AMERICA'S LEADING MAGAZINE ON AFRICA CULTURE and POLITICS We know what it takes to create a quality product, uceess. On the way to pro- deposits in minority banks, ducing a quality beer, the Qx)rs is encouraging the people at the Adolph Coors stability and vitality that give (x>mpany learned a lot birth to successful citizens. about the elements that go So look for the Cxx>rs into it. Things like ambi- name in your neighbor- tion, commitment and hood. Because when Coors pride, to name a few. and the community get Through its involvement together, the results can be in the community we serve, spectacular. Coors is helping to develop those qualities to their full- est. From endowments to Black colleges, to sponsor- ship of cultural events and JULY-AUGUST 1987 AMERICAS VOLUME 32, NUMBER 4 LEADING MAGAZINE A Publication of the WORT African-American Institute Letters to the Editor The 4 African-American Institute Update Chairman 5 Randolph Nugent Editor: Andre Astrow President Culture and Politics Donald B. Easum Interview with Mohammed Hen Abdallah. Secretary of Education and Culture, Ghana 14 Publisher By Margaret A. Novicki Frank E. Ferrari The AiNC and the Cultural Boycott 19 Editor-in-Chief By Barbara Masekela Margaret A Novicki Managing Editor United Nations Alana Lee The Sins of Paul Simon 22 liy Michael Maren Assistant Editor Andre Astrow Music Editorial Assistant Interview with Hugh Masekela 26 Deepak Bhargava By Margaret A. Novicki and Ameen Akhalwaya Art Director 31 Joseph Pomar A Conversation with Ray Phiri By Mxohsi Mgxashe Advertising Director Barbara Spence Reporter's Notebook Marionette, Inc. The Hazards of Cultural Deprivation 33 (718)773-9869, 765-9244 By Denis Herbstein Africa Report (ISSN 0001-9836). a non- Theater partisan magazine of African affairs, is published bimonthly and is scheduled Interview with Duma Ndlovu and Mbongeni Ngema 36 to appear at the beginning of each date By Margaret A. Noi'icki and Ameen Akhalwaya period at 833 United Nations Plaza, People's Theater New York. N.Y. 10017. Editorial corre- Page 36 Africa in the U.S. spondence and advertising inquiries should be addressed lo Africa Report, "We Are The World" 40 at the above address. Subscription By William Howard rates: Individuals: U.S.A. $24. Canada $30, air rale overseas $48. Institutions: U.S.A. $31, Canada $37. air rate over- Artists United Against Apartheid 42 seas $55. Second-class postage paid By Danny Schechtcr at New York, N Y. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: If this Literature magazine is undefivetable. please send notice to Africa Report at the Africa's Nobel Laureate 46 above address. Telephones. Publisher By Barbara Summers with Malaika Adero (212) 949-5719; Editor (212) 949- 5731. Copyright c 1987 by the African- American Instilute. Inc. Thiong'o: The Writer as Dissident 48 By Carl Wood U.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by FOUR STAR News Distributors. Inc.. Censorship of "The Word" 50 3117 12th Street, Long Island City, New York 11106. By Nadine Gordimer Africa's Nobel Film Note: Because we have recently Page 46 changed our fulfillment company, sub- Interview with King Ampaw 53 scribers may have experienced delays m receipt of copies Please be advised By Margaret A. Novicki thai Transaction, Inc. is no longer han- dling any Africa Report business mat- Culture and Politics ters. Please direct subscription inqui- 57 ries to Africa Report Subscription Ser- Burkina Faso: A Revolutionary Culture vices, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, N.J. By Margaret A. Novicki 07834. Mozambique Doing Business in Beira 61 Photo Credit: By Colleen Lowe Morna Photographs of Hugh Masekela, Interview with Armando Guebuza, Minister of Transport and Miriam Makeba, and Paul Simon Communications 6-4 from the "Graceland" concert in By Andre Astrow Harare are courtesy Richard McLaren/Showtime. Chissano's Challenge 67 Building Beira By Karl Mater I'age (SI ist groups who are in league with the devil. Letters to the Editor Ambassador Abdullahi Ahmed Addou To the Editor: with full respect to the welfare and human Embassy of the Somali I read with interest C. Anthony Gif- rights of our citizens. Somalia continues to Democratic Republic fard's article, "Closing the Gap: The New maintain a realistic position, consistent Washington, D.C. World Information Order" (March-April with its national interests and the wishes 1987). I am glad to report that the Inter and aspirations of its people. The author replies: Press Third World News Service is now Finally, I must deplore Greenfield's If all is well in Somalia and there is "pre- available through the Global Information wild, misleading, and baseless charges of vailing peace and stability," who then are Network, Ltd., a not-for-profit organiza- power struggles, internal conflict, and im- the "mercenary anti-Somalia elements in tion specializing in distribution of Third minent collapse. His highly exaggerated in- the service of [unnamed] foreign forces World and development news, located at terpretations of normal political processes and governments" who apparently so ex- 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, N. Y. are invalidated by the prevailing peace and ercise the Somali representatives? Would 10017. stability in the country. Perhaps Green- it not be more to the point to address the David Dion field would like to see conflict and turmoil human rights situation and other Somali is- Editor, IPS-U.S.A. Database in Somalia in order to promote his per- sues that I actually raised? New York, New York sonal, material interests—people like I was ordered to leave Rhodesia in Greenfield always like to fish in troubled 1963—admittedly having been given more To the Editor: water. time to pack than most, it was said, be- It is surprising that you saw fit to publish Mohamud Adan Ali cause I had never joined a political move- Richard Greenfield's version of the politi- Permanent Mission of Somalia ment. It was my interpretations that were cal and economic situation in Somalia ("An to the United Nations found offensive. Yet 23 years later, I would Embattled Barre," May-June 1987), since New York, New York be welcomed to an independent Zim- the author is obviously not an objective re- babwe, which I had foreseen. I published a porter. To the Editor: book in 1965 warning of impending revolu- Your biographical note on Greenfield in- Richard Greenfield's article, "An Em- tionary changes in Ethiopia: It was not an dicates that he was once in the service of battled Barre," (May-June 1987), should act of hostility to that country but the hum- the Somali government. In fact, he had be dismissed as false propaganda based on ble insight of one trained observer. Em- long been an adviser and supporter of the fabricated gossip and pure speculation. bassy officials and others nevertheless government, and began publishing articles The article is nothing but despicable disin- sought for years both to suppress my writ- hostile to Somalia after the completion of formation blinded by personal vendetta, ings and to discredit me personally. Thus I his contract and the government's decision leveled at the Somali government for not am saddened but not surprised to see that that it would no longer require his ser- renewing the writer's contract. Greenfield syndrome reemerge—and not just in vices. His sudden turn-about and his sup- is notorious for manipulating facts to suit America—in reaction to my recent articles port for mercenary anti-Somali elements in his own designs. and lectures. Regrettably, your corres- pondents appear to have confused loyalty the service of foreign forces and govern- The article suffers from a glaring ab- to a decaying regime with loyalty to a na- ments must be seen as motivated by vin- sence of objectivity, honesty, intelligent tion and a people. dictiveness, personal interest, and oppor- understanding, and profound knowledge of tunism rather than by intellectual or other Somalia's social and political structures. It Nor am I alone, particularly in the hu- concerns. is quite plain that Greenfield plays on the man rights position that I have taken with With regard to Greenfield's grave dis- outmoded colonial mentality of fomenting the Somali government—among others— tortions and misrepresentation of the propaganda to distort realities. privately for some years, as befits an ad- facts, I would like to set the record This is evident in the mendacious and viser, and more publicly on leaving govern- straight. President Mohamed Siad Barre absurd claims that ". . . in Mogadishu it- ment service. Indeed, on a rough count, has returned to health and strength and is self, the Somali capital, clear parallels with eight out of 10 of the Somali ministers, am- in full control of the country's political situ- the last days of Emperor Haile Selassie in bassadors, judges, counsellors, directors- ation. His election to another seven-year nearby Addis Ababa are daily emerging." general, and military and press attaches term last December was a reflection of his The power struggle that Greenfield por- with whom I have had dealings over the true popularity and the people's confidence trays is a pure figment of his imagination. last nine years are today detained without in his leadership. Furthermore, it should be made clear that charge or trial, have defected to opposition Somalia's economic difficulties, like President Barre is in good health after he groups (none of which am I connected those of many other developing countries sustained injuries in a road accident. with), or are in exile as refugees. affected by the African economic crisis, Above all, despite the economic con- It seems to me that all thinking men and stem mainly from externally caused fac- straints experienced by Somalia, the busi- women should seriously question such a tors (e.g. inflation, foreign debt, cyclical ness community has more confidence than situation. I am persuaded that not only the drought, refugees, etc.) which are beyond ever in their government's policies. The Somali people, but the peoples of Ethiopia the government's control. writer's argument regarding the economic and Eritrea, all seek a free environment in Third, Greenfield is bogged down in situation in Somalia is distorted—the eco- which to settle their differences. Lip ser- narrow and outmoded concepts when he nomic policy pursued by the government is vice to "the ongoing Ethio-Somali talks. . . assumes that Somalia is in a weak position aimed at raising the standard of living of all peace and stability. . . the human rights of in the ongoing Ethio-Somali talks, and that Somali people, a policy supported by the peoples," etc. is not enough. The opening Somalia is prepared to "give up every- international institutions and friendly coun- of genuine political dialogue in Africa de- thing" because of external pressures. Af- tries who are helping Somalia in its eco- mands open and popular consensus—and ter decades-old conflicts which drained re- nomic development. that political prisons be opened also. sources and slowed development, it is in Moreover, Greenfield is not qualified to Richard Greenfield the interest of both countries to work to- judge the conditions of Somalia's pris- Queen Elizabeth House ward normalizing their bilateral relations oners. In conclusion, he will be viewed and Oxford University and to settle their disputes in the interest judged in his true perspective as an intel- Centre for International and Development of peace and stability in the region, and lectual mercenary at the service of terror- Studies AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 N THE NEWS Although the government estab- Trials and tribulations in lished a commission in May 1986 to RAC in family feud Conakry examine the dossiers of Sekou Political in-lighting and allega- A communique by the ruling Mili- To lire's former colleagues and tions of corruption have produced a tary Committee for National Re- those implicated in the foiled coup serious split in the Pan Africanist dress (CMRN) in early May, reveal- of July 198?, there is no sign that an Congress (PAC). according to vari- ing that 58 people hat! been sen- actual trial took place. Rather, the ous reports emanating from South- tenced to death following the commission presided by Justice ern Africa. PAC sources in the conclusion of secret political trials Minister Bassirou Barry and com- frontline states claimed that a po- in Conakry, has added a cynical posed of high-ranking officials and tentially violent political rift had re- twist to the already macabre affair judges, apparently gave their "ver- sulted in the sackings of three senior concerning the fate of former Presi- dict", and the government pre- officials from their posts and the dent Ahmed Sekou Ton re's impris- ferred not to risk dragging those still resignation of three others in pro- oned supporters. The government alive through a public trial as it only test. statement, which provided the first would have brought more attention Vusi Make, who effectively led indication that the long promised to those already conspicuous by the PAC from 1979 to early 1981. trials had even taken place, added their absence. Edwin Makoti. PAC secretary for that at least 133 others were given publicity, and Sabela Phaama. sec- prison sentences ranging from 28 retary for defense, were allegedly months to life. fired, while Michael Muendane and Many of the prominent Guinenn Ike Mufole—respectively secre- personalities receiving the death taries for labor and education—re- penalty, however, were allegedly signed, as did London representa- shot long ago. According to pre- tive Vusi Nomadolo. PAC Finance vious allegations in Jeunc Afn'quc. a Secretary Joe Maobi. however, told total of 20 people were executed the Stnvi'tttn that Muendane and without trial in July IMS?, immedi- Mafole did not resign, but were ately after former Prime Minister rather dropped from the central Diarra Traore failed in his attempt committee and suspended from to overthrow the government of PAC activities for 12 months. He President Lansana Conte. also denied that Makoti and Phaama had been sacked. Those allegedly gi\en the '"retro- active" death sentence include the Sotiihscun revealed that tensions late president s elder brother Amara had been exacerbated in the latter Tourc. his half-brother and former part of 1986 when members of the Mining Minister Ismael To lire, his internal wing of the PAC issued a nephew Siaka To lire—commandant memorandum criticizing the exiled of the infamous Camp Boiro where Conte: Whitewashing the past? leadership for its failings and alleg- thousands of" prisoners lost their ing corruption within its ranks. The lives—and former Housing Minis- The Conte government, which group came down in support of ter Moussa Diakite. came to power proclaiming the need Make in his reported rift with Ad- Of those on the death list, 29 are to restore human rights in the coun- ministrative Secretary Joe military men whose ranks were re- try, has categorically denied per- Mkhwanazi, and issued several di- leased hut not their names. It is be- sistent reports that Sekou Toure's rect threats against PAC Chairman lieved that the one general given the associates and suspected leaders of Johnson Mia in bo. maximum sentence is Toya Conde, the unsuccessful coup had been ex- The dispute allegedly threatened chief of staff at the time of Sekou tra-judicially executed, and repeat- to develop into a physical confron- Ton re's death who was detained in edly promised that those detained tation in more than one frontline the April 1984 coup. There is also would be given a fair hearing. Hut state. Following the purge. PAC speculation that Traore is among news of political trials held in total Foreign Affairs Secretary Ahmed the two colonels sentenced to death secrecy will merely fuel speculation Gora Ehrahim confirmed from Dar even though he was reportedly exe- that authorities in Conakry are try- es Salaam that elements attempting cuted shortly after his aborted ing to whitewash the past—a crude to "destabilize" the PAC had now coup. attempt to set the record straight. • been removed. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 A white knight to Pretoria's trading company which is ideally network and with a bogus diplo- suited for countering economic matic status which can come in rescue sanctions against the apartheid re- handy for clandestine transactions. Craig Williamson, the former un- gime. Although Williamson claims Known in the Seychelles as "Mr. dercover superspy who gained no- the subsidiary has been established Vice-President" because of the ex- toriety in the 1970s by successfully to cash in on the flight of foreign traordinary power he has accumu- infiltrating the African National companies from South Africa and to lated in the islands. Ricci has devel- Congress (ANC) of South Africa, is act as a go-between by finding local oped close links with President Al- at it again—this time apparently buyers for their investments, he ac- bert Rene and advised the running a secret sanctions-busting knowledged. "We are involved in government on important security operation. trade in strategic commodities. I matters. According to The Observer in don't want to go into details, but In return. Rene has granted Ricci London, a Seychelles-based Italian GMR has a background in oil." official accreditation to the Sey- millionaire, Giovanni Mario Ricci. GMR has allegedly provided Wil- chelles as President-for-Life of a has recruited Williamson to set up a liamson with access to Ricci's con- fake Christian order of chivalry, the Johannesburg office for GMR, a troversial international business "Sovereign Order of the Coptic Catholic Knights of Malta." Ricci is thereby able to issue diplomatic Tekere rocks the boat passports, use a diplomatic bag. and Edgar Tekere, the popular and operate the largest "embassy" in outspoken former chairman of the Seychelles. Said Williamson, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's who was recently appointed a ruling Zimbabwe African National Knight of Malta. "With South Af- Union (ZANU-PF). once again rica facing sanctions and boycotts, finds himself at the center of a politi- we need international entrepre- cal storm after having been uncere- neurs like Mr. Ricci." moniously dropped from his key In 1968. Williamson joined the post as party chairman of Manica- police at the age of 19, then land in early May. He is the second switched to security two years later veteran nationalist politician to lose when he went to the University of his job as provincial chairman after Witwatersrand. He became vice- Kddison Zvobgo earlier in the year, president of the radical National but this time the dismissal of the Union of South African Students, controversial leader has produced took part in student demonstra- an unusual wave of anti-govern- tions, and was thrown in jail. "The ment protests by traditionally police paid me an injury allow- staunch ZANU-PF supporters. ance," he recalls with a slight Party Secretary for Administra- chuckle. tion Maurice Nyagumbo said the His cover was so good that he Politburo had dismissed Tekere for won the confidence of anti-apart- tarnishing ZANU-PF's image and heid groups and was named deputy failing to "fulfill his responsibili- director of the Geneva-based Inter- ties." Although he did not elaborate national University Fxchange Fund on Tekere's alleged misconduct. which provided scholarships for Nyagumbo claimed the party had Tekere- At the center of another political storm South African exiles. After having gone out of its way to help him completed his infiltration of the "mend his ways," but had now con- ANC and other black resistance cluded that he was incapable of re- Tekere, who has verbally at- groups, he fled to South Africa in forming. tacked several cabinet colleagues 1980 and was subsequently pro- When Nyagumbo called a provin- for "capitalist excesses," alleged moted to head the intelligence sec- cial council meeting in Mutare to the dismissal was an attempt to tion of the Security Police. explain his party's action, he re- muzzle his claims that government Last year, however, he left gov- ceived such a hostile reception that officials are flagrantly violating ernment service to put his consider- he was reportedly forced to aban- ZANU-PF's "leadership code" de- able talents to use in the field of don his presentation and hastily signed to limit the accumulation of business, and ultimately to that of leave the civic center. A few days wealth by party leaders. Hxplained sanctions-busting. As Williamson later, thousands of residents from Tekere, "It's because I am very crit- sees it, working as a businessman is the eastern provincial capital took ical. I am always complaining about not very different from spying. to the streets in an unprecedented corruption in top echelons. We are "There are many parallels. Every- protest march, before being dis- degenerating into a nation of thing is based on information," he persed by the police. thieves." • says. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 NAMIBIA MAURITIUS MALAWI Buoyed hy the increasing Faced with a massive drug scan- In late May. President-for-life strength of Namibian trade union dal that threatens to incapacitate Hastings Kamu/.u Banda's ruling movements in recent months, a del- the government. Prime Minister Malawi Congress Party won all 112 egation representing the SWAPO- Anerood Jugnauth has announced parliamentary seats unopposed— allied National Union of Namibian that legislative elections will take even though 53 MPs did lose their Workers (NUNW) and its affiliates place on July 5. Flections were not seats—in the country's first general went on a European tour recently to due until next year, but the drug election since 1983. Banda. who forge ties with other national tabor scandal—which began with the ar- had taken charge of all government movements. rest in Amsterdam of four MPs for ministries after dissolving parlia- The group held whal N UNW offi- heroin possession in late 1985—has ment and the cabinet, defended cial Barnabas Tjizu termed "impor- gradually implicated a growing one-party rule by claiming that tant discussions'1 with the Interna- number of prominent personalities other political parties had "died a tional Labour Organization, the In- and sparked a shake-up of party natural death." ternational Confederation of Free alignments. Although opposition to Banda's Trade Unions, and Britain's Na- A commission of inquiry revealed iron-fist rule has been strikingly in- tional Union of Mi no workers. The that six present and former MPs had effective over the years, the mili- trip through Western Europe was smuggled drugs, with the conniv- tary wing of the exiled Malawi Free- designed to increase the visibility of ance of about 30 police officers, in- dom Movement led by Edward ihe country's independent trade un- cluding the then head of the Anti- Yapwantha did mount an attack on ion body, and to counter Western Drug and Smuggling Unit, Harris the remote northern border town of support for the government-backed Mungroosingh. As a result, defec- Kaparo earlier in the year. Three Namibia National Trade Union. tions and arrests have undermined policemen were killed and large the parliamentary majority of the stocks of ammunition captured ruling coalition parties and forced when the Malawi National Libera- Jugnauth's hand. tion Army ransacked the police sta- TOGO tion in what Yapwantha claims is to Celebrating yet another diplo- be the first in a series of armed at- matic coup for Jerusalem, Prime POLITICAL tacks against the Banda govern- Minister Yitzhak Shamir began his POINTERS ment. tourof Africa with a visit to Lome in mid-June as Togo became the fifth MADAGASCAR black African state to reestablish Several political parties belong- diplomatic relations with Israel. ing to the National Front for the De- KENYA Claiming that "there are no more fense of the Revolution (FNDR)— President Daniel arap Moi an- obstacles to the normalization of re- the legal framework for political ac- nounced a major cabinet reshuffle lations between Togo and Israel", tivity in the country—have begun to in early June that amounts to a vir- President Gnassingbe Fyade'ma an- distance themselves from President tual restructuring of the govern- nounced that he would resume the Didier Ratsiraka's ruling A re ma ment. The primary casually in the official lies that had been broken off Party in the aftermath of anti-Asian shake-up—which included the cre- after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. riots earlier in the year, and months ation of three new ministries and the Most black African states had of intermittent strikes and protests transfer of 10 ministers—was For- severed ties with Jerusalem in a by university students in Antanana- eign Minister Elijah Mwangale, show of solidarity with Lgypt when rivo. who was demoted to minister of ag- its territory was occupied. Only Le- Monima and the MFM—both riculture. He was replaced by Za- sotho, Swaziland, and Malawi con- leftist parties which have become chary Onyonka, a former cabinet tinued formal contact with Israel, increasingly vocal in denouncing minister who had been in political but in recent years, Israel has made the country's deteriorating eco- limbo since the 1983 general elec- a steady comeback on the continent nomic conditions—were joined by tion. as Zaire. Liberia, Cote d'lvoire. supporters of Vonjy and the USM at The replacement of the foreign and Cameroon have all restored a May Day rally of 8.(KM) demonstra- minister comes at a time when diplomatic ties. tors calling for a "change of govern- Kenya is involved in a major row The Ghanaian news agency said ment." Of the FNDR's seven politi- with neighboring Uganda, and in that Lome's move "has shown great cal parties, only the pro-Moscow the wake of alleged human rights vi- disrespect for the Organization of AKFM and the tiny Christian Dem- olations that have tarnished the African Unity." "The time has ocratic UDCM have remained in country's image abroad. The timing come for the OAU to reorganize it- Ratsiraka's corner, leaving the of the cabinet change is also signifi- self and deal with reactionary and Aroma Parly in a vulnerable posi- cant because it could be the lasl re- recalcitrant leaders who have tion as the country gears up for shuffle before the next general elec- ganged up with Israel and South Af- presidential and national elections tion, which is expected to be held in rica to destroy the continent." now scheduled for 1988. the near future. AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 AFRICAN OUTLOOK Kaunda puts his foot down and breaks with the IMF "It was our genuine desire to to hasten the diversification of the price o\' maize meal—after the gov- work with the International Mone- Zambian economy, including the ernment removed subsidies at the tary Fund and World Bank, and we creation of an "import-export" behest of the IMF—left 15 dead and did so honestly, hut we reached a bank to assist small-scale pro- caused Kaunda to backtrack. Since stage where the programs headed ducers. then, the government has been by the IMF became completely un- Following Zambia's break with forced to respond to falling real in- bearable." declared President Ken- the IMF. Kaunda openly accused comes as teachers, doctors, nurses, neth Kaunda, explaining Zambia's the Fund of conducting a "smear and postal workers have all struck landmark decision to abandon the campaign" in donor countries successfully for wage hikes in 1987. Fund's austerity programme for ec- aimed at discrediting Zambia's new Grey Zulu, general secretary of onomic recovery. The rupture fol- economic policy. In an unusual the ruling United National Indepen- lowed a breakdown in talks be- move reflecting the IMF's growing dence Party, said that IMF-dictated tween Prime Minister Kebby Muso- concern over its deteriorating image policies were no longer politically kolwane and IMF officials in May, in the Third World. Fund managing feasible and were responsible for in- as the Fund's demand for further director Michel Camdessus re- ternal unrest. "The IMF has drastic cuts in government expendi- jected Kaunda's charges, saying "I brought about untold suffering in ture prompted Kaunda to announce can state unequivocally that such many developing countries—Zam- a complete policy reversal. reports have no foundation. On the bia included." he argued. "It is im- In a nationally broadcast May contrary, the Fund shares your aim perative that it carefully studies the Day speech, Kaunda detailed Lusa- to improve economic conditions in state and the moods of the citizens ka's new economic initiatives. He Zambia. I wish to assure you that in each nation before it lays down its revealed that after expenditures for the Fund wishes to continue conditions." crucial imports, a maximum of 10 friendly and cooperative relations." Kaunda urged Western aid do- percent of remaining export earn- The final rift followed several nors not to cut off aid in response to ings would be used to service Zam- months of social unrest in the coun- his government's break with the bia's $5.8 billion debt. "The rest of try which were set off by IMF-im- IMF, appealing to them to regard our foreign exchange will be posed austerity measures. Decem- Zambia's action "as a charting out ploughed into productive ventures ber riots in the Copperbelt sparked of another way that we think offers to reactivate our economy," he by a 120 percent increase in the Continued on next said. In response to the precipitous de- cline of the Zambian kwacha in re- cent years, the IMF-mandated Angola's battle to reopen the Benguela weekly currency auctions—de- signed to bring the exchange rate in Railroad is on the right track line with market determined rates- The proposed rehabilitation of bors," in hopes of gaining the front- were abolished and replaced by a the strategically crucial Benguela line states' de facto recognition. fixed exchange rate of 8 kwachas to railroad—the 1.675-mile track link- At a subsequent summit meeting the U.S. dollar. In addition, ing the Zaire-Zambia copper belt to in Luanda, Zambian President Ken- Kaunda said that consumer prices the Angolan port of Lobito—has neth Kaunda said that countries in would be frozen, interest rates fixed sparked a flurry of diplomatic ma- the region hoped to raise $280 mil- at 15 percent with a 20 percent ceil- neuvering in recent months. lion to repair the railroad, whose ing, remittances by expatriates pro- Following the decision by the operations have been closed to in- hibited, and luxury imports banned. leaders of Angola, Zambia, and ternational traffic for the past 12 Blaming IMF-sponsored policies Zaire in lale April to revive one of years as a result of Unita sabotage. for a galloping inflation of 300 per- the region's most important trans- The project—like the Beira railway cent, record unemployment, and port routes, the Reagan administra- scheme in Mozambique—is an out- unprecedented urban unrest. tion has promoted rebel leader growth of the Southern African De- Kaunda launched the new eco- Jonas Savimbi as the key to the pro- velopment Coordination Confer- nomic recovery program by stress- ject's future success. Under pres- ence's (SADCC) commitment to re- ing that development must be sure from the U.S.. Savimbi's South ducing southern Africa's "wrought from our own re- African-backed Unit a rebels of- dependence on Pretoria's economic sources." The plan calls for an in- fered not to attack the Benguela infrastructure. crease in government spending to railroad "as a gift of peace to the As Angolan President Jose alleviate joblessness and measures Angolan people and their neigh- Continued on page 10 8 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 ZAMBIA. . . continued us a better chance of recovery." He Kenya—Uganda at each others' throats then said: "Which is a better part- Already tense relations between Uganda and Kenya deteriorated still ner for you in the long run—a nation further in recent months, as the two Hast African neighbors have struggled which devotes all of its resources to through endless rounds of name-calling, border incidents, and petty squab- paying its debts and therefore bles—allowing the conflict to evolve into a full-blown propaganda war. Said grinds lo an economic and political Elijah Mwangale. then Kenyan Foreign Minister, in late May. "We have halt, or a stable nation capable of never had our relations so sour as they are today." sustaining the repayment of ils en- Diplomatic ties hit rock bottom after Ugandan President Yoweri Mu- lire debt'" seveni accused Kenya of unilaterally closing the common land border, thus obstructing land-locked Uganda's crucial flow of imports and exports to and from the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Warned one senior Ugandan official, "It's a big nuisance, but if the Kenyans think they can throw out this govern- ment by choking us. they are mistaken." Vigorously countering the charge as "a pack of cheap lies whose aim is provocation." Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi claimed. '"The interna- tional routes that go to Uganda through Busia and Malaba in Kenya are as wide open as the road to Damascus." He maintained that moves to tighten security at the border were designed only to curtail smuggling activity. Hostility in words and deeds had mounted in previous weeks as Kenya temporarily shut off Uganda's phone service. Kampala discontinued a sup- ply of electricity to Nairobi, and the Museveni government requested Tanza- nian assistance in obtaining oil after an earlier Kenyan border blockade had reportedly caused a severe shortage. Museveni also announced that Uganda would reroute 90 percent of its coffee shipments—its primary export— through the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam instead of Mombasa, which is considerably closer. Relations in the region had already soured with Kenya's expulsion of East African "illegal aliens" and the death of a Ugandan teacher in April "after being beaten and tortured by Kenyan security officers." according to Kam- pala's Foreign Minister. Ibrahim Mukiibi. Citing repeated harassment of its citizens in Kenya, he urged all Ugandans in the country to come home. "The Echoing the fears of many do- Ugandan government can no longer guarantee the safety of its nationals in nors. The Economist noted, Kenya," he warned. "Kaunda has told the IMF to get One of the central issues behind the recent wrangling has been Kenya's lost. Less well established lead- concern with Uganda's recently forged links with Libya. Various Kenyan ers—in Tanzania, Uganda. Sudan. press reports added fuel to the fire, charging that there were 1.000 Libyan Mozambique, just for a start—will soldiers and 50 Cubans in Uganda who were involved in the government's be reflecting that, if Mr. Kaunda war effort against remaining rebels in the north. Museveni angrily denied cannot be bothered with the IMF. these accusations, saying. "We do not mind Kenyan papers writing about why should they?" The influential Uganda, but they have no right to tell lies. Although we have nothing but British weekly suggested thai credi- derision for this lype of cheap journalism, we must point out that we shall tors should punish Zambia as an ex- never use foreign forces to solve Uganda's political problems." ample to Third World countries. "In Much of the Kenyan press has also alleged that Ihe Museveni government economic terms, he has put his is collaborating with Tripoli to provide military training to Kenyan dissidents country beyond the pale. If Western in both Uganda and Libya. '•"Clearly. President Museveni and Col. Qaddafy governments want to save the rest have forged an unholy partnership to destabilize peace in Kenya." reported of Africa from similar impoverish- one Kenyan paper. Ugandan officials, however, have disavowed ties to ment, they should leave him there." Mwakenya. the underground opposition group. Said Information Minister But the failure of IMF-sponsored Abubakar Mayanja. "There are no Kenyan dissidents in Uganda. On the programs to improve the Zambian contrary, there are many Ugandan dissidents in Kenya, and Kenya is waging economy over the years has raised a psychological war on Uganda." serious questions about the viability In early June, the first significant attempt to resolve the dispute was made of its approach in Africa. Although when a high-level Ugandan delegation arrived in Nairobi for two days of Kaunda has long been praised in the talks. Both sides agreed to work toward improving relations, implicitly ac- Wesl for his faithful adherence to knowledging ihe danger of a longer term conflict. As one senior Kenyan IMF doctrine, his economic policy diplomat put it. "What is worrisome is if they don't get past this squabbling, reversal could prove to be a major either country or both might start seriously supporting dissident groups blow to the Fund's already shaky across the border." • credibility in the Third World • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 ANGOLA. . . continued line states because of the extensive fastly refused to negotiate with the financial and military support he re- rebels and dos Santos has rejected Rduardo dos Santos explained, ceives from Pretoria—pledged un- Unita's pledge, saying "We cannot "What we are proposing is unity on der pressure not to sabotage the allow ourselves to be fooled. . . We the specific interest our countries Benguela railroad. Zairean Presi- have nothing to negotiate." Sug- have in seeing the Benguela railway dent Mobutu Sese Seko has recog- gesting that the offer was dictated being able to operate, serving inde- nized that with 90 percent of its by the U.S., the Angolan news pendent Africa, serving the struggle commerce passing through Zambia agency added. "Our hard-won na- for the total liberation of our conti- to South African ports, Zaire has tional independence is not negotia- nent." He added, "I think there are become alarmed by the prospect of ble. . . It is out of the question that interests, fundamental reasons for sanctions against Pretoria and eco- the Angolan government should us to coordinate our action and re- nomic retaliation by the apartheid yield to imperialist blackmail." Dos habilitate the line." regime. As a result, the rehabili- Santos thus hinted at the possibility At present, 90 percent of the rail- tated Benguela railway could pro- of increased military operations to way is owned by Tanks Consoli- vide a promising alternative for protect the railway from future Un- dated Investments, a British subsid- Zaire's exports, particularly copper ita attacks and stressed that the gov- iary of the Societe Ciencrale de Bel- from its southern Shaba Province. ernment was prepared to "take the gique (SOB). Tanks Vice Chairman But the security issue remains the necessary steps so there can be Etienne Allard told a meeting in key to the project's success. The peace and stability along the rail- New York that the scheme would Angolan government has stead- way line." • necessitate reviving not only the track itself, but the support facilities and the port of Lobito which to- New labor giant gives unity a boost gether constitute the "LobitoCorri- After nearly two years of pro- ship of approximately 35,000. dor." He estimated that the rehabil- tracted negotiations, Ihe National From the outset, the 600 dele- itation of the railroad alone would Union of Metalworkers of South gates attending the launching con- cost $2X0 million and that the entire Africa (Numsa) was launched in gress in Johannesburg left little project, including the reconstruc- late May, producing the second doubt that Numsa planned to orga- tion of the corridor, would require largest trade union in the country's nize beyond the factory floor, spell- $4(M) million. history and providing a big boost to ing out its commitment to a socialist Allard disclosed that plans are the growing but embattled labor society under workers' control. underway to set up an international movement. Numsa's formation—a Following in the NUM's footsteps, consortium to finance the venture, major organizational triumph for Numsa publicly endorsed the Free- involving Angola. Zaire, Zambia, black workers in the metal and auto- dom Charter—adopted in 1955 by and perhaps Zimbabwe as major mobile industry—was equally sig- the African National Congress as its shareholders. SGB might partici- nificant because its membership blueprint for post-apartheid soci- pate as a minor shareholder, con- represents three distinct South Afri- ety—but went one step further, tributing technical expertise and a can trade union traditions: those of characterizing it as "a good founda- professional railway management the Trade Union Council of South tion stone on which to start building staff. Authorities in Luanda have Africa (Tucsa), the Federation of our working class program." Fx- said they intend to acquire 51 per- South African Trade Unions (Fo- plained Numsa's newly elected cent of the railroad, but the SGB satu), and unions sympathetic to the President Daniel Dube, the union and other countries have reportedly United Democratic Front (UDF). accepted the Freedom Charter as argued for a formula which would With a paid-up membership of the document "recognized by our give the other interested parties a 140,000 representing 30 percent of people as containing the minimum controlling share. all metal and motor workers. demands for a democratic society." The renewed interest in the Ben- Numsa is now second in size only to Congress delegates delivered an- guela railway follows Savimbi's an- the 369,000-strong National Union other political message to the gov- nouncement in the U.S. that Unita of Mineworkers (NUM). The newly ernment by unanimously electing would permit the railway to operate formed labor body, which drew the Alexandra community leader freely provided that it is not used to bulk of its support from Congress of Moses Mayekiso as their general transport soldiers or arms and that South African Trade Unions (Cos- secretary. Mayekiso. who was ar- Unita is allowed to make periodic atu) affiliates like the 70,000-mem- rested shortly after authorities im- inspections. Claimed a rebel ber Metal and Allied Workers" Un- posed the state of emergency in spokesman. "If they do not negoti- ion (Mawu) and the 21.000 employ- June 1986, is accused of high trea- ate, the railway will not be able to ees of the National Automobile and son for his activities as head of the reopen. . . It is Unita which is in a Allied Workers' Union (Naawu), Alexandra Action Committee. His position to reopen the line, we con- also gained the backing of the election, said Dube. was in recogni- trol the Benguela railway." former Tucsa Motor industry and tion of his "contribution in the un- Savimbi—long perceived as a Combined Workers' Union ion movement and in the demo- South African puppet by the front- (Micwu) wilh a paid-up member- cratic movement as a whole." 10 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 Numsa's formation comes at an opportune moment for Cosatu. with a labor dispute in the metal industry Bourguiba hammers Islamic opposition on the horizon. In line with Cosatu's President Habib Bourguiba's government has made a series ot concilia- strategy of establishing one union tory gestures toward its moderate critics—highlighted by the release of for each industry, the new merger former labor leader Habib Achour from prison in late May—after having gives the workforce in the metal and successfully devoted much of the past two years to weakening and ulti- motor sectors a united voice for the mately dismantling the influential General Union of Tunisian Workers first time, which could lead to un- (UGTT). Instead, the government has increasingly turned its attention to precedented cross-sector solidarity containing the growing power of radical religious activists in the country, action among workers in the motor, and stepped up an unprecedented offensive against members of the powerful engineering, and metal industries. Islamic Tendency Movement (Mil). As Cosatu General Secretary Jay Since the government's crackdown accelerated in March, hundreds of Naidoo told delegates, "The tides Muslim fundamentalists have been arrested, held incommunicado, and ac- have turned, workers are on the cused of plotting to overthrow the ruling Socialist Destour Party (PSD) with march in South Africa. Organiza- the aim of installing an Iranian-style dictatorship. The government has tion is our defense—we must build seized fundamentalist literature and weapons in mosques, alleging that MT1 it, consolidate it, and advance it in leaders were "resorting to violence and collusion abroad aimed at harming all sectors." the regime." Reflecting the labor movement's By mid-June, more than 70 militants—mainly youths and university stu- growing power, Numsa adopted an dents detained for taking part in pro-MTI demonstrations—had appeared in aggressive set of immediate de- court, receiving prison terms ranging from two to six years. If convicted. mands, including a national wage of Mil President Rached Ghannouchi and other detained religious leaders $2.25 an hour, a 40-hour week, the could receive the death sentence, a decision which would likely spark wide- right to strike, six months paid ma- spread fundamentalist opposition and serve to radicalize the religious move- ternity leave, and the extension of ment. equal job training opportunities to So far, the government's crackdown on the MTFs leadership has not women and youths. Numsa also deterred rank-and-file fundamentalists from taking to the streets. Activists challenged the government to dis- have organized numerous protest rallies in Tunis and other cities, invariably mantle the migrant labor system leading to violent clashes with security forces, Similarly, Islamic students at and in the interim to improve living Tunis University—long an M'fl stronghold—have disrupted classes for conditions in worker hostels. months and forced studies to come to a virtual standstill in protest against But perhaps the most significant the ruling party. element in Numsa's formation is Faced with growing discontent on the Islamic front, the government has that unions which were formerly temporarily opted for a more cautious policy toward other critics and oppo- hostile to each other finally suc- sition groups. After serving 17 months of his seven-year prison term for ceeded in burying their differences alleged mismanagement of UGTT-owned companies, the 74-year-old in favor of working class unity. Un- Achour was released for health reasons. With Achour in detention on rela- til recently, support for the Free- tively flimsy evidence, the government had effectively dismantled the dom Charter had generally been UGTT and given its stamp of approval to the newly elected pro-PDS leader- strongest among labor bodies es- ship, but many labor militants rejected the restructured confederation and pousing populist unionism—seek- maintained their allegiance to the imprisoned union president. ing to strengthen their ties in com- Similarly, after the authorities successfully silenced the independent press munity-based political organiza- through suspension or closure and humbled opposition parties in recent tions like the UDF. Those unions months, they elected to release 14 members of the leftist Socialist Progres- associated with Fosatu. meanwhile, sive Assembly (RSP) in late May—including their leader Ahmed NejibCha- were often wary of alliances with bli—who had just been condemned to six months in prison for belonging to political movements, preferring to an illegal association. initially build strong shop floor or- Finally, the secretary-general of the decade-old Tunisian Human Rights ganization before engaging in labor- League, Khemais Chamari. who had been detained in late April for allegedly community action. Fven more disseminating false information and defaming the government, was provi- striking, taking a defined political sionally released on medical grounds three weeks later. Chamari. also a stand in a union like Micwu— leading member of the opposition Socialist Democratic Movement (MDS), grounded in the Tucsa tradition- had denounced the government's clampdown on democratic lights in the would have been taboo only a few country and in particular condemned the widespread arrests of Islamic fun- years ago. damentalists. • Instead, Numsa delegates heeded Naidoo's warning not to be trapped phies in the interest of labor unity. of building working class politics by labels such as "workerist" or As Naidoo pointed out. "Such la- and fulfilling our historical role of "'populist" and agreed to transcend bels destroy open and democratic leadership in the liberation strug- their diverging trade union philoso- debate and distract us from our goal gle." • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 11 MOZAMBIQUE EGYPT UN REPORT Paris Club creditor nations meet- President Hosni Mubarak's gov- A recent United Nations report ing in mid-June have granted Presi- ernment reached an agreement with prepared by a committee of indus- dent Joaquim Chissano's govern- the Paris Club of Western creditor trialists, economists, and labor ment the softest terms ever ac- nations in late May, rescheduling leaders for the Committee on Trans- corded to a developing nation for about $12 billion of its estimated $40 national Corporations claims (hat the rescheduling of its external billion foreign debt, in hopes of re- internal economic restructuring is debt. The rescheduling, which is to lieving the country's severe cash insufficient to alter gloomy eco- cover an unprecedented period of shortage. All principal and interest nomic prospects for developing 20 years, forms part of a new initia- payments on military loans and gov- countries unless there are drastic tive by the Paris Club to assist the ernment-guaranteed suppliers* changes in world economic condi- poorest and most seriously in- credits falling due between January tions. debted Third World countries by 1987 and June 1988 are to be A sharp rise in foreign investment agreeing to more flexible terms for stretched out over 10 years with a in the U.S., combined with Western their debt repayments. five-year grace period. protectionism and severe debt Until recently, the Paris Club lim- The rescheduling was made pos- problems, has drawn capital away ited official debt reschedulings to sible following an agreement with from Africa and stifled growth in 10-year periods, but now financially the International Monetary Fund. poorer regions, the report notes. strapped countries like Mozam- The deal calls for the provision of Over the past decade, the U.S. has bique—with a total external debt $325 million in IMF emergency attracted the bulk of foreign invest- estimated at $3.2 billion—are likely credits over the next 18 months, ment, while the Third World's share to receive more favorable terms in with $150 million payable immedi- dropped from 35 to 20 percent in the the future. ately. To obtain the loan, Cairo was last six years. As for the coming 10 forced to devalue its currency and years, the report is no more optimis- reform its complex exchange rate tic, predicting stagnation and de- system. cline in private capital flows, bleak LIBYA domestic market prospects, and se- vere debt problems for many devel- In an unprecedented attack on his oping countries. country's economic performance. Col. Muammar Qaddafy told a ZIMBABWE meeting of senior Libyan officials in COTEd'ttVOIRE late May that the industrial sector is Finance Minister Bernard Chid- on the verge of falling apart— zero has disclosed that dividend and Economy and Finance Minister plagued by mismanagement, theft, profit remittances by foreign com- Abdoulaye Kone told Paris Club and absenteeism. "Industry in this panies in Zimbabwe have been creditor nations in late May that the country will not progress. On the halved to a maximum of 25 percent collapse in cocoa and coffee prices contrary, we expect that in the fu- of after-tax profits in an effort to has made it impossible for the coun- ture, the industrial base which we stimulate the country's economy. try to service its external debt, and have established will collapse." Chidzero said this measure was appealed to officials for new pro- Qaddafy said the economy, which necessary to avoid a critical foreign posals to ease its payments crisis. has suffered through a decline in oil exchange problem and a surge in According to President Felix revenues from $22 billion in 1980 to unemployment. The curb on divi- Houphouet-Boigny. the drop in the only $4.5 billion last year, was in dends targets pre-independence in- prices of cocoa and coffee, which urgent need of reforms. He singled vestment and will not apply to the provide about 60 percent of Cote out the importance of providing the small quantity of capital that Zim- d'lvoire's export earnings, will labor force with incentives, while babwe has attracted since 1980, nor result in a fall of $1.8 billion in 1986- also slashing imports and encourag- to any future inflows from abroad. 87 revenue. ing exports. Chidzero said that reinvestment News that Cote d'lvoire—long Qaddafy's harsh critique of Lib- will now be encouraged by reducing considered a model for economic ya's economic problems followed from 9 to 5 percent the interest rate development in West Africa—could an earlier meeting of the General paid on the surplus funds of foreign no longer honor its commitments People's Congress calling for firms. The decision to liberalize re- highlights the debt problem facing greater efforts to assure supplies of investment regulations has the aim developing countries. Government consumer goods, machinery, and of "injecting more foreign currency officials stressed they were seeking spare parts. In particular, the state into the economy and stimulating to avoid a confrontation with credi- food distribution agency is ex- investment." But this is likely to in- tors, but pointed out that the multi- pected to be "purged of merchants crease foreign ownership of the year reschedulings of the country's and middlemen, and injected with economy, despite the government's estimated $8.3 billion external debt revolutionary and technical ele- commitment to Zimbabweanize the were based on totally unrealistic ments." country's capital stock. coffee and cocoa price projections. 12 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 THREE HOT MEW BOOKS FOR SUMMER FROM WILLIAM MORROW From Pulitzer Prize-Winning War Correspondent William Tuohy DANGEROUS COMPANY Inside the World's Hottest Trouble Spots From being taken hostage in Jordan to being arrested by Inside the World's Hottest, the secret police in Iran, William Tuohy has seen all of the Trouble Spots with a world's trouble spots in the last twenty years. Here are the Pulitzer Prize Winning stories behind his stories in Newsweek and the Los Angeles War Correspondent WILLIAM TUOHY Times. Written with wry humor, love for his work, and empathy, Tuohy introduces us to the realities of a troubled world and the dangerous company that inhabits it. "DANGEROUS COMPANY is a wise and witty, moving and provocative odyssey to those troubled shores where history, follies, and headlines of the last three decades were made." —Larry Collins, author of FALL FROM GRACE, IS PARIS BURNING, & FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT Available in August $18.95/0-688-06794-8 SIDE BY SIDE A Personal Account of One South African Woman's Struggle Against Apartheid Helen Joseph SIDE BY SIDE is the story of undaunted dedication. Helen Joseph—one of the accused in the infamous Treason Trial of the 1950s, the first person to be placed under house arrest in South Africa, the victim of constant bannings and One South African police harrassment—continues to campaign tirelessly for Woman's Struggle freedom and justice, a genuine hero of the South African Against Apartheid protest against apartheid. A close friend of Nelson and HELEN JOSEPH Winnie Mandela, Joseph offers a stunning portrait of them and their determined fight for freedom as well as telling the story of her forty year involvement in the anti-apartheid movement. SIDE BY SIDE is an inspirational book of courage, faith, and dedication. $16.95/0-688-07103 "Laurens van der Post must have had as interesting a life as any man alive." —Auberon Waugh A WALK WITH A WHITE BCJSHMAN Laurens van der Post A WHITE A WALK WITH A WHITE BUSHMAN is van der Post at his most lucid and insightful, making fascinating and pointed commentary on many of the key issues and personalities of our time. The result is a book brimming with ideas, insights, events, and people—people ranging from world leaders and writers to tribespeople and politicians. These LAURENS conversations between van der Post and Jean-Mark Pottiez VAN DEF^POST make for a delightful and captivating walk. $18.95/0-688-07264-X On the eve of Ghana's independence in 1957, Kwame Nkrumah elaborated his Interview concept of the "African personality"—a statement affirming the signal role of culture in achieving political liberation and with economic development. A key priority in the current government's efforts, culture is inextricably linked with politics in Ghana and across the continent—the focus of Mohammed this issue of Africa Report. Ben Abdallah Secretary of Education and Culture, Ghana Culture and Politics INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI foreign culture so as to make of us tools to be used in the Africa Report: What is the role of culture in the develop- marketplace of the colonizer. So to undertake the liberation of ment and political process in the view of the Ghana govern- a people out of colonial bondage without addressing the issue ment? of the role of culture in that enslavement is to undertake a Abdallah: For us, there is absolutely no distinction between futile endeavor. Nkrumah was very aware of this, and his culture and politics. Culture is the milieu of politics. Culture is strong emphasis on culture showed itself in the emergence of the atmosphere within which politics occur and therefore any the youth organization which he called the Young Pioneer attempt to separate the two is hypocrisy. The cornerstone of Movement, the essence of which was to instill in the youth a everything Kwame Nkrumah did politically was what he called pride in themselves not just as Ghanaians, but as Africans. the concept of the "African "Culture is the milieu of politics" Government after govern- personality"—two words - ment after Nkrumah tended to which summed up what he | play down this element. But sttx>d for. People like to quote < you can see why, from the him when he said the indepen- makeup and very character of dence of (ihana was meaning- each government that came af- less unless linked to the total ter Nkrumah. You cannot liberation of Africa. Hut on that really take on the powers that same platform, that very be that attempt to control and night, the most important manipulate us without facing thing he said in my view was this issue, and those who want that the world needed to take to avoid confrontation will not note that the new African was push this kind of line. Nkrumah getting ready to emerge, the was the most serious advocate African willing to take his des- of the development and eman- tiny into his own hands. cipation of the African person- This has a history r 14 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 terms of organizing the machinery of government. For the first time in the history of Ghana, a separate ministry of cul- ture was put together. Culture had always played second fiddle to other things, always a small desk in a big ministry which dealt with other things. Nkrumah—one man for whom culture was paramount— refused to create a ministry of culture when he was president of Ghana. He so distrusted the very organization he was working with and he wanted so much to pay very close atten- tion to culture that instead of a ministry, he created the Insti- Independence Day, Accra: "Your educational process must have tute of Art and Culture and put its development directly under as an objective to stabilize your culture and transmit it from one his office. That's why the Institute of African Studies at the generation to another" University of Ghana and the Arts Council of Ghana were set So wliile we are not going out ol our way to destroy mat up. He was sure that unless some of those things were done aspect of our culture, we are consciously emphasizing others with authority directly by people who understood what they because even that aspect is being fossilized by people who stood for, they would not happen. He was proved right. After want to see us in that way and by those of us who want to his overthrow, nobody really took culture seriously. capitalize on their taste for the exotic by trying to live up to Africa Report: You head the Ministry of Education and Cul- that. By so doing, we are creating a non-existent culture, ture. What is the link between the two? curios and artifacts which are not necessarily related in any Abdallah: With the coming of this government, it was de- way to our lives. People identify that with our present state of cided that the cultural issues are very strongly linked with our development, whereas when you see a folkloric troop from education. Thus, we decided to bring together the ministries Azerbajian in the Soviet Union, you are also aware immedi- of education and culture, because first and foremost, we look ately of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and you know that the at education as not just a development tool, but also as a two are not the same. One is a preservation of the old, stabilizer of culture. Sometimes societies are described as whereas the other is a living tiling. We got to the point where cultures, therefore your educational process must have as an modern African culture in terms of the arts was in danger of objective to stabilize your culture and transmit it from one not developing because it was being suppressed. Other peo- generation to another. This year, we have decided that there ple wanted to see something else. should be a major reform of our entire educational system, These are some of the tilings we are dealing with. We have and we thought this is the time to bring the two together, so started working out our approaches to the development of our that the interrelationships are clearly established and both culture, so while we have this aspect of culture and the arts— become so firmly entrenched that they are seen as indivisible. literature, painting, sculpture, dance, music, drama—we also Anybody who has been involved in the process in the past will insist on culture as the way of life of the African, and we would tell you that the present ministry of education and culture is like to see an evolution that takes account of our needs as a not the same as before. Now the two are really working people, where we are today and where we want to move in together. the future. When we talk about culture, we are also faced with a seri- Africa Report: Culture tends to be an amorphous concept. ous problem. When Kurope and America say "African cul- Whereas there are clear manifestations of a culture, such as ture, " invariably people see a picture in their minds of dancing the arts, music, dance, a people's culture is more difficult to young men and girls, half-naked, and the sounds of heavy define. drumming. That is part of our culture, yes, a very dynamic Abdallah: Some people define culture in two ways: a culture part of our culture, but it is not the be-all and the end-all of our of evolution and a culture of revolution. In a lot of places in culture. We have recognized that that kind of projection of our Africa, we have a culture of evolution. It has evolved, the culture has served not only to enhance certain negative im- oldest in mankind, made up of certain specific ingredients and pressions of us by outsiders, but it has also helped to put us to elements that are indigenous to a specific place and which sleep on certain things that we should be doing in terms of continue to evolve slowly and have the appearance of time- culture. lessness. Alongside that is the culture of revolution, where violent movements of people have resulted in convergences of one or two peoples and ways of life. In this crucible situa- "Just as in the development of tion, things are melted down and fused together to create new things. America, for example, can be one of the richest na- literature and the arts in Europe, tions culturally in a way that Egypt was thousands of years ago there has always been a direct when it was at the crossroads of the world and there were correlation between the world of the influences from the very origins of civilization. arts and that of social development, You are right that there is a certain nebulousness about there has to be that kind of culture, but at the same time, that nebulousness is an illusion correlation with us too." which comes out of a juxtaposition of actual concrete aspects of life. A culture is made up of the way people dress, the way AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 15 they eat, the way they live, the music, the dance, their litera- dence, so language immediately is important. We have to ture, their history—which is all very concrete, yet when it rewrite the textbooks. The child needs to be taught certain comes together, it is difficult to put your finger on. concepts in the language that he speaks. It is much easier for Africa Report: In every African country, there is some sort him. The pace at which our children learn concepts compared of ministry of culture, and the image one tends to get is that to other people would be tremendously different if they did not culture is performing arts. Hut in terms of Ghana and your have to grapple with the problem of language. And yet we ministry, what does culture mean? Why for example is the have allowed this to continue. For how long have we been cultural element important in the reform of education? independent? Thirty years, that's a long time! We are not Abdallah: First of all, it is impossible for us, as much as we saying throw away the English language—it is an advantage if would like to, to divorce ourselves from our colonial past, and we can add it to what we have—but we must begin from the it is much clearer when you are dealing with education. Educa- beginning and not from the second step. tion as we know it now started in the forts and castles of This is just an example, but there are other aspects to Ghana, the very fortresses that were built to safeguard the education, such as the whole gamut of literature. We have a interests of the colonial master. Eventually when the slave tradition of oral literature. We should not throw it away simply trade came in, every one of those castles was eventually used because now we are living in the world of the written word. as a slave warehouse, and this is the condition in which educa- Religion is another very important aspect. All Africans are a tion started. The priests who came decided that these hea- very religious people, and yet for a long time, going to school thens needed to be educated and turned away from the ways was synonymous with rejecting your religion. School began in of evil into civilized ways. That was the beginning of schooling: the church and you had to denounce paganism, heathenism, The priests decided to open sch RECENT TITLES FROM CULTURAL SURVIVAL THE SPOILS OF FAMINE: Ethiopian Famine GENITAL MUTILATION: A Bibliography By LJIiane Pasmore Sanderson Policy and Peasant Agriculture 1987 70 pages Pb $5 By Jason Clay. Bonnie Holcomb, Peter Nlggli and Sandra Steingraber This volume investigates the causes of the Ethiopian famine and the impact FEMALE CIRCUMCISION, of government programs intended to alleviate it. 1987 275 pages Pb $10. Hb S29.95 EXCISION AND INFIBULATION: The facts and Proposals for Change POLITICS AND By Scilla McLean and Stella Efua Graham THE ETHIOPIAN FAMINE, 1984-1985 1985 Pb $3.95 By Jason Clay and Bonnie Holcomb THE EVICTION OF BANYARUANDA: The most comprehensive review of the causes of famine in Ethiopia. This ground-breaking book challenged many assumptions about the famine and The Story Behind the Refugee Crisis exposed massive human rights violations in the resettlement program both in Southwest Uganda of those resettled and those who were resettled upon. By Jason Clay Rev ed. 1986 237 pp. Pb $995 Hb S29.95 1984 PbS4 ETHIOPIA: Deportations THE FUTURE OF FORMER FORAGERS and Forced-Labor Camps IN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTHERN AFRICA By Peter Nlggli Carmel Schrire and Robert Gordon, eds. This report details the atrocities connected with the Ethiopian government's 1985 125 pages Pb $8 program to resettle 1.5 million peasants from various ethnic and national groups in northern Ethiopia. WHERE ARE THE JU/WASI OF NYAE NYAE? 1986 87 pages Pb $5 CHANGES IN A BUSHMAN SOCIETY: THE FALASHAS: 1958-1981 By John Marshall and Claire Ritchie The Jews of Ethiopia 1984 187 pages Pb S5 By David Kessler and Tudor Parfitt Irt 1985, the attention of the world was focused upon the flight of Ethiopian CULTURAL SURVIVAL QUARTERLY Jews to Israel. This report investigates the reasons for the mass exodus. reports and analyzes the threats to indigenous peoples throughout 1985 Pb $3.95 the world BACK ISSUES: £3.00 each To order or for more information on the 350 titles distributed by Cultural Survival, write: CS, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge. MA 02138. Tel; (617) 495-2562 Delivering the 1987 Canon Collins Culture and Politics Annual Memorial Lecture on May 28, ANC President Oliver Tambo made a critical policy statement on the issue of the cultural boycott of South Africa. For The ANC and the all of us in the ranks of the ANC, espe- cially cultural workers, it is fitting that Cultural Boycott our position was made in the context of our "all-around struggle" and not di- Because of the participation of vorced from the ixrtinent political is- musicians from South Africa, Paul sues tliat face all of those in active strug- gle against the racists of South Africa Simon's "Graceland" album and tour and their collaborators world-wide. aroused controversy among What cannot be repeated t AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 19 swers and sensational pronouncements that will jeopardize the inevitable victory toward which our people are marching inexorably. The ANC, which this year is observ- ing 75 years of existence, proceeds on the basis of strategies that will consoli- date the unity of all our people. This unity cannot be achieved by wishful thinking or sentimentality, ft is con- ceived in support of the people's actions, in recognition of the extreme sacrifices made and in acknowledgment of their courage. For the majority, apartheid culture means familiarity with the instruments of torture: breathing tear gas, suffering the pangs of hunger in a land of plenty, the torment of homelessness in the face of empty "white" housing, lack of class- nxjms and overcrowding of sdrools in spite of the fact that white schools are underpopulated, and worse, political re- pression including the imprisonment of they are unequivocally declaring where ANC President Oliver Tambo: "There has children. That is apartheid culture. Hut emerged a definable alternative demo- they stand in the fight against the latter- cratic culture—the people's culture" we are convinced that this too shall day Nazis of South Africa. We cheer be- pass. cause they are exposing the obscenity from all sides by a broad spectrum of As Oliver Tambo pointed out in the of Sun City built in the midst of apart- South African society. Worse, some of Canon Collins Lecture, the struggle has heid-made hunger, suffering, repres- them had to rlee the townships and live made considerable gains since the boy- sion, torture, and death. under the protection of the regime's cott campaigns of the 1950s, so that the Along the same lines, anti-apartheid guards to escape the activists' wrath. pertinent political questions of the day workers and artists in Sweden, I lolland, Subsequently some of them, notably have become "the appeasement of the Denmark, Hngland, France, and many Steve Kekane, one-time top-selling art- apartheid regime" in the face of the other countries have organized projects ist in the Republic, have been mending "changing balance of strength in our to make their voices heard. their fences with the people. In a series country and the shift of strategic initia- Inside South Africa, cultural workers of interviews, Kekane admitted the er- tive into our hands." The fortunes of the are quickening their pace to catch up ror of his involvement in the Bureau of regime are in decline and there is no with their compatriots in other sectors. Information project and the need for art- question that it experiments daily with The last few years have seen the found- ists to make themselves relevant to the new propaganda ploys aimed at demo- ing of a number of cultural groups aimed unfolding situation. ralizing the growing anti-apartheid sen- at tackling the apartheid culture mon- There are, however, many forms of timent inside and outside South Africa. ster. It is the South African people who "persuasion" employed by the regime to For one thing, they would like to en- signalled the time for tliis activity when compel entertainers to toe the line and joy the best that Western culture can they boycotted foreign cultural merce- even to perform for the South African provide in entertainment, sport, the- naries who performed in South Africa at Defence Force (SADF) illegally occupy- ater, etc. We say: Support our cause- the invitation of the regime. ing Namibia. This is not so much in miti- deprive them of these amenities which In a bid to stem the growing cultural gation of these artists, but in praise of at best have negligible exposure in the isolation, the South African Broadcast- those who have ably resisted the "per- majority of the population. In 1985, 54 ing Corporation (SACIi) sponsored the suasion." The volatility of the situation artists in the United States made their infamous Bureau of Information song. in South Africa is constantly and deliber- viewpoint very clear. As Artists United The response of the public was con- ately accelerated by the arrogance of Against Apartheid through the "Sun temptuous. Kven liberal circles decried the regime and its agents who are des- City" project, they said loudly and the waste of millions of rands for such a perate at the sheer growth of people's clearly, "I ain't gonna play Sun City." patentiy propagandist endeavor that power and determination. The people of South Africa and anti- was an imitation of the "We Are The President Tambo says, "We must apartheid supporters the world over World" project. For the artists partici- take into account the changes that have said, "More power." We cheer Steven pating in the charade came a sad after- taken place over time. . . There has Van Zandt and his fellow artists because math: They were attacked and mocked emerged a definable alternative demo- 20 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 cratic culture—the people's culture— permeated with and giving expression to the deepest aspirations of our people in struggle, immersed in democratic and enduring human values." Thus in the last few years, we have seen a veritable flowering of anti-apart- heid work, acclaimed both inside and outside of South Africa—"Woza Al- bert!", "Asinamali!", "Wenzani," and many others. We have also witnessed the founding of a number of artists' col- lectives, publishing houses, musicians' associations, and craft cooperatives— all addressing themselves to the issues of their craft as well as economic and racial exploitation. Ambassador Joseph Garba (center) at status of the ANC under the regime's meeting of UN Special Committee Against legislation is well-known. Nelson Man- They are in diametrical contrast to Apartheid: "Any visits to South Africa entertainers in pnxluctions such as "Ipi should be discussed beforehand with the dela, together with our other leaders, Tombi," "Meropa," "Shaka Zulu," and appropriate anti-apartheid movement or has been in jail for over two decades and the like. For instance, "Ipi Tombi" has the ANC" he cannot be quoted in South Africa. been boycotted widely because it was a humor which carries us from one strug- If we should say anything on the creation of the regime. It was meant to gle to the next? Our South African lan- "Graceland" album and tour, it is that show smiling black faces whose culture guages are replete with humor, satire, the Paul Simon issue highlighted the is preserved in the system of separate and sheer poetry. need for a cultural boycott policy which development and whose humanity is It is our people who lead the way, and not only answers the demands of the distorted in their child-like simplicity- Oliver Tambo urges us to "deal with the intensifying struggle inside South Af- "Ipi Tombi" was an affront to the dignity alternative structures that our people rica, but also that of politics. Many of the and development of our people. have created and are creating through participating artists who are so widely Concerning popular culture, we have struggle and sacrifice as the genuine acclaimed today have in fact been popu- to admit that it is propagated and manip- representatives of these masses in all lar for more than a decade. It is the ulated to a large degree by the regime's fields of human activity. Not only should actions and sacrifices of those in active agencies, who ban and censor certain these not be boycotted, but more they struggle who have made the interna- songs from the airwaves. Of those that should be supported, encouraged, and tional public receptive to South African get through, very little meaning is re- treated as the democratic counterparts culture. The electronic media which un- tained. But from time to time, some- within South Africa of similar institutions til recently was daily transmitting the thing beautiful like "Istimela Sam Sase and organizations internationally." ugly experience of struggle at home— Zola" is born. It is neither partisan, The cultural boycott was never in- the vivid pictures of beatings, house prudish, nor revolutionary. Its extreme tended to isolate the democratic forces bombings, sh(x>tings, and tear gassing popularity among South Africans, like its of culture at home. Anti-apartheid cul- of children—is what has created the cu- predecessor "Sekorokoro," is because ture produced in South Africa must be riosity and interest. it has great social relevance, artistic ap- seen and heard world-wide. Anti-apart- Individuals have never been the pri- peal, and reflects the ability of our peo- heid refers to those who have lent their mary focus of our efforts, but since the ple to laugh through their tears. It is a talent to support the struggle, and who controversy was fueled by what was celebration of life in spite of itself. Fur- are recognized as the representatives of considered the inadequacy of Paul Si- thermore, it breaks the divide between the genuine South African culture in the mon's letter to the UN Special Commit- the rural and the urban experience in making, by their compatriots. tee Against Apartheid, we think the South Africa. Finally, in addressing the question of whole episode could be closed when he In other words, we would like to mechanisms to complement the cultural has made a projx*r formulation—not to stress that we are not dour-faced dog- boycott, our president's injunction is the press but to the Special Committee. matists calling for a rigorous code that that there is the need "to act together" In general, we are still firmlyoppose d every song and poem should reverber- between the ANC, the broad demo- to any visits by artists to South Africa. ate with heady revolutionary fervor. cratic movement in its various forma- Such visits only serve to legitimize the Neither do we have a secret formula tions within South Africa, and the inter- regime and make nonsense of the objec- which advocates percentages or quotas national solidarity movement. It goes tive to isolate Pretoria. Any visits to for humor, slogans, names of leaders, without saying that we cannot go public South Africa should be discussed be- history, and so forth. After all, where on these arrangements given the forehand with the appropriate anti- would we be without the optimism and present sweeping repressive laws. The apartheid movement or the ANC. D AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 21 BY MICHAEL MAREN Others who have Performed in Apart- according to Anier Araim, senior politi- heid South Africa," the aim of which is to cal affairs officer at the UN Centre he next time the United Nations blacklist those who have profited by Against Apartheid, the Special Commit- TCentre Against Apartheid issues performing in South Africa. As the intro- tee Against Apartheid is taking steps to its register of performers to be boy- duction to the most recent register clarify the situation so that there will be cotted because of their support for the states, "Artists have become increas- no confusion about what is and is not government of South Africa, the name ingly unwilling to suffer the adverse pub- permissible under UN guidelines. of Paul Simon could well be on it. Ac- licity of appearing in the Register." But in the debate over whether or not cording to the UN, Simon has violated Simon has twice refused lucrative of- rules were broken, the UN and those the cultural boycott and much more se- fers to play Sun City—proof enough for who support the UN's position have riously as far as the I IN is concerned, he most that he opposes apartheid and sup- clearly lost sight of the original intention has refused to apologize for doing so. ports the aims of the boycott. He was of the cultural boycott. Instead, they are To most observers of the South Afri- also anything but naive in his consider- considering a violation of the cultural can situation, the inclusion of Paul Simon ation of the "(iraceland" project. He was boycott a crime in and of itself, paying on such a list would appear absurd. clearly aware of the political sensitivity little attention to the reality of the situa- Since the "Graceland" album and tour, of recording in South Africa, and for that tion in South Africa or the contributions Simon's name has come to be associated reason spoke with black American lead- that Simon and the "Graceland" tour with black South African music and with ers and entertainers, like Quiney Jones have made to the anti-apartheid move- the movement to abolish apartheid. Any and Harry Belafonte, as well as with ment. suggestion that he is supporting apart- South African exiles and musicians be- For now, Simon rates only this foot- heid or the South African government is fore going to South Africa to record the note in the register: "The Special Com- without foundation, and not even his album. mittee considered the case of the well- sharpest critics will directly accuse him All of these people encouraged him to known American singer and composer of that. go ahead with the project, and South Paul Simon who was involved in record- Instead, he has been labeled as either Africa's most prominent artists-in-exile, ing an album in South Africa. It decided naive ("Simple Simon," the hostile Brit- Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, not to place his name on the register on ish press has come to call him)—the have joined the "Graceland" tour in cele- receiving his pledge that he does not unwitting dupe of the South African gov- bration of South African music. intend to perform in South Africa while ernment—or exploiting the situation in From the UN's perspective, how- apartheid prevails and will maintain this South Africa in order to further his own ever, Simon has committed several position in the context of the United Na- career. Hut the main thrust of the argu- sins. Kirst, he clearly violated the letter, tions cultural boycott." ment against him is that he violated one though not necessarily the spirit, of the Simon's pledge, as interpreted by the of the cardinal rules of the anti-apartheid boycott by recording in South Africa. United Nations, came in what one UN movement by going to South Africa to And second, he entered into a gray area spokesman called a "cleverly worded" record the "Graeeland" album in 1985. by touring with a group of South African letter datedjanuary 29 and addressed to The fuss stems from a 1980 UN reso- musicians. Here the wording of the UN Ambassador Joseph Garba of Nigeria, lution that "requests all states to take boycott lacks watertight specificity and chairman of the Special Committee. steps to prevent all cultural, academic, sporting, and other exchanges with South Africa." And it "appeals to writ- ers, artists, musicians, and other per- sonalities to boycott South Africa. . . " The Sins of Paul Simon This has usually been interpreted as not playing or performing in South Af- rica or the homelands, most notably the Did Paul Simon violate the cultural boycott by recording infamous Sun City in Bophuthatswana, an album in South Africa and touring with black South as these performances by international celebrities are used by the white gov- African artists? While the UN Centre Against Apartheid ernment in South Africa to imply that has not blacklisted Simon for the "Graceland" effort, their homelands policy has international neither has it embraced the record and tour, putting support and to give the impression that it is business as usual in the country. itself in conflict with the musicians who have gained Since 1983, the names of artists who international notoriety from their association with the have worked in South Africa have been American pop star. listed in the Centre Against Apartheid's "Register of Entertainers, Actors and Michael Maren is a freelance journalist and United Nations former assistant editor of Africa Report. 22 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 "I write to you as an artist completely and some of the "(iraceland" promoters gress (ANC), whose position has been opposed to the apartheid system in suggested tliat the tour kick off its char- to support the rulings of the Committee, South Africa Like millions of people of ity leg with a concert at the UN itself. but thus far there have been no open conscience in that country and around The charity leg is an eight-stop U.S. conflicts. the world who have contributed to the tour that will divide its proceeds evenly London's New Musical Express struggle to end the system. I am work- among the United Negro College Fund, quotes a telex that allegedly came from ing in my held toward achieving this a local charity in each of the tour's cities, ANC headquarters in Lusaka: "The goal. As an artist who has refused to and Children of Apartheid, a fund cre- ANC fully supports a boycott action perform in South Africa, I reiterate and ated by the Rev. Allan Boesak to aid against Paul Simon's European and intend to maintain this position in the apartheid's youngest victims. American tours. . . he has singularly context of the UN cultural boycott." The tour's promoters sought the as- done more harm in floutingth e cultural That was enough to keep Simon's sistance of several groups including the boycott against the racist regime." name out of the register proper, but the United Nations African Mothers, an or- But what harm has he done? The exonerating footnote is a clear state- ganization composed of the wives of Af- ANC didn't really have an answer. And ment that in the Committee's view he rican ambassadors at the UN. After ini- ANC representatives in New York de- violated the boycott. The l!N inter- tially responding favorably to the idea, clined to talk about it. "I'm not compe- preted Simon's letter as an apology, and the women's group backed off. "We had tent to speak on that issue," said Neo therefore an admission that a violation nothing to do with that concert," said Mnumzana, head of the ANC delegation had occurred. Simon evidently had Kvelyn (iarba, head of the African to the UN. "I think the best thing to do is other ideas. Mothers and wife of Ambassador to consult the Special Committee. . . "What happened after that?" Araim Garba. who chairs the anti-apartheid our position is the position of the Special said. "After that, he went to London and committee. "We were invited to take Committee." started making funny statements, say- part at the last minute and we found out "The argument that Simon has ing 'I did not apologize to anybody'—all that they were not cleared by the Com- helped the anti-apartheid cause is re- of this nonsense." mittee, and we just told them that we jected," said Amer Araim. "However, Simon's lack of remorse was appar- wanted nothing to do with it." the government exploits these visits to ently his biggest mistake. The Commit- The proposal forced the Committee show the people of South Africa that tee regularly removes the names of en- to reaffirm its stand against Simon and everything is normal. The pro-govern- tertainers from the register after they the "(iraceland" tour, but at a time when ment Citizen newspaper welcomed have sent a letter of apology. Simon felt the tour had the backing of Boesak, a back Ladysmith Black Mambazo [one of that he had nothing to apologize for and founder of the I Inited Democratic Front the South African groups that recorded that an apology would lump him with the and one of South Africa's most visible and performed with Simon] as 'South entertainers who had performed in Sun anti-apartheid leaders. Boesak stopped Africa's musical ambassadors. City, banked their money, and then re- in New York when returning to South In reality, the only "harm" that has ceived full pardons. Africa from a trip to Japan specifically to come from the Paul Simon affair has According to Araim. Simon's refusal lend his support to the "Graceland" ef- been to the Committee itself and that to apologize "caused the Committee to fort. There he recorded a video tape has resulted from their insistence on doubt liis real intentions." "So the chair- that was later played at a May 4 press trying to apply their authority in a situa- man of the Special Committee sent a conference announcing the tour. tion where it clearly didn't belong. letter to him saying what we mean by In the recorded message-, he says: The Centre Against Apartheid is sup- the cultural boycott and we were ex- "These are among the most troubling posed to provide guidance for the larger pecting him to acknowledge and support and difficult times we have faced in anti-apartheid movement, but as a part that. He didn't. Until he does that. . . " South Africa. Archbishop Desmond of that movement it is also affected by Araim didn't finish the sentence. Tutu and myself welcome and support influences within it. According to one The controversy might have fizzled the efforts of Paul Simon, Miriam Ma- UN official who requested anonymity, out had the UN not been drawn into the keba. Hugh Masekela, and the 'Grace- the Special Committee was "under a lot fray once more in April. Miriam Makeba land' tour in raising world conscious- of pressure from NGOs and London- ness of the effects of apartheid and the based anti-apartheid groups, especially plight of the detained children." Artists Against Apartheid, to issue a "Simon's mistake was "We don't know about the position of condemnation of the Simon tour." the diplomatic Rev. Boesak," Amer Araim said. "But Indeed, the most persistent and vocal oversight of not Simon should reply to the letter of the critic of Simon has been Dali Tambo, son bringing the right chairman of the Special Committee. If of ANC head Oliver Tambo and founder he would dt) that, we have no problem of Artists Against Apartheid. Though he people on board as with his tour or any of his activities." does not speak for the ANC, the weight partners in his Boesak's support of "Graceland" of his father's position sometimes gives venture." could potentially cause problems be- his pronouncements an added air of au- tween him and the African National Con- thority. AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 23 In an interview with New Musical Ex- not bringing the right people on board as opened the floodgates for other South press, Tambo expressed what is at the partners in his venture—of not submit- African music to reach the West, carry- root of the backlash against Simon: ting his plans to the politicians for their ing with it news and information about "What troubles me about Paul Simon— stamp of approval. South Africa. who did he consult with when he went What is frustrating about these Simon has been criticized for not ex- there? He didn't consult with us. charges is how little they relate to the plicitly condemning apartheid in his lyr- "If you're going into the country, then real issue at hand—the abolition of ics—but that has never been his style. you must consult with the ANC." apartheid. Very little of this criticism Kven without the overtly political songs Tambo continued. "Because we're say- against Simon has much to do with the of Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela ing that we presume that whatever cul- stated goal of the boycott—to isolate and closing the show with "Nkosi Sike- tural field you're involved in, you don't the regime in Pretoria. And certainly, leli Afrika," the "African National An- want it to be used to further the aims of the net effect of "Graceland" has in no them," the "Graceland" concerts are apartheid and the racist regime. There- way compromised that goal. clearly making a strong political state- fore, you consult with us so that we can If anything, the scene of a huge mixed ment. "No one can walk out of the 'Gra- put you wise about whether or not we race audience north of the border in celand' concert and not feel a personal think you will be used by apartheid and Harare, dancing to the songs of South connection to South Africa the next time about the effect of your cultural activi- Africa, must not have been a comfort to they see an article about it in the news- ties. If Paul Simon had come to us first Botha. Simon's exposure of some of paper," said one observer of a "Grace- and discussed this, none of this would South Africa's musical talent has already land" show. have happened." Ladysmith Black Mambazo: "Simon's ex- The controversy has brought as That is undoubtedly true. Simon's posure of some of South Africa's musical much criticism to the Committee as it mistake was the diplomatic oversight of talent has opened the floodgates for other has to Simon. It has been revealed that South African music to reach the West" 24 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 The chief hotel chain in Afnca onersforeign ai d to business travelers. When you're traveling thousands of miles to places like Maroua, Bertoua, and Bujumbura, you appreciate all the assistance you can get. Well, no hotel chain has more African assistance to give than Novotel. Rev. Allan Boesak's "support of 'Grace- land' could cause problems between him Call us toll-free and we'll answer your and the African National Congress" questions with the knowledgeability that comes the Committee did not consult with any from running more fine hotels in Africa than South African artists before drafting its anyone else. Hilton and Meridien included. guidelines. Certainly, Hugh Masekela And because Novotel is French and our hotels and Miriam Makeba. the two most are concentrated in once mostly-French West and prominent exiled South African artists, Central Africa, our people over there have a were not consulted and both have been special trip-smoothing savoir faire to share with vocally critical of the Committee in this you, as well. affair. The actual hotels offer a predictably high level In many ways, this application of the cultural boycott does the work of the of facilities and service, true to three-star standards South African government- Like the established in France itself. government's heavy-lianded control of They have fine restaurants. Swimming pools. the foreign press, the UN's measures And bigger than usual air-conditioned ^^^^^^—• are an attempt to control the How of rooms for less than the competition A. A, A. charges. A savings which you as a fre- ^ ^. ^ voices and information from South Af- 3 a J rica. As awarded by the quent traveler to Africa are likely to Mimstere du commerce, The battle over the definition of the appreciate. de 1Artisanat- cultural boycott is destined to be fought et du Tourrisme. in the trenches of the anti-apartheid You can reach us at 800 221-4542 (Mints on pillows movement. Oliver Tanibo and the lead- ; and confirm bookings faster than a earn no points.) ers of the ANC or UI)I are unlikely to speeding cheetah —5 seconds, thanks clash over an issue that should be con- to our computerized reservation network or contact sidered trivial. Whether or not Paul Si- your travel agent. Don't forget to ask for a get- mon is included on the next UN register acquainted copy of our International Directory. will probably not affect the public's per- ception of his politics nor will it have It reveals our plan to influence your policy not much of an effect on the ultimate solu- just toward Africa, but the entire world! tions in South Africa. By using its boycott weapon against Simon and by extension, against Mase- kela and Makeba, the UN has only novotel blunted its own sword. LJ Worldwide reservations in 5 seconds. AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 25 Music One of South Africa's best-known musicians in exile, trumpet player Hugh Interview Masekela was among the artists who toured with Paul Simon's "Graceland" concert. In an interview with Africa with Report, Masekela expresses strong views about the criticisms of the Simon effort by the overseas anti-apartheid Hugh movement, which, he maintains, has made decisions affecting the lives of South African musicians without their Masekela consultation. INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI and AMEEN AKHALWAYA national arena, the more of us can make noise. The civil rights Africa Report: How do you perceive culture as a force for movement in the United States is the biggest example. In political change in the South African context and what contri- those days, people like Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte butions has your music made to the struggle? were able to organize other artists and raise money for the Masekela: I think the only contribution that music or culture civil rights movement and bring attention to it. It didn't change makes to political change is that by becoming popular on an the plight of the ordinary African-American in the U. S., but it international level, you have access to the media and there- affected the courts, so to that extent it is useful. That's why fore you can harp on the political situation at home. In that we need more artists from home to come overseas and have way, you can get the message across about what is happening the same kind of prominence we have. Secondly, the more we in whatever country you come "The more of us that are in the international arena, the more of us are, the more we can have a from if you are oppressed. can make noise" kind of coalition and be able to Now, rather than the excep- put out group statements. tion, it lias almost become the That's why we are working rule that a lot of artists include closer with musicians from social consciousness songs— home, although the ideal thing militant or activist songs—in eventually is to be free, be- their albums because the rec- cause when we are free at. ord companies are not averse home, we won't need to be to it like they were before. overseas. Now, I'm sure executives of Africa Report: How many of record companies say you these artists who are coming have to put a clenched fist from inside South Africa are somewhere in. prepared to make a political We are lucky that we have statement? Isn't there also the Miriam Makeba, Abdullah danger of artists who have per- Ibrahim, and myself, and that's formed in Sun City being given why it is very important vis-a- special status abroad in terms vis the cultural boycott that a of representing South African total boycott not be pursued, opinion? because it should not include Masekela: It cannot be a dan- the banning of artists from ger. People are taking stands home coming overseas. The that are very divisive. I think more of us that are in the inter- the cultural boycott should be 26 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 involved with an educational program, because there is a lot of about this group is almost like if the Graceland tour hadn't political snobbery in the cultural boycott. In other words, you happened. South Africa would be free by now! I don't feel that are guilty up front if you art1 an artist. There are people who Paul's actions and the positive work that has come out of it work for Shell and for .Anglo American in South Africa, for the should not have been harnessed because we all stand on companies that oppress us, and yet they are allowed to go common ground with the movement, with the UN Anti-Apart- abroad. You can't say that a guy who works in the mines—the heid Committee. most oppressive thing—is politically incapable of being taught Africa Report: By the movement you mean the African and of coming over here and representing miners. National Congress? I was misquoted by a newspaper which said I'm against the Masekela: To me, the ANC—although I grew up in it, I'm cultural boycott. I support the cultural boycott completely not a card-carrying member-—is not the only movement out of when it comes to artists from overseas going to South Africa, South Africa. There are many movements which all support working there, and earning $1 or 2 million dollars because the our tour, except for the ANC, which has not come out and said artists at home can't get it. Even the ones at home who anything. I had a meeting the other day with an ANC execu- worked at Sun City didn't get $1 million. Second, it gives tive member and I said, "It is rather late for you to come and South Africa a great profile, it makes it look like the cultural have a meeting with me, because first of all, you went to the capital of the world. media and you put our name in mud and you supported stran- Thirdly, all the people who have gone to South Africa and gers to put us down." All we have ever done is work for the made money never looked to find out if there was anything movement for free. they could put in on the cultural side, like Paul Simon did, who Africa Report: How did you get involved in the Paul Simon refused to perform there, but took his own money and did tour, because there's a lot of confusion about who stands what I call a developmental project for artists. If Haul had been where? a poor guy when he went there. I would have said he went for Masekela: Who stands where is not important to me be- the money, but I have known him for 21 years and the money cause at this point I am so pissed off that I don't care about he has made on this project for him is spare change. Yes, he's what people think. I am saying to them, "What have you done gotten a lot of prestige from it, but I think he has given a lot, for South Africa lately? If the Graceland tour hadn't come up, because he has gotten four groups on the international stage, what would we have heard from you about South Africa?" It's he has revived Miriam's career and to a certain extent, mine, almost like the Graceland tour is the scapegoat for everybody and six South African acts have gotten world attention, which taking a political stand about South Africa! is what I think we need. All of us work in the marketplace in Paul Simon is an old friend of mine and we have followed South Africa for situations that oppress us, the least oppres- each other's works for a long time. We were produced by the sive of which is the music industry. A guy who works at same producer in 1966. So when Paul was promoting this Genera] Motors every day can still be a union member and go album when it was first released in London, he said, "I want abroad and represent South Africans and doesn't get the heat. you to hear what I did." First he played me the album. I've Because music is soft core, because it is visible, and because always loved Ladysmith Black Manibazo and that old style of again it has access to the media, it is very vulnerable. Harare concert: "It's almost like the Graceland tour is the scape- The thing that is most wrong about the cultural boycott in a goat for everybody taking a political stand about South Africa" blanket form, a total boycott, is that it has been done to affect our lives as the musicians of South Africa and the people in the arts without our consultation by people who live very, very comfortable and to a certain extent opulent lives overseas and who have never had to carry a pass, live in a township, or take any of the harsh brutalities of South Africa. They could have said to us, "We want to have a cultural boycott and we think it is going to affect your lives. You tell us and guide us which way we should go, because it's your country." I'm tired of taking orders from the Boers and then taking orders from comfort- able strangers overseas who say they are doing it on my behalf and they don't know where Alexandra is, or what we are going through there! What is wrong about the cultural boycott is that it lacks definition because the people that it affects were not involved in its definition and even up to today it is so vague that you can say what if, what if, what if? There hasn't been a meeting involving the people whose lives have been affected. In other words, we are already guilty. Tina Turner, Chicago, Frank Sinatra all went to South Africa, and I've never heard joe Garba [chairman of the UN Special Committee Against Apart- heid] say anything about them. Hut the way that they talk AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 27 South African music that it captured. I told him that he had home, there are super welcomes. The street people are on really captured the HKHKI and translated it very well into their side, are buying the record, like what they've done, they American and it mixes great. So he asked me, "What do you are proud of them. That's more important. think the next step should be if this record makes it?" He said, But the movement outside—I'm not going to accuse the "Do you think they will boycott us?" I said I didn't think it ANC—but allies of the ANC who say they work on their matters. "You didn't take money from South Africa, you took behalf have given these people a liard time. I admire the fact money there, you paid royalties, you are sharing writers' that some of them have been on Robben Island, but it doesn't credits with everybody, you put us in the forefront and you mean if you suffer, you should come and take out your wrath put the music into the ears of people who would otherwise on people who didn't go to jail because everybody suffers in never even bother about Africa." So based on that, it is a very one way or another. The Mandelas and Sisulus who are in jail positive step. don't have that kind of spirit. They have a spirit of reconcilia- For us, coming from the townships, only a collaborator is a tion. The stand of the people who are nitpicking on Graceland sell-out as far as I am concerned. In South Africa, when you is so inflexible that it has amsed the biggest divisions ever are born black, you make the statement when you are born among South Africans that I have ever seen. that you are oppressed and don't like it. If you become a collaborator or a policeman, then it's another situation. Hut if you don't willingly go out to collaborate. . . A lot of people in "I'm tired of taking orders from the South Africa are just ekeing out a living. Boers and then taking orders from I met this South African lady in England. She's in exile, she comfortable strangers overseas who comes from a very rich family in Cape Town, their money was made off our backs. I don't care if a person is in the ANC, say they are doing it on my behalf when they were at home, they lived at home as Europeans and they don't know where and didn't suffer what we suffered. In the anti-apartheid Alexandra is, or what we are going movement, there's a lot of people like that, and to a certain through there!" extent, I resent their morality because they don't know the townships and they don't consult us. So this woman said, "There goes the cultural boycott." I said, "What do you Africa Report: What has been the ANC's reaction to your mean?" I said we want to work with people from home. And I involvement in "Graceland"? don't take orders from anybody. I'm in touch, I'm beamed into Masekela: I told the representative I spoke to the other day Soweto, Guguletu, Crossroads. I know all those people and exactly what I'm saying to you. And he said, "Hugh, our they say, "Go ahead, we like it." I take my orders from home. problem is that there are a lot of people overseas who are So to this woman, I said, "I'm tired of people like you lobbying for certain tilings. And when you are lobbying, you coming out and telling us what to do, because when you lived are extreme. Anything that makes waves in your lobby takes in South Africa, although you helped us, you made your away your credibility." So there are the extreme supporters money through our oppression. I appreciate that you came of the boycott in the movement and there are the other ex- overseas and you are now in the anti-apartheid movement, tremists who like it. I said to the ANC guy, "I don't know but it would be nice to consult with us." So she said, "We send where you are coming from because you should decide forms to all the musicians in the townships to sign to say they whether you are against Paul or against certain members in denounce apartheid." And I said, "Who the hell do you think the group. Tomorrow you're going to be after me and you will you are to send a form? You are here in Hampstead in your say, 'Don't go to Hugh Masekela"s concert because he played duplex apartment and you are going to send the form to in Graceland.' " But when people like something, they will go somebody in Soweto?" and see it. And this concert is a very powerful one. In our That is the basic stance—that you must make a statement second tour in June and July, we are raising money for children against apartheid. When I was born, that was my statement! in prison in South Africa and we are going to come up with a From there on, every day of my life, if I am living in those very substantial sum of money. We wanted to inaugurate that hovels, that is my statement. The day I go and sell out, then I program at the UN, but the UN committee turned us down. should be accused. But no one should expect somebody who Africa Report: Despite the fact that Paul Simon is not on the lives in the townships to denounce anything, because they UN blacklist? have families. People tell me, "Hugh, I'm political, but I'm Masekela: He was never blacklisted. They haven't decided looking after my mother. If something happens to me, my whether he should be blacklisted or not. That's why he hasn't mother won't eat." I can't say to him, "I won't talk to you, apologized. There was never a clause which said you can't you're a traitor." I have to understand his position. record there. The feelings of the people were exemplified when those Africa Report: In the U.S., is the criticism coming mainly people did that "Let's work together" video in South Africa. from under the UN aegis? They burned their houses and they took them out of town. If Masekela: We don't know where it is coming from because the people were not proud of those who worked with Grace- nobody is showing his face. It is just coming out in the press land, they would have done the same. These guys have been that so and so said this. There are some guys at the UN who working with Paul for three years, and every time they go have been here for more than 20 years and who have never 28 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 THE RAY CHARLES ORtlESTR AND INTRODUCING THlDYNAMIC JUDY CLAY !! E$X»»cl JOL "I support the cultural boycott completely when it comes to artists from overseas going to South Africa, working there, and earning millions of dollars because the artists at home can't get it" been in a township. I don't think they know who Mahlathini is about South Africa. I know you'll be talking about something or who the Dark City Sisters arc. At one time, Miriam Ma- else." I know that the South African press is taking advantage keba went to the UN with Elizabeth Sibeko to look at the of this. There are people in the show like Ladysmith Black statutes and to try and meet these people. They made her Mambazo, who come from the core of Inkatha territory and wait for hours. And later they said in the papers that she never everybody knows the violence that happens there. Anybody came, she is lying. It comes back to one thing: Representation who expects them to martyr themselves right now is kidding without consultation, especially in our case, is like dictatorship himself because these guys want to sing, they want to be in in exile, and we do not want to be dictated to from that show business, and they are getting attention. Inkatha doesn't platform by anybody! Nobody mentions the Pan Africanist need the necklace, they go further than that, and if they want Congress, the United Democratic Front, black consciousness you on their side, you can't be anywhere else. These people or any of the other movements who have supported the show. are the Zulu group, so I'm sure that they are intimidated as far Africa Report: In South Africa, the pro-apartheid media as wanting to say whatever. They are not famous for making tried to use "Graceland" to say that the cultural boycott has great political statements. failed, that the thousands of South Africans who went to But people who don't make political statements are not Harare for the concert don't support the cultural boycott. necessarily apolitical. Ray Phiri is a member of the UDF and Masekela: We don't regard ourselves as part of the cultural he has had a lot of problems with the police, so it is very funny boycott. We don't regard ourselves as being wrong. We think when he is accused of playing for the SADF in Namibia. Mi- that the people who want us boycotted are well-intentioned riam Makeba and myself have been living with a cultural boy- and we stand on common ground, but if anything we are more cott before it happened. At the risk of our careers, we have in touch with the townships than they are because we are knocked the government for 27 years while overseas. In working with people who live there, we are in touch with those days, we were considered "communists" and it put our people at home, and we ask them about this. careers back so far that I have always said that my musical Second, there is a certain naivete here because the South career will not start until we are free. Now, I'm just of the African government will use anything, any time there is divi- people through the people. I don't see any way that I can siveness, to come and put in the wedge. I am sure they have inspire anything because / am inspired by the struggle of the infiltrated and I think a lot of the press is coming from those people. If the people get any inspiration from me, it is a elements. They have a very sophisticated international net- blessing that I am not looking for. I wouldn't have a song, I work of public relations and they have played havoc with the wouldn't have a name, a language or a tongue, without them. press because most of the people in the press who knock us I think that the people who are on the cultural boycott scene don't know what they are talking about. can't tell their Paul Simons from their Harry ()ppenheimers. They have described me as being very vitriolic because I Harry Oppenheimer can go to Lusaka, but they won't talk to give them hell in press conferences. I say, "Next week when Paul Simon! Paul Simon gives, Harry Oppenheimer takes (jraceland is not there, I wonder if you will still be worried away. And what Harry Oppenheimer takes is BIG, but who AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 29 knows Harry Oppenheinier in the press today? Paul Simon is castigated and all churches in Africa should be closed down the arch-devil when it comes to South Africa. He looks even because He gave Africa a bad deal and after all, He did create worse than Botha! the world, didn't He? It is no different. Just say, "To hell with Africa Report: Did the decision to do another tour to raise God, why was 1 bom in South Africa? If God is God, if there is funds for detained children come about as a result of the a creator in this world, God should be put down for making us controversy or was it planned before? Africans!" But when God made the world, he just made peo- Masekela: No, we went into this tour with the controversy ple and they got into the things they got into without Him. He already there. And we don't recognize the controversy, so didn't say, "I'm going to make the world and I'm going to make sure that niggers have a rough time." He just made the world, and Paul just made an album! He didn't know it was going to be "In South Africa, when you are a hit and if it hadn't been a hit, we wouldn't have heard from anybody. I am positive about that. I don't know of any artist black, you make the statement who has ever made an album and called to ask permission and when you are born that you are ask what kind of lyrics he should write! The guy says he was oppressed and don't like it." moved by the music. To me, that is a statement on its own, because Paul knew what South Africa is about. He is a mas- ters graduate of Queens College, he is an art collector, he is a we're not doing anything to placate anybody. We think that we very well-read person and he is very articulate. He has writ- have a right to represent South Africa. If Joe Garba can be a ten brilliant songs in the past. spokesman for South Africa, then I can also talk for South One of the things that people miss culturally about us is tliat Africa and I think I have better claim to it. What happened was they want to typify us. I think it is a mistake that Castro made. this: We were in Los Angeles, and myself and Kay Phiri were Today, Cuba is looked at like a clenched fist, bearded, cigar- dissatisfied about the fact that when we looked in the audi- chomping, fatigue-wearing country, but it's not really that. ence, we saw people mostly of European origin. 1 said to Kay But they want us to have that same kind of Savimbi look. They that I felt that we should take the show to the inner cities. If want us to all sound like the group Amandla. But South Africa we still don't get African-Americans, then at least we will have is not about that. We have a wide spectrum of music, and even tried. though we are in a war, we have to show our music as it is, and But not only should we extend the tour, but we should give if there is one song that says it to me, it is "Homeless." something to the South African cause because our good luck and good fortune from this show has come from South African art. We should show that we are grateful for whatever little we "Representation without have gotten out of it. We should find a cause. At that time, we didn't know what it was going to be. So myself and Ray went consultation, especially in our case, to talk to Paul and said we should take the tour to the inner is like dictatorship in exile, and we cities—to Washington, to Detroit, Chicago, and New York. do not want to be dictated to from We then chose the charity. that platform by anybody." Africa Report: The "Graceland" effort has gotten the sup- port of Rev. Man Boesak and Archbishop Tutu. Masekela: We met Allan Boesak when he was in Los The fact is that Paul Simon was moved by the music and Angeles. Jane Fonda had a reception for him and we met him dealt the fairest of any musician that ever went to South there. She invited Boesak to talk to her film star friends, so Africa. I le stuck with it for three ye;irs, despite all the castiga- then we addressed the question to Boesak, and he said the tion. He liad a clear mind and he has made great friends with only error he saw in the whole thing was the inflexibility with these guys. Paul is not going to abandon these guys. He says which the situation has been treated—that we don't care if to me, "Hugh, Joseph Shabalala and Black Mambazo and Kay you harvested a great crop, if you found grazing lands for the Phiri are my friends. I've been to their homes, I've lived with flocks, and if you built all those houses, but before you built the them for three years. They've helped me and I've helped foundations, you should have called us. Because you didn't, them and we are going to be life-time friends. These people you are wrong and you cannot be forgiven, even if the whole are saying I shouldn't play with them because they are from thing is positive. The inflexibility is what disturbs Boesak and South Africa. What do they want from me? I refused to go to he wonders if there are elements from the government itself Sun City and do a tour of South Africa. I love these people's that are forcing this inflexibility by infiltrating the general music!" thought. If "Graceland" had been embraced by the Anti- If that is not a statement, then what is? Did Ray Charles do Apartheid Movement, the effect would have been fantastic. it, did George Benson doit, did Tina Turner and Millie Jackson We could have done great benefits, we could have filled stadi- doit? Millie Jackson told them to go to hell. She went to South ums. Africa twice and the same people who are castigating us for- Africa Report: One of the criticisms was that Paul Simon gave her. In other words, you can go to South Africa and take should have used his music to make some political statements. $3 million, but if you come back and say I'm sorry, Mr. Garba, Masekela: That is as ridiculousa s saying that God should be Mr. ANC, then that's OK. That's nonsense! • 30 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 Music Ray Phiri, the gifted South African guitarist whose band, A Stimela, tops the charts at home, provided musical Conversation direction and lively guitar solos to "Graceland." Today each and every South African should be very proud because now the world has realized that it is not only Miriam with Ray Phiri Makeba and Hugh Masekela that gave us a name. I've got so much respect for Hugh and those guys, but they have done INTERVIEWED BY MXOLISI MGXASHE notliing to help the musicians at home. But I can forgive them because they have never been given a chance. They never On Paul Simon and South African music: had a chance like Paul. Paul had the money, had the ways of Paul Simon needed a tap that he could open and out pours doing it. They have been exiled, they would have been ar- water. I wasn't in his plans when he went down to South rested for going back to South Africa. Africa. It was by pure chance that lie went to Soweto to one of South Africans know that every headline says Paul Simon the shetwcris and heard one of my records being played there and his South African musicians. That says something! He is and everybody was dancing to the tune. He wanted to know the only small white boy in a cast of 25. It is more like our show who the band was and they told him, Stimela. Somebody from than his show. And he is proud to be part and parcel of this, London had sent him a pirated copy of South African music, that's why he always takes the third seat and gives us all the the Gumboots Jive and Rhythm of Resistance albums. That's glory. It is up to us to take it any further. There will be quite a what got him involved with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. For lot of South African musicians who will benefit from this collab- two years, he was listening to this music and trying to find out oration, so they must stop saying that he stole South African where it comes from, then Warner Brothers got in touch with music. Paul had to tell them that all the musicians are getting royalties, which means that we've got to flaunt our checks to them and say this is how much we got, and then they'll turn back and say we sold out for money! I've earned this, I've worked hard for it, so nobody has the right to tell me anything. On the opposition to the Graceland tour by some anti- apartheid activists: It's a case of the left not knowing what the right is doing. My record is clean. I have never collaborated with the system and I would never do that. I wouldn't have had my records banned in South Africa if I was a collaborator with the system. I have always been outspoken. That's why today in South Africa people say my band, Stimela, is the people's band. 1 don't write political songs because to me that is outdated. I will never make use of the name of Nelson Mandela to further my aims and fatten my b'ink balance. I respect that man too much the company which recorded Gumboots Jive. Then he went to use his name to further my own aims. He has given up his down to South Africa and started working with them. After a freedom for one thing—to unite us all, including those so- week, things weren't working really tine because there was a called leaders who are outside the country who are making a musical communications breakdown between the guys he was lot of noise and who don't want to see any young guys coming working with. He was looking for a tap, not just musicians, but from South Africa with a positive way of doing tilings. They people who would give him ideas. feel threatened by that power. It makes me really sick some- People who say he has stolen our music, that's nonsense. times. They should have accused me of that because I arranged it all. 1 think "Graceland" is the best thing that ever happened to On allegations that Stimela performed in Namibia for South African music, moreover to the black community. Right the South African Defence Force: now we are heroes back home. We liave had people who have In 1984, we had a Namibian tour, but we never performed been out of the country for more than 20 years and they have for the SADF. Where? That's what I would like to know. I done notliing for our musicians, they have done nothing to won't stop someone who comes to my show and wants to pay bring our music out, so this guy went down at the right time because by playing for two or three people who are on the and started working with the right people. This is the best other side of the line, I'll be able to talk through to them by my thing that ever happened because Paul Simon worked with music and my words. I can reach them and make them realize people who believe in their music and who needed to let the that they are stupid to fight when they don't even know what world know that we also have something to say in our special they are fighting for. But I have never stood so low as to go way through music, South African music. and perform for the SADF. I was approached for that Depart- AFRICA REPORT-July-August 1987 31 ment of Information song, I was offered 105,(XX) rands, but I the one person who can deliver a good message. He's the only didn't participate! I don't need money of that kind. I am the one who can touch them at that time when they have forgotten very same guy who started up the South African Musicians all about politics and so forth. As a musician, you don't have to Alliance. I am not a man of double standards. point out to people that you've got to be politically active. No! I give my people hope, I don't give them promises! I am You give the person the chance to discover himself, bring out telling them how to better themselves. They don't have to social awareness to him, what is it that makes him want free- point fingers at other people. It is no use standing at the top of dom? What is he going to do with it? Is he ready for it? You give the mountain and screaming "I'm being oppressed," if you're him the choice and he will make it. He will choose his own doing nothing constructive to help yourself out of that confu- way, you don't have to tell him what to do. That's the best way sion. It makes me crazy to think that people can st 32 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 BY DENIS HERBSTEIN Reporter's Notebook ournalists have a habit of keeping J their cuttings in old suitcases in the loft, for their memoirs as much as for The proving their past to unbelieving grand- children. I am looking at a piece written Hazards of Cultural for my first employer, the Cape Times, one evening in April 1965. Dr. Ver- woerd, the much-feared professor of Deprivation psychology, was prime minister of South Africa, meticulously separating The cultural boycott has had some unintended effects in white from black. I had been sent to the hallowed precincts of the city hall for the South Africa. Few whites seem concerned that the Thursday night symphony concert—as number of foreign artists willing to perform in the land of reporter, not music critic—there to wit- apartheid has steadily dwindled over the years, ness a scene redolent of the Third Reich. whereas for blacks, isolation from Western culture has Even before the applause for the resulted in an explosion of homegrown artistic talent. "Eroica" had died down, plainclothes policemen moved in to the auditorium been desegregated. The debate has tian standards. A clear case of cultural taking the names and addresses of white moved on from "petty" apartheid to the misrepresentation. and "Coloured" (mixed blood) members larger issue of black participation in the Although the cultural boycott appeals of the audience. There weren't many mainstream political process. But as primarily to purveyors of "culture," it Coloureds about, for who wants to be Paul Simon now knows, there are peo- can no longer be treated as an issue on humiliated in public? The government ple, even among the 6 million who its own. "Take entertainment," says Al- had warned that it would be seeking evi- bought his "Graceland" recording, for lan Bnxjkes of the British Anti-Apart- dence with which to charge the multi- whom it is anathema to make music in heid Movement. "A lot of money is in- racial City Council for contravening a the land of apartheid. volved. You can't be talking about sanc- new proclamation requiring permits for The cultural boycott was once a sim- tions for industry and not for things like mixed audiences at public entertain- ple matter of private conscience. Now it records or film distribution. The KMI ment, which would be granted if the has become part of the larger agenda on subsidiary in South Africa has said quite council arranged racially separate book- sanctions against South Africa, gov- bluntly that it wants to sell abroad be- ing offices, entrances, seating, and erned by a growing array of rules, occa- cause the local market is so small." One needless to say, toilets. sionally contradictory, and some which reason why the movement is angry with After the interval, I reported: "The seem to be made up on the run by anti- Paul Simon. audience settled down to hear the cele- apartheid activists. The first problem Allan Brookes: "People said, "Why brated French violinist Christian Ferras facing the cultural boycott is that the are you doing it, the guy's a goodie?1 But play the solo part in the Beethoven con- very term lends itself to a variety of defi- we are not running a vendetta against certo." i recall telephoning my copy to nitions. him. He got a visa from their consulate, the office and when the concert ended, At its broadest, "culture" is "that went to South Africa, and made a re- trying to interview Ferras. He seemed which remains after you have forgotten cording there. He argued that techni- angry, but declined to comment. I don't everything else." Not much help in cally it was not a performance, but the recall whether he returned to South Af- stopping Botha's propaganda. On the UN says a recording is the same as a rica after that tour. Shame on liim if he other hand, culture is not an Outspan performance. Had we allowed Simon to did. From tliat time, overseas artists, orange, a Kruger Rand, a GM truck get away with it, someone else could classical and pop, were liable to remove from Uitenhage, or a French-designed justly say, 'Why not me?' If the record South Africa from their itinerary, though helicopter gunship made under license was made outside the country, we many are still willing to dance to the tune in South Africa. would not have objected." of apartheid. It would include the "arts," verbal, There were other stage-whispered Over the years, domestic and exter- musical, and plastic—though poetry objections. The band, Ladysmith Black nal pressures have forced Pretoria into a and painting are difficult to interdict—as Mambazo, was said to be "apolitical." wart-clearing operation. The Cape well as academic, but not sporting ex- And Simon had latched on to the Town City Hall and other, but by no changes. Tourists think they imbibe cul- rhythms of South Africa as a means of means all, places of entertainment, have ture, returning home in the belief, fos- resurrecting himself in the charts. A lot tered by the white establishment with of money has spun off those records, Denis Herbsttin, a South African exile, is a jour- nalist and author living in London. He writes whom they exclusively mix, that South disks, CDs. Except that the two musical regularly for '['lie Observer, International HtT- ;ild Tribune, and the New Statesman. Africa lives according to Western Chris- symbols of resistance to apartheid, AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 33 cott, the dramas and serials for which Britain is renowned were not seen. But the video revolution got around that ob- stacle—and around the stifling film cen- sorship for which the Calvinist rulers art; justly celebrated. With the "indepen- dence" of the Bophuthatswana bantus- tan, the Sun City entertainment com- plex took shape to lure the Frank Sina- tras and Eartha Kitts into the web of apartheid. From the earliest days of the cultural boycott, the question has been: "But whom are you trying to influence?" The answer has to be: "Show solidarity with the blacks, discomfort the whites, make the creative elements of American and Rev. Trevor Huddleston, president of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, with Ambas- sador Joseph Garba, chairman, UN Special Committee Against Apartheid: 'Through the European society more conscious of connections with its former colony, Britain was the first focus of the boycott" apartheid." Which excludes the prime Hugh Masekela's trumpet and Miriam when Arnold Wesker, a popular working perj^trators of racist bigotry, the Afri- Makeba's clicks, were performing with class playwright, withdrew from a list of kaners. Few of them wish to see En- him, while two ecclesiastical thorns in 30 boycotting colleagues, he sold per- glish plays or overseas artists. Their in- Botha's flesh, Allan Boesak and Des- forming rights to Athol Fugard for one terest in opera is catered for by the mond Tutu, sent best wishes, and Rob- penny, stipulating that "Chips with Eve- state-financed performing arts boards. ert Mugabe blessed the giant gig in a rything" should only play to mixed audi- Now, with the urbanization of the Afri- Harare stadium. (The influential Johan- ences. That was in 1971, when few the- kaner, the youth have acquired a taste nesburg Star's headline, "Graceland aters were "open," but Wesker hoped for mainstream rock music to add to the gives boycott the boot," might bear out that his plays would be performed in the traditional penchant for Country and the point thai white South Africa is black townships. Western. But an abundance of home- grateful to Simon.) It is in tilts field of visiting plays and grown pop groups and the free flow of The cultural boycott has been with us players that the cultural boycott took records has compensated for the ab- since the 1950s, when the prohibition root. British actors and concert artists sence of foreign stars. was mostly outward, instigated by the toured the Republic in the European But what of the blacks? Since the So- increasingly vindictive Afrikaner state. winter, performing Shakespeare, farce, weto uprising of 197H and the enormous Black artists who left were simply not or musical comedy to white English- politicization of the black community, allowed back. Makeba, Masekela, the speaking audiences. Many said, still the aims and organization of the cultural writers Lewis Nkosi and Alex la Guma, say, they abhorred apartheid, but boycott have changed completely. had to choose exile. "things are changing," or "we are bring- These days, black organizations within Inward-bound, the musician Ychudi ing them culture." South Africa liaise with the British Anti- Menuhin and the pianist Rosalyn Equity advised them against going, Apartheid Movement and the UN Cen- Tureck—"could I contaminate Bach by but last year attempted to close the con- tre against Apartheid to prescribe who associating it with apartheid?"—made a tinuing dribble of members going south and what is permissible, especially in the stand on principle. British pop stars by issuing an "instruction" as a means of field of popular entertainment. Dusty Springfield and Adam Faith making the boycott mandatory. When Frene Ginwala, African National Con- refused to sing to segregated audi- challenged in court by a group of actors gress spokesperson in London, ex- ences, both quitting dramatically in mid- led by Marius Goring, the instruction plains, "The people at home are the first tour. But they were few and far be- was thrown out. Goring said he had no watchdogs." These are the members of tween. The middle-class white women intention of acting in South Africa but it the democratic movement, the United of the Black Sash had to picket Britain's should be left to the individual con- Democratic Front, COSATU [the main best-loved ballerina. Dame Margot science. Yet feelings run high. The actor trade union movement |, student organi- Fonteyn, for dancing to separate audi- Jonathan Pryce persuaded the Royal zations, and more recently the South ences. Shakespeare Company to return a African Musicians' Alliance, which re- Through the connections with its £70, (KX) sponsorship check to Barclays port on whether a group or a musician is former colony, Britain was the lirst fo- Bank, citing its role in bolstering apart- politically kosher. cus of the boycott. The entertainment heid. The Musicians' Alliance certainly unions, Actors' Kquity, the musicians. In 1976, television, or "the little bio- played a part in the Graceland affair. the television technicians, and the Writ- scope" as one Afrikaner politician dis- And the opinion of the "home boys" was ers' Guild, laid down various degrees of dainfully called it, flickered into South vital in the banning of South African aca- restraint on going south to work. Even Africa's living room. Because of the boy- demics from the World Archaeology 34 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 Congress in Soutliampton, England last on the British stage. The problems fac- you like. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rog- year. If scientists and academics ing the anti-apartheid movement are not ers signing a pledge not to appear in Sun worked in Ihe wrong "environment" of simply deciding which play or artist is City, or Tyne Daly agonizing about certain universities or learned societies, collaborationist, but in selling the notion "Cagney and Lacey" on SATV, will not they were verboten, unless students be- to the public. Confused Westerners persuade President Botha to admit to longing to the "broad democratic front" might well ask, "Wasn't it supposed to the error of his ways. were of a contrary opinion. be the nasty white nationalists who For the blacks, on the other hand, it The ANC's Ginwala says it is not banned books?" One detects shades of can only be of benefit. Isolation from enough for a particular academic to difference between British activists and Western culture—compared with coun- claim to be "literal" and to oppose apart- nostalgic exiles. "It is our music and our terparts in Kenya or Nigeria—has en- heid. "Even F.W. Rotha says he wants country," Masekela complained, "who couraged an explosion of homegrown to get rid of apartheid." A recently are people in London to tell us. . . ?" theatre, poetry, creative writing of all formed non-racial national medical asso- "Back home," where a man was jailed sorts, and of course, the wonderful har- ciation, rivalling the conservative, for 18 months for drinking tea from a monies of black music. The pressures white-dominated council which has long mug inscribed with the words "Release against performing in bnntustan "Sun represented doctors and dentists, is one Nelson Mandela," the options are less Cities" have already boosted Zimbabwe case of "alternative structures" more in complicated. The "comrades" dealt with as an alternative entertainment center, harmony with black ambitions and the a blind black guitarist who had contrib- a handy place for South African artists rise of a "people's culture." uted lo the South African government and fans to meet with musicians of the In the old days, any black who man- propaganda "peace" tune by burning wider world. aged to travel abroad on a passport was down his house and killing a drummer automatically an object of suspicion. friend, also blind. The black and white Now they are granted even to the more artists who recorded the "Info Song" "From that time, voluble of the regime's critics. So how to were shunned by colleagues and pro- overseas artists, weed out the "wrong" artists from the moters, until they held a meeting of re- classical and pop, were acceptable ones? They have to be vet- cantation, apologized for the lapse, and ted. Once the "anti-apartheid commu- pledged solidarity with the oppressed liable to remove South nity" in South Africa gives the thumbs- masses. On a less bloody note, several Africa from their down to a group, they can expect a sym- music and drama groups pulled out of itinerary, though many pathetic reaction in Britain. Labour the Cape Town Festival because police are still willing to Party-controlled local authorities or stu- and army bands were participating. The dance to the tune of dent unions may consult with the Anti- boycott is not for export only. apartheid." Apartheid Movement headquarters in But there are limits to what can be London, so that a concert will be pick- achieved. The boycott does not attempt eted or a council hall suddenly made un- to embrace the written word. Inwardly, Some harsh things have been said available. You are okay if. in the word of Pretoria has long controlled the litera- over the Graceland affair. And some the AAM, you "identify- fully with the ture it thought its citizens, and more silly ones—President Botha and his liberation struggle." particularly, non-citizens, should read, scissors-wielders will have been sur- But the system sometimes appears though the rigors of censorship have prised at Paul Simon's remark. "Culture to damn everything South African, eased slightly in recent years. Outward- Hows like water. It isn't something that whatever its ideological leaning or even bound, the marketplace governs the can just be cut off." But now at least a color. While the aim of economic sanc- sale of books from South Africa. Nadine few more apolitical disk-consumers tions should be to stop up completely Gordimer, Andre Brink, Alan Baton's have been "conscientized." the two-way traffic of goods, a cultural Cry, the Beloved Country, B(X)ker Prize Finally, one has to report one action, boycott must allow room for a value winner J.M. Coetzee, have a foreign broadly speaking "cultural," which has judgment. Last January, a focal anti- readership yet to be acquired by black enraged the hardline Afrikaner—his apartheid group in west London tried to writers. Coetzee has pleaded publicly— pride, if not his conscience. Last year, close down "The Bijers Sunbird." acted in Israel, of all places—against the West the Hollywood studios, lapped at last by in and written by white South African cutting ties with South Africa. There is the winds of change, threatened the Robert Kirby. The play was hardly an nothing that the comrades, or the Lon- withdrawal of feature films from segre- apology for apartheid, and this action don activists, can do about that. gated cinemas. For a brief period, com- gave rise to charges of zealotry and anti- The cultural boycott is "working" in munities deep in the veld insisted they white racism. that more and more artists are refusing would rather miss an evening with Clint The AAM also mysteriously picketed to touch anything South African. But Eastwood or James Coburn than sit "Bopha," an all-black production at the what the whites care about is their ex- next to a kaffir. How many are still hold- National Theatre, yet failed to say any- clusion from the Olympic Games and ing out, I don't know. Even the most thing about half-a-dozen other black or from world cricket and rugby (their two dyed-in-the-W(K)l racist is subject lo the mixed South African productions seen national sports). The "macho" factor, if hazards of cultural deprivation. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 35 Theater Interview with Duma Ndlovu "Asinamali!", the first black South African play performed on the Broadway stage, and dazzled theater critics and audiences with its technical brilliance and political Mbongeni Ngema intensity. Mbongeni Ngema, the playwright and director, and were a lot of write-ups about it. Then I went and saw the piece co-producer Duma Ndlovu, executive and I was astounded by the energy. I had been a fan of (libson director of Woza Afrika, a New Kente and of radical black South African theater, but what I saw presented in "Woza Albert!" I identified as a new form of York-based foundation to support black South African theater. At that time, South African theater South African culture, talk about the could be broken down into two different groups, the Gibson development of black theater in the Kente township theater—largely musicals aimed at entertain- ing—and then agitprop theater winch was not entertaining at context of the country's ongoing political all because the people in the black consciousness movement crisis. believed that you had to go on stage and make your statement clear. People should not be laugliing, it's a serious matter. INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI and AMEEN AKHALWAYA But "Woza Albert!" married these two. It was both funny and serious. It was painful. And it was very highly skilled Africa Report: Can you tell us about your professional back- theatrically. So it was a new experience. You could go to a grounds that k'd you to bring the first black South African play theater and laugh at seriousness and at pain, at the same time to Broadway? leave having been moved. So, we started talking with Ndlovu: I worked as a journalist in South Africa for the World Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa, who were the co-crea- newspaper first, then for Drum and a few other black publica- tors of "Woza Albert!" They were doing a "Class A" off- tions. I came to the U.S. in 1978 after 1 had left South Africa Broadway inn, which was higher than what we could afford for political reasons. I have always regarded myself as a cul- then. But we got together with them and explained the mis- tural nationalist, being a direct offspring of the black con- sion we were embarking on—bringing quality theater to sciousness movement and belonging to the cultural wing of Harlem at affordable prices. organizations like the South African Students Organization. So we worked out their coming to perform in Harlem. The We were always conscious of the fact that culture is one of the kind of reception that "Woza Albert!" received changed a lot of ways that we can spread the message of South Africans. I also tilings, because Mbongeni and Percy hadn't performed in was one of the poets in the 1976 era. I came to the U.S. more front of a predominately black audience since leaving South interested in developing my cultural profile than my journalis- Africa. The feeling after tliat was mutual between us—that tic instincts. Mbongeni's next piece should premiere in Harlem before it What made it much easier was the fact that when I got to goes anywhere. At that time, the end of 1984. we didn't even New York. I found that we had so much in common with the know what the next piece was. Mbongeni and I started a African-American experience. Culturally our expressions and relationship over the phone between South Africa and here, interests were very similar. So I started getting involved with and by the end of 1985, all the pieces were falling together. In trying to increase the awareness of South African music be- early 198b", we collaborated in bringing "Asinamali!", which cause we've always believed that any form of South African premiered in Harlem. And it proved to be a much stronger culture or art is a voice against what is happening in South play than "Woza Albert!" in the perception of the theater Africa. critics here, who thought it was the most astounding piece of We got an opportunity to bring Miriam Makeba to this work that they had ever seen. country for the first time in seven to 10 years. We started a Ngema: I started as a musician and then bit by bit, friends trend of commemorating June 1(S in this country every year, called me in to write music for their plays. And in time, I and also commemorating the death of Steve Biko, which gave us an opportunity to invite not only South African cultural "Anything can happen during artists like Hugh Masekela, Dollar Hrand, and others to par- ticipate, but also to invite the larger African-American popula- rehearsal—from people being tion. We worked with people like Nina Simone and other arrested for passbook violations on culturally conscious people. their way to rehearsal to policemen In 1984, we got the chance to participate on a larger scale in storming into somebody's kitchen theater when "Woza Albert!" came to the U.S. When 1 came while rehearsal is going on." to the U.S., "Woza Albert!" had already played here and there 36 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 started falling in love with theater. A playwright friend called told me the history of that company. They skirted with Mexi- to ask mo to help him with the songs in one of his plays, and can-American farm workers, who after working all day on then I fell in love with the part of the lead character in the play. plantations would stop their trucks at the junctions of the When he was on stage. I would mimic him backstage making streets on the way home and perform a short play. If it be- the other musicians laugh. And then one evening, the actor did came dark, they would use the other trucks as stage lights. not turn up and there was no one to take his part. In the And then audiences gathered. townships, we don't have understudies—it was not in our This idea excited me and I started thinking about what is budget, it's what we get at the door. The play had to go on, it happening back home. There are a lot of people around Dur- was a performance in Xululand at a sugar cane hostel, where ban who were evicted and live in tents. And they have nothing you would not cancel a |>erfonnance when the people are to console their spirits. No churches, no schools, absolutely sitting inside—those guys can be very rough! We had to do a nothing. When I got back to South Africa, I was involved with The cast of " Asinamali!": "Black South African theater has been a friend who was running community educational workshops an act of defiance against the government" around Durban in such places. And she said, "It would be interesting if you used your skill in helping these people." Then I said, maybe we should start a small group that would allow artists to help in such matters, maybe do benefit per- formances or have those people participate in our perform- ances. I made a big advertisement and a lot of people came to a meeting—artists, actors, writers, poets, musicians. I ex- plained my ideas. Everybody got excited and said, "What are we going to call it?" Because I kept saying we have to be committed to this, it ended up being "Committed Artists." We did a lot of things—music, poetry, and dancing. And then I started writing a play about poverty because I had seen what was happening to those people. In the middle of my writing a play, a man in Lamontville, Msizi l)ube, who was leading the people against rent increases, was killed. All of us then starting focusing on what was happening in lamontville. More people were being killed, a funeral was giving birth to another funeral, as the police would come in and shoot more performance. So I volunteered (o do the part and half the time people. We had to forget for a while what was happening in our 1 would be backstage playing the guitar and then 1 would put group and just concentrate on what was just happening in down the guitar, go on stage, and do the part. Lamontville. Then I said we should use what is happening Then the playwright came to me and said, "Let's write a here back in our workshop. I had a group of actors that I had play together." We collaborated on a piece together and I was started to train, people with no acting skills. I took live of them the lead actor in that piece, too. We became successful on a and said let's do a play about poverty which will also involve much smaller scale in the townships. Then, finally I wrote my what is hap|)ening in Lamontville. own piece which I directed myself and wrote the music for. Africa Report: So Msizi Dube in "Asinamali!" was an actual That's how it developed—I became an actor, then a writer person. and director. Ngema: Yes, lie's an actual person who died. Most of the All this happened between 1976-78. Then in 1979, I went people mentioned in the play are real people—like the guy to Johannesburg. I had decided that I had to know more about who says his friend was shot by policemen, he's a real person theater. I joined Gibson Kente because I noticed that he had and that's how he died. He was very active in Lamontville some magic in his productions that I didn't have, and I wanted township. So if the actors didn't read the lines and get the to find out how he did it. I joined the company and worked with spirit right, I would say, "Let's go to a funeral in Lamontville, Gibson for over two years, and then left him. Thai's when 1 so that we experience running away from tear gas. how it is to met Percy Mtwa and we started collaborating on "Woza Al- be close to death" and bit by bit. they began to understand bert!", which became a phenomenal success from the time it what I wanted. I didn't want anything more than the true spirit first opened. And it went on and on for five years. Then I did of the people in the play. I know how to deal with technique in "Asinamali!" terms of training the actors. I wanted technique as well the Africa Report: Can you tell us how you formed your theatri- truth. cal group. "Committed Artists"? Africa Report: So the actors in the play are not professional Ngema: In 1982, when I was touring the West coast of the actors, but rather local people who got involved in your work- U.S., 1 met with a Mexican-American director, Luis Valdez, shop. who has ;\ company called El Teatro Campesino, theater for Ngema: Yes. What was key for me was a play that we could farm workers. They were interested in our style and they do for people in those tents but that could also be performed wanted us to come and do some workshops with them. We on a Broadway stage. It has to be so good technically and saw what they were doing which was very exciting. Then he artistically that people would not go to see it because it's about AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 37 "One of the most radical ways of spreading a message in South Africa Report: I would imagine that Athol Fugard doesn't Africa, after the creation of the face the same possible threats of censorship. black consciousness movement, has Ndlovu: In terms of South Africa and how it deals with art, the government would not come out and say, "Don't do this" been the arts, the theater, and and "Do this." The operative word here is for them to stop music." something that has already been started. If you establish your politics, or about the poor, black people of South Africa. They work in the cities, it's less likely that the government or should go and see it because it's good theatre. At the same soldiers or police will storm into a performance and arrest time, it should be about the spirit of our people. actors and everything. But in the townships, the chances are Africa Report: Was "Asinamali!" written with the intention 99 percent that that will happen. of performing on Broadway? So when it comes to people being censored, Athol Fugard Ngema: No. Hut I knew it was going to be a good play. I gave knows that he has a better chance of going through a play at myself time to train the guys and I knew it was going to be the Market Theatre or wherever without government inter- successful. First of all, I wanted it to be celebrated by the ruption, whereas unknown black playwrights do not have the people back home. But I wanted them to get the same kind of luxury of the Market Theatre to rehearse their plays, they quality performance as the people on Broadway, because have to rehearse in the townships. And anything can happen people in those tents never see good theater. And they can't during rehearsal—from people being arrested for passbook afford to pay any money for theater. violations on their way to rehearsal to policemen storming into We opened the play in Lamontville after the death of Msizi somebody's kitchen while rehearsal is going on. So to be able Uube. We were supposed to put on one performance for one to move from point one to point six in the development of a night. We asked for a donation of one rand from the commu- play is in itself a miracle, that you will survive all of that and nity to come and see the play. But there were so many people then get to the stage where you can actually present the play. that we ended up doing three performances that night—one Africa Report: Is there a perceptible difference in the re- performance after the other. And the following night, and then sponses you have gotten to the play between white and black for four days. It just became a people's play. The slogan South Africans and white and black Americans? "Asinamali!" [We have no money!] was Dube's slogan and Ngema: Black South Africans understand everything, so everybody knew it. People said, "Ah. this is us!" And then on there is definitely a difference. But I think we've found a the fourth night, police moved in and arrested some of the balance now. It's a matter of sometimes changing a line so that actors. One of them came back but the other is doing an eight- it makes sense to a certain audience. Duma comes to re- year sentence right now. From there, "Committed Artists" hearsals and says, "I'm sure that line does not come across to started to grow. The success of "Asinamali!" in the U. S. last Americans." Then we find a way wliich will be true to South year made it possible for me to establish it as a real company. Africans but also understandable to Americans. Now we've moved to Johannesburg. We've leased a very Ndlovu: This would be the wrong play to answer your ques- large building and we accommodate about 30 people in that tion in a proper way, because "Asinamali!" is a different piece building—artists from all over South Africa, musicians and of work, and I have been very shocked to Hnd blacks and actors. whites responding to it in the same way. In all the years that Africa Report: How does the South African government we have been working with culture, theater, and art, we respond to what is clearly political theater? found that blacks and wliites do not react similarly to different Ngema: It depends where you are and who you are. There is pieces of work. There are differences in reactions, but in the no logic in that government, for the mere fact that they can case of "Asinamali!", those differences are indistinct. The pass a law today and tomorrow amend it. They keep patching reason for that is because there is concentration on the artistic the holes. In our case, there has not been a direct approach quality of the play, as well as the message. Whereas people go except for when we performed tliis play in Cape Town, just to see a South African play because of its strong political before we came over here. They came down to censor a message, this is one play where even if you didn't care about scene and they put on an age restriction. We called in our the politics of South Africa, you can go and see five bodies on a lawyers and finally we won the court case. stage responding like rubber to a director's command in a Africa Report: How did they censor a scene—they told you manner that even Brecht wouldn't be able to do. So whether to take the scene out? you're black or white you are bound to react to the art on Ngema: Yes. So, that's as far as they came to us. I don't know stage. how they operate. But in terms of other South African plays, for instance we Africa Report: Is it because you perform in the townships organized a South African theater festival at Lincoln Center and too many blacks are involved that they take action? If you last year, and we noticed that people were reacting differ- were to perform in "legitimate" theaters in the cities, like the ently. There were five plays: "Asinamali!" opened the festival Market Theatre, you would be less likely to face problems. and people got excited. The second play was "Bopha" wliich Ngema: Yes, if you perform in the townships, they say you dealt largely with a black family. The father, a policeman, are inciting people. But if you are in a theater in the city, they wanted his son to be a policeman, but the son was a comrade, want to regard it as theater. They know that it's the same a radical student. I don't think a lot of whites got into that play, tiling, but it's hard to define these lines. but a lot of blacks did. And there was a play called "Gangsters" 38 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 that a lot of African-Americans thought was fantastic, because to artists coming from South Africa to perform abroad. it was the life of a poet who's killed in detention. Whites didn't Ndlovu: The ANC has had a very interesting reaction to think that much of the play. And the series was closed by a Mbongeni and his works. They love his work. They've come play called "Born in the KSA," written in collaboration with in droves to see "Asinamali!" I don't think they have problems Barney Sinion, where whites came to me and said, "Duma, with his plays. It's interesting to note that last year when we this is the best play in the festival." It appealed to them, but did the festival where his play was featured, they were politi- blacks didn't tliink that much of it. cally opposed to the fact that the festival featured people who For instance, a number of times we've gone to see a play by were coming from South Africa. But I don't think they have Athol Fugard and we come out of the theater saving, "Well, expressed any problems with his works. They have made an it's a play," and whites say, "Wow, this is the greatest piece overture to say to him that they appreciate what he's doing. we've ever seen." The answer to your question is that there They don't agree with his personal association with certain are differences, but in "Asinamali's" case, it's slightly different individuals, but they love his work. and I really have been surprised. Africa Report: Could the success of these plays be used by Africa Report: How do white South Africans react to its the South African government to further their own ends, i.e. political message? to say thai the cultural boycott is unpopular? Ndlovu; It's interesting. I remember one day we got four Ndlovu: ()ne of the most radical ways of spreading a message white Afrikaner women who came to the [May. I made a special in South Africa, after the creation of the black consciousness effort to be where 1 would be able to watch their reactions. movement, has been the arts, the theater, and to a lesser And they were just as stunned as everybody else. Of course, extent, music. Continuously, black South African theater has there are parts of the play, like the judge who speaks in been an act of defiance against the government. Virtually Afrikaans, which tickled their fancy, but I tliink they came out anything that comes from South Africa, including Athol Fu- equally stunned by the piece. I want to believe that they were gard's works, has been an affirmation of the struggle that is as moved as everybody else. And in South Africa, at the going on in the country. You've never seen the government Market Theatre, a lot of whites came to see the play and had outside the country trying to use theater as a public relations the same reaction. The white press in South Africa was very, tool. very positive about the play. Now with the clampdowns on the media, where nobody Africa Report: You've gotten the support of American ce- seems to know what is happening in South Africa, we attest to lebrities as co-producers, such as Harry Belafonte and Paul the fact that theater remains one of the few Ux>ls you can use Simon. What has been their role? to tell people what is happening. If we as South Africans were Ndlovu: When we brought "Asinamali!" to Harlem for the to be involved in an effort to stop black South Africans from first time, we tried to bring different groups to see it and leaving the country, we would be stilling the only means that everybody started hearing about it. Harry Belafonte came. we have of sending messages outside. Take "Asinamali!" If Quincy Jones came to see the play and was just stunned. Paul Msizi Dube were to be killed today, people in Soweto wouldn't Simon at thai time was working on his album. He came to see know because you cannot report about these tilings in the it when we performed at Lincoln Center. We were impressed papers. But "Asinamali!" will go all over the country'. And by the fact that all these people came to see the play. One while the government turns a blind eye, you are informing night, Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman. Warren Beatty, and Al people more and more about what is happening. Pacino came to the play. All of them would come out after the Africa Report: What are your plans from here? play and ask us one question: "What can we do to help?" Ngema: I've been working on another play for seven months, Everybody, from Harry to Quincy to Paul, said that. we've been rehearsing it in Johannesburg for seven months. With people coming out of the play dazed and so many Hugh Masekela and myself are writing the music. It's a big Broadway producers coming to see it, we knew then that we musical play, which involves 20 kids, from lti-year-olds to wanted the play to move to Broadway. We started tliinking of about 21) years of age, about schoolchildren in Soweto. It is ways that we could involve all these people. Once this struc- called "Sarafina." ture was coming into fwus, we went back to them and said, Ndlovu: Where do we go from here? "Sarafina" is the next "Here's what you can do." And all of them have just been stop. Mbongeni is going to open "Sararina" at the Market fantastic. When we were trying to put together the funding for Theatre in Johannesburg in July. It will be the first South the play, Quincy got involved, Paul Simon got involved—not African musical with that intensity. There were others, but only in putting in money, but in calling friends and telling they weren't really of the townships. This is a musical with a people. When the play went to California, for instance, Quincy difference. In terms of the political significance of "Sarafina," it Jones personally got on the phone and called Sidney Poitier will be regarded as the first genuine black musical to come out and Jane Fonda to tell them to see the play. We were im- of South Africa with a very strong political message. The next pressed by the fact that the play is affecting them so that they step is that we would like to see people being more and more want to do something. When theater starts doing that, it has aware of the situation inside South Africa in this country and all the effect that it is intended to serve, because South .African over the world. We want them to support the arts and culture. black theater tends to move people into action. But if they just come and pay their money and go back home Africa Report: How has the ANC reacted to your play? In without taking the message, then our mission would not be terms of the cultural boycott, there has been some opposition fulfilled. D AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 39 BY WILLIAM HOWARD Africa in the U.S. cluded—from the start, Kragen and Ko- little more than two years after it gol went to the mainstream U.S. non- A l)egan efforts to assist emergency governmental organizations (NGOs) relief and development efforts in Africa, Since its launching in to ask them if they would be interested the organization U.S.A. for Africa- 1985, the organization in receiving funds. There was one ca- Hands Across America stands at an im- U.S.A. for Africa-Hands veat: The agencies—including Project portant crossroads. Care, Save the Cliildren, Afrieare, and Formed witli a skeleton crew consist- Across America has others—which had usually competed big of a handful of full-time activists, channeled more than $40 against one another for grant and donor U.S.A. for Africa has been a unique ex- million in relief and monies and aid projects in the develop- periment in American voluntarism—an ing world, would be asked to work to- experiment which, in many ways, has development assistance gether as they rarely had before. The been so successful as to invite imitation. to Africa and to the needy watchword, according to Kogol, was: The genus of the idea behind the or- in the U.S. Its leadership "Check Your Kgos at the Door." ganization's birth was a telephone con- The hitherto rival NGOs balked a bit versation between the singer Harry Be- is now looking at ways to at first, Kogol said, but finally worked lafonte and producer Ken Kragen. The build on the organization's out country-specific relief program pri- now-famous idea they discussed was to successes in innovative orities together and achieved an amiable bring together a collection of the coun- division of labor. According to Kogol, try's biggest singing stars to record a aid delivery and once the emergency relief activities had song whose proceeds would be used to cooperation with largely run their course and the organi- aid famine victims in Kthiopia and Sudan. recipients. zation began to focus its attention on As of June this year, surpassing the "recovery and development" projects, expectations of all concerned, the song the NGOs "came back to us and sug- "We Are The World," sung by 45 pop gested that we work the same way celebrities, had earned more than $155 "We Are again." million, fueling both relief projects and In another innovation, U.S.A. for Af- development aid in nine of Africa's poor- rica pushed the concept of competitive est countries. bidding. The NGOs were told that funds The importance of the U.S.A. for Af- The World" earmarked for the purchase of emer- rica experience, however, may ulti- gency relief supplies would be given to mately prove not to be its fantastic fund- them directly, if they could show that raising success. More important, per- created an advisory board of experts to their procurement costs were low liaps, will be the lessons learned about help determine how the rapidly accruing enough. aid delivery. The organization turned revenues from record sales should be In the final analysis, U.S.A. for Africa conventional wisdom on aid to underde- spent in various countries. became a clearinghouse for relief sup- veloped countries on its ear, sending ex- "We worked out a formula to set the plies, not just funds, because an ar- perts scurrying to study new possibili- amount of aid dollars per country, using rangement with a British purchasing ties in procurement, cooperation, staff- a United Nations formula," Kogol said. firm, Stenning International, allowed it ing, and planning. If properly distilled, Liter it was decided that 30 percent of to buy many basic relief supplies much these lessons could contribute to reduc- the funds collected would go for emer- more cheaply on behalf of a collection of ing redundant aid efforts, increasing gency relief, 55 percent for recovery NGOs than any of them could have man- economies of scale in delivery and pro- and development, and 10 percent for aged individually. curement, controlling overhead, and in- domestic hunger relief; the rest was to At present, about $ 12 millii>n (>f creasing real partnership with the be used to cover expenses. "aided." Having decided where money would One of the prime concerns of the or- be spent, and in what quantities, a deci- ganizers of the celebrity aid effort was sion had to be quickly made about dis- to limit costs by controlling staff size. bursement: Who would deliver the aid? With limited knowledge of African de- Kogol explained: "We didn't want to velopment issues, the organization's become another relief agency. It would founders drew upon outside expertise. be redundant." "On the other hand," he Miming the effort to draft entertainers said, "the public was looking at us to be for voluntary fund-raising, Ken Kragen accountable." and Executive Director Martin Kogol Applying the principle that he said had guided the organization and its collabo- William Howard is a freelance writer based in rators—the singers and advisers in- New York. maining $12 million, and any residual CHRONOLOGY OF U.S.A. FOR AFRICA: royalty revenues, U.S.A. for Africa, which, with the organization's last year From Idea to Reality of fund-raising for this country's home- less and hungry populations, added the December 20, 1984—In a phone conversation between Harry Belafonte title, Hands Across America, is enter- and Ken Kragen, the idea for U.S.A. for Africa originates taining the idea of future fund-raising ac- January 28, 1985—Recording session takes place tivities. The organization's leadership March 8—Single "We Are The World" is released has said that the broadening of its relief April 1 —The album is released activities did not imply a reduced com- April 5—8,000 radio stations play the song mitment to Africa. April 21 —Radio U.S.A. for Africa, a nation-wide radio program, takes However, Rogol said, "We are in the place in which people pledge donations process now of taking a step back and April 23-Durng a New York City Ballet performance of "We Are looking at what kinds of activities and The World," the idea for Hands Across America is conceived events we should be organizing, both for the continent and for the United May 15—The first meeting of the medical task force of U.S.A. for States. We are looking at how we can Africa is held build on what we have already accom- May 16-The first check from CBS records for $6.5 million is received plished, using the tremendous equity May 20—A single is produced by a collection of "heavy metal" music we have in the two names: U.S.A. for stars, proceeds donated to U.S.A. for Africa Africa and Hands Across America." June 10—The first major air lift takes place to Sudan and Ethiopia Before another major round of relief July 12—The first meeting of the advisory board occurs is undertaken in Africa, organizers said Jury 13—The Live Aid concert is held in London and Philadelphia that a serious study "to determine what September 16—The first meeting of the Domestic Hunger Subcommittee worked best, how it worked, and how it of U.S.A. for Africa is held, and the decision is made to allocate could be replicated" would have to be 10 percent of the proceeds for domestic hunger undertaken. All of this implies a restruc- October 17-U.SA for Africa tops its goal of $50 million turing of the organization itself, so that expertise in the necessary disciplines October 22 —Hands Across America is announced can be brought on-board. November 28-Over 100 of the nation's cartoonists devote cartoon One new focus promises to be finding strips to the issue of hunger ways to link donors to recipients, so that "a local school here can appreciate how U.S.A. for Africa's resources remain field, but are written up by people who its aid is being used in a school in Africa," unspent. After the emergency and re- are already working 24 hours a day, and Rogol said. covery projects were quickly approved don't have the time." Djibril Diallo, a -Senegalese-born and funded, organizers found a more In avoiding one mistake—the dupli- spokesman of the United Nations Office complicated set of issues had to be tack- cation of existing structures and studies of Economic Operations in Africa, led in disbursing "development" dollars. by keeping staff and overhead to a mini- agreed with this approach, saying that Anxi< >us to bring indigenous aid agencies mum—it would seem that U.S.A. for "the brightest contribution they have into the act, the organization is now en- Africa risks committing the opposite er- made is to make African-related issues tertaining hundreds of responses to ror: not having enough personnel or ex- more understandable and more palat- several development-oriented requests pertise to keep things flowing at an opti- able to the average person on the for proposals. mum pace. street." People who started out "not With few staffers and little on-hoard Jane Jacqz, a United Nations Devel- knowing anything about Africa are now expertise in critical areas ranging from opment Programme official formerly thinking in terms of it being wrong to let research methodology to French lan- with the UN Office for Kmergency Op- people starve to death, regardless of guage proficiency, several present and erations in Africa, and a long-time ad- where they are from or what their ideol- past collaborators say tliat the organiza- viser to U.S.A. for Africa, said, "I'll be ogy is. We as Africans owe that to tion may be in for a grueling and tortu- very interested to see in the next few U.S.A for Africa," he said. ous project selection process. weeks and months if they will have the Africa has benefitted more from the Kogol put a g AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 41 Ruben Blades); R&B (David Ruffin and Eddie Kc-ndrick); and jazz (Miles Davis, Artists United Against Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter), Led by Little Steven Van There were many international musi- Zandt, international pop Apartheid cians from outside the Anglo-American stars recorded an album axis: Bono—Ireland; Michael Mon- Africa in the U.S. roe—Finland; Sonny ()kosuns—Nige- to inform Americans about ria (Nigeria's Fela was invited but was apartheid and in support ("phony homelands") and the policy of serving a prison sentence at the time); of the cultural boycott of constructive engagement, and blasted Shankar—India; Peter Garrett—Aus- South Africa. Unlike "We President Reagan by name. tralia, and more. Significantly, South Af- It was other names though that drew rica was represented with two bands— Are The World," the "Sun the rirst media attention—the names of one black, one white—the Malopoets City" album and the superstar participants. In an age of and Via Afrika. The Malopoets' chant of documentary spin-off celebrities, any record that involves "Amandla Ngawetu" (Power to the Peo- people who sell People like Bruce ple) is heard on virtually every track of carried a clear political Springsteen, Miles Davis, Herbie Han- the "Sun City" album. message, discomfiting cock, Bob(ieldof, Bob Dylan, Peter (ia- The intent was not just to tap the some American radio and briel, and Ringo Starr is news. These rhythms, but to share the people's pas- "big names" certified the project's legiti- sion for freedom, to capture the way the television stations. macy to the radio programmers and cul- black |x*ople of South Africa use music BY DANNYSCHECHTER tural gatekeepers with the power to de- to energize their struggle. The "Sun cide what records should be played, City" artists have since supported the frica has long inspired concern hyped, and promoted. They signalled efforts of their South African counter- A from artists overseas. "We Are the audience that it was OK to get in- parts to organize against apartheid. ()ne The World" was the best known recent volved with a record that lacked the statement published in a Johannesburg reaction to an African crisis; Band Aid, "feel good—sing along glee club" at- paper saluted overseas artists crusading Live Aid, and similar projects gave the mosphere of the apolitical "We Are The against apartheid and opposing perform- idea of charity a modern face and a popu- World." ances at Sun City. lar cultural form. Not all our "cultural commissars" em- Tliis multi-racial musical mix repre- Popular musicians helped to turn Afri- braced the oppositional character of sented a very visible counterpoint to the ca's famine into a cause, but Africans as "Sun City," however. Noted The Na- racist system the singers and players a living and struggling people were tum, "It agitates more than it sanctifies who formed Artists United Against really invisible in all the well-intentioned and calls on its audience to press for Apartheid were denouncing. But it was and ultimately helpful fund-raising. Mil- cliange, rather than petition for charity." a mix that also ran up against the reali- lions were raised on the strength of im- In this respect, the music project was ties of a still racially divided culture here ages of horror, but the level of aware- quite different in intent and content from in the United States, where many ness about the causes of the cause was the efforts of artists like Paul Simon who "white" stations wouldn't play the rec- not. have embraced South African music to ord because it sounded "too black." And then along came "Sun City," as enrich their own sound or to promote it Some "black1" stations demurred be- different in content as it appeared simi- overseas. (In fact, Simon was one of the cause it was "too white." The spirit of lar in form. Fifty-four musicians this few artists approached to appear on apartheid is alive and well in many sec- time recorded an album against apart- "Sun City" who turned it down. In sub- "The song's avowed mission was con- heid focusing on support for the cultural sequent interviews, he explained he's sciousness-raising first, fund-raising second" boycott of South Africa and zeroing in on "really not political.") the well-known Sun City resort in the "Sun City" was more than a vehicle Bophuthatswana "homeland." for prominent pop stars. For one thing, The song's avowed mission was con- the artist mix was unusually diverse, de- sciousness-raising first, fund-raising liberately multicultural and multiracial, second. The lyric not only vowed "I ain't cutting across continents, a kind of UN gonna play Sun City," but took a whack of musical styles. Different genres of at forced relocation to bantustans music, often by artists identified with social concerns including well-known Danny Schechtvr is a nehvork television producer personalities, were represented: rap who has written abntit southern Africa for many years. His tiriuh' «>> f>ress coverage, "How We (Run-DMC, Melle Mel, Fat Boys); reg- Cover Southern Africa, " appeared in Africa Re- gae (Jimmy Cliff, Big Youth, Linton port's March-April issue, lie volunteered to help with the charitable aspects of the "Sun City-" effort. Kwesi Johnson); salsa (Ray Barretto, 42 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 tors of narrowly formatted American ra- dio. Nevertheless, with under 50 percent SONGS AGAINST APARTHEID of radio stations playing the song, it still "Sun City" is just one of a growing archive of songs against apartheid. Here cracked the "top forty" and was given is a short list of songs and albums that make a statement about South Africa. How many have you heard? wide TV and media exposure. All the network news shows worked it into 1. WIMOWEH their South African coverage, while Phil A South African chant popularized in the U.S. by Pete Seeger and other Donahue's television talk show devoted folksingers in the 1950s, also known as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." an hour to debating its premises, featur- 2. JOHANNESBURG ing an appearance by Sol Kerzner, the "What's the word?" asked Gil Scott Heron back in 1974. Gil later sang on owner of Sun City who Hew in from "Sun City." providing a monologue for the song. "Let Me See Your ID." an South Africa to try to defend the corpo- alf-star rap attack against apartheid. rate image. MTV, the 24-hour music 3. BIKO cable outlet, embraced the "Sun City" Peter Gabriel's tribute to the murdered South African black leader inspired music video and in the process inte- "Sun City's" Little Steven to learn more about South Africa. The song is still grated its own programming, since a show stopper at Gabriel concerts today. many of the black artists on "Sun City" 4. FREE NELSON MANDELA had never been able to get on the chan- This song by Special AKA was produced by Elvis Costello and written by nel. Jerry Dammers. It was a hit in Britain and a smash in the South African townships. 5. THE WIND OF CHANGE Jerry Dammers produced and arranged this song sung by Robert Wyatt with "The intent was not the SWAPO Singers. The B-side is called "Namibia", the struggle this just to tap the rhythms, single supports. but to share the 6. WINDS OF CHANGE people's passion for Nona Hendryx describes this song on her "Female Trouble" album as a love freedom, to capture the song from Winnie Mandela to Nelson Mandela. 7. PRETORIA way the black people of By Little Steven from his post-"Sun City" album, "Freedom No South Africa use music Compromise." to energize their 8. APARTHEID IS WRONG Stevie Wonder, a long-time anti-apartheid activist, recorded his own musical struggle." statement in 1986. 9. NO EASY WALK TO FREEDOM The two prime movers behind "Sun Peter. Paul and Mary say the title of this song was inspired by the title of a book of Nelson Mandela's writings. It is the title cut on their 1987 City" were an unlikely combo. Little "comeback" album. Steven Van Zandt, a song writer and gui- tarist who cracked the rock and roll 10. TUTU "fame barrier" as Bruce Springsteen's Miles Davis' tracks "Tutu" and "Full Nelson" express some of his feelings on the issue (1986). sidekick and producer, writes songs the way the journalists do stories—through 11. SO STRONG Labi Siffre's bold single features an apartheid sign on the cover. on-the-scene investigations. He toured South Africa "to see for Iiimself." Dur- THIRD WORLD ing tliat trip, he visited Sun City and Here by region are some of the many Third World songs against apartheid. found it a perfect symbol of apartheid AFRICA—Nigeria: Sonny Okosuns "Fire in Soweto"; Senegal: Youssou because of its opulence amid the misery N'Dour "Nelson Mandela"; South Africa: many songs by Malopoets. Stimela, Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Miriam of a bantustan and its use as a magnet for Makeba. Johnny Clegg, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lette Mbulu, Caiphas foreign entertainers who are paid large Semenya, Sakhile. sums to draw tourists and in the process ANC SONGS—There are several albums issued by ANC singers and the legitimize the apartheid system. ANC's cultural group, "Amandla" 1980 Swedish recording; 1983 Soviet recording. "African Sounds for Mandela" (TSaAFRIKA RECORDS, London) Little Steven's partner and co-pro- to honor Nelson Mandela's 65th birthday. "South African Liberation- ducer became Arthur Baker, a street- Freedom Songs" (Safco records). The ANC's New York-based "Sechaba singers" do many well-known songs, including "Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika." wise record producer who fortunately CARIBBEAN—Jamaica: Jimmy Cliff. Peter Tosh, Judy Mowatt, and most owned a studio which he donated to the recently Yammie Bolo ("Free Mandela") have sung against apartheid. record's production. Baker is not as ac- Trinidad: Mighty Sparrow "Invade South Africa "—the great Calypso singer tively political as Little Steven, but had a goes all the way calling for a military invasion modeled after the if.S. invasion gut hostility toward apartheid. Weeks of Grenada; Captain Blackburn. "Free South Africa." 1985. before Steven approached him, his fam- AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 43 ily had entertained a South African gle." "Because their struggle is not rica, where radio stations refused to cousin whose overt racism turned him against men—that is a temporary condi- play it and where it was eventually off. When Van Zandt told him about his tion—their struggle is against a disease, banned. Partly in response to "Sun plans to do the song, Baker offered to a disease called racism and bigotry." City," the South African government help. At the time, neither knew that a The critical response to the effort spent $2 million on a music video mod- single song would mushrmni into an al- was overwhelmingly positive. Time. eled after "We Are The World." This bum, documentary, video, and book. called it the boldest song of the year. propaganda effort backfired in a political What started with a few hours of record- Newsweek labeled it a "message song scandal that U >rced the resignation of In- ing time turned into months of studio that makes all others sound like nursery formation Minister Louis Nel and pro- work. rhymes." Other critics hailed it as a tests in the townships against the black Little Steven's interest in South Af- artists who appeared in the govern- rica was initially piqued by another ment's "Peace Song." All of those art- song—"Hiko"—by British singer Peter "The multi-racial mix Gabriel. " 'Biko' really planted the represented a very seed," acknowledges Little Steven. But visible counterpoint to it was in South Africa, in Sun City actu- the racist system the ally, that the full force of the obscenity of singers and players AIMKIMVMMI apartheid hit him. "I got sick, as sick as I The Free South Africa Rap had ever gotten in my life. The doctor were denouncing." n response to an ABC said it was not something I ate or drank, News 20/20 segment on it was just psychological—the old tour- "breakthrough on the cultural, aes- Jesse Jackson's visit to the ist-in-hell syndrome." thetic, and political level," commenting / frontline states, a New York From that point on, Steven resolved that the "beat is as irresistable as the City rap group, the Stetsasonic, to write about the issue. His original message." "Sun City" would later be decided to put their feelings idea was an album comparing South Af- nominated for two Grammy awards, about the frontline states into this rica's "homelands" to America's Indian with the documentary, "The Making of supercharged street music. reservations—a theme which he raises Sun City" winning the highest honors in Their rap song aims at teaching on his first post-"Sun City" album re- the prestigious International Documen- young people the names of the leased in mid-May this year, "Freedom tary Association's awards. countries of southern Africa, their No Compromise" (Manhattan Rec- Adding to the critical success was its leaders, and the movements for ords). The urgency of the crisis inside political indict. Anti-apartheid groups change. The Nigerian drummer South Africa prompted him to go ahead blasted the song on campuses nation- Olatunji adds an African with the song as a single. One by one, wide. At the University of Vermont, the beat to a song that spells out other artists joined in—and soon the trustees were confronted with the mu- "A.F.R.I.C.A." The royalties from song became a unity statement by the sical message which played a role in re- the project will go to humanitarian music industry, not just of one rock and versing an earlier decision to block di- relief in the frontline states. The roller. vestiture from companies doing busi- Stetsasonic's effort, to be releas- "We were originally looking for eight ness in South Africa. "Sun City" is ed in mid-July on Tommy Boy or 10 other people," Van Zandt told probably the only record to include an Records, has been endorsed by Dave Marsh who chronicled the Making information leaflet about apartheid and the Sun City Project-Artists of Sun City for a Penguin paperback groups opposing it. It also spawned a United Against Apartheid. about the project. "1 honestly didn't ex- "Teaching Guide" and a campaign to pect that many people to be committed have the record and video used in Here's part of the rap: to the project. It was very exciting be- schools as a teaching tml. A.F.R.iC-A.—Angola. Soweto, Zimbabwe, cause like most musicians, I spend most The song also energized rallies and Tanzania, Zambia. Mozambique, of my time doing things alone." effectively stopped international pop and Botswana, so let us speak The record and an accompanying stars from adding Sun City or South Af- about the mother-land. multi-layered, fast-paced video were re- rica to their itineraries. Even Frank leased at a reception at the United Na- Sinatra, who had aggressively defended South Africa's not free, and neither are we tions by the Special Committee Against his right to perform wherever he Those are our brothers and sisters across the sea I'm speaking for the STET. and we make a plea Apartheid. Beyers Naude, then head of wanted, was pushed to speak out the South African Council of Churches, against apartheid by pickets protesting to fight apartheid, everybody was there along with diplomats, UN his appearances at Sun City. Although to fight against the wicked and help Mugabe staffers, and security guards who his own lawyer also represented Sun to fight apartheid and assist K'yerere wanted autographs for their kids. Little City, Sinatra called Botha a "bum" while Support the MK and ANC Steven won a standing ovation with a currying favor with the NAACP. We want to see Nelson and Winnie free moving assertion that the struggle of Yet "Sun City" also encountered °Tommy Boy Music, lyrics by permission the South African people is "our strug- enormous resistance, first in South Af- 44 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 ists later repudiated the song, donating The video became a staple of televi- the monies they received to the anti- sion systems in the frontline states as Legitimating apartheid movement. the Rev. Jesse Jackson found out in Mo- In the U.S., some prominent politi- zambique and Zimbabwe after present- the Illegitimate cians and civil rights leaders rallied to ing their heads of state, Samora Machel State, Markets, and defend "Sun City" after reports that the and Robert Mugabe, respectively, with Resistance in South Ku Klux Klan had threatened one south- copies of the audio cassette. The media Africa ern radio station for playing it and that in both countries interviewed the vid- STANLEY P. GREENBERG other stations considered it "too politi- eo's director who accompanied Jack- Greenberg provides a rare cal." (Only a few stations would admit son's fact-finding mission. glimpse into the actual that that was the reason, preferring to The "Sun City" project has since re- workings of the South African insist that "Sun City" just didn't fit their mained involved with anti-apartheid is- state, the thinking of officials format.) Mayors Tom Bradley of Los attempting to manage the sues. It has continued to back the cul- movement and lives of the Angeles and Andrew Young of Atlanta tural boycott while at the same time ex- African majority, and the held press conferences to call for radio pressing support for South breakdown of state control airplay. So did Congressmen William African-based musicians who are acting under African resistance and Gray and Howard Wolpe, strong advo- out against apartheid. Artists United market pressures, $35.00 cloth, S12.95 paper cates of sanctions legislation, as well as Against Apartheid has since spawned a Coretta Scott King and prominent South Filmmakers United Against Apartheid Africans. group organized by Jonathan Demme, South Africa Similar appeals by leaders ranging one of the directors of the "Sun City" fromjesse Jackson to South Africa's Al- video. More than 50 well-known Holly- without lan Boesak greeted American public tel- wood and independent directors have Apartheid evision's refusal to broadcast the award- urged their studios to withdraw their Dismantling Racial winning documentary about the project. movies from South Africa. Domination The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) The Sun City Project is also endors- HERIBERT ADAM and was bothered by its lack of "objectivity," ing a new song by the rap group Stetsa- KOGILA MOODLEY 1 with one executive going so far as to sonic called "A.F.K.I.C.A.," which New in paper-- If one wants to suggest this anti-apartheid program was calls for solidarity with the frontline understand what is really going unacceptable because "what if there is on in South Africa...the Adam states (see box). Individual "Sun City" and Moodley book is far an artists united for apartheid group?" artists have done their own songs superior...indeed, the best Nvwsday television critic Marvin Kit- against apartheid. book on South Africa that I man blasted PBS for its timidity, calling Wliat did "Sun City" accomplish? It have read for a very long it an "artful mix of music and politics." brought the issue of apartheid to young time." "For PBS to put it down," he wrote, "is people and to TV viewers at a time -R. W. Johnson, London one more example of what's wrong with when the first South African press ban Review of Books 59.95 paper public television." was effectively taking pictures of re- America's largest circulation maga- pression and revolt off American news Essays on the zine, TV Guide, would later criticize programs. It galvanized the musical PBS for a double standard in rejecting community, with larger reverberations Political the show while praising the handful of throughout the world of popular culture Economy of public television stations which did run here and abroad. It raised over half a it. The program was also seen on the million dollars for the families of political Rural Africa popular music video channel MTV and prisoners, educational programs for ROBERTH. BATES on Black Entertainment Television. South Africans forced into exile, and the New in paper—Bates extends the methods of reasoning The Rev. Jesse Jackson with the rap grassroots efforts of anti-apartheid developed in collective band, Stetsasonic, whose song "A.F- groups like TransAfrica and the Ameri- .R.I.C.A." calls for solidarity with the front- choice from their original base- line states can Committee on Africa. the advanced industrial "We did not end apartheid," admits democracies-to new territory: Little Steven in an update of the docu- the literature on rural Africa. S9.95 paper mentary carried on many PBS stations. "No record could do that. We did show that artists have a responsibility for con- At bookstores or call toll-free 800-822- 6657 Visa and MasterCard only. fronting the injustices on our planet and getting involved in changing them. Mu- University of sic is about liberation; solidarity with California Press people fighting for liberation quite natu- Berkeley 94720 rally flows out of what we do." [_ I With the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Wole Soyinka, one of Nigeria's premier writers, Africa's rich literary tradition has finally received international recognition. Shortly after his play, "Death and the King's Horseman,11 was performed in New York, Soyinka to society? Politics deals with paradox talked about the role of the writer and artists are uniquely equipped to deal within the politics of culture and the with opposites and extremes. "Artists provide consciousness," says Soyinka. impact of the Nobel on his career. "The writer has no choice, I think, but to Literature by and about African people reinforce those cultural distinctions Literature thus received the highest non-commer- even while utilizing tools which are uni- cial "stamp of approval" ever. With the versal." He must use the unique to cri- resurgence in black literature in the tique the very direction in which the 1980s—and especially Alice Walker's whole world remorselessly is being blockbuster The Color Purple—writers pulled. and publishers have been eyeing each African-Americans who, Soyinka Africa's other with cautious curiosity prospect- contends, are in fact "part and parcel of ing for that next color of money and suc- American society," find it useful to cess. "maintain a kind of cultural distinction Nobel But Soyinka has no intentions of going from the majority European-American Hollywood or high hat with the Nobel. culture." "Poets, painters, and drama- He is adamant when he says that the tists are looking to Africa for images and Laureate problem of the prize, "the aspect of rec- symbols, seeking certain ritualistic pat- ognition," is a "problem of the outside terns in order to redefine and re-exam- world, the European world." In Africa, ine the temporary conditions of our con- he insists, there is a strong literary tra- temporary society. BY BARBARA SUMMERS withMALAIKAADERO dition, both oral and written, with mas- "A lot more of that will be taking terworks especially in poetry. He sees place," he feels. ince the Nobel, he says his life is the major significance of the Nobel as This does not negate his opinion that Shell, the hell of other people. "I "extending the literary family" beyond there are major cultural differences be- have lost even the tattered remains of Euro-American culture. tween Africans on the continent and in my privacy" to powerful institutions and As a young African, he grew up in the diaspora. As a theatrical director, heads of state and ordinary people colonial Nigeria mirrored by English lit- Soyinka had to come to grips with the whose "claims are always backed by a erature. If he could make such drastic fact that "over the centuries, African- very good reason," he says. Although leaps in identification, he sees no reason Americans have acquired certain char- his sweeping arm includes us in the defi- why whites or any one else cannot sur- acteristics, certain rhythmic patterns, nition of his hell, he is gracious and volu- mount their cultural biases and enter even vocal patterns, that differ from ble as we talk on a recent Friday. Waves into his African world. He is impatient those of Africans who never left the ter- of eloquence, sprightly and elegant, with "intellectual laziness" and "self-cre- ritory." Cultural exchange, he main- wash through his hands and over his ated barriers" that hinder the free trade tains, is "not an automatic transition." face which sometimes sparkles and of ideas. "It is a learning process." other times ripples in thoughtful concen- Just as all the economies of the world According to Soyinka, "There is no tration. are interrelated, he says, "There is a way that black Americans can pretend common denominator among various that the materialist outkx)k of American cultures of the world. Whether we like it society—the sense of making it—has The award of the Nobel Prize for Lit- or not, the whole world is progressing in not affected them. The sense of com- erature to Nigerian author Wole Soyinka the direction of technological transfor- munity which many Africans possess in October 1986 marked a significant mation. Soon the only differences be- eludes African-Americans in its deepest breakthrough in the politics of culture. tween people will be cultural differ- sense. They have no choice, having to ences. " find their survival in a very, very difficult This article is reprinted with permissum of The What, then, is the role of the artist? cultural milieu. City Sun. the New York City weekly newspaper. Copyright 0 1987 by The City Sun. What is the responsibility of the writer "If you say that black Americans 46 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 should be invited to abandon this coun- "If you have genuine revolutionary human dignity, he feels. try, the result of their sweat, to transfer societies in which there is full participa- Similarities among African peoples to a kind of homeland in Africa, I would tion, where people are not treated as are more real than differences. Says disagree with that. We need to look to- thieves—this new form of internal colo- Soyinka, "The African world is not lim- ward black America for certain areas of nialism—then people will march shoul- ited by the African continent." Obvious expertise before we look to Europe. Es- der to shoulder with their leaders. elements of an African aesthetic—for pecially in the fields of technology and When the heads of state involve the example, in music, architecture, and hu- medicine, we should invite the brains of people in the country's fortunes and man beauty—range "from the sublime black America to congenial areas in Af- destinies instead of directing the coun- to the ridiculous," with black beauty- rica. " try's resources to protect their own po- queen competitions falling toward the Congenial areas? Soyinka mentions sitions, these leaders will have nothing low end of the scale. The very structure Senegal, Kenya, and Tanzania. What to fear." But it is fear which prevents of our primary social grouping, the com- about Nigeria? these countries from organizing a libera- munal family, today retains the essen- Twenty years ago, during the disas- tion army to confront South Africa. "As tials of its African origin, he feels. trous civil war, Soyinka was arrested long as African leaders are more con- Soyinka's participation in national and and remained imprisoned for over two cerned with protecting their own turf, international writers organizations has years, most of that time in solitary con- unity against South Africa will not hap- kept him busy and successful ("1 was finement. Pain seems to slide into non- pen." used to five figures, but the prize is six chalance as he shrugs off that turn of The role of the artist in the siege ot figures. . . still, not really that much"), events in our conversation. "A writer South Africa? His position on cultural just the opposite of an invisible man. But takes risks," he says. "One day in boycotts? The questions are simple. It the extra glare of the Nobel has been prison, one day being decorated by the is the answers which are "very, very fatiguing. head of state." The only way he could complex." Soyinka tells of being invited sustain himself in such isolation was to to South Africa by a group of young "deliberately consign the outside world black people, "living in the thick of the "It is obvious that the to oblivion." "I recognized the fact that battle, day to day." "I packed my bags politics of culture for the next—I didn't know how long— and said, 'Of course, I'll go. I'm ready to depends directly on the this was the entirety of my existence. It come if you can get me a visa.' " His visa politics of was not a question of losing hope. I did was rejected and so he did not go. He not even entertain hope. I lived from day says, "Others believe that South Africa government." to day." should be boycotted totally. Economi- It is obvious that the politics of culture cally, yes. But culturally, it doesn't Where does he intend to regroup and depends directly on the politics of gov- make sense to me." recoup? In his home town of Abeokuta, ernment. And it is equally obvious that Soyinka's opinions of the women's a rocky, quiet place which, he says, "has "too often nasty ty)>es have held the movement are equally vehement. refused to expand in the aggressive, reins of power," Soyinka says. But Soy- "Women have always been women chaotic ways of Lagos and Ibadan." inka feels that the present Babangida re- where I come from. Women drove out a With a Nobel laureate in residence, gime has made definite overtures to in- powerful king all in a day's business," he though, change may not be far beliind. tellectuals and artists. says. He is quick to point out that he is Perhaps no further away than the next At times the writer, that specialist quoting a Nigerian woman author when mail delivery. Such is the power of the with common tools, feels the whole bur- he says that women artists find certain word that in Nigeria, correspondence to den of the world on his shoulders. "The manifestations of the Euro-American Wole Soyinka needs no address. result is that his very creative powers feminist movement "repulsive." In African America, he is not—yet— are totally asphyxiated. That is danger- "Africans must develop their own as well-known. As performances and ous. By extending the horizons of per- feminist traditions based on the material publications increase, commercial expo- ception of iiis society, the writer is al- conditions of their existence and their sure, such as Lincoln Center's recent ready contributing enormously to the relationship to the rest of society and production of "Death and the King's well-being of the community." not just copy," he says. Horseman" and academic recognition, A well-being predicated on dishon- Cultural differences would probably will certainly help repair such ignorance. esty, injustice, and inhumanity, how- go a long way in explaining why—de- Direct, intensified exchange between ever, cannot stand, says Soyinka, and spite the bare-breasted physicality of artists also will circulate Soyinka's work artists cannot "accept a double stan- some African societies—the open sexu- and that of other Africans. dard. " "We must have the moral ality rampant in the West has little place In America, Africans must make a strength to criticize our own black op- in African writing. He claims that "Afri- leap past the entertainer icons of this pressors." Many African leaders are can writers and Africans in general are neon culture to find the source of our afraid of their own people, afraid to ex- far more private. They object to the cult wisdom. Across great cultural divides, tend rights, to encourage a creative par- of expose all, reveal all." In this way, somewhere we all speak the same lan- ticipatory government, he says. they protect intimate relationships and guage. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 47 Literature Ngugi wa Thiong'o: BY CARL WOOD Even in exile, Ngugi remains a focus of the government's ire. Last year, as in- The Writer Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi ternal opposition was on the rise, Ngugi wa Thiong'o is Africa's best-known ex- was named by a Kenyan member of Par- ample of the writer as political dissident. liament as the leader of Mwakenya, an as From publication of his first novel, Weep underground organization seeking the Not, Child, in 1964, Ngugi has been a overthrow of the Moi regime. Though the Dissident thorn in the side of both the Kenyatta and MP's allegation may have been nothing Moi governments, as his books, plays, more than a desperate attempt to put a University of Nairobi and jailed without and essays developed into increasingly face on the amorphous and resilient charge for nearly a year. More recently, bold critiques of Kenyan society and poli- movement, Ngugi is likely to remain the he has been warned that he will be ar- tics. voice and conscience of Kenyans both at rested again if he returns from self-exile home and overseas who seek to play a role Throughout the 1960s and most of the in London. Yet even while away from his in shaping their nation's future. 1970s, the government tolerated his homeland, Ngugi continues to write and views. Ngugi was professor of literature —The Editors speak out. He remains an inspiration to at the University of Nairobi, and his nov- younger African authors and an admired els, written in English, were widely avail- ut the Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa spokesman lor indigenous culture and able. But late in 1977, he was detained by C Thiong'o and he bleeds politics. social justice. the Kenyatta government and imprisoned He is passionately committed to the Decolonizing the Mind consists of four without charges. egalitarian ideals of the 1950s Kenyan linked essays, three of which are re- That was the year that he staged his revolution against Great Britain—a vised from partially autobiographical play, "Ngaahika Ndeenda" (T Will dedication well-illustrated in his latest talks Ngugi gave in Germany, New Marry When I Want"), in his native Ki- book of essays on cultural politics, De- Zealand, and several African countries. kuyu tongue, for the first time reaching a colonizing the Mind: The Politics of Lan- In this book, the author examines his much wider audience. The play was pro- guage in African Literature (Heinemann own and other Africans' attempts to es- duced at the Kamiriithu Community Ed- Books, 1986). cape distorting Western influences and ucation and Cultural Centre, an experi- Ngugi's revolutionary fervor has not makes an important announcement mental theater built by the local commu- diluted his literary achievement. With about the future of his writing career. nity to involve the audience in discussion five novels and many stories, essays, Foreign social domination was instituted of cultural and political issues. and plays to his credit, this African John in Africa, according to Ngugi, during co- In 1978, he was released from prison Steinbeck is the first world-class literary lonial times, when the use of European in a general amnesty granted by the new author of East Africa and one of the languages was imposed on Africans government of President Daniel arap most influential figures in pan-African through the schools and government Moi, but he was not allowed to return to culture. The main target of his political transactions. This "cultural imperial- his post at the university. His prison di- ire, here as always, is corruption in Af- ism" is now maintained indirectly, he as- ary, Detained, became a best-seller in the rica among Western-influenced rulers serts, as educated Africans use English, short-lived political liberalization that and business leaders. French, or Portuguese in their interna- marked the early years of the Moi govern- Of peasant stock, Ngugi excelled in tional contacts and with one another. ment. the colonial schools in the 1950s and Expressing themselves in European But in 1982, the government began to later won international acclaim for his languages and neglecting their mother crack down on dissent. After another of early writings. In the 1960s, he did grad- tongues, more and more Africans adopt Ngugi's plays, "Mother Sing for Me," uate study among leftist professors in the foreign values and thinking of the was performed at Kamiriithu, the center Leeds, England, and his writing grew former imperial rulers. Thus they fall was razed by the Kenyan authorities and more outspoken about political oppres- victim to what Ngugi terms "cultural ali- the play was banned. Ngugi, abroad at sion and economic exploitation in Africa. enation," begin to despise their own the time, decided against returning home This author has paid dearly for his heritage, and unconsciously come to and has lived in Britain ever since. boldness. After writing a popular but hate themselves as Africans. Carl Wood is associate professor of English and "provocative" play in 1977, he was From this point of view, African writ- world literature at Principia College. banned from his professorship at the ers who, like Ngugi himself, have pro- 48 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 duced works in European languages and tually demolished the theater. Uncowed literary traditions have made them- IMC3UC3I by such highhandedness, Ngugi became selves part of the problem. Although all the more determined to write for the they have written many admirable ex- WA THIQNG'O common people in their own language. amples of "Afro-European literature," Decobnkinq the Mb id While in prison, he secretly wrote an they have implicitly encouraged local THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE anti-government novel in Kikuyu (Devil readers to kx>k away from their African IN AFRICAN LITERATURE on the Cross) on toilet paper. roots; they have also made these works In the concluding essay, "The Quest inaccessible to the common people of for Relevance," the novelist describes Africa, who speak no European and defends the revolution among Ken- tongues. ya's educators in the late 1960s and Ngugi's response in these essays is to 1970s that has led to increasing Africani- announce that he will never write an- zation of literary studies there. Ngugi other book in English. From now on, views the debates about language in Western readers will know him only Kenya as unfinished, since "the lan- through translations from his native Ki- guage question cannot be solved outside kuyu or from the international African of the larger arena of economic and poli- language, Swahili. tics. . . The search for new directions in On the other hand, he will now be Africa is part and parcel of the overall writing directly to most of his country- struggles of African people against im- men. And he hopes that translations of perialism in its neo-colonial stage." his future works into other African lan- waste of human potential by colonial These are not the views of a dispassion- guages will help to establish on that con- prejudice, he recalls the typical case of a ate historian, and some readers will be tinent "the foundations of a truly national high school acquaintance who, with ex- put off by Ngugi's Marxist-inspired rhet- cellent marks in every field but English, oric (as well as by his occasionally unpol- was barred from university studies and ished writing style). But his insights are "Expressing ended up as a bus conductor. enlightening and his compassion affect- themselves in Today, emphasis on European lan- ing. These are the essays of an honest, European languages guages in Africa promotes social injus- ardent insider who opens to us his mind and neglecting their tice in a different way, according to and heart while describing events that mother tongues, more Ngugi. Since many progressive thinkers have utterly changed his life. write in languages that cannot be under- Ngugi is clearly determined not to let and more Africans stood by the masses, the latter are con- his troubles make him cynical or bitter. adopt the foreign sequently left with the propaganda put In fact, Decolonizing the Mind shows a values and thinking of out in African tongues by repressive and broadening of his sympathies since his the former imperial culturally backward rulers. last book of fiery political essays, Barrel rulers." The second and third essays in this of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in book treat the language of African the- Neo-Colonial Kenya. An independent ater and fiction, respectively—both the socialist who long ago renounced his literature and culture, a truly national general post-colonial situation and Ngu- early Christianity because of conserva- sensibility." gi's own slow gravitation from English to tism in Kenya's churches, this author The radical shift in Ngugi's career Kikuyu authorship. This novelist views now makes friendly gestures toward might have been anticipated. At the end the common people all over the world as capitalists and Christians alike who con- of the 1970s, he turned wholly to Ki- the source of most important innova- duct themselves for the good of the Afri- kuyu in his creative writing, although he tions, and this is certainly true of the can people. Perhaps the perspective of has continued to address a broader audi- changes in his own career. exile has helped him realize that not all ence with political essays in English. By After a local housewife nagged Ngugi can be hopeless in Kenya when his abandoning writing in English—a real to share the fruits of his education with books continue to be published and sacrifice for an author steeped in the the people of his village, he wrote his praised there. literary tradition of England—Ngugi un- first Kikuyu play with extensive peasant Ngugi seems particularly eager to as- derscores his determination to help "de- collaboration and produced it with local, sure English-language readers that al- colonize" his own mind and those of his non-professional actors in a simple the- though he is forsaking them for the good countrymen. ater constructed by the villagers. When of Africa, he bears them no ill will. He In his first essay here, "The Lan- the radical content of "I Will Marry promises that his future works will still guage of African Literature," Ngugi re- When I Want" became known and reach them in translation, and his intro- lates his own education and career to lower-class Kenyans reacted too enthu- duction concludes with the hope that the ongoing European domination of lan- siastically, the government closed down "the issues in this book find echoes in guage and culture in Africa. Showing the the play, jailed the playwright, and even- vour hearts." Q AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 49 One of South Africa's most renowned novelists explains how Pretoria's continuing efforts to suppress news of the escalating crisis has spurred writers and journalists to form the Anti-Censorship Action Group. Its aim is to keep the public informed of how the pervasive network of censorship affects their perceptions of the South African drama. tions and to keep rather apart, but in Censorship August last year, writers like myself, journalists, academics, and education- BYNADINEGORDIMER ists got together and formed the Anti- Censorship Action Group. Here was an he word, almost in a Biblical sense, of area where journalists and writers could T has come to mean so tremen- work together because censorship in its dously much iii South Africa. I don't many forms is so pervasive, it's such an think that any of us ever realized until octopus. And now under the states of this past year, with the states of emer- emergency and the proclamations, we gency and the proclamations restricting "The have more common ground than we freedom of expression and freedom of ever had before. the media, that it boils down to the free- What art; the purposes of ACAG? dom of the word. We'd like to keep the public informed of I've been asked: How are the restric- what they're missing. To keep them tions going to affect you as a writer and Word" aware, above all. It's very difficult to do other fiction writers in South Africa? My this because it's like a rat chasing its tail. answer is: First, how does it affect us as You're not allowed to publish things, so human beings? Because that's the way Literature how can we publish what the newspa- it's going to affect writers tcx>. The cli- pers themselves are not allowed to pub- mate of uncertainty and unease is creat- lish? In South Africa, the problem is how ing a very, very strange atmosphere in goes, because we work very slowly. to make people aware that they are get- South Africa now. People who probably What happens in the world around us ting not just half the story, but perhaps were not very careful to read us and has to go through a process. It sinks in only a line or two of the story. The usual who perhaps even depended on our tel- and then it may come up months later or things have been tried: a box or a banner evision for their information have slowly perhaps even a year later in the form of a across the newspaper saying "This may begun to realize that they're not being poem or a story, or may weave its way have been censored." told anything. into a novel. Hut the immediacy of it is But we all know what happens. For It has caused broad concern among simply what every other citizen feels. instance, the first time we saw blank the silent white majority in South Africa These restrictions have been a tre- empty pages in The Weekly Mail, it was and it has also caused an increasing mendous material sluxk to journalists' a shock. And while we're still being sense of confusion among blacks in lives, however, threatening their liveli- shocked, a law comes in that prevents South Africa. One is really fumbling hood and putting them in physical dan- the newspaper from having an empty around in the dark. We rely on rumor, ger, which writers like myself don't page. You make a move and the govern- we rely on telephoning each other, ask- share. You come out of your office, ment jumps on you. You make another ing people: "What happened to so and you've done your work for the day, and little move and they jump again. But so? I expected to see him last week, he you are followed home by the police. you've just got to keep on moving, and wasn't there." Then someone else tells The journalists are walking around with the problem is to find where to move you they've heard that he's in detention. a gun at their backs in a way that no next. It's difficult for people like ourselves to writer like myself is. The effect with us What are we going to do at home to know what's going on, so you can imag- has to go through a whole process. It keep the public informed? First, we feel ine what it's like for others. may come out in time in a book or a we have to try and get the information There is this general effect on every- story, but again it has a longer life than a ourselves. So, we have committees in body in South Africa. For fictionwriter s newspaper piece. various centers, in Johannesburg, in like myself, I think that is as far as it An aspect of protest that is fairly new Cape Town, and in Durban to monitor in South Africa is the collaboration and comparative reports of events, match- Nadine (iordimer is a South African author and novelist. This article is excerpted from a presenta- cooperation between journalists and ing this wherever possible with sources tion she made at the conference, "South Africa writers like myself. In the past, we've of information about the same events and Press Censorship," at I laniard University's Nieman Foundation in April. tended to have our different associa- from unofficial, casual, and sometimes 50 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 underground sources. And we hope to and black. This is the kind of double- manage to work at all. have a kind of archive which will not be speak that is invading the African lan- When it comes to the difference be- dead. Wherever we can use the infor- guages with made-up terms and it is also tween the way censorship laws affect mation that is there, wherever we can a form of censorship, a form of distor- writers and journalists, we writers have slip it in somewhere, we will do so. But tion, and a form of brainwashing. been working under censorship since we do feel that this information should We also plan a newsletter in which we the early 1960s because we have the be available, in some kind of library want to explore the background to all Publications Control Board. And we're where people such as visiting journalists forms of censorship and how these really used to it. But again it's a different and others who want to be informed things can work. Many people don't thought process, and a slower one. about how they are reported in South quite understand how it has changed the While you're spending a year or two Africa can come. daily lives of people who work on news- writing your book, you forget about the We realized that it's not just newspa- papers. Only the people who work on censor, and there's always that sense of pers, that radio and television must be newspapers know that. The phenome- taking a chance, running the gauntlet of monitored, because the selectivity non of the "resident lawyer" is some- all these committee members on the there is even more striking. If you look thing that people don't quite under- censorship board, when your work is at South African TV, the average white stand. In some countries, there are resi- done. But the fact is that we have been South African's view of what has gone dent censors—we haven't quite got under threat of having our work banned on in the townships and when there are those for newspapers yet—but we do now for many years. big strikes is formed by the few selected have resident lawyers and any editor But there's another aspect to censor- shots shown on South African televi- will tell you of the problem of "Will the ship that doesn't appear directly when sion, or is completely wiped out by hav- story be approved by the lawyers?" looking at the consequences of the ing no mention at all. Some things are We are also planning public events, states of emergency and the various simply mentioned, and if they don't ap- and our first was a panel of editors and proclamations. That's the problem of pear on television, for many thousands journalists, including a foreign corres- distribution. There has been discussion of people they simply have not hap- pondent, to discuss self-censorship and about whether overseas publications, pened. Those people would be unlikely censorship in the South African press. such as Time, Newsweek, and others, to read The New Nation, The Weekly And it was very interesting, all sorts of should remove from their issues pages Mail, or The Indicator. hidden results of censorship came out paragraphs, or a whole piece that would It's very difficult to counter the gov- into the open. For instance, the news run afoul of the law in South Africa, We ernment's brainwashing of the mass of editor of the Sowetan described in detail considered this, too, on ACAG. And we people, but we feel the first step is to the story of what happens when a jour- decided that we had better find out what have that information available. And nalist brings a story to him, how he goes happens. perhaps if we can't get it published in through it, then how the sub-editor goes We discovered in talking to foreign South Africa, we can get it published tlirough it. Everybody has a different correspondents that quite often it is the outside. We are slowly setting up this idea of what will not pass muster in the distributor who has bought the license network and we're setting up monitor- paper. It must make life as a journalist to distribute these magazines and jour- ing abroad. We know very little of the terribly frustrating and life as an editor a nals in South Africa who makes the deci- sort of propaganda that comes out of the nightmare. sion, and does not necessarily ask the South African information offices, in the We also had on that panel a newspa- parent, the publication, whether this is U.S., in England, in West Germany. per lawyer, somebody who specializes acceptable or not. Should it be left to On radio, it's the same thing. Some of in finding tiny little doors and mouse- people like us to bring pressure on the these radio programs are in different holes by which the word can slip out. distributors not to do this, or should the black languages, and there's a kind of And he explained how some lawyers journals abroad make quite sure this is special newsspeak invading those lan- employed by newspapers are more cau- not done? But then we come to the guages, principally with Afrikaans tious than others. If it's a small and dar- same problem: Is it better to have a words, but also with some English ing newspaper, doubtless the lawyer bowdlerized journal with perhaps some words. For example, recently there will be somebody who shares similar of the facts that wouldn't get aired in was an attempt to desegregate trans- ideas, that one should push right to the South Africa, or should one sacrifice the port on buses. We now have some blue- edge of the law. And if it's a big newspa- journal altogether? painted buses, which anybody of any per with a more conventional attitude, it These are all very, very difficult color can board, but they're slightly will be a more conventional and cautious questions and we are consequently dis- more expensive. Bui you can pay less lawyer. We think it very useful to bring cussing them. Under the state of emer- and get onto the red and yellow buses, out these aspects of censorship, too. I gency, there had been panic among which are really for blacks. This system think that the journalist really does write booksellers, who had simply gone and is called "rationalization of transport." these days with "Big Botha" breathing cleared shelves of books, in particular, The government doesn't want their down his neck on one side and the news- those put out by certain publishers such right wing to know that there is at least paper lawyer breathing down his neck as Ravan Press. In a suburban or down- one bus for every white and Coloured on the other. I don't know how they town bookshop, the manager there AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 51 thinks, "I don't want the police coming in from human beings, but there's a real here, I don't want any trouble," and says physical kind of violence that is happen- to the assistant, "Just take all Ravan ing in South Africa. And this is partly Press books off the shelves." So, we illustrated by people standing with guns monitored that not only in Johannes- outside the offices of a small newspaper. burg, but in small towns, in Krugers- But it goes even further than that. dorp and Benoni and Durban and around The publishing house I mentioned NEW TITLES FROM THE Cape Town, and we found that this was earlier, Ravan Press, has its premises in a pretty general practice. an old house where the security isn't HOOVER INSTITUTION But there's another aspect to distri- very great. There are lots of doors and PRESS bution and it affects journals and news- windows. About two months ago, papers, as well as books. All the book- somebody got in with a dummy key and shops and places where serious journals scrawled some things on the walls, like are sold are in the white suburbs, there "Commie Pigs" and other things that I Politics and Government are very few outlets in black townships. can't repeat, but also on one door, "We in African States Edited by Peter Duignan and So, that again is something that is totally Come Back." Ravan Press changed the Robert M. Jackson oriented toward whites. Something has locks and engaged a night watchman and to be done to change the distribution. five days later, whoever it was did come Each chapter of this book focuses on a nation or group of We can't understand why the publishers back. The night watchman saw them similar nations, describes their don't see that they're losing an enor- fumbling with a key trying to get in the formal structure of government mous potential market there. front door, but as the locks had been at the time of independence, If the books and the journals are changed, they couldn't get in. He and traces changes to the rushed to a phone box and phoned one present. there, people will buy them, but if you're Copublished with Croom-Helm, not exposed to these things you are to- of the people who run Ravan Press and 1987 tally dependent on your radio and TV, said, "Come quickly, people are trying ISBM: 0-8179-8481-X, $36.95, to get in." (cloth) except for the daily newspapers which ISBM: 0-8179-8482-8, $20.95 you pick up when you're at work in So, he rushed over, opened the door, town. But the aspect of the word which went into the front room of the house, flow in paperback! concerns writers so much, through and quickly into the other room where From Protest to imaginative literature, is completely they have their word processors and Challenge: withheld. There's no exposure at home other things that cost a lot of money, A Documentary History where people live, as far as blacks are and thank God he didn't get any further of African Politics in concerned. The schools have few or any because the back of the house blew up. South Africa, 1882-1964 books, the libraries are pitiful in the These people had gone around to the Edited by Thomas Karis and black areas. So, we feel this is a form of back, broken a window, and thrown in a Gwendolen Carter censorship by withholding access and Vol. I Protest and Hope, very nasty petrol bomb. 1882-1934, it's all connected to this great octopus of I'm one of the trustees of Ravan Sheridan Johns 111, ed. censorship. Press and we were called to an urgent ISBN: 0-8179-1892-2, $16.95, 378pp. The educationists among us got up meeting next day. As I stopped my car and said: "What about textbooks in outside in the street, there came to my Vol. 2 Hope and Challenge, 1935-1952, schools?" We all know that one of the nostrils this terrible smell of burnt pa- Thomas Karis, ed. main points about people's education is per, the burning of the books. And I ISBM: 0-8179-1222-3, $17.95, that we have to rewrite our history thought of the burning of the books un- 536pp. more in accordance with what really der the Nazis. I went in to Ravan Press Vol. 3 Challenge and Violence, happened. But it's not only history 1953-1964, and saw this big storeroom full of books. Thomas Karis and books—many other branches of learn- Some of the cases had burst with heat, Gwendolen Carter, eds. ing are affected. Censorship is done at others were just blackened, some had ISBM: 0-8179-6232-8, $24.95, the publishers in South Africa where burnt up, but the one right next to 848pp. these school textbooks are written. where I walked in had burst open and Vol. 4 Political Profiles, They're written according to a govern- 1882 1962, books had spilled out and the books Gail M. Qerhart and ment educational formula. But there were called To Kill a Man's Pride. And Thomas Karis again, there's always some leeway and it seemed to me to express everything ISBN: 0-8179-6612-9, $9.95, it isn't being used at all. So we want to that these people had tried to do with 224pp. have an inquiry and keep people in- their bomb: trying to kill the word, try- Price of four volume set (paper) formed about that. ing to kill people's ability to express their $60.00 Finally, I'd like to say a word about frustrations, to ask for their rights, and to know above all what is going on in Hoover Institution Press censorship and violence. It is violence to Stanford University the human spirit to keep the word away their own country. • Stanford, CA 94305 • (415) 723-3373 52 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 Film Interview with King Ampaw While the African film industry has witnessed an exponential growth over the past decade, filmmakers face a host of difficulties—from financial to logistical—in producing a movie on the continent. Ghanaian film director King Ampaw talks about his recent films, explaining his views and those of his colleagues about the role of cinema in Africa's cultural development. INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI Africa Report: How did you become a filmmaker? West. So I came to West Germany, but it didn't have a film Ampaw: That's a long story. 1 came to filmthroug h a series university as such, so 1 went to Vienna, Austria, to the Acad- of circumstances. I was among the young ones who had a emy of Music and Performing Arts, where I did about four chance to go to Europe just after Nkrumah came to power. semesters. But they didn't have a lot of funds, we couldn't do a Immediately after I finished middle school, I had a chance to go lot of experiments and projects. During this time, the Univer- to Kast Germany, as thousands of Ghanaians were flowing sity of Munich opened a film section, so I reapplied and went mostly to Eastern countries for studies. When I came to East back to Munich. 1 left Ghana in 1961 and came back in 1978— Germany, they advised me to do light mechanics and this look that's about 17 vears that I was on this tour. me to a factory which was "I can only deal with the reality, the things that I see or know in Africa Report: Were you building optics. From there, I reality" making films then, or did you moved to Dresden, where only start making films when they were building photo cam- you returned to Ghana? eras, filmcameras , filmprojec - Ampaw: I stalled making tors, so I got into it. It was in films during my studies. In Dresden tliat I decided to Munich, I made my first long make films,becaus e after 1 had film, which was also my practi- seen all these instruments— cal work for the university. My cameras, etc—I decided I first feature film was "They would like to use them. I Call it Love," about a black started studying film in Pots- American Gl, William Powell, dam, East Germany, where stationed in Germany. He was there is a film university con- a musician and I got to know nected to the biggest film com- him, 1 studied how he was pany. moving with his music, a black After Nkrumah was de- (il in Munich who plays every stooled, there were a lot of night in a black club. That was problems between the East my first contact with American and the West and the new Gha- blacks. I made a film about naian regime. All of a sudden, him, how he lived, and how he we were told by those who related to women. So "They overthrew Nkrumah to leave Call It Love" was my first film East Germany and go to the and I like that film still. It was AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 53 full of music. to New York or from the bush to Accra. We are all suffering Then after I finished my studies, I stayed in Germany and from that. worked a lot with other film directors—I studied with some of As for the second film: I am called King, I am the son of a the greatest, like Wim Wenders. But 1 found that even though king, my father was a chief. I grew up in a chief's house among I was earning money, it was very difficult for me to make a the elders who are always in the chief's house. I grew up film. I always wanted to make an African film. I wrote a lot of among how a chief commands, how a chief delegates, how a African film ideas, I knocked on the doors of all the television chief governs his locality, and so I wanted to make something stations in Germany, and I couldn't get any chance. So I about it. One German guy came who was writing a story about decided to come home. In 1978, when I came home, I joined such things. I said, that's something I always wanted to do. So the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation's television section film 1 developed the story with him, he finished writing the script, department. But they didn't have much to do because of lack and it is a story about an old chief having difficulties with of facilities and there were very few artists as workers in the tradition vis-a-vis the new modern system of thinking cultur- GBC in the television section. This civil service mentality had ally, economically, morally. been taken into their blood, only going to work and coming home. To me, there was no personal artistic creative thing behind it. Maybe it will change, but I couldn't cope there, so I decided to leave. When I left, I said to myself, what are you going to do? So I started reconnecting my friendships with my German colleagues, writing letters about my projects, that I wanted to do some films here in Ghana. Luckily, the first film, "Kukurantumi: The Road to Accra," went through with the North German Television, NDK, they responded to it. Africa Report: They financed the film? Ampaw: They supported tho whole thing financially, apart from the Ghanaian expenditure—the local currency. Be- tween 60 and 70 percent of the financial costs were covered by them. The German crew was experienced. Here we shoot one film in eight years—where should one get the experi- ence? That's why I worked with a European crew. 1 know there are some good technicians here in Ghana, but that was my first work and 1 wanted to be sure that nothing went wrong because I couldn't afford it. Moreover, 1 wasn't paying the technicians, they were being paid by the television station. After "Kukurantumi," I decided to make a second film. The television production is called "Nana Akoto," the cinema ver- sion is called "Juju." That also got a very good response and I am happy about it. Now I am trying to sit down and plan a bit to do one typical strong local story. "I thought that one day the wooden lorries we see all over Ghana are going to die, and they are something that I haven't seen in any Africa Report: What do you mean, as your two films are part of the world, as it is here in Ghana" very Ghanaian in story line? Ampaw: But to me they were a bit light, they just touched I'm having a lot of difficulties with my African colleague light social problems. I want to go deeper. I want to go to filmmakers. I'm one guy who doesn't think film should always things which have really happened, true stories from our cul- be political. When they say political, from what I have seen, tural heritage—chieftancy, etc.—there are a lot of tilings because we are Africans, because we have suffered, because there that I want to pull out. we have been cheated, because we have been robbed, be- Africa Report: How did you develop the theme for "Ku- cause we have been neglected, my colleagues have these kurantumi?" What were you trying to get across in the film? bitter feelings in them and to me it is all revenge, revenge, Ampaw: To me. it was very simple. 1 thought that one day, revenge. No! I don't think it is a question of revenge. By these wooden lorries we see all over Ghana are going to die, revenge, you destroy only, you don't build anything out of it! It we won't see them any more on the streets, and to me they is too long in the past, and I don't think revenge should be the are something that 1 haven't seen in any part of the world, as it motive. I agree that we should reflect on such ideologies, such is here in Ghana. I thought of making some document about happenings, so that we still remember it and take it as our them before they vanish from the streets. Secondly, I wanted guide so that such negative things don't happen anymore, but a story whereby I could portray both the village and the city, that doesn't mean we should fight those same battles again, so 1 needed a traveler. So 1 built the lorry driver into the story thereby making the situation worse. Where are we? In the to say something about how people migrate from the village to olden days, the modern days? We are mixed up right now! the city, a topic which is universal. It is not only Africa, every- I try to work on the human aspects of society. I understand where it is the same tiling, whether one comes from the bush my colleagues, but that doesn't mean that every African filrn- 54 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 maker should make that category of feature film. So if I don't go that way, that doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about the abuse of the black race. No! Within the black race itself, you have problems which must be solved first, before you can reflect on all these things that have happened to us. We must fight our home fight first, things which we do wrong. A lot of colleagues think that the African as a black person has been portrayed so negatively in pictures that one must portray only the good ones. No, I'm not for that. What is good is correct, but it is what is not good that I am still fighting. At the first film festival I attended in Carthage, Tunisia, one of these French guys from Senegal said my film has nothing to do with the African struggle. I showed "They Call it Love" there. But sometimes I don't understand what they mean by politics. I made a film about a black guy, which was political in such a society. Hut you needn't use political words to kxik at politics. Politics is everywhere. That's one thing which wor- ries me. The same tiling has happened to tin* black American filmmakers in New York. 1 understand them, but why don't they make films about their ladies, their sisters who don't go to school, who don't want to work? Why don't they make such films to say you can do tins and tliis? That would help them more! That they are neglected or abused in the United States is not the news anymore! One can do something different. I think on this issue 1 am always alone! Scene from "Kukurantumi: The Road to Accra": "I wanted a story whereby I could portray both the village and the city" Africa Report: To me, "Kukurantumi" portrayed African day-to-day reality very incisively. I don't think it's necessary Africa Report: You showed "Kukurantumi" at the Panafri- for a film to have a heavy political message to teach and can Film Festival IFespaco] in Ouagadougou in 1985. comment on society on a variety of levels. Ampaw: Yes, 1 was there. The second film, "Juju," was Ampaw: You have said one word which interests me very shown at Fespaco this year, but I wasn't there because I was much and I am happy to hear tliat. Reality! That's my diffi- then sh(X)ting a film with Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog at culty. I can only work with the reality, I can't imagine things, El Mina Castle. They said they couldn't give "Juju" a prize science fiction films, I can't do that kind of thing. I can only deal because the writer was German and the director I worked with the reality, the things thai I see or know in reality. with was German, so it wasn't an African film. For "Kukuran- Africa Report: How have your African colleagues reacted to tumi, " 1 won the critics' award at Fespaco. That was the first the two films you made here in Ghana? lime that (he critics gave an award. But without money! Ampaw: The films were appreciated and welcomed more King's problem all the time, never money! outside Africa, in Europe and America. Before the film came Africa Report: What kinds of problems do you face here in here, everybody was eager to see it, but up to now I haven't Ghana trying to make a film? had any criticisms of it—"Kukurantumi"—except for those Ampaw: The main problem here is the organization, how to who talked about the ending. Hut if they can't find their way organize a production. You know how it is when one shmts a through the film, I'm sorry, I can't do more. To me it has a film. You have to communicate a lot. But here—no telephone simple ending. connections, no transport facilities for those who have to be Africa Report: But you got a lot of positive response to the there at 4 a. m., so you can't start work on time if you don't go two films. and pick up the people! You must be sure that they will be Ampaw: That's true. I'm happy with that. These films have there. Also, here we mostly work with people who are not taken me almost everywhere I never dreamed of going, so it's film actors. They are mostly from the theatre, dramatic arts OK. field, or people from rural areas, comedians, which means that they don't help you when you are directing the film because they don't know how they should help you, unlike working "I've attended a lot of African film with experienced actors. That makes the work here a little festivals and talked with other difficult. filmmakers and this problem of Secondly the technical aspects: There are no technicians, governmental help in film no materials in the form of equipment, electricity problems, generator problems when we go to the rural areas to shoot. production in African countries is It's really tough work, it's not as easy as it is in developed always the topic." countries. And punctuality here! You must keep your eye on clothes they wear, so they wear the same thing. . . A lot of AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 55 things happen. Money problems because the laboratory must I was the only one who could play it. It was a fight! This man be paid for in Europe, and the cameras you have to bring from won't give in and I didn't want to give in! This went on for Europe. You can't edit the film here because there is no labo- months and months and finally I gave in. So he engaged me in ratory, which means you need a lot of foreign money before almost the main role in Africa. When he told me I was going to you can produce a film locally. Even if you've got cedis, you play that role together with Klaus Kinski, I got a bit shocked, I can't produce a film without dollars. That's what forced me to didn't know how Kinski and 1 could play together. But he go into co-productions, so that this burden would be brought convinced mo, so I agreed. Klaus came to Ghana and we acted down a bit. together and honestly, I liked him because he knows his work, Africa Report: In African countries where you face all these he is a professional. problems, from financialt o logistical, in making a film, do you Africa Report: What's the name of the film and the plot? think governments should be supporting filmmakers in these Ampaw: The film is called "Cobra Verde." It is based on a endeavors? novel by a British author, Bruce Chatwin. He is a very popular Ampaw: I've attended a lot of African film festivals and talked author in England, and this is his fourth best-seller. As for the with other African filmmakers and this problem of govern- story line: When the slave trade was abolished in Africa, there mental help in film production in African countries is always were still some slave dealers who wanted to come and buy the topic. It's unfortunate. I don't think the United States slaves from West Africa. As the story goes, there were a government is supporting financially all of Hollywood! It's in group of merchants in Colombia who were doing the slave private hands. If you talk of film as a national, educational trade and they wanted to get rid of one of their captains so thing, then OK, that's a different tiling. But if you are talking of they sent him here to buy slaves, although they knew that film commercially—feature films—I don't think the govern- when he got here to the West coast to buy slaves, because the ment can do much. That's my belief. The government has so slave trade is abolished, he would be killed. That is Klaus many tasks to educate people and that's more important than Kinski's character. So he comes here to buy slaves to El Mina the government putting money in feature films. That's why I Castle, which was one of the centers of the slave trade. There say in these cases, the government is being bothered too had been a lot of wars there, so all the soldiers which were much. helping the whites to buy slaves had been killed. My character My colleagues come with the argument that foreign films is the only one of the soldiers of the black garrisons for the are imposed on us. I understand, foreign filmsar e imposed on colonial power who survived and was living in the castle. I had us, that's why we must produce our own African films. But I to show him how the war came about, why all the militias are don't know which African government can now support film- dead, and try to help him to get new slaves. But there was a making financially. If I take the Ghanaian example now, we king who was supposed to be in Dahomey—that's what we need money for hospitals, etc., and that's how it is in most shot in Tamale—who resisted him. Klaus' character and mine African countries. So I think we Africans are too much blaming get arrested, and in the end, he couldn't buy any slaves. our problems on the government. The government should Africa Report: What do you think is the future of African give the private man a free hand, so that he can bring in other cinema? sources of money to make films, if these films are helpful for Ampaw: I would ask in general what is the future of film? To the country, culturally entertaining and educational. But do me, the new techniques, videos, are killing the film business. you know how much a filmcosts ? Just look at the government So if African filmmakers say they want to make commercial budget for medical care, for education in rural areas, and films to make profits, 1 don't know how because who goes to quote me a price of making one single film! And these films the cinema nowadays? When we were young, we were all won't even always earn back their productional money. You rushing to the cinema. Now the kids sit at home and watch can't guarantee that! There must be a different way. How long videos. One must be very careful here in trying to overproject have we been waiting on these governments and what has the "African film." If the African film is for Africans ourselves happened? The government can't even build cinema houses to reflect our own errors, OK, 1 agree with that, much more for all the people in the rural areas. These things must be done must be done there, but if somebody thinks that he's going to first before a film is produced. make money with an African film, I don't believe it. But inter- Africa Report: You've now switched roles to acting, as you nally, it's much needed. A lot of films must be shot so that we are starring in a film directed by the German filmmaker, see ourselves in a lot of corners of life which are not shown. Werner Herzog, which has been filmed in part in Ghana. How We must do all these films for ourselves internally, but out- did this project come about? side, the days of film like the old Hollywood style, those days Ampaw: I got to know Werner when I was studying in Ger- are gone. We must try to make films to educate ourselves many in 1968-69. Since then, I have met him several times. internally. That is our task, our work. We mustn't think of the Werner came to Ghana from Colombia last year and said he commercial boom, the money, profit margins. You must be was trying to find a place to make a film. He said he liked happy if you can even survive from the films you make, as I am Ghana and that I am here, and asked if I could help him to trying to do. Films must be made, a lot of them, for Africans, organize it. I said no problem. So we started organizing with of African stories, African history and what we haven't seen of the Ghana Film Industry, and we gave it to them as a co- ourselves so that this inclination to European culture may production. Werner appointed me as his personal representa- change a bit. That is the work we have ahead of us as African tive here. And then he said there was a role in the filman d said filmmakers. Q 56 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 The aim of the theater, says Albert Culture and Politics Bilgho, ATB's assistant director, is "to conscientize, to bring our people to an understanding of the social problems Burkina Faso: they are living with, and by allowing them to laugh at themselves, to ulti- A Revolutionary Culture mately transform their negative social and cultural attitudes." Perhaps no other government in Africa has made The ATB's revolutionary approach to greater use of its cultural wealth in service of its popular theater is but one manifestation of the cultural renaissance which has economic, political, and social goals than that of Capt. bloomed over the last four years in Thomas Sankara. Dance, music, theater, and cinema Burkina Faso. However, the accent has have all been enlisted to support Burkina's revolutionary not been on the promotion of the quaint, folkloric aspects of African arts, but approach to development. rather on utilizing the nation's cultural BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI cessful trader. Oneevening, asherhus- expressions—dance, music, theater, band sees her counting her profits, he and cinema—to achieve sharply defined 'hhe lead female character in ththee has second thoughts. He demands the political, social, and developmental ob- T three-sketch play, "The Story of a money as head of the house, heads jectives. Woman," is fresh out of school and en- straight to the local bar, and squanders Explains President Sankara, "In all ters the Burkina job market along with a every last cent. aspects of development, culture must young male colleague. Her friend finds Though deadly serious in their criti- play the critical role. Culture is < me of the employment fairly quickly, while the cism of the position of women in best mediums we can utilize to commu- male employers repeatedly tell the Burkinabe society, these tales were nicate with our people. In a society such young woman that there are no open- performed as comedies with a large as ours, based on oral tradition, where ings. Finally, an office manager says he dose of wit, humor, and irony by the 30 85 percent of the population is illiterate, has a position that is hers for the ask- amateur actors and actresses of the we must use our cultural expressions as ing—provided she submit to his roman- Atelier Theater Burkinabe (ATB). The a means of getting messages across and tic designs. She refuses and is not hired. audience—some 200 men, women, and transforming attitudes on basic issues The second sketch finds the woman youths who gathered at the People's such as health, education, agriculture, married to a carpenter and the mother Theater on the outskirts of Ouagadou- literacy, and the role of women." of six girls. When she becomes preg- gou one recent, stiflingly hot Saturday Nurtured and promoted by the nant for the seventh time, her husband night—punctuated the performance Sankara government, an explosion of goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure with uproarious laughter, boisterous artistic creativity—growing out of the that most cherished of his goals—the cheers for the heroines, and boos for rich cultural traditions of the country's birth of a son. A charlatan sorcerer is the villains. more than 40 nationalities—provides a summoned to cast a spell on his wife, At the play's end, the performers and vivid counterpoint to Burkina's harsh however there is a condition attached directors of the theater company came natural environment, weak economic for his incantations to succeed: The hus- on stage, not to bask in applause, but to base, and poor economic indicators. band must trade roles with his wife. conduct an hour-long discussion of the Indeed, in recognition that its most Although humiliated at the prospect play's themes, calling on spectators to valuable natural resource is its people, of having to go to market, pound the comment on its social messages. In the this government has successfully har- grain, cook, clean, and serve his wife, light-hearted and spirited debate which nessed Burkina's national culture in ser- the husband nevertheless complies. So ensued, members of the audience took ardent is his wish for a son that he en- to the stage to act out some of the parts dures the disdain of liis male friends who themselves. "In a society such as scorn him for having turned into "a This is an example of "theater-fo- ours, based on oral woman." After he submits to eight rum, " a new genre of social critique the- tradition, where 85 months of abasement performing ater which has blossomed under the percent of the "women's work," his wife fails him, giv- leadership of Capt. Thomas Sankara's population is illiterate, ing birth to another daughter. She and youthful government. Free perform- we must use our the children are turned out of the house. ances are staged throughout the coun- cultural expressions to In the third skit, the husband remar- try wherever an audience gathers—un- get messages across ries, forbidding his new wife from any der a tree or the night sky, in a village, a work outside the household. A commu- sports stadium, or school room—in and transform nity group involves her in a soap-making French, Moore, or Dioula, depending attitudes." cooperative and she becomes a sue- on the locale. AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 57 vice of its basic development goals. men in uniform. "The Little Singers with Raised Fists," Theater, dance, and music—performed Today, at every official function, no a dozen youths from age six to 14, and live as well as on the radio and televi- matter how formal, the best of "The Doves of the Revolution," an all- sion—have been used to explain the ob- Burkina's music and dance is show- woman ensemble, trained from scratch jectives of some of the government's cased, not as praise-singers to the glory on electric guitars, drums, saxophones, major social projects, such as the widely of the government as in many African and other instruments, electrify audi- praised "Operation Vaccination Com- countries, but as an encouragement to ences with ;i diverse repertoire ranging mando" and the current campaign the youth to develop and excel in the from reggae and American pop to Afri- against female excision. arts. "In each child is hidden a Mozart or can tunes. To better coordinate these efforts, a an Einstein," says Sankara, "and it is our Since the National Council of the Rev- separate Ministry of Culture was re- duty to create the right conditions for olution came to power on August 4, cently created, charged with seeing to it our children to be able to develop." 1983, the government has sponsored a that Burkina's diverse cultural heritage Women and children have been sin- is put to use in all political, social, and gled out for special encouragement in economic domains. Bernadette Sanou, this regard, and Burkina's two signature Monument to African filmmakers in Oua- gadougou: "Many filmmakers credit the a young poet chosen to head the minis- orchestras, which often travel abroad to current Burkina government with having try, explains: "In the past, culture was represent the country, are examples. reinvigorated the African film industry" always appended to another ministry— education, sports, or information. Our recognition that culture plays a pivotal role in all aspects of development neces- sitated the creation of a separate minis- try." Adds Prosper Compaore, director of the ministry's department of performing arts and literature, "We have a national policy on culture. In the past, our cul- ture was neglected, our artistic troupes were used in a folkloric manner. Today we use them because we think they can bring something to the people. Our five- year economic plan cannot succeed without taking into account the culture and traditions of our people, on which development must be based. We must use our artists to mobilize and conscien- tize the people." President Sankara—himself a guitar- ist and member of the National Union of Burkinabe Musicians—is Burkina's number-one patron of the arts and it is through his inspiration that music and other art forms have become an impor- tant tool in teaching the youth the impor- tance of education, fostering positive values, and promoting national unity. Sankara relates how in 1976, when he commanded a garrison at the southern town of P6, relations between the sol- diers and townspeople were very tense. To break down social barriers, Sankara organized musical ensembles among the military and sponsored dances where the local people and soldiers could mix. Temperatures were lowered in the pro- cess, he says, and the people began to see the military as part of the commu- nity, rather than as threatening armed 58 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 ATB's production of "The Story of a Woman," in which a husband and wife trade roles regular series of cultural festivities high- scurity and allow them to see the uni- pora, and Ouagadougou's hotels and lighting every dimension of artistic tal- versality of their cultural expressions." movie houses were filled to overcapac- ent. Each commemoration of the Au- "We are convinced," he says, "that ity with filmmakers and cinema devo- gust 4 anniversary is a national festival the different nationalities which com- tees from around the world. of dance, music, and theater, in which pose the Burkinabe nation share more "Saaraounia," directed by Maurita- artists are encouraged to create around similarities than differences. All cus- nian filmmaker Med Hondo and co-pro- a social theme—'Children in 1985, toms and traditions, therefore, become duced by the Burkina Ministry of Cul- women in 1986, and this year, the peas- revolutionary tools toward the realiza- ture's Department of Cinematic Pro- ant. tion of unity and ultimately the constitu- duction, was this year's winner of the For Burkina's artists, the single most tion of a national culture." "Etalon de Yennenga" grand prize. A important manifestation of the govern- From the performers' point of view, tale of anti-colonial struggle, the film's ment's support for their craft is the bien- says Mamadou Sankara, president of central character is a woman—Queen nial National Cultural Week. Held each the Association of Ensembles of Tradi- Saaraounia—a warrior ruler born in Ni- time in a different regional capital, the tional Music and Dance, the week-long ger in the 1880s who ultimately defeats festival brings togettier the country's festival is significant because it fosters the French colonial troops which men- premier talents in every artistic field— understanding and tolerance of the na- ace her kingdom. from traditional and modern music and tion's cultural diversity, while pushing Although Fespaco dates back to dance, to oral and written literature, to artists to constantly improve their craft 1969, when the first festival was held sculpture, painting, and theater. Artists as they vie for the "great honor" of being with the participation of only five African who have won preliminary competitions named among the finest performers in countries, many filmmakers credit the in each of the 30 provinces compete for the land. current Burkina government with hav- nationals honors and awards. A similar motivation to excel vis-a-vis ing reinvigorated the African film indus- Last year's cultural week was held in one's peers has made the biennial Pan- try by providing it with a forum and the Bobo-Dioulasso under the theme, African Film Festival of Ouagadougou needed international exposure to facili- "Unity in Diversity of Cultures." Ac- (Fespaco) Africa's most prestigious and tate its growth. cording to Thomas Sanou, high commis- successful cinematic competition. This While this is certainly one of the sioner of Houet province which hosted year's Fespaco, as well as 1985's festi- Burkina government's goals, President the festival, the objective is "to bring val, showcased more than 40 African Sankara also sees Fespaco's relevance each of our nationalities out of their ob- films and many others from the dias- on the domestic level: "We want Fes- AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 59 cians, dancers, writers, and artists got to the nation's culture heritage. "We "In each child is hidden together in Bobo-Dioulasso, the cultural have been stimulated and encouraged to crossroads of the nation, to brainstorm persevere," he says, "despite the a Mozart or an on ways of better plying their craft in odds." Einstein, and it is our service of the government's develop- A particularly poignant example of duty to create the right ment goals. Agreement was unanimous this commitment is President Sankara's conditions for our that in Burkina's socio-economic con- current pet project—the People's children to develop." text, "art must always serve a cause." Academy of the Arts. He explains: "In The artists, however, are victims of Ouagadougou, there are many people that very same context—the govern- with idle time on their hands. After paco to be not only a dialogue among ment has multiple, pressing develop- work, they don't know what to do, cinema specialists, but also a popular ment needs, and providing financial sup- where to go. They end up in bars or on festival so that the man on the street, port to its artists is virtually impossible. the streets. So we created the Academy the simple Burkinabe person, can ask Day-to-day survival on the proceeds of of the Arts, which invites everyone himself: 'What can cinema do for me?' their trade is equally impossible. from all walks of life to come and learn The African cineaste must tell the truth Madou Kone, a balafon player and music, painting, sculpture, drawing, 100 times a second. He must put his singer with "Koko," a Bobo-based tradi- theater. It's free, it's completely volun- camera at the service of the people." tional ensemble, commented that given tary, there are no exams." In the final analysis, it is the the problems Burkinabe musicians When the President is asked where Burkinabe people who are at the heart face—from lack of funds to purchase the the academy is located, he replies: of this government's efforts. Apart from most basic equipment and costumes to "There is no building. We block the road the major festivals which dot the na- the fact that in the entire country, there on a given evening and use it as a class- tional calendar, average Burkinabe citi- is not a single professional recording room, or you can go to the sports sta- zens in towns, cities, and villages across studio—it is all the more remarkable dium and find students setting up their the country are daily bombarded with that Burkina has experienced an expo- easels, or find children and adults gath- messages relayed through artistic me- nential growth in artistic expression ered around a teacher with a guitar in a dia which promote the nation's develop- over the past few years. Kone attrib- vacant school room. For us, culture has ment goals. utes this growth to the sincerity, and no walls, no barriers. It is everywhere a Radio, television, and even the depth of the government's commitment part of our life and our struggle." • brightly painted billboards which deco- rate the dusty, broad avenues of Ouaga- dougou reinforce national priorities— the need to plant trees, grow more "A penetrating challenge to wishful food, attend to basic health, maintain a thinking and imexamined assumptions." balanced diet, and, the latest watch- -THOMAS G. KARIS, City College, CUNY word—"Consume Burkinabe!" As part of a campaign to adapt citi- zens' tastes to that which can be locally "A history of the past that makes produced, a domestic clothing industry, sense of the present and "Faso Dan Fani," has been launched, empowers those who wish to change the future!' utilizing traditional Burkinabe tech- -JENNIFER DAVIS, niques of weaving, dying, and couture. American Committee on Africa The stylishly simple and practical SOLOMONS clothes, which even the President has "This book will be controversial, been seen sporting in favor of his mili- but its critics will be hard- MINES tary uniform, are produced entirely pressed to match its cogency and depth of documentation!' from locally grown cotton, eliminating REVISITED -GEORGE M. FREDRICKSON, Western Interests and the worry of finding export markets for Stanford University surplus cotton production. the Burdened History of Southern Africa According to Youssouf Ouedraogo, "Must reading." Minister of Planning, the burgeoning in- -RANDALL ROBINSON, JfnnsAfrica dustry has not only boosted employ- ment—particularly of women—and $21.95 at bookstores, or conserved scarce foreign exchange direct from the publisher. earnings, but it "has affirmed our cul- Tbll free (800) 638-.3030. Major credit cards accepted. tural identity as Burkinabe, thereby fighting cultural alienation." BASIC BOOKS, INC. 10 Kast T>3rd St., New York 1002! Recently, a group of Burkinabe musi- William Minter 60 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 around in puddles created by a recent Mozambique downpour. In parts, a putrid smell per- meates the streets from dark alleys where garbage has been allowed to rot. Where shops are open, clerks stand Doing Business in Beira faithfully in front of a few over-priced goods, waiting patiently for customers to drop by. A supermarket, complete Our correspondent reports on a recent visit by a group with wooden shelves and wire vegeta- of Harare businessmen to the Mozambican port of ble racks, stands locked and empty, like Beira—the closest outlet for Zimbabwe's trade and a a museum of a bygone age. But for the businessmen, these were key project of the Southern African Development all just observations. They were Coordination Conference. In spite of Mozambique's whisked off quickly to the Dom Carlos economic difficulties, the group came away with Hotel which, though in need of renova- tion, is a lovely building, filled with impressed with Beira's potential as an alternative to quaint antiques and memorabilia. Al- South Africa's trade routes. though the Zimbabweans had lugged along every conceivable provision, they soon forgot their picnic hampers as the BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA The first pleasant surprise occurred hotel laid on an impressive array of sea- at the border post early the next mom- foods and spicy dishes. n a bright Sunday afternoon ear- ing when, even with only one Mozambi- As Chapman noted at the reception, O lier this year, a group of 34 Zim- can official on duty, immigration formali- relishing a glass of Portuguese red babwean businessmen, clad in shorts ties were handled quickly and courte- wine, the hotel had provided everything and jeans, assembled at a Harare bus ously. Although the Zimbabwean army a Zimbabwean could possibly want. station to start on an liistoric journey. A had laid on a military escort, it became Clearly, this is what their Mozambican few of them had made recent trips by air evident as the trip progressed that it hosts wanted to hear. For despite all the to the Mozambican port of Beira, which probably had not been necessary. Some money that has been poured into getting has suddenly become world news as 6,0(X) Zimbabwean troops guard the the port off the ground over the last tensions rise in southern Africa. A very corridor, and one begins this trip ex- year, they maintain that the major chal- few had gone by road, but never in a pecting to hear gunshots every other lenge is to get businessmen in the re- group of this size. mile. Instead, a deceptive quiet enve- gion to start using it. Indeed, when you The older among them cherished lopes the 199-mile-long stretch of road, ask Rui Fonseca, chairman of the Mo- vague, nostalgic memories of Beira in its railway, and oil pipeline. zambican "Beira Corridor Authority," heyday, when it served not only as Zim- Save for the odd pothole, the once- about the future of the port, he retorts babwe's closest port, but as a popular busy road is also surprisingly well-pre- gruffly: "Let's talk about the existing ca- holiday resort. All of the group had been served. And as the bus rumbled through pacity, which is not being used." subjected to a fair number of horror sto- the picturesque Vumba mountains, Never the best of ports—it has al- ries, churned out by the efficient Harare down to the coastal plain, a number of ways had to be artificially dredged to rumor mill, on the slate of Beira since the adventurous executives fell off into a stay open—Beira is nonetheless the the South African-backed Mozambique sweet slumber. closest outlet for Zimbabwe and the National Resistance Movement (known They awoke a few hours later as the northern Tete province, and a reason- alternately as Renamo or MNR) bus approached the port city, set able option for parts of Malawi and Zam- stepped up its activities in Mozambique against a vast expanse of glistening, blue bia. Before Mozambique's indepen- a few years ago. ocean. For those who had only visited dence from Portugal in 1975, some It was thus, team leader Arthur Beira a decade ago, there were obvi- three-quarters of Zimbabwe's traffic Chapman later recalled at a reception in ously some shocks. It is after all the passed through Beira and the port capi- Beira, with some "trepidation" that the capital city of a province where over half tal, Maputo, 419 and 707 miles from expedition set off. Yet, according to the population is described as being "at Harare, respectively. Chapman, who is also vice chairman of risk" as a result of war and drought. The But when the Frelimo government the Zimbabwe National Chamber of outdoor cafes and beach cottages are no imposed sanctions against the white mi- Commerce (ZNCC) international trade more: Many are now homes of refugees nority government of Ian Smith, all the committee, the group returned from from the countryside fleeing the terror country's traffic had to be re-routed their three-day trip much "enlightened" of Renamo. south, mainly to the port of Durban, by the experience. Hundreds of presumably unemployed 1,246 miles from Harare. After Zim- people loiter in the streets. Children, babwe's independence in 1980, traffic Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean freelance journalist based in Harare. scrawny and sparsely dressed, play was once more diverted eastwards to AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 61 Mozambique, peaking at 54 percent of In theory, Beira could handle the imports and exports in 1983. global total of Zimbabwe's overseas However, as a result of Renamo ac- trade, which averages 3.1 million tons tivities, the "Limpopo Valley" line to the annually, with 2.3 million tons of this dry larger port of Maputo had to be com- goods. The only commodity which abso- pletely shut down in 1983. A small lutely cannot be handled in Beira at the amount of Zimbabwean traffic continues moment is beef, since the available cold to pass through Mozambique via north- storage facility only caters for frozen east South Africa, but this is subject to meat, and most of Zimbabwe's beef ex- frequent disruptions. The southern ports are chilled. There are, however, routes to Beira, from Malawi and the plans to expand this facility in the second Mozambican coal mining town of phase. Moatize, are also out of operation at this Many of the qualitative improve- point. ments in this phase—such as the com- As Beira is the port of entry for most plete reconstruction of the oldest sec- of Zimbabwe's fuel, which is carried by tion of the dock, installation of new fork- pipeline to the border town of Mutare, lifts, and the building of a large container Zimbabwean troops have long been sta- terminal—will no doubt enhance the ef- tioned along the "corridor" to the port, ficiency of the port considerably. There rendering it relatively secure. But apart are also plans to build bulk handling facili- from fuel, traffic along this route de- ties for sugar and cereals. Yet even "Beira is the closest outlet for Zimbabwe clined drastically, as the port and railway and the northern Tete province, and a rea- without these, the port can function. line fell into disrepair. Then, with the sonable option for parts of Malawi and For example, it is already handling most mounting call for sanctions against Zambia" of Malawi's sugar, brought in by road via South Africa, coupled with the need for commence in 1990, consists of ancillary Zimbabwe. And as BCG chairman Denis neighboring states to seek alternative projects. Norman recalls, in 1975, the port han- transport routes in case of South African So far, the port has been dredged dled 1.25 million tons of Rhodesian retaliation, Zimbabwe beefed up its back to its original depth of minus 19.8 maize exports. "There were no bulk forces considerably along the corridor in feet, and its capacity restored to the handling facilities in those days," he 1985. 1975 level of 3 million tons per annum. said. "The bags were carried on peo- Suddenly this unlikely port, with its Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the ple's heads, onto the ships." ancient equipment and dilapidated town, main railway line from Mutare to Beira, Norman, together with senior offi- was looked to as the region's salvation. carried out largely by the National Rail- cials of several shipping agents in It became a rallying point for politicians, ways of Zimbabwe, is due for comple- Harare, agrees that Beira is underuti- regional planners, and donors alike. tion mid-year. In Zimbabwe, the private lized. Indeed, they don't dispute Fonse- Over the last year, some 70 percent of sector has shown an overwhelming in- ca's figures. But they point to certain the $280 million deemed necessary for terest in the Beira Corridor Group problems. For one thing, depending on the first five years of a rehabilitation pro- (BCG), formed late last year to coordi- the nature of a contract, overseas im- ject has been raised—largely from the nate local business involvement in the porters and exporters can have a con- Netherlands, Nordic countries, Euro- rehabilitation project. siderable say in which port is used. A pean Economic Community, World But according to Fonseca, although few—like the Swedish government and Bank, and the U.S. Agency for Interna- the port and railway line could have han- North Koreans—have made a political tional Development. dled 2.5 million tons of dry cargo in decision only to use Beira. But the ma- The project—a brainchild of the nine- 1986, it only handled 800,000 tons, and jority are not convinced. Tobacco ex- member Southern African Develop- 600,000 tons of Zimbabwean fuel. Zim- ports, almost all of which used to go ment Coordination Conference babwe sent and received a total of through Beira, are one example of over- (SADCC), which aims to ease regional 900,000 tons of goods through the port. seas importers being extremely reluc- dependence on South Africa—is in Meanwhile, SADCC had projected that tant to use the port. three parts. The first, "emergency" traffic passing through Beira would For both sides, there have been prac- phase aimed to increase the capacity of reach a level of 2.1 million tons in 1986, tical problems, though many of these the port and railway line to deal with of which 1.5 million tons would be Zim- are being overcome. Security is natu- much larger volumes of traffic from the babwean goods. rally a concern. According to Zimbab- region. The second, core phase, now "This scenario, this pattern, of con- wean and Mozambican officials, attacks being implemented, involves infrastruc- tinuing to use South African ports, must along the railway and oil pipeline have tural and service projects aimed at "rais- change," BCA chairman Fonseca told now largely been narrowed down to ing the capacity of the port to adequately the 34 businessmen during a two-hour cowardly sabotage, and the damage is service the sub-region on a sustainable briefing. "Beira," he stressed, "is your rapidly repaired. "It does not require a basis." The third and final phase, to most natural port." lot of courage to sneak up to the railway 62 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 line and put a bit of plastic explosive on times eroded by time delays. Although Undoubtedly, if Zimbabwe were to the track and blow it up with a detona- the transit time from Harare to Beira impose the London Commonwealth tor, which is basically what they are do- has been cut to an impressive four to six sanctions package against South Af- ing," says BCG managing director Ed- days (compared to two weeks for Dur- rica—as it has said it will—and South die Cross. "Therefore they are no real ban), cargo is often held up for a long Africa retaliates, the use of Beira will threat." time at the port, according to the man- shoot up. Significantly, while most com- To supplement the Zimbabwean gov- aging director of a prominent shipping panies are not using the port regularly, ernment's security efforts, both Zim- and air freight concern. This, he says, is they are sending test runs back and babwean and Mozambiean authorities largely due to the fact that at present forth, in preparation for a rainy day. But are encouraging investors to come into only some 20 shipping lines call at the in the absence of some kind of extraordi- the rich agricultural areas surrounding port. nary pressure, there will have to be the corridor, with the idea that their "Anytime you send cargo to Durban, more cajoling, more persuasion, before presence will help keep the area clear of it is sure to find a ship," he says. Tliis is the port is used on a regular basis. the rebels. Driving along the corridor, not the case in Beira. "I have steel that It is for this reason that the visit by there is evidence of Zimbabwean and went into Beira in November and is still the 34 businessmen to Beira went down multinational chicken, tobacco, and cit- sitting there, because no vessel has yet so well with the Mozambiean authori- rus concerns which have taken up this arrived to take it to Mombasa [Kenya]," ties. Although it yielded "relatively mi- call. More joint ventures are expected. he complained. nor results in commercial terms," ac- As a sign of their satisfaction with the The agent agrees with the argument cording to the president of the Mozam- situation, most insurance companies put forward by Mozambiean officials biean Chamber of Commerce, Anierico now offer cover for goods coming to and that the number of sliips calling at the Magaia, the trip proved that it is possi- from Beira—a facility withheld in the port will only increase when the amount ble to "travel to Beira by road, stay past. Yet just over the past few weeks, of cargo does. On the other hand, Zim- here, and even liave a good time." This, Renamo is said to have sent out threat- babwean businessmen, faced with huge he said in an interview, "is an important ening letters to all members of the BCG cuts in their foreign currency allocations start." from its Washington office. These have this year, are reticent to take the gam- Echoing a similar view, Chapman sent enough of a ripplethroug h the busi- ble. "If you're importing something to noted at the end of the trip that tourism ness community here that most asked Zimbabwe, and what you are importing had been "extensively discussed" as an not to be identified by name in tliis ar- represents eight months supply of raw important "vehicle for getting the mes- ticle. material for your factory, you're going sage across" that Beira is alive and well. Until recently, Beira was also a fairly to think three times before you put it at Admittedly, Beira needs to be expensive option, as most shipping lines risk, in the hands of a system that you spruced up. Some of this will occur natu- charged a premium to call at the port, ultimately don't trust," says BCG man- rally, as the port takes off. Businessmen because of the lower tonnages and risks aging director Eddie Cross. on both sides are also beginning to sniff involved. However, from the beginning This is not helped by sporadic in- potential. For example, it is now highly of the year, the Europe, South, and stances of pilferage, which is reported likely that the Cresta group of hotels in Southeast African lines have aligned to be considerably higher in Beira than in Zimbabwe will go into a joint venture their charges to those levied at South Durban. In the case of the combine har- with the owners of the Dom Carlos, to African ports. This, coupled with in- vester imported by Turnpan, for exam- restore its former status as an upmarket creases in South African railway tariffs ple, two cases of spares got lost, and hotel. During a reception thrown by the and the recent devaluation of the Mo- this was "a major setback," according to Mozambiean Chamber of Commerce at zambiean metical by over 400 percent, the company spokesman. Not surpris- a once-popular beachside club, an enter- has made Beira far more competitive. ingly, considering the desperate state of prising local businessman started solicit- For example, a representative for Turn- the local population, foodstuffs which ing membership from the visiting Zim- pan, a large Zimbabwean agricultural are not containerized are also a favorite babweans, in anticipation of more baek- machinery concern on the trip, said in an target. and-forth in the future. interview that his company recently Even with all these problems, there Beneath the squalor and poverty, saved over $2,0<)0 by importing a com- are still a good number of businessmen Beira is a warm and friendly city full of bine harvester through Beira, instead of who have found Beira both cheaper and charming Mediterranean-style buildings Durban. quicker. Yet shipping agents concede, and wide, tree-lined streets. The beach, During the second phase of the reha- there is still widespread resistance to untarnished by soda cans and fast food bilitation project, the port is to be fur- using the port. Indeed, when asked to chains, merges gently with the clear, ther deepened to minus 28 feet, raising balance practical against psychological blue ocean. As the weary executives the capacity to 5 million tons, and allow- inhibitions to using the port, one ship- exchanged their three-piece suits for ing larger vessels to enter. Tliis in turn ping agent said he felt the "habit" of us- batliing trunks at the end of each day, will help to further reduce costs. ing South African ports and exaggerated plunging gleefully into the sea, an air of According to some shipping agents, stories about Beira were more signifi- hope hung over this once-thriving and however, the cost advantage is some- cant than the technical hitches. romantic city. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 63 Mozambique Interview While on a recent visit to the U.S., Armando Guebuza with spoke with Africa Report about his government's efforts to win international backing for the rehabilitation of the Beira Corridor—key to Mozambique's long-term Armando economic recovery. He also outlines Maputo's strategy for isolating Renamo and calls on the U.S. to play a larger Guebuza role in Mozambique's development. Minister of Transport INTERVIEWED BY ANDRE ASTROW and Communications Africa Report: As transport minister, you are immediately responsible for the rehabilitation of the Beira Corridor and its port, one of the Southern African Development Coordination have sufficient financial means even to finish the first phase of Conference's key infrastructure projects that will enable the the project which is to be completed by 1990. According to frontline states to lessen their economic dependence on South our projections, we envisage needing $250 million, and up to Africa. How has the 10-year revitalization plan progressed so this moment only $200 million has been secured. So we still far? What are the major obstacles in carrying out such a pro- have $50 million to go. We expect that countries as well as ject? institutions will be interested in providing us with the neces- Guebuza: First of all, I should mention that in order to serve sary funds. the objectives of land-locked countries in southern Africa, we We of course realize that it is not sufficient to exclusively have tliree corridors: Naada in the north, Limpopo in the consider the railway, highway, and port along the Beira Corri- south, and of course the Beira Corridor. We expect that with dor. We need support for subsidiary economic activities that the revitalization of these corridors, and particularly the Beira will take place in the region—basic infrastructure, economic Corridor, we will be able to provide the needed outlet for land- development, trade, etc. And that's where the Beira Corridor locked countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Group from Zimbabwe fits in. Group members are embarking and even Zaire's Shaba Province. on business projects in Zimbabwe, and are being encouraged Because the three corridors allow these countries to reach to invest in Mozambique so that they can secure their inter- outside markets without depending on South Africa, the ests and ensure that their goods are transported efficiently. apartheid regime has chosen them as major targets. That is We believe that other private sectors will also be interested in why Pretoria has tried to frustrate our economic activities, participating. Western countries—particularly Britain—have using economic intimidation and coercion. At the same time it shown a growing interest in investing in the area. Similarly, is also using military force. For that purpose, the terrorists— having come to the U.S., one of our concerns is to encourage commonly known as Renamo—are being used to disrupt the the business community here to join in this exercise. railways and other infrastructure of economic importance to Africa Report: Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe SADCC. Although apartheid has been working hard to has described the Beira Corridor as "our route to the world." achieve this goal, the fact is that particularly in Beira, our To what extent does the ability of the frontline states to im- programs have progressed reasonably well. The projects in pose sanctions against Pretoria depend on the success of this the port, as well as those on the railway line and highway, are project? on their way. At this very moment, we have trains running Guebuza: There are two separate issues. One is apartheid, normally to Zimbabwe from the port of Beira and in the oppo- and the regime's refusal to respect the democratic rights of site direction. the people in South Africa itself, with its inhuman policy of Africa Report: Businessmen in Harare have formed the racism and discrimination. While that kind of brutal policy Beira Corridor Group to pump private capital into the project, continues in South Africa, neither the South African nor the while many Western countries have responded favorably to Namibian people and the rest of southern Africa will live in Mozambique's appeal for financialsupport . What role do each peace. This is where the question of sanctions fits in. The play in rehabilitating the Beira Corridor? second point is that Mozambique and land-locked countries Guebuza: Western countries and institutions have been par- need to develop economically. Mozambique has to develop its ticipating in the rehabilitation and expansion of the port of economic potential, while land-locked countries must use the Beira as well as that of the railway and highway. That is where natural, less expensive, and more viable outlets to the most of their activities are concentrated. But we do not vet ocean—through Mozambique in this case, and the three cor- 64 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 ridors that we've talked about. So we can only link these two back for Mozambique? questions when we understand that South Africa, seeking to Guebuza: Don't you think tm that this pact made it possible impede the development of these countries' economies, de- for the world to see that South Africa is not serious, that it is stabilizes Mozambique. not a state which respects its own signature? Africa Report: Last December, following strong pressure Africa Report: Your government has steadfastly refused to from the frontline states, Malawi signed a pact with Mozam- negotiate with the South African-backed rebels of Kenamo bique agreeing to dispatch troops to help protect this strategic who now claim to control 85 percent of the country. I )oes this corridor from Kenanio attacks. But given Malawi's support mean that you expect to defeat Renanio militarily with the help for the rebels in the past, how effective do you think such a of Zimbabwean tnxips? deal can be? How crucial is this line to Mozambique's eco- Guebuza: Firstly, there is an inaccuracy and it is normal nomic recovery and ultimately to the ability of your govern- because, as you have said, it is the bandits who claim to ment to defeat Kenamo? control 85 j>ercent of the country. If that were true, where Guebuza: We signed this pact with Malawi because we be- would all the Frelimo members be coming from? We recently lieve that we will be able to comply with its terms and we held a meeting of the Frelimo central committee in Decem- believe that Malawi will also do the same. Malawi, as well as ber, in which we had representatives from all over the coun- Mozambique, is already complying with the terms of this pact. try. After that we had a meeting of the people's assembly So the balance is positive. The quickest outlet to the sea for following elections, we had a representative of each district Malawi is through the ports of Nacala and Beira. But at the coming from the very areas that the bandits claim to be con- moment. Malawi is importing and exporting through Durban, trolling. So one of the points I would like to make clear is that which is very far away, more than 2, (XX) miles, instead of these are claims made by the bandits, and these claims are using a railway line which is much nearer. To I Hirban, Malawi incorrect. also has to use roads, making it even more expensive. The second point is that we are a legitimate state. We have The Nacala line is also important to Mozambique in the our institutions and our laws, and according to these laws and sense that it reaches a central region, an interior area of institutions, all Mozambicans can democratically present their Niassa, as well as Zambezia and Nampula. Zambezia is one of grievances, or if they disagree with a policy they can express the most important provinces hi terms of our export products their views. And this is done frequently even in our press and that bring foreign exchange—tea, cotton, cashew nuts, all go in other meetings and documents that are circulating in the through Zambezia using the line to Nampula and then Nacala. country. Sometimes the Catholic Church in Maputo holds Niassa is potentially one t >i the richest agricultural provinces in meetings and even publishes documents that are not in com- the country so the recovery of our economy cannot take place pliance with the government's policy. without making full use of the existing potential of these two These bandits—which means are they using to present provinces. Nampula is also very ini|x>rtant because at this their grievances to the elected, legitimate government of the stage it is the province producing the most cashew nuts and country? What we see is that they just kill inmx.ent people, cotton. they destroy property, and they are the arm of foreigners—of Africa Report: President Chissano said earlier this year that the South Africans and some Portuguese. Kenamo is not an the Nkomati accord signed with South Africa in 1984 remained entity in itself. It does not present any grievances, the bandits a valid document because it at least compelled Pretoria to do not use the existing institutions in Mozambique to achieve weigh its actions against its obligations. Yet Renanio has anything. So we do not foresee the possibility of talks with grown in strength since the agreement. If South Africa con- non-entities. tinues to violate Nkomati, what advantage does the non-ag- But, of course we do not underestimate the seriousness of gression pact serve for Mozambique? the problem, as many Mozambicans are victims of this terror- Guebuza: When we sign a pact, we sign with the under- ism, and are being transformed into brutal criminals. We have standing that we are going to comply with the accord and that approved a policy of integrating all those bandits that are the other signatory will do the same. So that was our intention willing to join us. We are willing to forget their crimes, and we when we signed the Nkomati accord with South Africa. How- bring them to places where they can join their families and ever, we have witnessed that South Africa is not complying start a new life together with other Mozambicans. At this with it. What we are doing now is trying to talk with South moment we have camps where former bandits now are nor- Africa to make Pretoria come to its senses so that it recog- mal citizens, participating in the social, cultural life of the nizes its international responsibilities in meeting the terms of country. We are going to proceed with this policy. this accord. We cannot at this stage anticipate what will hap- Africa Report: Do you think it is possible to defeat Renanio pen if South Africa does not comply because when we talk and militarily? establish a dialogue to solve a problem, we believe that the Guebuza: Yes. I think we can defeat the bandits militarily. other party is also interested in doing so. Of course, we are Africa Report: In recent years, Mozambique appears to really concerned with South Africa's systematic non-compli- have steered an increasingly pro-Western path—particularly ance with the terms of the accord. But we also believe that on the economic front—welcoming foreign investors, the In- South Africa, as a result of different pressures, particularly ternational Monetary Fund, and privatizing state companies. from Western countries, may come to its senses. How do you reconcile socialism with the capitalist policies of Africa Report: Don't you see the Nkomati accord as a set- your economic reform program? AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 65 Guebuza: There are many questions in one, but I will say the ested in defending the interests of the people in southern following: Firstly, our government never refused foreign in- Africa. I think this is one of the primary reasons. Secondly, vestment and by foreign I mean from outside Mozambique. Britain in this case understood the need to secure the outlets Many capitalist enterprises that existed in Mozambique be- of other Commonwealth countries in the region. Mozambique fore independence continued to operate and were not nation- is the link between these countries and the sea. So with alized. Those companies that decided to stay were not nation- Mozambique prepared to play that role and Britain encourag- alized and some are still operating in Mozambique normally. ing this scenario, it made it easier for us to strike a better Secondly, after independence other private foreign invest- understanding with Britain and to extend that country's sup- ment came into Mozambique and established itself there. So port for Mozambique. we never had a position of closing the doors to foreign, pri- Africa Report: Compared to Mozambique's ties with Mar- vate, or to Western investments. What actually happened was garet Thatcher's Conservative government, relations with that we did not have the capacity to sufficiently mobilize West- the Reagan administration have been much cooler. How do ern public opinion—particularly considering what certain sec- you account for this? Are there any signs that relations with tors in the West thought of us. the U.S. are improving? 1 think this lack of communication, the difficulty in convey- Guebuza: Relations with Britain have developed quite well ing our message, is no longer as problematic, so people are as you have said. As far as we are concerned, our relations beginning to understand. But as you may know, even today with the Reagan administration also are good. The only prob- we are still struggling to convince the U.S. Senate-—which lem that we see is that in Congress there is a serious misun- does not understand our position—of the openness of our derstanding or a lack of proper knowledge of what is going on policy. As far as the second aspect is concerned, 1 don't think in our region, and particularly what is hapj>ening in Mozam- that one can see a shift from socialism, when one has always bique. It is the task of all those who are familiar with the had private interests in the country. You can look at any situation to explain and to clarify the situation to those who do socialist country and you will see that there are private compa- not understand. I am referring mainly to the U.S. Senate. nies. Africa Report: Conservative supporters of Renamo in the Africa Report: Do you not think that the imminent accord U.S. claim that the administration should support the rebels with the International Monetary Fund is a sign that Mozam- because they are fighting communism and are freedom bique, on an economic level at least, is moving much more fighters like Jonas Savimbi's Uiiita forces in Angola. How do toward the West? And as a result, do you not fear that this you counter their arguments? pragmatic approach will ultimately undermine your socialist Guebuza: In Mozambique, we do not believe that Savimbi is ideals? a freedom fighter. We were one of the first to recognize the Guebuza: You put the question more concretely and cor- government in Angola. So we think the advised position rectly when you talk of pragmatism. Yes, we in Mozambique should be that of sup]x>rting the Angolan government, and are pragmatic. We try to find the best approach to solve our that some work should be done with respect to U.S. public problems and our main preoccupation is to develop economi- opinion to clarify this matter and probably to help people un- cally. If we see that the means of development is in a specific derstand the need to recognize the government in Angola. As place, then we go to that place and try to transform those far as the rebels in Mozambique are concerned, it is clear that means so that they can serve our people. We essentially place they are bandits and there is no reason why anyone who is the emphasis on the necessity of responding to the aspirations adequately informed would support terrorism, because ter- of our people. That's why we are non-aligned. rorism is against civilization and democracy. Africa Report: You were part of President Chissano's dele- Africa Report: Although the administration has recently of- gation to Britain in May which secured increased military and fered food aid for Mozambicans suffering from drought and economic commitments from the British government. Your war, it has so far provided relatively little in economic assist- ties with Britain and other Western nations, however, have ance. U.S. companies have also been noticeably reluctant to not always been so strong. What has led to this rapproche- invest in the country. Would you like to see the U.S. play a ment with the West? more active role in Mozambique? Guebuza: You may be aware of the role that Mozambique Guebuza: I am told that there are certain elements in the plays in the formulation of African policies, particularly in Senate and the House of Representatives that do not support southern Africa, and the role that was played by the late bilateral economic relations with Mozambique. One of the President Machel and present President Chissano on the reasons we have come here is to explain that we would wel- question of Zimbabwe at the Lancaster House Conference. come more direct participation by the U.S. government in This helped many Western countries to understand that Mo- addition to the aid earmarked for emergency purposes and the zambique is a country that is truly non-aligned and is inter- assistance that is being provided to private farmers in Mozam- bique. There is a need to increase such bilateral aid from the U.S. government as well as that from the private sector. I am " Although apartheid has been encouraged that particularly those in the private sector seem working hard to achieve its goal in to be interested in investing in Mozambique. Unfortunately, Beira, our programs have there is still no sign on the part of the Reagan administration progressed reasonably well." that it intends to do the same. But I hope it will, as we would certainly welcome it. LJ 66 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 BYKARLMAIER Mozambique or seven nights, they ran along the F Zambezi river in northwestern Mozambique to elude a group of rebels who had burned down their village. With Chissano's Challenge water as their only sustenance, 69 peo- ple reached the sprawling refugee camp Mozambique's new president has undertaken a bold at Moatize, just outside the provincial capital of Tete. Witnesses said the reform of the military and launched major new rebels had killed an old woman and kid- economic initiatives in an effort to curtail the activities of napped 52 people. Renamo and address the economic crisis. But given "We do not know where they were taken," said Joao Folouale, a tall, wiry continuing South African support for the rebels, will his 26-year-old corn fanner whose wife, efforts succeed? Maria, was among the kidnap victims. "We have not seen them again." The nightmare of Folouale and his neighbors tiations with the rebels, who were orga- the cities to the countryside and thus to is becoming routine throughout north- nized by Rhodesian intelligence agents coax small farmers into producing more ern Mozambique where entire villages in the early 1970s as a network of "eyes food. The emphasis on the small peas- are being crushed by the decade-old war and ears" in Mozambique to battle na- ant fanner marks a complete reversal of between the Frelimo government and tionalist guerrillas based there who Frelimo's early policies, which favored the South African-backed rebel move- were lighting to create an independent state farms that cost far more than they ment, the Mozambique National Resis- Zimbabwe. earned. Maputo is also wooing foreign tance (known alternately as Kenamo or The Rhodesians pieced together the investment and has just concluded a deal MNR). movement from Krelimo defectors, with the IMF and the World Bank. The One million people have been driven plain outlaws, and Portuguese who local currency, the metical, has been de- from their homes by the conflict, and the hoped to stop Frelimo from consolidat- valued 500 percent, and is expected to spreading violence is a major reason ing power after independence. When drop another 4(X) percent by Septem- one-quarter of Mozambique's 14 million Zimbabwe gained independence in ber. Even the private sector is being people are threatened by famine this 1980, the Rhodesians handed Renamo encouraged as never before. year—this in a southern African nation over to the South Africans. Since then "For us socialism is a very concrete already considered one of the world's the movement has grown into a full- thing. It means to create good living poorest countries when the Portuguese Hedged insurgency. Kenamo's constant conditions for the people," explains rulers left 12 years ago. attacks on Mozambique's strategic Chissano. the former foreign minister. The focus of this seesaw war is the transport routes suggest that South Af- "We have always said the private sector heartland provinces of Tete, Sofala, and rica is using Renamo to keep its major- has a role to play." Zamliezia. Wliile the beleaguered ity-ruled neighbors dependent on its But any new policies will have little 45, (MK)-strong Frelimo army, backed by ports. Talks with Renamo, Chissano impact until Chissano's much-maligned troops from neighboring Zimbabwe and said in a recent interview, would be par- army brings much more of the country Tanzania, has of late scored gains on the amount to "a second round of negotia- under government control. Until South battlefield, especially in Zambezia, the tions for independence." Africa halts support to its client, Re- rebels still wreak havoc in the country- Nevertheless, the specter of famine, namo, there is little hope that Frelimo side against poorly trained and equipped a collapsed economy, and a life of con- will ever wipe out the rebels. The gov- government soldiers. Neither side ap- stant violence and bitter poverty has ernment army must, however, limit the pears capable of delivering a knockout shattered the early dreams of the avow- war to as little territory as possible. blow to the other. "A no-win situation," edly socialist Frelimo, Mozambique's Farmers cannot produce food if ihey are is the way Britain's military attache to sole political party. Stiff austerity mea- constantly dodging Renamo marauders Maputo. Col. Mike Bowden. sees it. sures along International Monetary or air force bombing raids. "The bread- But knocking out the rebels— Fund guidelines have led to 3(K) percent baskets of this country are occupied by "armed bandits" in official parlance—is price rises, while salaries are up only 50 Renamo," says James Maher, officer of precisely what Mozambique's new percent. Heavy layoffs are hitting state the U.S. Food For Peace program in president Joaquim Chissano, 47, vows enterprises that the government says Maputo. to do. Cliissano, like his predecessor, must balance their books. Urban dwell- It is a bitter irony that today Frelimo the late Samora Machel, rules out nego- ers are grumbling. probably controls less territory than did The new economic program, de- the Portuguese colonial government at Karl Metier is southern Africa correspondent tor The Independent of London and contributes reg- signed by Finance Minister Abdul Majid the height of the independence war. ularly to The Christian Sciemv Monitor. Osman, aims to transfer wealth from Much of rural Mozambique, home to 80 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 67 percent of the population, is a free-fire ager who was held by Renamo for three supply the rebels by sea in January, and zone. The government controls all ma- days. He characterized Renamo as a the rebels briefly occupied Pebane on jor cities and has routed the rebels in the fairly disciplined military force, with am- January 2 and apparently waited in vain south and far north. While Renamo's ple supplies of rifles, bazookas, and ra- for an arms delivery. claim to rule 80 percent of Mozambique dios. He was awakened each morning at At the same time, the government is a wild exaggeration, government con- dawn by Renamo troops drilling in for- opened the province's transport ar- trol in most of Sofala, Tete, and Zambe- mation. "They are real Mozambicans," tery—the road between Quelimane and zia provinces is non-existent. he says, noting that they spoke the local Mocuba, site of the provincial military For that reason, Frelimo has language. That suggests that the gov- command. Most of the roads in Zambe- launched a major military drive against ernment faces a huge task in routing the zia, like the rest of the country, remain Renamo bases in Zambezia, Mozam- rebels from Zambezia, a province in impassable, however. bique's most populous and potentially which Frelimo has never had great pop- The army is now in the critical wealthiest province. In October last ular support. phase—tackling the north bank of the year, Renamo was threatening to slice But Solomon's chronicle of rape, civil- Zambezi, an area which many govern- Mozambique in two, but now govern- ian murders, and theft mocks Renamo ment supporters had given up for lost. ment forces, supported by 2,000 Tanza- claims to be fighting for the "liberation" Using aged MiG jet bombers and the nian and 7,000 Zimbabwean troops, of Mozambique. Renamo leader Afonso powerful Soviet-built MI-2-1 "Hind" heli- have regained much of the lower Zam- Dhlakama has spent a good deal of the copters, the Mozambican army, under bezi river valley for the first time in two past six months attempting to "African- the command of Maj. -Gen. Hama Thai, years. In a two-pronged offensive, the ize" the movement and to remove Por- captured a major rebel base in the dis- army is driving west against rebel tuguese whites from embarrassingly trict of Morrumbala in late April. Gov- strongholds along the north bank of the prominent positions abroad. But Re- ernment troops took the towns of Zambezi river, while Zimbabwean namo has yet to outline a coherent politi- Luabo and Mopeia in a three-day opera- troops have recaptured several key cal program, and eyewitnesses confirm tion ending March 10. Luabo, just iJO towns on the south bank. that the rebels are still guilty of wide- miles from the Indian Ocean, had been Frelimo's apparent goal is to pin Re- spread human rights violations, such as considered a key Renamo supply depot namo against the border with Malawi mutilations, against civilians. since the rebels captured the town in and put government forces in position to The Mozambican government mid-1985. strike big rebel bases in western Zam- launched the current offensive just a Those victories followed the lightning bezia later this year. The outcome could month after President Machel died on two-day assault in February on Mu- depend on Malawi honoring the security October 19, 1986, in a still-unexplained tarara and four other Zambezi river accord it initialed with Mozambique on air crash in South Africa. It came as towns just below the Malawi border by December 18 pledging to help Frelimo President Chissano was in a crucial bat- the Zimbabwe air force and elite para- wipe out the rebels. tle to reform the army, which has been troopers. The big prize in the operation The 20,(XK)-strong Renamo has its riddled with charges of incompetence was one of Africa's longest rail bridges best troops in Zambezia, which has been and corruption. The shake-up has re- that links the provinces of Sofala and the center of rebel operations since Zim- placed Gen. Sebastiao Mabote as chief Tete. The railway itself is the key to babwean soldiers overran Renamo's of staff with Lt.-Gen. Armando Pan- reopening the giant coalfields in Moatize Casa Banana headquarters two years guene and moved Mozambique's bright- that could earn Mozambique $25 million ago. Unlike the rag-tag gangs that prey est military commander, Lt. -Gen. dollars per year in desperately needed on poorly defended villages in much of Domingos Fondo, from the southern foreign exchange. Since the early the rest of Mozambique, Renamo province of Inhambane to Tete. 1980s, Renamo attacks have rendered moves in battalion strength in Zambezia. In the northwestern province of the rail line, and thus the mine, useless. Eyewitness accounts suggest Re- Tete, the situation is deteriorating. The At the Moatize rail yard, trains filled namo troops in Zambezia are well- government has lost effective control with valuable coal exports used to roll armed, have good logistical support, north of the Zambezi river, and refugees down the rickety tracks en route to the and have some civilian supporters. from Tete and other provinces are pour- Indian Ocean port of Beira. Today the When the guerrillas burned down five ing into Moatize refugee camp just 10 rusty wagons and boxcars are still tea plantations in February near Gurue, miles outside the provincial capital. loaded, but with cargo of a quite differ- about 200 miles northwest of the pro- But now Zambezia is the primary tar- ent sort. They are temporary homes for vincial capital of Quelimane, they were get of the Frelimo army. The first task thousands of refugees streaming in from told beforehand tliat the army was away there was to blunt an expected Renamo rural battle zones. Strewn along the on operations and were handed the dash to take Quelimane, a major port dusty grounds, mothers go through the identities of local officials and militiamen, and possibly key supply route, and the motions of daily life: preparing meals who were summarily executed. smaller Indian Ocean coastal towns of and fetching dirty water from nearby "Who gives this information to Re- Chinde and Pebane. When interviewed, streams using big, blue five-gallon namo? The public," says A.S. Solomon, Chissano said Mozambique had drums that say they once carried cook- a 46-year-old Indian tea plantation man- thwarted a South African attempt to re- ing oil "furnished by the people of the 68 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 send his army further afield from its base camps along the Beira corridor— the rail, oil pipeline, and road system that is vital to Zimbabwe's foreign trade and is guarded by 6,000 Zimbabwean troops. The apparent turnaround in the atti- tude of President Kamuzu Banda's gov- ernment in Malawi, which juts down into the heart of Mozambique, could also be a major blow to Renamo. Last year, Ma- lawi's neighbors accused it of "complic- ity" in what they called South Africa's "terrorist campaign" against Mozam- bique. Machel had threatened to station mis- siles on Malawi's border if it continued to allow the rebels to operate from its territory. "Now," says President Chis- sano, "Malawi is at our side, and we are cooperating in the fight against the band- its. " Military sources indicate that Mo- zambican and Zimbabwean troops are Captured Renamo weapons: "Renamo ing to local officials. "Everybody wants being allowed to operate against Re- moves in battalion strength in Zambezia" to go home," says Augusto Mange, Te- namo in Malawi. Units of Malawi's inex- United States of America." te's provincial economic secretary. "But perienced 5,000-strong army are also Unlike many hunger-stricken parts of first we have to know if their homes are helping to defend the northern Nacala the country which international food aid still standing, if their villages are still railway, which Lilongwe prizes as an ex- cannot reach because of the war, famine there. They cannot go back if it is not port route. relief is getting to the refugees at safe." In Zambezia, the government army is Moatize. Many sleep in tents donated And with the army on one of its most showing signs of a new assertiveness, by European nations, food is brought in sustained offensives ever, safety is in and the specially trained "red beret" by military convoy on the highway from short supply in the parts of Tete, Sofala, commandos are working to counter the Zimbabwe, and primitive medical care is and Zambezia from which the Moatize notion that the Frelimo army would available. refugees fled. So the government, with rather run than fight. Still, it is difficult to Every 10 days, a chorus of wailing the help of Western aid organizations, is judge how much ground fightingi s actu- infants punctuates the 105-degree heat setting refugees up in villages on the ally taking place in the current offensive, as innoculations are administered. The outskirts of Tete city, such as Padue given the government's reliance on jet people giving the shots, and doing other and Benga, and giving them small plots bombers and helicopter gunships. Prob- tasks such as teaching classes, are refu- to farm. ably not very much, says Britain's Col. gees themselves. Pedro Armoda, a Zimbabwe's army has been the wild Bowden. "If you move a lot of troops in young paramedic who works in half of a card in the war since it dramatically in- and get some outside help," he says, tiny cement block house known as the creased its commitment to Mozambique "Renamo are not the kind of people who adult hospital, is a good example. Ar- in July 1985 to secure access to trans- are going to stand and fight." moda is a native of Mutarara. which Re- port routes it needs. The Mutarara as- Accounts of refugees in Tete suggest namo overran last September in its big- sault signalled a new, more aggressive that small villages, not the Mozambican gest victory of the year, though Zimbab- mood in the Zimbabwean military high army, are the main target of Renamo wean troops retook it in February. The command, which in the past has been attacks. At the village of Padue outside rebel attack on Mutarara sent 50,000 chary of deepening its involvement in Tete city, Fambisani Chenje, 59, re- civilians running into neighboring Ma- Mozambique while the government called the day last June when Renamo lawi. And since January, many of those army remained humbled by low morale guerrillas raided his village in the south- refugees have come by road to Moatize. and horrific logistics problems. ern Changara district. "They did not tell The refugees keep Armoda quite busy, But Renamo's spectacular gains in us why, they just came in and attacked," but he is always thinking of returning Tete and Zambezia last year and Ma- he said. "They started killing people and home. "I never thought we would have chel's death apparently convinced Zim- chopping them up." Ten people were come all the way to Moatize. I thought babwean army commander Lt.-Gen. killed, and 10 others mutilated, like we would be able to return home stx>n." Tapfumaneyi Mujuru (formerly known Chenje, whose ears and top lip were That, however, is not likely, accord- as Rex Nhongo) that he would have to sliced off by the rebels. • AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1987 69 ISSUE AFTER ISSUE, OUR ONLY ISSUE IS DEVELOPMENT As a development professional, that affect agriculture, business, THE MAGAZINE your concerns are managing and education, energy, infrastructure, improving conditions worldwide. health and population. Included in THAT IS AS Effective information exchange is this innovative magazine are timely INVOLVED WITH vital to your day-to-day decisions features, provocative columns, and and your long-range planning. departments that focus on current DEVELOPMENT advances in research and cover such DEVF.LOPMF.ST INTERNATIONAL areas as material and services AS YOU ARE. is a magazine devoted to the people (Resources), travel (Connections), who make development happen events to attend (Professional around the world. It is an important Planner), and merchandise new vehicle for development (Products). professionals who work to make a difference. Use the form below to become a charter subscriber. Help make the Six times a year, DEVELOPMENT vision of a better world clearer. INTERNATIONAL'S sector coverage Subscribe now for yourself and for will concentrate on the vital issues a colleague in a developing nation. WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE TO DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL: INDIVIDUAL AND GIFT D Access • Barclaycard • MasterCard/Visa SUBSCRIPTION: A one-year subscription brings 6 Card Acct. No. Exp. Date bimonthly issues to you. or to someone else as a gift. Signature . • lYear: U.S. $25 £16.50 My individual/gift subscription is delivered to: D 2 Year: U.S. $40 £26.50 Name . . SPONSORSHIP SUBSCRIPTION: Address DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL will be sent to you and a companion Country Zip/Postal Zone subscription to a colleague in a For sponsored subscriptions, please provide us with an Relurn with payment n Y. 5. funds to: developing nation. You may specify additional name and address for the person you wan! to DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL. the gift recipient or permit us to receive DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL, or instruct 1111 North 19th Street. Suite 400 select from our list of applicants in us to choose someone for you. Arlington, VA 22209, U.S.A. the developing nations. In the latter case, your gift subscription will be deductible for federal income tax purposes. D lYear: U.S. $40 £26.50 [development D 2 Year: U.S. $75 £50.00 • INTERNATIONAIK ITCDM ATlPlMA LI If she can look up to you shell never look down on herself. Trade-ma'k@ C1965. The Coca-Cola Company If you're into beaches, the longest, purest beach on the faceof the globe isn't Fire Island, Malibu or some Caribbean island. It's the Atlantic coast of Mauritania. Four hundred and fifty miles of uninterrupted sea, sand and sky. If lounging by the pool under the tropical sun, or by the ocean under a swaying palm gets to be too much of a good thing, you can always cool off with a refreshing round of ice skating at the Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ice skating Mention Africa and some people get an idea of mud huts If game fishing is your game, head for iand waterinng holes. Well Africa, be assured that some of the finest the Island of Goree ?just off the coast from hotels in the world are located in West Africa. Air-conditioned Dakar. Although twenty species of fish recog- rooms, swimming pools, friendly bars and fine restaurants. It's nized by the International Game Fishing As- just like home...only better. sociation can be found here, the record belongs to a swordfish caught in 1963. It The best way to get to and around West Africa is to fly Air weighed in at 1,100 pounds! Afrique. We have the most complete schedule of interconnecting flights between African cities, New York and Europe. One of the most beautiful Club Mediterra nee facilities is located in Cape Skirring, just an hour from Dakar. (It even has a sauna!) Africa begins at JFK with luxurious Air Afrique jet service non-stop to Dakar, Senegal. If you're flying to Africa, it's the only way to fly. Now what are you waiting for? Isn't it time you discovered West Africa? Just call your Travel Agent or AIR ^ AFRIQUE your nearest Air Afrique/Air France office today. Africa begins with Air Afrique. Hurry! And it's just seven hours to the New Sun... West Africa.