which have writing a book-length report on Kenya for sores... I have seen prisoners walking Africa Watch, numerous petty criminal charges 50 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 naked in there. Ours looks like a place he described as "like the Gulag manage get banned, as was Beyond political case and not a criminal one; Archipelago." After being detained in 1988, and Financial Review in otherwise we should be treated like for three weeks in July 1990, he was 1989. I^ast October, the attorney-gen- other prisoners facing criminal immediately transferred to Kamiti on eral finally added The Nairobi Law charges." charges of sedition and held in what Monthly to the list, but remarkably, Imanyara's new address is unlike- is called "the lunatic wing," where this "dead" magazine refused to roll ly to shock him. He is already an prisoners declared insane are kept. over. expert on prison conditions—and He and other political prisoners Imanyara issued a press state- not merely by academic or profes- were kept in solitary confinement ment calling the ban "outrightly sional acquaintance. He has been next to the cells of the mentally ill, unconstitutional" and vowed to fight hounded by the state since 1982 who would run up and down the cor- it in court. He did, and won the first when he distinguished himself as the ridors shouting and crying and successful legal challenge to a ban- first lawyer to accept a brief to throwing urine in through the small ning order in Kenya. The case, des- defend one of the soldiers charged grill in the cell door. "I had to use the tined to be tried by a judge who has with treason in the August coup same small basin as a toilet and for consistently ruled in favor of the gov- attempt: "For several weeks, the washing. There is no toilet paper, ernment, was somehow placed in entire legal community waited to see and no toothbrush and they make front of one of the few judges known what would happen to me. For the sure they give you no chance for to be "pro-constitutional." A number time being nothing happened and washing. You are allowed out to of court clerks reportedly spent the other lawyers accepted briefs. It was empty the basin once a day. The cells night in custody as the police no minor triumph for the rule of are small and windowless and launched an investigation into how law." filthy—the smell is sickening. They such a serious "mistake" arose. One He then managed to win the only just want to completely dehumanize of Imanyara's advantages is umloubt- acquittal out of several hundred offi- you." cers charged with mutiny. "But I was Imanyara's case is a frontline fire not aware that while I was busy at on the battleground. The govern- The over-the- the military barracks defending the ment has already hung at least 14 shoulder 'rebels,' investigations into my pro- possible years in the "Gulag fessional career were going on quiet- Archipelago" on Imanyara's head, glances and ly...." Imanyara was subsequently but has not succeeded in killing his jailed for five years in November voice or his magazine. The next the lowered 1984 after being found guilty of steal- issue was ready for printing despite voices may be ing money from a client. The mat- the confiscation of thousands of ter—which concerned an uncleared copies from the street by the Special considered check—had been previously dis- Branch, harassment and interroga- theatrical to missed as groundless by the Law tion of the magazine staff, and sys- Society, but the attorney-general, tematic intimidation of printers. the outsider, Matthew Muli, insisted on bringing Two other magazines—Society and him to court and personally conduct- Finance—have seemingly derived but fear in ing the case. strength from example and recently Kenya is still A successful appeal reduced the exhibited an editorial policy as inde- sentence to two years. Imanyara pendent, if not as sophisticated, as pervasive served the sentence in Kamiti Maxi- that of The Nairobi law Monthly. The enough to mum Security Prison where, al- editor of Finance, Milton Gatabaki, though he had been found guilty of a reportedly went underground follow- form a habit. criminal charge, he was treated as a ing Imanyara's latest arrest, after political prisoner throughout. He being interrogated by the Special edly that he is swimming with the recalls the experience as "thorough- Branch. legal tide—even the most sycophan- ly dehumanizing...impossible for At the same time Imanyara was tic of judges reads The Nairobi Law someone to imagine if they have not charged, a British man, Dominic Monthly. experienced it." He says it was the Kenneth Martin, was brought to It is his determination to take on shock of seeing people treated "like court for printing the magazine with- what has previously been seen as not animals" in prison that inspired him out "posting the necessary notices." only impossible, but highly danger- to set up a magazine committed to Pressure on the printers by the gov- ous, which is making Imanyara as justice and the rule of law, and to pro- ernment, and economic sanctions much a popular hero as the bete vide a human rights forum. wielded through the banks, have noire of the state. And for as long as Since establishing the magazine, made it almost impossible for critical one reputation parallels the other, Imanyara has twice revisited the magazines to be printed. Those that there may be a measure of personal AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 51 safety guaranteed. His magazine has sive enough to form a habit which ing the persecution gets There is a enormously increased on last year's haunts exiles and refugees for some well-established government pen- readership of 5,000 and now sells time after they've escaped. chant to extract "confessions" of guilt over 15,000 copies. Just after the ban Like some of the colorless and sin- from people detained for prolonged was overturned, a taxi driver buying ister aspects of the collapsing one- periods in police custody, held incom- The IMW said it had become the most party states in Eastern Europe, municado and amid allegations of tor- popular magazine in Nairobi— Kenya denies its citizens freedom of ture and duress. Eight people now "because of the editor. We like this movement—both inside and outside face charges of treason carrying the magazine because the editor is a the country. The north-eastern death penalty, of which two are ex- brave man." This is despite the fact province, a vast area of Kenya, detainees, and two are lawyers well- that some of its issues are virtually remains under a state of emergency known as government critics —one impenetrable to the layman in its where movement, employment, and of whom attempted to sue the state legalistic style of scholarly and elitist association are policed. Nationwide, for torture and inhuman treatment discourse. passports are treated as a privilege during his three years of detention. It has, above all, become impor- for the faithful, with only the briefest Two other former detainees who tant as a symbol of defiance and taste of freedom allowed for critics, also filed torture complaints have progress. More recently, however, whose passports are confiscated as a since been forced to flee the country. the government inadvertently popu- matter of course. None of the three suits were success- larized it—and politicized it—further Kenya denies it has any refugees, ful; none of the three ex-detainees by linking its fate with that of the but it does. A number of Kenyans remain "free" Kenyan citizens. The poorest section of the population, the fled from the country during July number of political prisoners is hawkers and vendors. 1990 as the Special Branch trawled unknown, because most are sent to After the Special Branch had the community for ex-detainees, for- jail under false charges, but over 100 harassed and threatened the street mer political prisoners, student lead- people were reported as charged sellers, confiscating thousands of ers, intellectuals, and former politi- with sedition after the July riots. One issues in a city sweep on February cians—anyone they didn't like very of the former cabinet ministers and 29, Imanyara issued a press state- much—in their attempts to silence Odinga's son remain detained with- ment: "Has Kenya now officially the calls for democracy. Homes were out trial. (Charles Rubia was become a police state?...Has our raided in the early hours of the released in April.) constitution been suspended? Who morning, and left-wing and socialist Where change in Kenya is prov- will compensate the poor innocent literature confiscated. ing stubborn, it is slowly being vendors whose sole livelihood is the Hundreds of Kenyan Somalis forced. 'Hie government's attempt to selling of newspapers and maga- have fled the country as a result of a placate public demands with mini- zines? Who will pay for the cost of national screening exercise initiated mum change for maximum credibili- the production of the 20,000 copies in 1989 which issued all ethnic Soma- ty are not proving very successful. At of The Nairobi IMW Monthly that can- lis with separate pink identity cards. the moment, the war appears to be not now be sold?" Not only was the move denounced confined primarily to a battle of legal The symbol is increasingly power- by lawyers, the churches, and inter- wits, but the potential for bloody con- ful in a country where people are lit- national bodies as highly discrimina- flict has always been a matter for erally crying for change. The human tory and unconstitutional, but it was serious consideration. rights organization Africa Watch also carried out with exceptional cal- Western governments which have believes over 100 people died nation- lousness and brutality. Thousands long propped up Moi's government wide during pro-democracy riots became stateless "deportees," fami- as "stable" and "democratic" are hav- which were put down brutally by lies were forcibly separated without ing second thoughts on account of its paramilitary security forces last July, warning, and children were left aban- human rights record. As the ex-colo- although the government claimed doned. There was no attempt to fairly nial power, Britain dreads civil war 20. Criticism is now becoming try "illegal aliens" in court, and the and despite threats to tie aid to evi- remarkably public in a society which constant trickle of Kenyan Somalis dence of greater democracy, is most suffers from secrecy and fear as escaping repression in the north- reluctant to desert what is still claims marked as that associated with the eastern province became a flood. It is is "better than the alternative." Along former Eastern bloc countries. Even something the government has with other Western donors, Britain the limited amount of criticism never acknowledged. has to make up its mind soon. After expressed in the national press As the calls for democracy and a all, Britain is the one which provided would have been unimaginable a new political agenda persist, there is the ammunition for the present bat- year ago. The over-the-shoulder a relentless search by the govern- tle—its legacy of colonial law was glances and the lowered voices may ment for "the enemy"—and the more designed lo be implemented as a be considered theatrical to the out- amorphous and entrenched "the political weapon for small, extremely sider, but fear in Kenya is still perva- enemy" seems to be, the more exact- powerful minorities. O 52 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 KENYA ANCES with State By HOLLY BURKHALTER Belly Press The United States's relationship with Kenya teeters n recent months, the United back and forth between concern over its human rights States government and the government of Kenya have record and political self-interest. While aid hangs in been dancing a minuet around the balance, President Daniel arap Moi and his single thIe question of human rights. One partner curtseys, the other bows, party, Kanu, bridle at every American criticism, one initiates, the other responds. especially from the U.S. Congress and from the out- The process has been fascinating to watch, but it is too early to tell what spoken American ambassador. the end result will be for Kenyan Above, queueing to vote In the February 1988 elections rights. There is the possibility that AFRICA REPORT- May-June 1991 53 the U.S. will persuade the Moi gov- sador's high level of identification hopes of calming their critics and ernment that if it wants to remain in with their peaceful struggle for restoring foreign aid. At least 20 pris- the dance, it will have to learn some human rights and democracy. oners were released from jail, new steps. On the other hand, the Hempstone's warnings notwith- though they continued to face U.S. government may falter and find standing, human rights in Kenya charges for possessing seditious itself led by a wily President Daniel went from bad to worse over the publications. In August, Kanu creat- arap Moi, who is making a concerted summer of 1990, with the govern- ed a commission to conduct country- effort to call the tune himself. ment implementing a harsh crack- wide hearings to discuss elections Human rights have been on a down on democracy movement lead- and the role of the party. steady decline in Kenya for the past ers and the police indiscriminately In spite of Kanu's attempts to limit several years, but until 1990, the opening fire on urban demonstra- the debate at the hearings, Kenyans United States was a steady supporter tors, causing over 100 deaths. The took advantage of the opportunity to of the Moi regime. That changed State Department issued a tough speak out on the wider issues of with the appointment of an outspo- condemnation of the jailing of opposi- democracy and the conduct of the ken ambassador to Nairobi, Smith tion politicians and an angry government. Moreover, while the Hempstone, who bluntly stated in Congress insisted that the Bush authorities attempted to suppress May 1990 that when Washington administration hold back some $5 media coverage of the criticism by considered which countries to pro- million in military aid to Kenya as a excluding the press from the hear- vide with foreign aid, it would give show of displeasure. ing, opposition participants man- preference to those nations that The most important demonstra- aged to publicize their criticisms by "nourish democratic institutions, tion of concern was articulated in the providing documentation directly to defend human rights, and practice foreign aid appropriations act for fis- the press which did cover such multi-party politics." cal year 1991, passed and signed into issues as corruption and multi-party The statement outraged Moi and law in November 1990. Initiated by democracy. Kanu, the country's sole political Senator Edward Kennedy and includ- And in January, the Kanu-con- party. The day after Ambassador ed in the bill by the chairman of the trolled Parliament enacted legisla- Hempstone's speech, Moi pointedly Appropriation Foreign Operations tion which placed a layer of bureau- noted that Kenya was a "sovereign Subcommittee, Patrick Leahy, Sec- cracy between the executive and the state and equal to other states and tion 597 of the act required that Pres- judiciary. Under the new law, the does not require any guidance from ident Bush certify that the Kenyans president was vested with the power outsiders on how to run its affairs." had met four human rights condi- to create an appointed commission to And days later, a cabinet minister tions before releasing an estimated inquire into the conduct of judges. was publicly accusing the U.S. $7 million in economic support funds While the creation of the new panel embassy of engaging in treason by and $8 million in foreign military did devolve some of the president's pouring money into dissident activi- financing aid. (The conditions in the authority, it did not restore the inde- ties. Kenyan democrats, however, law were that the Kenyan govern- pendence of the judiciary; the 1988 were delighted with the ambas- ment take steps to charge and try or constitutional amendment which had release all prisoners, including any Holly Burkhalter is Washington director of revoked judicial tenure remained Human Rights Watch. persons detained for political rea- intact and the commission itself is sons; cease any physical highly vulnerable to presidential pre- abuse or mistreatment of rogative. prisoners; restore the Also as a result of the Kanu hear- independence of the judi- ings, the Review Commission recom- ciary; and restore free- mended that the policy of "queue- dom of expression.) ing"—that is, lining up behind the In case the Moi govern- candidate of choice when voting—be ment missed the point, abolished, and the commission elimi- Leahy and his staff trav- nated its "70 percent" requirement. elled to Nairobi in Novem- Both moves were important because ber. He made strong rep- the changes permitted the possibility resentations on behalf of of voters choosing competing mem- imprisoned democracy bers of the single party. advocates, and reiterated Yet despite these moves on the concerns expressed in Kenya's part, the human rights pic- the foreign aid appropria- ture remained overwhelmingly bleak tions act. In the meantime, in 1991. The three democracy move- the Kenyan authorities ment leaders jailed in July remained took a number of steps in imprisoned without trial, and the AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 health of one of them, Kenneth Mati- cerned about other human rights response, Gitobulmanyant remained ba, deteriorated. No proper investi- issfscs. including detentions without ill jail, "but in mid-Mnrch, the Rev. gation of last summer's spa charge. Lgwlord Imunde, a Presbyterian rain- police violence was carried o ;: The U.S. Congress, however, isl|r wlMyps'serving a six-year jail political arrests and intimidation con appealed wholly wnjiersuaded by the tdrfti foFthV possession vf seditious tinued. Moreover, in Decemb -Stale D^ailmenlfs.argUBients,..aiH,d materials, waa.retea$cd instead. ,T$te Kenyan Parliament passed a Non- within weeks of the announced "seditious" publication in Rev. governmental Organizations Regis- granting of the $5 million in assis- Imunde's case was his own private tration Bill which required private tance, Senators ipf Simfflppafchai* pry, which security forces seized organizations to register with the man of the Senate Foreign Relations during ft raid on his home. He con- government and established a "coor- Africa subcommittee), Nancy Kasse- fessed to the "crime" alter havng dination board," appointed by Moi or baum (the ranking Republican on the been Held and tortured in racosr.mu- his ministers, to oversee their activi- Africa Subcommittee), and Leahy rucado detention and subj*>cted to a ties and finances. Human rights and had issued strong rflsttkes to tin- tiial>ithout benefitone.tral emilsel. church advocates feared that the act State Department, and Kennedy On March 25, Htmpstone met was a blatant effort to skim off pri- introduced a new resolution calling with the Kenyan attorney-general and vate funds and regulate the activities for a suspension of assistance. On made represeinations on behalf of of activist organizations. the other side ot ihe Capitol, mem- Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, and Notwithstanding this record, the bers of the Huuse Foreign Affairs Raila Odixi.ua (Rubia was released Bush administration rewarded the Committee heckled Assistant Secre- from prison in April.) He; reportedly Kenyan government with $5 million tary of State for African Affairs Her- asked theattoniey-gciieralto tell him in military assistance in early Febru- man Cohen about the decision dur- how often the prisoners had received ary. To avoid the human rights con- ing congressional hearings on the visits from physicians, family, and ditions on 1991 foreign aid funds for administration's foreign aid request lawyers. After the meeting, he told Kenya, the State Department instead for the coming fiscal year. the Kenyan press exactly about the drew the $5 million from 1990 assis- Cohen defended the decision, but meeting, and reiterated his concerns. tance in the pipeline, which Con- his heart did not appear to be in it. Kanu erupted again in fury and gress had withheld last July. Congressional staff indicated to held a session of Parliament to The administration justified the Africa Watch that Cohen had been denounce the ambassador. But a grant on several grounds. First and embarrassed by the granting of the leading church figure, Rev. Njoya, foremost, Moi had helped the U.S. assistance, and some suggested that publicly called Hempstone "God's deal with the embarrassing problem he had privately opposed the arms blessing on Kenya," and said that of several hundred Libyan prisoners deal which had been promoted by Hempstone's recent action made it of war in Chad, whom the U.S. was the hard-line political and military clear that the U.S. was no longer arming and training to use against affairs bureau of the State Depart- going to participate with the govern- the Qaddafy regime. When the ment. ment in repressing the Kenyan peo- Habre government fell to a pro-Libya Two weeks after receiving the $5 ple. faction, Kenya accepted the Libyans million, Moi repaid the Bush admin- And thus the minuet continues. who were no longer welcome in istration for its pains by jailing one of The administration pressures, and Chad. The Kenyan government also Kenya's most prominent lawyers and the Kenyans respond, although all aided the U.S. by helping evacuate journalists, Gitobu Imanyara, editor too often new human rights abuses Americans from Mogadishu and of the independent Nairobi Law outweigh their positive steps. The Khartoum who were thought to be at Monthly. The State Department Bush administration's signals to its risk when Gulf hostilities com- responded with a very strong state- partner have been mixed, but after menced. ment on Imanyara's behalf, issued frequent prodding by an activist U.S. And finally, the aid was justified by simultaneously in Nairobi and Wash- Congress, it has generally adopted a "marginal improvements" in human ington. Stating that the United States higher profile in recent months than rights. At a March 12 press briefing, was "dismayed" by the arrest of it did in the past. At the moment, the the State Department's Richard Imanyara, the administration called State Department has good reason to Boucher stated that the assistance for his release without delay and feel sorely embarrassed by Moi's was provided "to acknowledge limit- prompt action by the Kenyan authori- rude response in Imanyara's impris- ed steps that occurred in the area of ties on other outstanding human onment to their $5 million carrot. human rights...." He cited new limits rights problems. This is a good moment for the U.S. to on the president's authority to dis- Congress echoed the administra- change the tune, and loudly and con- miss judges, reinstatement of secret tion's concerns with an outpouring of sistently demand that the Moi balloting in primary elections, and congressional letters and cables to regime make real and sustainable hearings on party reform. He also the Kenyan authorities on Iman- human rights improvements before stated that the U.S. remained con- yara's behalf. The Kenyans offered a foreign aid is restored. O AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 55 companion shook his ing the civil war to the heart of the -in disMiefc-'This is the last country's capital. sign of Siad Barre's inhuman- The death toll will never be ity...shelling defenseless people in known, but some say that as many as their own homes," he said. We were 20,000 people may have been killed. standing surrounded by empty By the end of January, the once pic- ammunition cases in the grounds of turesque Arab/Italian city of Siad Barre's former official resi- Mogadishu lay in ruins. In the cen- dence, Villa Somalia, looking out tral business district, I searched in over Mogadishu toward the nearby vain for a building that had not been suburb of Wardiigleey. The hun- damaged either by shelling or gun- dreds of dark gaping holes in the fire. "And yet, I'm happy to see roofs of the small houses showed the Mogadishu like this," said Dr. Hus- extent of the damage inflicted by sein Mursal, the country representa- Barre's forces when they unleashed tive of the British charity, Save the their final burst of firepower on Children. "I was expecting much Mogadishu. worse. We knew what happened in The flight of President Mohamed Hargeisa in the north," explained Siad Barre on the afternoon of Jan- Mursal. When the Somali National uary 26 marked the climax of 21 Movement (SNM) attacked Hargeisa years of dictatorial, repressive, and in 1988 and the local population fled, opportunistic rule. "When the end government forces bombed the town finally came, it was just like a popular from the air and flattened it. "Here in uprising," said one eye-witness. Mogadishu, at least most of the "Hundreds of people stormed Villa buildings are still standing," Mursal Somalia and ransacked it." said. Shortly beforehand, the octoge- In his office compound, he narian leader had managed to make showed me the vehicle inspection pit his escape. He was reportedly seen where some of his colleagues had leaving Villa Somalia in a tank, taken shelter during the height of accompanied by a contingent of loyal the shelling. But he added: "One of troops, and heading south toward our staff was killed standing right the coastal town of Kismayu. here under this tree." His flight followed four weeks of In the busy Kaaraan district, a few heavy street fighting in Mogadishu, miles from the center of the city, lies after rebels of the United Somali the headquarters of the international Congress (USC) had launched their charity, SOS Children's Village. final offensive and achieved what no When the USC offensive began in other armed Somali opposition early January, the mother and child Mogadishu after the group had done previously—bring- clinic was rapidly converted into an fall of Siad Barre emergency surgical unit to treat the Peter Biles is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi. casualties of the fighting. 56 Civil war still rages in Somalia, threatening to split the country into rival factions, after failed attempts to hold a national reconcil- iation conference. While some observers believe the country is a "total write-off," the interim prime minister remains optimistic —"I'm confident that our people have had enough," he says. By PETER BILES Betly Press art ing from Scratch If there had been any medals for admitted to the SOS hospital with a Mogadishu escalated and the inter- courage in the midst of this conflict, bullet wound in her shoulder. The national community began leaving, it one would surely have gone to Willy doctors were unable to find the bul- signalled the beginning of the end. Huber, an unassuming 38-year-old let, but when the woman successfully It was no surprise that the people Italian, who is the SOS regional gave birth a few days later, the bullet of Mogadishu were gripped by feel- director. On December 1990, he and was discovered lodged in the infant's ings of euphoria in the weeks follow- his family packed their bags in leg. ing the ousting of Barre. Almost to preparation for a transfer to the The violent looting of Mogadishu their disbelief, the dictator had final- Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "I'd had started many months earlier ly gone. taken all the luggage to the airport, when Siad Barre's government Outside Villa Somalia, young USC and I was returning home to fetch troops, many drawn from his minori- fighters, toting AK-47s and sporting my family," recalls Huber. "But I ty Marehan clan, began comman- dark glasses like third-rate film gang- couldn't get back to the SOS village deering expensive four-wheel-drive sters, had boldly donned the red because of military road-blocks. That vehicles, much favored by the expa- berets left behind by fleeing mem- was when the fighting had started. triate community in Somalia. And bers of Barre's feared Presidential Our luggage left Mogadishu on the when the last American nationals in Guard. On the wall at the main plane without us." Mogadishu were airlifted by heli- entrance to Villa Somalia, they Nine days later, Willy Huber's copter to the safety of a U.S. warship scrawled the word Afweyne ("Big family was safely evacuated with waiting off-shore, it was a group of Mouth"')—a derisive nickname given hundreds of other foreigners who government soldiers who ransacked Siad Barre after his false promises of fled the city. But he stayed on, the the new $35 million American political reform for the stagnant only expatriate relief worker in embassy. nation. Elsewhere, the ubiquitous Mogadishu to do so. "Minutes after the helicopters had slogan: "USC—Guul [victory]" was In early January, the SOS Chil- taken off from the embassy com- quickly plastered across the city. dren's Village found itself in the pound in the early hours of the morn- "WeVe built this country before. frontline of the fighting. Like every- ing, the human locusts arrived," We can do it again," said one man where else, it was not spared by the recalled one U.S. official. The sol- optimistically. "All that matters is that looters. "It was when I saw the young diers used rocket-propelled gre- we've got rid of Siad Barre." But was children from the village standing in nades to blast down the doors to it, I wondered. What future awaits a front of the gates of the hospital, what was one of the securest nation which was plundered by its keeping the looters at bay, and say- embassy buildings in Africa. Within a own people, torn apart by years of ing: 'Shoot us first if you want to take few hours, they had departed with civil strife and insolvable inter-clan our goods,' that I knew I couldn't vehicles, computers, air condition- rivalries, and which has lost all possibly leave Mogadishu and just ers, and furniture, leaving behind strategic interest to the superpow- run away," says Huber. "And with the only a trail of destruction. ers? "We're starting from scratch," number of injured people coming As the city descended into com- admitted interim Prime Minister into the hospital, there was hardly plete anarchy, looting became a way Omar Arteh Ghalib. "The country even time to think about it anyway." of life and a means of survival for has been robbed of all its resources. For weeks, Huber and his small thousands of people with their We have nothing." team of dedicated Somali doctors plethora of newly acquired weapons, Within weeks of the USC lake- and staff provided the only health carried openly on the streets. Weeks over, the mood of reality had spread. care in Mogadishu. In a small operat- after Barre had fled and the USC had Thousands of people who had fled ing theater, the surgeons worked established a caretaker government, the fighting in Mogadishu began around the clock performing hun- I saw booty still being carted away by returning to the city. Most were des- dreds of life-saving operations, while men pushing rickety wheelbarrows, titute. In the National Showgrounds, outside in the corridors, dozens of piled high with every moveable I visited 2,500 families who had seriously wounded patients lay in asset, including on one occasion, the found temporary shelter. They were pools of blood waiting for treatment. proverbial kitchen sink. Ogadeni refugees who had previous- On the roadside in front of the medi- It was well known, of course, that ly been accommodated in camps run cal center, the wind would sweep in Siad Barre's Somalia had been on a by the United Nations High Commis- off the Indian Ocean and whip up the downward slide for years. Various sioner for Refugees at Jalalaqsi, red sand from the makeshift graves rebel groups had extended their con- north of Mogadishu. When fighting of those who could not be saved. trol over the countryside. The econo- broke out in their region, they were Occasionally though, there were my had collapsed, leaving the coun- forced to make their way to moments when the morale of the try bankrupt. Somalia had earned a Mogadishu on foot. On their arrival, Somali doctors was lifted by small reputation for having one of the many of the children were severely "miracles." One day, a woman who worst human rights records in the malnourished and were being given was nine months pregnant was world. But when the insecurity in only weeks to live. "The medical 58 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 needs of this country are as high as out of Mogadishu, stripped of every- the sky and as wide as the Somali thing, and now they're bent on desert," remarked one aid worker. What future revenge. The showdown is still to In a heavily guarded compound a awaits a nation come." few miles away, a local sheik was pro- Mohamed Omar Giama, a former tecting and caring for a thousand which was Somali ambassador to the European women and children from the Galga- plundered by Community and a former vice-minis- lo clan whose men had all been ter in Siad Barre's government, is killed. The Galgalo are a sub-clan of its own people one of the many people who have the Hawiye from which the USC fled to Kismayu. "The United Somali draws its support, but the Galgalo and lost all Congress in Mogadishu has were armed by Barre's forces when strategic in- embarked upon a policy of geno- the Somali leader was engaged in his cide," he alleges. 'They seem to want favorite pastime of playing off one terest to the to drive us [the Darods] out of the clan against another in order to stay country. So the only option is to fight in power. Many of the Galgalo men superpowers? back and defend ourselves." had apparently been the victims of Under the umbrella of the Somali the inevitable reprisals that follow in they're over, the elders and the wise National Front (SNF), a number of the wake of any civil conflict It was men meet under a tree and discuss Darod-based groups, including the the plight of the Galgalo orphans their problems frankly and objective- Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), which seemed to symbolize above all ly," says Omar Arteh. "In keeping have continued to engage in skir- else the hopeless, despair, and confu- with the tradition, we'll do our best to mishes with the USC forces. sion in Somalia. prevent further tribal conflict. I'm Against this background, thou- In February, the interim govern- confident that our people have had sands of Somalis have fled the coun- ment, hastily established by the USC enough," he added. try completely. Many have crossed in Mogadishu, invited all the armed But for centuries the nomadic the border into neighboring Ethiopia groups which opposed Siad Barre to Somali people have traversed the and Kenya, while others have set sail attend a national reconciliation con- country fighting each other for cattle for the Kenyan coast in an assort- ference in the Somali capital. But and water-holes. And under Siad ment of dhows and small motor ves- many of the rival groups outside Barre, the state itself became one of sels, many of which are far from sea- Mogadishu have refused to negotiate the spoils. 'The attitude toward the worthy. In March, about 150 Somalis with the provisional government, state has been one of plunder," says were drowned when their boat cap- arguing that they were not consulted one Western diplomat. "It's a great sized on the coral reef a few hundred before it was set up. Twice the con- treasure chest in which one could meters from the Kenyan resort of ference was postponed, with some grab at everything. That's the way the Malindi. opposition groups expressing fears Marehan ran the country after 1978." As the Somali nation tries to throw for their security if the conference Observers fear that having captured off the legacy of Siad Barre's regime, was held in Mogadishu. the first prize—Mogadishu—the there is a good chance the world may In the meantime, the Somali Hawiye may decide their turn has turn its back on a country which National Movement (SNM), which come. "Another minority dictatorial many people now regard as "a total controls the north-west of the coun- government in Somalia is the night- write-off." try, has shown an increasing desire to mare scenario," said one analyst. Dr. Murray Watson, a British ecol- break away from the south, and cre- In the months following the USC ogist who has worked in Somalia for ate its own regional administration. victory, the conflict has simmered in 12 years, says: "From the humanitari- The SNM has also pledged to review southern Somalia. The USC insisted an angle, it's quite clear that the ini- the 1960 act of union whereby the for- that it was doing no more than track- tial interest of the international wel- mer British Somaliland and Italian ing down the remnants of Barre's fare community was neglible. That Somaliland merged to form the new army. The former leader was doesn't augur well for the later sensi- independent Somali Republic. believed to have taken refuge in his ble attention of the donors. Everyone The USC is believed to be wary of home region of Gedo in the south- is inclined to think that Somalia is a sharing power with the powerful west of the country. But in the large hopeless problem." Isak-dominated SNM, although the coastal town of Kismayu, 500 kilome- Interim Prime Minister Arteh interim prime minister, Omar Arteh ters south of Mogadishu, strong admits that Somalia's reputation has Ghalib, is himself a member of the resentment was being expressed been badly damaged by the actions Isak clan, and has offered a hand of toward the USC by members of the of Barre and his government. "Now friendship to all the rebel groups in large Darod clan. "The Darods have we'd like to turn over a new leaf, and the country. "The tradition of the been humiliated by the Hawiye," ask the world to believe us. We're past has been tribal wars, but when said one man. "They've been forced only saying: 'Please try us again.' " O AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 59 * tv FOOD 4* m \ A THE . FORGOTTEN FAMINE By NICK CATER mid the deepening tra- based League of Red Cross and Red Warnings have come thick and gedy of famine deaths in Crescent Societies emphasize the fast. Gary Eilerts, a senior official of Sudan and Ethiopia, food vulnerability of millions of Africans: the Famine Early Warning System aid experts and climatol- deeper national economic crises, big- (FEWS) of the U.S. Agency for Inter- ogistAs in the U.S., Europe, and Africa ger debts, eroded welfare structures, national Development, said: "Prob- are warning that the failure of this increased populations, degraded lems in many African nations are year's rains—due in the next few environments, renewed conflict and already severe. Failed rains in 1991 months—could throw millions more refugee flows, and the poor grain and will plunge the western Sahelian across the Sahel into a crisis well livestock reserves of farmers and countries into a crisis of similar pro- beyond the capacity of national gov- herdspeople who had not recovered portions to that faced by Ethiopia ernments or international agencies from the last disaster when the latest and Sudan this year. We could be to tackle. .*# •*• crisis arrived. looking at a gigantic disaster." Throughout Africa, 20 million peo- Appeals for victims of Liberia's Among so many disasters, Sudan ple were assessed as "at risk" at the civil war have joined calls for help for stands out because of the scale of the start of 1991 by the United Nations 4 million threatened in Mozambique crisis, the complexities of food deliv- Food and Agriculture Organisation and Angola, adding to pressure on ery in the face of war and political (FAO) following two years of bad the financiallybeleaguere d UN High chaos, and the obstructive nature of harvests in many countries, with the Commissioner for Refugees, but it is the Islamic fundamentalist military latest estimates of 5.1 million tons of in the Horn and Sahel where fears junta. Roger Winter, director of the food aid required and hundreds of are greatest of a catastrophe far U.S. Committee for Refugees, millions of dollars for transport to worse than in 1984-85. warned recently: "Children are deliver it, a total cost put by the Political and military factors are already dying, and within weeks World Food Programme (WFP) at hampering food deliveries in Sudan, thousands of other Sudanese of all well over $1 billion. Without good Ethiopia, and Somalia. Increasing ages will begin to die what were once rains and a good harvest, these fig- numbers of displaced people and avoidable deaths from war and ures will rise sharply next year. refugees are fleeing fighting in all drought-induced famine." Those comparing today's drought three countries. In the Sahel, two With the pre-rains hungry season with that of 1984-85 go beyond ton- years of patchy rains have left Chad, gripping Sudan, there is anger at nages. Reports from the Geneva- Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mau- how the junta—embarrassed by a ritania struggling to secure enough failed self-sufficiency campaign—at Nick Cater is a British writer, broadcaster, and food aid to keep hunger from becom- first dismissed its disastrous last har- consultant on development issues. ing starvation. vest as merely a "food gap" and has 60 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 hampered aid agencies and blocked towns, food is not reaching those refugees, have been assessed a food distribution to Sudanese ethnic who need it. Indeed, lured by the 226,000 tons, although the focus o groups it apparently regards as its regime's hollow promises of Opera- relief has so far been on urban areas, enemies because of the civil war in tion Lifeline food and a small cash especially Mogadishu, where one ai the south with the rebel Sudan grant, tens of thousands of southern agency helping to run a hospital wa People's Liberation Army. women and children have tried to go forced to hire a local militia to In particular, officials of the UN home, only to have junta-backed mili- vent ethnically related killings on the and the International Committee of tias on the north-south border steal wards. the Red Cross (ICRC) are privately their last possessions. The refugee flow into Ethiopia* furious at the constant harassment of Overland convoys by such groups —up to 1 million Sudanese and'Jl Operation Lifeline Sudan and other as Norwegian Church Aid and World Somalis have already arrived—coin- efforts to deliver food to civilians in Vision are keeping the southernmost cides with rapidly expanding rebel conflict zones, from unrealistic Equatoria region supplied with at activity in Tigray and Eritrea, as demands about the proportion of aid least some food, while SPLA-besieged troops of the coalition Eritrean Peo-. to be delivered into junta and SPLA- Juba town survives on a Lutheran pie's Revolutionary Democrati controlled areas, to bombing World Federation airlift. Hundreds of Front advance to within 50 miles o schools, hospitals, and dirt airstrips miles away, the Bahr El Ghazal and Addis Ababa. in the south. Upper Nile regions—particularly the Ironically, the last Ethiopian har- General Omer al-Beshir's often heartlands of the incompetent regime has abused largest ethnic human rights, allowing its fundamen- group and strong- Two years of drought in the Sahel have talist supporters to run "ghost house" est SPLA support- left 20 million people at risk of famine, torture centers, while mishandling ers, the Dinka— the food crisis by shuffling officials are rarely reached and the rainy season has yet to begin. and responsibilities for relief, food by road, air, rivero r But Western donors are not rushing in stocks, displaced people, and railway while fight- refugees between ministries. Hungry ing continues and to feed the starving. Instead, they seem for arms, in 1989 and 1990, the junta the junta blocks aid to be suffering from "donor fatigue"—a even sold harvest surpluses rather efforts. syndrome deepening Africa's marginal- than build up its strategic reserves. Epidemics of As in 1984-85, when then-Presi- meningitis and ization and threatening the continent's dent Gaafar al-Nimeiry was ousted, leishmaniasis fragile future. in part because of his mishandling of known locally as the famine, many of Sudan's 25 mil- kala azar are grow- lion people are today on the move, ing as hunger lowers resistance and vest was a record, but Tigray and searching for food, forage, and work drug supplies are exhausted. Around Eritrea suffered major crop failures as grain costs soar and livestock the rebel-held town of Yirol, 35,000 and some surveys of children are prices crash. died of meningitis in the last year as finding severe malnutrition rates of Up to 10 million people are at risk food ran out; Sudanese are fleeing 40 percent. Overland supply routes in Sudan, according to FAO esti- into Zaire and the Central African through Sudan organized by West- mates, with 1.2 million tons of grain Republic. ern relief agencies and the rebel-run required. Camps of the displaced Roger Winter has already drawn Eritrean Relief Association and Relief have formed around El Obeid and comparisons with 1988, when the Society of Tigray are trucking food other towns in the west since a then democratically elected govern- into both regions, while new supply severe harvest failure last year in ment unleashed army-backed Arab routes through war lines are deliver- Kordofan and Darfur regions, while militias on southerners in a bloody ing grain from the rebel-controlled thousands are trekking into Omdur- campaign of murder, rape, and port of Massawa. man to join many who never left after enslavement, while denying access Up to 5.6 million Ethiopians and the last famine. In the east, worst hit to humanitarian groups. Hundreds of refugees are in need, and the FAO are again Beja people of the Red Sea thousands of men, women, and chil- estimates that 1.1 million tons of food hills, whose old and young have dren walked for weeks to escape into aitfVill be required this year, warn- begun to come down to beg and—it Ethiopia; 250,000 died on the road. ing of an "alarming inadequacy of is expected—die along the main Port The 1988 Sudanese arrivals are pledges of emergency food aid" and Sudan-Khartoum road. still there, joined in eastern Ethiopia a "serious supply breakdown" for Even in Khartoum, where 2 mil- by a flood of refugees and Ethiopian refugee camps in remote areas, lion or more people displaced by war returnees escaping the fighting in while emphasizing that "the food aid and hunger from the south, east, and Somalia. Food aid needs for Somalia, pipeline is virtually exhausted." west live in rat-infested shanty- including its remaining Ethiopian Wollo, Hararghe, and Gondar also AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 61 require emergency distributions, "such low levels that only the most along with the Ogaden's pastoralists. immediate needs can be met." Across the Sahel, no country has The starving At FEWS headquarters in Vir- escaped the impact of the drought, seem doomed ginia, Eilerts is worried: "Across and several have drawn down nation- Africa, all I think we can expect are al food stocks, putting their people at to return to late deliveries. Niger will be lucky to even greater risk next year if the Western TV receive 15,000 tons before August or drought continues. Population move- September, Chad might get 10,000 ments have begun as one response to sets just in tons by then. Everywhere we'll see food shortages, as the grain-livestock 10-15-20 percent of needs actually terms of trade worsen with lower ani- time for the arriving; it won't even approach 50 mal prices and rising cereal costs. media to percent." By early April, only around With its last harvest the worst 200,000 tons of Ethiopia's needs had since 1984-85 in some areas and report on the been pledged, and just 50,000 tons needing 65,000 tons of food aid for triage. delivered; for Sudan, pledges were 600,000 people at risk, Chad has higher but deliveries were even thousands on the move, according to worse. the Ndjamena office of the agency deficit of around 600,000 tons, partic- At a famine seminar hosted by CARE. In prefectures close to the ularly in the central and northern ICRC, Dr. Peter Onu, special political Sudanese border, grain is almost provinces of Bam, Passore, San- adviser lo Nigeria's minister of exter- unobtainable, livestock prices have matenga, Soum, and Yatenga, where nal affairs, had no doubts: "Certainly, fallen, and villages are being aban- families have been on the move in there is donor fatigue. Aid assistance doned. FEWS has warned that the search of food and work, such as volumes are well down. Part of the situation in eastern Chad is "much gold mining, leaving entire villages blame has to go to Africa, calling more grave than first thought," espe- deserted. Limited government food today for refugees, tomorrow for cially in Biltine region, reportedly distribution from emergency stocks drought or a development project. depopulated north of 15" N, while has been carried out. Eastern Europe has diverted inter- camps of the displaced collect With problems of labor, late plant- est. Africa has been marginalized. As around Iriba in Biltine, Am Dam in ing, and poor flooding of the Senegal of now, Africa no longer counts—and Ouaddai, and Mangalme in Guera. River, Mauritania has asked for no one knows what its future will be." Millet prices have shot up at the 100,000 tons of food aid, claiming From the Red Sea to the Atlantic, important Am Timan market in more than 1 million people are affect- failed rains this year could be the southeast Chad, with Sudanese buy- ed, with those most at risk in the final factor deciding the fate of mil- ers coming from hundred of miles northern wilayas of Tagant, Inchiri, lions of poor farmers and nomads. away across the border. and Adrar; high malnutrition rates Often far beyond aid supply lines, After the third poor cereal har- have already been reported from they face a simple choice: death—or vest, Niger's efforts to deflect famine Tichit in Tagant. And although Mali survival in impoverishment, losing and mass movements have already outperformed its neighbors with an lands and herds, migrating into grim led the Office des Produits Viviers above average harvest, local short- urban slums to await the next crisis. du Niger to distribute national secu- ages in northern drought-affected Even if rains come, disrupting deliv- rity stocks in food-for-work schemes. regions have been assessed at 30,000 eries during the hungriest time of the Up to 1.8 million people are at risk, tons for 280,000 people. Mali's year, many will have already eaten or with 113,000 tons of food needed. Comite National d'Actions d'Urgence traded seeds and livestock; others The most affected areas are in the et de Rehabilitation released national are abandoning their fields in despair. northern Tillabery, Tahoua, Zinder, stocks to maintain price stability, but The starving seem doomed to and Diffa departments. A Diffa mis- the drawdown left stocks too low to return to Western TV sets just in sion report by the League of Red meet 1992 needs without major sup- time for the media to report on the Cross and Red Crescent Societies port if drought persists. triage. Despite the plethora of agen- indicated that people resorted to cop- Although for months reports from cy alarm bells, and no matter what ing mechanisms much earlier than FAO and WFP in Rome have urged new pledges are made now, it will be usual. October's harvest was donors to step up help, governments months before that food arrives, too exhausted by February, livestock have—with the Gulf, Eastern Europe, late for many already going hungry. sales climbed, and people began recession, and the Soviet Union all Having demanded and created early migrating to look for temporary higher on political agendas—been warning systems after the 1984-J85 work in urban areas and in Nigeria. slow to pledge and even slower to crisis, donor nations which asked, With 2.6 million people at risk, deliver. WFP's exasperated executive "Why are they starving again?" may Burkina Faso has revised its food aid director, James Ingram, recently soon be asking, "Why didn't we lis- needs upward to cope with a cereal described his agency's reserves as at ten to the warnings this time?" O 62 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Railway of Refuge By ANDREW MELDRUM The Beira Corridor, connecting Zimbabwe to Mozambique's Indian Ocean port, is guarded by 10,000 Zimbabwean troops and hence has become a haven for a quarter-million Mozambicans fleeing the violence of the civil war. The city of Beira—once a popular tourist spot, but now dilapidated after years of war—is beginning to show new life, with its port bustling with traffic and a new private enterprise involvement. wo Mozambican girls freight hauled on the Tete highway. hopefully tend a stall The nervous peace along the featuring piles of man- Beira Corridor is thanks to the par- goes and bunches of tial ceasefire between Renamo and bananas while nearby the Mozambican government. a patrol of Zimbab- According to the Rome accord, the wean soldiers guards the point rebels agreed not to attack the Beira where a railway bridge crosses the Corridor or the Limpopo railway line road. Across the heat-shimmering further south as long as the 7,000 plain looms cloud-capped Gorongosa Zimbabwean army troops deployed Mountain, stronghold of the Renamo in Mozambique are confined to a rebels who launch murderous three-kilometer zone on either side strikes into the countryside. of the two transport routes. This is the Beira Corridor, the Members of the eight-nation Joint 1,980-mile route through Mozam- Verification Committee monitoring bique's narrow center which con- the ceasefire have set up an office in nects landlocked Zimbabwe to Beira Chimoio, midway along the Beira port. Much of Mozambique's horrific route. Renamo charges that the Zim- rebel war has focused on the strate- babwean troops are breaking the gic transport route, along which Zim- Road and rail traffic passes freely T Driver babwe has deployed some 10,000 The uneasy along the route. Cars and trucks bar- troops to safegaurd it. rel along the road, dodging large pot- Now a jittery peace prevails over peace along the holes at high speed for fear of a ran- the corridor, as Renamo and Presi- dom rebel attack. dent Joaquim Chissano's govern- Beira Corridor The Italian commander of the Chi- ment have agreed to a partial cease- is in dramatic moio verification team, Lt.-Col. fire in the on-again, off-again peace Pasquale Cardines, said he is worried talks held in Rome. In Beira itself, contrast to the by the drought-induced hunger evi- the port is bustling with new activity, war raging in dent among the people living along while the city is still struggling to the corridor. He is also concerned pull itself out of the mire of disrepair the rest of the about the large number of arms in the caused by years of warfare. country. country. Military sources estimate The uneasy peace along the Beira that as many as 1.5 million Kalash- Corridor is in dramatic contrast to nikov rifles are circulating in Mozam- the war raging throughout the rest of ceasefire, although the eight-nation bique. On the Beira route, a foreign the country. Following the break- team has not been able to verify any businessman was offered an automat- down of peace talks in Rome in Jan- such violations. To protest the ic rifle for a two-pound sack of sugar. uary, Renamo rebels stepped up alleged Zimbabwean violations, Ren- The combination of a concentration of their sabotage attacks in southern amo has repeatedly attacked the hungry people and lots of rifles may Mozambique, cutting off power to Limpopo railway line. well prove to be explosive. Maputo for several days in February Ordinary Mozambicans have Trish Perkins is a Christian mis- and killing 15 people at a restaurant been quick to endorse the effective- sionary whose farm and orphanage just south of the capital. ness of the ceasefire, flocking in sit atop a hill overlooking the road Renamo also increased its warfare their thousands to the six-kilometer- and rail corridor. The 50 workers at in northern Mozambique. Forty-five wide Beira Corridor safety zone. the mission sleep in the bush or hike people were killed when the rebels More than 250,000 Mozambicans are to the nearest town because they are attacked a convoy travelling along estimated to be huddled along the afraid the rebels will attack the hous- the Tete road connecting Zimbabwe Beira Corridor and in some places es. to Malawi. The rebels have effective- the route resembles a long, thin Perkins is familiar with the terror ly closed that road, which is Malawi's refugee camp. Clusters of huts line of a Renamo attack. In 1987, she and lifeline for food supplies. Now all sup- the road, while newcomers make do her husband, Roy, were part of a plies to Malawi must go through in tiny thatched shelters. Sadly, group kidnapped by the rebels. Dur- Zambia, a much longer route esti- drought has parched the fields of ing their four-month ordeal, the mis- mated to cost nearly double that for maize planted along the road. The sionaries were marched to the only glimmer of economic activity is Andrew Meldrum. a contributing editor to rebels' Gorongosa headquarters and Africa Report, is an American journalist who the makeshift stalls where peasants they were finally released in Malawi. is frontline editor of the Johannesburg Weekly sell mangoes, bananas, and firewood Mail. Based in Harare, he also writes for'The Top Renamo officials, including Guardian of London. to each other. the information secretary, Vincente 64 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Ululu, told Perkins that the rebels Renamo is battling with the ing standards, and the busy shipping were fighting to end Mozambique's Mozambican army to regain control activity contrasts sharply to the Marxist one-party rule and to bring of strategic areas of the northern desultory, languid pace of life free enterprise to the country. Now Manica, Tete, and Sofala provinces. throughout the rest of the tropical, that President Chissano's govern- Once negotiations begin again— tattered city. ment is making Mozambique a multi- some say in April—the rebels want Fifteen years of the rebel war, party state with a market-oriented to control large tracts of those popu- years without the port's vital eco- economy, Perkins asks, "What else is lous provinces and demand govern- nomic activity, and months on end Renamo fighting for? I pray that ment representation according to without electricity and water have [Renamo commander Afonso] their geographic control. turned the once-prosperous port and Dhlakama will negotiate and not con- Even as the limited ceasefire flamboyant seaside resort into a tinue fighting simply for power." holds along the Beira Corridor's six- ghost of its former self, seduced by Unfortunately, the suspension of kilometer-wide strip, Mozambique's its own memories and haunted by the Rome talks and the recent spate war continues to grip the rest of the the staggering amount of work need- of rebel attacks indicates that Ren- country. Renamo has apparently ed to bring the city back to life. Maiyaret A NoviCK> Left, taking refuge from the war in found it is easier to terrorize people The striking sight of the red wind- disused railway wagons, Moatfze than to win their votes. mill of the Moulin Rouge nightclub is Above, the city of Beira is in an The road and rail traffic passing still the first thing seen by all those unbelievable state of disrepair along the corridor is heading for the leaving the port. The trademark amo broke off the Rome peace talks port of Beira. The city itself is in an windmill used to beckon sailors into in order to concentrate on winning unbelievable state of disrepair, but the three-story club for food, wine, as much territory as possible in the port bustles with new business. music, and an introduction to Beira's northern Mozambique. Cranes hoist crates of coffee onto legendary ladies of the night. Today "Renamo is frightened of the one ship, while containers of Canadi- the rusting windmill tilts unsteadily, prospect of national elections, which an food aid are lifted off another the ballroom roof has collapsed, and Chissano plans for later this year," freighter. Nearby, workers strain the plate-glass windows are long said an observer. "Renamo does not under the beating sun to lay a sturdy shattered. Yet, so indicative of have much in the way of a platform platform over the new concrete piles Beira's struggle to keep going, in the and they fear they will not win many supporting the rebuilt port. cavern of the Moulin Rouge, there is votes. Instead, they will rely on con- The massive construction work, a brisk business in grilling piri-piri trolling as much territory as possible." carried out to the highest engineer- chicken for take-out. AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1991 65 "I think Beira reached rock-bot- annually, exports of maize, and all troops, the transport route from Zim- tom in about 1984. There was noth- sorts of imports. babwe to the port is relatively ing to eat, nothing to market, the The Portuguese also developed secure. Zimbabwe is moving one- electricity was off, there was no Beira as a resort, building hotels, third of its traffic through Beira and water for five months. It was terri- restaurants, and nightclubs. British in 1990 Beira's freight was up to 22 ble," recalled Antonio Caspar, shak- colonialists in neighboring Rhodesia million tons. By 1992, the new ing his head. "We couldn't get any soon flocked to Beira for the sweep- wharves will be completed and the soap, so my wife used to wash our ing beaches and lively nightlife. goal is 5 million tons of traffic per clothes with papaya leaves." Today, even the hardest-bitten ex- year. Gaspar, 73, has lived in Beira Rhodesians get a romantic, misty "Sometimes it's good to dream," since 1939 and can remember its look when they talk about Beira. said Antonio Magide, a Mozambican peaks and troughs. "I've seen this "Leave here [Harare) at 6 am, be in engineer overseeing work at the city develop and I've experienced its Beira by noon," said one former port. We must have targets to be able deterioration. Now I want to see it rugby player. "Then it was seaside to reach them." come up again," said Gaspar, the cafes, cervesas [beer], and prawns The electricity supply is now commercial director of the large piri piri. There was always some- secure, reforms have brought back AMI freight firm. thing going on." free enterprise, and there is new Beira's story began in about 1899 '"ITiose were the times. Beira was commercial activity in the city. Side- when Portuguese colonialists leased booming," recalled Gaspar. "On holi- walk cafes and restaurants that were the territory to the British who days, the town would be full of closed for years are now back in developed the port as the best outlet Rhodesians, drinking beer. At the business, even if what they offer is a to the sea for Rhodesia. In 1939, bullfights, they would jump into the meager Coca-Cola in a rusted can. there were three wharves handling ring. In town, they would drink beer It's a far cry from the heyday of Rhodesia's mineral exports and all and then dive into a central fountain. capuccino and croissants at continen- its imports. Mozambique was The police would chase them around tal cafes, but it is a start. exporting maize, grown in the area and we all watched, it was a specta- The amount of work to be done is now called the Beira Corridor. cle." daunting. Beira's water system is on "There were 400 British here Gaspar said Beira's fevered high the brink of collapse. The city's roads then. The city was administered life continued right up to 1975 when need to be rebuilt. But every week a under British law and we used Mozambique won its independence new store or a new business is open- British currency," said Gaspar. "That from Portugal. Then Beira's bubble ing in once-empty premises. The was really the high colonial period. burst. 'Hie Portuguese fled the coun- return of tourism is still a way off. All the British wore white linen suits try en masse and the new Marxist Zimbabwe's Cresta hotels have a and pith helmets to protect them government closed its border with multi-million dollar plan to rebuild from the heat. They built a trolley Rhodesia to enforce international the seaside Dom Carlos and Estoril system and Africans would push a sanctions against the Smith regime. hotels, but work cannot begin until car carrying three or four people Beira's tourism dried up and so did the refugees squatting in the hotels along the tracks." much of its port traffic. The decline are rehoused. The once fabulous Caspar's assertion that it was hot- began. Grand Hotel is now a stinking squat- ter in Beira in those days seems By the 1980s, the city's depression ter camp with ragamuffin children impossible, until he explains that the intensified as a result of Renamo's playing in the lobby and excrement- streets were sand, which reflected war. Cafes closed, shops were shut- stained stairways. But amid the city's the heat, and there were no trees for tered, and the port traffic slowed to a current squalor, there is an expec- shade. trickle of just a few hundred thou- tant hope that Beira can once again Gaspar also remembers that sand tons. Sabotage knocked out become a bright light. under British rule, he, the son of a power, water, and bridges. Refugees "I think Beira's future is bright," Portuguese trader, and his African from the rural areas flooded the city. said Antonio Gaspar from his office wife were not permitted into Beira's The city infrastructure, designed for overlooking the port. "The only thing posh hotels. Then in 1949, Beira about 70,000 people, is now straining hampering progress is the war. The reverted to Portuguese rule. By that to serve some 500,000. port is already operating well and time, the port was so busy that many Slowly, painfully, the city is stir- could soon be really busy. Sofala, ships had to discharge their freight ring back to life. As in its beginnings, Manica, and Zambezia are rich onto barges because there was no the port has been the focus for provinces and we could be the urban room at the wharves and work began Beira's new growth. International aid center for all that. Even tourism to increase the port to its current 11 has poured some $370 million into could take off again, if only there wharves. rebuilding the dilapidated port and were peace. We have to look forward By the mid-1960s, the port was improving its transport connections. to that. If there were peace, Beira handling 4 million tons of freight With the support of Zimbabwean could boom again." O 66 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 Somali Ministry oi Information At independence, Somalia inherited three languages— Italian, English, and Ara- bic—but not its own. A British-naturalized Pole cre- ated the written script for the Somali language, achieving legendary status and leaving a lasting practical legacy for the Somali people. THE By DENIS HERBSTEIN ALPHABET here is no entry for Bogumil Witalis ("Goosh") Andrze- jewski in the British Who's Who. May- WAR be he became a professor too late in life of a people than this naturalized saw, Goosh was 17, preparing for his career, and his British contempo- Pole. Virtually unknown in Britain his university entrance exams. They raries were given first nod. Yet, in outside a small academic circle, in closed the schools, threw his lan- the Horn of Africa he is considered Somalia he is a legend. His achieve- guage on the scrapheap, sent the the very finest example of an ment—to create a written script for nation's intellectuals to Auschwitz for Englishman: reserved, courteous, the language of that nomadic extermination. Goosh headed for the respectful of the indigenous culture. nation. Yet his adult life began in nearest haven, across Europe to Indeed, few living "Englishmen" rather more dramatic style. British Palestine. The seminal event have done more to improve the daily When the Germans came to War- of this hazardous journey occurred AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 67 in Budapest, when he bought a tat- kept my notebook in my pocket so were required to know only one offi- tered volume in German, English in they wouldn't be put off, and after- cial language, they would often 30 Hours Without a Teacher. On wards wrote down what I had refuse to initial a document they did arrival in Haifa, he enlisted with the heard." At the wells and villages not understand. First Polish Carpathian Brigade, part and among the herders tending the There had been several earlier of the British Eighth Army,and then goats and camels they listened to the attempts to write the language was wounded at Tobruk. In hospital, language. The sounds were record- down. The first, "Cismaaniya" (pro- he bounced English off his Aus- ed on bakelite disks powered by a nounced osmaniya after its inventor, tralian, New Zealand, and British rotary converter run off the batteries Osman}, invented letters to represent fellow-patients—to good effect, for of their truck. The "records" were Somali sounds. It was very accurate he became an army interpreter on sent back to Goosh's project supervi- but required new typewriters, print- his release. Suffering from the after- sor, Professor Firth, at the London ing presses, and a re-education pro- math of jaundice, he was put ashore University School of Oriental and gram. Even so, in a Moslem country, in England. Within a few years he African Studies (SOAS). it would have been natural to write had acquired an Oxford honors The international Phonetic Alpha- in the Arabic script, but written Ara- degree in English. bet can cope with every sound bic could not comfortably contain all After the war, Goosh wrote off uttered by the human head, from the the sounds of Somali. Other without success for dozens of jobs in lips, teeth, tongue, nose, palate, "Moslem" languages, Turkish, Britain and the colonies. Landing in pharynx, uvula, epiglottis, larynx. Swahili, Hausa in West Africa, had Somalia was sheer chance. The No tongue, not even the clicks of the long abandoned Arabic for the more money was poor, says Goosh, and San of Namibia, is beyond its expansive Roman alphabet. few applied. But he happened to be range. Over the years, hundreds of But the imams were appalled at the ideal choice to develop a "scientif- languages have been set on paper the idea of the Prophet's name being ic orthography for colonial officials in in this way. Now the two men fash- written in the letters of the infidel and British Somaliland." The government ioned out of it a written Somali the colonizer. When a language mis- hoped the script would be accepted which fitted neatly into a Roman sion, of which Goosh was a mem- in schools. At Goosh's request, the script using the letters on a typewrit- ber, visited Somalia in 1966, their project was later extended to the Ital- er keyboard. "It was a beautiful hotel needed police protection. ian trusteeship in the south. script," says Goosh, "easy to use, Goosh smiles at the passions of A Victorian foreign secretary, like Italian." those times. "Certain Arab emis- Lord Salisbury, once declared Soma- Some letters were changed—ch saries paid the rioters 10 shillings a lia to be "a coast without harbors, became a guttural h, and c, a sound time." trade, produce, or strategic advan- low in the throat which is unknown Still the politicians dithered. It tage. But as everybody else is fight- in European languages, though used took a military dictator, Siad Barre, ing for it, I suppose we are bound to by the early Hebrews. Goosh to ram through what his democratic think if valuable." After a crash returned to London to teach Cushitic predecessors had balked at. On the course in Somali and phonetics, languages at SOAS, and Galaal third anniversary of his coup, at one Goosh, aged 28, sailed for the became his researcher. They wrote of those tedious celebrations in the British north. their report and it was duly pigeon- sports stadium in the capital, He teamed up with Musa Galaal, holed. Mogadisiu, a helicopter flew over a poet and collector of oral litera- On independence in 1960, and scattered colorful leaflets. "It ture. The erudite Galaal and the self- Somalis inherited three official lan- was like a command from the effacing Pole were well-suited. "We guages, Italian, English, and Arabic, ancient Cushitic sky god," Goosh did not live like ex-pats," said but not their own. Africa is a Babel recalls. Not the usual pep talk about Andrzejewski. "We had no electrici- of 750 languages, yet here was a scientific socialism, but strange let- ty or Land Rover or servants. Sheila country where everyone had a ters with a familiar ring. The official [his wife from Nottingham] did the means of talking to one another. script was to be the Andrzejewski- cooking. There were no barriers Instead, children went on being Galaal version, with one change (x between us and our Somali friends. I taught through alien tongues. The for ch). Somali embassy in London had to Siad was anything if not practi- Denis Herbstein's most recent book, The Devils employ translators to exchange mes- cal. He once declared that he had Arc Among Us—The War for Namibia, (with John Evenson) was published by Zed Books, sages with their own government. no objection to Somalis associating London, and Humanities Press International, New Jersey. And, as entrants to the civil service with expatriate Christians for materi- 68 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 al gain. But take their faith seriously, Poems have a supremely practical become a tool of a technological he warned, and you will be shot. role in daily life. They have ousted a state." Thanks to the "infidel" script, Now the president launched an president (in the 1967 elections), math and physics are taught in alphabet war. In three months, all conspired against the colonial pow- Somali in schools, though for the written messages in the bureaucracy ers, stirred clan to war against clan. time being Italian is used in the uni- were to be in Somali only. Those The Mad Mullah, Sayyid Mohamed versity. The largest dictionary who could not comply were sacked. Abdullah Hassan, whose Dervishes already has 40,000 words, yet gaps Recalcitrant Koranic schools were outwitted the British for the first two remain. threatened with loss of land and an decades of the century, doubled as When no word exists, they are end to their subsidies. One resister the national poet. Guerrillas would wary of co-opting the European ver- was locked up for five years. A task carry his versified military messages sion. Not for them "Somalglish." The force of 30,000 teachers and through enemy lines as effectively as first satellite became dayax-gacmed, children went into the countryside on field telephones. hand-made moon. "Triangle" has a an "instant literacy" campaign. The poet, having composed in his practical ring—saddexagal, from The script strengthened the hand head, recited his oeuvre to "memo- saddex (three) and xogal (bend of a of the president. It was one of the rizers." One recital was normally limb). few good things Siad had done. enough to remember a lengthy pas- When President Siad Barre was "Like all technology," says Goosh, sage verbatim. The memorizers overthrown earlier this year, he left "writing is a two-edged sword." jumped on their horses and galloped only one practical legacy—the writ- Policemen, civil servants, and magis- off in sundry directions to relate the ten language. Goosh, now Emeritus trates who fled the tyrannical rule message to other memorizers at pop- Professor of Cushitic Languages at were quickly replaced by the newiy ular meeting points. They, in their SOAS, still appears at academic lettered, who were not competent in turn, sped off. The pre-satellite form shindigs where the minuscule group a foreign language, and so less like- of mass communication stretched of the world's Somali specialists ly themselves to flee. from the Gulf of Aden through the gathers to discuss syntax and hybrid The script behind him, Goosh Ogaden and the river country of the verbs. Andrzejewski turned to collecting south to the Somali speakers of And in his maisonette at Harpen- Somalia's oral culture. By now he northern Kenya. den near London, Goosh, assisted was thoroughly proficient in the lan- The crowds at poetry recitals by Sheila, is preparing another sub- guage. "I usually travelled in commu- were "like an Elizabethan audience stantial contribution to his adopted nal taxis. I would start a poem or cutting through the complexities of a culture with a translation of the clas- proverb and the other passengers Shakespeare play." Which is why sical period of Somali poetry. would take it up. Often the drivers some poems have been circulating In a tower block in the East End of refused to accept my money since for 150 years, and were only written London, Mohamud Jama Galaal, a the passengers insisted on paying down recently. young Somali poet, nods toward the my fare. They wanted to reciprocate The transistor radio, the tape man chewing hard on his Somali- for my respect for their cultural her- recorder, and now the written word, style dried meat: "I have never heard itage. Arabs and Westerners puz- have undermined the role of the a non-Somali speak it like him." zled over my interest. For them memorizers. But they still practice At Bush House, home of the BBC's Somali was a dialect, because it their trade, some with a "play-back" World Service, Rashid Hassan talks was not written down. of 15 hours. The new alphabet has of "the premier Somali language "We assume that because the had less of an impact on the scholar, one of the founders of our West has the nuclear submarine and nomads, who retain a refreshing script." Florence Akst, present head Africa has the dugout canoe that the shrewdness. No power ever really of the Somali service, says that culture is inferior too. The villagers conquered Somalia. Their language "though others also played a role in were at the technological level of the has prevented what Goosh calls "the the script, it was Goosh who cut the biblical Abraham. But their poetry colonialism of the brain." Gordian knot." was not limited to the songs of shep- Now, 40 years after Goosh And renown in a restaurant in herds. It was as sophisticated as Andrzejewski first set foot in the Berbera, north Somalia. A waiter: Dante's, with figures of speech, Horn of Africa, the language is thriv- "It's funny, I know your voice, but I metaphors, symbolism, scansion, ing. "Every language is capable of don't know your face." Another wait- comparable to what I had known in infinite expansion of vocabulary. er: "That's the infidel who speaks on Poland and Oxford." Look how biblical Hebrew has the radio." O AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 69 Fighting Years: Black Resistance culture—and the twists and turns of and the Struggle for a New South government response, usually brutal, Africa, by Steve Mufson (Beacon and how that in turn affected resistance. Press. Boston: 1990.360 pp. $24.95) One is left with a picture of who the contenders are now—the ANC, Inkatha. the PAC, and other smaller do not believe that South Africa's political groupings—and where they liberation can be a gift of history, came from. And one is left sharing God, a revolutionary vanguard, I Mufsons awe at the sheer bravery of or foreigners wielding economic sanc- the thousands that took on the might of tions. Black South Africans are the the South African government, and ulti- driving force for change within their mately forced it to the negotiation table. own society." When Steve Mufson arrived in AS SEEN BY South Africa in November 1984, he JOURNALISTS The Mind of South Africa, by Allis- was there to write a piece on nuclear ter Sparks (Alfred A. Knopf. New arms proliferation for The Wall Street York: 1990. 424 pp. $24.95) Journal. He did not intend to stay there long. Yet it was three years and three his is an awesome task," Allis- visits later, a total of 25 months, when What is clear is that his interviews ter Sparks admits in his he finally left, not by his own choice. were not inspired by the need to find Tauthor's note. And so it is. For He was expelled by the South African the requisite number of quotes for this book is many things: a history of government. newspaper articles. He talks to hun- South Africa, an exploration of the South Africa has cast its spell on dreds of people with a fascination and minds of those who inhabit it, and an many a visitor: teachers, church work- an empathy for their plight. It could not examination of the author's own beliefs ers, academics, and journalists. Within a have been an easy feat to achieve for and feelings as a fifth-generation South matter of weeks or even days, they are the very practical reason that at the time African. sucked in, consumed, mesmerized by whole communities were taking on the A lesser writer would have failed. the unfolding drama that is South South African police and army, and any But with rigorous research combined Africa. Yet few become as immersed as person wishing to be there was in grave with the deft journalistic touch of 30 Mufson, as is evident in Fighting Years. danger. years' experience and the compassion The cataclysmic years of the mid- Fighting Years is first and foremost a of a patriot. Sparks infuses the text with 1980s resulted in unprecedented press tribute to these ordinary people who a landscape of detail mixed with coverage in the U.S. Television viewers challenged the South African regime: insightful analysis, breathing life into were offered a daily diet of riots and the youths that took to the streets, the history and politics. searing violence. But what was often children of June 1976 who formed a Drawing on a plethora of historical not provided was a look behind the solid core of young, local leadership, material. Sparks provides fresh detail to masks: the thousands of ordinary peo- the singers and poets who became the those who consider themselves familiar ple, the hundreds of organizations, and soul of the nation, the workers in the with South Africa's history. Who would the events that led up to the conflict. mines and factories. Yet it is not a senti- have guessed that the song "Transvaal Now, as South Africa makes its mental, uncritical tribute. Mufson does My Country," of nationalistic impor- shaky way to the negotiation table, not flinch from the fratricidal violence tance to the Afrikaners during the years there is a lack of understanding of, first- that burst with grim frequency onto the of the Boer War, was a hit in Moscow at ly, who all these millions of black streets. the time? South Africans are. and secondly, what Instead, he offers a clear explanation Sparks goes to great lengths to make mark the mid-1980s might have left on of the events leading up to the mid- this a book about people. The forces of them. 1980s. Why, when it was the black con- politics and economics must come sec- Fighting Years goes a long way in sciousness organizations that dominat- ond. This emphasis is understood in the filling that gap. It is not a mere docu- ed in the 1970s, did the non-racial light of his reference to an African mentation, a week by week recounting organizations of the United Democratic proverb: "People are people through of those hurly-burly years. Mufson's Front and the African National other people." or Ubimtu. It is a recurring pen goes beyond the barricades and into Congress rise to the fore? Fighting theme and one in which Sparks puts great the black communities, organizations, Years carefully uncovers the layers of store. It is this philosophy, or way of life, and households, from the sprawling black resistance this cenlury—the long that he trusts as the ultimate redeemer of townships of the Transvaal to the dusty history of the ANC, the rise of the trade South Africa. Yes, history is the conflict towns of the Eastern Cape, right up union movement, the impact of art and between people, but for Sparks it is also face-to-face with not only the leader- the battle that takes place within every ship figures of the day, but also the person, of good against evil. And it is Reviewed by JEREMY BORAINE men, women, and children. Sparks' belief in the ultimate goodness of 70 AFRICA REPORT • May-June 1991 people that gives rise to his cautious opti- are inevitable. That may be so, but cer- tions that South Africa could take. He mism in his conclusion. tain forces are always there to guide poses the question on the lips of many: His best chapters deal with those and accelerate that collapse. Will South Africa slide into the abyss of people "who became, surely, the sim- However, justice is done to a peo- violence and disorder? His answer: plest and most backward fragment of ple's ability to survive three centuries "The new South Africa will not be born Western civilization in modern of domination. Uhuntu is central to that soon and it will not be born easily. But times"—the Afrikaners. Sometimes a survival, adapted to the harsh squalor of it will be born. And when it is. South neglected tribe, they are often best township slums and the wretched Africa will cease to be a world symbol known for their hateful invention of poverty of the rural wastelands. of racism and division and become a apartheid and coarse accents. Little is Despite the fact that this book was symbol instead of national reconcilia- known about what gave rise to these finished before the watershed of tion and racial harmony." People are a people, but Sparks carefully Iraces their 1990—the release of political prisoners, people through other people. • arrival from Holland, a country at the the unbanning of parties, the talk of time fighting for independence from negotiations—Sparks offers an insight- Jeremy Boraine is a South African freelance Spain. He follows their migration into ful assessment of the possible direc- journalist based in New York. the interior, along with the growth of a fierce obsession for land and isolation. It is only two centuries later, at the turn of the 1800s, that a nationalism is forged. Here the book delves deep into Calvinism and the debates of the influ- ential Dutch theologians. It also draws Southern African parallels with the national socialism of Europe in the 1930-40s. Sparks is not unmoved by the plight %tvitTU of llooks of the Afrikaners. He quotes an Afrikaans journalist of ihe 1930s, Schalk Pienaar, to highlight their dilem- "Provocative and freshly written, and combining the best of academic expertise ma: "Unlike the English in India and with the sharpest knowledge of the sireets. the Southern African Review (if the Dutch in Indonesia, Ihe Afrikaner Books is probabh the most informed literary journal now dealing with the has nowhere to go. For him there is no cultural politics of South Africa." Britain and no Holland to return to; for • Lewis Nkosi him no central shrine of national exis- tence to survive the death of the out- "What is particularly impressive about the Southern African Review of posts. On the soil of Africa he. and with Books is the care with which ihe reviewers arc chosen; there is no attempt to him his history, culture, and language, promote 'a line* on Southern African affairs and a vigorous correspondence between stay or perish." reviewer and outraged author is encouraged ... In effect, the reader is offered a series In doing so. Sparks goes far beyond of review articles, and the resemblance to the New York Review of Books is the usual cataloguing of apartheid legis- obvious with respect to both format and structure ... Indeed, the editors and those lation and vilification of a people. Yet who have been brave enough to risk resources and back its publication provide an he does not downplay their role in the unrivalled service tor scholars working in the field of Southern African studies." history of South Africa. He exposes • Jack Spence their perverted morality that gave rise to apartheid. Sparks has a term for the "The Southern African Review of Books has created a challenging forum for debate between, and among, writers at home and abroad on a wide range of inward obsession of the Afrikaners, literary and political issues. If you want to be well-read. their blindness to the world around read this stimulating tabloid review." them: narcissism. • Michael Chapman My major criticism of the book is its coverage of black resistance. It is cer- Edited by Kenneth Parker and Rob Turrell tainly not absent, but one gains the Published in London. Subscription Rates (6 issues a year): £7.50 UK; impression of a weak and disorganized £10.50 (USSI6) Overseas: £13.50 (US$22) airmail. rabble, and it is almost something of a Payment by cheque to Robert Vicat, 25a Greencroft Gardens, London NW6 3LN. shock when one remembers just how far South Africa has come in the lasi 10 Name: years. Who is to take credit for these Address: changes? This book suggests that the moral bankruptcy of a society leads to such rottenness that decay and collapse AFRICA REPORT - May-June 1991 71 Dakar, Senegal In just six hours, Air Afrique can fly you to Dakar, Senegal on Africa's exotic West Coast. In just six hours, you can begin a journey to lands rich and colorful in African heritage. Distinctive customs, centuries old, still define the lineage of the many West African tribes. Today, West Africa offers a delightful blend of African as well as French culture and cuisine. Enjoy modern, first-class hotels, picturesque markets, safari to wildlife and bird preserves. Experience historic, religious and cultural sites. Challenge yourself with championship golf courses, world- renowned sport fishing and a variety of other water sports. Discover your routes in Africa. Let Air Afrique and its world- class service take you to Africa's exotic West Coast, a tropical paradise the year-round. Discover the rich heritage of Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and many other lands on Air Afrique Air Afrique flies twice weekly, nonstop, JFK to Dakar with Call your travel agent or continuing service to Air Afrique 1-800-456-9192 Bamako, Abidjan, Accra 1-212-586-5908/5909 and Lome. JtIR 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10106