ID proved by observers far removed to his wife; a man betrays his lo­ Revered in his own country, he from the left. ver; a weman in an African township has also created great controversy He evades the reality tha'; it performs an act of treachery to with his so-called Islamic 'revol­ is Reagan's adninistration that a man hiding in her home. ution5' and has made many enemies is preparing for nuclear war and The title story is a novella that at heme and abroad. does not deal with the various reveals the true menace that lies Unfortunately little is known proposals for disarmament based over the apparently calm and pros­ about his role. He is an enigna cn equality and equal security perous white suburbs. A schoolboy and much that has been written made by the Soviet Union. in a swimning pool, golfers sear­ about him deliberately mixes fact The questions Mr Gal ting does not ching for a ball, two lovers in with fiction. However, an Iranian answer are: Who is threatening war a parked car, catch glimpses of using a pseudonym has produced a and escalating the arms race for something - not human - some kind bock in an attenpt to set the the benefit of the arms manufac­ of escaped beast? While public and record straight. turers? Who is consistently press built up the story 'cut Rany Nima, we are told, is a pressing for disarmament and in there' is a group of four people socialist who is critical of Khom­ which country is there no profit two whites and two blacks,building eini's regime, but who believes in arms? the preparations to blow up a that the Left in his country must power station. The whites provide accept some of the responsibility GORDON SCHAFFER the cover for the trained sabo­ for the tide of reaction presently teurs. In sinple strokes Nadine afflicting Iran. ********************** Gordimer creates each character. For example, he argues that the 'Mrs Naas Klopper was coming to­ only organised force, the clergy, wards her through weeds, insteps provided the necessary leadership SOMETHING OUT THERE arched like proud fists under an to the peasantry and urban poor by Nadine Gordimer in the struggle to remove the Shah Jonathan Cape. £8.50 intricacy of narrow yellow straps, the bembe of b* easts flashing gpld in 1979. chains 0 1 blue polka dots... ‘ Nima makes clear, however, that Khomeini was not a revolutionary Nadine Gordimer is a highly-skilled She creates as well the sense and tha$ he and his fellow mullahs professional artist, using words of menace that threatens the calm to create her pictures of the people normality of white lives- sinplj** wanted to regain their 'i^nts and influence over the and life of her country, South Afri­ 'There was a surmer storm coming Iranian people. ca. Her novels use a large canvas ip, first the single finger of a which often seems to become too tree's branch paddling thick air, Yet there is no doubting that Iran's militant version of Islam ocngested with the multiplicity then the land expelling great of descriptive strokes; but her breaths in gusts, canton brown was progressive in the early short stories are, in ny opinion, birds flinging themselves wildly, stages, although this quickly her masterpieces, more delicate a raw, fresh-cut scent of rain gave way to an attack on ethnic and sparing. falling somewhere else. So beauti­ and religious minorities, as well She is an observer,totally aware, ful, the temperament of the earth. as cn the Left in general. absorbing the Southern African Waiting, they saw the rain, dang­ My view of the to'ath of Allah is scene and ccrposing it. not as it ling over the pale spools that were that it is too superficial and has been in the past, but as it the power station towers.1 predictable, and the "analysis’* is today. This is why each new The 'pale spools' are the target raises more questions than it bock is truly conterporary. of the saboteurs. The story ends answers. But don't let that put There is a sense of betrayal with their dispersal, the death you off - this short book is still about four of the stories in this of one, and a round-up of many worth reading if you want to know collection, yet each one also tou­ disparate facts that tie all the something about the lead up to ches you with a sad compassion. characters together, and to their ■'ecent events in Iran. At the Rendezvous of Vic­ a n history. tory is a portrait of General An elimently readable and splen­ Giant Zwedu, whose leadership of did collection of stories. RON BROWN MP his guerillas in the bush helped bring his country to liberation HILDA BERNSTEIN - and who becomes redundant after victory. He sits at the constitu­ ********************** tional talks, 'He wanted to gp back - to his headquarters - home but one of the conditions of the THE WRATH OF ALLAH cease-fire has been that he would by RAMY NIMA be withdrawn from the field as Pluto Press. £3-95 the official term, coined in wars foi^nt over poppy-meadows, phrased Mention Iran these days and it.' His story rings with a bitter rightly °r wrongly - most people familiar truth. In the other sto- inmediately think of Ayatollah ries a husband betrays a premise Khomeini. WOMEN OF AFRICA: Roots of Oppression by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli Zed Press £5.95 paperback £15.35 hardback.

The Western penetration and 'development' of Africa through colonial grabbing and wa^s of conquest brought to the whole continent an ideology in profound contradiction to the existing way of life. Capitalist philosophy posed the concept of individual success as against that of the conrr.ua Vy o r tribe, e n d b r o u g h t t n i s p h i l o s o p h y a n d m a n n e r o f life to societies that were prfoundly anti-indlvldualistic. Beyond doubt, writes Maria Cutrufelli, the segment of society most directly affected was the female. Her boox Is not primarily concerned with cultural confrontation, but an understanding of the social structure of African culture helps tp reveal the extent of interdependence, in Europe as well as in Africa, between the social position of women and their v«ork, and between the familial and social role of women end their exploitation.

The forced integration of traditional societies into h capitalist economy, t.nd the need for a gecgrapn-cally noble .labour force of individuals iisniiijki impelled changes in exisiting social structures amd the traditional family; imperialism brought the nuclear family to Africa. From this migratory labour pattern arises a new, total dependence of women on the nrle migrant's wages; a helpless dependence, especially as it is accompanied by the depirvation of women's land rights - imperialist redistribution is always to the male head3 of families - and by wo m e n ' s work and role being submerged through mechanisation and cuvelopcsental aids (as so clearly shown by Barbara Rogers in 'The Domestication of W o m e n '). This book touches on many aspects of the subordination of women and of both traditional practices ^Such ar. cliteridectorrtyjfmd initiation rites, and more modem means, such as education and industrialisation. The cultural tradition? of African countries are as diverse a3 those of Europe; but they were all based on pre-capitalist organisations of society and the imperial impact t M. i i i-^ n has imposed common problems and compounded women's subordination in similar ways on different societies. In conclusion the author asks if female emancipation can ever be envisaged in a political context so heavily conditioned and man- manipulatod. But; black women have not lapsed into the 'oblivion of history', and the Question should he posed the other way: Shouldn't we expe4ct that sooner or later change will come as the wind of revolution, ana in the same breath the wind of the emancipation of women, blow through tne lands? Women in the national liberation movements, particularly in the Southern parts of Africa, are providing the answers as they fight jointly for the liberation of their country and the emancipation of w o m e n .

Hilda Bernstein ► *

CONTENTS

Joan Smith is working on a book FROM THE PULPIT A u b e r o n W a u g h called Moralities, for Penguin. It will concentrate on the morality of power MIND, BODY & SOUL 4 B r y a n A ppl ey a r d God’s Funeral A N W ilson and money, suggesting that too much attention is paid to sex. H er earlier 6 J o a n Sm it h Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of classic, Different for Girls, is available Aesthetic Surgery Sander L Gilman in paperback from Vintage. 7 A n t h o n y C la re The Impossibility of Sex Susie Orbach 8 D e b o r a h B osley Falling in Love Sheila Sullivan, I Am No Anthony Clare is Medical Director of St Patrick’s Hospital and Longer Myself Without You Jonathan Rutherford, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The Heart-Shaped Bullet Kathryn Flett Trinity College, Dublin. He tells us he is working on a book for Chatto MEMOIRS 10 P a ul J o h n s o n Years o f Renewal: The Concluding Volume of his to be called The Dying Phallus. Memoirs Henry Kissinger Hilda Bernstein was born in 11 C h r is t o p h e r H it c h e n s Some Times in America London but emigrated to South Africa Alexander Chancellor in her teens, where she married Lionel 13 M a r y K e e n A n English Garden in Provence Natasha Spender Bernstein, who appeared with Mandela in the Rivonia trial. Husband OPPRESSION 14 O leg G o r d ie v sk y Biohazard Ken Alibek and wife found themselves imprisoned under the first state o f emergency in and Stephen Handelman 1960, in separate prisons. She has 16 R ic h a r d G o t t The Immaculate Invasion Bob Shacochis written extensively about the South 18 B e n Sh e p h a r d An Intimate History of Killing Joanna B ourke, African exile experience, her latest My War Gone By, I Miss it So Anthony Loyd book being The World That Was Ours, 19 D avid A l d e r d ic e The Faithful Tribe: A n Intimate Portrait of the available from Central Books. Loyal Institutions Ruth Dudley Edwards Christopher Hitchens, author o f No One Left to Lie To, reviewed by LITERARY 20 K a t h r y n H u g h e s George’s Ghosts: The Secret Life ofWB Yeats M ark S teyn in M ay’s LR, is a BIOGRAPHY Brenda Maddox regular contributor to Vanity Fair. 21 D avid C r a n e Byron Benita Eisler P a m e la N o r r i s ’s The Story of Eve 22 A n t h o n y C u r t is Siegfried Sassoon, 1886-1967 will be published in paperback in John Stuart Roberts October (Picador). She is currently 23 J essica M a n n The Mysterious Marie Corelli Teresa Ransom working on a novel. 24 P amela N o r r is Catherine Cookson: The Biography M artyn Bedford’s third novel, The Kathleen Jones Houdini Girl, is published by Viking.

FICTION BY WOMEN a n d ia c illiam M a r y F la n a g a n ’s novel A dele is pub­ 25 C M W Everything You Need A L Kennedy lished in paperback by Bloomsbury. 27 D J T a y l o r Close Range A nnie P ro u lx 28 A n n e C h ish o l m Fasting, Feasting Anita Desai D a v id A l d e r d i c e , a long-time 28 P en el o pe Lively The Map of Love Ahdaf Souief supporter and executive member of Northern Ireland’s Alliance 29 K a te K ellaw ay The Happiest Days Cressida Connolly Party, was elected Lord Mayor of 30 S u z i Feay Everything You Know Z o e H eller Belfast on 1 June 1998. 31 J a n e C h a r t e r is Shadow-Box Antonia Logue 32 M a r y F lan ag a n First Novel Mazarine Pingeot Daisy W augh is the author of A Small Town in Africa (Heinemann), 33 A n n a P a st er n a k Making Love: A Romance Lucretia Stewart, and a novel, What is the Matter with Hens Dancing Raffaella Barker Mary fane? (Sceptre). She now has a wise and beautiful daughter called Panda, aged 21 months.

Editor: A u b er o n W augh Deputy Editor: N ancy Sladek Assistant Editor: Lisa A llardice Editorial Assistant: J ames P usey Business Manager: Isabel B o othby Advertising Manager: Louise H a rriso n Classified Advertisement Sales: J ames P usey Contributing Editor: Lilian P izzich in i Subscriptions: B en H ouse Publisher: N aim Attallah Founding Editor. D r A n n e Sm ith Cover illustration by Chris Riddell Issue no. 252

LITERARY REVIEW June 1999 t

BIOGRAPHY

H il d a B e r n s t e i n maintained those ties and been present at such key events in Mandela’s life as the Fifties Treason trial and the 1963-4 Rivonia trial. Country Lad Made Multiple strands went into the determination of Mandela’s character. Most powerful has been the heritage o f his boyhood in a remote area o f the Transkei, Very Good Indeed where the African notion o f ubuntu or brotherhood — ‘a person is a person because of other people’ — became M a n d e l a : T he A u t h o r is e d B io g r a p h y deeply embedded as a fundamental part o f his personality. ★ His upbringing as a member of the Tembu royal house­ By Anthony Sampson hold made him constantly aware of the special obligations (HarperCollins 500pp £24.99) and duties rather than the privileges o f a leader. Years later, on Robben Island, these fundamentals of his character As WELL AS his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and a profound sense o f his own right to be treated with there are already several biographies o f Nelson Mandela, respect changed even the attitudes o f those in authority. many collections o f his speeches and writings, and many Meanwhile, other political prisoners came to see the films and TV ‘drama-docs’ — and this is even before his warders also as victims o f apartheid, and so to strike up imminent retirement from public life. some astonishing personal relationships with them. Yet when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Even before Rivonia, in the intensely politically active 1964 he was virtually unknown outside his own country. years o f the Fifties and Sixties, this country lad who The Rivonia trial was his last public appearance for nearly came to the big city, hostile to whites, awkward in their three decades, during which he was blanked out. Nothing presence and suspicious of their motives, became the he said or wrote could be quoted or published. N o photo leader o f a political alliance o f Africans with Indians and could be taken. It was as though he did not exist. whites. He grew from an instinctive anti-communist to But it was during these years that he became a world an unapologetic protagonist of the ANC alliance with celebrity. It is a modern fairy tale: a black prisoner breaking the Communist Party. In these developments he lent stones on Robben Island emerges after twenty-seven heavily on two lifelong friends: Walter Sisulu, who years to become president o f his country, to head a new introduced him to politics and was a deeper political era. It creates a myth. Anthony Sampson has aimed ‘to thinker, but who lacked Mandela’s charisma; and Oliver discover how this most private man relates to this most Tambo, whom he met at Fort Hare University, and who public myth’. But do we need yet another biography? became the partner in his law practice and in his politics. Previous biographies have been generally in the nature Commentators on Mandela’s politics consistendy focus of extended CVs, recordings of the milestones in a life. on the considerable influence of white Communists on Only one, Martin Merediths, digs deeper. In his Nelson shaping his attitudes towards multiracialism. Sampson Mandela: A Biography, he places Mandela’s life and char­ analyses and explains its origins; but in so doing has not, acter within the political developments o f his times. His I think, fully recognised the profound influence of the is a most readable and often penetrating biography. black Communists in the upper echelons o f the ANC But Sampson extends his timescale to take in the end itself, men such as Moses Kotane, J B Marks, Duma of Mandela’s presidency. Nokwe and others. Later, He is uniquely placed to in the years on Robben examine both the myths Island, Walter Sisulu and and the realities. He first Ahmed Kathrada were came to South Africa in Mandela’s constant com­ the Fifties, as a journalist panions and collaborators. on the black magazine, the Mandela’s conversion to Drum. Sampson was one of multiracialism was no easy the few whites who walk. It brought him into crossed the line into black a head-on clash with Johannesburg. As a result, those black nationalists he has had a long personal who broke from the ANC association with key fig­ to form the Pan-Africanist ures in Mandela’s life; Congress, and, during his black writers, musicians, 1962 tour abroad, into and the leading players in confrontation with African the liberation movement. governments wedded to Over the years he has Which is the more royal? concepts of negritude and

LITERARY REVIEW June 1999 BIOGRAPHY

black exclusiveness, hostile to his multiracialism and his forged. This was a crucial part o f his leadership in the collaboration with Communists. Sampson puts these transformation o f South Africa. pressures into the context of the Cold War, when The cost of the long years of imprisonment was high. It Western governments, with deeply ambivalent attitudes shattered his marriage, divided him from his children, and to apartheid, saw the South African government as a sta­ left him with permanent sadness and irremediable feelings bilising force against the ‘Communist threat’ and the o f guilt for the sacrifice o f his family. Sampson deals ANC. Mandela’s principles held firm in the face of sensitively with these personal problems, and with the heavy pressures, both local and international. many harsh experiences that contributed to the break­ By the time o f the Rivonia trial Mandela was already down o f Winnie Mandela’s relationship with Nelson. the most influential figure in the entire South African He also covers the period of negotiation, the pressures liberation movement. His personal growth in stature and and politicking that preceded the organisation of the in political understanding continued during the long first democratic election in South Africa’s history, and years in prison, but out o f public sight. For the political the formation of the Cabinet, and deals with the prisoners Robben Island was their university. problems o f the presidency years. With a great deal of Educational studies and intense political debate became additional research he brings to it a deep personal ways o f enduring the years; many prisoners emerged understanding o f the politics o f South Africa. Until the with degrees. In the late Seventies and the Eighties confidential records of the government and of the ANC increasing student uprisings and urban opposition during Mandela’s presidency are opened to study, brought a new generation of prisoners to the Island with Sampson’s will remain the definitive biography. ideas of black consciousness. In the confrontation To order ‘Mandela’ at the special price of £ 2 0 .9 9 with free between his generation and theirs, Mandela’s strong U K p&p call Literary Review Bookshop on 0181 324 5510 inclination towards reconciliation and consensus was or use ourform on page 55.

V a l e r ie P a k e n h a m the most extraordinary house in Africa: part Tuscan palace, part Lutyensesque Surrey mansion, complete with rose garden, clock tower and a whole English NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS village for his Bemba workmen. In 1981, I was lucky enough to be taken there by the T he A fr ic a H ouse British High Commissioner, a friend of Gore-Browne’s ★ daughter who had inherited the place. We arrived at By Christina Lamb night, having driven 400 miles across the bush from (Viking 256pp £16.99) Malawi. We made our way through this strange red-brick village lit only by cooking fires, and up an Z a m b ia , o n c e N o r t h e r n Rhodesia, never proved a imposing avenue o f cypresses to a tall house smothered magnet for white settlers in the same way as its southern in scented creepers. Gore-Browne’s daughter was away neighbour, Zimbabwe, or the highlands of Kenya, and and all was darkness and confusion. Then the generator certainly not for the more flamboyant aristocratic kind came on and the house creaked into light, revealing like Delamare or Finch Hatton. Its huge plains o f flat, faded Persian rugs, heavy Victorian furniture and pic­ scrubby savannah proved too uninviting and too tures, chandeliers, and mounted animals’ heads. Dinner tsetse-ridden, the kind of territory that coined the appeared as if by magic (I remember goose pate and hot mapmakers’ scrawl, ‘MMBA’ — Miles and Miles of toast swathed in white napery). After dinner, the High Bloody Africa. The one spectacular exception is the Commissioner led us to a magnificent library, set in the subject o f this book: Stewart Gore-Browne. centre o f the house, to show us a superb collection of Gore-Browne, who came out to Northern Rhodesia Africana, and we sank contentedly into leather arm­ just before the First World War to work on the Border chairs by the fire. It was a scene that might have come Commission dividing British from Belgian and from John Buchan’s novel, A Lodge in the Wilderness. Portuguese colonies, had taken a liking to its huge skies Christina Lamb was taken to Shiwa fifteen years later and its Bemba people (‘so masculine, proud and loyal’), by Gore-Browne’s grandson. The rooms were still fur­ and decided to stay. He trekked north, retracing nished, but inhabited only by bats and spiders, the floor­ Livingstone’s last journey in reverse, and, on Good boards were rotting, and damp had spotted the first editions Friday 1914, discovered his ideal place, a sapphire-blue in the library. Her sharp writers eye spied another treasure lake ringed with wooded hills: Shiwa Ngandu. The trove: a carved Zanzibari chest, crammed with name means ‘Lake o f the Royal Crocodiles’ (cursed by thousands o f letters in neat black copperplate, many of Livingstone after the crocodiles devoured his pet dog). them opening ‘Dearest’ and signed ‘SGB’, and on the After the war, Gore-Browne returned there to farm wall behind, shelves filled with leather-bound journals (hoping to make a living from essential oils) and to build and estate books going back to 1922. Gore-Browne was

------LITERARY REVIEW June 1999 SA Flambe and Other Recipes For Disaster Derek Bauer

David Philip, Cape Town, vi + 106pp., 1989, R25.95,086486 130 3

Readers of the Weekly Mail will be familiar with Derek Bauer’s cartoons. This is a collection of the best from 1985-87. The style is in the Ralph Steadman tradition, ratchety scribbles spat­ tered with blobs and blots of ink as though from a loaded pen jabbed viciously at the paper. With those he despises he succeeds magnificently — Savimbi, Ollie North and Terre’Blanche. He is less successful in portraying tragedy, and tributes to Steve Biko, Ashley Kriel and Molly Blackburn are, in my opinion, unmemorable. But there is no doubt about his ability. He draws marvellously and possesses what Anton Harber, co-editor of the Weekly Mail, describes as ‘the rare, but essential, combination of drawing skill and emotional disturbance ... (he) is undiscriminating. He will be tasteless, cruel, rude, obnoxious to Leftwingers, Rightwingers, Middle-of-the-Roaders and probably even Mother Teresa’. Perhaps in this respect he sets his targets too wide. His is a style and attitude not to everyone’s liking. I found much of this collection very funny, undoubtedly clever and truly vicious. I suppose that makes him an ace cartoonist. Hilda Bernstein

February/May 1990 SOUT Resistance Art in South Africa by Sue Williamson

David Philip, Cape Town, 0 86486 124 9; Catholic Institute of International Relations, London, 159pp., 1990, £9.99,1 85287 061 3 4 Much of the woik in this collection is more an expression of apartheid violence and repression than a depiction of resistance. In this respect it at least avoids what I call the clenched-fist syn­ drome in South African art and poetry. The book presents us with small samples of the work of no more than 150 artists, and inevitably they are glimpses at the artists’ work rather than a representative depiction. The form of the work is wide-ranging, from metal sculpture and photo-etching to T-shirts and pho­ tographs of the short-lived peace parks constructed in the townships in 1985. Each artist’s work is accompanied by a short comment by Sue Williamson that clarifies the artist’s intentions. This is sometimes very necessary, as for example in the painted wood construction ‘Mayday’ by Angela Ferreira, which seemed totally abstract until I read the text. When art becomes too sophisticated and subtle it closes itself off from those it purportedly seeks to reach. Much of the work is disturbing; some very powerful, as in Vuyile Cameron Voyiya’s lino- cuts, and the work of Gary van Wyk and Manfred Zylla. And some tantalizingly beautiful, as Sfiso ka Mkame’s ‘Letters to God’. As with novelists the South African artist cannot produce work unrelated to the over-riding turmoil, oppression and revolt that tears at the country and bums into the consciousness of all. John Muafangejo, who died last year, has summed it up in seven words. ‘A deeply religious man’, Sue Williamson writes, ‘the conflicts between the Church and the State, the violence which beset his land, the racial prejudices of society and his own desire for reconciliation are all reflected in his prints.’ Denying that his work was political, Muafangejo once replied ‘It is the world which is political.’ Hilda Bernstein REVIEWS* Edited by Tamara Philipps

THE APARTHEID HANDBOOK by Roger Omond Penguin £3-95

This is the second edition of Roger Omond's 'Guide to South Africa's Everyday Racial Policies', and brings it as up to date as it is possible in a changing situation. It is an essential handbook for everybody, as useful for those who think they know all about apartheid as it is for those who are ignorant but curious. For all active anti­ apartheid campaigners, it is indispensable. Its great merit is its access­ ibility. The facts about South Africa are set out clearly and simply in question and answer form, and under headings that i cover every aspect of political, legal, social and cultural life. To choose his section headings at random: Housing, Removals, Transport, Beach Apartheid, Crime, Police, National and Local Government; these give some idea of the wide range covered. Keep this book in your pocket or bag, refer tp it often. Highly recommended.

Hilda Bernstein 10 A \ n /£& < _

reported to their home governments committed anti-fascists into the as the basis for further contact. ranks, but also the alliance with For anyone who is interested in the Soviet Union and the strongly BOOK political nature of the war forced this line of advance for us, in the Labour and Peace movement, this the authorities to reorganise and REVIEWS book is absolutely essential expand the Army educational reading and for future reference. se rv ic e s. Edltad by An explosion of discussion and Tony Benn MP d eb ate follow ed. Not since the Tamara Philipps establishment of Cromwell's New ************************ Model Army in 1646 had there been NON-ALIGNMENT IN AN AGE ************************ such an army openly discussing OF ALIGNMENT ZORA NEALE HURSTON political issues, a Citizen's Army A W Singham & Shirley Hune capable of waging a People's War a literary biography - at least for the duration, until, Lawrence Hill Robert E Hemenway like Cromwell, Churchill took fright ZED Books 420pp with index Camden Press £7.95 an<* clamped down on such appendices and bibliography activities. An exciting outcome ot tne hb £20.95, pb £7.95 In the meantime, much had to be feminist movement has been the done to obliterate, for the time This sympathetic and scholarly "discovery" of creative women being, the miasma of lies and book, written by two professors whose lives have been buried by hostility which had been spread from New York, is a formidable, neglect and by male historians, against the USSR. The Army Bureau one-volume encyclopoedia of critics and writers. of Current Affairs circulated information about the non-aligned I had never heard of Zora Neale hundreds of thousands of factual movement which originated with the Hurston until 1 read this bio­ impartial pamphlets for discussion Bandung Conference in 1955 and graphy. 1 immediately went to buy at compulsory classes held by now numbers over a hundred novels (now re-published). It was every unit for an hour a week. member states. doubly easy to conceal her life That was a gift from the gods for Today the Movement, which has and her work - she was female all anti-fascists in the forces, and been widely ignored, distorted and and she was black. this excellent book records some of misrepresented by the West, is an Zora Hurston was not only a gifted the more remarkable developments. important centre of thought and writer; she was an anthropologest, Thanks to the author, they have action in a world that we are a critic, and a folklorist in an not been lost, for he has had to assume will,forever,be dominated untapped field: Afro-American many interviews with participants by the superpowers. folklore, the first black person in such events as the Forces The authors have provided a with her background and talents to Parliament in Cairo. He has woven comprehensive account of the undertake the collection of such a story showing that the examples principles, structure and history fo lk lo re . of the International Brigade in of this movement, and then go on She was also a strikingly Spain and the fighting quality of to analyze the various Summit independent, colourful, flamboyent the Soviet forces were not lost on meetings which have been held personality whose pride in her the British soldier. They analyze the politics of blackness and intimate connection collective resistance, and of with the rural South never left Hymie Fagan Liberation, which have emerged her; one of a group of brillant from these conferences, and deal black writers of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance. with the demand for a New World In her later years she became a Economic Order, and their attempt ************************ to free themselves from the control right-wing Republican, her ************************ of the Western media, as well as conservatism arising in part from with specific questions like her dislike of the Communist Party, DEATH OF THE RAINBOW Palestine,Namibia and South Africa. and from her own individualism, "almost a kind of egotism". She WARRIOR Michael King The statements and declarations died in a county poorhouse, alone, made have given these countries a Penguin £3.95 ill and impoverished.At her funeral common position, which has also the minister said:"She didn't come Everybody knows about the been the basis of their work at the to you empty ... The Miami paper breaking up of the 'Rainbow United Nations, to which they are Warrior'. But few know that all resolutely committed. said she died poor. But she died rich. She did something." Moruroa means "Place of great Most recently the linkage of secrecy. Again, few know all the Disarmament and Development has A finely-researched, fascinating b io g ra p h y . damage nuclear powers are doing connected the movement with the in the Pacific. Peace movements in Europe and the Hilda Bernstein In a prefatory chapter we learn USA, and may well pave the way how the islanders of Rongelap were for a strong demand for non- used, first unintentionally, then alignment as the basis of future ************************ intentionally, as guinea-pigs in policy for our Left and the Trade ************************ the US hydrogen bomb test at Union movements, against the Bikini Atoll back in 1954. Imperialist forces which have tried THE DAYS OF THE GOOD On its 1985 v o y a g e ,th e 'R ainbow to de-stabilize so many of these SOLDIERS Richard Kisch Warrior' paused to evacuate those c o u n trie s. Journeyman £6.95 people from their irradiated After the meeting that took place island. Greenpeace's main object, at the House of Commons, in July, The Second World War saw some of course, was to prevent further to launch a campaign for non- remarkable changes, one of the French tests in the South Pacific. alignment in Britain, letters were most remarkable being the emer­ But Greenpeace was not the only sent to all the ambassadors and gence of a political army from the organisation interested in French high commissioners in London from womb of the rigid reactionary nuclear tests. The DGSE in Paris countries that are members of the British military machine nurtured had already organised infiltration non-aligned movement, on the eve on colonial repression and terror. into New Zealand’s Greenpeace and of the recent Harare summit in There were, basically, two reasons had arranged for three teams of Zimbabwe, and these were all for this. Not only had conscription secret agents to carry out the warmly acknowledged and then brought tens of thousands of bombing of Rainbow Warrior. 11 very circumspect in dealing first published in 1964, and with the Buddhist culture in revised in 1969, the information BOOK the greater part of the country provided ends nearly twenty but they built roads and a years ago. So much has railway, introduced the tele­ changed in those years in REVIEWS graph, telephones, radio and every field that figures Edited by newspapers, established provided, and information about industrial installations and repressive laws, need much up­ Tamara Philipps hospitals and organised secular dating. Every aspect of the education and associations legal, social, political and " The Making of Modern Tibet?' designed to raise political economic life in South Africa by A Tom Grunfeld, consciousness. has undergone immense change; Zed Books Ltd 1987. After resistance and a revolt in addition, tables on earnings Hp £22. pb £7.95 in 1959 in which the CIA was military spending, education, probably involved, however, the etc, are valid for their time, To most people in the western Chinese got tough and during but not for now. world, Tibet is a little-known the Cultural Revolution from This does not invalidate the land of remote towering mount­ 1966, most of the 2000-2500 book as a whole; it has plenty ains, shrouded in myths and monasteries were destroyed and of fascinating material for the mysteries, compounded of a campaign was pursued to historian and the researcher. memories of the film version of eliminate Tibetan dress and But 1 am not sure why it has James Hilton's novel "Lost culture and ancient religious been republished without Horizon" and Shangri-la, rare writings. This was largely further up-dating at the references to its unusual responsible fbr tens of present time. Buddhist leader, the Dalai thousands of Tibetans fleeing Lama, and alleged sightings of the country. Hilda Bernstein the "abmoninable snowman". Today the Chinese authorities "ASKING FOR TROUBLE" To date, there has been no are seeking to make amends (Autobiography of a banned serious post Second World-War and achieve reconciliation. journalist) study of the people and their Tom Grunfeld details all this by Donald Woods. Penguin. history in English, which can in a dispassionate and pain­ Paperback 364 pp. £3.95p be regarded as comprehensive staking form. This is truly a and balanced, to compare with splendid book which makes Most people interested in the Tom Grunfeld's book. At £7.95, fascinating reading and anti apartheid movement will the paper back is an outstand­ abounds with lessons fbr those know of Donald Woods. A fifth ing bargain for anyone genuinely concerned with the generation South African, editor interested in the course of liberation of oppressed and for 12 years of the Daily Dis­ Tibetan history from its exploited peoples. 4 . patch, one of the country's beginnings, in the scramble longest established newspapers , he was finally forced (in 1977) between the imperialist powers Stan Newens. for the Far East or the to leave the country illegally development of the Chinese THE RISE OF THE SOUTH (disguised as a clergyman!) People's Republic and its AFRICAN REICH. V ” 7 This book, first published policies towards historic Brian Bunting, International in 1980, tells the story of a Chinese territories, inhabited Defence and Aid. £6. liberal and humane man who by distinct nationalities. was brought up among blacks In 1950, Tibet came into the This meticulously documented and had great affection for headlines with the news of its book traces the rise of the them but accepted more or less takeoverr by the Chinese ideology that has enforced and without question that they had People's Liberation Army. extended apartheid, explaining to be "kept in their place". Whether this is held to have how and why the Nationalist He grew up among the Bomvana been justified by long-standing Party, representing one section tribesmen in the Transki Terri­ historic links or not, any idea of the white minority, has been tory, one of the tribal reserv­ that the country was Ruritanian able to take and hold power. ations far from the big cities. bliss is dispelled by Tom There is a brief but clear A white child among tens of Grunfeld's account. historical background and a thousands of Bomvanas, he Land was owned by Buddhist fUll account of the role played spoke Xhosi as well as he monasteries, the lay nobility by the leaders of the present spoke English. and the Government, while the regime during World War 2. His family was well off and majority of the population were Brian Bunting explains how, originally he was destined to illiterate serfe, living in filth, after ooming to power in 1948, be a lawyer, but after complet­ squalor and ignorance. VD and they were able to eliminate ing his training found journal­ g astro-intestinal diseases were opposition and cement the rac­ ism more acceptable. Like many very common and leprosy took ial basis of society in every of the best journalists he its toll, while medicine field, through laws based on started at the bottom. Donald consisted of bloodletting, an ideology of total discrimin­ Woods is a fine writer and has exorcisms, the use of herbs and ation and reaction (e.g. a keen nose for news. He also "holy" spittle, urine and "Native education should be has a highly developed sense excrement. A survey of eastern based on the principles of of humour. That's why this Tibet in 1940 showed 75% of trusteeship, non-equality and book would be a fine present households ate grass cooked segregation. Its aim should be for anyone who has any doubts with cow bones and mixed with to incalcate the white man's about the iniquities of aparth­ oat or pea flour at times. view of life, especially that eid. Donald Woods, with his | Torture and mutilation were of the Boer nation which is the background and training and used to punish crime. senior trustee.") interest in politics, could have- Until 1959, the Chinese were However, as the book was become part of the South Afric-

N '1 { o \ v > +

SWEETNESS AND POWER - THE PLACE OF SUGAR IN MODERN HISTORY. by Sidney M intz. Penguin. £3-95

"Sugar was the corner-stone of British West Indian slavery and the slave trade, and the enslaved Africans who produced the sugar were linked in clear economic relationships to the British labouring people who were learning to eat it." "Sweetness and Power" should become compulsory reading for students of imperialism and the British Empire in its heyday. While sugar was not really WOMEN OF THE CARIBBEAN. introduction to a wider reading of resource material, which is exchanged in the U.K. but sold Edited by Pat Ellis. listed in the appendix. for profit by the plantation pro­ Zed Books. £5-95p prietors, it is also a fact that Hilda Bernstein nearly everything consumed in If you skip the introduction the West Indian colony came from (interesting facts boringly pre­ England. Finished goods were sented - you can always come sold to Africa, African slaves back to it later) you will find, were sold to America and in in readable short chapters, turn sugar was exported to the absorbing glimpses into the ARGENTINA - FROM ANARCHISM Mother country and to her Euro­ lives of Caribbean women. TO PERON1SM. by Ronaldo Munck pean neighbours who imported The picture that is received, with Ricardo Falcon & Bernardo from England. of the prejudices, disabilities Galitelli: Zed Books, hb £27.95 In this triangle trade, mill­ and early role-training that pb £8.95. ion s of huiran b ein g s were tr e a t­ operate against women, is too ed as comncdities. depressingly familiar. But there Latin America is still studied But the history of sugar does are, of course, other dimensions. serious by too few Europeans. not begin with imperialism. The The history of the region, of Most non-Latin Americans rarely author traces it to a Sanscript slavery and colonialism, of the look beyond a hazy scenario of manuscript of around 350 BC to attitudes and moral concepts that dictators punctuated by guerr­ the present day. lt was also are perpetuated, are extra burd­ illas and coups, or are aware an additive to a multitude of ens that all Caribbean society of the social and economic sub­ products to the dismay of an and particularly the women, strata underneath. Even before ever increasing number of carry on their backs. The Galtieri's junta, the real Argen­ d ie te r s. chapter on violence against tina - a large industrialised From a very luxurious beginn­ women - rape, incest, assault, and politicised nation - was too ing in the 13th century in Eng­ sexual harassment - shows clear­ seldom viewed beneath snapshots land when sugar was only con­ ly how such crimes, that are such as the tragi-comic mask sumed in the Royal Household not unknown in the Western of E v ita . and the top aristocracy, it be­ world, are exacerbated by the This book - although not one came by the mid 20th century customs and prejudices that have for the general reader - is the a necessity and staple diet of been part of the history and best study to date of the polit­ the working class. way of life of the Caribbean, ics of Argentina's unions and Sugar unlike most other agri­ lt does seem to me that under­ industrial workers between 1855 cultural products, is not just standing why colonial oppression snf 1985. sown and harvested, lt has to has produced such violence Earlier in the last century, be produced, thus during the against women by men (bolstered after slavery had been abolished sugar harvest, sugar mills oper­ by their need to present a macho in 1813, a census nine years ated increasingly, and the lab­ image) does not necessarily make later recorded that a quarter our requirements were horrend­ it any easier for the women to of the population was black. ous, slaves faced hard and cruel confront. * Today there is virtually no factory disciplines which are The problems of women are as black face, and hardly any described by many contemporary fundamental as they are uni­ Indian ones, to be seen in the travellers. versal, states one of the contri­ whole of Argentina: a disturbing The only criticism which could butors, but the women of the book remains to be written on be made of this immensely fact­ Caribbean face a multiplicity the reasons to explain this, ual and informative book is that of challenges. Some of these which are not dealt with here. it does not tell enough about seem to echo those facing women What this book does do is to the life of the actual producers in South Africa: domestic workers chronicle in some detail how both at the beginning and in there, as in the Caribbean, are Peron skilfully manipulated the our tim e. situated at the point where the immigrant white workers, beneath In spite of this criticism, no lines of sex, race and class his rhetoric creating "unionism reader will remain unmoved by oppression converge. from above" and a pliant union this enthusiastic and knowledge­ History, labour, women huck­ leadership; and how the middle able critic of imperialism who sters and entrepreneurs, the classes gave facile approval as spent a lifetime on his subject. family, education, culture - the price to be paid for keeping these are among the many themes communism suppressed. Bridget Nicolson with which the book deals, lt thus provides an intriguing Ben Whitaker. Published by Liberation 490 Printed by RAP Ltd., 201 Spotland Rd., Rochdale, Lancs. OL12 7AF u Escape From Pretoria, by Tim Jenkin (£10 hardback, £5 paperback) KLIPTOWN BOOKS is a true story that reads like a thriller. Three political prisoners escaped from one of South Africa’s top security by Hilda Bernstein prisons, making their way through tional Defence and Aid Fund for fourteen locked doors. It is more than lt is precisely the right moment, a Southern Africa (IDAF) in August, has a contemporary ‘Colditz’ story, s of burgeoning creativity in South started life with the publication of however, it also charts the conversion U Africa, that is already finding outletsthree books of high social and literary of a typical young white racist to his in the fields of music and the theatre interest. deep involvement in the liberation and increasingly in poetry and fiction In addition this is also a time when struggle. This one, I predict, will by black writers. It is a time when art there is recognition of the need for become a best seller. is ever more commercialised and more flexibility in applying the cultural MY FIGHT AGAINST APARTHEID becoming dependent on the finance of boycott to South Africa. The boycott by Michael Dingake (£10 hardback, £6 the market place, and for that reason policy has proved to be a strong and paperback) is autobiography, and total­ the ethics of the market place — a Saat- legitimate weapon against apartheid, ly absorbing. Dingake was bom in chi and Saatchi of contemporary bringing about changes in attitudes and Botswana, but spent his adult life in respectability. policies in the field of sports and (as South Africa. His activities in the bann­ A further factor is the ever- recently shown by Barclays Bank,) in ed, underground ANC resulted in 15 increasing necessity to widen the economic field. The ultimte success years imprisonment on Robben Island; understanding of the nature of the of the policy will be when mandatory his account of the other prisoners, of South Africa struggle, to reach a wider sanctions are applied. The cultural their joint struggles is told with audience than those who study the fac­ boycott must still operate in respect of humour and with power. tual material. And Kliptown Books artists from other countries who per­ A TOUGH TALE, by Mongane Wal- comes, for English-speaking readers, at form, or allow the performance of their ly Serote (S3) is a powerful and mov­ a time when the withdrawal from works to segregated audiences, but it ing poem by a South African poet who reality among writers is making the was never intended as a weapon has already published several collec­ Gothic-domestic novel the delight of against the development of culture tions of poetry, and one novel. publishers and critics. among the people. Culture within The name of the new publishing .--''As the airports, newsstands and bran- Southern Africa has moved on from h o u se, Kliptown Books, com ­ ' ches of Smiths’ fill up with more and the export of shows like Ipi-lbm bi, to memorates the Congress of the Peoples more gold and silver embossed covers a great burst of creativity of the in 1956 where the Freedom Charter of heavily-hyped ‘best-sellers’ it is revolutionary people, and the spread was adopted as the policy of the libera­ welcome news when an independent, of true South African culture needs to tion movement. The congress was held radical publishing company (an en­ be enlarged. at a small place outside Johannesburg dangered species) is announced. Klip- The first three Kliptoum Books are — Kliptown. „ town Books, launched by the Interna­ an augury of good things to come. Hilda Bernstein

PUBLISHING LIBERATION LITERATURE ON SOUTH AFRICA AND NAMIBIA______

MY FIGHT AGAINST APARTHEID Michael Dingake. 256 pp Must. £5 (pb) £10 (hb). Imprisoned for 15 years on Robben Island in 1965, Michael Dingake in his autobiography clearly reveals, with humour and political insight, how his whole life has been bound up with the struggle for liberation in South Africa.

ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA Tim Jenkin. 256 pp Must £5 (pb) £10 (hb). In 1979 three political prisoners caused a sensation in South Africa when they broke out of Pretoria Central Prison. This is their incredible story, told by one of the escapees

A TOUGH TALE Mongane Watty Serote. 48 pp. £3

Internationally acclaimed as one of South Africa's foremost liberation poets, Serote, in this his latest work, has written an extraordinarily powerful poem which depicts the protracted and bitter struggle against apartheid .... and the fighting spirit of the people. The causes of the crisis include BLACK AND GOLD: Tycoons, \ ( g l deforestation; land clearance for crop cultiva­ Revolutionaries and Apartheid. tion and industrial development; rising by Anthony Sampson. populations and the use of trees for timber Hodder & Stoughton, £12.95. production. The problem has been increas­ ed in many countries by State policies. BOOK Anthony Sampson writes with more intimate The crisis mainly affects the poor, who knowledge than many “ experts” . Fascinated are dependent on free woodfuel as their on­ by the relationship between corporations and ly source of energy for cooking and heating. REVIEWS politics, he traces the role of Western multi­ Edited by Depleted sources mean that women, who are nationals inside and outside South Africa in the main collectors of wood, now spend sustaining Apartheid. longer to gather it as they have to travel fur­ His book traces the parallel rise of the Tamara Philipps ther afield, so they have insufficient fuel to black nationalist movement and the role of cook food properly, increasing malnutrition the corporations. He shows how “ construc­ in their families. tive engagement” — investment and ETHIOPIA’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST Improvements in wood-burning stoves economic improvement — did not and will FAMINE is one means of reducing fuel consumption, not in themselves lead to peaceful change and but they have rarely been a success when in­ the achievement of black rights. by John Clarke troduced. In general, technology has been in­ This is a clear-eyed look at the realities Harney and Jones £3.00. troduced without a proper understanding of of the South African situation. As the choices local needs. The women who use the stoves become harsh, mythologies clash with The Western nations who congratulated were not consulted on design or instructed realities. True, the Afrikaners have nowhere themselves for donating a mere fraction of in their use and so have reaped few benefits. else to go; but for that reason they must in their prosperity to the victims of drought and Due to the fact that stoves involve capital the end face reality and compromise as the famine, in Ethiopia have ignored the expenditure but give no financial reward, the colonists never did. courageous and radical measures taken by the men who control finance do not see the Sampson concludes that there is a crucial Ethiopians themselves. benefits for the women, saving time and role for Western corporations that choose to The U.S. and British governments refus­ energy, or the improvement in nutrition, so stay (he feels that disinvestment in itself is ed to give long-term aid to permanent solu­ a purely negative policy.) He believes that they prefer to spend money elsewhere. tions to the problem of hunger in the coun­ emergency laws and the clampdown on news Fuel supply can also be improved by try, and condemned the Ethiopian govern­ may give the appearance of success for some tree-planting, but once again lack of com­ ment for its highly creative survival scheme time, but no military strategy can succeed munication between innovators and users has of resettling thousands of people from the without winning hearts and minds — and to­ often resulted in failure. Where the whole drought-torn north of the country in the more day it is not only black hearts and minds that community has been involved, particularly fertile and less populated territories of the are rebellious, but those of many ad­ where land is held communally, these south-west. ministrators, theologians and executives who schemes have worked well, providing not on­ The story of this huge resettlement is set cannot contemplate a permanent military ly fuel wood but also plants. out in clarity and detail by John Clarke. solution. I would recommend this book to anyone He considers the insulting and often con­ I found this a wise and perceptive book, studying the subject who wants to understand temptuous criticisms of resettlement by written in a readable, anecdotal manner. It Western detractors, then answers them by the crisis and change the situation. deserves a place on any library shelf. describing objectively the process of this huge movement of people, the struggling to Franqui Wolf. Hilda Bernstein carve out new homes at the other end of their massive country. The task before the government’s Relief and Rehabilitation Committee was for­ midable. Three to four million people would need to be moved from the stricken region before 1994, they calculated. FURNITURE, TIMBER AND ALLIED TRADES UNION This book describes events that con­ stitute a true human epic, and tells frankly of the future being constructed in the present. For the Ethiopian people’s brave challenge to the mass hunger which is the scourge of Africa may yet create a solution despite U.S. scorn, where few in Europe had the vision to see its possibilities. © Chris Searle. FT AT greets all Trade Unionists campaigning for peace and social progress

COLD HEARTHS AND BARREN SLOPES: The Woodfuel Crisis in the Colin A. Christopher Phil Davies Third World General Secretary President by Bina Agarwal Zed Press. Hb £18.95. Pb. £66.95. "Fairfields” Roe Green This well researched book examines fuel Kingsbury sources comes to the conclusion that wood LONDON NW9 OPT is the most viable source of energy in the Tel: 01-204 0273 developing world today. 11

I Liberation January 1988 page 11 V , 4 such a valuable publication Liberation Book Reviews for parents, teachers, students - for anyone - that I edited by Tamara Philipps wish to draw attention to it. It is a 64 page book in DIVIDED FAMILIES The cases of the 21 Bengali and the bantusan policy from magazine format dealing families currently battling in its inception in the 1950’s. with the youth resistence in Ranjit Sondhi the courts for the right for The second examines forced South Africa in the decade Runnymede Press £2.95 their families to remain and removals through the 1976 to 1986, using news be housed in Britain is a application of the pass laws, cuttings, poems, Commonwealth citizens who clear example of how the with many examples of the photographs, cartoons and settled in Britain before 1973 social and racial structures system and of influx control. factual information were apparently guaranteed are resolute in barring loved The third deals with urban presented in a visually the right to bring their ones from reconciliation. removals, the determination attractive and lively manner. dependents to Britain to This book which updates the to enforce segregation and The material is intended for settle. This was in law on immigration will help division and turn all workers use in middle, upper accordance with the 1981 the labour and trade union into migrants, the conflicts secondary and further Immigration Act. This book movement to put the fight created by Crossroads and education across a range of addresses, among other against racist immigration other squatter camps. The humanities subjects. It is a issues, the clause in the Act controls at the top of the fourth examines rural resource material designed which states that incoming political agenda. removals; the eviction of to stimulate ideas and dependents must not rely for labour tenants and the research and includes a support on public funds. Amanda Mensah seizure of freehold land by variety of activities. Excellent Since the rise of the clearance of ’black spots’. for students and teachers, unemployment in Thatcher’s The final chapter is titled lively and stimulating, every Britain, many citizens from FORCED REMOVAL Popular Resistence and New parent should get a copy. Africa and the Indian Elaine Unterhalter State Strategies, showing Non parents also. sub-continent have found how opposition to forced themselves among the newly IDAF £5 Hilda Bernstein. removals has become unemployed. Many are In South Africa it is called increasingly linked to the forced to remain in low paid ’resettlement’. But the four demand for full political and menial jobs in order to ON CALL million people who have rights as hopelessness demonstrate that they can been uprooted from their becomes anger and State Political Essays by June support their families. homes and communities polices, accompanied by Jordan This book analyses how since 1948 have been economic recession, iead to British racist practices Pluto Press £4.50 subjected to a violent and greater brutality and continue to segregate black brutal process which can repression. Black American poet June families. Parallels are drawn have no parallel except in The book is meticulously Jordan writes politics like it between the present countries where people are researched, with statistical matters to people, in these immigration polices the victims of war. information in the form of short passionate jabs against developed through Various studies and research tables, a summary of all laws T he monster on our backs" legislative, administrative projects have focused on this relating to removals, and an her politics go from the and bureaucratic systems staple of the apartheid extensive bibliography. personal - anti-racist and and the forced family system from Cosmos Forced removals are not a feminist - but do not evade separation during slavery. Desmond’s The Discarded mere ideological offshoot of the global. Throughout these The author documents the People, published by apartheid but an intrinsic essays, she challenges effects of the Entry Penguin in 1971, to the part of the whole system. progressive America - and Clearance Certificate system massive five volume Surplus Highly recommended. black Americans in with the direct experiences Project published in South particular - to face the moral of many Asian families. In Africa in 1983. The present personal imperative of many cases the British THE CHILD IS NOT book, while utilising material opposing Reagan and all he passport holder is forced to DEAD published in the past, stands for, and to reclaim the brief their incoming relatives develops some of the ideas banner of those who are with the correct responses to Compiled by Anne taking into consideration the truly ’pro-life’ and ’freedom the interrogation by Entry Harries, Roger Diski, major shifts in the balance of fighters’. But she is not only Clearance Officers. This Alasdair Brown. forces supporting apartheid. oppositional - she sustains a puts enormous pressure on Learning Resources There are five chapters; the vision of the New World as it them and often entails Branch of ILEA and the first deals with the history, should have been, expensive and time British Defence and Aid which shows how forced multi-racial and truly consuming journeys, for Fund. £2.95. removals have developed out democratic and free from example, across rural areas Although not new - it was of economic considerations the class and race of the Punjab. published in 1986 - this is LIBERATION BOOK REVIEWS THE THATCHER YEARS edited by Tamara Philipps Latin America Bureau (£2.95) GATSHA BUTHELEZI - Chief with a double agenda British Government policy on Latin America since 1979 has either coincided with US policy - or it has MZALA (Zed Books, £24.95 hb, £7.95pb) been subservient to it. The few occasions when there Peaceful protest in South Africa was virtually has been a clash of views - Grenada was one - have outlawed earlier this year when the most far-reaching done nothing to disturb this apparent harmony. bans were imposed on 17 organisations, including Meanwhile we have been increasingly out of step the United Democratic Front. It is illegal for the 17 with our EEC partners. organisations to call for the release of any detainees In the years since 1979, Latin American affairs have or political prisoners. But the organisation led by made a greater impact on the British public. Pre Chief Gatsha Buthelezi - Inkatha - does not fall 1979, only Chile had ‘registered’ as a country of under these restrictions. Inkatha held a mass meeting political significance for Britain, and that largely within of, it is claimed, 40,000 people, and Buthelezi called the labour movement and the left. Since then, for the release of Nelson Mandela. (The release Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Grenada and of Mandela Campaign is among the 17 restricted course, Argentina and the Falklands/Malvinas, have organisations.) all impressed themselves on a previously mostly To many, the role of Buthelezi is a perplexing one. unaware people. Unaware up to and including the He is the one leading person publicly claiming to be Foreign office and Cabinet, whose inability to opposed to apartheid who has chosen to work from understand or take Argentinian politics seriously was within the system. He is head of the KwaZulu to cost 1,000 lives and still costs Britain £100 million bantustan, but he is opposed to the bantustan annually. system. He is opposed to the policies and tactics of The debt crisis - a crisis for the Western banking the African National Congress, but has adopted the system perhaps, but chiefly for the Latin American flag, colours and uniform of the ANC for his own poor - is also still with us, and perhaps more than followers. He is a self-proclaimed ‘man of peace’, any other issue demands campaigning for a popular firmly opposed to violence, but he has not acted to solution. This booklet usefully summarises the main curb the deadly violence and terror unleashed by areas of British policy towards the continent, with Inkatha against all those who do not support them. chapters on Argentina, Chile, Central America, the He says he supports peaceful protests such as debt crisis and others, with overviews by Hugh consumer boycotts but Inkatha refused to support O’Shaunnessy and Judith Hart. It makes a clear case the boycotts in 1985 when people all over South for changing British policy, to our own benefit as well Africa were drawn into the campaigns. as that of democracy, peace and progress in Latin Buthelezi claims six million followers. He is America. undoubtedly a man of intellect and personality and Quentin Given bears no resemblance to other bantustan chiefs, such as Mangope and Mantanzima. He is a complex A LANGUAGE IN COMMON character, and his policies and organisation present a Marion Molteno challenge to those struggling against apartheid both inside and outside South Africa. (The Women’s Press, £3.95) This book, therefore, is essential reading for anyone For Marion Molteno, a language in common means concerned with the problems of the anti-apartheid much more than the common knowledge of a struggle. It is excellently researched, and full of language, with the intricacies of words, pronuncia­ illuminating information. It deals with the role of tion, idiom and syntax, important as all that is so that Inkatha, and specifically uncovers the role of Inkatha people can communicate and - perhaps - vigilantes in relation to the apartheid state. Amongst understand one another. Even more important in this other things it explains very clearly the origins and delightful book, her first work of fiction, a language in policies of the proposed federalism and power- common means friendship: friendship based on sharing of blacks and whites in Natal, known as the mutual respect and support, mutual trust and the KwaZulu-Natal Indaba, the conference held in 1986 desire to make life better so that difficulties might be with the purpose of establishing Natal and KwaZulu defeated to make way for the shared happiness of as a single economic and administrative region. This shared achievement. is one of the most fascinating sections of the book. With sensitivity and perception, an endearing humour Hilda Bernstein. and freshness of expression, she tells us about the men and women, mostly women, of Asian origin who ,WH' he said, "you wouldn't have among all non-Jews, and the time the political events that / h r 6? had the Tet offensive", and Socialist and democratic trend thread through her life become it has been widely accepted which argued that anti­ here just background material that the psychological impact semitism was a political without any real relation to of the Tet offensive was such weapon used by reactionaries the context of the liberation that it became the turning to confuse and divide the struggle. Nancy Harrison gives point of the war - the p e o p le . Winnie Mandela's life the same beginning of the end. The latter vitfws held that superficial treatment; despite The Tunnels of Cu Chi is because of this, anti-semitism the many exciting, traumatic an authoritative and well was not a threat to Jews and almost incredible researcched account of life in alone, but to all democrats episodes. They are related, the tunnels, from which therefore the widest possible but with no real depth, nor attacks were continually unity of all should be built linked with the general launched against the American to defeat it. s itu a tio n . bases immediately above them. The Jewish "establishment" In a few pages, the author The tunnels of Cu Chi were in the shape of the Jewish describes the detention and originally dug as hiding Board of Deputies, at first subsequent two trials of places for the Viet Minh, the cautioned Jews against getting Winnie Mandela and a number guerilla forces fighting the involved in action against the of others in 1969. The long French colonialists. emerging fascist organisations, imprisonment and interrogation The authors endeavour refusing to link fascism and constitues a most revealing throughout the book to relate anti-semitism. episode, not only of Winnie the exploits of 'heroes from But with the threats growing Mandela' s courage and both sides' making light of and provocations taking place ingenuity, but also of the the fact that whereas no in their own streets and whole group; and in addition, American tunnel rat would localities the "non establish­ of the methods of the Security remain in the tunnels after ment" Jewish organisations Police. The material is dark, but would return to the took action. In June 1936 a available, but scarcely used. comforts of life in a well conference was called by the Winnie Mandela is one of many equipped and well stocked Jewish Labour Council in outstandingly courageous black base, the Viet Cong would which the Jewish Workers women, but without doubt she remain in the tunnels not only Circle played a major part. has been subject to more for the night, but for weeks The high point of this severe and continuous on end, but for weeks on end, resistance in the East End persecution than most. Why is sometimes months with the was the famous "Battle of this so? A good biographer barest minimum of uncooked Cable Street" in which the would attempt to probe and to subsistence rations. Communist Party played a ask this and other questions. But in spite of the leading role. 1 observed during the Rivonia occasional lapses of prejudice With the increasing number Trial in 1964, when Nelson the book is intensely exciting, of racist attacks now taking Mandela was sentenced to life and brings vividly to life the place, the lessons of the imprisonment, that she was indomitable heroism and will 1930's are specially important singled out for special to win of the Vietnamese and for this reason this book attention, and it was quite people in their struggle for has particular relevance clear that the despicable independence and freedom. to d a y . Swanepoel, a crude torturer, had an ambivalent attitude JOAN K. McMlCHAEL-ASKINS SOLLY KAYE towards Winnie Mandela. There are explanations to these WINNIE MANDELA problems - but not in this Mother of a Nation b o o k . FACING UP TO ANTI-SEMITISM by Nancy Harrison Despite these shortcomings By David Rosenberg Victor Gollancz Price £8.95 and the excruciating style of JOARP P u b lic a tio n s £ 1 .5 0 writing, the book contains The subject of this biography fascinating material, especially In this booklet subtitled deserves a better and more after Winnie Mandela was "How the Jews of Britain perceptive writer. Clive Davis exiled to the 'black location' countered the threats of the in the New Statesman, says: (where she must still live) 30s", David Rosenberg presents "(Nancy Harrison) candidly outside Brandfort. Her us with an authoritative and admits that she lived most personal courage is immense; scholarly work about this of her life in South Africa her drive to help others, to period and particularly about without meeting a black person work in the community despite the reaction of Jews to these socially. She has brought to all the restrictions on her th r e a t s . this biography the breathless (she may not meet or talk to As a young East Londoner style which is the hallmark more than one person at a at the time, 1 well remember of Fleet Street women’s time) and her splendid the fierce arguments, the journalism at its worst, and achievements - all these are anger and frustration, the which reduces Winnie m oving a n d w o rth r e a d in g . So many and varied organisations Mandela's heroism and borrow the book from the set up with the aim of fortitude to the level of a library, but at the same time countering the dangers. Princess Diana fashion be aware that the books and Indeed, I joined one in f e a tu r e . " songs about the mothers and which two trends soon Although it would be daughters of South Africa are appeared - the Zionist trend impossible to write about still to be written. which sought to prove that Winnie Mandela without some anti-semitism was inherent political basis, at the same HILDA BERNSTEIN ID proved by observers far remove to his wife; a man betrays his lo­ Revered in his cwn country, he frcm the left. ver; a weman in an African township has also created great controversy He evades the reality tha': it performs an act of treachery to with his so-called Islamic 'revol­ is Reagan1 s administration that a man hiding in her home. ution1' and has made many enemies is preparing for nuclear war and The title story is a novella that at home and abroad. does not deal with the various reveals the true menace that lies Unfortunately little is known proposals for disarmament based over the apparently calm and pros­ about his role. He is an enigna cn equality and equal security perous white suburbs. A schoolboy and much that has been written trade by the Soviet Union. in a swimming pool, golfers sear­ about him deliberately mixes fact The questions Mr Galting does not ching for a ball, two lovers in with fiction. However, an Iranian answer are: Who is threatening war a parked car, catch glinpses of using a pseudonym has produced a and escalating the arms race for something - not human - seme kind book in an attempt to set the the benefit of the arms manufac ­ of escaped beast? While public and record straight. turers? Who is consistently press built ip the story 'out Ramy Nima. we are told, is a pressing for disarmament and in there: is a group of four pecple socialist vino is critical of Khom­ which country is there no profit two whites and two blacks,building eini :s regime, but vino believes in arms? the preparations to blow up a that the Left in his country must power station. The whites provide accept some of the responsibility GORDON SCHAFFER the cover for the trained sabo­ for the tide of reaction presently teurs. In sirrple strokes Nadine afflicting Iran. ********************** Gordimer creates each character. For example, he argues that the 'Mrs Naas Klopper was coming to­ only organised force, tine clergy, wards her through weeds, insteps provided the necessary leadership SOMETHING OUT THERE arched like proud fists under an to the peasantry and urban poor by Nadine Gordimer intricacy of narrow yellow straps, in the struggle to remove the Shah Jonathan Cape. £8.50 the bembe of hi'easts flashing gold in 1979. chains on blue pxolka dots Nima makes clear, however, that Khomeini was not a revolutionary Nadine Gordimer is a higJfLy-skilled She creates as well the sense and that he and his fellow mullahs professional artist, using words of menace that threatens the calm simply wanted to regain their to create her pictures of the pecple normality of white lives- 'igjnts and influence over the and life of her country, South Afri­ 'There was a surrmer storm coming Iranian pecple. ca. Her novels use a large canvas up, first the single finger of a Yet there is no doubting that which often seems to become too tree's branch paddling thick air, Iran's militant version of Islam congested with the multiplicity then the land expelling great of descriptive strokes; but her breaths in gusts, common brown was progressive in the early short stories are, in my opinion, birds flinging themselves wildly, stages, although this quickly her masterpieces, more delicate a raw, fresh-cut scent of rain gave way to an attack cn ethnic and sparing. falling somewhere else. So beauti­ and religious minorities, as well She is an observer,totally aware, ful, the terrperament of the earth. as on the Left in general. absorbing the Southern African Waiting, they saw the rain, dang­ My view of tine Wrath of Allah is scane and ccriposing it. not as it ling over the pale spools that were that it is txo superficial and has been in the past, but as it the power station towers.' predictable, and tine "analysis1' is today. This is why each new The 'pale spools' are the target raises more questions than it bock is truly contemporary. of the saboteurs. The story ends answers. But don't let that put There is a sense of betrayal with their dispersal, the death you off - this short book is still about four of the stories in this of one, and a round-Lp of many worth reading if you want to krow collection, yet each one also tou­ disparate facts that tie all the scmething about tine lead ip to ches you with a sad compassion. characters together, and to their "ecent events in Iran. At the Rendezvous of Vic­ ojn history. tory is a portrait of General An elimently readable and splen­ Giant Zwedu, whose leadership of did collection of stories. RON BROWN MP his guerillas in the bush helped bring his country to liberation HILDA BERNSTEIN - and who becomes redundant after victory. He sits at the constitu- ********************** ticnal talks, ’He wanted to go back - to his headquarters - heme but one of the conditions of the THE WRATH OF ALLAH cease-fire has bean that he would by RAMY NIMA be withdrawn from the field as Pluto Press. £3-95 the official term, coined in wars foi.ight over poppy-meadows, phrased Mention Iran these days and it.1 His story ringp with a bitter rightly or wrongly - most pecple familiar truth. In the other sto- irrmediately think of Ayatollah ries a husband betrays a promise Khomeini. ing. This difficulty is further increased Portuguese via the most southern part standing how the nation of Namibia if the subject of analysis is a of Africa and the first white settlements has been forged. (Today South Africa strategically, economically, and poli­ on the soil of South Africa. tries to split it into pieces again in its tically important country like Iran; It explains, with many cartoons desperate efforts to retain its illegal and if the writer has to rely on his and illustrations, the historical deve- sovereignty.)German rule ended in personal experience rather than valid ment in South Africa when land was 1918. An epilogue sums up the events documents to assess a particular event forcibly taken away from the Africans. since then. or institution. The present book is such Africans were not only made squatters While this is a scholarly work, the an undertaking; but with all its on their former land, they were forced numerous direct quantations from inevitable defects (the author wrote it to extract minerals for slave wages. German Imperial Colonial records- when in prison) it remains an infor­ They enabled the country to push into speeches, letters, directives - keeps the mative and readable book. Having the industrial age on profits generated account from being a mere dry said this, I should like to point out from the mines. The struggle of the collection of facts. To read these is to some of the most obvious of its oppressed people of South Africa took be overwhelmed by a sense of sorrow shortcomings. a new turn. The non white workers, and outrage, especially in the light of The assumption that during the oppressed people of South Africa took what is happening today. But it is Second World War “the principal a new turn. The non-white workers, recommended for all who want to contradiction in Iran was between landless and without any form of understand Africa today, and parti­ people and imperialism” and not, as property, were turned into farm cularly the last struggle that is now the Tudeh Party of Iran said at the labourers, factory workers, mine being waged by SWAPO (Namibia) time, between Nazism and all the anti- workers and domestic servants. and the ANC in South Africa. Nazi forces, is an erroneous one. And According to power to the People HILDA BERNSTEIN this leads to certain accusations, there emerged two sets of the oppres­ assumptions, and contradictions in the sed people; there were optimists and FACELIFT APARTHEID — SOUTH book, which the author has to justify pessimists. The optimists clung to the AFRICA AFTER SOWETO by Judy sometimes in the most naive manner. hope that liberal whites would prevail Seidman (IDAF. £1.20) Or, the assumption that during the in South Africa and that gradually This booklet of less than 100 period 1946-53 (the fall of Mosssaddeq) there would be acceptence of the pages, contains more than informa­ there was a deep-seated contradiction educated and culturally elite blacks tion than books many times its size. It between the British and U.S. Imperial­ into white society. The pessimists has been meticulously researched and ism in Iran, and that Mossaddeq believed that blacks would never win is set out with elegant clarity of style. successfully capitalised on this contra­ their country back without a fight. Each fragment of damning indictment diction, is, as the events have since For many years the optimists domina­ of apartheid is backed by unimpeach­ proved, a simplistic one. It not only ted African politics. They actually able source references, usually allow­ whitewashes Mossaddeq’s own erratic monopolized the leadership of the ing the spokesmen for the South approach to imperialism in general African National Congress (A.N.C.). African Establishment to condemn but it also papers over the subsequent It was not until the Afrikaners themselves out of their own mouths. failure of Mossaddeq (a national (white racists) began ruthlessly to Will the ‘new’ strategy of bourgeois) to realise a dream. So the implement apartheid that according to P.W.Botha, to create a black middle author chooses silence on why a Power to the People the A.N.C. began class, in order to blunt the struggle for democrarically elected leader was to listen to angry young members of its the liberation of the South African overthrown by the combined cons­ rank and file who had been calling people succeed? Whilst Dr. Piet piracy of the British and U.S. throughout the 1940s for a bold new Koomhof, the ironically titled Minister imperialism. programme of action. for Co-operation and Development, The author’s analysis of the class- Nelson Mandela became the declares that “apartheid is dead”, structure of the Iranian society is lucid leader of the reformed African Natio­ Desmond Tutu, Secretary-General of and fairly well-informed; but here, nal Congress. He was uncompromis­ the South African Council of too, the absence of valid and objective ing on the non-white demand for Churches, wryly remarks that they data produces grey areas of doupt and equality and freedom. For the first “want to see the corpse first”. subjectivity — inevitalbly so because time he successfully brought together Judy Seidman traces the recent the time (period of dictatorship) and under his leadership Indians, colour­ trends in South African government place (prison) of writing would have eds (people of mixed blood) and policy step by step and reveals that plus made it impossible to do the subject Africans, to form the non white united ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. more justice. So the book can only be national front against apartheid. This is essential reading and regarded as raw-material, informative EDWARD MKHOSI MOYO provides readily accessible informa­ enough to provide sufficient ground tion on the present day trends of South for a more comprehensive and objec­ LET US DIE FIGHTING by Horst African political life. It is most strong­ tive research. Drechsler. (Zed Press, £14.95 and ly recommended. M.SHAYA £4.95) LIPMANN KESSEL The author, an historian in the GDR, POWER TO THE PEOPLE! SOUTH has drawn upon German archives in THE CIMAROONS' by Robert Leeson AFRICA IN STRUGGLE! A Pictorial Potsdam for this unique account of (Collins £2.95) History by Peder Gouwenius. (Zed what colonial rule meant to Africa. It This book is compulsive, revealing Press. £4.50) is a factual and totally devastating and necessary. “Power to the People” is a pictorial record of the destruction of the people The Cimaroons was the name history of the struggling and oppres­ of what we now call Namibia. But at given to the runaway slaves of South sed people of South Africa from the the same time it is a history of the America-the slaves who had been second half of the fifteenth century to massive uprising of the people, and shipped over in their thousand upon the present day. It describes the search those who became leaders in that thousands from the coasts of Africa for a sea route to India by the struggle. It is invaluable in under­ and set to work on the plantations of

Collection Number: A3299 Collection Name: Hilda and Rusty BERNSTEIN Papers, 1931-2006

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