Holding the Hunary Hostage Since the Days When Bill Pickett First Bulldogged a Steer to the Dust, the Black Cowboy Has Been a Symbol of Originality and Daring

Holding The Hunary Hostage Since the days when Bill Pickett first bulldogged a steer to the dust, the Black cowboy has been a symbol of originality and daring. Today, that bold spirit is embo- died in Black rodeos and their dynamic cowboys. The Adolph Coors Company, brewer of Coors, Coors Light and Coors Extra Gold,* is proud to bring the Bill Pickett Rodeo to audiences across the nation. From one original to another, let's keep our traditions riding high.

'Other (me Coors brands Herman Joseph! Herman Josephs Light. Krihan Red Ale

1988 COORS BILL PICKETT INVITATIONAL RODEO SCHEDULE 4/23-.'4- Atlanta. GA-Great Plains Coliseum 4/30-05* I • Raleigh. NC • Nortfi Carolina State Fair 5/28-?9 • Kansas City. MO • Benjamin Stables 6/04-05 * Jackson. MS • Miss County Fairgrounds 6/18-19 • Beaumont. TX • Fair Park Coliseum 7/16-17 • Los Angeles. CA • LA Equestrian Center 7/23-24 • Oakland. CA • Roweil Ranch 9/03 • Saciamento. CA • California State Fair 9/9-10-Denver. CO-Nat'l Stock Show Stadium T8Dt • Austin. TX • Luedeeke Arena TBDt • Detroit. Ml • Cobo Arena

t To be detefmined

•n* JULY-AUGUST 1988 AMERICA'S VOLUME 33, NUMBER 4 LEADING MAGAZINE cBFRICflON AFRICA

A Publication of the (REPORT African-American Institute

Letters to the Editor The African-American Institute Chairman Randolph Nugent Update Publisher Editor: A ndre Astrow Frank E. Ferrari Election "88 13 Editor-in-Chief The U.S. and Africa: The Republican Platform Margaret A. Novicki By George Bush Managing Editor Alana Lee Ethiopia 17 Assistant Editor The War on Relief By Todd]. Shields Andre Aslrow The Bush Agenda Acting Managing Editor Page l-'l 23 Daphne Topouzis Interview with Berhanujembere Editorial Assistant By ToddJ. Shields W. LaBier Jones Economies 26 Contributing Editor The Population Crunch Michael Maren By Na/is Sadik Art Director Kenneth Jay Ross Women 29 Advertising Director Uganda's Women: A Ray of Hope Barbara Spence By Catharine Watson Marionette, Inc. (718) 773-9869, 756-9244 Women and Children on the Frontline: 33 Interns Interviews with Graca Mafhet and Maria Eugenia Neto Alexander Neff By Colleen Lowe Morna and Daphne Topouzis Rebecca Poyourow Uganda's Strength Judith Surkis Page 29 Zimbabwe 40 Africa Report (ijJSN o2 Letters to the Editor

To the editor: To the editor: has "consistently opposed anti-apart- I would like to congratulate you and In the update section of the March- heid groups in South Africa," and cite your staff on the March-April issue, April edition of Africa Report, you ran a our opposition to "Oliver Tambo's visit "South Africa: The Road Ahead." It was story about the upcoming motion pic- to the U. S.," as an example. To start, a long overdue comprehensive look at ture, "Red Scorpion," in which there we are an anti-apartheid group in South the entire situation. I was pleased to see was a plethora of inaccuracies with re- Africa—we have a Johannesburg that your magazine was the one to take gard to the International Freedom branch office. Secondly, we did not op- up the issue and present such thorough Foundation (IFF). This letter serves to pose Tambo's visit to the U.S. We op- coverage. correct those errors. jx>sed his meeting with Secretary of As an organization actively involved "Red Scorpion" is a purely personal State Shultz. in higher education in that country, we venture of Jack Abramoff. While Abra- We do not believe that the leaders of are often contacted by interested indi- moff does serve as international chair- organizations which promote violence viduals newly involved in the issue. I am man of the IFF as well, there is no con- and terrorism against innocent by- always searching for publications which nection between the Foundation and the standers should be treated by the U.S. will help them to look fairly at the situa- film, either financial or otherwise. The government as heads of state. To con- tion in that troubled country. I have al- movie, to my knowledge, has its own strue anything more than that from our ready recommended your recent report offices, staff, and budget. To say other- position would be tantamount to our ar- to several such individuals and I am sure wise is patently false. guing that your tacit support of Swapo that it will continue to be an important In describing the Foundation, you use means you are "pro-terrorist." It is very resource in the months ahead. the term "pro-apartheid." Enclosed you high on propaganda value, but is devoid Congratulations on such a fine maga- will find a copy of the Foundation's state- of intellectual justification. zine and on making such an important ment on apartheid; a cursory glance at It is disappointing to us that your re- contribution to the debate on South Af- the document should convince even the search department was unable to phone rica. most skeptical reader that this organiza- our offices to check the accuracy of your tion is most adamantly against the South article. We respectfully request that Anne D. Moran African government's coercive system your journal print a correction in the Executive Director of racial segregation and discrimination. next edition, pointing out each of the The University of Cape Town Fund Inc. To quote the document: "The IFF inaccuracies listed above. The charges South Africa therefore condemns the system of you make are serious and we do not apartheid for subordinating individual take them lightly. We hope that you will liberty, economic opportunity, and polit- treat the facts as seriously. ical freedom to the selfish whims of a repressive elite." To describe the IFF Colleen T. Morrow as pro-apartheid is to ignore the facts Executive Director altogether. International Freedom Foundation You further state that the foundation Washington Office

Africa Report welcomes comments from its readers on issues raised in the magazine and on matters relating to African political and economic development. For reasons of space, a contribution sent in the form of a letter to the editor stands a much greater chance of publication than one submitted as an article. Letters should be as brief as possible, normally between 100 and 400 words. The editor maintains the right to abridge or otherwise alter letters for reasons of space or other editorial requirements. It is editorial policy to maintain a balance of views on controversial issues. All letters to the editor should bear the name and address of the sender. Requests for anonymity and non-divulgence will be respected, but such a requirement may render the letter less likely to be published.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 N THE NEWS Zen and the Art of Counter- gues that the first step is to "annihi- Self-defense is "the most impor- late" the enemy—"seeking out the tant part of counter-organization of Revolutionary Warfare enemy and destroying him." The the masses." and should be carried State Security Council officials next step is to restore "effective ad- out with the support of local lead- have been distributing a new man- ministration." As the manual puts ers. These militias should be armed. ual entitled The Art of'Coimter-Rev- it. "An effective and well-motivated forming the "bridge between the ad- olutionary Warfare to leading South administration will deny revolution- ministration and the masses, and African politicians and civil ser- aries the initiative." should therefore be politically ori- vants, according to the Johannes- Once these two objectives have ented." burg-based Weekly Mail, which been met, a well-coordinated Lastly, establishing an efficient marks a significant break from the WHAM campaign can be imple- intelligence system is equally im- earlier military strategies authored mented, involving such measures as portant if WHAM is to be success- primarily by former police chief "civil education," "counter-organi- ful. "It is essential for the govern- Gen. Johan Coetzee and his super- zation of the masses." "self-de- ment to have a covert intelligence spy sidekick Craig Williamson. The fense," and an effective "intelli- system with roots among the booklet, claiming to be a manual for gence system." Through civil edu- masses and all organizations." To all those who want "to defeat the carry out such intelligence gather- revolutionaries'" in order "to regain ing, "joint committees" of "secu- the initiative." spells out in great rity force and administrative and detail a strategy for "winning the political institutions" need to be hearts and minds" of black South created. Africans—or WHAM, as some se- The government's decision to curity officials like to call it. turn to WHAM may produce some In the past. Coetzee and many initial gains, but as The Weekly Mail other security branch strategists ar- points out. the strategy's chances of gued that political groups like the success in the long-run are severely United Democratic Front, various limited because it ignores the key township organizations, and trade issue of black political rights. As union bodies should be allowed to long as the Botha regime continues exist, while keeping them under to regard the demand for political firm control through the use of sys- rights as the ideology of agitators, tematic infiltration, detentions, and its attempt to legitimize state struc- selective bannings. President P.W. tures in the eyes of black South Af- Botha's government also made at- ricans is doomed to failure. • tempts to legitimize Ihe apartheid state in the eyes of the black majority as part of a concerted effort to South Africa: Putting WHAM into effect ASplitinUnita? undermine mass resistance. Preto- cation, a "good working Political differences and allega- ria unveiled its scheme of grand re- relationship between the adminis- tions of human tights abuses in forms to democratize apartheid tration and the masses" can be es- Jonas Savimbi's South African- through the tri-cameral parliament. tablished, assisted by trained and backed Unita rebel movement have to stabilize (he urban system with loyal leaders who are well-paid for reportedly caused a split in the or- thehelpof the Riekert Commission, their efforts. ganization which may seriously tar- and to legalize the unions following Counter-organization, says the nish its image in the West. the recommendations of the booklet, is "the main weapon News of disunity within Unita Wiehahn Commission. against revolutionaries. The gov- could not have come at a more inop- The failure of this strategy to un- ernment must take the lead under all portune time for Savimbi, with the dercut black dissent, however, has groups, classes, clubs, and societies much-publicized four-nation peace forced the Botha regime to reassess with the organization o\' social, ca- talks just getting underway in Lon- its focus on grand reforms from reer, sport, education, medical, re- don in early May, and the rebel above, and instead to place empha- ligious, and military activities. . . group standing by as a mere specta- sis on re-shaping the black com- The population must become in- tor on the diplomatic sidelines. Be- munities from below. The Art of volved and identify with the group's hind-the-scenes negotiations appar- Counter-Rcvoltitionarx Warfare ar- activities." ently served to sharpen divisions

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 among Unita members over bi's visit to Washington in 1986, was power as prime minister in April whether to press for integration now under arrest in a Unita-con- 1968. Stevens subsequently sur- with the ruling MPLA in a govern- trolled area of southern Angola fol- vived two coup attempts in 1971 by ment of national reconciliation, lowing disagreements over the calling on his friend and ally, Presi- amid speculation that Savimbi group's dependence on South Af- dent Ahmed Sekou Toure, to pro- might be dropped by either his U.S. rica. In the past year, Pretoria's fail- vide troops from neighboring or South African supporters in fa- ure to disguise its attacks on Angola Guinea to restore order because he vor of a Unita leader more accept- has been a source of growing em- could no longer trust members of able to the Angolan government. barrassment to Unita—especially his own armed forces. On the eve of the London talks, when rebel leaders have claimed In an effort to bolster his constitu- six Portuguese-based Unita activ- victories in Cuando Cubango and tional standing, Stevens pushed ists in Lisbon left the movement af- Cunene provinces as their own, through a series of legal amend- ter accusing Savimbi of ordering the only to have South Africa later ad- ments in 1971 to become the coun- execution of dissidents. Former mit that a large number of its troops try's first executive president. In Unita youth wing leader Andre had been involved in the offensive. 1978, Stevens strengthened his con- Serahm Yamba Yamba and other However, Unita predictably de- stitutional position still further well-known rebel members told the nied Yamba Yamba's allegations. when Parliament passed a bill al- Portuguese weekly Expresso that Foreign affairs spokesman Tito Savimbi had been responsible for Chingungi rejected allegations of a the deaths of three senior officials split in the movement, and said who had challenged his leadership. there were "no problems at all" Yamba Yamba also alleged that he with dos Santos, who was busy ful- had personally attended a mass filling his obligations in the "liber- rally at Unita's headquarters in ated areas." A strongly worded Jamba where he had witnessed the statement by Unita's Directive public burning to death of an entire Committee of Students added that family, including children, after the reason certain leaders had van- Savimbi had denounced them as ished from Jamba was that the rebel spies. base was "the bastion of resistance In addition, the Unita dissidents and not a place for exhibiting cadres claimed that Wilson dos Santos, the or leaders who are carrying out their former Lisbon chief who had been duties wherever the struggle de- instrumental in organizing Savim- mands." • President Francis Minah in March OBITUARY 1987. Stevens was placed under The End of an Era: A Survivor house arrest for allegedly partici- Passes Away pating in the conspiracy, and sev- Former President Siaka Stevens, eral of his close associates were subsequently sentenced to death, who led Sierra Leone for 17 years, Stevens: Handpicked his successor died after a brief illness in late May but charges were never brought at his home in Freetown at the age against the late president. lowing one-party rule, enabling him of 82. He had been recovering from Stevens, who had developed a to be sworn in for seven years under a stroke suffered in December of following as a prominent trade un- the new system. last year which paralyzed the right ionist when Britain still ruled the But from 1980 onwards, Stevens side of his body, before lapsing into country, formed the APC in I960 faced mounting popular discontent a coma a few days prior to his death. and emerged on the national politi- and was repeatedly accused both of Stevens, one of the few African cal scene as the leading opposition corruption and improper relations heads of state to voluntarily step figure following independence in with the powerful Lebanese com- down from office, had handed over 1961. Within three years, he be- munity. Severe financial difficulties power to his handpicked successor, came mayor of Freetown, and by eventually led Stevens to adopt In- Maj.-Gen Joseph Saidu Momoh, af- 1967 was sworn in as prime minister ternational Monetary Fund-inter persuading delegates to support after the APC won a majority in the spired austerity measures—which Sierra Leone's army chief at the country's general election. he dubbed "political suicide"—be- 1985 conference of the ruling All Almost immediately, however, fore resigning from office in 1985. People's Congress (APC). Although Stevens and other APC officials Momoh was formally installed as the transfer of power in November were arrested by the then army president in November of that year, 1985 went smoothly, relations with chief, Brig. David Lansana, who de- but as chairman of the ruling APC, Stevens' protege soon deteriorated clared martial law, and it was not Stevens continued to exert consid- following an unsuccessful coup at- until a counter-coup by junior offi- erable political influence until the tempt apparently involving Vice cers that he was brought back to very end. •

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 * JUTE SOMALIA CHAD LESOTHO Somali National Movement Describing his offer as "a gift to Ntsu Mokhehle. exiled leader of (SNM) rebels launched a major of- Africa" to mark the Organization of the Basotholand Congress Party fensive against President Mohamed African Unity's 25th anniversary in (BCP), returned to Maseru in late Siad Barre's government in late late May, Col. Muammar Qaddafy May for the first time in 14 years to May which left 1,500 dead in fierce announced that he had decided to take part in peace talks with Col. battles to control the northern capi- recognize President Hissene Ha- Sekhobe Letsie, the ruling Military tal of Hargeisa. Although authori- bre" s government and to release all Council member responsible for de- ties in Mogadishu initially denied Chadian prisoners of war. As part of fense and national security. In line reports of unrest as "baseless" and his new reconciliation initiative, with Col. Justin Lekhanya's recon- "cheap propaganda," the govern- Qaddafy proposed a "Marshall ciliation efforts. Letsie assured ment was later forced to acknowl- plan" to help reconstruct northern Mokhehle that the personal safety edge heavy fighting in the north af- Chad, and invited Habre to meet of all BCP exiles would be guaran- ter 160 foreign aid workers were with opposition leader Goukouni teed if they came back to Lesotho evacuated in a UN-sponsored air- Oueddei in Tripoli to put an end to "in a true spirit of peace." lift. the country's 20-year civil war. Mokhehle. who fled the country The SNM's military campaign— Although Habre welcomed Qad- in 1974 and later formed the Le- posing one of the most serious chal- dafy's proposals as a positive devel- sotho Liberation Army (LLA) after lenges to Barre's rule since he opment, he showed little enthusi- a long-running battle with the late seized power 19 years ago—follows asm for talking to Goukouni—re- Chief Leabua Jonathan, is now the signing of an Ethiopia-Somalia jecting the idea as interference in widely expected to accept the gov- accord to resume diplomatic rela- Chadian affairs. Habre also ex- ernment's peace initiative. The tions and to withdraw support for pressed concern over Libya's fail- overture toward the BCP, which is rebel movements in each other's ure to mention the "essential ele- thought to have been encouraged by territories. The pact put the Ethio- ment" of the dispute, the "affair of the South African authorities, pro- pian-based group at a severe disad- the Aouzou region." vides further evidence of the close vantage and prompted rebel units to ties established between the two cross into Somalia. POLITICAL countries since Lekhanya unseated Jonathan in a 1986 coup that was UGANDA POINTERS allegedly engineered by Pretoria. President Yoweri Museveni ETHIOPIA signed a peace accord in early June In an apparent effort to defuse TANZANIA with Lt.-Col. John Angelo Okello, growing Western criticism of its pol- Security forces shot dead two leader of the rebel Uganda People's icies, Lt.-Col. Mengistu Haile Ma- people and injured dozens of other Democratic Army (UPDA). in what dam's government unexpectedly demonstrators on May 13 when could be a decisive step toward end- released seven members of Ethio- they opened fire on some 4,000 ing a two-year civil war that has pia's deposed royal family in late Muslims marching on the residence claimed the lives of at least 10.000 May after nearly 14 years in prison of Zanzibari President Idris Abdul people. The pact with the UPDA— without trial. Following the over- Wakil. Muslim protesters had taken one of two main rebel groups fight- throw of Emperor Haile Selassie in to the streets after evening prayers ing to oust the government—is ex- 1974, the seven women—including to stage one of the largest demon- pected to bring in 4.000 to 6,000 sol- the monarch's 79-year-old daugh- strations on the island in recent diers from the bush in northern ter. Princess Tenagne-Work—had years after Sofia Kawawa, chairper- Uganda. been held in Addis Ababa's central son of the Union of Tanzanian Museveni, who announced a prison. All are said to be in good Women, publicly suggested that Is- presidential pardon for all armed health and are thought to be seeking lamic laws on polygamy and inheri- rebels, said they would be inte- asylum in Britain. tance be amended to provide grated into the ruling National Re- Occurring at a time when Ethio- women with equal rights. sistance Army. However, Eric pia has come under fire for expelling Political and religious tensions on Otema Alimadi, the UPDA's exiled relief workers from Eritrea and Ti- the island came to a head the follow- political leader who was prime min- gre provinces, the release of Selas- ing day when the National Execu- ister under former President Milton sie's relatives should help ease ten- tive Committee of the ruling Chama Obote, rejected the truce out of sions with donor countries. But Cha Mapinduzi expelled seven hand. Peace talks are also under- British college friends of Selassie's prominent Zanzibaris, including way with Peter Otai's Uganda Peo- granddaughters, who have been former Chief Minister Seif Shariff ple's Army, the other main rebel lobbying the Ethiopian government Hamad. They were accused of anti- group fighting in the east, but the since 1974, have vowed to contiue party activities and of disrupting the movement is divided over whether their efforts until the emperor's union between Tanzania and the to make peace with the govern- three grandsons still in detention twin islands of Zanzibar and ment. have also been set free. Pemba.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 AFRICAN OUTLOOK Africa pays the price for toxic waste syndrome A growing number of African a number of Antonov-26 airplanes. In late May, the Dutch firm, Van governments, faced with massive Unfortunately. Benin is not an Santen of Rotterdam, announced economic difficulties and an over- isolated example. In recent years, that Congo had agreed to store I whelming debt burden, are demon- as many as a dozen African coun- million tons of chemical waste from strating an alarming willingness to tries are known to have been the tar- four unidentified European coun- allow their territories to become the get of American and European com- tries as part of an $84 million deal. secret dumping ground for millions panies seeking cheap ways of The company indicated that a simi- of tons of nuclear or toxic industrial dumping their toxic materials. lar agreement had been reached waste. In exchange for large finan- While the going rate for waste dis- with Niger. Both governments cate- cial rewards, a host of countries in posal is $1,000 per ton in Europe, gorically denied the allegations and West and Central Africa have many deals in Africa have been ne- launched an investigation into the agreed to lucrative deals with gotiated at rates as low as $40-50 per report. Within days, Congolese au- American and European corpora- ton. thorities arrested five people, in- tions, turning a blind eye to the Take the case of Gabon. Under cluding three senior officials, and long-term dangers such waste can conditions of utmost secrecy. Presi- charged them with attempting to se- pose to the continent's future. dent Omar Bongo allegedly negoti- cretly arrange a $12.6 million waste In the case of Benin, the dumping ated a nuclear waste dumping dumping deal over a three-year pe- of toxic waste has been going on for agreement with a Canadian firm, riod . some time. A closely guarded Denison Mining Corporation, dur- According to Africa Analysis, agreement with the French govern- ing his visit to the U.S. in 1987. The President Teodoro Obiang Nguema ment was allegedly concluded ear- poisonous wastes are reportedly of Equatorial Guinea has personally lier this year, allowing nuclear destined for burial by the middle of approved a 10-year pact allowing an waste to be buried near Abomey— this year. English company to dump a mini- one of the main centers of opposition to President Mathieu Kere- kou—in return for $20 million and a guarantee of 30 years' special eco- Nigeria foils South African bid to gain a nomic assistance. Benin is also said to have signed a contract with Sesco foothold in Equatorial Guinea Ltd. of Gibraltar to take 1-5 million The reaction in Pretoria was of some to Nigeria, given their military tons of toxic waste, and to grant the bitterness and disappointment: One potential. These included expan- company a 10-year monopoly on of South Africa's latest bids to es- sion of Malabo international airport hazardous industrial shipments. tablish a firm bridgehead in the and the construction of a satellite Following mounting protests by heart of the continent had been sty- tracking station, both on the island Nigeria and other neighboring mied. of Bioko. states, Kerekou issued a "strict or- In a May 12 statement. South Af- Nigerian military officers pointed der" to suspend all activities in con- rica's foreign affairs department de- out that Bioko is within 20 minutes nection with the "importation or scribed as "regrettable" the expul- striking distance by air from the transformation" of industrial sion of seven South Africans from port of Calabar and its adjacent oil- waste, but the London-based news- Malabo barely 24 hours earlier. It fields. One senior officer expressed letter Africa Analysis contends this condemned Nigeria for "pressuriz- the fear that Pretoria might train directive was made for public con- ing" the government of President rebels on Bioko to attack Nigerian sumption, and that at least part of Teodoro Obiang Nguema to sever targets, as the Mozambique Na- the deal is still expected to go links with Pretoria. tional Resistance (Renamo) rebels through. Nigeria's role had been key, both are doing against Mozambique. Col. Leopold Ahoueya, a high- in drawing attention to South Afri- And with reason: Like the states of ranking Beninois military officer, ca's dealings in the tiny Central Af- southern Africa that have come un- pointed out that in any case, the rican country and in mounting a der South African attack, Nigeria burial of radioactive substances counter-thrust to halt them. has likewise given significant aid to was "old news." He disclosed that Besides a range of economic ven- theANCandSWAPO. between 1984 and 1986, the Soviet tures {a dairy farm, restaurant, and To undercut this potential South Union had delivered tons of nuclear clandestine purchases of Nigerian African threat. President Ibrahim waste to two disposal sites in cen- crude oil), some of South Africa's Babangida's government embarked tral Benin and that in exchange, the other activities in Equatorial on a mu Hi -faceted campaign. In Kerekou government had received Guinea were particularly worri- Continued on page II

8 AFRICA REPORT . July-August 1988 mum of 5 million tons of highly toxic industrial waste on the island of An- New coalition a challenge for SPLA nobon. The scheme is apparently In a last-ditch attempt to break the political impasse which has plagued the worth $1.6 million, but as scientists country for nearly a year, Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi an- have warned, the result could be an nounced the formation of a new broad-based coalition government in mid- "environmental nightmare" should May—bringing in for the first time the fundamentalist National Islamic anything go wrong. Front (NIF). led by Hassan al-Tourabi. But while the presence of the influ- Guinea-Bissau has also allowed ential NIF in the coalition may have boosted Mahdi's hopes of effectively harsh economic realities to override reconciling the northern Muslim majority at a time of mounting social unrest political and moral considerations and an economy on the verge of collapse, it is certain to further polarize by signing two contracts to accept divisions with the Christian and animist south, and to hamper efforts aimed large amounts of industrial waste at negotiating a quick end to Sudan's civil war. from Europe. The first, concluded Following the political realignment, the NIF was allocated five cabinet last October with a Swiss company, posts, against 10 for Mahdi's Umma Party, and six for its old coalition Inter-Contrat, provided for at least partner, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). One of Tourabi's precondi- half-a-million tons over 10 years. tions for joining the coalition as the newly appointed justice minister was a guarantee that former President Gaafar al-Nimeiry's 1983 sharia laws be replaced by a "more genuinely Islamic code" within two months. Although Mahdi may have no intention of turning the clock back to the brutal interpretation of sharia during the last days of Nimeiry when limb amputation was punishment for theft for Muslims and Christians alike, Tourabi's presence in the coalition is likely to provoke bitter resentment from non-Muslims in the country. Tourabi has indicated that penal elements of sharia would not be imposed "summarily" as they were in the past, and Mahdi now suggests that a system exempting Christians and animists should be devised, yet this is a far cry from the prime minister's past promises to repeal the Islamic code altogether. Bona Malwal, editor of The Sudan Times, the influential daily, thus accused Mahdi of having "decided to come out of the closet wearing his true Islamic fundamentalist colors." "The much-hated, quasi-Islamic legacy of September 1983 is about to be dusted down, touched up, and implemented at breakneck speed," predicted Malwal. "With it will come further divisions on a religious basis throughout the country." Mahdi's failure to repeal sharia law, which has been a central demand of John Garang's Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels waging a five-year battle against northern domination, will inevitably make the country's increasingly fierce civil war that much more difficult to solve. It will reinforce the SPLA's determination to fight for a secular state, and likely fuel Ker6kou: Dealing in toxic waste dissent among the growing number of urban poor in the north—a high pro- portion of whom are non-Muslim southerners uprooted by the war. The second, covering as much as 15 The Khartoum coalition has already lost control of much of the south to million tons of toxic waste over a the SPLA. and the main towns of Juba and Malakal remain under permanent five-year period, involved two Brit- siege. As a result, the government has increasingly pursued a scorched earth ish firms, Hobday Ltd and Empresa policy, while the army has reportedly been involved in widespread killings Bis Import-Export. In exchange. and torture against southern civilians. the government was to receive up to But despite heavy losses on both sides, prospects of a quick settlement to $600 million—dwarfing the coun- end the war seem to be fading. Before a constitutional conference can be try's GNP which stands at $150 mil- held, Garang first wants the government to implement the 1986 Koka Dam lion. agreement between the SPLA and Khartoum, calling for a lifting of Ni- But once reports oi' the deals meiry s state of emergency, a total repeal of the sharia, and an abrogation of were made public, the Organization foreign military pacts with Egypt and Libya. Mahdi. on the other hand, has of African Unity (OAU) summit in argued that the fighting must cease before these steps can be taken—a posi- late May openly criticized Guinea- tion which is even less likely to be negotiable now that the NIF hasjoined the Bissau for agreeing to store toxic ruling coalition. waste from abroad. Shortly thereaf- ter. Natural Resources Minister Fi- Guinea is another country which akry, when trees and vegetation be- linto Barros announced that the has become the dumping ground of gan to wither throughout the once- government had "suspended all industrial waste from the West. beautiful tourist spot. The illegal work on studies for a possible in- Some 15,000 tons of hazardous ma- importation of incinerator ash— dustrial toxic waste dump" on its terials were recently discovered on brought in under the cover of "raw territory. Kassa, an offshore island near Con- materials" for a brick manufactur-

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 ing project—was arranged by the also warned that anyone convicted should be made to clean it up. Societe Internationale Aluko of dumping toxic waste could face But as Babangida pointed out, it Guinea, a Norwegian-Guinean joint the firing squad. is also up to African governments venture iron products company. The discovery of radioactive themselves to do their part if they Bulk Handling Inc.. a Norwegian waste in Nigeria is sure to have em- are to put an end to such practices. shipping firm, had delivered the first barrassed authorities in Lagos after "That any African state could col- cargo of chemical waste originating President Ibrahim Babangida's gov- lude and worse still acquiesce with from Philadelphia in March, as part ernment spearheaded the campaign industrialized countries, multina- of a total planned shipment of against dumping toxic substances tional corporations or anyone to 85,000 tons. But once reports of the on African soil at the recently con- dump nuclear wastes on its territory deal were made public. President cluded OAU summit in Addis is not only shocking but incompre- Lansana Conte set up a commission Ababa. Member-states called de- hensible,1' said Babangida. "No of inquiry to investigate the scan- veloped countries' plans to dump government, no matter the financial dal. Within weeks, the government their wastes "a crime against Africa inducement, has the right to mor- called on Bulk Handling to remove and Africans" and recommended tage the destiny of future genera- the waste, and detained Sigmund that companies which have already tions of African children to nuclear Stroemme, the Norwegian Consul- deposited waste on the continent radiation " • General who is the shipping company's agent in Conakry. Several Guinean employees from the Minis- ANC looks back to the future try of Commerce were also arrested For the first time since endorsing In addition, the document will for granting licences to import the the Freedom Charter as the "guid- seek to create a legal and constitu- chemical waste. ing light for national liberation" in tional framework through which the Even Nigeria, which has led Afri- 1955, the African National Con- charter's aims and concepts can be can efforts to stop the dumping of gress (ANC) is set to publish a new put into practice. As one ANC offi- waste by industrialized nations, has document providing the most com- cial put it, "An obvious example is not been immune from such prac- prehensive and detailed guidelines the charter's third clause—'the peo- tices. More than 3,000 tons of highly ever of its vision for a post-apart- ple shall share in the country's toxic waste from Italy were discov- heid society in South Africa. wealth." The charter doesn't say ered recently near the coastal town Although the ANC has not yet de- how this will happen. Part of the of Koko in Bendel state. cided when to unveil the document, reason for examining constitutional Investigations revealed that the top-ranking members of the organi- options is to make it possible—to deal had been arranged by zation have revealed that the guide- take the ideas past the slogans and Iruekpen, a Nigerian construction lines will reinforce, and not contra- toward realization." company serving as a front for dict, the charter's ideals. Once com- But the ANC is quick to point out waste exporters. Iruekpen had ap- pleted, the draft will be distributed that the document will be no more plied for permission to import non- for consideration to anti-apartheid than a guideline for a post-apartheid hazardous industrial chemicals for groups both inside and outside constitution, and not a finished construction work, while actually South Africa, setting in motion blueprint. Said MaAfrika Nodume dumping several consignments of what could be a process of debate Hlezi, a member of the legal affairs highly dangerous substances in similar to that which led to the draft- department, "It should be made Koko as part of a lucrative interna- ing of the Freedom Charter 33 years abundantly clear that we have no tional toxic waste trade. Gianfranco ago. right, nor any intention, to make a Raffaelli, an Italian businessman The new document—the product constitution for the people of South living in Nigeria, had reportedly of two years of intensive research Africa. It is the prerogative of the forged documents to import the by the ANC's legal and constitu- oppressed majority of South Africa waste between August 1987 and tional department—will not have to decide on what type of constitu- May of this year, substituting the the status of the Freedom Charter, tion they want." toxic materials on the documents but could represent the organiza- Zola Skweyiya, vice-chair of the with approved ones. tion's most important policy outline specially formed Constitutional The Nigerian government called in decades. It is widely expected to Committee, further emphasized on Italy to remove the waste with- confirm the ANC's long-held com- that the changing nature of the out delay, and ordered the evacua- mitment to a mixed economy, and to struggle against apartheid will nection of all Koko inhabitants living propose a non-racial, unitary state essarily affect the framework of a within a six to eight-mile radius of with a multi-party parliamentary new constitution. "An armed sei- the stockpile. By mid-June, Infor- democracy. The guidelines will also zure of power will bring with it dif- mation Minister Prince Tony Mo- incorporate some key principles not ferent demands and requirements moh announced the arrest of 15 peo- included in the charter, such as a from those of a negotiated hand- ple and said that a special tribunal constitutionally entrenched right to over, assuming that is possible. would be set up to try those crimi- strike, which has been a source of From all these perspectives, com- nally involved. The government criticism for many years. piling a final constitution would be

10 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 inappropriate," concluded Skwey- NIGERIA. . .continued presence in Malabo during a tour of iya. As a result, the ANC intends to frontline states in May. At Nigeria's formulate the guidelines broadly part.it sought to offer an alternative urging, a meeting of the OAU Liber- enough to accommodate various to Pretoria's financial inducements, ation Committee, held in Harare scenarios, while providing the basis reaffirming commitments to pro- that same month, adopted a Tor a wide-ranging consensus on a vide Malabo with much-needed ec- strongly worded resolution con- constitutional framework. onomic assistance and technical ad- demning contacts with South Africa Although such a process has been visers. by states that are not historically or in the works for some time. Ihe Despite clamors from some quar- geographically obliged to have such ANC has long been reluctant to ac- ters in Nigeria to take pre-emptive ties {the Comoros and Seychelles tually draft a constitution which military action, Lagos made no were also singled out for censure). could be interpreted by other anti- such threats—at least in public. But Officials in Cameroon, which has aparlheidgroupsasa blueprint to be it did remind its neighbor of Nige- significant links in Equatorial imposed on the country after libera- ria's military strength. During a Guinea, pledged to back Nigeria in tion—and by implication the decla- state visit to Nigeria last year. its efforts. ration of an ANC governmenl-in- Obiang Nguema was pointedly The convening of the OAU's exile. The ANC has upheld the posi- taken on a tour of military installa- Council of Ministers meeting in Ad- tion enshrined in the Freedom tions. And after a visit to Malabo in dis Ababa in mid-May, at which this Charter that only the people of May of this year. Gen. Ike Nwa- question was slated for discussion, South Africa as a whole, through a chukwu, Nigeria's external affairs may have provided the final push to- formal democratic process, can minister, stated, "We told Equato- ward Malabo's decision to expel the elect a legitimate post-apartheid rial Guinea that South Africa's pres- South Africans, so as to avoid fur- government. ence is unacceptable to Nigeria ther condemnation. Equatorial since it is a threat to our security." Guinea circulated a declaration to A diplomatic offensive was also the delegates denying any links with launched among other African gov- Pretoria and affirming its support ernments. Nwachukwu repeatedly for the South African liberation warned about the Siuilh African struggle. Yet some doubts remain about ter and other policy statements to the actual extent of the break be- reject long-standing accusations tween Malabo and Pretoria. While that the organization is trying to several South African personnel force socialism on an unwilling ma- have been booted out, the current jority. As Skweyiya said. "Western status of the various South African leaders found that the charter con- projects, including the satellite tained nothing they themselves— tracking station, have not been spe- whatever their political perspec- cifically clarified. And the same tives—would be unhappy with in South African statement regretting any constitution." the expulsions included a vow to But having muted criticisms of its continue to "assist" the govern- national objectives, the ANC has ment in Malabo. still had to explain how it would im- Babangida made it clear, how- plement many of the Freedom ever, that furthercollaboration with Charter's vague principles. This has the apartheid regime by Equatorial Tambo; Vision of a post-apartheid society added impetus to the process of Guinea—or other African coun- clarifying the ideals of the Freedom tries—would not be ignored. On the But the political upheaval of re- Charter by producing the draft day before the opening of the annual cent years within South Africa, guidelines which will extend the po- OAU summit of heads of state in combined with effective ANC di- litical debate on post-apartheid so- late May, Babangida said it was em- plomacy abroad, has helped the or- ciety. "We will not get our freedom barrassing and disheartening for Af- ganization become a major factor in tomorrow, but our people need to ricans to appeal to the international any post-apartheid equation. This start knowing what is involved," ar- community to stop aiding South Af- Western recognition has brought gues Skweyiya. "These are political rica while "some fellow African with it increased pressure on the issues, and should not be allowed to states are being lured into contrived ANC to outline its policies and per- be the exclusive preserve of the in- friendship or subtle collaboration spectives for the future in greater tellectuals, of governments, and of with the Pretoria regime." detail. party politicians. This is something "We must not," he affirmed, "al- Since President Oliver Tambo's which should involve every mem- low ourselves to be used against the tour of the U.S. and Western Eu- ber of the mass democratic move- vital interests of Africa." • rope in 1986. the ANC has suc- ment, of the ANC, and of Um- ceeded in using the Freedom Char- khonto we Sizwe." • —Ernest Harsch

AFRICA HEPORT • July-August 1988 11 ECOWAS NIGERIA GHANA The Economic Community of Nigeria Airways, the state- During a recent visit to the mining West African States (Ecowas), the owned national carrier which has town of Obuasi, Flt.-Lt. Jerry 16-nation body launched in 1975, been in debt since its inception in Rawlings appealed to workers of has taken a decisive step toward the 1959, currently owes its creditors the Ashanti Goldfields Corpora- economic integration of the sub-re- more than $200 million—fueling tion—which produces 85 percent of gion with the long-awaited opening speculation that the government the nation's ore—to work hard to of Ecobank Transnational Incorpo- may finally be forced to dismantle increase their output in an effort to rated, the organization's privately the company. Run for years as an make up for the loss of revenue sponsored banking arm. Ecobank, inefficient but basic service for the from dwindling cocoa prices. Rawl- originally conceived five years ago, Nigerian establishment, the airline ings also took the opportunity to officially opened its Lome head- is now facing nearly insurmounta- spell out the government's renewed quarters in May with an authorized ble financial woes following the commitment to organize and regu- capital of $100 million—half of government's recent decision to late small-scale gold mining, much which has been issued and fully sub- raise the price of aviation fuel by of the output from which is cur- scribed to. It is expected to play a 375 percent. rently sold unofficially or smuggled key role in strengthening existing To offset mounting debts, Nigeria out of the country. West African banking facilities and Airways doubled its fares late last Eight district centers are to be set promoting the development of Eco- year, but the strategy backfired as up for registering, licensing, train- was member-states. the airline succeeded only in losing ing, and monitoring private mining Plans to introduce a common cur- customers and much-needed reve- concerns, and they will be designed rency for all Ecowas members by nue. Since then, foreign mainte- to provide miners with sufficient 1992, however, will likely be more nance contractors in France and support and incentive to encourage difficult to implement. The pro- Denmark have impounded two air- the sale of gold through official posed "Ecodollar" would facilitate buses and a 747 over the company's channels. According to government trade across the sub-region and failure to pay its debts. estimates, gold sales from private strengthen efforts toward political miners, who operate in areas not unity, but opposition remains from BUSINESS suitable for large-scale operation, so-called strong-currency countries could add nearly $ 100 million to the and nations using the freely trans- BRIEFS country's GNP. ferable CFA franc. MOZAMBIQUE An unprecedented United Na- KENYA LIBYA tions-sponsored conference on Vast oil deposits have been dis- Despite diplomatic protests by emergency aid to Mozambique was covered in Kenya for the first time, the U.S., Britain, and France, the held in Maputo recently, producing according to Energy Minister Ni- Brazilian government has report- pledges of $270 million in food and cholas Biwott, raising hopes that a edly given the Sao Paulo-based financial assistance, and marking major find of commercially exploit- company, Engesa. the green light to the first time such a donors meeting able crude oil or natural gas will conclude a massive arms deal with was held in the country requesting prove to be a long-term economic Libya worth an estimated $2 billion. the funds. boon to a country which presently The arms-for-oil transaction, The conference was equally sig- must import all of its energy re- which includes the purchase of Osa- nificant in that a growing number of quirements from abroad. The oil re- rio tanks, Piranha air-to-air mis- donors expressed a willingness to serves, located in the Turkana dis- siles, and Leo anti-tank missiles, include non-lethal military assist- trict in north-west Kenya, are being will enable Col. Muammar Qadda- ance to protect their food donations explored by Amoco and Petrofina, fy's Jamahiriya to upgrade its ageing and long-term development pro- while a consortium of three compa- inventory of Soviet-made equip- jects, having concluded that the mil- nies is prospecting other deposits in ment and to replenish its arsenal of itary campaign by South African- the country's Eastern province near military hardware after last year's backed Renamo rebels is the main the Somali border devastating losses in the Chadian cause of the country's emergency Biwott, who said the next step conflict. Much to the dismay of the situation—not natural disaster or would be to map out extraction Reagan administration, Brazilian economic mismanagement. While points, disclosed ''We have already authorities failed to veto the deal, these pledges are conditional on done the testing and are now look- arguing that the arms sale to Tripoli President Joaquim Chissano's abil- ing for suitable sites for wells." But involved only "defensive weap- ity to implement the IMF-backed given the lack of existing infrastruc- ons." and that in any event the Economic Recovery Program, the ture and various technical and logis- country's dire financial situation enthusiastic response of donor na- tic problems, it is likely to be 10-15 precluded any type of military em- tions is regarded as an endorsement years before Kenya can realistically bargo against the Libyan govern- for the government's far-reaching expect to benefit from these size- ment. structural reforms. able oil finds.

12 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 ELECTION'88

The U.S. and Africa: THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM

BY GEORGE BUSH

In response to a series of questions posed by AFRICA REPORT, the Re- publican presidential candidate, Vice President George Bush, outlines his projected policies toward Africa, addressing the continent's economic crises, as well as the southern Afri- can region's conflicts, in this Election '88 exclusive.

frica is important in its own right a major and growing market for U.S. seek increased economic growth and a A and important to the United commodities, technology, and equip- deeper respect for human rights States. I have travelled to Africa many ment. It is a source of minerals vital to throughout the region. Africa can times during my public career and as our development and defense. Its achieve these goals within a free and Vice President. Through these visits, I shores control important trade routes. open society. The spent rhetoric of stat- have come to know and respect many of Domination of Africa by a power hostile ism and collectivism has brought little Africa's leaders. I find in Africa a rich to the West would represent a serious besides privation and grief. The callous sweep of history outside that recorded danger to our collective security. manipulation of human suffering by the by foreign conquests. My visits gave me Perhaps most of all, Africa is impor- Marxist regime of Ethiopia is an exam- the chance to learn about the "inner" tant to us in human terms. Africa is now ple of the bankruptcy of the Soviet Africa as I travelled from Cape Verde to suffering from a severe economic crisis. mode! in Africa. We must replace this Khartoum and from Algiers to Harare. It is the moral duty of the world's weal- model with one based on mutual respect United States-African relations will have thier nations to help Africa overcome and a shared commitment to free enter- a high priority in my administration, and this crisis. Our concern is all the more prise and human dignity. I will remain personally involved in compelling because a significant per- On the economic front, we must con- them. centage of Americans trace their cul- tinue to encourage a shift from state- We have economic, strategic, and hu- tural heritage to Africa. controlled economies toward free mar- man interests in Africa. The continent is U.S. goals in Africa are simple. We ket systems. Such a system alone will

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 13 Soviet-supplied military equipment, Ethiopia: "While the Soviets pour arms into aggressive countries menaced by no one, we tailored our military aid to reduce tensions"

"Given the size of Africa's current crisis, I favor increased efforts at debt rescheduling accompanied by greater coordination and Anti-apartheid demonstration: mobilization of Western "While well-intentioned and morally self-satisfying, financial support." sanctions have proved counter- productive in practice"

Gusau, Nigeria: "We must pursue with renewed vigor efforts to develop new agricultural technologies adapted to Africa"

14 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 unleash the private sector as a dynamic munications. In nation after nation, communities in order to get the talks engine of growth. Recently there has these policies are being reversed. moving. been a growing realization of this neces- The World Bank and the International To hasten the change process, Con- sity throughout the continent in both so- Monetary Fund are playing key roles in gress voted a series of sanctions to cialist as well as capitalist nations. This reorienting African economic policies. compel the South African government is the most encouraging development in U.S. government and American busi- to end apartheid. While well-intentioned Africa in years. ness can also help. In today's world, our and morally self-satisfying, sanctions All over Africa, there is a silent revo- major contribution to economic develop- have proved counter-productive in prac- lution, a turning away from the statist ment lies in the export of American economic model, and a reaching out to know-how, skills, and planning ability. free enterprise and open markets. What In addition to American management was the centerpiece of African social- skills and technical achievements, we ism—state control of production and also offer access to world financialan d "I do not support further marketing—proved to be dysfunctional. commercial markets. For example, Citi- sanctions in South It caused losses in production and a de- bank has a program underway to estab- terioration in transportation and com- lish a $30 million fund for investment in Africa. To imagine that African companies. We must pursue with renewed vigor efforts to develop we can impose a new agricultural teclinologies adapted to solution by taking Africa. Clearly, Africa will also require con- further drastic unilateral tinued concessional development assist- measures shows a lack ance. The objective of such assistance must be to promote self-sustaining Afri- of understanding of can growth which will eventually end the need for outside aid. Our developmental South African realities." assistance should focus on countries whose economic policies foster rather than stifle growth. Given the size of Af- rica's current crisis, I favor increased tice. The record shows that all the steps efforts at debt rescheduling accompa- taken in recent years by South Africa in nied by greater coordination and mobili- the direction of dismantling apartheid zation of Western financial support. were taken before sanctions. These in- On the political front, we must op- sufficient actions included the elimina- pose all insults to human dignity. Apart- tion of the passbook requirements, the heid, repressive military dictatorships, lifting of the prohibition on mixed mar- and the disregard for the victims of fam- riages, the legalization of black trade un- ine and disease by their own govern- ions, and the partial integration of hotel ments have no place in international so- and restaurant facilities. Following the ciety. True to our heritage, we must passage of sanctions, the South African remain vigilant in the defense of those government liardened its position and individuals whose human rights are stopped making any new move toward violated. reconciliation. Some of the sanctions implemented ith regard to South Africa, all have clearly hurt blacks more than W Americans agree on the need whites in South Africa. Others have re- for an end to the racist doctrine of apart- sulted in U. S. business assets being sold heid. Our policy is aimed at bringing to white South Africans at bargain about the peaceful end to this repugnant prices. This is not what we want to ac- system. While we can offer assistance in complish in South Africa. achieving this goal, ultimately, the reso- I do not support further sanctions in lution of this problem rests with the South Africa. To imagine that we can South Africans. I believe the release of impose a solution by taking further dras- Nelson Mandela from prison would be tic unilateral measures shows a lack of an important first step. In addition, and understanding of South African realities. in keeping with our belief that negotia- I think we need a more effective diplo- tion is the answer, I would meet with matic strategy, which involves active the leaders of both the black and white coordination with Europe and Japan.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 15 Unilateral American action can accom- cepted the principle of the phased de- pated in these efforts. The recent resto- plish little, but coordinated multilateral parture of Cuban troops. Our own goals ration of diplomatic relations between action may be able to accomplish a good should remain a negotiated settlement, Algeria and Morocco is a positive and deal. the withdrawal of all foreign troops, and encouraging development. the independence of Namibia. Contin- In Chad, we recently witnessed an- ued strong support of Unita can contrib- other clear-cut case of Libyan aggres- ute to these ends just as our support of sion. Qaddafy's troops had occupied the the Afghan freedom fighters played a northern half of that central African "Our own goals should key role in Afghanistan. country for years. In a stunning feat, the The guerrilla war in Mozambique is a Chadian army defeated the Libyan ag- remain a negotiated tragedy. Serious charges of systematic gressors last year and drove them from brutality have been levelled against the most of the country. Had Libya's occu- settlement, the forces of Renamo, the rebel movement. pation of northern Chad continued un- withdrawal of all foreign The government of President Chissano challenged, it would have destabilized all maintains close ties to Moscow, but is the countries in the region. Chad re- troops, and the moving toward the West. It has recently ceived considerable French assistance, made market-oriented changes in the as well as military equipment from the independence of economy, returned church property, U.S. during its struggle against Libya. I Namibia. Continued and increased freedom of expression. I was pleased to work closely with our urge President Chissano to pursue this French allies in supporting Chad's na- strong support of Unita course with vigor. Ultimately, there is tional liberation struggle. no alternative to a political settlement in A successful American policy for Af- can contribute to these Mozambique, and I urge both sides to rica must begin with a deep commitment ends." accept that reality. to help the continent move toward I favor economic assistance to the greater economic development within member nations of the Southern African secure societies respectful of human Development Coordination Conference rights. We can build a successful U.S.- (SADCC) that supports the private sec- African paitnership on the three princi- tor and stimulates growth. This would ples of economic growth, respect for In my administration, the first thing I strengthen and stabilize the economies civil liberties, and the security of both will do is meet with the heads of state of of the frontline states. We should cut African nations and the Western world. other Western countries to work out a free the black states bordering South Recent years have shown movement united Western position on South Af- Africa from their total economic depend- toward these ends, but many problems rica. Part of that position will be that ence on that nation. remain. The natural disasters of fundamental political change is required The emphasis of U. S. programs for drought, famine, and Aids, civil turmoil, if South Africa is to resolve its problems. Africa must clearly be on economic, not deteriorating infrastructures, and failed Another part of the position will be that military, aid. Soviet aid to Africa is al- policies referred to earlier are well- racial conflict in South Africa would be a most entirely military, while this admin- known. However, determined action by catastrophe for all concerned. There- istration provides over six times as African governments working in part- fore, we must all urgently work to pre- much economic as military aid to black nership with the Western world offers pare the way for negotiations about true Africa. While the Soviets pour arms into hope for a better future. sharing of political power. aggressive countries menaced by no History shows that we can achieve We should also give economic sup- one, we carefully tailored our military the goals we seek under conditions of port to black South Africans. There are aid to reduce tensions by moderate as- economic and political freedom. In our many things that we are doing and can sistance to countries facing a clear ex- own two-century "experiment in de- do to help the black community, so long ternal threat. mocracy, " we created a society which as we do not cut ourselves off from the The Maghreb provides a good exam- produced great strides in economic country by ill-advised actions. We ple of a sound military assistance pro- growth and personal freedom. This should continue to expand the many gram. Two countries in the region, Mo- achievement came through our twin government and private initiatives un- rocco and Tunisia, have been victims of dedication to the free enterprise system derway to help black South Africans in internal and external subversion. The and the principle of government based areas such as housing, education, and modest military assistance which we on the consent of the governed with training. provide to Morocco and Tunisia serves protection for the rights of all. In our Elsewhere, U.S.-sponsored negotia- as a deterrent and contributes to the partnership with Africa, we can bring to tions are continuing between the parties stability of the region. While helping our bear not only our material assistance, concerned in Angola and Namibia, and it friends in Morocco and Tunisia, we but the guiding principles of our own is pointless to second-guess them at this must also work toward broadening our growth for a brighter future for Africa in stage. The Angolan government has ac- relations with Algeria. I actively partici- the years to come. D

16 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 ETHIOPIA The War on Relief BY TODDJ. SHIELDS

•T-',*i> *

TAe rece/rt escalation in the conflict between government forces and rebels in Eritrea and Tigre has put Western-led relief efforts on hold, potentially endangering millions of lives. In this special report, our correspondent analyzes how the war in the north has affected the supply of drought relief and talks with Berhanu Jembere, head of the Ethiopian governments Relief and Rehabilitation Commission. He also looks m unique international effort in emergency assistance and examines the region's latest refugee flow—from war-ravaged so easants huddle behind a few P strands of barbed wire as a chill wind sweeps the highlands of Hararge province. A child, barefoot and dressed in rags, stands shivering. Three women slip in the mud as they struggle under the weight of a grain bag. These destitute farmers, gathered for a f(K)d handout at Grawa, in eastern Ethiopia, are among the lucky ones. Al- though their crops have failed and they are reduced to charity cases, the lifeline of relief grain still reaches them. That is no longer true for an estimated 2 million peasants in the country's north—suddenly isolated from a massive international relief effort, cut "Emergency feeding programs aimed at some 4 million drought victims in the rest of the country continue"

President Mengistu: "The priority now for the government is the unity and sovereignty of the country, not feed- Ing the people"

off by a sharp escalation in the long-run- long and help arrived only after many ot destroyed trucks—more than 100 were ning civil conflicts in Eritrea and Tigre the 600,000 to 1 million victims had put out of action from October through provinces. Diplomats and aid workers, died. This time around, the world took April—giant C-130 Hercules cargo who until recently were optimistic that notice early and the food was there on planes were brought in to shuttle grain. they could prevent hunger, now expect time. Distribution began soon after the All in all, says U.S. charge d'affaires mass starvation and migrations leading main rains failed last July and August and James Cheek, the relief effort "was to disease-ridden hunger camps like grain trucks were reaching scores of re- working," although "running into real those seen during the great famine of mote hamlets before malnourishment trouble and sputtering along because of 1984-85. reached desperate levels. this paralysis on the roads." The last time around, the world ig- Enough food was pledged to fulfill the But twin offensives by secessionist nored Ethiopia's growing famine for too estimated need, put at 1.23 million met- rebels in Eritrea and by guerrillas seek- Todd Shields, a Nairobi-based freelance, journal- ric tons by the United Nations World ing greater autonomy for Tigre, along ist, reports for The Independent of London, The Dallas Morning News, and The Atlanta Consti- Food Programme. When battles closed with the government's countermea- tution. roads or rebel attacks and land mines sures, undid much of the progress

18 AFRICA REPORT . July-August 1988 achieved by the Western-led relief effort. First the Tigre People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spread through much of the province. When it relaxed its pressure, the Eritrean People's Liberation Alem Ketema, Ethiopia: A snub-nosed biplane lifts off, lumbers past Front (EPLF) broke out of its traditional the fig tree near the end of the unpaved airstrip, and promptly disappears stronghold around Nakfa and rolled back below the mesa's edge. The man sitting under the floral-patterned beach government troops. The Eritreans umbrella is not alarmed. He leans forward and speaks a bit of Polish into a battery-powered radio. Within seconds, the grain-laden plane reappears, a white dot droning across brown and gray canyons to another mesa-top where villagers "Diplomats and aid need food. Meanwhile, the man under the umbrella guides another bi- workers, who were plane in, while yet another takes on gasoline from a tan fuel bladder. Soon a fourth biplane comes back in. Workers in tattered rags heft optimistic that they 110-pound grain bags onto their backs and dump them into the plane. In could prevent hunger, two minutes, it has taken on 1.5 tons. It swings around to leave, its propwash blowing stinging clouds of pebbles and dust toward the thorn- now expect mass topped fence that keeps donkeys and sheep off the runway. So goes the typical morning at this highlands outpost, where Western starvation and grain, Polish pilots, and planes designed before World War II combine in migrations leading to a relief effort that would seem whimsical but for the number of people it supplies. disease-ridden hunger The operation here, like scores of feeding programs in drought- stricken Ethiopia, has been relatively unaffected by the turmoil in the camps like those seen country's north. There, civil war has left an estimated 2 million people during 1984-85." beyond the reach of the relief network. But elsewhere in the country, aid workers continue with programs aimed at some 4 million people threatened with starvation since last year's rains failed. Here in northern Shoa province, feeding programs have been underscored a stunning victory at the major way since late 1985. In 1986, the British and West German air forces garrison town of Afabet, where they de- dropped food on the isolated mountaintops. Now five Antonov-2s from stroyed three Ethiopian divisions in a Poland's state-owned Pezetel aviation company shuttle food across battle ending March 19. The Tigreans canyons up to 4,500 feet deep. then resumed their advances. The planes take minutes to reach hand-hewn runways at four villages that are hours away by road. Last year, they supplied food for 135,000 people each month. This year, the need is greater and they are expected to bring food for 200,000 people each month. "In 1985 when we came here, it was almost devastated. The people were in very, very bad shape," drawls Bob Walls, a Texan on-site for the U.S. Baptist Foreign Mission Board, which overseas the operation. Now, he says, the people are in better than average shape, notwithstanding a string of bad crops. Minutes after Walls speaks, pilot Jean Rublevski, sporting blue plastic sunglasses and a blue-and-white beanie, takes off for Shilafel. The An- tonov shakes and kernels of grain dance on its cargo bay floor during the 16-minute flight. At Shilafel, 1,150 people are receiving food today. They wait quietly under the midday sun; a handful queue before a sign saying "Destitute Registration." A few yards away, a peasant guides two oxen through a field. The short rains so far have failed. The peasant is scratching a furrow in hopes of catching the last drops of a disappointing season, or the first drops of the main rains that have cruelly failed in recent years. —T.S.

Food distribution at Grawa: "Although their crops have failed and they are reduced to charity cases, the lifeline of relief grain still reaches them"

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 The Ethiopian government, faced thought to be threatened with starva- operations, likely on a much-reduced with a possibility of losing control of the tion. scale from the 260,000 people it had north to its opponents, responded by In Eritrea, where 1.7 million people been feeding each month in the prov- withdrawing from most of Tigre and are believed to be at risk, the govern- ince. much of Eritrea in order to concentrate ment controls more territory, including The upshot is that at most, a little troops against the older and stronger a string of towns from the provincial cap- over 1 million people are known to be EPLF. ital, Asmara, to Keren, about 60 miles receiving food aid in provinces where As the government withdrew, it took away. In those areas, the Joint Relief 3.2 million people need help. Those out- with it its own relief commission—pre- Partnership, a consortium gathering in side the constricted relief network viously a major provider of food in the Christian relief groups, is feeding "have nothing and they are either going embattled provinces, but now isolated in 400,000 to 500,000 people. The gov- to have to be allowed to move into areas the few towns Addis Ababa controls. ernment's own relief agency continues where we have food or they are going to The withdrawal also crippled efforts by non-governmental Ethiopian relief groups. These organizations, mainly In November, 7,000 skeletal refugees suddenly appeared in remote church-run and better able than the gov- western Ethiopia, huddling without shelter among the scrub and acacia. ernment's commission to operate in They had nothing to eat but tree leaves and they died by the score, contested areas, were forbidden to perishing at the end of a weeks-long journey through the parched land- carry food beyond government lines to scape of southern Sudan. the vast areas recently evacuated. Worse was to come, for the 7,000 signalled the beginning of a startling These moves alone severely re- refugee flow—a torrent that each month brings thousands of starving stricted relief groups feeding more than Sudanese across the border. Thousands more drop by the wayside and 1.4 million a month. The effect was hundreds arrive too thin to recover. They die in the rudimentary clinics compounded when the government ex- and elephant grass-huts of four huge camps that for the strong, become pelled foreign relief workers from the miserable havens from the chaos and butchery of their country's obscure two provinces. The ejections, ostensi- civil war. bly carried out for the expatriates' The refugees' plight, although veiled by remoteness and overshad- safety, halted operations by several owed by the famine-threatened millions in northern Ethiopia, offers a small groups, but most importantly clear picture of modern Africa at its worst—a picture of drought, poverty, sidelined the International Committee of and ethnic tensions simmering within the artificial boundaries Europe left the Red Cross (ICRC). That organiza- behind as it shed its colonial empires. tion, mandated by the Geneva conven- The 270,000 or more refugees encamped in western Ethiopia are tions to help those in need on both sides predominantly Dinka or Nuer peoples caught in a war that has continued of conflicts, had carried much of its grain off and on, sometimes raging and sometimes sputtering, since shortly into the "gray areas" not firmly under after Britain's 1956 withdrawal from Sudan. The conflict pits the African, either side's control. Christian, and animist southerners against the Arab northerners who With the ejection order, the ICRC's dominate the Khartoum government. 30 or so expatriate field workers re- QJ Dinka are the backbone of the southern-based rebel Sudanese Peo- turned to Addis. It parked and locked its ple's Liberation Army (SPLA), and so are targets for pro-northern forces. fleet of nearly 30 trucks for fear they The Nuer, like the Dinka, are increasingly becoming sympathetic to the would be commandeered for the war ef- SPLA. fort, and its feeding program, which had The refugees' accounts, as relayed by officials who have visited the been reaching 400,000 to 500,000 peo- camps, are this: Armed men, often militia from rival tribes who are ple each month, ground to a halt. backed by the Khartoum government, enter a village. They kill the men The relief effort is now isolated in the and rape and abduct the women and girls. Those who escape or flee relatively small area the government before the armed men arrive are overwhelmingly the adolescent males controls. In Tigre, that consists solely of who for the combatants represent recruiting prizes or potential enemy the provincial capital, Mekelle, which gun-bearers. can be suppbed only by air. About 5,000 The youths begin the trek into Ethiopia, which can last up to four metric tons of food are arriving each months. About one-fifth die on the way. The survivors live off the meager month. Given a standard ration of 16 leaves, seeds, and beans found in the dried-up countryside and enter kilograms per person per month, that the camps "staggering. . . the walking skeletons seen in Kampuchea in would be enough to feed about 625,000 1979-80," says one UN official. people. But Western officials believe The flow, estimated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UN- that the four distribution centers at Me- HCR) at 8,000 to 10,000 each month since November, swells a dis- kelle could handle a maximum of about placed population that has grown steadily since 1983, when Khartoum 300,000 people each month—this in a province where 1.5 million people are

20 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 starve," said one relief official. The situ- ing food trucks past its lines or letting groups ranging from garage owners to ation is expected to become more acute the neutral ICKC go back north. But the military's political workers are re- as the crop year wears on and the iso- few expect such a reversal from a gov- ported ready "to pay the necessary sac- lated peasants draw further on their lim- ernment engaged in a major mobiliza- rifices to crush the anti-unity and anti- ited grain stores. As those run out, de- tion, entailing a special war tax and re- peace elements." The publicity cam- mand for relief grain should soar—a de- newed conscription, and in an accompa- paign is remarkable for more than its velopment expected to occur soon. nying propaganda campaign that frankly relentless repetition of stale slogans, for That is expected to induce food migra- labels the northern insurgencies Ethio- until recently, Ethiopia did not even ad- tions out of the conflict areas. pia's top priority. mit it had a full-scale civil war in its An alternative to mass migrations "Unity, Integrity of the Motherland northern provinces. The rebels, who would be for the government to relent Above Everything Else" is a constant have been fighting for 27 years in Eri- on its decisions—for instance, by allow- slogan in the state-run media, where trea and 14 years in Tigre, were simply called "bandits"—if their activities were acknowledged at all. declared Islamic law and a peace agreement with the south collapsed. That changed drastically following the More than 180,000 of the refugees are in a long-standing camp at rebel offensives when President Itang, about 50 miles from the Sudanese border. Assosa to the north and Mengistu Haile Mariam addressed the Fugnido and Dimma camps to the south hold 24,000 to 35,000 refugees Central Committee of the Workers each. Western officials who are veterans of Third World disasters return Party of Ethiopia. In a lengthy speech, from the camps shaken. Mengistu referred repeatedly to the At Fugnido's medical unit, four long straw huts housed 280 patients northern rebels, calling them "terrorists who "compared poorly with pictures of Nazi concentration camp victims motivated by arrogance and fanaticism" and were as bad or worse as anything seen in Ethiopia during the 1984- who are "hastening to throw the coun- 86 famine," reports one Western relief worker. Tubercular coughs were try into an abyss of destruction." In the the only sound in the dim ward; of the patients, "only one was observed 26 long paragraphs of his speech that moving—slowly crawling in his naked state towards a water jug," he were reproduced in the state-run En- said. glish-language newspaper, Mengistu The Fugnido camp sprang up suddenly in November, when officials expended just two short sentences on found the group of 7,000 on its unprepared site. "The first group was the plight of the north's famine-threat- absolutely pathetic,'' says an aid agency official. "Everyone was skeletal. ened peasants. The only things they had to eat were tree leaves, acacia tree leaves." The paltry nature of Mengistu's ref- Nearly 600 people died in the camp through the end of March, the erences to the hungry is seen by West- official said. And the deaths were not limited to Fugnido. According to ern observers as indicative of the lead- Kingsley Amaning, UNHCR's on-site representative, the death rate in ership's priorities since the rebel ad- the four camps as a whole reached four per 10,000 inhabitants per day in vances. "The problem now for the December—a figure that gives rise to a calculation of 80 or more deaths government is the unity and sover- per day. eignty of the country. That is the prior- The death rate is down to a fourth of December's, says Amaning. But ity, not feeding the people," said one aid at Itang, 10 to 12 people still die each day in the camp hospital and official. feeding centers alone—"what happens outside the camp we don't The government has come close to know," he says. Others, including Wairimu Karago, UNHCR's Addis- explicitly admitting that prosecution of based liaison officer, say the refugees' poor shape upon arrival largely the war effort takes precedence over accounts for the high death rates. "It's not so much the volume which has famine relief. According to Berhanu been a surprise, it's the condition—barely surviving," says Karago. Jembere, the government's top relief The camps' remote location is another problem. A truck coming from official, food distribution will resume in the port of Assab, where grain is delivered to Ethiopia, faces a two-week contested areas only once "the area is round trip to deliver grain to Itang, the most accessible of the camps. Few cleared from bandit activities." trucks are available for the trip because Ethiopia's own food emergency Relief officials and diplomats judge and its war against secessionist rebels in the north claim most of the the expulsion of foreign aid workers trucks in the country. against this background. At best, they Officials say they nonetheless have mustered enough trucks that food say, the government wishes to avoid distribution in the camps may now be approaching adequate levels. But the embarrassment of foreign casualties they point to an urgent need for high-protein, non-grain foods, and say or the inconvenience of dealing with re- feeding requirements will only increase—UNHCR is planning for lief convoys while trying to eradicate the 330,000 refugees by the end of the year. rebels. A middling explanation is that —T.S. the government wants to keep foreign eyes far from a grim war zone. The worst case offered is that the govern-

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 21 Those concerns were exacerbated Ethiopia's two Red Sea ports has by the inclusion of UN personnel in the dropped as private trucks that had April 6 order expelling foreign aid work- shipped grain inland are claimed by the ers. "You just don't order the UN out. war effort. That is what it is for. It's neutral," says The transport shortage, along with Cheek, the U.S. charge d'affaires. An- normal port congestion, has resulted in other official said ambassadors from ma- a growing grain stockpile that exceeds jor donor countries, in an emergency 150,000 metric tons. David Morton, in- meeting, were "particularly upset" by country head of the UN's World Food the UN's withdrawal. The international Programme, estimates that both ports body had three workers based in As- will be filled to capacity for the major mara who supervised its 55-truck north- donors to continue shipments. "All of us ern fleet and helped coordinate other have to look at scheduling and resched- groups' grain shipments. Those work- uling, " said one European ambassador. ers left the north and the UN trucks remained idle for most of April until Un- der-Secretary-General Martti Ahtisaari "In Eritrea, where 1.7 negotiated the workers' return. On their way to food distribution center at But the problem of restricted access million are believed to Korem, later taken by the TPLF remained an issue—the European Eco- nomic Community (EEC), the third- be at risk, the merit wants to conceal a scorched-earth largest donor behind the U.S. and the government controls policy, or even hide a policy of genocide Soviet Union, threatened in May to can- by starvation. 'This is a war campaign," cel aid unless allowed to monitor its dis- more territory, including said one Western official. "They don't tribution. I^te in the month, the gov- want any access, they don't want any- ernment said EEC workers could go a string of towns from one to see what is going on." north. Whether they would be allowed the provincial capital, Despite the lack of access, informa- out of the major towns to view the rural tion is leaking out of the provinces. centers where the food is distributed Asmara, to Keren." Sources confirmed a government air was not immediately clear. strike on a feeding center at Wukro Despite the problems in the north, shortly after the town fell to the TPLF. emergency feeding programs aimed at Another issue for the Western do- And the EPLF is known to have deci- some 4 million drought victims in the nors is whether they should try to sup- sively defeated a May offensive by the rest of the country continue. But even ply Eritrea and Tigre through the crack 102nd airborne division, which these are plagued by the war. Offtake at rebels, who could carry grain in from was seeking to recapture Afabet. The Sudan. Such an effort would endanger l()2nd's drive, announced by the gov- tenuous relations with Ethiopia, which ernment as a "total offensive," likely says any cross-border feeding would be represented the counter-stroke ex- considered a "serious breach" of its sov- pected since the sudden rebel gains. Its ereignty. And according to one well-in- failure leaves the lines in Eritrea about formed diplomat, cross-border opera- where they have stood since late tions could feed a maximum of 600,000 March, with the government holding people. The rebel groups together claim Keren, the most important town be- to be feeding 1.2 million people—a fig- tween Afabet and Asmara, and the ure that suggests a massive effort, and guerrillas entrenched in the surrounding one viewed with great skepticism by hills. many Addis-based officials. The lack of access also leaves relief Even the magnitude of cross-border officials with no way to monitor the grain feeding claimed by the rebels, added to still flowing into the provinces—an im- the maximum known current feeding portant point tor Western donors who from the government side, gives a total fear their donations won't reach the of perhaps 2.3 million people receiving drought victims and know they must ac- food. That would leave about 1 million count to legislators and the public for famine-threatened peasants beyond the how their aid is used. "We are particu- reach of food aid, isolated by war from larly concerned it could be diverted to Women selling food in Makalle market an international outpouring that sought the military," says Canadian ambassa- to prevent a recurrence of the haunting dor David MacDonald. images of 1984-85. •

22 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 Unloading relief supplies, Makalle: "When there is a humanitarian gesture, we have accepted it willingly"

BERHANU JEMBERE INTERVIEWED BY TODDJ. SHIELDS Africa Report: To how many people in Eritrea and Tigre is Jembere: That is why our food convoys require military the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) distributing escort. food, since the recent expulsions of non-governmental organi- Africa Report: The UN and the International Committee of zations from the provinces? the Red Cross [ICRC] would argue just the opposite—that it Jembere: Now, actually, it is not only the RRC operating in is safer without military escort. those areas, but also the Ethiopian Red Cross and church Jembere: That is not properly assessing the situation. When organizations—the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, Orthodox the UN trucks were attacked in October, they were not es- Church, and Mekkonen Jesus. So we will share [distribution corted. [.Editor's note: Rebels in Eritrea destroyed 23 UN to] the rest of the populations which have been serviced by the trucks carrying 450 tons of grain. ] I don't know why they other non-governmental organizations in this area. come with this kind of statement. They don't have any means Africa Report: The RRC will not be able to operate outside to justify it. What is more, it is not only direct shooting which is the government-held territory, which has shrunk in the past expected. There can also be mines laid in the streets where month and a half, and is now mostly around Mekelle and trucks or individuals can be blown up. Asmara. Africa Report: Have these military convoys of relief food Jembere: We will be holding military convoys to reach the begun yet? hungry population that is in need of supply. Jembere: Yes, we have never stopped. Africa Report: How will the military convoys be able to go Africa Report: Have you always distributed your food with outside the government-controlled areas without being at- these military convoys? tacked? How will they reach rebel-held territory? Jembere: Yes.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 23 Africa Report: But I gather you have not managed to pene- Jembere: Yes, of course. You know there have been difficul- trate very far into the countryside from places like Mekelle ties which have been imposed by the acts of the bandits. From and Asmara. time to time, I think we in the reliel operation were hoping the Jembere: In those areas where there are needy populations, bandits and their supporters would perhaps be sensible they have been serviced. enough and stop these destructive activities. But our patience perhaps has been interpreted as weakness. And so they ag- gregated their activities and more damage has been caused. Now we have to do something, pay the necessary sacrifices. "We are not toys. We don't want to We have to clean the area and make sure people are fed. be pushed around by anybody. This is Africa Report: You are also talking about increasing the number of people you are reaching. How will you do that? Ethiopia, no other country. We have Jembere: Through this cleansing operation by the military. Africa Report: While the cleansing operation is going on, survived several difficulties. And we how will you reach the people? will survive." Jembere: As soon as the area is cleared of bandit activities. Africa Report: But what about while the area is being cleared from bandit activities? Jembere: Naturally, there can be no temporary stoppage. Africa Report: Has the RRC been able to move any food into You cannot go under crossfire to feed the people. And the either Axum or Senkata recently? What shipments have gone people will be warned to take preparation, to take cover, or to in there? move to areas where military operations are not taking place. Jembere: I don't have this information now. But you know In fact, they are also expected to join hands with the military that the bandits have overrun several distribution points. so that the enemies can be wiped out. There is a fact which no They have had temporary seizures of those distribution one can deny—that while bandits are in the middle of the points. But they are not remaining on those sites. As soon as the area is cleansed from bandit activities, we will resume our distribution activities. Africa Report: When do you think that might be? Jembere: It's going on daily. It's going on. Africa Report: And when do you think it will be cleansed? Jembere: I don't know. I have to refer to the military personnel who are in charge of the situation. If I say something, it would be just pure speculation. Africa Report: The priority of any government is to protect its territory from insurgencies and consequently the conflict in the north has taken priority over other things. Therefore, will there be as much equipment and military convoys available to take the food convoys out into the population? Jembere: You know a military operation is going on to clean the area of bandits. At the same time, food is being trans- ported because we have also an obligation to feed the people. You have correctly said that it is the obligation of any government to protect its territory, to preserve its unity and integrity. But this is what others try to deny us, by disseminating hostile propaganda. Africa Report: Since this relief operation geared into motion in October and November or even earlier with your early warning system, it has been hampered by the conflict and by rebel attacks and subsequent road closures. However, with the conflict intensifying in the north, won't it be more difficult to reach the people needed?

EPLF soldiers: "There is one fact which no one can deny: While bandits are in the middle of the people, it is very difficult to continue humanitarian activities" people, it is very difficult to continue humanitarian activities. Jembere: We are Ethiopians. And it is we, the Ethiopians, The people themselves should decide—just to clear them- who said that there are 5.2 million people in need of food in the selves of the bandits. country. No one told us. No one has appealed on our behalf. Africa Report: You also have said that once the area is It's our country, our people, so why do people bring this kind cleansed, the NGO expatriate workers will be allowed back of doubt? Why, when it is the government, everybody comes north. with doubts, speculations? When it is the bandits, nothing is Jembere: Definitely. And this decision we have already said. taken because of our utmost concern for the life of the expatri- If I come to your country, and present myself to be more ate staff. As soon as the area is cleared, then they can resume concerned than you, the citizen in your country, tell me what their activities. you think. We are not toys. We don't want to be pushed Africa Report: Many of the NGOs said they appreciate the around by anybody. This is Ethiopia, no other country. We government's concern for their safety, but they also wonder have survived several difficulties. And we will survive. The why—if the government feels it can handle the relief opera- Ethiopians will not live by the wheat which comes from tion by itself—the NGOs were ever asked to help. Why are abroad. When there is a humanitarian gesture, yes, we have they actually there? accepted willingly because we trusted everybody. But those Jembere: I think to ease the pressure on the RRC. We can who are not trusting us cannot continue with the present kind be overstretched, you know, because it is not only the two of arrogance. We do not expect any decision-maker from administrative regions in the north we have to look after, but outside to tell us how to do tilings in our country and what to millions of people in other administrative regions. Originally, do for our people. we just appealed for food. It's only the donor agencies who Africa Report: Some say that because of past tensions be- said that they could give food only to the NGOs. tween the RRC and the ICRC, the expulsion of expatriates Our activities are always doubted. But we have never said was basically aimed at removing them from the north, as the that it would be beyond our capacity to administer the relief ICRC is the only one with a mandate to work on both sides of operation. There is still doubt and perhaps some suspicion. the conflict. Certain donor organizations here appreciate the decisions that Jembere: What kind of mandate? This is a mandate which I have been made—that we must be concerned about expatri- don't recognize. I know the ICRC as a humanitarian organiza- ate life—but at the same time there are some who still insist tion, as a relief organization. It is because of this that we have that this call should be reversed. I think some of them have the accepted them. They are not considered other than any non- intention that we should give up everything and let bandits governmental relief organization. continue, let them go on with their destructive activities. Africa Report: We have also heard reports that after the But also perhaps it is in someone's interest to see this rebels take towns like Wukro, Afabet, the government has country disintegrate. It is not only the problem of the famine. come in and levelled them. The critical question is the integrity of the country. And peace, of course. Africa Report: A lot of the people out there needing food "Our activities are always doubted. cannot wait more than a few days, much less weeks. Jembere: Unfortunately, it is better to walk than to die. But we have never said that it would Africa Report: Better for them to walk? Jembere: To walk and try to get something rather than just be beyond our capacity to administer wait where they are. the relief operation." Africa Report: Some people with the Joint Relief Partner- ship [a consortium of mostly Christian relief organizations] have been saying that they would like to drive out past government lines as they stand now into areas not yet cleansed. Jembere: I have not been there and I don't have any informa- Will they be permitted to do that? tion, but what if things of that nature have taken place? As I Jembere: No, this will not be permitted. This is a sovereign said, there is a cleansing operation going on. Shall we just say, state. And it is we who tell someone where to go, where to "Okay, welcome bandits" and continue? help, and whom to help. Africa Report: Could you comment on a claim from the Africa Report: Some people are afraid that their equipment, TPLF that the government dropped bombs and napalm on food, and medical supplies will be diverted to the war effort. Wukro? [Editor's note: The attack on Wukro was subse- Jembere: This is just pure speculation. quently confirmed by three Western sources. Allegations of Africa Report: Some donors say that since fewer people are napalm use remain unsubstantiated. The death toll was going to be reached, less food will be needed. There is some thought to stand at several dozen. ] thought of cutting back on the amount of food they will give. Jembere: When they overran Wukro, destroyed a lot of Jembere: This is unexpected and it would be a very grave relief supplies, killed very many people, burned equipment, error. what had the world to say? And you as a journalist, do you just Africa Report: They don't think that very many people will stand and give applause to such activities? A tooth for a tooth, be fed under the current situation. an eye for an eye, if not more. •

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 25 T«f?

r t

THE POPULA The executive director of the United Nations Population Fund warns that if development efforts will be overwhelmed, threatening the very basis—the BYNAFISSADIK

airobi, Kenya's capital, is a throb- not so long ago. No wonder: On current fore social, political, and economic sys- N bing, thriving town at the heart oi estimates, Kenya's total population will tems collapse under the strain. Africa. A center of government, fi- double in less than 20 years. By then, Zimbabwe, one of Africa's recent suc- nance, development, and international Nairobi could well be three times its cess stories, could support four times affairs, it draws statesmen, business- present size. No country has ever its present population from its own re- men, diplomats, and tourists from all grown at this pace—even Kenya, sources, apparently putting the popula- over the world. where the growth rate has been rising tion crunch far into the distance. But on A hundred years ago, Nairobi did not steadily for decades. It has now proba- current estimates, Zimbabwe could exist. At the turn of the century, it was bly reached a peak, but growth will go reach that Limit in 40 years. The govern- an army camp, a railroad station, and a on. From 20 million, Kenya could well ment's response is firm. "While we do bazaar, linked by a muddy road. The have 70 million people by 2025. not propose in some crude arbitrary army camp and its redcoats are long Kenya is one of 42 African countries manner to limit population growth, we gone; the station is still there, but most where population can be expected to must seek to achieve a definable rela- travellers hardly notice it on their way to double in 35 years or less. Looked at tionship between population growth and the airport. The bazaar, on the other one way, these figures are welcome evi- the capacity of our country to provide hand, is thriving, and grows bigger al- dence of success in cutting down infant material requirements," said Prime most while you look at it. mortality and increasing life expectancy. Minister Robert Mugabe in 1985. Nairobi, in fact, grew by six times be- But they mean problems for other areas Zimbabwe's national conservation tween 1950 and 1979. "I am tired of of development. African leaders know strategy accordingly calls for "replace- being pointed out at international con- better than to equate sheer numbers ment-level' fertility by 2015, in order to ferences as the leader of the nation with with national strength. The problem, as achieve a stable population of 23 million the world's highest population growth," they point out, from Senegal to Swazi- by 2075. In a country where women tra- said Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi land, is that they must find the means of ditionally have four or more children, ar- coping with all these new faces at the Dr. Nafis Sadik is executive director of the United guments in favor of "stopping at two" Nations Population Fund. national table and find them quickly be- will have to be very persuasive. And the

26 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 Joigen SchytteUnicef TION CRUNCH current trends in Africa's population growth continue, the continent's environment—upon which economic growth depends.

persuasion must be done quickly: The dren they are going to have." growth and the grinding poverty of generation which will be having babies The optimists still argue that Africa is much of the continent combine to 40 years from now is already on the rich. If Africa's resources were devel- threaten the environment—the very way. For Mugabe and other African oped for the benefit of all its people, they land, air, and water on which all else leaders, the population problem is here say, there would be no population prob- depends. The threat is accentuated by and now. lem. But as Nigeria and Zambia, among the drive to mobilize Africa's natural Nevertheless, as Mugabe clearly others, have discovered, the mere in- capital—its timber, mineral, and agri- recognizes, there is no point in rustling flux of oil or copper dollars guarantees cultural potential. at it. Hard-sell tactics do not go down nothing. Cautiously planned economies, All over the continent, forests are well in Africa. African society tradition- as in Tanzania, have found the national disappearing under the axe and the bull- ally favors families of four or more, a capital tied up in trying to provide the dozer, cleared for subsistence farming, mindset reinforced by the "wabenzi," basics of life for a burgeoning popula- commercial logging, and export crops. the new rich who flaunt their wealth, tion. Meanwhile, industrial develop- Crucial watersheds are crumbling, as in their wives, and their many children. In ment and the infrastructure it requires the Ethiopian highlands. The great riv- the end, people will have small families are severely undercapitalized. ers they serve, like the Nile and the not because governments say so, but Development is not an overnight Niger, are shrinking, even as the num- because they can see the point. thing. It takes time to put in place all the bers of people who depend upon them Nigeria's Minister of Health, Dr. Oli- many elements which go to make up the are growing. koye Kansome-Kuti, says. "There is a mix. And with the best will in the world, Industrial development will not pro- very high unmet need for family plan- Africa does not have the time. Rapid vide an answer to this constant degrada- ning. The economic situation in Nigeria population growth overwhelms devel- tion. Indeed, industrial development has brought it home to our people that if opment efforts, however carefully contributes its own burden to the envi- they want to have their children edu- planned. ronment. There are now grave doubts cated and well-fed, then they have to There is another twist to the story. about the wisdom of huge projects like begin to do something about the chil- The combination of rapid population the Aswan or the Volta dams, or of

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 27 family planning large-scale export agribusiness, as in ucation, and communication. All suc- the Niger's or the Nile's headwaters. cessful population policies have the Nigeria's belt of mangrove forest, which whole-hearted support of all sectors of protected its coastline for centuries, has the community, from national leaders to disappeared under urban sprawl and ordinary men and women in the villages coastal development. and towns. It is the ordinary people who Industrial development draws people make the tinal decisions about family to the cities, which, like Nairobi, are size. It is to the ordinary people that groaning under the strain. In slums like leaders must turn to gain acceptance for Mathare Valley on the outskirts of Nai- the idea of smaller, healthier families robi, population is growing at over 10 "The economic situation in Nigeria has through biith-spacing. brought it home that if people want to percent a year. These are often young have their children educated and well-fed, Above all, the people must be con- people, drawn to the city by the hope of then they have to do something about the vinced that birth-spacing is not a foreign a better life. Hut they are also refugees, children they are going to have" idea coming from outside-—it is an Afri- people driven off the land by poverty now accept, like Zambia's President can practice dating from the time before and overcrowding. Kenneth Kaunda, that whatever the African societies were invaded and colo- Slums and shanty towns like Mathare path to national development, it must nized. Encouraging modern forms of are found in every African city— include some attention to population birth-spacing, as a means to a strong perched on hillsides or river banks, in growth and some limit on the explosive and healthy family, will find an immedi- swamps or gullies, using land no one growth of major cities. They are also ate response from the mothers and fa- else wants. They are a visible and grow- coming to believe that to solve popula- thers of the new African peoples. ing threat to the environment, social as tion problems, direct attention must be Among those who must be convinced well as physical. Without running water paid to the economic and social needs of of the importance of social development or proper drainage, the Mathares of Af- the majority of the population, the vast programs are the donors, govern- rica condemn millions to live among numbers who throng the slums and ments, and public and private lending their own waste, shortening their lives shanties or try to find a living on the institutions. All acknowledge the need and the lives of their children. land. for slower population growth, but few The children are already at a severe Nigeria's Ransome-Kuti is a pediatri- take real account of the realities of suc- disadvantage. They are four times more cian by training. He has a natural sympa- cessful programs. likely to die in infancy than their counter- thy for the vast masses who were left They are beginning to accept how- parts elsewhere. If they survive, they out when Nigeria's oil wealth was being ever, that education, health, family plan- have little chance of escaping their par- divided under successive civilian and ning, and women's programs are not op- ents' poverty. military governments. He is quite clear, tional extras or luxuries, but essential About one-third of Mathare Valley's even passionate, in his belief that the components in the development mix. adults are single mothers, a poignant ex- health needs of the poor must be ad- This will be an important breakthrough, ample of how the population poverty dressed, and believes that this is an es- because of their influence on national trap selects its victims. Women carry sential step on the road to smaller fami- and local leaders in African countries. more than their share of the environ- lies. The social development agencies, mental burden. As fetchers of wood and With the help of U.S. AID, UNFPA, such as WHO, Unicef, and UNFPA, and carriers of water, farmers, cooks, and Unicef, he has begun an ambitious their counterparts in the developing waste disposal experts, designers, and plan to establish or refurbish health cen- countries—teachers, priests, non-gov- builders, they are in a very real sense ters in the slums and suburbs of Nige- ernmental organizations, and social ac- the managers of the micro-environment ria's teeming cities, and to reach out into tivists of all kinds—have been arguing in which they live. the remote rural areas with health care for years that their programs are essen- But they—especially the poor among for mothers and children. He includes tial. Now there is a chance that they them—are also the most vulnerable of family planning as an essential element might be heard. groups. Their work is barely recognized and he realizes the need for encourage- "Structural adjustment" programs to in national statistics and is heavily under- ment, especially among the men. Loud- anchor the development plans of the valued in economic terms. The result is speaker vans tour the suburbs playing poorest countries firmly in economic re- that there is little protection for them songs and broadcasting speeches in fa- ality will include a social element—or at because there is little perceived need vor of the smaller family, and the over- least will not exclude it. Plans for repay- for protection. What development as- worked nurses and doctors who staff ment of Africa's massive debt will still sistance there is tends to go to men, the clinics have been told to add family allow social programs to function. Social which may be marginally useful, but may planning to their list of services. development programs are at last being also have the effect of undermining al- Nigeria, like ten other African coun- recognized as crucial for Africa's future. ready existing systems, created and op- tries in the last year, has recently an- For the millions of ordinary people and erated by women. nounced a population policy. It includes their families in African countries, it is Governments of all political shades a strong component for information, ed- not a moment too soon. •

28 AFRICA REPORT . July-August 1988 hristine Namaddu was 14 years back home, the baby son she bore Ojok University. "The soldiers would come C old when soldier Ojok, out on op- is a constant reminder of her ordeal. She kill the husband. The woman would erations in the Luwero Triangle, found calls him "Problem," and says he is un- have to gather 10 or 11 children and run her hiding in the bushes, trying to con- loveable. "I just hope he does not turn through the bush with them, living ceal her small frame. out to be a thief like his father," she there—no bedding, no clothes, no food, Ignoring the pleas of Christine's sighs. seeing the children die one by one. My mother, who followed them until forced Hundreds of thousands of Ugandan impression is that they are hardened. back, he kidnapped the schoolgirl and women have stories like Christine. When they testify, I cry and they do not. took her to his barracks. "He made me Many have ones far worse. Two dec- They have seen so much and look worn into his wife, although I had never slept ades of corrupt and violent rule and out." with a man before," Christine recounted three wars since 1979 have brought un- Uganda has had two main waves of to Uganda's Human Rights Commis- told suffering to this East African nation. repression and violence: from 1971 to sion. "It has been terrible, particularly for ru- 1979 under the rule of Amin, and from For the next three years, Christine ral women," says Joan Kakwenzire, the 1980 to 1986 under the rule of Presi- was simply one of the spoils of war, like one woman on the six-member commis- dents Milton Obote and Tito Okello. a looted radio or rustled animal. First, sion which is documenting abuses be- President Museveni estimates that she lived with other stolen girls in tween Uganda's independence in 1962 300,000 died under the first, and Bombo barracks, which was also a tor- and January 26, 1986, when Yoweri Mu- 500,000 under the second. For people ture den, then later in Ojok's village, seveni and his National Resistance in northern and eastern Uganda, the last where his family mistreated her. Now Army (NRA) took power. two years have also been painful. "They have lost their husbands, their Former Obote and Okello soldiers Catharine Watson writes for The Independent, brought war into their midsts when they The Observer, and the Toronto Giobe and Mail sons," says Kakwenzire, who also lec- from Kampala. She also works for the BBC. tures in history at Uganda's Makerere rebelled against the NRA.

Uganda's Women: WOMEN A Ray of Hope

Two decades of violence and repression have inflicted a particularly heavy toll on Ugandan women. In recognition of their contributions—-and their sacrifices—the Museveni government is encouraging efforts to increase the role and voice of women in the national political arena.

BY CATHARINE WATSON Joan Kakwenzire argues that Ugan- da's turmoil, while tragic and costly for all Ugandans, has taken a particularly harsh toll on women. Data is almost completely lacking, but the educational performance of girls appears to have fallen faster than that of boys. As poverty deepened, parents opted to send sons, not daughters, to school, more sure of an eventual economic return from sons. Sexual favors also became a com- modity, as women—widowed or with husbands in exile or prison—struggled to support the family. "In their search for help, men would compromise them," says Kakwenzire. But Kakwenzire also argues that there have been positive changes, particularly for educated women. "They have learned the fundamental lesson to respect their own capacity-—to make friends of their own, to work. This is a capacity they always had but just did not know about." The chaotic politics made men unsure of their futures, she says. "They knew

"Women grow 90 percent of food and contribute 60 percent of the labor for cash crops, but are poorer than they were in the 1960s."

they might be shot coming home at "Since the NRM came to power, awareness of women has doubled night, so they began taking their wives into their confidence, making them sig- natories on assets, teaching them to drive. A woman who could not get about of the men in her family were killed in natural to report on the war. And I have was a liability. They began to look at Amin's purges, but backed by her realized the value of my work." their wives as colleagues, not subservi- mother and aunts, she reached univer- Businesswomen have also emerged, ent dependants. Those little things that sity and is now a top researcher on a new trend in East Africa, unlike West give men dominance—like a woman not Uganda's main paper, New Vision. Africa. They used connections, often being able to findhe r way to the bank— For the last year, she has covered the sexual, to gain hold of shops and busi- began to disappear." war in northern Uganda. "People tried nesses Amin allocated out when he ex- This, says Kakwenzire, has led to the to discourage me. They said, 'You will pelled the Asians in 1972. Now they are "growth of a class of women who can come back pregnant from those sol- often called "Dubai women" because fend for themselves." Caroline diers,' and 'Nice ladies do not stand they import from the Gulf states, alleg- Lamwaka, 25, is one such woman. Most around dead bodies.' But I feel it is so edly getting dollars by prostitution with

30 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 Arab men. Some are wealthy indeed. RCs are the grassroots political units There are now two full women minis- For the majority of women, however, of the NRM, nine-member committees ters and three deputy ministers—more life lias deteriorated precipitously. They at five levels from village to district. than under any previous regimes. grow 90 percent of food and contribute "Since the NRM came to power, aware- There is also a new non-governmental 60 percent of the labor for cash crops, ness of women has doubled," says law- women's organization called Action for but are poorer than they were in the yer Maria Matembe, secretary for mo- Development, made up mainly of 1960s. Witli the collapse of roads and bilization on Kampala district's RC. women civil servants, academics, and transport, they are also more cut off Kakwenzire says Museveni saw the lawyers. They are researching the situ- from facilities like clinics and banks tlian power of women during their five-year ation of women in war-devastated Lu- ever before. bush war. Hundreds of women joined wero, pushing for the reform of key Sources at Unicef in Kampala say the NRA as fighters. They also ran safe laws, and planning to acquire a sanitary women contribute more than men to houses, nursed, cooked, and provided towel-making machine. All sanitary family welfare. For example, children in intelligence. towels in Uganda are imported and cost Luwero who lost their mothers in the 500 shillings a pack. Uganda's minimum war are far worse off than those who wage is 460 shillings a month: Nurses earn only 700. Rural women use rags. lost their fathers. Nevertheless, hus- "Museveni has bands still control women's earnings, But there is some concern among and women rarely inherit land. When sometimes sounded women activists that the new structures not surrounded by war, they stilt face and the women ministers are only cos- domestic brutality. Sharply increased patronizing in his metic gains or "lip-service." Museveni and Ruzindana often appear more pro- drunkenness in the villages causes statements on women, much of the violence, says Augustine gressive on women than the rank and Ruzindana, the inspector-general of chastising them for not file of their movement. At the national government and the man in charge of political school at Kyankwanzi, civilians investigating human rights abuses since trying for top jobs debate the causes of Uganda's troubles, while living in the bush like guerrillas and 1986. without recognizing the Ruzindana recently tried to intervene learning to use the gun. They study the on behalf of a woman whose eldest son barriers before them." NRM's Ten Point Program, but learn had taken her land, but he failed. The little about women. local courts sided with the son. Ruzin- Course director for the school, NRA dana's analysis is that women will be op- Museveni has sometimes sounded commander John Bashaija, says women pressed until they become more eco- patronizing in his statements on should not be discussed separately from nomically independent. "Our low di- women, for example, chastising them men: They both suffer from underde- vorce rate is not to do with the success for not trying for top jobs without recog- velopment. When asked if they have of our marriages. It is lack of options. nizing the barriers before them. But last discussed the problems of women, the There is an acute shortage of accommo- June, he denounced the bride-price— dation. A woman cannot just march out the widespread custom of selling daugh- of a place. Even if she is brutalized, ters—as "outstanding bondage." where does she go?" The NRM's political commissar, Kiiza Beisigye, says: "We started a de- ut a ray of hope for women has liberate struggle in the bush for women. B come to Uganda with the politi- Many of them were against it, prefer- cians like Ruzindana who lead the Na- ring the status quo because they had tional Resistance Movement (NRM). been oppressed so long. But this is a They are quietly creating a space in negative aspect of culture. That is why which women's groups can flourish and we insisted there be at least one woman push for more. on each RC." Under previous regimes, Ugandan Joyce Mpanga is the minister for women had only conservative church- women. She says her priority is to raise linked groups, like the YWCA. Now, women's incomes and their access to there is a directorate for women in the credit and inputs. "We want to investi- NRM and since last March, a ministry gate reducing the burden of women's for women and development. The gov- work, so they can make more money ernment bank has launched a rural and enjoy the fruits of their labor," says credit scheme for women. And probably the former headmistress and civil ser- "Joan Kakwenzire argues that Ugan- most importantly, there is a secretary vant with a masters in education from da's turmoil has taken a particularly tor women on every resistance commit- the U.S. Cabinet colleagues so far have harsh toll on women" tee (RC). been "supportive," she says.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 31 students repeat Bashaija's view like par- erty." Most of the clients are govern- fertile district of Mpigi, Medina, a 27- rots. ment secretaries or clerks, scraping by year-old-woman, is growing sweet po- There is a depressing tendency for on salaries of 700 shillings a month, $12 tatoes with assistance from UCB. She NRM cadres to argue that the back- at the official exchange rate, $1.60 at the lost her husband in the bush war which wardness of Africa must be eliminated unofficial. brought Museveni to power and is now before African women can be emanci- Susan Mitala (not her real name) sits on her own with four children. "Before, pated. "The average African man simply waiting for attention. She tells her story I was just growing some small food for does not perceive as discrimination not with pain, still hurt though it is eight us to eat. Now I am doing some com- having access to bank loans, not having years since her husband, a labor inspec- mercial farming." economic security in the marital home," tor, moved out. "He deceived me that Florence Ssebowa, UCB's agricul- says Kakwenzire. She calls for a "con- he was single when we married. Then I tural officer, says women are more reli- scious ideological struggle geared to- heard that he had another woman and a able clients. "You give them a loan and ward attitudinal change" in both men and baby. But I did not worry because I they use it exactly, better than men." women. thought since he married me, that was But the UCB scheme can only reach a Women like Kakwenzire, Minister the end of that. For three years I prayed few thousand women farmers. And in Mpanga, and Janet Mukwaya, the latter that he would settle, but in vain." general, women have probably fared a former NRA guerrilla who now heads Now Mitala is supporting three chil- poorly in Uganda's post-war rehabilita- the NRM's Directorate for Women, are dren. She does not want a divorce—she tion. "Aid is got by people who push," patiently and calmly promoting the idea is a Catholic—just help with the chil- says Joan Kakwenzire. "Those, like that backwardness will only go when dren's school fees, an impossible 33,000 women, who are used to having noth- women are free. Patience and calm are shillings a year. He gives her nothing. ing, sit back and receive nothing." essential, points out Kakwenzire, be- "Besides his job, he has a garage and The NRM is quietly opposed to po- cause women who "talk too much of three acres of land. If I could use the lygamy, another practice most Ugandan women's liberation are regarded as land, I could cultivate and raise money." women regard with sadness and dis- really full of Western ideas. You get so Lawyer Wakabi will write threatening taste. But it does not intend to legislate much ridicule and eventually even be- letters to bring him to court. But she against it. "That would be operationally come a social misfit. People start feeling hopes to settle out of court: Uganda's difficult," says political commissar Beisi- sorry for your husband." laws are archaic, and the maximum child gye. "Also, we do not take on too many One of Janet Mukwaya's jobs is to maintenance awarded in court is only things at one time." He and Ruzindana support the women on the RCs. She is 200 shillings or 50 American cents a believe, however, that as Uganda's trying to import women's bikes so they month. economy becomes more organized, it can move about, and says their output Ugandan women lawyers are pushing will become unviable. There is also hope so far has been prodigious, largely be- for reform in this area and in the divorce that the recovery of Uganda's economy cause women are used to working for and inheritance laws. For example, a and the emphasis on real production and free. But she says the biggest block to husband need only prove adultery to di- the decrease in loose money will wipe their participation are the men. "It is not vorce a woman. A woman, on the other out the "sugar daddy phenomenon"— uncommon for a man to beat his wife for hand, must prove adultery plus other older men escorting younger women in going to an RC meeting. We advise the grounds like cruelty. Also by law in an exchange of sex for material benefits. women to make sure her husband's din- Uganda, it is not adultery if a married "This increased immorality came ner is cooked before she goes out so he man has an affair with a single woman, with the quick rise of Amin's soldiers has nothing to complain about." only a married one. Most of these out- and supporters," says Kakwenzire. Other examples of just how much at- dated laws were inherited from the Brit- "They were illiterate men from the rural titudes need to change can be seen in a ish. Customary laws, which in most of areas, and the first thing they thought dilapidated building in downtown Kam- Uganda's ethnic groups preclude female when they got some money was to get a pala, home to a legal aid clinic for ownership of property, need to be chal- beautiful girl." And as life became women. Run by the Uganda Association lenged as well. harder and harder, women were of Women's Lawyers, it has seen 100 The legal aid project is one of the tempted into these ties. clients since it opened in March. Yen most practical and successful for women But with the threat of Aids, a new and Wakabi, duty legal officer, says the bulk in Uganda. But the government credit even more sinister relationship is begin- of the work is child maintenance, fol- scheme is enormously sought after and ning to rear its head Many men are lowed by inheritance cases. Divorce needed too. Run by the Ugandan Com- looking for younger and younger girls— cases are rare. mercial Bank (UCB), it gives unsecured 13, 14, 15 years old—who they know The riles contain heart-rending tales: loans to peasants on the basis of good will be Aids-free. "As long as women "My husband got another woman and character. Bank staff say they intend to are financially weak, all sorts of people chased me out of the house. He sent me give 80 percent of the loans to women, will prey on them," says inspector-gen- away when I went to his office. He commensurate with their share of pro- eral Augustine Ruzindana. "The hill is bought a wheelbarrow and put the chil- duction. still steep," says Kampala district RC dren's things in it. I never got my prop- Thirty miles west of Kampala, in the official Maria Matembe. D

32 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 T R V W

Women and Children On the Frontline Former first ladies Graca Machel and Maria Eugenia Neto, two of the most eloquent spokespersons for the innocent victims of southern Africa's conflicts, explain the effects of war on the women and children of Mozambique and Angola and outline immediate needs to prevent the destruction of an entire generation of youth.

GRACA MACHEL INTERVIEWED BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA Graca Machel (nee Simbine) first joined Frelimo as a student of romance languages at the University of Lisbon in the early 1970s. In 1973, she left her studies to join the war for Mozambique's independence, which was being waged from bases in Tanzania. Shortly afterward, she became part of the transitional government in the run-up to independence from Portu- guese colonial rule in 1975. Machel became the country's first minister of education—a post she still holds today—and in September 1975, married Mozambique's first president, Samora Machel, whose first wife, Josina, had died in combat. On October 19,1986, Samora Machel and several of his senior aides were killed in a plane crash on South African soil, widely believed to have been engineered by the Pretoria regime. Amid her grief, Graca Machel wrote a letter to jailed African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie. It read in part: "To you, in particular, Winnie, I express my sincere admiration. My husband was murdered in just one day, in just one fateful moment. Your husband is being murdered every day, every hour. "Dear Winnie, Dear Nelson, Samora, your brother, fell on the battlefield. The world will never see Mandela and Samora in triumphant embrace on that glorious day when the flag for freedom is hoisted in South Africa. He did not complete his mission. But we will. "Dear Winnie, my husband's death has left me with a great emptiness. The solitude I feel is immense. Only by continuing the struggle, contributing to the completion of his work, will my life have meaning." Still dressed in black, and reluctant to discuss that bleak day in 1986 when southern Africa lost one of its most talented leaders, Graca Machel is nonetheless one of the most powerful spokespersons for the millions of Mozambicans who have suffered untold deprivations at the hands of South African-backed Renamo rebels. From her ninth-floor Maputo office, surrounded by works of Mozambican revolutionary art, Graca Machel shared some of the pains, hopes, and aspirations of the nation's two most vulnerable groups—women and children. The interview took place shortly after a major donor conference in Maputo where, for the second year running, the international community pledged close to $300 million toward emergency relief efforts.

Africa Report: For the first time this year, education has right to learn, to develop their intellectual faculties, and to be been included in the emergency appeal. Why has this been able to solve their own problems. In our own case in Mozam- necessary? bique, we have reached the point where it is no longer ade- Machel: The emergency affects people, and people have a quate to ask for aid in the sense of food, transport, and medical whole range of needs. They do not only need to eat and to be assistance alone. We need to include this concept of rehabili- dressed. They also have spiritual needs. One of these is the tating human beings themselves. There are two respects in which this rehabilitation has to Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean freelance journalist based in Harare. take place. First, the rehabilitation of the children. We try to

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 33 train teachers to deal with children who have been the victims of war not only to learn normally, but to continue to develop themselves psychologically and intellectually. The other understanding is that we have to rehabilitate infrastructure and schools. You can't rehabilitate children without giving them the basic material conditions to develop themselves. Africa Report: Could you give us some indication of how the war has affected the government's post-independence literacy campaign? Machel: Between 1975 and 1980, the rate of illiteracy dropped from 93 to 72 percent. This was a 21 percent improvement in five years. Since then, we have not been able to take a national census, but there are some indications that illiteracy now stands at 64 percent. If we had been able to follow the same dynamic course as in the first five years of independence, the results would obviously have been better.

"In provinces like Zambezia, "Pete, Sofala, and even Niassa, and in Maputo province, more than 70 percent of all primary schools have been destroyed or paralyzed."

In provinces like Zambezia, Tete, Sofala, and even Niassa, and in the south, in Maputo province, more than 70 percent of all primary schools have been destroyed or paralyzed. These buildings were used for adult education in the evenings. When Renamo destroys a primary school, they destroy the base for extending education at all. "Graca Machel, still dressed in black, is one of the most pow- Africa Report: Part of the emergency appeal is for assist- erful spokespersons for Mozambicans who have suffered un- ance to address the psychological traumas which children told deprivations at the hands of Renamo" have suffered as a result of the war. What form do these traumas take? Machel: In Mozambique, we have more or less 220,(XX) children who are orphans. They suffer the trauma of being orphans in circumstances of violence, which is not a normal situation. Second, we have children who have lost their parents. We are not sure whether their parents have died, but for different reasons, because of the conflict situation, they are separated. You can understand the anguish of a child in this situation. We also have children who are mutilated, who have lost their physical capacity to play and study with other children. Others have suffered severe famine, because for different reasons they have been taken from their villages and have had "Attacking to walk long distances without food or water to drink. Because women is one of of this, their capacity to learn and develop as normal people is the tactics used reduced. to destroy our capacity to de- Increasingly so, the bandits are kidnapping children to train velop, because them, transform them, and teach them to kill and rob. They they are the are obliged to kill their relatives, members of their families, to backbone of family, and for make sure that they are completely disoriented. From then the most part, on, they are able to do anything else. the farmers"

34 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 All this has made us aware that we have another more of the word, who cannot realize themselves completely. serious problem of how to rehabilitate these children. Here in Africa Report: In what ways has Renamo's campaign specifi- Maputo, we have started a small experiment with about 30 cally affected women? children in this situation. We hope to spread throughout the Machel: In societies which are underdeveloped, the family is country, wherever there are cases of children who have been the basic cell of society. It is so important that a family is not used by the bandits. complete unless all its components are together. In many This is what we know happens. What we need to be able to cases, if you go to the accommodation camps, you will find tell more exactly what the traumas are, and how many people women who are completely alone. They have lost their hus- are affected, is a national survey. We are asking for interna- bands, they have lost their children. I cannot explain to you in tional support, for specialized teams to work in each province words what this means. of our country, to make this assessment, so that we can draw In other cases, there are women who have lost some mem- up a clear plan. The ministries of health and education are bers of their family, who are not sure whether they are alive or working together to try to find handing for this project. dead. They live in a constant state of anxiety. Sometimes their Africa Report: I believe there is some evidence that Re- sons have been captured and are living with the bandits. They namo places children under the influence of drugs in order to cannot do anything about it. (Jther times, they have lost eve- get them to commit atrocities. rything they have; they cannot even find clothes to put on Machel: Yes, the children themselves have told us this and their children. You can understand how a mother feels in this the ministry of health has gathered evidence of it. It seems to situation, in these camps, you have women who look like they be a normal practice. are 60, when in fact they are only in their 30s. Because of so Africa Report: Why. in your view, have children become many problems, they have become old before their time. targets? Attacking women is one of the tactics used to destroy our Machel: I think there are two main reasons. First, any soci- capacity to develop, because they are the backbone of the ety is very sensitive about cliildren, and South Africa wants to family. They are also, for the most part, the farmers. Not

Housing for displaced persons at Moatize camp in Tete province, in disused railway wagons: "You can't rehabilitate children without giving them the basic material conditions to develop themselves" touch us in a way that hurts most. Second, they want to being able to feed her family creates a sense of helplessness in prolong the problem in the country, so that even one day any woman. when we win this war, when we are at peace, we will continue There is also systematic sexual abuse in these bandit to have social problems, because we have a young generation camps. From what we know—from what women have ex- that is completely deviant—mutilated physically, mentally, plained to us—there have been cases in which bandits have and emotionally. abused women in front of their husbands, to destroy com- They are not satisfied that they are able to make more pletely not only the woman, but to also destroy the husband, difficult our process of development; they want to make it last to destroy their sense of privacy. In many cases, women just for a long time, because if they affect our main resource for don't want to talk about it, because it is so humiliating. development, development will become more difficult in the Africa Report: You have mentioned the separation of fami- future. We'll have in the next generation thousands and thou- lies, which I found to be an acute problem everywhere I sands of people who are not human beings in the whole sense travelled in the central part of the country. Is there any way in

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 35 which families can be reunited given the present security going to say that he wants to share. Having failed in this situation? regard, the strategy seems to be to try and make our society Machel: First, we have to deal with the basic needs, because unviable. They are not attacking the army or the government, people come in such a miserable state. They need medical but the people themselves. They want to make the problems assistance, they need food, they need to be dressed. Reunit- of famine and underdevelopment endemic, to become a cycle ing the family is the next step. It is a problem we still have to of misery that constantly repeats itself. work hard on, because unless there is security, it is not easy Africa Report: In your view, how and when will this misery to reunite people who are in safe areas with those who are in end? areas that we do not control completely. Machel: Apartheid and its projects have no long-term future. There is no future for a society which is based on violence, discrimination, massacres, killing, and injustice. Unfortu- "The bandits are kidnapping children nately, the apartheid system is backed by other forces which to train them, transform them, and help it to last. Ideally, all democratic and humanitarian forces—wherever people are, whatever they believe— teach them to kill and rob. They are should join our people, to build a very large mass movement that will say "no" to apartheid, as happened in the case of obliged to kill their relatives to make Vietnam. sure that they are completely There was a moment in history when almost everyone in the world, religious people, humanitarians, cultural associa- disoriented." tions, and students took a step to say, "Stop the war in Viet- nam. " We feel that is not happening in the case of South Africa. People are just not as involved as they should be to end this So far, our efforts in this regard have tended to concentrate genocide. This is the first step—the people themselves. on children, as a matter of priority, simply because when you The second is the governments which support South Af- have a lot of problems, sometimes you cannot deal with eve- rica, which say that they need the strategic minerals that rything at the same time. come from here. Some way must be found to make them Africa Report: Wliat do you see as Renamo's aim? understand that they do not have to sacrifice thousands of Machel: The concept of independence and development of a human lives because of their selfish interests. They can stop non-racial society, which is exactly the opposite of South Af- apartheid today, and tomorrow they will continue to have rica, is an example to those who are struggling for their inde- cooperation with a democratic government in South Africa. So pendence. We represent something very advanced which we ask, really, what are we being sacrificed for? It is very South Africa cannot afford to see. difficult for us to understand. Initially, we thought South Africa wanted to take over, to Africa Report: How do you see the future? install a puppet government here. My opinion is that they Machel: I am optimistic as a person. It is a quality of all have been forced to understand that Frelimo as a party, and revolutionaries that they are optimistic. I am optimistic be- the people of Mozambique, are one thing. They were not able cause I believe in the capacity of our people to keep on strug- to install a puppet government because our people have a gling for their rights and not to surrender at any price. We deeply rooted appreciation of liberty and sovereignty. It is not have a very clear party, we have a very clear policy on how to possible to fool them with people under the orders of someone develop our country, and we have very concrete aims. Once else. we have peace, the future is in our hands. To achieve peace is Now the bandits do not say they are fightingt o take over. first and foremost our own task. But the international commu- They say that they want to negotiate a power-sharing. When nity has an obligation to assist, because the source of the someone knows he is strong enough to take over, he is not problem is apartheid, and that we cannot solve alone. •

Group of displaced children in Tete city: "We have more or less 220,000 children who are orphans, suffering the trauma of being orphans in circumstances of violence" MARIA EUGENIA NETO INTERVIEWED BY DAPHNE TOPOUZIS

Unicef s 1987 report, 'Children on the Frontline," underscored yet another devastating effect of the apartheid conflict in the subcontinent—the tragic plight of 15 million children in southern Africa. "In 1986, more than 140,000 children died from war and destabilization-related causes," said the report. "This. . . death toll for infants and children under five from war and destabilization-related causes means that every four minutes a small Angolan and Mozambican child was lost who otherwise would have lived." The report inspired the foundation of the Children's Fund for Southern Africa (CHISA), headed by Sally Mugabe, Zimbabwe's First Lady, and supported by Marcela Perez de Cuellar, Jacqueline Jackson, Miriam Makeba, Dabanga dos Santos, and Maria Eugenia Neto, among others. During a recent visit to the U.S., Africa Report talked to Maria Eugenia Neto, wife of the late Agostinho Neto, Angola's first president, about the impact of the war on the women and the children o( Angola, and CHISA's efforts to reach the victims.

Africa Report: Can you tell us about the origins and objec- Neto: The main problems are caused by the war. Our chil- tives of the Children's Fund for Southern Africa [CHISA]? dren suffer from hunger, disease, and malnutrition, as well as Neto: I am one of the honorary vice-presidents of CHISA, from lack of clothing, proper housing, and schooling. In addi- which was launched last January following Unicef s 1987 re- tion, those whose parents and family are killed in the war are port, "Children on the Frontline," in response to the critical even more vulnerable and deprived of stimulation, care, and and deteriorating situation of the children in southern Africa. affection. Its main objective is to mobilize assistance and funds world- These are the problems the children face and they are all wide for the children of the frontline states. I have been invited caused by the war or else are related to it, because in reality to come to the U. S. in order to try to sensitize American the government and the MPLA have fully mobilized their public opinion to the tragic condition of these children and resources to help the children. I should say that the policy of particularly the children in Angola. the MPLA is a policy of great achievements for the Angolan Africa Report: What do you see as the key problems of the youth. We have a slogan in our country to give to the child children of the frontline states? everything he or she deserves.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 37 Intellectuals and the Cultural State Secretariat are also actively involved in helping our children. We have a lot of books, songs, and plays dedicated to the child, but if we are not doing more and if all those things we are doing now only reach a minority of children, it is because of the war which plagues certain regions. We have built many orphanages for the children who have no parents, children whose parents have been killed in the war, and those who are not being protected by their families. Great efforts are being made to support these children, and to this effect we have instituted some programs together with Unicef in order to give them materials for entertainment and education. Hut those programs for the protection and promo- tion of the well-being of the child do not reach all the children in the country. They reach those living in towns, but we have serious problems with children living in rural areas.

"Our children suffer from hunger, disease, and malnutrition, as well as from lack of clothing, proper housing, and schooling."

The reason why the condition of children is much worse in the countryside is because the war is constantly affecting them. It is difficult for assistance from the urban centers to reach the children because bridges have been destroyed, the railway is not dependable, and there is a general problem of transport. This war is instigated by South Africa because of Namibia. We have no common frontier with South Africa but we are being victimized on account of the support we give to the Namibian people. Angolans have suffered heroically in order to show their solidarity with the Namibians, because we would be traitors to our own philosophy if we did not support them and reciprocate for the help we received when we were waging our own struggle for independence. "We have over 160,000 children without fathers, mothers, or Africa Report: How many children are currently suffering other family. They are displaced, often living alone or on the streets" from the effects of the war and destabilization-related causes? Neto: At present, there are over 600,000 displaced people that are obliged to run from one place to another, mostly old impact on the youth, ranging from violence and anxiety to men, women, and children. For example, we have more than depression and premature ageing. For example, I have a child 160,000 children without fathers, mothers, or other family. in my home that I brought from an orphanage. The little boy They are displaced, often living alone or on the streets. Some was 3 years old when I took him in and he is now 11.1 have had 16,000 are already living in orphanages, but there are not a lot of problems with him. enough orphanages to accommodate all the homeless chil- Sometimes he has particular attitudes of aggression that I dren. can't understand—how is it possible when I adopted him so Africa Report: Which age group is most afflicted by the war young and treated him like my own son? I suppose that he is and war-related problems? not the only child who is like that. There are thousands of Neto: Children under five to seven are more vulnerable, as children in the same situation. That is one of the reasons we they have few chances of defending themselves. At a certain have delinquency, a problem caused by war as well as the lack age, I suppose, children begin to learn how to survive. of affection and care. Africa Report: Can you tell us about the psychological im- Our government and party must make a lot of effort to help pact of the war on the children? delinquent children with no families, or else this will be a major Neto: I think the war has had a tremendous and devastating problem for future generations. Nobody is guilty if some par-

38 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 "In the rural areas where Unita is most active, the condition of children has critically deteriorated and is now ents have survived and others have died, but in the future we will have to work out many scnous problems on account of the much worse than it was at the time war. Africa Report: Has the condition of Angolan cliildren deteri- of independence." orated since independence? Neto: In some areas of the country, tilings have improved substantially. For instance, in most towns where the enemy have to stay behind, in order to take care of their cliildren and has not been able to penetrate, we have been able to achieve cultivate food for the lighting soldiers. dramatic results with the youth. Children in the cities now Overall, women are very engaged in all facets of our revolu- have access to free health, schools, and sporting facilities, and tion. Many fought in the first liberation war as well and we this has been a great development. have five women who are considered national heroes. In fact, The condition of the children receives great attention from our first national monument was dedicated to those five he- all spheres of the government. I should point out that the roes, as a symbol of the woman fighter. program of our government and of our part y toward the cl liid Presently, we have a lot of women who are members of our is very similar to the program of Unicef, in terms of strategy government, while others are actively engaged in the immuni- and philosophy. zation and illiteracy campaigns, and yet others are responsible But in the rural areas where Unita is most active, the for orphanages. Some have formed mothers' associations in condition of children has critically deteriorated and is now order to help their children with school. Presently, as well as much worse than it was at the time of independence. At in the past, women have had a very significant stronghold and present, it is very difficult for us to give the children more than have vitally supported men. we are giving on account of the war—since a great part of our Africa Report: In what ways has the war in Angola affected national budget goes to the defense ministry. women? Do you think that the role of women has changed Africa Report: What is women's role in the war? during the course of the war, and if so how? Neto: Since the beginning of national liberation, the women Neto: The women's role in the war has not changed per se, liave had a very important role. They have worked not just as but women have continuously adapted to the new circum- mobilizers, but in many other ways such as helping the sol- stances and needs of the country. After so many years of war, diers transport war materials. But of course, the majority we have significantly more trained women, such as doctors, nurses, teachers, and other professionals. Women are present in all spheres of life and there are no prejudices. Sch(K)ling is free for both sexes alike, and so women have the same possibility to develop in life as men. Of course when it comes to ruling the country, we do not have as many women as men, and this is partly due to the role of women as mothers. We only have three or four highly positioned women in the government. Africa Report: What initiatives is the Organization of Ango- lan Women taking with regard to the improvement of the conditions of children? Neto: There are special brigades of mothers that help in schools and organize special amusement programs for the children in the orphanages. Three special fields are being emphasized: health, and especially the prevention of illnesses by immunization campaigns, education, particularly literacy campaigns, and lastly, educational centers not only for children but for mothers who come from rural areas and who can be taught about sanitation, sewing, etc. Africa Report: How will CHISA channel humanitarian assistance to the cliildren of the frontline states? Neto: There are several ways that CHISA can reach Angolan children. For instance, we have the Social Affairs Secretariat which is a link between the government and the international "The problems the children face are all caused by the war organizations. It can also be done through women's organiza- or else related to it. We have a slogan in our country to give to the child everything he or she deserves" tions through which much of the overall aid we receive is disseminated. Q

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 39 ZIMBABWE An Amnesty for UNITY

'It is not clear what will become of the rough and charismatic bush fighters, many of whom have been guerrillas since the mid-1970s"

The majority of the dissidents who had roamed southern Zimbabwe on a

siX'year spree of politically inspired murder and violence surrendered to

officials in May, marking a clear success in the Mugabe government's efforts

to achieve peace and national reconciliation.

40 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 BY ANDREW MELDRUM \

he ultimate test of the success of T Robert Mugabe's decision to merge his ruling party with Joshua Nko- mo's opposition party was whether it could bring an end to the politically inspired violence that has plagued southern Zimbabwe for nearly six years. Dissidents had carried out bloody murders of tourists, missionaries, gov- "The dissi- ernment officials, white farmers, and dents were well-orga- poor peasants to protest what they felt nized and was the Mugabe government's unfair articulate treatment of Nkomo, his Zimbabwe Af- about why they re- rican People's Union (Zapu), and the belled so party's followers, the Ndebele people of violently against the Matabeleland. Mugabe The December "Unity Agreement," government" which allowed Mugabe's ruling Zim- babwe African National Union (Zanu) to absorb Nkomo's Zapu, had significantly merit officials welcomed the men. In ru- but others say they were giving them- reduced political tensions, particularly ral Nkayi, smiling police, politicians, and selves up. The government later stated when Nkomo and other top Zapu offi- villagers eagerly lined up to shake hands the killings were a mistake and assured cials became highly visible members of with some 43 rebels who surrendered rebels the amnesty was genuine. Mugabe's government. But it was not on May 30, welcomed in a manner befit- A celebratory atmosphere pervaded clear if the dissidents' Matabeleland vio- ting returning war heroes. the amnesty ceremony. The 43 men, lence had ended. "This is a great day for Nkayi," said a mostly in their mid-30s, wore sturdy At Zimbabwe's eighth independence policewoman of the rebels' surrender. leather boots and assorted jeans, over- anniversary, Mugabe offered an am- "These are the people we have been alls, and overcoats. Most sported color- nesty to the dissidents, inviting the fighting and last night we had a couple of ful tribal necklaces, headbands, brace- rebels to enjoy the newfound unity in drinks with them. We are all surprised at lets, and safety-pin earrings. They ap- peace. The nation seemed to be holding tliis. . . Maybe now we will have peared well-fed and physically fit. They its collective breath to see if the am- peace." were also well-organized and articulate nesty offer would end the marauding of about why they rebelled so violently the dissident bands throughout Matabe- against the Mugabe government. leland. Tensions mounted as the May 31 Editor Nkomo, a dissident com- deadline approached and only 33 dissi- "The eleventh hour mander, said he formed a band of 60 dents had accepted the amnesty. Disap- rebels in 1983, most of whom had been pointment seemed certain. surge of surrenders killed. "We took to the bush to protest Then just two days before the am- brought the number of the murders and harassment of our peo- nesty expired, waves of rebels turned ple [the Ndebele people of Matabele- themselves in. The eleventh hour surge amnestied dissidents to landj by the party army," said Nkomo, of surrenders brought the number of referring to the army's Fifth Brigade 120, significantly close amnestied dissidents to 120, signifi- which was formed in 1982 solely of cantly close to the government's esti- to the government's members of Mugabe's Zanu party. mate of 150 active rebels. The wave of In 1983 and 1984, the Fifth Brigade surrenders spelled success for Mu- estimate of 150 active carried out brutal campaigns in which, gabe's amnesty, and the country heaved according to church and aid officials, rebels." a sigh of relief. Strife-torn Matabeleland more than 2,000 civilians were killed. was especially seized with a palpable The Fifth Brigade was deployed to stop elation, a kind of spring fever, at the the dissidents' violence, but their bloody prospect of peace in its rural areas. methods only seemed to increase local The rebels gave themselves up in I Jntil the surrender of the 43 in Nkayi, support for the rebels. The Fifth Bri- groups, and impromptu ceremonies about 100 miles north of Bulawayo, no gade has since been pulled out of Mata- were held at police stations as govem- dissidents had sought amnesty in Mata- beleland and to a large extent has be- Andretc Meldrum, an American journalist who beleland north, probably because two come a regular army unit without a spe- has bet'n based in Zimbabwe for seven years, re- rebels were shot and killed in Nkayi on cial political character. ports on southern Africa for Tlie Guardian of Lon- don and the Voice of America. April 26. Police said the two shot first, The 43 rebels who turned them-

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 41 selves in at Nkayi had been dispersed erties that were confiscated by the gov Throughout Matabeleland, the am- throughout the vast arid bush of Mata- eminent in 1982 amid charges of arms nesty has been hailed as a success and beleland north and the adjoining Midland caches. there are many signs that life is finally provinces, and had gathered over a few returning to normal. Teachers and weeks to discuss the amnesty. "We de- health workers are applying in Bula- cided to come in as a group because "Strife-torn wayo to return to the schools and clinics Mugabe has brought unity to the coun- in the rural areas from which they fled try," said another rebel commander, Matabeleland was during the dissidents' reign. "I did not Leonard Nzombane, who said they ever expect to see such a friendly meet- especially seized with were almost all former members of ing between those notorious men and Joshua Nkomo's Zipra army. palpable elation, a kind the government," said a white Nkayi The group hiked into Nkayi with AK- farmer. "It makes ine hopeful that this 47 and G-3 rifles and ammunition. They of spring fever, at the area will see some peace now." led police to caches of more guns, gre- prospect of peace in its It is not clear what will become of the nades, heavy mortars, and rocket rough and charismatic bush fighters, launchers, according to district officials. rural areas." many of whom have l>een guerrillas "We were not defeated in battle. We since the mid-1970s and have little edu- have accepted the amnesty to salute the cation. Government officials speak of unity process," said Juluka Mkwananzi, The Mugabe government is not resettlement help from the ministry of the group's spokesman, reading from a known for easy acceptance of criticism social welfare, but since Zimbabwe is

"In rural Nkayj, smiling police, politicians, and villagers eagerly lined up to shake hands with some 43 rebels, welcomed in a manner befitting returning war heroes" prepared statement. "We are the libera- and advice, but Matabeleland north gov- already saddled with a large problem of tors of our country and now we seek ernor Jacob Mudenda diplomatically re- what to do with nearly 20,0(X) former peace." He asserted that there had sponded that their reform requests guerrillas who are currently unem- been atrocities on both sides, adding, "It would be studied by those at the top. ployed and without pensions, it will be is not just for us to be forgiven, but The dissident band insisted that a few difficult to give the rebels special treat- rather we all should forgive one an- hundred local villagers be allowed to en- ment. other. " ter the police camp to witness how the "I just hope all the goodwill will hold The rebels presented a quixotic list of government officials, to a large degree, until government and other organiza- reforms they would like to see, includ- conferred legitimacy upon the rebels. tions can come up with a program to ing stronger Marxist-Leninist policies in The dissidents were not always charm- bring these men into a productive life," government, an end to corruption, a ing, however. They brusquely refused said a longtime Bulawayo resident. "We pull-out of Zimbabwean troops from to answer reporters' questions about cannot let this bubble burst, because I Mozambique, pensions for all former possible South African supplies of weap- do not think we will get another chance guerrillas, and the return of Zipra prop- ons. like this again." •

42 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 T R V W

Angola Special Report

Venancio de Moura Jonas Savimbi

The war in Angola has been in the headlines since negotiations, mediated by the United States and involving the governments of Angola, Cuba, and South Africa, got underway in early May. In the following pages, AFRICA REPORT examines the background to the Angolan conflict and the state of the ongoing discussions. First, we talk to Sam Nujoma, President of the South West Africa People's Organization, about the centrality ofNamibian independence to the talks' successful outcome. Next, Venancio de Moura, Angola's Vice Minister of Foreign Relations, explains his government's views of the obstacles to achieving a settlement. Lastly, during his late June visit to the U.S., Jonas Savimbi, leader of the South African-backed Unita movement fighting to overthrow the Angolan government, justifies his claim to participate in the country's future.

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 43 SAM NUJOMA INTERVIEWED BY HOWARD FRENCH

Africa Report: What brings you to the United States at this withdrawn from Angola, South Africa should not assault An- time? gola anymore. Nujoma: We are taking advantage of the U.S. presidential Africa Report: What is your feeling about the talks that took elections to talk with the candidates and also with the U.S. place in London and Brazzaville? government, to speak to our old friends and create new ones, Nujoma: There is a new process which indicates that the and to impress upon them that Namibia and its people are not parties that are involved are seriously negotiating. If the indi- yet free. cations we get from Under-Secretary Armacost, whom we Africa Report: Who have you seen and what has your recep- met in Washington, and President dos Santos, who is the tion here been like? originator of this proposal. |are accurate], then the question of Nujoma: We specifically talked with Jesse Jackson, and to implementation of resolution 435 will be included in these advisers of Michael Dukakis. We called upon [the Dukakis talks. camp] to remind Governor Dukakis that if he succeeds in Swapo is expected to participate in these talks when the going to the White House, to support our just cause for free- question of when the South African forces are to depart comes dom and independence by supporting the implementation of up. Other issues contained in the Angolan proposals include [a UN resolution 435. We also requested a meeting with Vice provision that] South Africa and the U.S. should cease to President Bush to do the same. We are still waiting [to meet support the Unita bandits and immediately withdraw troops him]. So far, there is no positive response. from Angolan territory. The last issue [to be resolved] will be While in Washington, we also met with officials from the the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola. Department of State—Under-Secretary of State Armacost. Africa Report: Are you disappointed that Swapo was not We are very much impressed by the interest shown by many party to the talks? Nujoma: We are not disappointed at all. We are being briefed thoroughly by our allies, the Angolans. We were guaranteed "Namibia is the launching pad from that Cuban troops will not depart from Angola until the apart- which South Africa attacks Angola, heid regime agrees to the implementation of resolution 435. We are optimistic that if and when South Africa agrees to and there will be no agreement until negotiate meaningfully, the result will also include the implementation of resolution 435. those bases are eliminated by the Africa Report: Do you see any sign that South Africa would implementation of resolution 435." accept government by Swapo in Namibia? Nujoma: Swapo is one. There is no question of elements of Swapo participating in the bantustan schemes that the Botha people on the question of Namibia. I have been visiting this regime now attempts to impose on the Namibian people. country since 1960, but I have never seen as many people Africa Report: But South Africa has been fighting against now keen on the situation that is prevailing in southern Af- Swapo. Have you seen anything to indicate that South Africa rica—even in Namibia. would reverse its opinion and allow Swapo to take its place as When I am talking about these people, I am not referring to the government of Namibia? the Reagan administration, whose policy is very well-known: Nujoma: The South African government has no intention constructive engagement, praising the apartheid regime, and whatsoever to relinquish its colonial dominion over Namibia. initiating the linkage issue. I am rather referring to the con- But South Africa is confronted with many problems. Armed gressmen and senators who in 1986 passed a bill sanctioning resistance in Namibia is being intensified by the combatants of the apartheid regime. Even under the Reagan regime this has the military wing of Swapo. We have also mobilized the Nami- happened. That shocked Botha, who was not expecting that bian people to the fullest of their capacity to oppose the contin- while Reagan was president, he would be facing greater sanc- ued illegal occupation of their country by the Botha regime— tions. the youth, the workers. For instance, on the first of May in all In our talks with Under-Secretary Armacost, we urged the towns of Namibia, there were demonstrations to demand Reagan administration to pressurize the apartheid regime to improvement in the conditions of workers, but also to demand seriously negotiate in the current talks, so that if the talks are the implementation of UN resolution 435. They know that the successful, they will improve the prospects for implementa- condition of workers in Namibia can only be improved once tion of resolution 435. The Reagan administration should colonialism ends in Namibia. Students in all black schools dem- cease to support the Unita bandits and there should be an onstrated. They refused to attend classes in commemoration international agreement that after South African troops are of the Kassinga massacre of 1978. The Namibian people are politically mature after 28 years of Swapo's existence. Howard French is a reporter for The New York Times. Africa Report: In the best of worlds, what would be the

44 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 most positive outcome you could foresee from the talks? Nujoma: A final agreement on the implementation of resolution 435 and the holding of free and fair elections [in Namibia]. Africa Report: What do you expect South Africa to ask for in exchange? Nujoma: South Africa has already asked for what it wants. It wants the Reagan administration to get the Cubans out of Angola. The Angolans have already said the Cubans will leave tomorrow, if you do A, B, and C. There will be no thinking of Cubans leaving Angola while there are South African attacks. Naniibia is the launching pad from which South Africa attacks Angola, and there will be no agreement until those bases are eliminated by the implementation of resolution 435. Africa Report: What does South Africa get out of all that? At present they control the economy of Namibia and much of the territory of Angola. Nujoma: People have created a mythical South Africa, one that is immune from all pressures. The real South Africa is one that is overstretched militarily, which has more than one-third of its armed forces deployed on the Namibian front—more than 100, (XX) men—and much of the South African air force. It must pay more than $4 million a day to maintain those troops in a state of combat readiness. White boys are dying on the front. All of that places pressure on them. It is not an altruistic South Africa that we are begging to leave Namibia, but a South Africa that has to be confronted with severe problems. They realize now that they have problems. For almost three months, they tried to take Cuito Cuanavale. They have come to realize their limits. They cannot walk out of negotiations. They are not in a position'to do so. The economy in Namibia is also in decline. Whites for the first time are finding themselves unemployed. South Africa now pays more than it gets from the Namibian economy because of the war. Over the last 11 years, there has been no new investment in Namibia. Africa Report: South Africa has tried to create a series of buffer-states, either totally beholden to it, or otherwise unable to pose any threat. Given that strategy, would it allow Swapo, its sworn enemy, to set up a government on its border? Nujoma: We are fighting a struggle. They see that a solution could easily be found in Namibia whereby [whites] could remain. Whites for the first time are joining Swapo. Some of them are forming their own organizations. These are groups composed of the cream of white Namibian society who are opposed to apartheid. Namibia never had liberal whites as you had in South Africa, but the enemy is under siege, the economy is declining, and this has forced people to seek an accommodation. They do not want to let Swapo take power, but they cannot wish Swapo away. They have tried creating one group after another, but they cannot get the support of the people. Everytime they drag their feet on independence, they force more people to Swapo. Africa Report: Can there be an implementation of 435 that does not lead to a Swapo government? Nujoma: There can be no independence that excludes Swapo. The Namibian people will not accept it. Botha has

"Armed resistance in Naniibia is being intensified by the combatants of the military wing of Swapo" already tried every trick in the book. Angola would not accept means does it have at its disposal to carry on the struggle? a solution where resolution 435 would be left out. Nujoma: The membership is composed of Namibian citizens. Africa Report: How do you see the immediate future? We have thousands and thousands of members. It is they who Nujoma: There is a climate of wanting to solve problems by have sustained the freedom fighters for the last 22 years of negotiation—between the superpowers—so the People's armed struggle. If the number of Swapo soldiers who are Republic of Angola is now saying, "Yes, we are ready to let the supposed to have been killed by South Africa were true, there Cuban troops leave, provided A, B, and C are completely would be no more people in Namibia. fulfilled." In the meantime, we will continue to intensify politi- The Organization of African Unity Liberation Committee, cal and military action inside Namibia, because we cannot just created way back in 1963, gives us a significant amount of sit and wait idly to be liberated by outside forces alone. cash. We also receive a significant amount from the socialist Africa Report: Some say Angola's prime concern is getting nations, and the non-aligned movement, and some bilateral. South Africa off its back, and that Namibia is really a side- Even here in the U. S., we have support. show—by accident of geography, the route by which South Africa invades Angola. Is there a risk that Namibia becomes a sideshow in the on-going talks? "There can be no independence that Nujoma: South Africa has been using Namibia as a spring- board for aggression, not only against Angola, but against excludes Swapo. The Namibian Zambia and Botswana. Unita bandits are trained in bases in people will not accept it. Botha has Namibia, so the Angolans cannot trust the simple withdrawal of South African troops from southern Angola. It will only feel already tried every trick in the book." safe when Namibia becomes independent, and this can only be done when resolution 435 is implemented. Africa Report: Has the imposition of American sanctions Africa Report: How large are your armed forces? had any effect? Nujoma: They are drawn from our membership. It is not in Nujoma: Yes, particularly on the community of white set- our interest to reveal their numbers. One day they are urban tlers. What really remains is for Britain and West Germany to dwellers, the next day you will find them in camouflage. Even stop resisting the imposition of sanctions. The Botha regime the support of the Reagan administration will not stop us from is very worried. They don't know who will be in the White scoring the final victory—it will only delay it. Our guerrilla House next, and what their attitude will be toward southern forces can attack anywhere in Namibia. How do they get Africa. around, how do they get through the borders? With the assist- Africa Report: What is Swapo's membership and what ance of the people. •

VENANCIO DE MOURA INTERVIEWED BY MARGARET A. NOVICKI

Africa Report: What is the current state of the negotiations Africans and the Americans are genuinely interested in a on Angola? [Editor's note: This interview took place just prior peaceful, but honorable solution in southern Africa, Angola to the latest round of negotiations in Cairo in late June. ] has once again, with some flexibilityan d in coordination with de Moura: As you know, we have entered a new stage since our Cuban friends, put two concrete proposals on the table. the London meeting. We submitted to the South Africans— As you know, there will soon be a new round of discussions through the U. S. State Department in its role as mediator and somewhere, which will enable the South Africans to respond interested party—two constructive propositions concerning concretely to our proposals. As concerns the calendar, we the ongoing negotiations. These propositions aim toward an have suggested that four years, more or less, are reasonable accord to be signed between Angola, South Africa, the Cu- for the gradual retreat of the Cubans troops, equipment, etc. bans, and Swapo. In this accord, the obligations and the rights If, however, the situation on Angola's borders evolves favor- of all the four concerned parties are spelled out. The second ably concerning our security in the north and a part of the proposition concerns the problem that is of the most interest south, we will certainly continue to be flexiblean d may envis- to the Americans in particular and the South Africans in a age a small reduction in the calendar that we have fixed.Fo r general way—the gradual retreat of our Cuban friends from these kinds of things, we must look at the total picture. That is Angola. The "calendar" for their withdrawal remains the im- the state of the current negotiations. Thus we are waiting for portant question for the Americans. all four parties to agree to the location and the date of the next We think that since the principle of the total, but gradual meeting. withdrawal of Cuban troops has been reaffirmed by the Ango- Although it may be difficult, we remain interested in contin- lan government, we have entered a new phase. If the South uing this process, despite our strong military position on the

46 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 3ECMNDA AOCUNEN

"We fought a long liberation struggle to win our independence as Africans and Angolans Margaret A Novicki

ground. We remain interested in exploiting the diplomatic and the white youth of South Africa, a policy that treats them like political route in order to contribute to peace in Angola and in cannon fodder. southern Africa, and in particular to facilitate the implementa- Africa Report: Do you think the South Africans have calcu- tion of UN resolution 435, which for us, is the fundamental lated that it is better for them to negotiate now under the question, because it is from Namibia, illegally occupied by Reagan administration because they are uncertain as to who South Africa, that all the aggressions against Angola emanate. the next president will be? Africa Report: There are some obstacles remaining which de Moura: There is also that element. Before I was speaking threaten the success of the negotiations. First, do you think only of the realities inside South Africa and in the region. But that South Africa is truly interested in granting independence there are also external factors. Maybe we should recall what to Namibia at this point in time? happened in 1981. Each time that there is a change in govern- de Moura: That is an important question that you have ments in the U. S., the South Africans remain cautious until raised. We are asking ourselves whether South Africa is truly they see what will happen with their allies. South Africa may and finally interested in following the path of negotiation. Krom not be interested fin negotiating seriously] at the moment, our side, one cannot doubt us because looking at our proposi- because it is not clear yet who will occupy the White House tions, you can see how flexible we are. We are not overly and what his policy toward southern Africa and the Pretoria optimistic concerning the South Africans, but we are waiting regime will be. Perhaps Pretoria is on standby until the situa- until their position is clearer in the upcoming meetings. But I tion becomes clear. But no matter what the policy of the new must say that up to this point, we are not yet sure whether American government, it cannot be worse than the current South Africa is really interested in exploiting the possibilities one, from which we are indirectly suffering the consequences. which have been presented by Angola. We think it is a unique It can't support the Pretoria regime more than it is now. opportunity and that South Africa must take advantage of it, if Maybe there will be a change. We are waiting for it, we hope it is really interested in resolving the Namibian problem. so and we desire it—a change in the positive sense—in favor But our suspicions oblige us to bear in mind that the South of the countries of southern Africa, Angola, Namibia, and African government may not yet be ready to apply resolution South Africa itself. 435. It is always trying to kill time in order to weaken Swapo, Africa Report: The issue of American support to Unita must to try to find other solutions—all to block the application of present another obstacle to the negotiations. resolution 435 and to escape from its obligations concerning de Moura: Yet again, we regret and we condemn this two- the Namibian people. But that will always remain difficult for track policy that the Reagan administration is pursuing. At the the Pretoria regime. The more time passes, the more the same time that we have concrete proposals on the negotiating aggression will continue. table toward a peaceful solution in southern Africa, through The costs of South Africa's military adventures are also the mediation of the United States, we find it unacceptable enormous, because now South African youth are forced to that the administration is inviting or allowing those who are leave their country to carry out their government's policy of called the bandits, the leaders of terrorism of Angola, to visit expansionism and aggression outside their territory. It is they the U. S. We have only one position—of condemnation of the who suffer the consequences. There are a lot of young South presence of Savinibi in the United States. We ask the U.S., African boys who are handicapped or who have died in Angola South Africa, and other countries, including those in Africa, to or Namibia for an unjust cause. The South African youth, like stop the support that they are giving to Savimbi and Unita in in the period of Portuguese colonialism, must listen to their order to help us eliminate this scourge from which we are consciences and react. This policy offers nothing positive to suffering in Angola. If they really want a peaceful solution, it is

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 47 not by sending an invitation to Savimbi that they will find it. de Moura: No. For us, Unita, with Savimbi or without, is a We have a policy of clemency to bring together all Ango- puppet organization, thus its policy is unacceptable. What we lans, even members of Unita, provided that it free itself from continue to affirm is the opportunity that we have given to all foreign influence, especially that of apartheid. We can pardon those who want to give themselves up from the ranks of them, we can integrate them. Like we have done with the Unita. We do not have any interest in forming a government FNLA, without criminal consequences to those who hand with the puppets. That would mean sharing our power in themselves over to our security. But we will not accept sitting Angola with the apartheid regime—which wouldn't be desir- down at the negotiating table with a puppet organization which able for our people. We fought a long liberation struggle to win threatens the interests of our people and which sacrifices our independence as Africans, Angolans, non-aligned, and for innocent lives. Therefore, we cannot but regard the presence the political option we chose, Marxism-Leninism. The possi- of Savimbi in the U.S. as a strengthening of the conservative bility of forming such a government is non-existent. forces, which can only make more difficult the process of Africa Report: Angola was a subject of discussion between negotiation in which we are involved through the mediation of Reagan and Gorbachev at the Moscow summit, at which the the U.S. itself. date of September 29 was fixed as a deadline for resolution of Africa Report: Dr. Crocker, the assistant secretary of all outstanding issues. state, has said that the issue of U. S. support to Savimbi is not de Moura: I am not up on the details which were discussed. open to discussion during the negotiations. But how can you Each time the U. S. and Soviet Union meet, they review cer- separate that issue from the main question of Angolan secu- tain regional conflicts which pose a threat to global peace. I rity, especially given that your government has recently al- don't know the details of their discussions on Angola. But leged that the U.S. is shifting its supply routes to Unita from concerning the date of September 29, that date was chosen southern Angola to the northern border with Zaire? because it is the tenth anniversary of UN resolution 435 and de Moura: First of all, it must be known that we will not the idea to initiate the implementation of that resolution is a engage in discussions at the negotiating table with Unita. positive indication. The problem for us is as follows: Are the There is no question of that. For us, Unita is a puppet organi- international institutions prepared to install the UNTAG force zation which is defending foreign interests and we do not [in Namibia]? That is a problem which must concern the UN consider it a party to the negotiations. But we continue to Security Council and the secretary-general. The secretary- insist to the U.S.—in its role as mediator—that it stop its general must be involved to see if the mechanisms can be put interference in the internal affairs of Angola through the aid it into place by that date. But there remain outstanding logistical gives to Unita. That's what we demand of everyone, including and administrative problems. From my point of view, when it in particular Dr. Crocker. We have underlined that support to comes to the question of the liberation of a people, a question Unita from whatever quarter should stop. of peace, it doesn't matter if it is today or tomorrow, it is At the moment we are speaking, some acts of destabiliza- necessary to know under what conditions one can achieve tion have been recorded in the northern part of Angola, where such an aim. We must be conscious of our responsibilities in all there is a 2,6(X)-kilometer border with a brother African coun- these phases. try, Zaire. We have made our concerns known to the Zairian Africa Report: Has the Soviet Union changed its policies in government, informing them that their territory is being used southern Africa, as some have suggested, that it is no longer by the bandits, and that it is desirable in the spirit of good interested in supporting military solutions to the region's con- neighborliness, of respect for the accords which have been flicts? signed by Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Mobutu de Moura: No, I don't think so. The Soviet Union as a coun- Sese Seko, that they take measures to prevent the territory try has always been interested in the liberation of people and of Zaire from being used by Unita to launch aggression against therefore it cannot change its policy vis-a-vis southern Africa our population. where the questions are simple: the struggle for the indepen- But the government of Zaire has ignored this. This is re- dence of Namibia, and the struggle which southern Africa and grettable. We have information that there are bases in Zaire particularly our people are leading against South African ag- near our border, which according to journalists and news gression and occupation of our territory. The Soviet Union is reports from the U.S., are being used by the U.S. to assist continuing to support us in our efforts to get South Africa to Savimbi and his puppet organization. We can confirm with withdraw from Angola, so that peace can be reestablished. certitude, by evidence given by prisoners who have made The Soviet Union is continuing its policy of support to our public declarations, by material captured by us, that the country. brother territory of Zaire is being used—with or without the Africa Report: Is your government optimistic that concrete complicity of the Zairian authorities. Therefore we advise results will come out of these negotiations? Zaire, in the spirit of peaceful coexistence between the two de Moura: We are neither pessimistic nor optimistic. We countries, to bear in mind the consequences that may result have to analyze the facts. The concrete proposals on the table from providing facilities to the bandits, which is not in the show you what our interest and our hopes are. What is the common interests of the people of Zaire and Angola. prognosis? That depends on the attitudes of the parties with Africa Report: There has been a lot of speculation that your whom we are discussing. Our objectives—Angola and government may be prepared to integrate Unita in a govern- Cuba—which we are prepared to pursue to the end, are ment of national unity, but without Savimbi. peace and to sign an accord under the aegis of the UN secre-

48 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 tary-general or the Security Council to reestablish peace in try! Never at any moment has the Angolan army crossed over Angola and contribute to the independence of Namibia. We our borders in the north or south. hope that the U.S. and South Africa will be honest in these Africa Report: South Africa has also complained that the efforts, but it is up to them to prove it. Cuban troops are moving south toward the border with Nami- Up until now, what have we seen? The double face, on the bia. one hand as mediator and on the other, as interested party. de Moura: Inside our borders, what we do is our right, within South Africa also says that it is interested in negotiating, but at the norms of international law. Posing this pretext is a bad sign the same time it is beginning to pose certain difficulties, by which complicates our discussions. It is not a question of us saying for example that the Angolan army is massing at the crossing over our border. We have no interest in doing so. We border with Namibia. But our troops are inside our own coun- have no interest in bringing the war into Namibia or beyond. •

JONAS SAVIMBI INTERVIEWED BY DAPHNE TOPOUZIS Africa Report: Why is everyone ready to talk about peace in Savimbi: I think that at that time he put forward his program southern Africa at the moment? What are the specific factors of reforms, and all of us thought that we have to support the that are conducive to the talks? reformer because if he could bring about a democratic society, Savimbi: First of all, all those who had opted for a military where whites and blacks would work together, I think he solution now realize that the military solution is not a solution deserved the support of anyone. at all after 13 years of fighting.Secondly , the statements from Africa Report: Many people have called you an opportunist the Soviet Union, whereby they accept the withdrawal of the for your alternate support of Maoism, pro-Americanism, anti- Cubans and national reconciliation, have created the mood for Americanism, etc. What is your reply? everybody talking about peace. Savimbi: I think all those are labels that they put on freedom Africa Report: What is Unita's relationship with South Af- fighters. They called us Maoists because we went to Mao rica? Tse-Tung to learn how to fight Portuguese colonialism, be- Savimbi: I think that anything that we got from South Africa cause we could not get that training elsewhere. But we were was out of necessity. Because when anyone is fighting a war, not Maoists because we went there as Angolans—to have you have to get support where you can get it. It is not only skills to fight our enemy, which was Portuguese colonialism. Unita that has been getting support. The founding fathers There had never been any anti-American feelings in our here [in the United Stales] got support from the monarchies movement. I am the son of a minister and I was trained by of France and Spain, and they did not approve at all of the American scholarship and the people who got me the scholar- systems which were there because they were fightingt o have ship are still there in California. I am a Protestant, trained by a more democratic system at that time. American missionaries, so there is no anti-American feeling in Africa Report: How much military assistance are you re- the past or now. ceiving at the moment from South Africa? Africa Report: According to recently revealed documents, Savimbi: I think the troops that the South Africans send to you had a formal agreement for military collaboration with Angola, they do not send them for us, they send them for their Portuguese troops during the last three years of Portuguese own interests as the Cubans are there. rule in Angola. Africa Report: Are Unita troops trained by South Africa? Savimbi: Working with the Portuguese—Never1. Fighting Savimbi: No. Our troops are trained by ourselves and by against the Portuguese, yes. I am the only one who was in the African instructors from independent African countries. bush fightingth e Portuguese while the other liberation move- Africa Report: What does South Africa want from the cur- ments were based in Lusaka, in Dar es Salaam, and in Brazza- rent situation? ville. But I was the only one fighting the Portuguese in the Savimbi: I do not know. I am not the one to explain what the bush for eight years. South Africans want. What I can say is that all black national- Africa Report: What is your relationsliip with Zaire and ists—and I am one, because I have fought for 22 years for the President Mobutu? independence of my country and for the dignity of the black Savimbi: We do not have any special relationship with Presi- man in Angola—all of us condemn apartheid. dent Mobutu. All African countries are now calling for the end Africa Report: You have said on numerous occasions that of civil war in Angola and for national reconciliation. President you oppose apartheid and yet in 1986 you were quoted by "60 Mobutu has voiced that position, but also Nigeria, Kenya, Minutes" as saying that P.W. Botha is your friend. How do Ivory Coast, Togo, Morocco, and so many other countries. you explain that? We support that position because African countries now real- This interview was filmed for South Africa Now, a weekly television program ize that this is the time to call for national reconciliation. an southern Africa. Africa Report: South Africa has often been compared with

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 49 Nazi Germany and many have problems with the fact that you tion—that I support the talks for peace and settlement in are working with such a country. Angola and in southern Africa. Savimbi: I think you will remember that when the British Africa Report: Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson have were fighting the Second World War, the people in the Com- called South Africa a terrorist state. Do you agree or disagree mons told Churchill, "Mr. Prime Minister, you are a Commu- with them? nist, " if the Germans attack Stalin, and he said, "I am prepared Savimbi: I think he [Dukakis] represents the people. When to make a deal with the devil if I have to protect democracy." he will be elected and will be the president in the White I louse, Africa Report: Recently, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Mi- he will represent the will of the American people. So, 1 am not chael Dukakis, and a host of black leaders said that they will one to tell him what he is to do. He will be accountable to the put an end to all aid to Unita. What are you going to do if that American people, to decide what the policy of the U.S. will be. happens? Africa Report: Wliat are you hoping will come out of the Savimbi: They all represent their communities, but in An- current talks? gola we never had a chance to elect our leaders. But the Savimbi: We want them to pursue the talks. As I mentioned accords we have signed with the Portuguese called for free before, now there is a potential for a peaceful solution to the and democratic elections. We never had that. I think that is the problem which has been dragging on for 15 years. We are privilege of free people, free leaders, to decide what they really optimistic that something positive will come out, which have to do. But we want them to understand. In our country, means the withdrawal of the Cubans, the independence of we want a free system where the people will have that free- Namibia, national reconciliation in Angola. We are very hope- dom of choosing their own leaders. ful that they will make progress. Africa Report: The United States has been supporting you Africa Report: You say you support Swapo and yet most actively for many years. What happens if American aid to reports point to the contrary. Unita is suddenly severed? Savimbi: Who has given the contrary reports? Swapo? I am Savimbi: I think that is the privilege of those who will be saying that we were the first in 1966 to train the first group of elected. What we are asking the American public is to give us Swapo guerrillas. The base they are using today in my coun- a chance to also elect our own people who will also lead our try, it was me who gave it to them. We have been working people. And also we do not agree with the one-party system in together for years. I do not blame them to remain with our country. It is not only because we want opposition. We Luanda. But I am sorry to say that they are paying such a high want the people to have the right to criticize the government. price: that they have to fightLuanda' s war in Angola instead of But it is also what we have agreed upon with the MPLA and pursuing their own armed struggle to get their independence. the Portuguese—to have elections in Angola. I support Swapo and their freedom fighters. Africa Report: It is rumored that the Angolan government in Africa Report: Unicef has reported that Unita has been Luanda would consider holding discussions which will planting landmines in fieldsan d roads and that Angola has the include Unita, but not Savimbi. What are your comments on highest per capita amputation rate in the world—the majority this? being women and children. What do you have to say to this? Savimbi: They never said so. Up to now, we are asking the Savimbi: We want to invite Unicef to come to Jamba and find MPLA to state publicly that they want to negotiate with Unita. out how many people have stepped on the mines planted by They never did so. So I think all that is speculation. What we the MPLA. Again, we want the people to understand the want is them to accept negotiating with Unita, so that we go nature of a guerrilla war. You cannot plant mines in an area back to the Alvor agreement and have elections. And then, where you want to have the support of the local people. the people will have a choice—to choose those who will be in The MPLA are the people who are abducting people from the government. their natural habitat to bring them to towns. Those people do Africa Report: What happens if the Angolan government not have anything to live on. No ftxxl, no conditions, so they agrees to hold discussions with Unita but refuses to include are tempted to go back to their own natural areas. It is why you in the talks? the MPLA has to stop them by planting mines. We invite Savimbi: If they accept negotiating with Unita, that is what anyone to come to Jamba and to also look at the people who we want. We want them to negotiate with Unita. I am the have been crippled because of MPLA mines. president of Unita. Africa Report: So, are you denying that Unita has ever Africa Report: Would you be prepared to step down if need targeted civilian populations? be? Savimbi: It cannot be a policy of an effective guerrilla move- Savimbi: |OnlyJ if they, as Unita, ask me to and said they ment because if it is, they alienate the people. We sent a want another leader. But not if the MPLA wants it. journalist who travelled through eight provinces when he was Africa Report: What is the purpose of your visit to the U. S. ? there, without being troubled at all by the Cubans or by the Savimbi: Kirst of all, I came here because I was invited by a MPLA because he was protected all along by the local popula- bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans. And I came tion. to them, to thank the American public for the support I got. Africa Report: There are reports that Unita has killed ANC Secondly, this is really a time when there is a favorable mood members in refugee camps. for negotiations, and the Americans are playing the role of Savimbi: We have not [killed anyj. Even the ones we have, mediator. I also want the American public to know my posi- we are ready to hand them over. D

50 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 MALAWI Shouldering the Refugee Burden

The Malawi government—the friendliest in the region to the Renamo rebels—has ironically found itself saddled with the largest influx of Mozambicans. Fleeing rebel atrocities, the refugees are straining the nation's logistical capacity and putting pressure on already tight economic resources.

BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA

Captured Re- namo arms and POWs: "More than 100,000 Mozambicans arrived after charges that Renamo was operating from Malawian bases' n the evening of May 14, Maria ratios of refugees to nationals in the estimate. O Chale, her husband, and one- world. The influx, says U.S. State De- For those in the field, there are two year-old daughter went to bed as usual partment refugee expert Robert Ger- primary concerns: first, just how many in the makeshift shelter they had sony in his report on Mozambican refu- more refugees Malawi can absorb with- erected when they first arrived in the gees in the six southern African coun- out beginning to cause economic and po- central Mozambican town of Sena, flee- tries where they are found, would be litical problems, and second, how the ing rebel control. equivalent to 17 million refugees pour- refugees an? to be keep occupied, given Suddenly, gunshots peeled through ing into the U. S. the critical shortage of resources, espe- the still air and a grenade was thrown, as Worse still, with prospects for peace cially land, in Malawi. The dilemma, the same South African-backed Renamo in Mozambique still dim and over one- says one Malawian relief worker, "is forces made a determined bid to recap- third of its 14 million people facing star- that we cant take another half a million ture Sena which has been at the center vation, ever-increasing numbers are people, but we can't stop them from of a major tug-of-war between rebels still finding their way into Malawi from coming either." and government forces over the last the three provinces of Tete, Zambezia, It is almost a joke in relief circles now year. and Niassa which form a 960-mile ring that when the first refugees arrived, it Screaming, Chale grabbed hold of her around the southern "spur" of Malawi. was felt that Malawi could not possibly daughter and rushed into the surround- With an average of 20,000 new arrivals handle more than 100,000 newcomers. ing bush, losing sight of her husband. "I per month this year, the UN High Com- They had come shortly after the leaders followed a group of people who seemed missioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ex- of Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to know where they were going," the pects to handle 750,000 refugees next visited Malawi's pro-South African Life young woman recalled in a recent inter- year. And that could be a conservative President Kamuzu Banda on Septem- view. For three days, Chale, together with some 392 villagers, plied their way through tall grass and over hills, finally "There are a half million refugees in Malawi in a arriving exhausted at the southernmost country which ironically has been the friendliest town of Nsanje in neighboring Malawi. A deceptive calm envelopes the re- of all to the right-wing Renamo." ception point as relief workers system- atically screen newcomers for any dis- eases they may be carrying, register them, and ensure that they are served a meal of corn and beans. Inside, there is still pain and fear. Asked if she thinks she will see her husband again, Chale turns her head away. Tears well in her tired eyes. From the reception point, the new arrivals are taken to yellow tarpaulin transit camps and then on to the Mankhokwe refugee camp which, with 200,000 people, bears the distinction of accommodating more people than the adjacent town. All told, there are half a million refugees in Malawi—about half the total number of Mozambican refugees in all of southern Africa—in a country which ironically has been the friendliest of all to the right-wing Mozambican National Resistance Movement, known by its Portuguese acronym Renamo. "Mozambican villagers plied In absolute numbers, Malawi now their way shoulders the third most serious refu- through tall grass and gee crisis in Africa, after Sudan and So- over hills, malia. Moreover, with a local population finally arriv- of 7 million people, the tiny central Afri- ing exhausted at the south- can country now has one of the highest ernmost town Colleen Lowe Morna is a Zimbabwean freelance of Nsanje, journalist based in Harare. Malawi" ber 11,1986, charging that Kenamo was poured into the southwestern Dedza operating from Malawian bases. district of Malawi between May 9 and Banda denied the charge. However, 16, fleeing fighting in a concerted cam- confronted with threats of sanctions by paign by Frelimo to retake the agricul- Zimbabwe and Zambia through which turally rich Angonia district of Tete Malawian goods now have to pass to get province. to far-off South African ports—as Re- Such attacks appear to account for namo has rendered Malawi's natural the largest number of refugees over the outlets through Mozambique inopera- last few months. The point was graphi- tive—Banda promised to look into the cally illustrated in Nsanje when, as a issue. Soon after, huge Renamo contin- photographer got ready to click his cam- gents apparently being flushed out of era, a child—fearing the instrument was Malawi overran large parts of Zambezia, a gun—ducked to the ground. A plain- leading to the first influx of refugees. clothes security official was heard to The second surge occurred in Febru- comment that he couldn't have done ary 1987 when combined Zimbabwean, better himself. Tanzanian, and Mozambican troops, In other cases, the causes are more "With prospects for peace in Mozambique tired by the death of Mozambican Presi- still dim and over one-third of its 14 million long-term. While the provinces neigh- dent Samora Machel in a plane crash on people facing starvation, ever-increasing boring Malawi are generally agricultur- South African soil, went on a major of- numbers are finding their way into Ma- lawi" ally rich, the fact that many have not fensive in northern Mozambique with been able to grow crops for the last the aim of clearing rebels out of the area. three seasons is creating its own steady At least on paper, relations between flow of asylum-seekers. "The reasons Malawi and Mozambique have im- "Because Banda has now cover a broad spectrum, including proved dramatically. Mozambique has hunger, harassment, or a combination upgraded its representation in Lilongwe predicated his of both," says Sam Mwanza, assistant from charge d'affaires to full ambassador district commissioner in Nsanje. semi-feudal presidency and the embassy now has a military at- Initially, as Malawi was not a signa- tache. Malawi has committed 600 on the right of every tory to the UN convention on refugees, troops to help guard the rail route to the the Malawi Red Cross, the ministry of Mozambican port of Nacala and has ap- Malawian to shelter, health, and the action wing of Malawi's parently taken some heavy casualties. clothes, and food, any churches called the Christian Services Both sides sit on a security and defense Committee (CSC), shouldered all relief commission which meets regularly. deterioration in the work. Because the rather artificial Yet last November, two top Renamo boundary between Malawi and Mozam- officials, Joao da Silva Ataide and Ma- economy could have bique separates the Sena, Ngoni, and teus Lopes, were killed in a car accident political repercussions." Lomwe peoples, some refugees went in Malawi, after they had reportedly re- to stay with relatives and certainly no turned from Mozambique for a meeting one was turned away. with Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama. But as the numbers spiralled, UN- And at a press conference in Maputo in number of refugees. There is one area HCR was invited in to assist and hasty March, Paulo Oliveira, a Renamo defec- along the Malawi border with Mozam- negotiations took place, leading to the tor and previously one of the group's bique—opposite the majestic Mount signing of the convention in November main spokesmen, said the rebels had Mlanje—where Renamo has been in 1987 and to the opening of a full UNHCR "no great problems" in passing through continuous control since 1985. Else- office in February this year. The UN Malawi, despite the change in political where, as one Western diplomat put it, agency now serves as chief coordinator winds. "Frelimo controls district capitals and of the relief effort and has budgeted $20 Western diplomats deny that Renamo other areas which they want to control," million for its activities in Malawi for this has bases in Malawi, but do not rule out while Renamo wanders in between. year alone. This is augmented by ap- "some political movement back and In these sway areas—like Sena— proximately $10 million supplied by forth." Although Renamo originally each fresh attack leads to a new influx of NGOs, including the CSC. the Malawi tlireatened to retaliate against Malawi refugees. Moreover, there is evidence Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres, for making peace with Mozambique, that buoyed by the Zimbabwe army and the International Rescue Committee, there have been relatively few incidents with its morale boosted by the recent and Save the Children (Malawi). in Malawi compared to Zambia and Zim- unprecedented condemnation of Re- Despite the severe logistical con- babwe, possibly underlining an unofficial namo, Frelimo is determined to try and straints, the immediate crisis appears to understanding. consolidate its gains in the north. For be fairly well under control. As World This, however, has not reduced the example, an estimated 50,000 refugees Food Programme project officer

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 53 Thomas Ruegg explains, because of the food aid, while the rest will have to be him and chopped off his hands. closure of Malawi's rail links with both purchased, adding to the severe con- Because the war in Mozambique is so Nacala and Beira, food has to be trucked straints on foreign exchange—already widespread, other refugees are even to Malawi largely from the South African stretched because of Malawi's high more highly qualified. Take, for exam- port of Durban, nearly 2,400 miles transport costs. ple, Mario Nchimeka, who used to work away. There is also some grumbling among as a government clerk in the town of Some 60 percent of the relief supplies businessmen who have to compete with Chemba, Zambezia province, until the are trucked through Zimbabwe and the food aid for trucking services. They say February 1987 offensive. "The war is "Tete" corridor in Mozambique, which the trucking companies prefer to trans- no chooser of persons," he explained. is guarded by Zimbabwean troops, port food aid—before Malawi's im- "We all got caught in the crossfire." partly paid for by Malawi. The other 40 ports—because they get paid promptly, Once one of the "better-off in Mo- percent goes via a much longer route well, and in foreign currency by donor zambique, Nchimeka now lives in a mud through Zambia. "As long as Zimbabwe agencies. Some of the economic costs of hut two miles away from his neighbor in keeps the Tete route open, we will get having large numbers of refugees are a camp in Nsanje, with no worldly pos- all the food in on time in 1989," Ruegg less obvious, but pose a burden none- sessions other than the clothes he said. "Should the Zimbabwe convoys theless. These include a heavier admin- wears, a cup, and a plate. Sometimes, cease," he added, "we'll be in bad istrative burden, the need to beef up law he does voluntary work for the Red shape." enforcement agencies, and strains on Cross. Often, he dreams of his type- Ruegg, like several other donor rep- services likes roads and hospitals. writer. "I wish I could work," he says resentatives interviewed in Malawi, be- Because Banda has predicated his simply. lieves that as long as donor support is semi-feudal presidency on the right of Because of the land pressure in Ma- maintained, the presence of the refu- every Malawian to shelter, clothes, and lawi, no Mozambicans have been al- gees will not affect Malawi or lead to food—if little else—any further deterio- lowed to farm, work, or sell handicrafts, fresh arrivals being turned away. In ration in the economy could have politi- as they may flood the local market. Over practice, however—especially at the cal repercussions. Though relatively the past few months, UNHCR and the current rate of inflow—the matter may weak and disparate, Malawi's oppo- Malawi government have been ham- not be quite that simple. For example, nents-in-exile are watching events mering out a six-volume plan on how to although most experts attribute the fact closely. They blame Banda for bringing provide employment for the refugees, that Malawi itself had to import food for the current transport and refugee crisis without prejudicing Malawi and raising the first time in two decades last year to upon himself by being disposed to South the standards of the local population at bad weather and poor pricing policies, Africa and Renamo in the first place. the same time. many Malawians feel it is not a coinci- They are waiting anxiously to exploit Among the proposals are large capital dence that last year also witnessed the any cracks in the Banda mystique. investment projects such as land recla- largest influx of refugees. Whether anytliing will happen during mation and irrigation to squeeze as A resident in Blantyre, the commer- what is left of Banda's lifetime (he is be- much as possible out of existing re- cial hub of Malawi, points out that believed to be over 90) is open to question. sources. The study also makes recom- cause of the huge influx of refugees into But matters such as "famine" have be- mendations for rapid reforestation pro- Dedza, he was not able to cultivate a come extremely politically sensitive in jects, in view of the alarming rate at piece of land he owns there. Many peas- Lilongwe. which trees are being felled in the camp ant farmers, he notes, ran short of corn Meanwhile, in the refugee camps, re- areas. at the end of the year because they had lief workers are grappling with the prob- At a World Council of Churches con- shared their supplies with relatives from lem of how to occupy the teams of refu- ference in Harare to review refugee Mozambique. The Blantyre resident gees, some of whom have now been in programs in Mozambique's neighboring compares the refugees to the camel the country for close to two years. "We countries, further suggestions were which asked if it could put its head in a need a more durable solution than just made. These include helping to create man's tent and ended up taking over the feeding these people," says Christian external markets for crafts made by whole tent. "After the man was driven Services Committee head Dennis Mozambican refugees and purchase of out of the tent, that was all," he said. Mpassou, who has worked with the ref- land held by absentee landlords in Ma- "But we are even being driven out of our ugees since they first started flooding lawi for use by refugees. yards." into the country. One Malawian made the novel sug- For the time being, the government For the most part, of course, the ref- gestion that the UN should hive off a has frozen all sales of maize to relief ugees are farmers. Their desperate de- chunk of Mozambique, resettle refu- agencies in an effort to build up national sire to be even in small measure self- gees in the area, and protect it until the stocks. Although this year's harvest sufficient is graphically—if tragically— war is over. It does not make sense, he looks promising, the buffer stock is so illustrated by the case of a refugee from reasoned, for refugees to crowd into depleted that the country faces a short- Dedza who used to sneak across the one of Africa's most densely populated fall of 200,000 tons of maize. Some border during the daytime to cultivate countries while large tracts of rich farm 160,000 tons will come in the form of his field, until the day Renamo caught land waste away in Mozambique. •

54 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 \ The JVIilitary Mi MOZAMBIQUE

The late President Machel inspecting captured Renamo equipment: • "Instructions in tactical warfare and shooting have served the army well in the thick brush lands where it battles Renamo"

Western governments have been providing military training and non-lethal aid to the Frelimo army, while other nations have committed troops in support of Mozambique's efforts to combat the Renamo rebels. However, administrative and logistical assistance remains the Mozambican military's most pressing need. quelnfnTn;):nTi A n-r en young Mozambican soldiers Berets," the soldiers boast, has scared Tgathered around a giant iron pot off the rebel bands in the immediate and waited hungrily for the cook to begin area. spooning out helpings of boiled beans However, the sporadic supply ship- and slices of sardines. Fresh water sup- ments raise a big question mark over plies had just arrived by train and the the effectiveness of Britain's current troops were savoring their first real military aid package for Mozambique. meal in a week. Though the Mozambican armed forces "We never know when the food is can use help on many fronts, including coming, and the well water is making us training, improving the government's sick," said Pvt. Florencio Eduardo Dan- ability to manage the 30,000-strong iel. "At the British training camp we ate army has become President Chissano's well, dressed well, and slept well. Once biggest challenge and was a major rea- we came back to Mozambique, every- son he launched the biggest-ever reor- thing changed." ganization of the army high command Pvt. Daniel, 18, and 103 Mozambican last June. soldiers encamped around this aban- When asked during an interview last doned railroad station about 50 miles year what was the Mozambican army's north of the capital, Maputo, are some most pressing problem, "logistics" was of the best-trained troops in the army. the president's instant reply. Current "Improving the Having graduated in December from a Western aid efforts, however, do not government's 12-week course run by British military address that problem squarely, though ability to manage the 30,000- advisers, the instructions in tactical war- Portugal is reportedly set to begin logis- strong army fare, river crossings, and shooting have tical training. has become served them well in these thick brush To date, Western military aid has fo- Presideni Chissano's lands as they battle rebels of the South cused on training and providing non-le • biggest chal- African-backed Mozambique National thai equipment, such as radios, boots, lenge" Resistance Movement (Renamo). and uniforms. The British program, But they seem ill-prepared for the lo- though the biggest of any Western coun- gistical nightmare of the war in Mozam- try, is still very modest, costing an esti- bique, where shortages of food and sup- mated $8 million this year. It will take Displaced per- plies are a constant drain on army mo- years to have any real impact on the sons camp at rale. war, given the small number of sol- Benga: "Already diers—about 350—British instructors Western govern- As the first full company to be trained ments are pro- by the British at the Nyanga camp in train each year. And because the course viding $200 Zimbabwe, these young men have be- takes place outside the country, the million in emer- trainers are out of touch with local fight- gency aid to come a symbol of growing British and feed millions of Western military aid to President ing conditions. war refugees" Joaquim Chissano's largely Soviet-sup- British advisers involved in the effort plied Frelimo army. A second company are under no illusion that the training took up positions 15 miles south of Un- program will break the deadlock in the larly strong among Commonwealth gubana on June 12, and two more Brit- war. "You cannot be serious unless you states—of Margaret Thatcher's anti- ish-trained companies are expected by are training in-country," said one West- sanctions policy toward South Africa. next March, to form a full batallion by ern military analyst. "The program was The companies trained at Nyanga are the time the current program runs out. designed by politicians and its impor- one of a mushrooming number of special Spirits at Ungubana are relatively tance is largely political." Mozambican forces set up with Western high despite the failure of the Mozambi- Nevertheless, the Chissano govern- training and assistance. Most of the Fre- can army's logistical system to provide ment hopes such Western assistance limo soldiers receiving such aid, like the the troops with adequate food and sup- will help to curtail South African pres- British-trained units, are guarding pro- plies. Just four of the first company's sure on Mozambique and gradually im- jects of interest to the particular spon- troops went AWOL this year, and all prove the quality of its soldiers. Already sor. The troops at Ungubana are pro- have since returned to camp. Despite Western governments are providing tecting a British-funded effort to rebuild regular clashes with the rebels, the over $200 million in emergency aid to the great southern railroad that parallels company has taken no casualties. The feed millions of war refugees and to re- the Limpopo River on its 335-mile route arrival of the British-trained "Green vive the collapsed, yet potentially ro- from Zimbabwe to Maputo port. bust economy. Britain, on the other They were also playing a backup role Karl Mater is southern Africa correspondent for hand, has used the Mozambican military in the Frelimo offensive launched on The Independent of London and contributes regularly to The Christian Science Monitor. program to deflect criticism—particu- May 18 against rebel bases in Maputo

56 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 province. Mounting dusk-to-dawn am- bolster the defense of important trans- Mozambique's allies, only the Soviet- bushes and regular patrols up to 10 port routes and economic centers. Zim- trained "Red Beret" commandos have miles out, 30-man platoons pick off Re- babwe has by far the deepest commit- made a major difference in the war. As namo bands fleeinggovernmen t sweeps ment in Mozambique, with at least they did last year, the "Red Berets" are in the east and south and lightning 10,000 troops at an estimated cost of spearheading a new and thus far largely strikes by Zimbabwean troops to the $500,000 per month. successful offensive against Renamo in north in Gaza province. After protecting the rehabilitation of the rich northern province of Zambezia. Other elite forces include "the Ti- the Beira Corridor rail line, road, and oil On June 2, they captured the district gers, " who are protecting the European pipeline linking Zimbabwe to the Indian capital of Milange, on the border with Community's biggest agricultural Ocean, the Zimbabwean National Army Malawi, which the rebels had held since scheme near Maputo. Italian construc- is now concentrating on checking rebel September 1986. Now government tion firms have long been feeding gov- attacks on the Limpopo railroad. That forces are driving against the Western ernment troops near the dam projects in transport route could help Zimbabwe to town of Gile, the last district capital in the south. The widespread lack of se- divert much of its foreign trade from the Zambezia held by the guerrillas. The ul- curity has also attracted profit-making South African ports on which it now de- timate target is Renamo's strategic private security firms, such as the Brit- pends. In mid-March, Zimbabwean mountain "Nantutu" base near Namar- ish company, Defense Systems Ltd. troops swept down upon three rebel ba- roi in the center of the province which (DSL), which has trained about 400 Fre- ses in Gaza province and according to has put the rebels in striking range of limo soldiers guarding the NacaJa rail- Mozambican sources, killed one of Re- key cities. namo's top southern commanders, Although the government has scored Gen. Gomes. Zimbabwean army opera- recent gains against a 20,000-strong tions were continuing into late June. Renamo army badly short of food in cer- Some 500 Malawian troops are pa- tain areas and discredited by detailed trolling the far-western portion of the refugee accounts of horrific atrocities, Nacala railroad, which is Malawi's short- few Mozambican officials any longer be- est route to the sea. The war in Mozam- lieve in a purely military solution to the bique has cut the line and Malawi is conflict. The government army is sim- forced to spend huge amounts of foreign ply too small and the country too large. exchange earnings—some estimates Thus, in tandem with attempting to put the figure as high as 40 percent per put military pressure on Renamo, Presi- year—shipping exports by road with dent Chissano declared an amnesty last military escort through Mozambique's December and has stepped up contacts Tete province, across Zimbabwe and on with the Botha government in Pretoria to South Africa. in an effort to reduce South African as- The estimated 3,000 Tanzanians sistance to the rebels. Western diplo- have begun withdrawing from Zambezia mats and Zimbabwean intelligence province where they assisted Frelimo's sources say they have strong evidence successful offensive last year. Military that the South African Defense Force sources said the Tanzanians plan to es- continues to furnish the rebels with lo- tablish positions close to their border in gistical support and limited supplies. road in the north. DSL was widely ex- the province of Cabo Delgado, the sole Despite the widespread publicity, the pected to land the lucrative contract to Mozambican province still largely free of West's current policy of providing small organize the defense of the giant Cahora the conflict. packages of non-lethal equipment and Bassa hydro-electric complex in Tete Some Western diplomats boast that military training has had little impact on province with funds from Portugal, Mo- their military aid carries an additional bo- the Mozambican army. And in the long zambique, and South Africa. nus of reducing the Soviet Union's role term, the creation of various special Spain's "Guardia Civil", a rural police in Mozambique. But there is little evi- forces protecting Western-financed de- force, has begun to train small numbers dence to support that view. Ironically, velopment projects poses dangers for of Mozambican militia. Even the Ameri- while Western military analysts and the armed forces. It could make coordi- cans are expected to begin sending Mo- some Mozambican officials deride Mos- nation of operations and logistics even zambican officers to school in the United cow's failure since Mozambique's inde- more difficult for the overstretched mili- States after the November presidential pendence in 1975 to mold the govern- tary high command. election. ment army into an efficient righting It is precisely in the area of adminis- Added to the myriad of special Mo- force, the Soviet Union remains by far tration and army management that Fre- zambican forces are sizable military con- the military's biggest benefactor, pro- limo's needs are most pressing and the tingents stationed in the country by viding nearly all of the army's planes, West's potential contribution to helping three of Mozambique's neighbors— helicopters, arms, and ammunition. professionalize Mozambique's embat- Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania—to And of all the special forces trained by tled army the greatest. •

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 57 ven at high noon in the Kalahari vide a car to help people collect wood. BOTSWANA E desert, the dim winter sun brings The way Manta and his neighbors eke very little heat. The bitter, piercing out an existence is indicative of the way wind drives dusty sand at any standing the Basarwa people are living through- animal, plant, or person. out Botswana and other parts of south- The cold and grit are ever-present in ern Africa. They are neither the fully the Kalahari's winter months—June and self-sufficient, nomadic hunter-gath- July—and the greatest southern African erers that their ancestors were, nor are A Better desert, which makes up 80 percent of they integrated into the mainstream of Botswana, seems a harsh, inhospitable Botswana life. place. As everywhere else in the world, Life "I have lived here for many seasons," modern lite has changed the way these said Manta, an elder of the 145 Basarwa people live, yet it has not provided a people living in the Khutse settlement. social safety net to assure they find a for the His wizened face and white hair testify sustainable place in society. The Bot- to years of hard-earned survival, yet he swana government is faced with the dif- is estimated to be less than 50 years old. ficult task of helping the Basarwa so that Bushmen? "We cannot get much meat because the they have a less precarious existence, hunting is not good. Some people do yet can retain a sense of cultural identity BY ANDREW MELDRUM hunting but I am too old," said Manta, and viability. The dismal plight of many speaking through an interpreter. "The other semi-nomadic, indigenous peo- government gives us mealie-meal ple—Australia's aborigines, the U.S.' [cornmeal] to eat." native Americans, Nicaragua's miski- Nearby, young children, ranging from tos, Zaire's pygmies—shows that the three to six years, play with bits of path is fraught with pitfalls. bramble in the sand. They are scantily For more than 10,000 years, the Ba- clad, apparently oblivious to the cold, sarwa—also known as the San people but they have runny noses and hacking as well as the Bushmen—have hunted coughs. Although the Botswana gov- in the Kalahari. Their populations ernment has provided a deep well at stretched south to what is now Cape Khutse for water and food rations, the Town and up into Angola, Zambia, and Basarwa people—popularly known as Zimbabwe. Bushmen—spend much time each day The small, golden-skinned people in- "Modern life has changed the way these people live, yet it has not provided a social gathering firewood, both for warmth geniously devised a method of extract- safety net to assure they find a sustain- and for cooking. They also grow hardy ing poison from the larvae of a beetle able place in society" Tsama melons, forage for other edible and putting it at the tips of their arrows vegetation, and track small antelope to and spears. Not only must they stab an supplement their diet. animal with the poison, they must then The Botswana government is faced In the winter months, the night-time track it, sometimes for days, until the with the dilemma of how to provide temperature plummets to 20 degrees substance: affects the unfortunate ani- better social services and below freezing. Yet, the Basarwa simply mal's nervous system and it becomes development options to the Basarwa huddle behind stick-made windbreaks, paralyzed. Basarwa women have devel- of the Kalahari, while not more like fences, with their blankets and oped a vast knowledge of scores of edi- threatening their way of life, fires to keep them warm. Already, the ble roots and mushrooms which they dig traditions, and cultural values. concentration of the 145 people over a up with sticks. two-mile radius has created a shortage As one of the world's last remaining of firewood. The Khutse people must hunting-gathering cultures, the Ba- hike further and further each day for sarwa have been studied by social scien- wood and the competition has resulted tists for decades. Their gentle, yet en- in social tensions. terprising ways and unmaterialistic val- When told that the Botswana govern- ues have made them the subjects of ment may move a few hundred more academics worldwide. "The Gods Must Basarwa people to the Khutse area, Be Crazy," a South African-made com- Manta suggests that it should also pro- edy film that was hugely popular inter- nationally, painted a poignantly romantic Andrew Meldrum, an American journalist who view of the Basarwa people, without has been based in Zimbabwe for seven years, re- showing how their way of life is seri- ports on southern Africa /or The Guardian 0/Lon- don and the Voice of America. ously threatened.

58 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 In Namibia, the Basarwa are used by ued hunting in the game reserves. scheme of settlements where many Ba- the South African army as "Bushmen Those outside the reserve have higher sarwa now live in conditions criticized by trackers," so their skilled hunting tech- rates of malnutrition, alcoholism, unem- the Norwegian report. He is disap- niques can locate anti-apartheid guerril- ployment, and poverty, as well as a tan- pointed that they have not benefited las of the South West Africa People's gible apathy stemming from a loss of from the settlements, where water Organization (Swapo). identity, reports the study. Only a few thousand of Botswana's "There is no question that the Ba- 41, (XX) Basarwa still rely totally on hunt- sarwa on the game reserves are better ing and foraging. But anthropologists off than those in the settlements," said say the majority, whether cattle- Robert Hitchcock, an assistant profes- "The Basarwa are herders or farmers, still value their abil- sor of anthropology at the University of ity to occasionally hunt and find desert Nebraska who is serving as an adviser neither the fully delicacies as the essence of their iden- to the Botswana government on the Ba- tity. The encroachment of civilization, sarwa and other groups living in remote self-sufficient, nomadic particularly cattle ranching, has drasti- areas. "The depressing situation [at the hunter-gatherers that cally reduced the area where the dimin- settlements] is not much different from utive (an adult male is often just over the alcoholism and demoralization you their ancestors were, five feet) and nimble Basarwa can roam. see at some native American reserva- Anthropologists and sociologists who tions in the U.S." nor are they integrated study the Basarwa credit President Hitchcock has been studying the Ba- into the mainstream of Quett Masire's government with the sarwa in Botswana on and off since 1975 best of intentions, but warn that it is and ironically helped to develop the Botswana life." about to make a serious mistake which will cut the Basarwa off from their hunting and gathering traditions and will only minimally improve their way of life, if at all. The Botswana government is about to embark on a relocation program that will remove the last 1,200 Basarwa remaining in the central Kalahari game reserve and will prevent all Basarwa from hunting in that preserve, the heart of their ancestral homeland. "Why shouldn't the Basarwa develop from the situation where they have to chase animals for their basic human comforts?" asked Botswana's Vice President, Peter Mmusi, in an interview. "We are not going to keep the Basarwa as we keep wildebeest and hartebeest [Kalahari antelope]. The wildebeest has depended on grazing and living on what nature provides. But the Basarwa must ultimately depend upon the development of Botswana. We must provide them widi other services than those they are getting at the present moment." That sounds reasonable, but so far, the vast majority of Basarwa who have "The way left the wilderness preserves of the Ka- Manta and his neighbors eke out lahari have not fared well. A recent Nor- an existence is wegian study shows that the Basarwa indicative of the who work on cattle ranches or who live way the Basarwa on government settlements outside the people are living throughout game reserves are worse off than their Botswana and "backward" brothers who have contin- southern Africa" wells and sometimes schools and health rejected that proposal, saying that the portant when it is taken into account posts have been established. Basarwa can instead hunt in other open that many more people are employed by "If you talk to people, you find that areas of Botswana, called wildlife man- the cattle business than diamond min- they definitely do want modernization, agement areas. Anthropologists point ing. Botswana has one of the world's education, transportation, and all that," out that those areas have very little wild highest national ratios of cattle to people said Hitchcock. "But they also want to game or unspoiled natural landscape beat two to one, and that is after the na- be able to hunt, not full-time, but to be cause that land supports large commer- tional herd was reduced from 3 to 2 mil- able to be part-time hunter-gatherers." cial herds of cattle. lion because of seven consecutive years He said the Botswana government is And that is where the central conflict of drought. trying to facilitate that transition process affecting the Basarwa people appears to Traditionally, the Basarwa people re- and describes a Norwegian aid project be: land for cattle or land for Basarwa. gard cattle as the purest form of wealth to improve the services at settlements Commercial cattle ranching is at net and owning a large herd of cattle brings which would foster handicrafts, bee- center of Botswana's economy and soci- social status. Cattle ownership is also keeping, woodworking, and game har- ety. Diamonds produce 10 times more seen as the key to political power in Bot- vesting. earnings than the $60 million Botswana swana. Virtually all of the top members "The Botswana government has one earns annually from beef exports, but of government are owners of large cat- of the best records in the world regard- cattle ranching becomes much more im- tle herds. The cattle business has an ing the treatment of indigenous people," said Hitchcock. "But the bottom line is The plight of the Basarwa is receiving a great deal of publicity, both that this is a critical point and the future inside and outside Botswana, because the country has a healthy, multi- of the Basarwa is uncertain." party democracy and a tradition of freedom of speech and expression. As Botswana is the size of Texas with "If there is hope that appropriate programs can be implemented for the a population of just 1.2 million, it seems Basarwa, it is because some of us here in Botswana can raise our voices there should be enough land around for in protest, both locally and to the international community,' said Soblen everyone. But the Kalahari desert can- Mayane, sociologist and executive secretary of the ruling Botswana not easily support population concentra- Democratic Party (BDP). tions. Hitchcock estimates that a group Botswana's democratic traditions encourage lively debate on the Ba- of 30 Basarwa hunter-gatherers needs sarwa and other issues which is rare in many other African countries. about 200 square kilometers. Thirty-eight of sub-Saharan Africa's 45 countries currently have military All evidence seems to suggest that rule or one-party states with varying degrees of democratic expression, the Basarwa should be allowed more ac- so Botswana's multi-party democracy stands out, particularly in the cess to game reserves, not less. In fact, midst of southern Africa's current turmoil. An international conference the central Kalahari game reserve, cov- sponsored by the American "Project Democracy" is to be held in Bot- ering more than 50,000 square kilome- swana in August to consider the reasons for the country's democratic ters, was created in 1961 specifically to success. Batswana are proud of their system of government and resent preserve a large portion of the desert suggestions that they inherited it from British colonial rule. for the Basarwa people. Originally, it "We have not learned democracy from Britain or the United States or was to be named the Kalahari Bushman anywhere else overseas," said Botswana's Vice President Peter Mmusi. Reserve, but the name was changed be- "It is part of our tradition to value freedom of expression. Our forefathers cause "Bushman" was seen by many as developed a system of democracy which has evolved to our current a pejorative term and would have had system." the effect of putting the Basarwa on the Traditionally, when any issue faced a Botswana village, the chief level of animal wildlife. would call a meeting in the "kgotla"—a square in every village which is Botswana government officials have set aside for community discussions. At the kgotla, all villagers would air stated the Basarwa are being moved off their views and after long debates, a consensus would be reached. the central Kalahari game reserve to I Botswana's 1.2 million population remains nearly 80 percent rural and protect the park's wildlife. That reason- the kgotlas still feature prominently in village life. ing for the movement of the Basarwa "Members of Parliament know that they must go around to all the seems especially weak because a gov- kgotlas in their constituency to explain what is going on in government," ernment investigation shows that the said a Western diplomat in Gaborone. "Those that do not go to their Basarwa's hunting, limited as it is to kgotlas generally do not get re-elected." bows and arrows and being on foot, The kgotlas have an urban counterpart in the colorful "freedom does not adversely affect game popula- squares," which can be seen—and especially heard—on the street cor- tions at all. ners of Gaborone and other cities, on most Saturdays. The freedom A government-appointed commis- squares are spots where politicians—of the ruling BDP or the four other sion reported that the Basarwa should parties—can set up a loudspeaker to talk about the various issues of the be permitted to have access to certain areas of the park. But the government

60 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 elitist character, as 50 percent of the "the integrity of the (reserve] as a haven The Basarwa are paid grossly low country's cattle is owned by 5 percent of for wild animals and the [Basarwa] life- wages that sometimes amount to little the cattle owners. style has become increasingly precari- more than a bag of maize meal or some Although government officials say ous over the years. This is due mainly to worn-out clothes for a year's work. The the Basarwa should be moved off the the relentless pressure from cattle own- Norwegian study found that the Ba- Kalahari Game Reserve to protect wild- ers for more land." sarwa who worked as herders had life, it is actually commercial cattle Almost none of the Basarwa people worse nutritional and health standards ranching that is adversely affecting the own herds of cattle of 100 or more. But than those who hunt and gather in the reserve's game, according to experts. the Basarwa people are vital to Botswa- game park. Cattle fences through the reserve have na's cattle industry as herders. For There is a fear that the Basarwa who snared and caused the deaths of thou- more than a hundred years, the Ba- are being pushed out of the game re- sands of antelope which have been fol- sarwa have herded cattle for the major- serve will have no recourse but to join lowing their traditional migration routes. ity Batswana people, and that employ- the ranks of their people who work as Overgrazing is seen as the country's ment has contributed to their problems commercial cattle herders under miser- main environmental problem. as they have acquired a "serf-like sta- able conditions. The Basarwa have dis- A government report on the future of tus" among cattle owners, according to tinctive looks, with yellow coloring and the Kalahari Game Reserve stated that social scientists. high cheekbones, and they are subject to racial discrimination. Anthropologist Hitchcock suggests day and to promote their party's policy. People gather and applaud or that if the Basarwa could have tenure to heckle the speaker, in a kind of African version of "Speakers' Corner" in a specific area of land instead of solely London's Hyde Park. the right to squat on cattle-roaming ter- But there are fears that the constant pressure that Botswana faces ritory as they do now, it would be easier from its neighboring giant, South Africa, will force the country to curtail its to develop comprehensive programs to civil liberties and eventually, its democracy. In the past two years, the improve health, education, and employ- South African army has raided Botswana three times on the pretext of ment opportunities for the Basarwa. attacking members of the African National Congress (ANC). Both Bot- "Like most indigenous populations swana nationals and South African exiles have been killed in those raids. throughout the world, they are so In addition, there have been several mysterious car-bomb explosions poorly educated that they cannot easily and assassinations. speak up to fight for their legal rights," In June, three unarmed Botswana police were fired upon and injured said Hitchcock. by a group of South African commandos. Subsequently, two of the soldiers were captured at a routine police roadblock. South Africa was Many of the Basarwa's advocates are condemned at the United Nations for the terrorist violation, but security foreign social scientists who have be- specialists say that South Africa will most likely continue attacking tar- come familiar with their plight while gets in Botswana. studying them. Botswana officials deride "these people who study the Ba- Western diplomats here warn that the insecurity caused by such sarwa to get their FhD's and then leave South African raids may eventually threaten Botswana's open society. them in poverty," as one put it recently. The nation was once free of roadblocks, but now motorists must stop frequently at military posts for checks which often include searches of Soblen Mayane is a Botswana sociol- their cars. Batswana have loudly complained about the inconvenience of ogist who is determined to go to bat for the roadblocks, but the June capture of the two South African soldiers the Basarwa people. He may be more proves their usefulness. effective than the Basarwa's expatriate "Roadblocks are a small thing, but I can see how continued raids could supporters because he is also executive increase insecurity to such an extent that the democracy is weakened," secretary of Botswana's ruling party, said a top Western diplomat. "Botswana is one of the few democracies in the Botswana Democratic Party. "I see Africa and it would be a damned shame to see civil liberties eroded here the government's decision to relocate because of the threat from South Africa." the remaining Basarwa [from the cen- University of Botswana sociologist Patrick Molutsi agrees that fears of tral Kalahari Game Reserve] as an ero- South African attacks are adversely affecting Botswana's democratic sion of personal liberties for these peo- system. "A national security act was passed in Parliament which was put ple in the long term," said Mayane. sn the context of South African spies coming here," said Molutsi. "But it "That should not happen in a country went a step back in terms of our democratic tradition. The act has not that is considered a shining example of been used a lot yet, but the framework is there to threaten our media, the democracy in Africa. I am convinced political opposition, and our democracy in general." D that the majority of these people do not want to relocate. The government will —A.M. have to take responsibility when the future of these people becomes no future at all." •

AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 61 CULTURE

Freedomfest! In observance of Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday, pop stars from the world over gathered in London to perform in tribute to the leader of the ANC. The concert's political message was clear—solidarity with the struggle for liberation in South Africa.

BY PATRICIA THRANE

njune 11, an unprecedented line- "I ask all our friends, on as wide a up of international stars paid trib- scale as possible, to observe the 70th Oute to Nelson Mandela in the largest po- birthday of that outstanding son of Af- litical music event ever. One billion peo- rica, Nelson Mandela, onjuly 18, 1988. ple across the world watched the Let the apartheid regime know the high televised all-day event. The focus: esteem in which this great South African worldwide solidarity with the struggle patriot is held. Celebrate July 18, 1988, for freedom in South Africa. in a manner befitting a man whose Among the hundreds of stars per- three-score years and ten represent all forming were: Sting, the Eurythmics, that is true and noble in mankind." Stevie Wonder, George Michael, Jim The first international initiative on be- Kerr of Simple Minds, Jonas Gwangwa, half of Mandela in 1963 saved him and Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, his five co-accused from hanging. The UB40, Peter Gabriel, U2, Dire Straits, Wembley event may play a role in secur- Whitney Houston, Jerry Dammers of ing Mandela's release in that it has un- The Specials who wrote and sang "Free doubtedly increased international pres- Nelson Mandela," and many others. sure on his jailers. It has also raised Oliver Tambo, president of the Afri- awareness of the situation in South Af- can National Congress (ANC), col- rica and given countless millions in free league and lifelong friend of Nelson publicity for the struggle in southern Af- Mandela, was guest of honor at the con- rica. cert at Wembley Stadium in London. Artists Against Apartheid (AAA), Calling on the world to demand Nelson formed in 1985 by Jerry Dammers, Mandela's release and to observe his composer of the movement's anthem, birthday, Tambo made this statement: "Free Nelson Mandela," and Dali Patricia Thrane is a freelance journalist based in Tambo, son of Oliver, along with Bishop London. Trevor Huddleston's Anti-Apartheid

Movement, were the prime movers be- the irritation of the BBC producers. and continues to ban the words of its hind the event. The AAA Clapham con- That it was an event with a special leaders, was not to be allowed to depo- cert in 1986 attracted an audience of spirit is beyond doubt. The sight of Oli- liticize this tribute to both the man and 250,000, making it the biggest political ver and Adelaide Tambo, Swapo'sToivo the movement. concert to be held in England up to that Ja Toivo, Sir Shridath Ramphal, secre- date. But for all that, the 1986 concert tary-general of the Commonwealth, the left the AAA £50, (XX) in debt. Wembley Reverend Allan Boesak, and other in- started, therefore, as an attempt to re- ternational figures dancing in the royal "The Wembley event peat Clapham, but to put the AAA back enclosure to the sounds of Chubby may play a role in in profit as well as achieving its other Checker and the Fat Boys was surely more obvious and lofty aims. one of the delights of the day—one in securing Mandela's which popular music mixed with politics and politicians mixed with musicians. release in that it has "It has always been our aim," said undoubtedly increased Dali Tambo, "to enlist the support of not only musicians, but technicians, filmma- international pressure kers, and people in every creative walk of life. We live in a society where cultural on his jailers." personalities, in order to sell their products, are given immense social status and with it, responsibility. We have said Many among the Wembley crowd to people: Do against apartheid what- were not yet bom when Nelson Man- ever it is in life you do best. dela entered jail in 1962. But the fact Little Steven, Archbishop Huddleston, "Musicians have as much right to be that his term of imprisonment equals if and Ishmail Ayolo. Mandela's lawyer (l-r): political as anyone else. The artists here not exceeds their ages must surely add "The irony was that the producers asked today are thinking people and as some to the mythical power of this great man. that the artists make no mention of the ANC at a concert for the leader of the have said, their political principles begin Oliver Tambo, Toivo Ja Toivo (who ANC" with being anti-apartheid." spent 17 years on Robben Island with Little Steven continued: "We have Mandela), and other southern African been quiet for too long, we have been leaders were visibly moved by the mon- Unlike Live Aid, the Mandela concert patient too long, we will no longer toler- umental show of support. Toward the was political as well as humanitarian. ate the terrorism of the government of climax of the day, Oliver Tambo turned British conservative members of Parlia- South Africa." ment accused the AAA and the British This was the mood backstage where Broadcasting Corporation of populariz- performers were expressing their indig- ing the ANC. The MPs, led by John Car- nation at being told that should they lisle, who heads the pro-apartheid Brit- make political statements, the cameras ish-South Africa group in the House of would be turned away. The irony was Commons, spent the concert searching that the producers asked that the artists for any pro-ANC messages during the make no mention of the ANC, and no 10-hour transmission. In criticizing the funds were to be given to the organiza- BBC's broadcast of the event, the MPs tion at a concert for the leader of the and the South African government ANC. added to the publicity surrounding the Bearing this in mind, one is tempted event and infuriated many of the per- to inquire as to why the BBC agreed to formers who in most cases attacked film the concert at all. BBC producers Ndonda Khuze and others gather for the apartheid anyway. were reported in the British press as Free Nelson Mandela anthem: "Unlike Live Aid, the Mandela concert was politi- Sir Richard Attenborough reminded saying that the concert was non-political as well as humanitarian" the audience of the evils of apartheid and cal, that it was "purely a musical event." its waste of human talents. But the most This contrasts sharply with the view of to his son Dali and said, "You know, outright political statements came from Archbishop Huddleston, president of when you started this Artists Against Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, and Lit- the Anti-Apartheid Movement, who Apartheid thing, I never dreamed it tle Steven Van Zandt. One British come- said, "I do not know how they can say would reach this scale." Dali was heard dian came on stage and asked the audi- that—every second of this is political." to reply, "Neither did we." ence to join him in abusing the South Indeed, in comparison to Live Aid, What the Wembley event did prove is African government. Suddenly, 75,000 this was clearly a political event. The that for any Western government to be people were shouting and gesturing apartheid government which banned anti-apartheid would not only be pru- abuses, to the delight of the artists and the ANC, prohibits its mention in public, dent but extremely popular. •

64 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 BY DAPHNE TOPOUZIS - ~:

CULTURE

Music remains among the most expressive ways of communicating the vibrancji»f African culture. One of South Africa's most renowned musicians talks about the varied influences on his work and the role of his music in the struggle against apartheid. I ianist-composer Abdullah Ibrahim Unlike artists like Kippie Mokoetsi who waltzes, and fox trots were invariably W (formerly known as "Dollar were trained in the classical tradition, injected with the Cape Town beat, Ibra- Brand") has long ranked among South Ibrahim was trained "in the light clas- him recalls. Africa's music giants alongside Hugh sics, a tradition more geared in Britain Yet it was jazz that most captivated IMasekela, Miriam Makeba, and the late than in the continent. What I learned him "because as Duke Ellington said," Kippie Mokoetsi. A master of improvi- was to read music." Ibrahim explains, "jazz is the freest sation with a distinctive African edge, He also sang in the choir of the Afri- thing one can do." It was also very popu- the exiled Cape Town musician has de- can Methodist Episcopal Church lar in Cape Town: "When I was a young- ster, it was the swing era. We went through the whole jazz experience, the whole swing era, then the turning point Ibrahim and came with Ellington, bee-bop, followed "Ekaya" performing for by Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk. Archbishop "There was a close affinity between Tutu: " To this day, music all South Africa and the United States over Africa has those days. And Cape Town being a remained intact seaport, African-American seamen in its original form and us- used to come into our communities; age—always an some among them were musicians, oth- integral part of ers were record collectors." Merchant community life' " sailors brought in the latest recordings veloped a musical style over the past 30 (whose first South African branch was from the U.S. and gave Ibrahim the years that defies categorization. co-founded by his grandmother), where nickname "Dollar Brand"—a name Rather, it is a fascinating mosaic of his mother was a pianist. The black which he forsook in 1969 when he diverse traditions including African rural American spirituals that the AME intro- adopted the Muslim faith. and township rhythms, classical jazz, duced into its services proved to be a In 1959, he formed The Jazz Epistles, and gospel. South African folk melodies lasting force in Ibrahim's music—imbu- a band comprising Hugh Masekela, Kip- are enriched with Western harmonies ing it with a celebratory and uplifting pie Mokoetsi (whom Ibrahim described and embellished with unusual instru- quality. as the Charlie Parker of South Africa), mentation, coalescing into a gracefully At the age of 14, "the creative pro- Jonas Gwangwa, Makaya, and Johnny fluid and intensely spiritual whole. cess had already begun," and Ibrahim Machoko, and recorded original mate- Best known for his hypnotic and in- was composing his own material. He re- rial in trie tradition of Ellington, Monk, trospective stream-of-consciousness calls the importance of "the unre- and Clifford Brown. Unable to pursue compositions and his innovative inter- cognizable, unsung heroes of our com- his music freely in South Africa, he left pretations of Duke Ellington, Thelonius munity, the local musicians who played for Switzerland in 1962. "When Shar- Monk, and Billy Strayhorn classics, in dance bands. In South Africa, I used peville occurred," he said, "it became Ibrahim's music is at once accessible and to go and listen to those piano-players clear that it was impossible to do any- complex, intriguing and lyrical. An im- who played from Friday night right thing creative in South Africa; you were pressive output of over 30 albums testi- through to Monday morning. That is completely limited. Either you toed the fies to a composer who has indefatigably where I learned the stuff." government line or you left, or you explored and fused classical jazz with Cape Town was a cosmopolitan sea- quit." the multitude of influences that make up port that brought together a rich variety Upon arrival in Zurich, he formed a traditional and contemporary South Af- of musical traditions including East In- trio with his wife, the accomplished jazz rican music. In fact, it has been argued dian, Dutch, English, Chinese, Malay- singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, and that under different circumstances, sian, Javanese, and African. Zulu tradi- played nightly at the Africana Club. Ibra- Ibrahim might have been singled out as tional songs, the music of the Khoi (the him vividly described the evening he en- one of the finest composers of the 20th Coloured community of the Cape), the countered Duke Ellington, the musician century—alongside Ellington, Gersh- marabi (the two-pedalled organ music of he qualified as "the most important com- win, and Messiaen. the Marabastad township that was de- poser in the 20th century. And I am not In a recent interview at his New York veloped in the 1940s), West African cer- just talking about jazz, I am talking about home, the Chelsea Hotel, Abdullah emonial melodies, and southern African music." Ibrahim talked at length about his life at popular songs—can each be singled out After Duke and his orchestra had fin- home and in exile, explaining how his as influences in Ibrahim's compositions. ished performing in a jazz nightclub, music is inextricably tied to the political While still in high school, he joined a Ibrahim and his wife sought a meeting dynamics of South Africa. Xhosa dance band that performed Joe with hirn and ended up giving a midnight Born in 1934 in Cape Town, Ibra- Liggins and Erskine Hawkins arrange- performance. A couple of days later, him's musical career began at the age of ments, and later played with groups for upon Ellington's suggestion, a recording seven when he took up piano lessons. the Khoi community. Square dances, session was arranged in Paris and the

66 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 record, "Duke Ellington Presents the must change." Dollar Brand Trio," was released, intro- Similar feelings are echoed in his lyr- ducing Ibrahim's music to American au- ics: diences. When it's over "It has been argued In 1965, he came to New York where and the struggle is through he became involved with the Newport deep inner healing that under different Jazz Festival. Five years later, he de- and a peace we never knew circumstances, Ibrahim cided to return to South Africa where he founded a music school. During the Abdullah Ibrahim reflects on his role might have been 1976 Soweto unrest, he released the as a musician "as the drummer in the song, "Cape Town Fringe," which market place who brings people to- singled out as one of turned out to be a big hit and "a theme gether. The function of music in African the finest composers of song of the uprising." Subsequently, he society is social, devotional, and healing performed in a benefit organized by the as well as to record history," and it is the 20th African National Congress and made these facets that he strives to encom- public his support for the armed strug- pass in his songs. "Music is my personal century—alongside gle. He has been banned from South contribution to the struggle against Ellington, Gershwin, and Africa ever since. apartheid and toward the institution of a After the Soweto uprising, he came just society," he says. • Messiaen." to New York where he has lived for the past 12 or so years. In 1983, he formed his own band, called "Ekaya" ("Home"), with Charles Davis (baritone saxo- phone), Kicky Ford (tenor saxophon- ist), Dick Griffin (trombone), Craig Hardy, Winnard Harper, and Essiet Okun, and liis own record company under the label "Ekapa". He has been performing regularly at "Sweet Basil," one of New York City's most famous jazz clubs, for many years, while also participating in anti-apartheid events in the U.S. and around the world. Recently, he composed music for a French film shot by Claire Denis in Cameroon entitled "Chocolate," and participated in the Central Park counterpart of London's Freedomfest concert, commemorating Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday. Ibrahim explains that in Africa, social discourse is communicated through music and that given the political situation in South Africa, it is not surprising that music is such a strong force nor that it plays such a crucial role in society. "South Af- rican culture," he says, "is not entertainment. It is our resources, our heritage. To this day, music all over Africa lias remained intact in its original form and usage—always an integral part of community life. Basically, in Africa we are all griots." Living in exile "has not been easy," he adds, "i'm homesick, but I'm homesick for a new democratic society in South Africa, for a new world. Every- thing must change. Even the stones A SEPARATE PEACE BY ALUN R. ROBERTS

count of the depth and development of fills its stated intention by familiarizing Namibia's place in African history. As the general public with an account of the Peter H. Katjavivi, A History of Resis- unfinished and untiring pursuit of Nami- tance in Namibia, London: James Cur- bia's people for self-determination. rey, 1988, 144pp. Commencing with the early origins of African settlement in Namibia, the 18 Peter Katjavivi's recent book fills a chapters—never more than 10 pages void in what is still a widespread lack of each—over the book's 144 pages, take understanding and appreciation of the the reader through the multitude of over 100 years of struggle and resis- events and developments (as far back as tance by Namibia's people to liberate the 1400s) which clearly distinguish their southern African country from co- Namibia's history in its own right, and lonial oppression. by the time of their conclusion, empha- Rather than writing in an expansive size its status as a country separate academic style, the author provides an from neighboring South Africa. easy to read, compact, but moving ac- That Namibia is a country in its own right, whose people have struggled first Alun R. Roberts is a researcher and writer on the Question of Namibia, specializing in interna- to oust German colonial oppression, and tional taw, and kas worked with the UN and now that brutally imposed by South Afri- several non-governmental organizations on part of the Unesco series, "Apartheid Namibia since 1973. and Society," the book adequately ful- ca's illegal occupation, is still a misun- derstood issue. Politicians, diplomats, League of Nations Mandate," "Devel- war resistance movement which be- and an Li -apartheid and solidarity organi- opments at the UN and the International came the main source of nationalism in zations, in resisting and pursuing pres- Court of Justice (1960s)," and "The UN Namibia" is focused on, as is the first- sures against South Africa, often con- Plan for Independence Elections in ever evidence given directly to the UN sider Namibia as part of the same prob- Namibia"—all of which provide a valu- on the internal situation by Mburuma lem, or as Chester Crwker would have able reminder of the struggles and frus- Karina, a Namibian, in 1957. us all believe, just part of the southern trations of the international community The author begins the text of A His- Africa problem—a regional issue. to wrest Namibia from its present and tory of Resistance in Namibia in a land The Ixxik, therefore, does much to brutal South African occupation. free from colonial occupation. Then, af- lift the veil of misunderstanding by foc- Against this background, the author ter accounting for early European land- using attention on the historical facts describes the petitions to the UN during ings—the Portuguese explorer Diego which make Namibia a unique case in the late 1940s and 1950s on behalf of Cao making the first but brief contact in international law. It is the international Namibian leaders by the late Reverend 1485, with Dutch explorers arriving in responsibility for Namibia as described Michael Scott, convinced that "great in- the 1670s—the book focuses on the in the text—from the Allied Powers justices had been and were going to be brutal conflict with German colonial set- Peace Conference and League of Na- committed under South Africa's then tlers beginning in the 1840s, and the tions Mandate of 1920 to direct respon- mandate of administration (1920- spirited resistance of the Namibian peo- sibility by the UN in 1966 and several 1966)." The account of Scott being ple. International Court of Justice advisory locked in battle against South Africa at The account of the 1904-1907 war of opinions—which sets Namibia apart the UN, which eventually resulted in his resistance particularly stands out, from other major struggles for justice being banned from entering Namibia, is where Namibia's Herero and Nama pop- and liberation, such as those in South related. ulations were exterminated on a mas- Africa and Palestine. Similarly, information compiled by sive scale—from 60,000 to 80,000 He- The aspects which set out Namibia's Chief Kutako on conditions in Namibia rero down to just 16,000 and from unique status as an international ques- during the 1950s, also used to petition 15,000 to 20,000 Nama down to under tion are described in the chapters, the UN, is included. Kutako's role as the 10,000. In this particular section ("Ger- "South Africa's Take-Over and the "chief inspirer and leader of the post- man Conquest and Namibian Resis-

Introducing our Business Class Service. Featuring superb wines. Champagnes. Caviar. Lobster. And the only direct seven-hour serviceJrom the U.S.to West Africa, withjlights leaving JFK twice a week. For information and reservations, call your travel agent, local ** Air Afrique/Air France office, or 600-237-2747. Remember: Africa begins with Air Afrique.

1J tance"), the numerous names of Nami- under German colonial rule as one of present or involved in many of the bia's resistance leaders and the German divide and rule, and when resisted, de- events relating to Swapo, particularly colonial oppressors are not only pro- stroy. during the 1960s and 1970s. vided, but an insight is also given into Away from the many developments at The conclusion of the book does not their respective place in Namibia's his- the UN on Namibia—on which another give much hope that the end of the long tory of oppression and struggle. publication should focus—following the struggle for self-determination by Nami- On one side stand the resistance lead- termination of South Africa's mandate bia's people is near at hand. The author ers before, during, and after the 1904- by the General Assembly in 1966 and says: "If Western governments feel that 1907 war: Chief Maherero, his son Sa- the International Court of Justice opin- their interests in southern Africa can no muel, Hendrik Witboi, Simon Koppers, ions, are chapters relating to the devel- longer be protected by the South Afri- Abraham Morris, the much-revered opment of resistance in Namibia since can regime, they may choose to step in. "guerrilla leader" Jacob Marenga, Chief World War II. In the meantime, their inaction protects Fredrick Maherero, and in the 1950s, Here the chapters describing the the South African regime and helps to Andimba Toivoja Toivo, founder of the emergence of Namibian nationalist or- perpetuate its illegal occupation of Ovamboland Peoples Congress, and ganizations and the response of South Namibia." Sam Nujoma, elected president of the Africa to such activities, as well as Clearly, this is a publication which Ovamboland Peoples Organization. Nu- events that led to the launching of the needs to be read as a reminder (if not an joma and Toivo Ja Toivo are now the armed struggle, political trials, and the objective lesson) on the long history of president and general secretary of development of Swapo, give a rare ac- Namibian resistance and struggle. In Swapo, formed in I960. count of the many aspects of the Nami- particular, its depth of information on On the colonial side are Governor bian resistance struggle against South Namibia's unique status needs to be un- Leutwein, General Von Trotha, who is- Africa and the personalities and organi- derstood by the State Department, sued the 1904 extermination order, and zations involved. other Western governments, and in- Dr. H. Goering, father of the Nazi war This paperback publication provides a coming policy-makers in a future Demo- minister. The account of the nature of valuable description of developments cratic or Republican administration. German colonial rule in Namibia pro- seen through the eyes of a leading and Even the outgoing Dr. Crocker would vides an insight into where the Third respected Namibian scholar, member of gain an insight into why his seven years Keich later looked for its grounding in Swapo, and its early senior representa- of efforts on "linkage" and Namibian in- mass terror. The author portrays life tive to Western Europe, who was either dependence came to nothing. •

70 AFRICA REPORT • July-August 1988 Get the Big Picture.

Subscribe to

Please enter my subicription as indicated below (six issue) 1 per year): INDIVIDUAL I I S24/1 year Regular Mail to Canada/Overseas Six times a year, Africa Report brings you authoritative, Add S6 per year. in-depth features on political and economic developments D $45/2 yean Air Rale Overseas: Add S2d par year. D 566/3 years First-class within USA; Add $7 per year In Africa and on American policy toward the continent by on-the-scene correspondents and by the newsmakers D INSTITUTION Add $7 per yea. ihemselves—Robert Mugabe, Desmond Tutu, Andrew Young, We will tend you a special bonus issue. Jerry Rowlings, Sam Nujoma, and Vernon Walters, to name Nome just a few. Africa Report goes beyond the coverage you get Address. from the evening news and daily papers to give you the BIG City .State. .Zip. PICTURE—analyses, opinions, and predictions on events in an Country. ever-changing continent. Total Amount of my order is.- S Don't miss the big picture in 19881 Subscribe today and receive My check is enclosed. a special bonus issue. Make check payable to. African-American Institute ond send to AFRICA REPORT, Dept. AR AFRICA REPORT, America's Leading Magazine on Africa 833 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 1D017 L I LET MAGICAL HOLIDAYS TAKE YOU TO

Scheduled Flights Guaranteed Departures

UKSTINATION One or Two Weeks 9IH-6I4 6 15-s :n DESTINATION One or Two Weeks 901-6 14 6/15-8/31

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast $787 $ 866 GABERONE, Botswana 1299 1339

ACCRA, Ghana 899 979 HARARE, Zimbabwe 1699 1799

ADDIS, ABABA. Ethiopia 1154 1154 KIGALI. Rwanda 1302 1302

BAMAKO. Mali 949 1010 KINSHASA. Zaire 1242 1242

BANGUI. Central African Republic 1242 1242 LAGOS, Nigeria 965 1040

BANJUL, The Gambia 739 799 LIBREVILLE. Gabon 1242 1242

BISSAL', Guinea Bissau 809 879 LILONGWE. Malawi 1329 1329

BRAZZAVILLE, Congo 1242 1242 LOME, Togo 787 866

CASABUNCA, Morocco 547 572 LUSAKA. Zambia 1396 1396 CONAKRY. Guinea 865 929 MOGADISHU, Somalia 1409 1409

COTONOU Benin 787 866 MONROVIA. Liberia 970 1035

DAKAR, Senegal 657 722 NAIROBI, Kenya 1242 1242

DARES SALAAM.Tanzania 1329 1329 NIAMEY, Niger 787 866

DOUALA, Cameroon 1242 1242 NOUAKCHOTT. Mauritania 809 879

ENTEBBE. Uganda 1395 1395 OUAGADOUGOU Burkina Faso 787 866

FREETOWN. Sierra Leone 1148 1279 YAOUNDE. Cameroon 1320 1320

*New Wk Departures Other ntie> availahk- cm request. 'All rates plus Slit (Ml Departure Tax and Hedtral Inspection lees. 'One way and extended stays available lo all destinations. 'Special Croup Rales available—call for additional information

CALL 1-800-228-2208 OR 212-4H6-9600, OR MAIL COUPON BELOW . . . (••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••MMMM

Yes! Please send me the Magic of Africa brochure.

Name

Travel Agency

Address

Citv. State_ Zip_ _l~.I'_.i_J-l MaiI to: Magical Holidays Inc., 501 Madison Avenue, N.Y., N.Y. 10022 1 M7