DOCSLIB.ORG

THE VOICE of YUSUF DADOO on WEDNESDAY 16Th JULY, 1952, Dr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE VOICE of YUSUF DADOO on WEDNESDAY 16Th JULY, 1952, Dr 1 3 $.I THE VOICE OF YUSUF DADOO ON WEDNESDAY 16th JULY, 1952, Dr.YUSUF MAHOMED DADOO, PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN CONGRESS, WAS SENTENCED BY A JOHANNESBURG MAGISTRATE TO 6 MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT WITH HARD LABOUR FOR ADRESSING A GATHERING IN CONTRAVENTION OF A NOTICE SERVED ON HIM BY THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE. BEFORE SENTENCE WAS PASSED, Dr.DADOO ADDRESSED THE COURT IN THESE WORDS :- AS A qualified medical practitioner I have been in practice for the last sixteen years and in this period I have striven to the best of my ability and in keeping with the ethics of the noble profession to which I have the honour to belong, to help in alleviating the physioal and mental ailments of my fellow South Africans, irrespective of race, colour or creed. During these years, more so then during my student days in London and Edinburgh, there hss been a growing realisation on my part of the fact that the major causes of the physical and mental ill-health of the vast majority of South Africans lie deep in the socio-economic conditions in vjhich people are made to live. By virtue of my professional activities I have b^en brought into very close contact with the lives of many people in our multi-racial community and I have found that the problems of public health and the well-being of the people have been aggravated to an alarming degree by the pernicious system of colour bars and racial discrimination which obtain in South Africa. It is shocking to realise thst this system has reduced the overwhelming majority of our population, namely the non-European people, to a state of chronic malnutrition, ill-health, illiteracy and poverty. Indeed, more than that, the stigma of racial inferiority has engendered in the minds of the nott-'White people not only frustration but a deep sense of resentment againat the whole fabric of society in which they are treated as sub-humans. As a South African of Indian origin I cannot be indifferent to the plight of the INDIAN people who constitute only 2%l of the South Africon population. They have, since the arrival of their forefathers in the sixties of the last century, contributed their full share to the devel­ opment and material progress of our country. This they have done in spite of a host of discriminatory laws which they have to encounter in every sphere of life. They do ncrt enjoy political rights of any kind, their freedom of movement from one province to another is strictly restricted. They are not allowed to do skilled work, the doors of the civil service are closed to them. The primary means of livelihood open to them is either to work as labourers in the sugar plantations or do unskilled or semi- : skilled work or become traders. Their rights of occupation and ownership are severely restricted. Poverty, unemployment and the diseases due to malnutrition are rife among them. Now the Group Areas Act ominously threatens their very existence. It is aimed at annihilating thorn economically, strangling their future and eventually forcing them out of the country. It is designed to rob them of their h o m e s ,properties, schools, temples, mosques and churches, built and acquired after years of herd toil and honest industry. The Indian people, and indeed all sections of the non-Europeans, face a bleak and miserable future in the group areas to be set aside for them in terms of this most obnoxious and highly unprincipled law. As a noi>^ui^opaaix and_a-Swfch African I cannot but find it deeply distressing to see the deleterious effects on the African people of the Pass Laws and Permit Regulations, the system of migratory labour, colour bar in industry, horrible living conditions in locations, mine compounds and shanty tovns, land hunger, low woges and non-recognition of African Trade Unions end serfdom on the European-owned farms - how the whole system of segregation with its concomitant evils of land and occupation restrictions and lack of proper health and educational facilities are forcing/ •.. forcing the non-European pooplo rs o. whole, African, Colourod and Indian, to live a. life of out erst s without hope and security; and hot; the depriv­ ation of fundamental human rights without a direct and proper say in the affairs of government force then to submit to lav/s which in many instances are made against their interests and well-being and which aro intended to perpetuate a system which holds them in bonda.ge. No one who isseriously concerned with these grave problems fraught with distrous consequences for the country as a whole can escape the conclusion that their solutions ore mainl^r to bo found in the economic and political fields. In this situation, Your Worship, with a firm conviction of the rightness of the cause, I unhesitantly entered the political field to assist in righting the many grievous wrongs and to fight for a fully democratic South Africa ensuring equality of rights and opportunities and a decent and happy standard of life to the whole of our population, both white and non-white. In the pursuance of this righteous and what I consider to bo a noble task, I found myself elected to the official post of President of the South African Indian Congress, tie most representative national organisation of South Africans of Indian origin. It is therefore,Sir, that in accordance with the policy laid down by my organisation in a democratic manner we are working closely togethar with the national organisation of the Africon people, the African National Congress, the organisations of the Colourod people and indeed with all democratic organisations of the European sections of our community which ore prepored to establish a truly democratic state. I value deeply and endeavour to live up to,"the confidence and faith placed in me by the Indian and the non-European people and progressive-minded Europeans, Your Worship, it is important and significant to note thot whilst working for this great ideal we have been confronted during the lost four years with a Government which is not only fanatically opposed to this objec­ tiv e but which also ruthlessly follows the policy of rociolism, o.nd which strives to turn our country into a police state* The laws which tte present government hos placed on the statute book of the country are laws which are anti-democratic ond designed at curbing the civil liberties of our people. To quote but a few exomples, lav/s like tte Group Areas Act, the Bantu Author­ it ie s Act, the Coloured Voters' Act, the Population Registration Act, the Native Building Workers1 Act, and the Acts regarding the Africans in the rural and urban areas, including the regulations for the culling of cattle, and not the least the Suppression of Communism Act under which I stand before you in the dock, ore laws which, judged from the standpoint of the principles of democracy, are arbitrary, unjust and wholly repugnant to the spirit of freedom and the rights of man. In these circumstances, to have submitted without test or protest to these laws would bo tantamount to an abject surrender to tyranny, It is the sacred duty of every right-thinking person ond every democrat, be he white or non-white, to oppose every act of tyranny and to uphold the cherisehd principles of democracy. A failure to do this would, in my opinion, bo a betrayal of the vital interests of our country a.nd in fact, of history,. The orders issued by the Minister of Justice, restricting the legitimate activities of the leaders of the trade unions and national movements ore wholly arbitrary and designed ot destroying the democratic organisations of the people and silencing any criticism or opposition to the apartheid racialist policies of the government in power. It is, therefore, Your Worship, that I felt it a matter of duty to express in some tangible and concrete form my and tte people's disapproval of the highhanded and unwarranted actions of the Minister and in doing so, I happen to fall foul of what I consider to be an unjust and diabolical law. It is the irony of history that in the pursuit of the struggle for right and justice, honest and upright men are colled upon to fall foul of laws enacted by a coterie of men devoid of justice and humanity. History abounds with acts of sacrifice on the part of people resisting oppression and whatever the personal consequences may have been, such acts have been fully vindicated in the course of time. We are 1q . w abiding citizens ond ore prepared to obey all laws made for the peace, order and the good government of the country,But lows in the making of which we hove no say and which ore bad and unjust and calculated to disturb pea.ee ond harmony con not only not be tacitly opproved of but must be fought by every legitimate means at the disposal of the people, ' ISSUED BY THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS (FOUNDED BY MAHATMA GANDHI). Collection Number: AD1715 SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974 PUBLISHER: Collection Funder:- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive Location:- Johannesburg ©2013 LEGAL NOTICES: Copyright Notice: All materials on the Historical Papers website are protected by South African copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or otherwise published in any format, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Disclaimer and Terms of Use: Provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein, you may download material (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for your personal and/or educational non-commercial use only.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Non-Racialism, Non-Collaboration and Communism in South Africa
    Non-racialism, non-collaboration and Communism in South Africa: The contribution of Yusuf Dadoo during his exile years (1960-1983) Paper presented at the Conference on ‘Yusuf Dadoo, 1909-2009: Marxism, non-racialism and the shaping of the South African liberation struggle’ University of Johannesburg, 4-5 September 2009 Allison Drew Department of Politics University of York, UK It has often been argued by our opponents that Communism was brought to our country by whites and foreigners, that it is an alien importation unacceptable to the indigenous majority. Our reply to this is that the concept of the brotherhood of man, of the sharing of the fruits of the earth, is common to all humanity, black and white, east and west, and has been formulated in one form or another throughout history (Yusuf Dadoo, 1981).1 This paper examines Yusuf Dadoo’s contribution to the thinking and practice of non- racialism during his years in exile. Non-racialism refers to the rejection of racial ideology − the belief that human beings belong to different races. Instead, it stresses the idea of one human race. Organizationally, it implies the recruitment of individual members without regards to colour, ethnic or racial criteria. Non-racialism has long been a subject of debate on the South African left as socialists struggled with the problems of how to organize political movements in a manner that did not reinforce state-imposed racial and ethnic divisions and promote non-racialism in conditions of extremes racial inequality. The South African Communist Party (SACP) was formed in 1953 as a clandestine body that prioritized alliance politics over the development of an independent profile.
    [Show full text]
  • Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo
    YUSUF MOHAMED DADOO SOUTH AFRICA'S FREEDOM STRUGGLE Statements, Speeches and Articles including Correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi Compiled and edited by E. S. Reddy With a foreword by Shri R. Venkataraman President of India Namedia Foundation STERLING PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED New Delhi, 1990 [NOTE: A revised and expanded edition of this book was published in South Africa in 1991 jointly by Madiba Publishers, Durban, and UWC Historical and Cultural Centre, Bellville. The South African edition was edited by Prof. Fatima Meer. The present version includes items additional to that in the two printed editions.] FOREWORD TO THE INDIAN EDITION The South African struggle against apartheid occupies a cherished place in our hearts. This is not just because the Father of our Nation commenced his political career in South Africa and forged the instrument of Satyagraha in that country but because successive generations of Indians settled in South Africa have continued the resistance to racial oppression. Hailing from different parts of the Indian sub- continent and professing the different faiths of India, they have offered consistent solidarity and participation in the heroic fight of the people of South Africa for liberation. Among these brave Indians, the name of Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo is specially remembered for his remarkable achievements in bringing together the Indian community of South Africa with the African majority, in the latter's struggle against racism. Dr. Dadoo met Gandhiji in India and was in correspondence with him during a decisive phase of the struggle in South Africa. And Dr. Dadoo later became an esteemed colleague of the outstanding South African leader, Nelson Mandela.
    [Show full text]
  • Author Accepted Manuscript
    University of Dundee Campaigning against apartheid Graham, Matthew Published in: Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2018.1506871 Publication date: 2018 Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication in Discovery Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Graham, M. (2018). Campaigning against apartheid: The rise, fall and legacies of the South Africa United Front 1960-1962. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 46(6), 1148-1170. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2018.1506871 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in Discovery Research Portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from Discovery Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Campaigning against apartheid: The rise, fall and legacies of the South Africa United Front 1960- 1962 Matthew Graham University of Dundee Research Associate at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State, South Africa Correspondence: School of Humanities, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN. [email protected] 01382 388628 Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the anonymous peer-reviewers for offering helpful and constructive comments and guidance on this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Mayor of Joburg, India's Republic Day Celebration
    SPEECH BY CLR MPHO PARKS TAU, EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF JOHANNESBURG, INDIA’S REPUBLIC DAY CELEBRATION, HOUGHTON, JOHANNESBURG, 26 JANUARY, 2014 Your Excellency, Honourable High Commissioner of India, Ms. Ruchi Ghanashyam Consul General Mr. Randhir Jaiswal High Commissioners, Ambassadors, and other Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Officials from the City of Johannesburg Ladies and gentlemen Good Evening As the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg I would like to thank the Indian government, through you, your Excellency the High Commissioner of India, Ms. Ruchi Ghanashyam, for inviting us to this important function, commemorating the day in which the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950. This is an important day in India’s political calendar. On this day, the people of India finally freed themselves from the clutches of colonialism, following independence in 1947. As South Africans we identify with your struggle for freedom and draw our own parallels with the course of events in India. For us, your 26 January is the symbolic equivalent of our April 27, the day on which we liberated ourselves from neo- colonialism, following almost 300 years of racial oppression. The day is also equivalent to May 28, 1996 when as South Africa we adopted what 1 came to be known as the most liberal constitution in the world. Indian independence was undoubtedly one of the most crucial events in the past several generations: world-wide, there were many struggles against imperialism thereafter, but with India a free nation, the writing was on the wall for empire in the post-war world.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Liberation Theology in South Africa: Farid Esack’S Religio-Political Thought
    ISLAMIC LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA: FARID ESACK’S RELIGIO-POLITICAL THOUGHT Yusuf Enes Sezgin A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2020 Approved by: Cemil Aydin Susan Dabney Pennybacker Juliane Hammer ã2020 Yusuf Enes Sezgin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Yusuf Enes Sezgin: Islamic Liberation Theology in South Africa: Farid Esack’s Religio-Political Thought (Under the direction of Cemil Aydin) In this thesis, through analyzing the religiopolitical ideas of Farid Esack, I explore the local and global historical factors that made possible the emergence of Islamic liberation theology in South Africa. The study reveals how Esack defined and improved Islamic liberation theology in the South African context, how he converged with and diverged from the mainstream transnational Muslim political thought of the time, and how he engaged with Christian liberation theology. I argue that locating Islamic liberation theology within the debate on transnational Islamism of the 1970s onwards helps to explore the often-overlooked internal diversity of contemporary Muslim political thought. Moreover, it might provide important insights into the possible continuities between the emancipatory Muslim thought of the pre-1980s and Islamic liberation theology. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to many wonderful people who have helped me to move forward on my academic journey and provided generous support along the way. I would like to thank my teachers at Boğaziçi University from whom I learned so much. I was very lucky to take two great courses from Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu whose classrooms and mentorship profoundly improved my research skills and made possible to discover my interests at an early stage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture
    The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture Contents Page 3 | The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture Page 4 | President Thabo Mbeki Page 18 | Wangari Maathai Page 26 | Archbishop Desmond Tutu Page 34 | President William J. Clinton The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture | PAGE 1 PAGE 2 | The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture 2007 PAGE 2 | The Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture he Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), The inaugural Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture was through its Centre of Memory and held on 19 July 2003, and was delivered by T Dialogue, seeks to contribute to a just President William Jefferson Clinton. The second society by promoting the vision and work of its Founder Annual Lecture was delivered by Nobel Peace Prize and, using his example, to convene dialogue around winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu on 23 November critical social issues. 2004. The third Annual Lecture was delivered on 19 July 2005 by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Our Founder, Nelson Mandela, based his entire life Wangari Maathai MP, from Kenya. The fourth on the principle of dialogue, the art of listening Annual Lecture was delivered by President Thabo and speaking to others; it is also the art of getting Mbeki on 29 July 2006. others to listen and speak to each other. The NMF’s Centre of Memory and Dialogue encourages people Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mr Kofi Annan, the former to enter into dialogue – often about difficult Secretary-General of the United Nations, will deliver the subjects – in order to address the challenges we fifth Annual Lecture on 22 July 2007. face today. The Centre provides the historic resources and a safe, non-partisan space, physically and intellectually, where open and frank This booklet consolidates the four Annual Lectures discourse can take place.
    [Show full text]
  • Ahmed Timol Was the First Detainee to Die at John Vorster Square
    “He hung from a piece of soap while washing…” In Detention, Chris van Wyk, 1979 On 23 August 1968, Prime Minister Vorster opened a new police station in Johannesburg known as John Vorster Square. Police described it as a state of the art facility, where incidents such as the 1964 “suicide” of political detainee, Suliman “Babla” Saloojee, could be avoided. On 9 September 1964 Saloojee fell or was thrown from the 7th floor of the old Gray’s Building, the Special Branch’s then-headquarters in Johannesburg. Security police routinely tortured political detainees on the 9th and 10th floors of John Vorster Square. Between 1971 and 1990 a number of political detainees died there. Ahmed Timol was the first detainee to die at John Vorster Square. 27 October 1971 – Ahmed Timol 11 December 1976 – Mlungisi Tshazibane 15 February 1977 – Matthews Marwale Mabelane 5 February 1982 – Neil Aggett 8 August 1982 – Ernest Moabi Dipale 30 January 1990 – Clayton Sizwe Sithole 1 Rapport, 31 October 1971 Courtesy of the Timol Family Courtesy of the Timol A FAMILY ON THE MOVE Haji Yusuf Ahmed Timol, Ahmed Timol’s father, was The young Ahmed suffered from bronchitis and born in Kholvad, India, and travelled to South Africa in became a patient of Dr Yusuf Dadoo, who was the 1918. In 1933 he married Hawa Ismail Dindar. chairman of the South African Indian Congress and the South African Communist Party. Ahmed Timol, one of six children, was born in Breyten in the then Transvaal, on 3 November 1941. He and his Dr Dadoo’s broad-mindedness and pursuit of siblings were initially home-schooled because there was non-racialism were to have a major influence on no school for Indian children in Breyten.
    [Show full text]
  • African National African National Congress
    AFRICAN NATIONAL AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF YUSUF DADOO IsitwalandweSeankoe A MESSAGE OF THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AT THE FUNERAL OF COMRADE YUSUF DADOO BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS We are gathered here to pay homage to an outstanding leader of the African liberatory struggle, a comrade and friend who devoted most of his life in the service of his people; a communist of world prominence; a dedicated and convinced internationalist who has played an effective role in the anti-imperialist movement for world peace and security and for the social progress of mankind. Loved and adnired throughout our Movement, 'Doc' - as he was popularly known - combined the best qualities of a revolutionary patriot and dynamic leader of the working class. Because of his clear understanding of the factors underlying national oppression and economic exploitation of the black South African masses. he was able, in his own unassuming manner, to guide and inspire others to commit themselves fully in the struggle for the noble ideals of freedom, democracy and a just social order. Most important of all, he led by example. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo was a first-born in a relatively well-to-do family. But material wealth had no attraction for him. He studied medicine qualifying in Edinburgh University in 1936. On his return to South Africa, he started his medical practice amidst the poverty-stricken and starving victims of racial oppression ad class exploitation. The focus of his pre-occupation soon shifted from healing the sick to working for the abolition of the system by which an entire people suffered at the hands of a few.
    [Show full text]
  • No Bread for Mandela: Memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada, Prisoner No. 468/64'
    H-SAfrica Burton on Kathrada, 'No Bread for Mandela: Memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada, Prisoner No. 468/64' Review published on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 A. M. Kathrada. No Bread for Mandela: Memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada, Prisoner No. 468/64. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011. xxiii + 400 pp. Illustrations. $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8131-3375-1. Reviewed by Antoinette Burton (University of Illinois)Published on H-SAfrica (May, 2012) Commissioned by Alex Lichtenstein In a recent issue of South Africa’sSunday Tribune, the journalist Dennis Pather recounted an anecdote about President Jacob Zuma that was designed to underscore how far Zuma has traveled since his radical political days.[1] It was 1974, and Zuma was struggling to make ends meet during the first days and weeks after his release from Robben Island. Subject to the notorious dompass laws- -by which he could be “endorsed out” of Durban in a heartbeat--he found a job as a birdseed packer in Berea Road for a meager wage. Frustrated by the terrible work and the terrible pay, he decided to get a driver’s license so he would have better employment options. The white inspector summarily failed him because he was unable to control his vehicle as it raced down the back side of the notoriously steep Sydenham Hill. Fearful that his chances for a license had slipped away, Zuma asked the inspector: “Sir, does your hand reach your mouth?”--by which he meant, the work I do earns me so little I can’t feed myself. To make a long story short, Zuma was granted his license, and the rest is history.
    [Show full text]
  • The Alliance of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party
    Page 38 Oshkosh Scholar Reds and Patriots: The Alliance of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party Christopher Gauger, author Dr. Michael Rutz, History, faculty mentor Christopher Gauger graduated from UW Oshkosh in spring 2017 with a bachelor of science degree in history and a minor in geography. He also conducted research and public history work for an internship with the Oshkosh World War I Commemoration Committee. His primary historical interests include the Cold War and military history from 1900 to the present. This article originated as a research paper for a seminar on apartheid in South Africa and evolved into a historiographical paper. Christopher is interested in continuing his studies through graduate school, with an eye toward a career in public history and writing literature about historical subjects. Professor Michael Rutz graduated from the University of Michigan in 1992 and received an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2002. Dr. Rutz has taught courses on modern world history, British and European history, and African history at UW Oshkosh for 15 years. He is the author of The British Zion: Congregationalism, Politics, and Empire 1790–1850, and several articles on the history of religion and politics in the British Empire. His second book, King Leopold’s Congo and the “Scramble for Africa”: A Short History with Documents, was published in early 2018. Abstract During the apartheid era in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) was allied with the South African Communist Party (SACP), presenting a united opposition to the white minority government.
    [Show full text]
  • Gandhi, Mandela, and the African Modern
    Gandhi, Mandela, and the African Modern Jonathan Hyslop APRIL 2008, PAPER NUMBER 33 © 2008 Unpublished by Jonathan Hyslop The Occasional Papers of the School of Social Science are versions of talks given at the School’s weekly Thursday Seminar. At these seminars, Members present work-in-progress and then take questions. There is often lively conversation and debate, some of which will be included with the papers. We have chosen papers we thought would be of interest to a broad audience. Our aim is to capture some part of the cross-disciplinary conversations that are the mark of the School’s programs. While Members are drawn from specific disciplines of the social sciences— anthropology, economics, sociology and political science—as well as history, philosophy, literature and law, the School encourages new approaches that arise from exposure to different forms of interpretation. The papers in this series differ widely in their topics, methods, and disciplines. Yet they concur in a broadly humanistic attempt to understand how, and under what conditions, the concepts that order experience in different cultures and societies are produced, and how they change. Jonathan Hyslop is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he is also Deputy Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. He has been a member of the IAS for 2007-2008. Jonathan Hyslop has published widely on southern African social history. He is currently working on a book about military cultures in 20th century South Africa. Forthcoming in Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall, eds. Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008).
    [Show full text]
  • Class X English First Flight Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Notes
    Class X English First Flight Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Notes INTRODUCTION This lesson is an excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s autobiography and it takes the readers back to May 10, 1994 when Mandela was sworn in as the first black President of Democratic South Africa. It is an account of the atrocities and oppression inflicted by the white rulers on the black natives in South Africa. In this lesson Mandela shares a few of his bitter experiences during his freedom struggle, as well as overwhelming emotions that he experienced when finally a democratic era was ushered in after years of struggle. He also pays homage to the bravehearts of South Africa who made it possible for Africa to see this day of independence. DETAILED EXPLANATION Inauguration Ceremony • 10 May was a golden day in the history of South Africa because Nelson Mandela had become the first black President of South Africa. • A large number of leaders from more than 140 countries around the world had come to witness this historic moment. • This inauguration ceremony took place in a lovely sandstone amphitheatre formed by the Union Buildings in Pretoria. This building had been the seat of white supremacy over the decades but on this particular day it was filled with people of all colours and races from different nations. • Mr. Mandela was accompanied by his daughter Zenani and his swearing in was preceded by Mr. De Klerk who was sworn in as Second Deputy President and Thabo Mbeki who was sworn in as First Deputy President. • Mandela promised to bring up a society of which all humanity would be proud and he also swore to devote himself to the well being of the Republic and its people.
    [Show full text]