WSK/, l\ mi ~**l * »nTI UrEr J i E 1.40 L K?«AU BLACK LIBERATION JOURNAL OF SOUTH AFRICAN ND SOUTHERN AFRICAN POLITICAL ANALYSIS NUMBER IS OCTOBER 1980

DOWN WITH THE NOTORIOUS FREEDOM CHARTER!

"Azania is no! a prostitute. It is an African country. Only a prostitute can belong to "everybody" or to "all*'. Azania does not belong to "all" - oppressor and the oppressed, disposses- sor and the dispossessed, robber and the robbed. Azania be­ longs to the Black peoples. The facts of history are clear on this issue. There is no intelligent Blackman except those who are brain-washed by the "multi-racial" politics of the "liberals" who accepts this sell-out document. Self-determination and ma­ jority rule are the only solution to nearly 400 years of foreign minority racist settler colonial rule in the country of our for­ bears,"

Role of the Missionaries in the Conquest of South Africa

A SHORT HISTORY OF COLONIALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA; A MARXIST-LENINIST ANALYSIS OF THE NATIONAL QUESTION; INDEPENDENT ZIM­ BABWE AND ZANU'S GREAT VICTORY; A HISTO­ RY OF FRELIMO'S STRUGGLE; HOW THE FREE­ DOM CHARTER WAS SMUGGLED INTO THE ANC; THE MAJORITY BLACK NATIONALIST TENDENCY IN AZANIAN POLITICS; THE NEED FOR A BLACK PEOPLE'S CHARTER; ETC. Contents

Political Mobilisation is Equally Important as Armed Struggle Peoples Movement in Azania in Upsurge p. 1 The Black Nationalist Tendency p. 2 Brief Notes p. 4 The Freedom Charter - By David Dube p. 6 Lenin: Apropos the Freedom Charter p. 8 A Brief History of Azania - By Dabi Lenkululeko p. 9 The Role of Missionaries in the Conquest of South Africa p. 14 Kampuchea Atrocities Refuted at U.N p. 27 A Good Marxist-Leninist Analysis p. 28 Independent Zimbabwe - By Lutz Plumer p. 40 Brief History of the Mozambiquan Revolution - By Peter Meyns P-44 Soviet Union Plunders Namibian Resources p. 49

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Political Mobilisation is Equally Important as Armed Struggle

The Black nationalist tendency which powers that aggravates all national and upon, involve and mobilise the masses is the majority tendency in the Azanian class contradictions. The Black Con­ from the very beginning. This is a liberation struggle represented by the sciousness philosophy has also inspired lunatic approach to the question of PAC, BCM, ANC (AN), etc. must the Azanian peoples with pride and de­ armed struggle and peoples war. The begin to place equal stress upon fiance, and helped them to shed Uncle period of mass political upheavals political struggles as upon armed strug­ Tom attitudes. through which Azania is presently go­ gle. They must abandon a mechanical ing through creates favourable condi­ attitude towards armed struggle and But we have not as yet been able to tions for the launching of the armed understand the dialectics between mass initiate the armed struggle in any struggle. It psychologicallys prepares mobilisation and the armed struggle. significant way, although PAC forces the masses, strengthens their unity and at one time attempted to lay the basis awareness. And the deepening of the Azania today is going through a for such a struggle until Leballo political struggles around a whole period of mass struggles that intensify deliberately smashed it. Our notion of number of democratic issues gives yearly. The difference between the pre­ the armed struggle does not go beyond strength to the peoples movement and sent mass upsurges and those that took the concept of starting bases in the their political organisations. It also place during Sharpeville is that the cur­ countryside and combining this with deepens the contradictions in the rent ones occur in the midst of great sabotage activities in the cities. This enemy camp, as it is already doing. revolutionary changes in the Southern mechanistic attitude to the question of the armed struggle resulted in cadres African region, the most recent of It is very important for the exile which was Zimbabwe. This combines being trained and then sent into the country on suicidal missions that got movements to lay emphasis upon the with the emergence of the Third World political struggle that are occurring in as the greatest anti-imperialist force in nowhere. This was the Che Guevarist "go to the mountains" approach to the country over a whole number of history, the crisis of imperialism itself issues. and the rivalry between the two super- guerilla warfare which does not rely

Peoples Movement in Upsurge in Azania but Lack of Revolutionary Party

The mass upsurges of students and the stood in awesome fear of the white economic recession m the country. spate of workers strikes all over the man. They are mainly inspired by the de­ country reveal the revolutionary fer­ mand for higher wages but the Black ment of the peoples movement in the Students and youth have always workers realize that this is linked to the country that shows no sign of abating played a vanguard role in the Azanian right to form trade unions, a question despite the repressive measures of the struggle and every fresh period of de­ over which there is a great tussle bet­ fascist-colonialist government • Since fiance started with them. But the cur­ ween the government which is deter­ Soweto the Azanian masses both in the rent generation of youth and students mined to stamp out any kind of in­ countryside and cities, and amongst all is probably the most militant and dependent Black trade union move­ three Black groups have launched one determined produced in the history of ment, and the Black workers. Through mass movement after another around the liberation movements. Their ac­ the Wiehahn Commission the govern­ democratic demands. The students and tions are mainly spontaneist but even ment attempts to control the trade youth of course were in the forefront within this restriction they have shown union movement being fought for by of these demonstrations but inevitably a degree of organisation, too. But they the Black working class. In the case of they were always supported by the peo­ have made one notable contribution to the Municipal workers strike the police ple. In Cape Town the militant student the struggle which no other liberation came down heavily upon the strikers strikes were joined by workers strikes movement ever made, that was to br­ and their leaders. But it was interesting in the city. The Black Consciousness ing the three Black groups - the to note that the Johannesburg City Movement has successfully spawned a Africans, Indians and Coloureds - Council was ready to recognize the new generation of uncompromising close together as Black people. The ap­ minority union of Ngwenya, which young revolutionaries and even though pearance of the Indians on the political was prepared to be part of the white they are not tightly welded together by scene is particularly welcome since they union, whilst they would not negotiate a correct revolutionary ideology have been passive for a long time. with the union led by Mvusi which relating to the struggle, nevertheless consisted of the overwhelming majori­ they have shown a remarkable capacity The spate of workers strikes are ty of the workers. Mvusi was subse­ to launch one mass campaign after reminiscent of the days of the ICU quently arrested and tried. The Black another and to show a fierce degree of when African workers organised workers strikes will continue into the defiance of the authorities. Gone are themselves into trade unions all over future and the struggle for better wages the days in Azania when the people the country. The strikes are provoked and trade union rights will be one of by the high cost of living and the 2 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement the main democratic issues in the coun­ last thing that the ANC-CP in exile ing promoted by the white mass media try. Herein the international trade wants is Mandela to be freed. Mandela there was at the same time a campaign union movement can play a positive is more useful to them inside Robben to discredit the Black Consciousness role in giving support to their strug­ Island than outside. Movement by criticising it for not gles. Some Western governments, too, opening its doors to whites. Once again are calling upon their national com­ Its political role in Azanian politics the views of the racist establishment panies to comply with the Black was shown by its feverish attempts to and the ANC-CP co-incide. workers demands for better wages. promote the Freedom Charter, a vile This conglomeration of forces is con­ document that betrays the legitimate The South African government has ducive to carry out the struggle in this nationalist aspirations of the African been making all kinds of promises of field with greater vigour and almost peoples. The Freedom Charter was changes in the wake of the mass certainty of success. But the tragedy largely supported by the white mass upheavals. But it received its biggest appears to be that there is no central media and all kinds of whites of liberal blow in its failure to setup a Presiden­ direction to the workers struggle - a persuasion. The "Golden City Post" tial Council because neither the In­ sad commentary on the lack of revolu­ vhich is controlled by the Anglo- dians nor the so-called Coloured would tionary leadership inside the country. American multi-national corporation participate without the presence of the gave full support to the Charter. All Africans. There has been all kinds of In this pregnant situation the ANC- the Black collaborators from Bishop crazy schemes like setting up a separate CP, which is the minority political Desmond Tutu to Gatsha Butulezi Natal regional multi-racial government tendency in the country is attempting came out in favour of the Charter. under the leadership of Gatsha to capture the leadership of the strug­ Gatsha Butulezi could even quote a Butulezi, an extended version of the gle, trying to buy off leaders of the banned person, Mandela, with impuni­ Bantustan system. Black Consciousness Movements, ty. Amongst the multi-racial col- splitting and dividing them and setting loborionists there has been the same at­ In this dynamic political situation up another multi-racial student body in tempt to revive that great panacea of the Azanian masses lack the leadership opposition to AZAPO. But its most our problems, a National Convention. of a genuinely revolutionary organisa­ despicable act was in the Free Mandela tion to mobilize and give direction to Campaign. Everybody knows that the Whilst the Freedom Charter was be- their struggles. The Black Nationalist Tendency is the Majority Tendency in the Two Line Struggle in the Azanian Revolution The Azanian liberation movements oppression of the Black peoples). This of BOSS. and groups are distinctly divided into line also tends to liquidate the question iwo different political lines, which bit­ of revolutionary African nationalism The ANC line is supported therefore terly struggle for the soul of the Aza­ and equates it with "racialism". in the cities by the petit bourgeois in- nian masses. This two-line struggle is Because of this approach the ANC is tegrationists and opportunists amongst represented basically by the ideological basically a reformist organisation since the Black peoples. In the white camp beliefs of multi-racialism and the its stress is basically upon integrating too it is supported by those who realise African (Black) nationalist line which the Blacks into the white status quo on that the ANC is the one organisation regards the struggle for one of the self- the basis of buorgeois equality. For the that will guarantee their power and determination of the African people in ANC milk and honey will How the day privileges for them. This became evi­ the country of their birth. The former that the Blacks and the whites sit dent during the recent attempts inside is represented basically by the African together, eat at the same restaurants, the country to promote the Freedom National Congress of South Africa and etc. Because of this approach too the Charter, when the English dominated the latter mainly by the Pan-Africanist average ANC member is always crying mass media went all out to support it. Congress of Azania and the Black out how oppressed he is and begging ANC-CP's International Support Consciousness Movement. the world to take pity on him and come and help him. ANC type literature is Internationally also the ANC line tends The ANC of South Africa lays stress always biassed in this way. Of course to be much more popular especially in on the races (including the fascist we cannot separate the ANC from the the West European countries. Most of whites) living together and regard the control and the role that the white led the white sympathisers in these coun­ struggle as fundamentally a struggle South African Comminst Party plays tries like the ANC talk about multi- against racialism. They would refuse in it. Ever since the SACP rejected the racialism. It makes them feel good and to use the word white racialism because correct Comintern thesis of the "Black safe and panders to their own pre­ this would anatagonise the whites in Republic" in 1928 it has always in­ judices on the question of the problem South Africa. They speak of the strug­ terfered in the Black liberation of white racialism. It is also the line gle against apartheid, of creating a movements with the sole intention of that most revisionist, trotskyites, social "non-racial democracy,*' and for them making the country safe for whites, democrats, liberals and trade unionists the struggle is equally against an alleg­ and holding back the revolutionary in the West like to hear. These political ed but non-existent "Black racialism" militancy of the African peoples. It lines which are the dominant tenden­ and "Black chauvinism", (There is no continues this role up to this day and cies in the Western countries also li­ material base for "Black racialism" in many knowing Azanian revolution­ quidate the national question. Their South Africa. The material base of aries regard the SACP as an extension positions on a number of political white racialism is the national and class issues is basically bourgeois-liberal. Azania (South Africa) is an African country 3

They would like to evade the question reliance and prefer handouts to the majority tendency throughout of white racialism altogether and to serious organisational tasks that will Azanian politics. But this tendency is regard it as a mere offspring of help them solve their problems - the not very popular. Its language of capitalism. Their basic tendency on the character of petit bourgeois politics Blackness is not very much welcomed question of the black-white question is isolated from mass movements - they amongst the international community. integrationist, which means effectivel- fall easy prey to these pro-imperialist And it is often very much slandered, as the blacks integrating into the struc­ aid organisation. Azanian revolu­ being racialist and chauvinistic. tures that basically serves the whites. tionaries lack elementary intelligence The revolutionary tendency is that knowledge to be able to undertake But the Black nationalist tendency is which leads to Black (National) serious intelligence work on so many far from being racist. It is in essence, autonomy or self-determination. The of the aid organisations and in­ politically, anti-colonial and anti- ANC-CP line is therfore also related to dividuals who come disguised as jour­ imperialistic. Because in South Africa a particular type of Socialism which li­ nalists, academicians, etc. class and race run parallel, black con­ quidates the national question and sciousness is also class consciousness. which regards racialism as a mere off­ The Black Nationalist Tendency The Black person suffers from both spring of capitalism. national and class oppression. This The Black nationalist tendency on the tendency tends to reject white par­ The ANC line is also fundamentally other hand which is the majority ticipation in Black politics because supported by the two superpowers. It tendency in the country represents the most whites - if not all - still carry is certainly supported by imperialism vast number of organisations - not with them germs of cultural superiority which regards it as a safe bet in the only the PAC and the BCM - but also and do not leave behind their colonial country. The ANC's Freedom Charter AZAPO, SAYCO, ANC (AN), etc. habits. For them there is a need to re­ guarantees the colonial nature of the Some of these organisations are educate themselves, and this can only country. Of course imperialism would groupscules in exile and have no mass occur when they are fully integrated in­ like the organisation to be led by its organisations inside the country, but to Black society. Sitting down and hav­ direct agents and here it clashes with nevertheless together they are the ing discussions with Blacks in their the Tambo wing of the ANC which is predominant tendency in the Azanian plush homes does not constitute in­ closer to the Soviet Union. The two struggle. This tendency stands fores- tegration. It is just another form of superpowers and their agents realise quare in describing the South African assimilating the Black man. No matter that the ANC is a safe bet but both of situation as a colonial situation - how much whites are sympathetic to them struggle to bring it closer to white settler colonialism. This tenden­ the Black nationalist cause they must them. They look upon the ANC as br­ cy also bases itself on revolutionary not be allowed to join our organisa­ inging about that kind of non-racial African (Black) nationalism The begin­ tions, not until the state power of the reconciliation in the country which will nings of this tendency is not only to be white colonialists are smased and they safeguard their interests. Therefore the found in its nationalism as embodied become integrated into the state struc­ politics of multi-racialism is the politics in the writings and figures of Sobukwe tures that we control. Until then they of imperialist interests. and Steve Biko, but also in the writings will always play a divisive role, dismiss­ of Malcolm X, Franz Fanon, Marcus ing our nationalism and wanting to Garvey, Nkrumah, etc. It is against all push us in a "socialist" direction. But Centring around the ANC-CP there forms of foreign domination, it this brand of Marxism dismisses the is a whole international conspiracy to represents the exclusive interests of the most important question in the Aza­ keep South Africa within the im­ African peoples. It takes a firm posi­ nian Revolution, that of the restitution perialist camp. The anti-apartheid tion on the Land Question. In the con­ of the country and the land to the struggle has become something like big crete conditions of the Azanian strug­ dispossessed African peoples. business for many "internationalists." gle there is a M-L radicalising tendency Various aid and relief organisations within the mainstream of this line. It is know and understand the name of the from here that the future elements of One of the weaknesses of this game and therefore consciously give the Marxist-Leninist Party of Azania tendency though is that it does realise support to the ANC-CP set up. If they will emerge. This tendency is more adequately that white racialism itself is smile upon the Black nationalist patriotic and closer to the feelings and the product of colonial and imperialist tendency it is only in order to eventual­ needs of the African masses. The Black oppression in the country, and that we ly discredit and destroy it. The recent nationalist tendency is closely linked to cannot truthfully destroy it unless we evidence about the IUEF reveals that the anti-colonial struggles fought by destroy colonialism and imperialism there was a conscious policy being pur­ the African peoples from the time that altogether. For tomorrow there can be sued to win the BCM into an alliance the first white man entered the coun­ applied the multi-racial solution where with the ANC and that certain people try. With the exception of the ANC- racialism will be brought to an end but were chosen inside the BCM to under­ CP most of the Azanian organisations where the colonial and imperialist take this. Is it wrong to say that ihe have been Black nationalist in orienta­ structures of domination over the ANC itself did not know about this. tion. The APO (All African Peoples Blacks and especially the workers and Where do these aid agencies get their Organisation), the ICU (Industrial and peasants will remain. This multi-racial monies from to throw around to our Commercial Workers Union), the solution will benefit a handful of petit so-called leaders. They come from the Non-European United Front, the Non- bourgeois Blacks mainly and some coffers of Imperialism itself. The link European Unity Momevent, etc. have skilled Black workers but for the large between any national liberation move­ all had this tendency in Azanian majority their conditions of life will ment and relief organisations is always politics. It is not only the major not have improved much. It places too a case of money. Because Azanian tendency today but it also represented much emphasis on the racialist ques­ revolutionaries do not practise self- tion and less on the national struggle 4 Build ihe PAC inio a Dynamic Mass Nalional Movement against colonialism and im­ able to approach the whole question of and can entice people and bribe and perialism. Whilst it is understandable white racialism correctly and not buy them off. The black nationalist why we are concerned with the become too burdened with psychologi­ tendency has little money and lesser psychological dimensions of white cal aspects of white racialism to the ex­ resources to fall back upon. But this is racialist oppression, a la Fanon, never­ tent of ignoring the colonial and im­ a situation that the majority tendency theless we must see it within the perialist structures that breed white must correct. The Black nationalist perspective of the anti-colonial and racialism. tendency must work closely with one anti-imperialist struggle. With the another. The Pan-Africanist Congress Of course the Black nationalist is the key in this alliance. These destruction of the latter white racialism tendency also suffers from lack of will have no material base to flourish. organisations should make their organisational ability which the ANC- resources available to one another and The black nationalist line must increas­ CP has a greater masery of. One ingly take a Marxist perspective on the develop their propaganda line accor­ reason for this in terms of exile politics dingly. national question. In this way it will be of course is that the ANC is very rich

Brief Notes - End of the Road for P.K. Leballo NEED FOR A PEOPLE'S CHAR­ forward a programme based on Black controlled by imperialist combines. TER Consciousness. But it was too limited The national struggle is therefore anti- in its scope. The Black People's colonial and anti-imperialist. The Black nationalist tendency which Charter should not only be a critical (c) It must define the democratic tasks is the majority and leading tendency in summary of past programmes, it of the revolution in the fields of educa­ Azanian politics and which is should also be able to summarise the tion, labour, etc. represented principally by the Pan- past 80 years of struggle - its wakness Africanist Congress of Azania and the and inadequacies - and show the road (d) In short the Black nationalist Black Consciousness Movement forward. The Charter should embody tendency must define the national (together with other bodies like all the rich experiences of the past 80 democratic revolution but it must African National Congress (African years of struggle when we abandoned make a clear distinction between the Nationalists) SAYCO, etc.) needs to the road of armed struggle undertaken betrayal of the struggle for self- come together to draw up a Black Peo­ by our forbears and took the path of determination by the Freedom Charter ple's Charter to define the nature, constitutional struggle. Basically the and its own Charter. tasks and goals of our national libera­ Charter must: tion struggle. All these organisations Forward to the Black People' Charter. subscribe basically to the same political (a) Clearly spell out the nature of the philosophy based on defining the na­ national struggle as an anti-colonial THE MEANING OF THE WORDS tional struggle as an anti-colonial and struggle and not as an anti-apartheid "BLACK" AND "AFRICAN" IN anti-imperialist struggle for self- struggle. It should define the THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE. determination by the dispossessed Africanist nature of our struggle. The African peoples. Such a People's Land Question as symbolising the re­ possession of our country as a country The majority Black nationalist tenden­ Charter will focus on how our People cy in the Azanian struggle inter­ view the struggle for liberation. Since it of the indigenous African people must be spelled out. It must reject the multi­ changeably uses the word Black and will represent the views of the majority African. IKWEZI feels that we should of our people it will put paid to the racial concept of South African society as the face of continuing white and im­ use the African more regularly as it is multi-racialists and their international more appropriate, and deals with a backers in the camp of the two super­ perialist domination. The Black minorities, the so-called Coloureds and very definite entity, the aspirations and powers. This should be undertaken by gaols of the oppressed indigenous all the organisations which subscribe to the Indians, must be called upon to fully identify themselves with the African nation which is the main thrust the same common beliefs based on of the liberation struggle. Blacks is self-determination. Such a step, too, struggle of the African peoples as the basis of their own political and social more amorphous and is very much a will help to create in a more realistic reaction to the concept of white as it and dynamic way the United Front of emancipation. The Africanist nature of the struggle is the principal aspect of relates to the history of our political all these organisations. Whilst these opression in the country of our birth. organisations at this stage will main­ the national struggle. Neither the In­ dians or the so-called Coloureds have This is not to say that the word Black tain their separate identities they will at does not have a political value. Since the same time subscribe to a common any basis for territorial claims and both their national and social eman­ everything that is associated with white People's Charter. This will also help to is upheld in South African society and draw them closer together. cipation is dependent upon their iden­ tity with the African people. correspondingly everything that is associated with Black is derogated, Black Consciousness therefore has a Most of the black nationalist (b) It must also spell out the anti- definite value in instilling pride and organisations currently do not have a imperialist nature of the struggle. The dignity into our people. The use of the full programme defining the nature of South African white colonial bourgoi- word Black also helps to incorporate our struggle. This applies to the PAC sie is a junior partner of Western Im­ the so-called Coloured and Asian as much as to the BCM. The PAC in perialism and the relationship between peoples with the Africans, so that as particular needs to update its pro­ Western Imperialism and the South Black people suffering a common gramme. The Black People's Conven­ African state is a semi-colonial one. political oppression, they can fight tion sometime ago at Humansdorp put 80% of South Africa's economy is Azania (South Africa) is an African country j

together more effectively. And here so. It observes Heroes Day which was Without even informing any member the Black Consciousness Movement inaugurated by the Pan Africanist of the Central Committee or officials has done a magnificent job in bringing Congress of Azania. The BCM adhe­ in the Dar Office he tried to bury the three groups together on a realistic rent very often thinks as an Africanist. them. This was the man who divided, political basis, something that no And leads the Indian an so-called Col­ split and confused the PAC in order to other political organisation has been oured members in the same direction. maintain himself in power at all costs, able to attain. It takes up firm anticolonial positions and who always had some sycophant with regard to the national struggle. But one of the major tasks of the na­ to toady to him. During the 18 years of But its Africanism needs to be more his leadership in exile the PAC did not tional struggle is to return the country specifically spelled out. to the indigenous African people. The make a single positive move except to African people who comprise the over­ engage in demagogy and rhetoric. His THE END OF THE ROAD FOR P-K. removal now paves the way to over­ whelming majority in the country is LEBALLO. not only the vanguard force in the come the destructive legacy he left struggle for national liberation, but it P.K. Leballo's ignominious end took a behind. sudden twist when he was ordered out is also their political destiny which is PAC UNITY CONFERENCE: PUT the key aspect of the national struggle. of Nigeria recently. He attempted to make a breakthrough at the recent TOTAL END TO LEBAIXOISM African is a definte entity and unlike OAU Conference in Freetown, Sierra the word Black not a reaction to some­ Leone, but his credentials were turned One of the immediate tasks of the thing else. The term ''Africanism" is down and he was hastily put on the PAC after the removal of Leballo is to used in the context of our struggle next plane to Nigeria. He was warned make the Conference scheduled to be because the language of multiracialism in Nigeria not to engage in any political held in April next year to be a Con­ and non-racialalism tends to reject the actitivities after the government gave ference of Unity of all capable and reality of the African entity in the full recognition to the PAC as con­ dedicated PAC members, and a firm name of non-racial and human values. stituted at the moment. He was only resolve to relate more effectively to the This is a distortion. The African given status as a refugee. Leballo has struggle inside the country. The Con­ peoples have been occupying the coun­ been attempting to peddle himself in ference should be so organised that it try for thousands of years. They have a some parts of Europe through the will be representative of all the various distinct culture, history, traditions in assistance of some cranks with big am­ PAC groups and individuals that are the country all of which have been bitions, who are not in anyway linked not motivated by personal ambition denied and negated by the colonialists. to the PAC but who make all kinds of but by sincere dedication to the revolu­ Therefore we are engaged in a national fantastic claims. But the days of tion and the struggle. There is obvious­ struggle to put right these historical Leballo in Azanian politics and in ly little place in the organisation for crimes committed against our people. Africa is finished. He can never put his those whose history in the PAC has Living in an African country, every­ foot in any part of Africa as a been reminiscent of Leballoism. The body, whatever his nationality is an legitimate representative of any Aza­ Conference should review the 20 year African. And while the vast and over­ nian organisation, least the PAC. His history of the PAC and the Azanian whelming African majority is brutally expulsion was welcomed by almost all struggle since Sharpeville, should up­ oppressed the duty of everybody is to African states who long suspected him date the Programme of the PAC identify with that struggle. This is the as a BOSS agent. Those who associate relating to the struggle inside the coun­ highest political morality in Azania to­ and peddle this man as some kind of try, should lay equal stress on the ques­ day. The liberation of all in our coun­ leader must beware of the wrath of the tion of Political Mobilisation and try is related to the political and social Azanian masses who have suffered bit­ Political Struggle as the Armed Strug­ emancipation of the African peoples. terly from his destructive legacy. gle, should tighten up Intelligence The oppressed African nation is the Leballo has been trying to give the im­ work, and should vitalise all the main force and vehicle of change. And pression that former members of Departments of the PAC so that they while the oppressed African people APLA are solidly behind him, but this work in a co-ordinated manner and repossess their country and assert its is a lie. During the height even of his put an end to personal empire- leading imprint in all aspects of Aza- power with APLA members he had building, an aspect of Leballoism. It nian life at the same time they will in­ merely won over about a very small should put an end to any kind of finan­ corporate all that is best from other minority who tried to terrorise the rest cial abuse which was the result of the civilisations and cultures. In other into supporting him. One of his last Leballo era and which was one of the words Africanism is not only an asser­ dastardly acts on the occasion of the principal causes of the abuse that took tion of the legitimate political, social commemmoration of Sharpeville when place in the organisation. There should and cultural rights of the oppressed he was booed by rank and file be no question of removing the present African nation but it also incorporates members in the presence of diplomats Central Committee. Rather it must other human values. That is why from a host of African and Third build upon it, making it more efficient Sobukwe stated that in Azania it is World countries, and told to leave the by bringing in other capable people very possible' for a white person to PAC as he was "destroying it", was and manning the various Departments become the Prime Minister of the his attempts to punish some of these so that they work more effectively and country. But he will do so as an members of the PAC. A truck load of undertake the tasks that have to be African living in an African country. his "supporters" that he was taking undertaken. Responsibility and ac­ down to deal with these members over­ countability which was lost in the turned, and four of them died. Leballo era must be re-instituted. The concept of Blackness can incor­ porate Africanism. Certainly the Black Consciousness Movement has done Build ihe PAC imo a Dynamic Mass National Movement

The "Freedom" Charter and the People thai the declaration made in the Charier is uneven - sometimes it goes of "South Africa" into unnecessary details, at other times By David Dube il is a little vague."

In recent months the so-called States has recognised ihis fact; hence •• "Freedom" Charter has been exhum­ Who made ihe Freedom" Charter the Pan Afrianisi Congress and the uneven? ed from the grave in which it was African National Congress have been buried from the moment attempts were given the siatus of observers at the desperately made to adopt it in June United Nations - while the credentials It is nol surprising that Chief Luihuli 1955 at Kliptown near Johannesburg. of the racist "governmenl" of South admits in his book, "Congress did not Africa have been questioned. unanimously adopt the Charier ..." The "Freedom" Charter was Now a document which even a discredited as long ago as 1955. It is the Thieves cannot give a valid litle to substantial number of ANC members most notorious document ever to be other thieves. The land therefore could nol accept is being projected produced in the entire colonial history belongs to ihe Black people. The with a religious zeal as being the basis of Africa. It is a fraudulent document "Freedom" Charter is a negation of for "freedom" in Azania. In fact, this which attempts to betray the national the Africans' right lo self- document is neither national nor pro­ aspirations of the Black people of determination in their own country letarian when it comes to reflecting ihe Azania (South Africa). which was taken from them through national aspirations of the dispossess­ It is not surprising therefore that armed robbery and invasion. Indeed, ed or the interests of workers and liberal newspapers in racist South Shaka, Moshoeshoe, Hintsa, peasants of Azania. It is clearly a sell­ Africa have been allowed to publish Sekhukhuni and the national heroes of out document! this treacherous charter by Pieter the Battles of Keiskama Hoek, San- Commenting on the "Freedom Botha's Government while newspapers dile's Kop, Thababosiu, Isandlwana, Charter, Jordan K. Ngubane, author for the Black people have been refused Blood River and other numerous bat­ of An African Explains Apartheid and permission (o quote Mangaliso tles of national resistance musi have former influential ANC leader who Sobukwe the PAC leader, whom the turned in their graves when ihey saw brought Chief-Luihuli lo the leader­ racists killed in February 1978 after im­ the "Freedom" Charter hoisted in ship of the ANC to replace Dr. James prisoning him on Robben Island and front of the oppressed and dispossess­ Moroka in the early fifties says: detaining him in Kimberly without trial ed sons and daughters of the soil. "People who sat in ihe inner coun­ for 15 years. The "Freedom" Charter was not cils of this alliance (Whites, merchant drawn by the dispossessed and op­ A dead man cannot be quoted, but a class Indians and ANC leaders at Klip- pressed Africans of Azania, but by town) stated privately lhat the ANC "Freedom" Charter can be reproduc­ white liberals (disguised as Socialists ed by white papers and ignore the fact tended to accept instructions rather and Communists) out to perpetuate than lo participate decisively in the for­ that the doomed Charter is the docu­ and protect their own interests. Il is no ment of a supposedly banned organisa­ mulation of policies. Dr. Wilson Con- wonder that at Kliptown in 1955 an In­ co who was for a long time Luihuli's tion. A fishy exercise thai must be dian Yusuf Dadoo (currently Chair­ carefully watched by Azanian patriots! deputy in the ANC, presided over the man of ihe SACP) the representative Klipiown gathering, in 1955, which Why do ihe whites promote this of the merchant class South African produced ihe Freedom Charter; but on Charter? Because the "Freedom" Indian Congress and an English priest. his return (to Durban), he said he had Charter ignores the fact that the people Father Huddlestone were honoured as seen the document for the first time at of Azania were dispossessed in the "heroes." the conference. And Chief Luthuli same way thai ihe people of Zambia, Chief Albert Luihuli himself ihen himself had not known who had Zimbabwe, Kenya and Mozambique President-General of ihe ANC did not drafted the charter. The co-ordinating were. The "Freedom" Charter covers know who drafted the "Freedom" Commiltee of the alliance was a matter up the fact that there has to be self- Charter and criticised it. Indeed, head- of fact nol the real originator ..." determination by the Black people who mils in his book Let My People Go - are indigenous to the Azanian soil. ."The 'Freedom Charter is open to Yet today, this discredited neo- This issue cannot be glossed over in the criticism ..." colonialist document is being paraded name of "multi-racialism" which in The late Chief also said, "I can only before the people of Azania and of any case has always meant white speak vaguely of ihe preparations Africa to deceive and divert them from domination even by the so-called which went before it, not because I was the objectives of self-determination "liberals." excluded by the ban from all but, top- and restoration of their country which The Black people lost their level decisions, but because of illness was stolen from their forefathers by sovereignly in 1910 when the British ... The main disadvantage from the descendants of Jan Van Riebeeck colonialists "transferred" the country which preparations for this suffered and British settlers with the connivance of the Black people to the Anglo-Boer was that local branches submitted their of British imperialism in particular, sealers. That "transfer" by their own material for the Charter at a very late and Western imperialism in general. English common law principles was in­ hour - too late, in fact, for the valid. (No one can give a belter title It is significant to note thai it was the statements to be properly boiled down Kliptown "Freedom" Charter which than he himself possesses. Nemo dat into one comprehensive statement. It quod non habet). precipitated the break-way of the. was not even possible for the National Africanist bloc or the Youth League of International law itself as con­ Action Committee to circularise the ihe Congress from the ANC in 1958 tributed by the independent African draft Charter carefully. The result is and the formation of the Pan Azania (Souih Africa) is an African country 7

Africanist Congress on the 6th of April live control of their own country. It is tries to stop your seizing it, pour petrol 1959. fighting for the "constitutional over him with one hand, and light it It is also important to observe that guarantees" or "national rights" for with the other." no Azanian movement of political con­ our alien nationals. Saboteurs of the Azanian Revolu­ sequence such as the Black Con­ It has completely abandoned the ob­ tion have interpreted African self- sciousness Movement, SASO, Black jective of freedom. It has joined the determination and majority rule in Peoples' Convention, Azania Peoples ranks of reactionary forces. It is no Azania as meaning that the P.A.C. Organisation, Black Civic Association, longer within the ranks of the libera­ and Black consciousness-oriented Azanian Students Organisation etc. tion movement. Black organisations stand for: "Drive ever subscribed to this Judas' docu­ the Whiles to the sea!" ment, the ''Freedom*' Charter. These 'leaders' consider South Africa and its wealth to belong to all Of course, this is rubbish. Where in Indeed, speaking on behalf of the who live in it, the alien dispossessor Africa have whites ever been driven to Pan Africanist Congress, and the and the indigenous dispossessed, the the sea after African majority rule was dispossessed people of Azania in 19S9, alien robbers and their indigenous vic­ attained? Only racists have always the sublime, incorruptible and in­ tims. They regard as equals the foreign driven themselves out of Africa to the destructible Mangaliso Sobukwe said: master and his indigenous slave, the sea! Even these were begged to stay on, "The days of European domination white exploiter and the African ex­ be citizens of a genuinely independent of Africa are numbered. Even in South ploited, the foreign oppressor and the state and help build the new free na­ Africa the writing is glaringly on the indigenous oppressed. They regard as tion. wall for those of our European rulers brothers the subject Africans and their who can see and decipher it. For exact­ European overlords. Indeed, as can be seen from the ly three hundred and seven years to­ representatives of white settlers like day, the African people have been They are too incredibly naive and Peter Walls of former Rhodesia and criminally oppressed, ruthlessly ex­ too fantastically unrealistic to see that Pieter Botha of racist South Africa, to ploited and inhumanly degraded. They the interests of the subject peoples who compromise with these colonial forces have in the past, as they do now, are criminally oppressed, ruthlessly ex­ and agents of imperialism in Africa on declared themselves for freedom. ploited and inhumanly degraded, are the land question is a naked betrayal of They reject white domination in any in sharp conflict and in pointed con­ the people of Azania. The racists firm­ shape or form. tradiction with those of the white rul­ ly believe in white supremacy. The ing class. Whites in South Africa must be told They are unflinchingly determined unequivocally that the right of Aza- to wrest the control of their country Citizen Toussant once remarked nians to self-determination in the from alien hands. They are determined that: 'When anybody, be he white or whole country on the basis of one to exercise the most fundamental of mulatto, wants a dirty job done, he man, one vote is not negotiable nor human rights, the inalienable right of always gets a blackman to do it. * can it be based on neo-colonialist indigenous people to determine and charters. shape their own destiny. The so-called leaders after doing a dirty job namely, seeing to it that the To the African people there can be African is deprived for all time of his ANC's Betrayal of 1949 Programme of no room in any way or in any part of inherent right to control his country ef­ Action Africa for any non-indigenous peoples fectively; of seeing to it that whatever who deny to the indigenous popula­ new social order is established in this tions their fundamental right to con­ country, the essentials of white The principle of self-determination trol their own material and spiritual in­ domination are retained, even though and African majority rule is of course, terests effectively. South Africa which its frills and trappings may be ripped not "racialism reversed"! It is is an integral part of the continent, is off. This attitude has been labelled democracy as understood in Western the inalienable heritage of the African multi-racialism by their white masters. Europe where the Whites come from. people and its effective control is their They have even boldly suggested that The numerical superiority of the undoubted and unquestionable bir­ being a multi-racialist.is a virtuel" Africans must be taken into considera­ thright. " tion and the fact that the country The Kliptown "Freedom" Charter belongs to them. "Bantustans" and literally surrenders the country of the the "Freedom" Charter are not a crea­ Sobukwe on the "Freedom" Charter African people and their wealth to the tion of the Africans, but of neo- notorious descendants of Jan van colonialist forces and those they Commenting on the authors of the Riebeeck. manipulate to confuse the true na­ "Freedom" Charter, Sobukwe said, tional aspirations of the African peo­ "Following the capture of a portion of One Azanian leader has described ple. the black leadership of South Africa by the "Freedom" Charter as a "colossal a section of the white ruling class the political fraud ever perpetrated upon The "Freedom" Charter is a com­ masses of our people are in extreme the oppressed, exploited and degraded plete departure from the 1949 Pro­ danger of being deceived into losing people. It clearly bears the stamp of its gramme of Action. This programme sight of the objectives of our struggle. own origin! It is a product of the slave was initiated by great leaders like An­ This captured leadership claims to be mentality and colonialist orientation of tony Muziwakhe Lembede, Mangaliso fighting for freedom when in truth it is the White middle class of South Sobukwe and other political giants of fighting to perpetuate the tutelage of Africa." the Azanian liberation struggle. The the African people. It is tooth and nail programme stood for self- against the Africans gaining the effec- This patriot concluded, "The land determination and genuine in- belongs to you (Africans). Whosoever a Build ihe PAC into a Dynamic Mass Naiional Movement dependence of Azania not the bogus should be jointly involved in the For 57 39 31 30 18 1910 so-called "South Africa in­ blackman's struggle for a place under Against 29 41 47 43 42 dependence". the sun; in short, these are people who Undecided 14 20 22 27 40 Abraham Tiro the Azanian martyr say that they have black souls wrapped killed by a racist bomb in Botswana up in white skins ..." never subscribed to the "Freedom" That is not the language of a There is no doubt even today that Charter. At the time of his death he charterist! It is a language that when the "Freedom" Charter is ex­ was SASO acting permanent organiser. represents the oppressed and plained to the people of Azania, this Speaking at the fourth annual con­ dispossessed people of Azania. Judas Iscariot charter shall suffer a ference of SASO at Hammanskraal, he more ignominious defeat than it did in Biko continues, "Above all, we 1964. The Azanian people are now urged delegates to be positive and con­ black people should all the time keep sider the country (South Africa) as a more politicised and more conscious of in mind that South Africa is our coun­ what they really want in their country. Black state which belonged to the try and that all of it belongs to us. The Black people. No neo-colonialist scheme will deceive arrogance that makes white people to them. He explained: "This should not be travel all the way from Holland to construed as anti-white. It only means come and balkanise our country and Azania is not a prostitute. It is a that in as much as Black people live in shift us around has to be destroyed. Blackman's country. Only a prostitute Europe on terms laid down by whites, can belong to "everybody" or to Whites should be subjected to the same Our kindness has been misused and "all". Azania does not belong to "all" conditions." our hospitality turned against us. oppressor and oppressed, Steve Biko one of the illustrious Whereas whites were guests to us on dispossessor and dispossessed, robber leaders of Azania, addressing himself their arrival in this country they have and robbed. Azania belongs to the on the political situation in racist now pushed us out to an 13% corner Black people. The facts of history are South Africa said: "The biggest of the land and are acting as bad hosts clear on this issue. There is no in­ mistake the black world ever made was in the rest of the country. This we must telligent Blackman except those who to assume that whoever opposed apar­ put right." (From Biko's book, / are brain-washed by the "multi-racial" theid was an ally. For a long time the Write What I like). politics of the "liberals" who accepts this sell-out document. black world has been looking only at The Charlerists are insulting the in­ the governing party and not so much at telligence of the Black people. Genuine Self-determination and majority rule Ihe whole power structure as the object patriots and revolutionaries must re­ are the only solution to nearly 400 of their rage. In a sense the very ject this reformist Judas Iscariot's years of foreign minority racist settler political vocabularly that the blacks document with (he contempt it rule in the country of our forefathers. have used has been inherited from the deserves. And fight for the true libera­ liberals. Therefore, it is not surprising This is no lime to pander to the tion of their motherland as the people racial arrogance and bigotry of the that alliances were formed so easily of Zimbabwe and Mozambique did. with the liberals. racist and "multi-racialists" — which In fact, it was on the basis of the is racialism multiplied. The blood of Who are the liberals in South "Freedom" Charter that the 1964 the fallen heroes in the battles of na­ Africa? It is that curious bunch of non­ Survey of the South African Institute tional resistance and at Sharpeville, conformists who explain their par­ of Race Relations discovered the then Soweto and other places is too ticipation in negative terms; that bunch strength and representation of the precious to be sacrificed on the altar of of do-gooders that goes under all sorts Black parties and those of the the neo-colonialist Judas "Freedom" of names - liberals, leftists, etc. These "liberals" in South Africa. The posi­ Charter. Shame to the authors, ped­ are people who argue that they are not tion was published as follows: dlers and collaborators of the responsible for white racism and the notorious Charter. country's inhumanity to the black Cursed be all who are conspiring to man; these are the people who claim Party PAC ANC Lib. Pro- C. sell the right of Azanians to self- that they too feel the oppression just as gress. O.D determination to imperialism and its acutely as the blacks and therefore To To To To To agents for 30 pieces of silver. Lenin: Apropos the character of democracy. This excerpts Marxist, a socialist way; in which case are from Lenin "The Renegade Kaut- one would take as the basis the rela­ Freedom Charter sky and the Proletarian Revolution". tion between the exploited and the ex­ The notorious "Freedom" Charter ploiters. Or one may argue in a liberal, makes a great play about democracy Can there be Equality between the Ex­ a bourgeois-democratic way; and in and equal rights for all, the exploiters ploited and the Expolter? that case one would take as the basis and the exploited. Drawn up mainly by the relation between the majority and the white hacks of the South African Kautsky argues as follows: the minority. "Communist" Party this document (1) "The exploiters have always form­ If we argue in a Marxist way, we overlooks the class inequalities on ed only a small minority of the must say: the exploiters inevitably which the economic, social and population". (P. 14 of Kautsky's pam­ transform the state (and we are speak­ political structures of South Africa are phlet) ing of democracy, i.e., one of the based. Here Lenin gives a telling reply That is indisputably true. Taking forms of the state) into an instrument to those who talk about democracy in this as the starting point, what should of the rule of their class, the exploiters, general without looking at the class be the argument? One may argue in a over the exploited. Hence, so long as Azania (South Africa) is an African country 9

there are exploiters who rule the ma­ destroyed at one stroke. It is impossi­ superior education, close connections jority, the exploited, the democratic ble to expropriate all the landlords and with the higher technical personnel state must inevitably be a democracy capitalists of a country of any size at (who live and think like the for the exploiters. A state of the ex­ one stroke. Furthermore, expropria­ bourgeoisie), incomparably greater ex­ ploited must fundamentally differ tion alone, as a legal or political act, perience in the art of war (this is very from such a state; it must be a does not settle the matter by a long important), and so on, and so forth. democracy for the exploited, and a way, because it is necessary to depose And in these circumstances, in an means of suppressing the exploiters; the landlords and capitalists in actual epoch of desperate acute war, when and the suppression of a class means fact, to replace their management of history has placed on the order of the inequality for that class, its exclusion the factories and estates by a different day the question whether age-old and from "democracy". management, workers' management, thousand-year-old privileges are to be You see, the relation between the ex­ in actual fact. There can be no equality or not to be - at such a time to talk ploited and the exploiters has vanished between the exploiters - who for about majority and minority, about in Kautsky's argument. All that re­ many generations have stood out pure democracy, about dictatorship mains is majority in general, minority because of their education, conditions being unnecessary and about equality in general, democracy in general, the of wealthy life, and habits — and the between the exploiter and the ex­ "pure democracy" with which we are exploited, the majority of whom even ploited!! What infinite stupidity and already familiar. in the most advanced and most bottomless Philistinism are needed for democratic bourgeois republics are this! The exploiter and the exploited can­ downtrodden, backward, ignorant, in­ not be equal. This truth, however timidated and disunited. For a long Kautsky talks about anything you unpleasant it may be to Kautsky, time after the revolution the exploiters like, about everything that is accep­ nevertheless forms the essential con­ inevitably continue to enjoy a number table to liberals and bourgeois tent of Socialism. of great practical advantages: they still democrats and does not go beyond Another truth: there can be no real, have money (since it is impossible to their circle of ideas, but he does not actual equality until all possibility of abolish money all at once); some talk about the main thing, namely, the the exploitation of one class by another movable property - often fairly con­ fact that the proletariat cannot achieve has been totally destroyed. siderable; they still have various con­ victory without breaking the resistance The exploiters can be defeated at nections, habits of organization and of the bourgeoisie, without forcibly one stroke in the event of a successful management, knowledge of all the suppressing its enemies, and that, uprising at the centre, or of a revolt in "secrets" (customs, methods, means where there is "forcible suppression," the army. But except in very rare and and possibilities) of management, where there is no "freedom," there is, special cases, the exploiters cannot be of course, no democracy. way or another, tied to central ad­ A Brief History of Azania by Dabi Lenkuiuieko ministrative bodies with which they This is an article from a forthcoming book to be called, "The Fall of South Afri­ held occasional grand conferences to ca and the rise of Azania", by M. Pheko, to be published by Daystar Publishers decide on matters of common interest. in Zambia. The book is a series of stimulating essays concerning the name Aza­ Owing to the distortions and destruc­ nia, but which goes into a thorough history of the colonisation of South Africa. tion, Africa as a whole has experienced in the hands of her colonial masters, her history has suffered like-wise. It is The borders of Azania are as follows: therefore not possible for me to say AZANIA is known as "South Africa" what the actual nature of these social, to many, although when constitu­ (a) Namibia to the north-west, political and economic institutions of tionally defined the South Africa state (b) Botswana and Zimbabwe to the precolonial times were. excludes people of African origin. An north, Swaziland and the People's African is not a South African by law Republic of Mozambique to the north­ Social scientists of the colonial era of the South Africa state but Euro­ east, serve as sources of information on peans are. This has caused a lot of con­ African history but they themselves fusion with many overlooking this fun­ (c) the rest is surrounded by the Indian were guided by their own interests. damental factor and going to the ex­ Ocean in the east and the Atlantic They understood little of what they tent of claiming that the Africans there Ocean in the south and west. saw. They often made their obsersva- are independent simultaneously with tions after the colonial armies, ad­ the European settlers, that Africans do Azania Precolonfal Times ministrators, etc., had done a good job not need to fight for national at disrupting social order, marginated sovereignty and self-determination but To speak of precolonial Azania is in a as proof of belated tribalism and ra­ to fight only against racism. way inaccurate because the present tionale for intervention. They saw It is in the midst.of this confusion borders are of recent (origin) and were tribes where cities had been buried in that a name was suggested for the drawn (up) in the interest of the col­ cannon rubble and ignored available country in order to distinguish the onial masters. It is fitting therefore to information, that the so-called tribes South Africa state, a settler colonial speak of Southern Africa. had achieved higher levels of develop­ state, from the country and its people, ment than can be credited to tribal In precolonial times Southern Africa society. the Africans. The country was named was populated by several nationality AZANIA. groups which enjoyed varying degrees For greater details on this question of autonomy from one another while see Chancellor William's book, "The Current Borders of Azania on the other hand they were, in one Destruction of Black Civilisation " pp 10 Build the PAC inio a Dynamic Mass National Movement

37 - 40. For the destruction of African outlined by Karl Marx ar a general Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe and Quyi- civilisations and the distortion of the trend in social development are not Quyi. history thereof William Chancellor's clearly seen in the history of Southern I might add that at various times, for book is the best work available. He Africa. We cannot say that the slave various reasons, peoples in Africa have clearly calls for re-investigation and mode nor the classic feudal mode took migrated from one place to another, redocumemation of the history of place until the recent European slave within and outside the continent. (See Africa. He takes African history back trade of the precapitalist period of the Dr. G.K. Osei's book, "History of the to 4500 B.C. prior to Arab influence. 17th to 18th centuries championed by African People Vol. I and II.) the Portuguese. The colonial socio-economic systems Dr. Osei tells us about when, how replaced prosperous systems and Most history books attest to the and why people of African origin civilisations in most parts of Africa. public ownership of land administered migrated to various parts of Europe. This applies to both Arab (Moslem) by recognized monarchs. He draws examples dated much earlier and European (Christian) colonial We can also say that even if there than the periods of both Asian and systems. They exploited the natural were some privileged individuals of European domination in Africa. and social resources but at the same groups, i.e. Monarchs and aristocrats, Anyway, it seems reasonable to say time they forced people to migrate disparity was nothing compared with that Shaka and those who supported from place to place often banishing Europe. This means then that the him knew more than they received them to remote and barren parts of the social relations, i.e., organised rela­ credit for, about nationalism and the land. The outcome of these disruptions tions of production and distribution, need for unity in view of the obvious was the destruction of the pre-colonial were not as antagonistic as we know threat of Europe invasions. The ex­ social formations. The colonized them to have been in Europe. We perience of imfecane also led to further reverted to the subsistence forms of know from our understanding of migrations as some groups escaped and economy while in actual fact they had dialectics that if this was the case the fled Shaka's 'reign of terror'. Some enjoyed a greater prosperity before. warlike situation often overemphasised settled under Moshoeshoe on the by the colonial writers of our history mountains of Lesotho, Mzilikazi end­ It is well to know that the presently could hardly have been that serious. identifiable nationality groups in ed up in Zimbabwe with a sizeable Europeans often saw the world number of people. Some joined the Southern Africa have one stem. This is through their own experiences and seen in language similarities and other Xhosa-Qoyi nationality of the Cape since wars were rampant between while others fled to present-day social factors. It is this stem which various European nationality groups at gave rise to the so-called "Bantu" Swaziland. This took place during the the time of Europe's expansion (from time European armies and traders were speaking peoples. The labelling of the about 1300 A.D. onwards) then they Southern African people as "Bantu" hovering at the African coastal belt. would be inclined to assume that The Portuguese were already in or "Bantu speakers" in particular has Africans in Southern Africa were also also led to a great confusion and actual Angola and Mozambique. A large part warlike. of the Cape was already under colonial distortion of history because there is Shaka's Attempts at Unity. no such a group of people as "Bantu". control and over ten major wars (so- Ntu means person and bantu means called frontier wars) had been fought persons or people, all people regardless by the African people against Euro­ The middle of the eighteenth century, pean invasions. of race or nationality. (See Lester however, saw a new trend. A small na­ Brook's book; Great Civilisation of tionality group of the Nguni branch Ancient Africa" for a documentation saw a need to unite with the other na­ Shaka did not just dream of in­ of such civilisations.) tionality groups in the area we refer to vading his neighbours and brothers, as Azania today. The group called nor was he a psychophant as Leonard I must point out that in the so-called itself the Zulu and their leader was Thompson and his collegues often Africa North of the Sahara and Shaka. The Zulus were well aware of claim. Eastern Africa some historians credit their history, their origins, migrations, There were concrete realities which development to Asian influence. Their etc., including the fact that all the na­ led to his efforts. Organised unity was claim overlooks time limits. William tionality groups in Southern Africa greatly needed by Africans in our part Chancellor clarifies this, i.e., he dates share these including the Quyi-Quyi of Africa at the time. It simply does Asian influence in Africa and details whose language similarities with coptic not help to ignore the actual reality at pre-Arab influence civilisations as led some to trace their roots to Egypt. the time of Shaka's rule of 'terror' well. The Azanian people, of whom the both at home and in the world general­ Zulus were a part, are traced to the It makes sense to speak of ly. Shaka saw the need and set out to north-eastern horn of Africa, Somalia, forge it by force. Nothing was new marginated people rather than tribes in originally Azania. all of Africa unless, of course, people about that. Generals in other parts of the world behaved in the same manner. can give material reasons as to why and Brooks tells us that Azania and how certain races stagnated at the tribe other African Empires were highly One often reads in pro-colonial stage while others leaped over epochs. developed by the standards of the time literature that the European settlers ar­ Without reliable sources of informa­ (700 A.D.). They built roads, metal rived at the Cape at the same time as tion and sound analysis we must start works, irrigation schemes, etc. The the so-called "Bantu" speakers from off with whatever rudiments of infor­ empire shared with the empires of the North. This is an attempt on the mation we can find in our efforts to Nubia, Axum, Sabia, Middle Egypt, part of these so-called historians to study our history. It is safe to say that etc. In the South the Azanians merged erase from the pages Of history records the classical modes of production with civilisations of that region such as of some realities, e.g. Azania (South Africa) is an African country II

(a) thai the so-called "Bantu" im­ for intensification of research in the duction of cannons by western migrants from the North and/or field and an effort to analyse and Europe, to early 14th century. Fif­ Eastern horn of Africa took place in redocument available data methodical­ teenth and sixteenth century Europe, seventh century A.D. and earlier; ly so that these questions can be which was feudal, devoted a great deal (b) That the European colonial oc­ answered. of time manufacturing cannons, guns cupation followed at least eight cen­ and ships which were greatly demand­ turies later (1652 A.D.); The Rise of Colonialism in Azania ed by the wars at home and by the early (c) that Abatwa (people from the voyages across the seas. south), as the Qoyi-Qoyi people were It is imperative that one traces Euro­ (d) Later they remodelled the former called by the newcomers from the pean intervention in our country to the heavy guns and boats into lighter and north, were the actual inhabitants of very roots of European expansion. We mobile ones. This was to mark the tide the area now known as the Cape; must understand the material condi­ in favour of western Europe in which (d) that European colonial settlers in tions which prevailed in Europe at the Spain and Portugal became promi­ Azania refer to the Africans as "Ban­ time in order to apprehend their nent. tu" (people), "Bushmen" and/or behaviour as colonial masters in our The scramble was for wealth and ter­ "Hottentots" while they in turn refer country. This paper is too short for me ritorial acquisition. to themselves as Africans (Afrikaners) to include the details but I can provide is specifically in order to claim the land some reference. In their trials and failures searching as their own and to say that the actual for the sea routes to the East they Africans, i.e. the the natives of the Carlo M. Cipolla, in his book: reached the Americas and Africa. They country came as immigrants from Guns, Sails and Empires details the were, however, repelled by the Qoyi- anywhere where the colonials have lit­ history of technological development Qoyi in their efforts to establish a base tle or no vested intersts; in western Europe and thus serve to at the Cape. enlighten us about developments there (e) that derogatory vocabulary used They saw, as a challenge, the Moors which led to European expansion. (Afro-Asian culture of North Africa) by the colonial social scientists reveals These are estabished in the prologue of an arrogance and need on their part to who had dominated Portugal and the book as follows, though not in the Spain as early as 700 A.D. King John I discredit and do the African down. For same order: instance, language which would be us­ attacked what Europeans looked upon ed on animals is used on Africans: (a) The chronic weakness of western as the key to the Mediterranean, the African homes are refered to as Europe. fortress of Centa in 1415. This marked ''kraals''. Old and absolete vocabulary (1) Europe was thinly populated with the beginning of the rise of Europe of the gone tribal stage of development about 100 million people. from the medieval feudal epoch to a modern Europe. It also marked the was brought forward and used against (2) Most important was that Euro­ the Africans. new strategy for the encirclement of peans were divided into small na­ Islam worldwide and the spread of It is true that Europe led by England tionality groups, at a constant state of Christianity. made the leap forward to the capitalist war with one another, thus general mode of production and industrialisa­ confusion prevailed. Repeated invasions of the West tion but this does not mean that Euro­ (3) They were susperstitious. Often African coast from the North to the peans have always been at the lead as placing their hope of survival in God. South and occupation of the seaports this is often implied by many who view as refreshment stations by the Euro­ Caucasians as the civilized and (4) Generalship (in war) was poor, pean East India traders was the star­ Africans as "primitive". In the last sacrificing tactics and strategy for the ting point in the colonisation process five hundred years of colonial rule in impossible dream of striking heavily at of Africa by various European nations Southern Africa this has been the enemy while remaining invulneral- initiated by Portugal who were later ble, relying on heavily armoured thoroughly capitalized on. followed by the Dutch, British, French cavalry which was colourful but un- and German. The damage which has been caused wieldly (according to Lot in his book ( by this dichotomy lies in the numerous Art Militaire p. 429. Reference taken Equipped with these fundamentals deductions which follow, e. g. from Cipolla's book.) and yet generalities about western Europe before and during their expan­ 1. primitive society was composed of (b) Europe was dominated by the sion it becomes a little clearer why ex­ tribal groups which were constantly at eastern Arab and Turkish Moslems ploitation in Azania came to be based loggerheads with one another waging who were stronger and had held Spain on/white racism and/white cultural unending wars; and the Balearic Islands. On May 28 chauvinism in the name of Western 2. tribes consisted of small numbers of 1353 A.D. the Turks invaded Constan­ Civilisation. people, and. so on. These are tinople. The Christians were con­ automatically applied on Africans quered in Nicolpolis in 13%. Western It was the Portuguese who led the without question as to whether the cap Europe lived in fear of the Turks who others in following the sea route via the fits or not. were much stronger on land, thus she apex of the African cone .(so-called began directing her efforts to the seas Cape route). The British, the French The little that is known on Southern as they could not use the Suez Canal to and the Dutch (through their East In­ Africa does not enable us to determine reach the East where silk, spices, gold, dia Companies) followed. what mode or modes of production slave, labour, fabrics, etc., were to be The Dutch were the first to send a prevailed nor to say what level of found. garrison of men to the Cape in 1652. development the precolonial Southern They established a refreshment station Africa peoples had achieved. This calls (c) Cipolla dates the primitive pro­ in the Cape under the control of the 12 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

Dutch East India Company. As the rebelled against British authority at the in Azania today. Prison labour, for ex­ station grew in size conflict between Cape thereby migrating further inland ample, resembles the mixed lord of serf them and the native people, i.e., to settle in the provinces now known as and master to slave relations of pre- Africans, intensified. The Europeans the Orange Free State and the industrial United States of America. launched many wars of aggression in Transvaal. These rebellions climaxed Feudal relations remain a stark nak­ order to gain land, livestock, grain and with the Anglo-Boer Wars, the last of ed reality in the agricultural sector of slave labourJrom the Africans. which was in 1902. This period also the otherwise backward capitalist The Christian crusades were not marks the end of the Africans Wars of mode of production. limited in working among the masses resistance, the last of which came to be The British sector of the settlers con­ of Europe arousing sentiments of hate known as the Bambata Rebellion in tinues to play an anti-fascist but deter­ against the Moors (anti-Moslem and 1906. mined pro-imperialist role. This is no anti-Black, pro-Christianity and pro- Africans had lost all control to the surprise if one knows that they own a Caucasian) but did their best in convin­ Europeans who, though allied against big piece of the Azanian pie. The cing Africans that West European Africans, had continued to wage wars Dutch continues to enforce a fascist Culture was the ideal while projecting against each other at the same time. and backward politico-economic African Culture as the "quintessence The Europeans must be credited with system. of evil" as Frantz Fannon put it in his their clarity on their order of priorities. book "The Wretched of the Earth". As far as their policy continues to From Feudalism to Capitalism They labelled Africans "bushmen", show, they have always been united in "hottentots", "kafirs", "heathens", their endeavour to oppress and exploit "pagans", etc. Primitive accumulation of capital and Africans. They put their internal con­ therefore control of the masses in tradictions aside in order to maintain African resistance against col­ Azania was carefully planned by the an upper hand on this question. The colonial masters employing well onialism in AZAN1A was protracted, Africans on the other hand frequently stretching over two and a half cen­ known methods already tested in allied with the Europeans against their Europe. For example: turies. Many of the wars fought were own people thus jeopardizing their won by Africans although the own national interest. Since the Euro­ (a) Military invasion of the peasants, technologically advanced Europeans peans gained control over the Africans conquered in the long run. Africans seizure of their land forcing them into (a situation determined at the war the least productive and small areas - employed their numerical strength and front) they have consistently maintain­ wit in defence of their motherland and so-called native reserve, bantustans, ed themselves as a ruling class and a homelands, etc. succeeded in preventing extermination labour aristocracy by military force. by their foes. (b) Imposition of taxes to be paid in Their early presence in Azania was cash (ten shilling per head) to start Control of the so-called Cape of with, Europeans alone had access to Good Hope changed hands several marked by the slave trade during which Africans, Indians, Malays and Chinese cash so that Africans had to work for times as power changed hands in the Europeans to get the cash. Europe, an outcome of the wars people were forced into bondage and fought between the various European traded like cattle to serve Europeans. (c) Further provision was made to swell nations over territorial claims. the landless class (native), the labour As if to illustrate once more the force that must, through the institu­ Balam Nyeko and Donald Dennon determinent effect in Europe on tion of fixed tenure whereby native attempt to explain this determinant Azania, the abolotionist movement peasants were restricted to small plots and relative effect of European events and the 18th century bourgeois revolu­ (a stand) and told to limit their produc­ on Southern Africa in their book, tions in England and France came to tion of cattle, goats, sheep and other "Southern Africa since 1800", as bear on the South African economy. animal products to numbers stipulated follows: Wage labour was gradually replacing by the government. The vacated land slave labour. Like the slave owners of was to be held in trust for them by the "In 1795, once again the European the South in the United States of North private trust companies. This was a situation impinged upon Southern America, the Hollanders (in South trick, of course. Africa. During the course of the Africa) resisted these developments, cl­ Napoleonic Wars, the Netherlands inging to slave labour. (d) Many statutes were passed for the were conquered by France, and Britain purpose of disarming the African peo­ occupied the Dutch possessions, in­ However, British capitalism and in­ ple in particular including the Col- cluding the Cape. The occupation con­ dustrialisation was fast entrenching oureds and Asians. It is illegal for an tinued until 1803, when there was a itself in Azania and it was evident that African to possess a gun of any three year period of Netherlands it was incompatible with the backward description, an instrument which has a authority under the Batavian Republic, feudalism of the Dutch. sharp blade of more than four inches which had succeeded the monarchy in It was over these issues that the in length, etc. the Netherlands. In 1806 the Cape was Anglo-Boer Wars were fought. The (e) Hundreds of statutes notoriously re-occupied by the British on the out­ British colonials wanted to end slavery known as dom (stupid) pass laws were break of further war in Europe, and in to replace it with the more benefiting passed and enforced, designed for ef­ 1815 the Cape became a permanent wage labour and force the Dutch set­ fective curfew restricting the people's British possession". tlers to accept British authority as their geographic and social mobility. own. They generally and temporarily (0 The exclusion of Africans from the The permanence referred to above succeeded in bringing about these franchise puts a rubber stamp to the was frequently tested by the Dutch set­ changes. This is not to say that rem­ robbery and exclusion the colonial tlers in South Africa who continuously nants of feudal relations are not found masters, that is Britain, Holland, and Azania (South Africa) is an African country 13

the settler colonials, have maintained and their exploitative nature, it must pean colonial settlers in their own since the dawn of colonialism in also be aware that hardly any merging country but also had to accept reduced Azania. of cultures took place there. Instead an wages. These incidents marked the assault on African culture took place, point of departure between the African It must be understood that only the workers and the European colonial set­ colonials, that is the European settlers weakening the masses of African peo­ ple. The outcome of this has been an tler workers. The former realised that were recognised as the so-called South they were doomed to toil for the Africans. Privilege was their right emergence of two cultural groups bit­ terly opposed to one another and yet benefit of others while the latter were while the Africans and the Asians were to share in the spoil and therefore to toil for their colonial masters. united by their dependency on one another. become a determined ally of the The granting of independence to the bourgeoisie. The Industrial Concilia­ feuding Dutch settler and the British The African population has been tion Act of 1913 legalised this division. colonial authorities based at the Cape transformed into a proletarian force This meant that the African workers must not be confused with or taken to while the European population has had to line up in labour recruitment mean a change in this social order. Bri­ deteriorated in their positions of centres without any right to bargain in tain was relieving herself of the ad­ privileged worker and comfort. the buying and selling of their labour. ministrative duties of the colony, The African proletariat knows that Agents from the centres of production allowing the settlers to be their own its enemy is not only the internal one, came periodically to the African administrators. It meant that Britain as we know the presence of interna­ residential areas, so-called "ban- would no longer send administrators to tional entrepreneur ship is a naked one. tustans" to pick the fittest and the South Africa, already an industrialised They work for American, British, Ger­ healthiest using the methods which country, but that she would send man, Japanese, French, etc., com­ were employed in the buying and sell­ capital for investment. She was only panies. The product of their labour is ing of slaves. The African workers moving forward with the order of the shipped out of the country to interna­ were forced by poverty in the "ban- time, namely, imperialism. tional markets while they themselves tustans" to sell their very selves to these European settler entrepreneurs. It is interesting to note that this act do not receive enough to nourish, let was to pass for many British colonies alone educate themselves and their soon after, but in a different form, families. These are the realities of our history that is, carefully picked administra­ and it is upon them that the struggle tions were granted "independence" Unrest and martial law are a tradi­ for national sovereignty and self- but were to remain as neo-colonies. In tion in Azania in as much as it is often determination plus the class struggle their case there was to be a change of kept silent by the imperialist news must be seen. The seemingly two strug­ face, that is. Natives became the ad­ media. gles are one struggle in reality, the ministrators as opposed to the settler The beginning of exploitation of primary contradiction at this stage be­ colonies so-called South Africa, minerals in Azania by the Europeans ing colonialism. The settler colonial Rhodesia and South-West Africa. saw an influx of skilled workers from state machinery has to be destroyed the already industrialised European and in its place a workers' state After 1910 Europeans maintained machinery in the service of all the peo­ their privilege as the colonial masters countries. Minerals provided some of the necessary capital and the African ple must be created and headed by "maintaining European Culture" as workers whose interest is synonymous their leadership often reminds us. peasants who had been forcibly separated from their land were flock­ with that of the masses. This extension of the so-called Euro­ ing to the mines. As competition grew pean culture into Africa runs along between the new arrivals and the British Masks Colonialism In Azania colour lines. It separates the black African semi-skilled workers in the from the white but at the same time mines and other-industrial centres the Following the end of the Anglo-Boer separates the haves from the have nots. colonial and racist policies were also The polarisation lies on the economic Wars won by the Cape and Natal becoming more and more favourable (British) administration against the factor but it would be a gross error to to European settlers thus elevating focub only on this factor (i.e. to wage Orange Free State and Transvaal ad­ them to the level of a labour ministration, Britain declared the four only a class struggle) and overlook the aristocracy. right of the African people to national provinces "independent" as a Union in accordance with the treaty of so\ ereignty and self-determination. There were still sectors in the in­ Presently the European immigrants en­ Vereeniging. The Dutch settlers were dustrial parts of the country's not happy with this settlement. They joy South Africa as a class in a economy where both European and sovereign state exclusive of the waged an intense struggle on the African workers organised together. political, social and economic fronts Africans. In more straight forward Early this century they jointly waged language one can say that we are op­ only to come back into power over the strikes for better wages and better whole Union in 1948 under the leader­ pressed as a nation first and foremost working conditions. The result of these and then as a class as welt. This makes ship of the Nationalist Party. They was a significant fall in the price of renamed the "Union of South Africa" our struggle more like the two sides of gold. The mining magnates responded a coin. That is, a national struggle on the "Republic of South Africa" in to this situation by pitting workers May 1961 and also made it known and one side and a class struggle on the against workers, that is, by placing other. The two are inseparable. clear in the Republic's constitution European workers in supervisory and that Africans were not a part of the As the whole world is aware of the manangerial positions and increasing Republic. separatist endeavours on the part of their wages while African workers were the successive colonial administrations not only forced to work under Euro­ It is under this leadership that the 14 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement colonial settler state so-called "South ed as a race, (Note: I do not say replacing the laissez faire stage of Africa" clearly came out as a fascist because of race) and as a nation, so capitalism, enabling the international and racist state. that class stratification takes on racial bourgeoisie to exploit the masses in the It is this "independence'!, clearly form. This is not a denial of the fact colonies through (native) national granted by British to her civil servants that Africans are also capable of ex­ bourgeois regimes by means of capital in one of her colonies whom she ploiting and oppressing other exportation, etc., she recalled those in endeavoured to unite with the long Africans. In fact, the .correct line will also have to take into consideration the the three territories as well granting the deposed Dutch administrators of the national bourgeoisie there the so-called Cape in order to resolve the contradic­ budding African petty bourgeoisie in our country who are presently display­ independence, thus turning them into tion between herself and them on one neo-colonies. hand, on the other between the British ing their willingness to act as managers and the Dutch settlers. The masses of for the racists at home and the interna­ Now that we know how the Africans the African people gained nothing tional capitalists who are willing to pay lost control over their resources and from this settlement. Instead they lost them high incomes in exchange for the over themselves as a people to a whatever rudiments of democratic right to continue exploiting the bulk of foreign and colonial people it must be human rights they had. Failure to the nation through capital exportation clear also that our primary task is to grasp these facts of history has led (imperialism). overpower that foreign and colonial some to suggest that we must wage a clientele, destroy its power base while struggle against racism. This is an over­ Britain gives Birth to Neo-Colonies In at the same time forging a free nation simplified line. Others claim that the Southern Africa which will determine its own destiny. In the later half of the 19th century struggle must be entirely waged along All along the line of struggle against class lines and not on racial lines. This three nationality groups, namely, the Swazi, Tswana and Sotho, in part and colonialism the toiling masses must be line is not only simple but also ignores vigilant and educated so that they will the fact that there is little or no dif­ individually approached the British crown for protection against the en­ certainly gain not only national liberty ference between class lines and racial but also freedom from poverty, lines in Azania where racism is the toot croachments on their territories by the Boers (Dutch settlers). disease, economic exploitation and op­ of exploitation. pression. As I said before the interna­ Britain took advantage of this con­ tional bourgeoisie (imperialists) are The correct line, however, has to fessed weakness by her rivals and com­ fast breeding a national petty take into consideration the fact that pleted her colonisation programme. bourgeois class of Africans whose She dispatched her own colonial ad­ aspirations and interests are the same (a) We are colonised as a people, as ministrators to the territories and as those of the present settler colonial Africans, a nation which I have decid­ declared them British Protectorates. administrators, the would-be African ed to refer to as Azania. The fact that This is why these territories were not allies of the bourgeoisie. They cry out Britain decided to hand over state included in the Union of South loud for "independence*' of the "ban- power to her previous administrators Africa's direct sphere of control. tustans". Others are for majority rule in our country did not change the col­ in Southern Africa. We must not be onial nature of the relationship bet­ As Britain was recalling her colonial fooled by others who are for Black ma­ ween the Africans and the Europeans, administrators from her colonies in the jority. This means that the struggle for not even in form, let alone in face of the following factors: national liberation must not be seen in substance. We are subjects of the terms of blacks replacing whites but in South Africa state without any say in (a) the rising forces of nationalism in her colonies; terms of the exploited replacing the ex­ its running. We do not participate but ploiters. An end not only to racism but do as we are told. (b) her inability to cope with the ex­ an end also to exploitation of man by pense of running the colonies; man. (b) We are also exploited and oppress- (c) the rise of imperialism in the world

The Role of the Missionaries in the Conquest century. It is important to know the womb of South Africa. Parti from which sprang the missionary In these days of various kinds of Church assistance showered upon the Azanian movement in Southern Africa and in­ liberation movements it is advisable that we take a look at the role of the Church deed all the colonies of the British Em­ in our colonial conquest. We publish the first part of a pamphlet that appeared in pire, for Southern Africa was but one the 40s on the "Role of the Missionaries in the Conquest of South Africa." of a vast network of missionary activi­ ty. To understand its function we must view it as part of a great historical The Missionary Movement their forerunners and had established a movement, the expansion of capita­ mission station amongst a group of the lism. Where it came from already weakened Khoikhoin (known The coming of the missionaries to as Hottentots) at Baviaans-Kloof, later Now it is one of the many falsifica­ Southern Africa at the end of the 18th known as Genadendal or Vale of tions of history to obscure the true century concided with the first occupa­ Grace. But the main missionary move­ nature of events behind sentimental tion of the Cape by the British. The ment, led by the London Missionary phrases or catchwords. In the late 18th missionaries were a British product Society, was a British one and was in and early 19th centuries we hear much and this was not accidental. Earlier in full force during the period of military of the activities of the Evangelicals, the the century the Moravians had been conauest in the first half of the 19th Humanitarians, the Philanthropists, Azania (South Africa) is an African country 15 the Emancipationists, those people industrial and mercantile class. This demned as agitators. Wilberforce de­ who concerned themselves with the group of politicians was known as the nounced these trade unions as "a morals of the poor at home and the Clapham sect and their leader was general disease in our society." When sufferings of the slaves abroad, who William Wilberforce, the son of a rich the people demanded the franchise and devoted their energies to the emancipa­ merchant of Hull, who lived in the repeal of those oppressive laws, he tion of the slaves, the "liberation of Clapham, a district of London. The supported the notorious Six Acts the Hottentots", the conversion of the group included also Lord Teignmouth, which denied them political rights, heathen to Christianity and such like. a former governor-general of India freedom of speech or criticism of any There is no doubt that there were well- and a representative of the aristocracy kind; under the Seditious Meetings meaning people who supported these that associated itself with the rising Bill, all assemblies "aiming at changes humanitarian movements. But we middle-class., Another member was in Church or State," were declared il­ would have a false perspective of Thomas Fowell Buxton, partner in a legal, and the penalty under any of events if we accepted these grandilo­ brewery concern, who, with Wilber­ these Acts was imprisonment without quent aims at their face value and force, subsequently founded the trial, or transportation or death. It is assumed that there was some Aborigines Protection Society during a noteworthy that in the same year the mysterious milk of human kindness particularly ugly period of British col­ British Parliament voted a million animating the hearts of the English. onial conquest and assisted Dr. Phillip, pounds for the building of churches. From the days of Queen Elizabeth in Superintendent of the London Mis­ How, then, could a man be both libe­ the late 16th century, when sionary Society in Southern Africa, in rator and oppressor? Englishmen joined the crusade for the building up his reputation as the plunder of the New World, when Sir "defender" first of the Khoikhoin and In one of his humanitarian speeches Walter Raleigh and other adventurers then of the Bantu. It was Buxton who about the West Indian slave, Wilber­ were authorised to "advance the con­ formulatetd that happy discovery so force referred by contrast to the "free version of savages and increase pregnant with profit to the British in­ British labourer." It was an unfor­ traffic", the glory of God and the pro­ dustrialist, that "the Negro race are tunate phrase, for the condition of the fit of England had always been, one blessed with a peculiar aptitude for the working-class in England during this might say, synonymous terms. It is our reception of moral and religious in­ period has been well-documented. business to look into the economic struction." England was becoming a great in­ aims underlying all these activities at Now we have to ask ourselves why dustrial power and was building up her the beginning of the 19th century. empire and her trade. The classes who this influential group of British in­ possessed power in the state were the dustrialists at this time became so anx­ rising industrialists and the landow­ The London Missionary Society, ious to "liberate" and save the soul of which sent its first missionaries to ners, who understood by government the slaves in far-distant countries. the protection of their power and their Southern Africa in 1799, was establish­ They acquired the name of humanitari­ ed by a group known as the Evangeli­ property. They abhorred any demands ans and philanthropists, but the truth on the part of the workers that stood in cals. As early as 1776 they had founded is that neither humanitarianism nor the Society for Missions in Africa and the way of the unlimited development philanthrophy had much to do with of their industries and the accumula­ the East and through their influence the case. missionaries of various denominations tion of their wealth. In other words, were scattered throughout the British their attitude to the workers at home colonies, in the East Indies, Jamaica, Wilberforce - Oppressor and was similar to the attitude of the slave­ Trinidad, Nova Scotia, the West Coast Liberator owner to the slaves abroad. Could they of Africa arid in Southern Africa. In then be both liberators and op­ pressors? Under the juggernaut of ex­ the British House of Commons they Let us take a look at Wilberforce with had secured the adoption of a series of panding capitalism men, women and a view to learning something more children worked under appalling con­ resolutions affirming the obligation of about this group, whom he represents. Parliament to work for what was call­ ditions in the factories, in the mines The curious thing is that the would-be and in the crowded, insanitary city- ed the religious welfare of Britain's liberator of the colonial slave and the richest colonial possession, India. The slums, so that they seemed to be a race sponsor of missionary activity of degraded, brutalized human beings. missionary and the military were never throughout the British Empire, was a far separated. It is true there was some thorough reactionary and supported rivalry between different religious the Government in its repressive Now those industrialists who sup­ sects, which hindered the good work legislation against the English workers. ported the missionary movement and — until the Evangelicals had the bright He was an enemy of the workers. He the emancipation of the slaves at the idea of founding the London Mis­ supported the Corn Laws, by which same time expressed great concern sionary Society (1795) based on the the landowners taxed the bread of the about the morals of the "lower principle of united action by all poor, and the Combination Laws of orders," as they called the workers. denominations of orthodox christians. 1799 and 1800, which made trade The Evangelical movement became unions illegal. At this time the English fashionable. When some ungodly em­ rulers were greatly afraid that the Who were these Evangelicals who ployers objected to their encourage­ Iiberatory ideas of the Great French ment of Sunday observance among the were so anxious to convert the colonial Revolution would stir the English peoples to Christianity? They were a poor because it meant loss of labour workers to revolt. "Scratch a trade one day out of every week, the Evageli- religious party, originating among unionist and you will find a Jacobin," some Cambridge divines, which receiv­ cals pointed out that it was to their they said, and those workers who com­ own advantage to have a religious and ed strong support from an influential bined to resist exploitation were con­ group of politicians representing the obedient body of workers. In the 16 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement moral and religious control over the fellow "saints" (as they were ironically in the subjugation of its inhabitants. masses they saw the best guarantee for called) were making speeches for the Whatever the differences and conflicts law and order. Wilberforce, in his emancipation of the slaves. Steam and between the various elements among pamphlet, "A Practical View of the machinery had revolutionized in­ the Europeans, they all had a common System of Christianity," made this dustrial production; workers were aim: the confiscation of the land and point quite clear. Christianity, he in­ streaming into the towns; the wheels of the establishment of White supremacy. dicated, teaches the poor to be dili­ the industrial machine were turning The preliminary stages of the invasion gent, humble, patient and obedient, faster and faster. Britain, well on the had been carried out by the Dutch over and to accept their lowly position in way to defeating her French and Dutch a long period during which they had life. It makes the inequalities between rivals in the colonies, was rapidly ex­ decimated the baThwa and, after a themselves and the rich less galling panding her trade. She was searching protracted resistance, driven the because, under the influence of reli­ for new markets, new raw materials Khoikhoin northwards, while the rest gious instruction, they endure the in- and a mass of new workers. The time remained as serfs in the Colony. The j ustices of this world with the hope of a for the old slave system was passed. It Dutch had then setded down to an rich reward in the next. It is significant had yielded great riches, but the new isolated feudal existence at the Cape. that Wilberforce remarked to the system and the new slave would yield Prime Minister, Pitt, whose govern­ even greater riches. It was a search that The taking over of the Cape Colony ment had passed the Six Acts and other made Britain - and her rivals - send by the British at the beginning of the oppressive legislation, that this par­ their agents all over the world. 19th century introduced an important ticular section of his pamphlet was change in the situation. For they "the basis of all politics." This is the womb of the so-called represented a more advanced stage of humanitarian movements of early 19th civilization than the feudal Dutch at This, then, was the outlook of the century. It is against this background the Cape, namely, capitalism, with its sponsor of missionary activity of vast economic forces that the influx superior organisation and more varied throughout the British empire. He was of missionaries to the colonies acquires resources. From the time of their se­ the spokesman of the English middle meaning. The missionaries came from cond occupation (1806) the main class. The picture serves to illuminate a capitalist christian civilization that strategy throughout was in the hands the social system, the civilization, unblushingly found religious sanctions of the British, backed by the vast which these industrialists upheld with for inequality, as it does to this day, resources of the mother country. It was all their might and from which their so- and whose ministers solemnly blessed British policy that dictated the course called humanitarian movements its wars of aggression. Men like Wil­ of events relative both to the Africans sprang. When we see them described as berforce had visions of extending this and the Dutch; at all times the in­ an expression of the new spirit of civilization to the ends of the earth. itiative rested with them. In all the liberalism, we must be clear as to what They saw themselves as the chosen complexities of the political scene in this liberalism was. Briefly stated, race. Southern Africa throughout the 19th liberalism, with its ideas of liberty and century, in the apparent anarchy pro­ equality, supplied the ideological Britain had many agents of con­ duced by the conflicts between the weapons with which the English midd­ quest, great and small, official and various agents of conquest, a single le-class in the 17th century and the unofficial, conscious and unconscious: end can be perceived, the establish­ French middle-class in the late 18th the military, the explorer and the far­ ment of British supremacy. And this century, threw off the shackles of mer-colonist; the missionary and the meant one thing, the establishment of feudalism and established capitalism. petty trader, as well as the adventurer, the new economic system, capitalism, This freedom and equality, while they the impoverished artisan or the vaga­ into which both the Dutch and all had been useful slogans for rallying the bond - there was room for all of Non-Europeans (African, Coloured, workers to assist the middle-class to them. Some acted blindly in self-inte­ Indian) had to be fitted, the one as achieve victory, turned out to be valid rest, while others like Dr. Philip, Su­ partners, the other as the exploited. To only for the man of property, the in­ perintendent of the London Mis­ sustain this system the toil of the Black dustrialists and merchants, not for the sionary Society, were fully conscious man was imperative. In its insatiable workers. Likewise the "emancipation" of what they stood for. need for profits, the tentacles of this of the colonial slave, together with Yet the humblest and most well- system extended to the farthest corners christianising him, had nothing to do meaning saver of souls, though he of the colonial world, in Asia, India, with his liberation, but on the con­ might never have seen the inside of an Africa, sucking the blood of the Black trary, his enslavement. It was part of a English factory where children died to man, relentlessly, without ceasing. world wide historical movement, the enrich the English industrialist, never­ expansion of capitalism. New methods theless obeyed, like all the others, the of production demanded a new rela­ laws of expanding capitalism. The It is as part of British strategy, with tionship between those who laboured middle-classes knew when and how to its varied resources, that the mis­ and those who profited by that labour. make use of all their agents in their sionary finds his place. Looking at the The worker was now "free" to sell his time and place. picture as a whole, we see how the dif­ labour to one master or another, in ferent agents of conquest contributed order to exist. In other words he their share to the main task and how became a wage-slave. This served the each one carried on where the other interests of the industrialists better Functions of the Missionary left off. This history, therefore, must than the serf or slave who was tied to aim at unfolding a continuous process the land. Witness the situation in We shall better understand the func­ of a developing British strategy which England when Wilberforce and his tion of the missionaries in Southern made use of the missionary as an im­ Africa if we see them as one of several portant agent to achieve its aims. agents, each of whom played their part While it is necessary to emphasise his Azania (South Africa) is an African country 17 part, it cannot be presented in isola­ halt in the rather costly business of war might have called it the "basis of all tion; he works always in conjunction - for though it is assgai against gun, politics" with respect to colonial con­ with the other agencies, sometimes the Africans are hard to subdue — quest, and the arch-imperialist, Rho­ retiring into the background, someti­ there are always the Dutch ( Trek des, would certainly have endorsed it. mes even appearing to be in conflict Boers) to carry on with their land- Philip, half a century before Rhodes, with the Government, especially when grabbing, until, as a matter of princi­ aimed to extend British domination to he protests on behalf of the very peo­ ple, the British find themselves "reluc­ the equator. But the complete fulfil­ ple who are in the process of being sub­ tantly compelleed" to annex the new ment of his imperialist vision, with the jugated, yet by so doing, actually fur­ territory in order to "protect the establishment of a capitalist system in thering the aims of the Government. Natives." Hypocrisy has always been South Africa, had to wait till the At the outset, the missionary ap­ one of Britain's most useful weapons. discovery of gold and diamonds - and proaches the chief humbly, Bible in Throughout all this period, more the final military defeat of the African. hand, and asks for a small piece of than half a century, the missionaries land to set up his mission station. At are at hand, preparing the way, disar­ To follow Philip's career during his heels hastens the trader, the ming the chiefs with their message of about thirty years of missionary con­ purveyor of cheap goods. Thus the Bi­ God's peace - at the same time the trol in Southern Africa is to have a pic­ ble and the bale of Lancashire cotton God of an all-powerful nation ture of the political function of the became the twin agents of a revolu­ prepared to be their "friend." Thus missionaries while the military con­ tionary change. The peaceful penetra­ they make easy the negotiations bet­ quest was in progress. As a result of his tion by the missionary and the trader ween the Governor and the chief; they activities in connection with the - sometimes the missionary turned act as the Governor's advisers and Khoikhoin and later the Griqua, the trader - is followed in due course by assist in drawing up the terms of the maNgqika and the baSotho of Mo- an "agreement" between the chief and "treaties." They become interpreters shoeshoe, there grew up a persistent the Governor, whereby the British and "peace-makers" while at the same liberal myth which it will be our became the "friend and protector" of time they are military advisers to the business to examine. The British ac­ the chief. But this "agreement" is ac­ invaders. For they know the geography quired a special repute as " the Friends tually the precursor of British in­ of the land better than the com­ of the Natives." Nothing is further terference, of war and looting of cat­ manders themselves; on receiving per­ from the truth. But it was largely due tle, and it ends with a so-called "trea­ mission from the chief to set up a mis­ to the missionaries that this myth of ty" in which the chief "agrees" to the sion station they make it one of their British "Protection" arose. Actually seizure of a large piece of land belong­ first tasks to explore the surrounding the rapacity of the Dutch for land and ing to the tribe. In return, he receives a territory. Thereafter, when it is time to labour never equalled in efficiency the magistrate as well as a missionary, who consolidate the conquest, they become systematic subjugation carried out by is much less humble than he was when magistrates and self-styled chiefs till in the British, precisely because the he first arrived to beg land of the chief. the fulness of time the sons of mis­ British represented an expanding Now other mission stations are set up sionaries become governors, magistra­ capitalism while the Dutch were the in the still uncharted territory and in tes and Ministers of "Native" Affairs, representatives of a decaying feudalism their train come still more traders, the inheritors of conquest unto the operating under colonial conditions. It their tin shacks sitting like squat third and fourth generation. was the British who carried to a fine art spiders throughout the land. The in­ the policy of "divide and rule." They vaded tribes are split asunder; "devide not only had superior forces compared and rule" under the capable hands of The key to the function of the mis­ with both the Dutch (the Trek Boers) the missionaries carries on its deadly sionary in the conquest of colonial and the Bantu; they also had the work of disruption. In the already con­ peoples is supplied by Dr. Philip weapon of liberalism. The achievement fiscated territory large tracts of land himself, the Superintendent of the of the missionaries was the first are handed out to Dutch farmers or London Missionary Society who was achievement of liberalism. British settlers; there is unrest on the sent out to the Cape in 1819 and who so-called frontiers; the hungry people can be described as the most far-seeing try to retrieve their plundered cattle representative of British Imperialism in The London Missionary Society and the thieves accuse them of cattle- the country at that time. The Preface Before looking further into the aims theft and send out destroying com­ to his "Researches in South Africa" and methods of Dr. Philip as largely mandos to raid the sleeping villages. contains the following statement: summing up this achievement, let us They are joined by the military, who get some idea of the early stages of scour the country to keep order among While our missionaries are every­ missionary activity before his arrival. the "treacherous" tribes - as the of­ where scattering the seeds of civiliza­ In 1799the London Missionary Society ficial phrase has it. Before long, gun­ tion ... they are extending British in­ sent to the Cape Colony its first party powder, fire and famine mark the next terests, British influences and the of missionaries, consisting of two stage of conquest. Still larger tracts of British Empire ... Wherever the mis­ Hollanders, Van der Kemp and Kiche- land are seized; the farmers cry out for sionary places his standard among a rer, and two Englishmen, Edwards and labour and it is there for the taking; the savage tribe, their prejudices against Edmond. Dr. Van der Kemp, who destitute Africans, robbed of their the colonial government give way, seems to have been the leader of the land, are being turned into a cheap their dependence upon the colony is in­ party, had had sixteen years experience labour force. It is a remorseless pro­ creased by the creation of artificial as an officer in the Dragoon Guards cess. If for a time the policy of the wants ... Industry, trade and before taking up missionary work, and British Government seems to dictate a agriculture spring up." this possibly served him in good stead as mission manager. However that Here spoke the true servant of the may be, the missionaries on their ar- British middle-class. Wilberforce 18 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement rival at the Cape of Good Hope were ingstone. A glance at the map will at Graaff Reinet, in breaking this uni­ well received by the Governor and Van show us how these first journeyings of ty. Having drawn a number of Khoi­ der Kemp lost no time in travelling as the missionaries anticipated the khoin into the Christian fold, he was far as the Tyumie River in an attempt ultimate extent of British possessions able to persuade them to accompany to win over the Xhosa chief, Ngqika, in Southern Africa. him to Algoa Bay where he placed the young nephew of the great fighting To return to Dr. Van der Kemp. them in a temporary location at Zwart- chief, Ndlambe, who had held his own kopfs River. The missionary's first at­ against the Dutch for about quarter of From the outset he was regarded as a most useful agent of the Government. tempt at "divide and rule" received a a century. At this stage Ngqika resisted temporary set-back when a number of the overtures of the missionary, whose Assisted by the Rev. Read (another member of the second batch of mis­ Khoikhoin joined Stuurman, who, to­ chances were spoiled by some Dut­ gether with his ally, the Chief chmen who hinted to the chief that this sionaries) he began work among the Khoikhoin at Graaff Reinet, which at Ndlambe, attacked the mission station. man of peace had really come to betray Soon afterwards, however, the mission him. that time was an outlying district to the north-east of the Colony. Now the settlement was permanently establish­ ed at Bethels dorp. The striking thing about the London Khoikhoin, weakened and impoverish­ Mission is that it flung its net so wide ed after a protracted period of wars, The experiment was a significant one at the very first throw. The Rev. Kiche- were rapidly becoming a landless peo­ from several points of view. Note that rer and the Rev. Edwards made their ple forced into serfdom to the Dutch. the missionaries followed the principle way north and established a mission But in the outlying districts there were of segregation from the outset. (The station among the baThwa at the Zak several independent groups under their earlier Moravians had done likewise.) River, though this was short-lived. The redoubtable leaders, the best known The confiscated land of the Khoikhoin baThwa were already a decimated peo­ among them being Klaas Stuurman. It was restored to them (if one can use ple and avoided the White man, and to is of particular interest to us today to the word) only in one form, the attempt to gather them into a com­ know that these stubborn fighters segregated missionary settlement. munity was unprofitable. In the words allied themselves with another uncom­ Another point is this, that the site of of J. du Plessis, author of "A History promising resister to the invaders, the mission settlement was chosen for of Christian Missions in South namely. Chief Ndlambe. On one occa­ military reasons. It was in this district Africa", this mission was but a "step­ sion their combined forces routed the nearby what is now Uitenhage, that ping-stone" to the distant north. marauding Dutch and chased them Khoikhoin resistance was concen­ Before long the London missionaries right back as far as George, where the trated, and to the north of it the Xhosa were over the Orange River where the English soldiers came to their rescue. tribe of Ndlambe was situated. Griqua lived as a free and independent Inspired by this example of unity, the Bethelsdorp, therefore, operated people. They were of Khoikhoin ori­ Khoikhoin on the farms in the Graaf doubly for the purpose of "divide and gin, with an admixture of Dutch Reinet district joined their brothers, to rule", the missionary-controlled blood, and were continually being the great alarm of the Governor, Dun- Khoikhoin could be used against the joined by runaway slaves and those das. It is recorded that "His Excellen­ still independent Khoikhoin, and if Khoikhoin who were escaping from cy, remembering the unfortunate their resistance could be smashed, it serfdom under the Dutch. By 1801 the events of San Domingo" (i.e. when would be easier to pursue the attack Rev. Anderson, who had come out Toussaint L'Ouverture, himself a against the maXhosa. And so it came with a second batch of missionaries slave, liberated his people from the to pass. The Khoikhoin resistance had soon after the first, had established a French yoke) "remembering the terri­ been long and hard, but one by one footing among the Griqua, and, as we ble insurrection of slaves which broke their last leaders were captured or slain shall see later, began that process of out on that island in 1791, feared with and Xhosa-Khoikhoin unity was "divide and rule" that was to end in great reason the serious consequences broken. The missionary Khoikhoin, as the downfall of the Griqua nation. for this country if the progress of this we shall see, were recruited in the wars evil were not speedily suppressed." against Ndlambe. The Governor, then, feared that the We sec the foreshadowing of further spirit of revolt would spread to the events to come in the mission establish­ Khoikhoin in the western districts and Bethelsdorp missionary settlement ment by the Rev. Edwards in the far among the slaves. It was considered the illustrates in other ways the usefulness north among the baTlhaping, a Tswa- more necessary to increase control over of the missionaries to the Government. na (known as Bechuana) tribe on the the Khoikhoin because they were a It is interesting to observe how early Kuruman River. Here Edwards, like valuable source of labour, especially the pattern of the subsequent labour several other missionaries, combined useful in the outlying districts where policy emerged. The traveller, Lichten- Christianity with trading. According to slaves were scarce. stein, has left a picture of Bethelsdorp the Rev. Robert Moffat, who subse­ as a place of shameful poverty; it was quently established the famous mission on a barren strip of land, insufficient station at Kuruman, Edwards "went to This is where the missionaries could to enable the Khoikhoin to live without barter as far as the Bauangketsi, a play their part. It was precisely at going out to labour for the White man. powerful nation north of the Molapo Graaff Reinet, the seat of the recent As Dr. Philip was later to point out, River, and, having amassed a hand­ disturbance, that Van der Kemp set to such mission settlements were reser­ some sum ... retired to the Colony work. And his first function was that voirs of labour from which the and purchased a farm and slaves." of "divide and rule." In face of the neighbouring farmers could draw their Thus Edwards was the forerunner of dangerous example of Bantu-Khoi- supplies. Be it mission station, location that better-known apostle of Chris­ khoin unity Van der Kemp co-operated or reserve, the principle has always tianity and Commerce, David Liv­ with Maynier, Resident Commissioner been the same - that the land thus oc- Azania (South Africa) is an African country r cupied does not belong to the people, Cape in 1819 to put the affairs of the always military men; but, while there nor is it sufficient for their needs. It Society in order. Cory and others pre­ were certain contradictions between may be added that, in addition to their sent him as a political mischief-maker the various elements of the population other duties, the missionaries assisted who created trouble between the two at the Cape, there was a fundamental the Government in procuring forced natural allies, the Dutch and the unanimity between them - as there is labour for the roads, and it was also British, chiefly because of this liberal to this day - to conquer and subdue their business to collect taxes from the attitude towards the Non-Whites. the inhabitants. Lord Somerset, destitute Khoikhoin. They aver that he stood for "equality Governor at the time of Philip's ar­ between White and Black" and rival, was a conservative and, in fact, a From this brief outline of the early abominate him accordingly. On the representative of the most backward stages of the activities of the London other hand there are those liberal element of British rule, the feudal Mission, some of the main functions of apologists, like Macmillan, author of aristocracy, who constituted his sup­ the missionaries clearly emerge. They "Bantu, Boer and Briton", who hail porters in the British Parliament. carried out the policy of "divide and him as the "Defender of the Hotten­ Somerset was a petty despot; those rule" and they established the mission tots," humanitarian and emancipa­ freedoms claimed by the middle-class, station for the greater control of the tionist, who, with Wilberforce and representative government, freedom of Khoikhoin as a labour force. On the Buxton, strove to abolish slavery. the press, etc., made him reach for his resumption of British rule at the Cape "The Wilberforce of Africa," he has gun. It was part of his creed that in 1806 a government official express­ been called, and the phrase is less Church and State work hand in hand, ed his appreciation of Dr. Van der laudatory than its inventor supposed. but it must be the orthodox Church; he Kemp in the following terms: "He will Between those who damn him and had no time for the upstart non­ be of the greatest assistance in retain­ those who praise, what is the truth? conformist, who smacks of middle- ing the Hottentots (Khoikhoin) in their class independence. Dr. Philip, on the present favourable opinion of the There is no doubt that this other hand, was a liberal and a non­ English, as well as in communicating conformist and, above all, he had the with Gaika (Ngqika)." Superintendent of the London Mis­ sionary Society played an important support of the industrialists in the political role. He came to the Cape British parliament, i.e., the most pro­ It was a few years later that the Lon­ Colony armed with those ideas of "li­ gressive section. It was inevitable that don Missionary Society decided to in­ berty and equality," liberty of speech, they should clash. tensify missionary activity in Southern "free" labour, etc., with which the Africa and for this purpose sent one of middle-classes in England had its directors to survey the field. This It began simply over a question of liberated themselves from feudal auto­ the independence of the L.M.S. mis­ was the Rev. John Campbell, a man cracy. He had the support of Wilber­ with the Imperialist vision which em­ sion stations; Lord Somerset wasn't force, Buxton and other representati­ satisfied with the behaviour of the braced Khoikhoin, abaThwa, Griqua, ves in the British Parliament of the in­ amaXhosa, and extended as far north L.M.S. missionaries because they dustrial and merchant class, and with weren't carrying out to his satisfaction as the Tswana tribes, where he sent the them he kept directly in contact, as Rev. Robert Moffat to strengthen the the job of being recruiting agents. On well as with the Mission headquarters one occasion the Rev. Anderson, who missions there. The little known in London. At a later stage in his regions of the west also drew his atten­ had been sent to establish control over career he was able to write confidently the too independent Griqua on the tion. "It would be highly gratifying to (and confidentially) to Buxton: "At the Society and to public at large to Orange River, failed to procure a present the Colonial Government does quota of men to fight against the cause these countries to be explored," nothing as to relations with the in­ he said. On his second visit he was ac­ Xhosa. At first Philip adopted an ami­ dependent native tribes without con­ cable tone and assured his lordship companied on his tour of the mission sulting me." The Missionary Move­ stations by the Rev. Dr. Philip, who re­ that "the Colonial Government may ment was fortunate in sending out such rest assured that every portion of our mained behind him as Superintendent a man at such a time. He had his agents of the London Missions. influence, and additional means to all over the country so that he con­ those already employed, will be used to tinually kept his finger on the pulse of remove prejudice and make the Gri- The main task of the missionaries things; he received official and semi­ throughout the rest of the century was quas serviceable to the colony." official reports from mission stations Likewise he declared his intention of to assist the Government in the sub­ as far afield as Bechuanaland; he cor­ jugation of the Bantu. But to get a making Bethelsdorp missionary reserve responded not only with missionaries more efficient by clearing out all the complete picture of how the mis­ but with merchants and military men sionaries worked in the interests of "vagrants" who wouldn't go out to as well as with chiefs (through their at­ work for the neighbouring farmers. British Imperialism, it will be necessary tendant missionaries). While the trek to follow Dr. PhUip's career from the There didn't seem to be much cause oxen were pulling the Boer waggon for difference between them. Lord So­ beginning, when he acquired renown further and further North, the in­ as the "Defender of the Hottentots". merset, however, in whom was vested defatigable Dr. Philip was making his autocratic rule at the Cape, was always frequent tours of the mission stations, ready to play the despot; it displeased Dr. Philip - "Defender of the Hot­ assuring the chiefs of his "friendship" Philip when he appointed the Rev. tentots" and promising them the "protection" Brownlee as his own government mis­ of the British Crown. sionary and representative with Chief Herrenvolk history books present two Ngqika. He was still more resentful of pictures of Dr. John Philip, Superin­ the fact that the Governor had refused tendent of the London Missionary Philip did not always see eye to eye permission to the L.M.S. missionaries Society (L.M.S.), who was sent to the with governors, who at this stage were 20 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

to proceed into Namaqualand. The ony. It is sufficient to say that Dr. ceeded, for he engineered (through reason seems to have been that his Philip, together with his son-in-law, Wilberforce and Buxton) a Commis­ Lordship, himself a feudalist, adopted John Fairbaim, and the pro-emancipa­ sion of Enquiry and Lord Somerset a conciliatory attitude towards the tionist, Thomas Pringle, who had found it convenient to resign. It need Dutch in these regions - he was cer­ come out with the 1820 Settlers, not surprise us that by some peculiar tainly always generous in doling out became the spearhead during Somer­ oversight the Commissioners' Report farms to them from the confiscated set's time. devoted a very brief space indeed to lands of the maXhosa - and on this Philip brought up the big guns of the Khoikhoin and its only contribu­ occasion it pleased him to respect their liberalism to expose the malad­ tion towards solving their problems hearty dislike of missionary in­ ministration of this military Governor, was a proposal for increased grants of terference with their serfs or slaves. Lord Somerset. The Governor, on the land for missionary settlements - a Philip was incensed. There was more other hand, tried to discredit the mere sop to humanitarian sentiments. involved than the question of allowing L.M.S. missionaries before the Home As the conflict between Philip and the freedom of action to the missionary government, and this in spite of the Governor had proceeded, however, it superintendent. fact that he was aware of the useful­ had compelled the missionary to ness of missionaries - provided they clarify and formulate his ideas. Hence Looking at the situation as a whole, were under his strict control. The mis­ the excellent exposition of the function we see a conflict developing on three sionary Superintendent was to prove a of missionaries in his "Researches." planes. First and foremost the conflict formidable opponent, for he was Hence his discovery of the need to between Black and White, in which shrewd enough to enlist a very for­ "defend the Hottentots." "My strug­ both the British, who represent capita­ midable ally - British Public Opinion. gle has merged into a general question lism, and the Dutch, who represent a He suddenly discovered the necessity respecting the aborigines. It did not feudal economy, combine to over­ to defend the rights of the oppressed begin there," he wrote. While Lord throw tribalism. At the same time there Khoikhoin and used this as the big Somerset in his despatches to Lord is a conflict between the British and the stick to beat Lord Somerset. Having Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Dutch (Boers), i.e., between a unearthed a mass of evidence proving Colonies, and his supporter in Parlia­ backward feudal economy and a pro­ the charges of the Rev. Read on the ill- ment, clamoured for the dismissal of gressive capitalism, a conflict that in treatment of Khoikhoin by Dutch far­ the upstart "journeyman weaver of time resolved itself by the more pro­ mers and giving instances of unpaid Kirkaldy who calls himself 'reve­ gressive force incorporating the more forced labour, he prepared a volumi­ rend'," Dr. Philip was unearthing backward and retaining only those nous memorandum to be laid on the documents exposing the activities of a elements that were useful to it in the table of the British Parliament through Dutch official at Bethelsdorp. "The ultimate exploitation of the conquered his supporter, Buxton. His main attack result was triumphant," he wrote: "I peoples. Then there is a subsidiary con - was on the slave economy of the Boers, saw that I had in my hands not only the fict between two British sections within and the undesirability of a military means of vindicating the calumniated the colony. In this outpost of empire, government entrusted with civil ad­ missionaries, but also the means of the British colonists were struggling to ministration . liberating the Hottentots from their procure those elementary rights of the cruel bondage." And again: "I have British middle-class that had sent them no doubt that the papers I have sent there - freedom of the press and Subsequently he elaborated his case home (to the British government) will assembly, representative government in his "Researches in South Africa" lead to the recall of the first authorities and the control of their domestic af­ (1828), which the British Philan­ of the Colony and to a total change in fairs in the colony. As is to be ex­ thropists, headed by Wilberforce and its administration ... I know that the pected, this conflict against an Buxton, regarded as their trump card. Governor and Colonel Bird ( his secre­ autocratic governor was carried on Writing to Philip, Buxton said approv­ tary) are dreadfully alarmed ... If they under the well-known liberal slogans ingly: "Your 'Researches' have done had listened in time they might have of liberty and equality, the slogans of the work". It gave a clear exposition of kept their places and the old system in democracy. All this makes up a com­ the value and function of missionary a modified form. Now it is before the plicated political pattern within which institutions in the interests of British British Parliament." it is our business to follow the main imperialism, and at the same time the thread of our argument - the role of very basis of its argument was the the missionaries in the primary con­ superiority of the capitalist economy, flict, i.e., between Black and White. with its "free" labourer, over the The gist of all this means that the so- backward feudal economy of the called "Defence of the Hottentots" Dutch. , , became a pawn in the fight of the Now the fight between Philip and It must be said that at the beginning liberals against the feudal aristocrat, Lord Somerset over interference with of the dispute between himself and Lord Somerset. Their "defence" turn­ the L.M.S. missionaries took on larger Lord Somerset, Dr. Philip had not ed into an attack both against local ab­ proportions and became part of the been concerned with the Khoikhoin. solutism (the governor had dared to in­ struggle of the liberals against local ab­ Describing what took place at this terfere with the freedom of the press) solutism (in the person of his Lord­ stage, Professor Macmillan remarks and the whole Dutch economy i.e., ship) and towards procuring Represen­ that Philip was "apparently un­ feudalism. Of course the liberals had tative Government. It is not part of conscious of any special problem of to win, for history was on their side this survey to follow the intricacies of Hottentot rights." What he did want and the days of feudalism were already the conflict, culminating much later was to gather enough evidence of numbered. The world-wide expansion (1854) in the granting of Represen­ maladministration to hang his aristo­ of capitalism dictated the Abolition of tative Government to the Cape Col­ cratic opponent. In this he almost suc­ Slavery (1833). A few years earlier Azania (South Africa) is an African country 21

(1828) Ordinance 50 was promulgated Non-European. from tribalism to capitalism does not "for improving the condition of the For his part in agitating for the take place automatically. The habits, Hottentots and other free persons of "liberation" for the Khoikhoin - to customs and ideas of the old system colour at the Cape of Good Hope, and which the 50th Ordinace gave formal have to be broken down and replaced for consolidating and amending the expression - Dr. Philip contrived to by those of the new system. That is one laws affecting these persons." With be hailed as their "Defender and of the functions of the missionary. this Ordinance the Khoikhoin, while Liberator". Now he himself makes Having accepted him as a man of treated as a separate section of the perfectly clear the purpose behind this peace, the Christian convert has a population, were granted legal equality so-called liberation. This he did in his desire to dress like his teacher and eat and, formally, the right to buy land. "Research in South Africa," a book like his teacher. The tastes of the new This meant lifting those feudal restric­ which well deserved the approval of civilization - those "artificial wants" tions which prevented the free move­ Wilberforce and his fellow in­ — are thus insinuated into his habits. ment of labour. That was the one face dustrialists in the British parliament. At the same time, as Philip explains, of the Ordinance. But it had another The virtue of the Superindendent of "Missionaries teach industrious habits face. It was a segregatory law, with the London Missionary Society was the ... The first step towards civilizing the special application only to "Hottentots clarity with which he saw the issues in­ savage is to overcome his natural in­ and other free persons of colour"; it volved in conquest, the particular tasks dolence." Now the link between the consolidated those sections of the ex­ or the missionary and the methods to mission station, Christianity and isting labour laws, based on old Dutch be employed. In the comprehen­ labour begins to be clear. Philip writes: slave laws, which were essential to a siveness of the general statements in his Masters and Servants relationship; that Preface it is obvious that he is not con­ "Many who are acquiring a taste for is, any breach of contract on the part fining himself to the question of the civilized life by their connection with of the servant was to be punished as a Khoikhoin only, but of a wider con­ our mission stations, will prefer criminal offence. Thus Ordinance SO at quest in Africa. It was during the con­ labour, with a state of freedom, in the one and the same time looked forward quest of the Bantu that the mis­ colony." to capitalism and backwards to serf­ sionaries were to find full scope for dom. their activities. It is of particular in­ From this, his advocacy of "libera­ terest to us, therefore, to follow his tion" for the Khoikhoin from Dutch Acting on representations made to analysis of the tasks. serfdom, falls into its proper perspec­ the British Parliament through the sup­ Christianity and labour tive. He continues: porters of Dr. Philip, the new Gover­ "Make the Hottentots free. Give them nor, Major-General Bourke, employed a fair price for their labour, and their Andries Stockenstrom, landdrost of The Preface to Dr. Philip's "Resear­ masters will have double the work and Graaff Reinet, to draw up a memoran­ ches in South Africa," contains what the value to the state will be trebled." dum as a basis for the Ordinance. It may be called his credo, from which He is careful to add that there would was fitting that the English Governor the rest logically follows. We quote the be no danger involved for the White should enlist a Dutchman to do the passage again: colonist by granting this "freedom" to job. Dr. Philip once reported that "the "While our missionaries ... are the Khoikhoin, since there is "a landdrost (Stockenstrom) and I agree hereditary reverence for authority in remarkably well on the subjeect of the everywhere scattering the seeds of civilzation ... they are extending them." This would be kept well- aborigines." Later we shall look fur­ nourished by the missionary, who ther into the nature of this understan­ British interest, British influence and the British Empirer ... Wherever the would encourage the proper habits of ding between the missionary superin­ industry and obedience. tendent and the Dutchman, when they missionary places his standard among had a larger field for their joint activi­ a savage tribe, their prejudices against From first to last the interests of the ty, namely, the subjugation of the the colonial government give way, new economic system were to demand maXhosa. This early prototype of their dependence upon the colony is in­ labour and more labour. And the con­ General Smuts, this ruthless leader of creased by the creation of artificial tinuity of the policy of the Govern­ commandos against the Khoikhoin and wants ... Industry, trade and ment towards the Non-White peoples the maXhosa, embraced the English as agriculture spring up ..." comes out when we compare what Dr. his "adopted countrymen" (to use his Here he states both an aim and a Philip has to say in the early part of the own phrase) and out-liberalled the method. The method is christianiza- century with a statement made by Rho­ liberals. "I confess," he once said, "I tion, which involves something much des when introducing the Glen Grey should be glad to see the whole of more than the simple question of Bill in 1894, a Bill designed to tie the Africa one immense British colony religion. The aim is the destruction of Africans securely to the wheel of the with our laws in full vigour through one culture, tribalism, and replacing it now rapidly expanding industrial sy­ every nook of it." by capitalism. By "civilization" he stem: means the Christian capitalist civiliza­ "It is the duty of the Government to The British-Boer, Stockenstrom, tion. As we have said, it is an industrial was well suited to handle the two-faced remove these poor children from this civilization that is insatiable in its need life of sloth and laziness and to give Ordinance with the two-fold purpose for raw materials - grown in new of "liberating" and controlling a them some gentle stimulus to come lands that must be confiscated; raw forth and find out the dignity of la­ landless people. Thus early we have a materials that must be procured by the foretaste of the subsequent amalgama­ bour. ... We will teach them the digni­ labour of the conquered and chris­ ty of labour and make them contribute tion of the methods of British im­ tianized people of new lands. perialism and Dutch feudalism for the to the prosperity of the State." more complete exploitation of the Philip recognises that the transition We may add here that Dr. Philip 22 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

found no difficulty in coupling "free­ ferocity of the wars against the ma- British were ready to launch their first dom" with segregation. The segrega­ Xhosa, who lay next in the path of co- determined attack against Ndlambe ted mission reserve was the particular quest. and succeeded in driving him across contribution of the missionary to the Chapter IV: the Fish River. In this they were assisted by the Khoikhoin of the mis­ pattern of South African society. It Divide and Rule was part of the liberal myth of "pro­ sionary reserve at Bethelsdorp, so that tection." It is trusteeship in its earliest The MaXhosa the Government had double reason to form. In other words it is the beginning be grateful to the missionaries. Dr. of the herrenvolk lie of the inferiority Of all the functions of the missiona­ Philip put it on record that: of the Non-European. "Protection" ries, that of "divide and rule" is the and "inferiority," the idea that the most characteristic and as the history "The Hottentots belonging to the Black man is "differnt" from the Whi­ of the 19th century un folds we shall see institution of Bethelsdorp ... con­ te - these have become part of the it operating again and again in various tributed much to the success of the machinery of oppression. ways. enterprise ... Military posts were afterwards established (in Ndlambe's In summing up the benefits of the In their war of aggression against the' territory) to prevent the return of the policy he was advocating, Dr. Philip maXhosa, the British found themsel­ Kaffirs, and the Boers and Hottentots made the following conclusive argu­ ves up against Ndlambe, who had ig­ were put under requisition with a view ment: nored the attempts of several gover­ to this effect." nors to make the Fish River their tem­ "By adopting a more liberal system porary boundaryline. He occupied a It will be remembered that the site of of policy towards this interesting class stretch of territory south of the Fish Bethelsdorp had been chosen with an of subjects, they will be more producti­ River, known as the Zuurveld, and eye to military operations against ve, there will be an increased consump­ here the Dutch had come looking for Ndlambe, and now in 1813, a mission tion of British manufactures, taxes will pasturelands - for their trekking in station at Theopolis, seventy miles be paid and farmers will have no cause search of land and cattle began long nearer to Ndlambe's territory, was set to complain of a lack of labour." before the so-called "Great Trek" ac­ up for the same purpose. It is ap­ ross the Orange River. Ndlambe did parently with pride that Dr. Philip It can be said that with the "libera­ recorded that: "The institution of tion" of the Khoikhoin a victory for not dislodge them, though the situa­ tion had to end sooner or later in an Theopolis has from its establishment British capitalism had been achieved, proved equivalent to a military sta­ under the guise of liberalism. But let us open clash, and the Xhosa chief had proved the stronger. tion." It is understandable, therefore, repeat, the abolition of slavery in the that he was able to point out to the British colonies, together with the "li­ British tactics, however, were totally Government that: beration" of the Khoikhoin was part different from those of the Dutch. of a historical movement in which the "Mission stations are the most effi­ They weren't just looking for grazing cient agents to promote the internal "philanthropists," liberals and missio­ lands. Unable to make headway naries were the agents of an expanding strength of the colony and the cheapest against Ndlambe, they realised the ne­ and best military posts that a wise Go­ capitalism. cessity to split the maXhosa asunder, Thereafter the Khoikhoin and the vernment can employ against the pre­ and then attack. For this they needed datory incursions of savage tribes." liberated slaves formed the nucleus of the help of the missionaries, whose bu­ the Coloured population, the mass of siness it was to persuade one of the The British bided their time for the farm labourers and the impoverished Xhosa chiefs to accept the "friend­ next attack against Ndlambe, mean­ workers who lived in the towns. The ship" and "protection" of the British while strengthening their hold over missionaries found them a landless Governor. It took the missionaries se­ Nquika by sending several missionaries people and a landless people they re­ veral attempts before they succeeded in in succession to reside near him. Then mained, in spite of the 50th Ordinance. penetrating the Xhosa wall at its wea­ the Rev. Williams brought the chief The outcry raised by the farmers kest point, namely, Ngqika, and that another message of "friendship" from against "vagrancy" immediately after only because they took advantage of the Governor, Lord Somerset, and the passing of the middle thirties, as one of those tribal feuds, in which the when he showed great reluctance to Prof. Macmillan writes: "There was a young chief was determined to get the meet him, Major Fraser, his military visible decline in the interest bestowed better of his uncle, Ndlambe, who, to­ representative, begged the missionary on the Hottentots, even as a potential gether with the paramount chief, Hin- to "pledge his honour that no evil labour supply ... The labour supply tsa, had whipped him in more than one should befall the chief through meeting was now more adequate to colonial encounter between their warriors. the Governor." The verbal treaty that demands." At the same time we are followed (1817) was to result in Ngqi­ told that the Missionary Superinten­ Dr. Van der Kemp was the first mis­ ka's "ally." the British, swallowing up dent "lost touch with Hottentot af­ sionary to undermine Ngqika's both his land and that of all the Xhosa fairs." The truth is, the Khoikhoin resistance, having finally received per­ tribes. Ngqika himself once said, refer­ could now be left to the mercy of their mission to establish a mission station ring to the British: liberty because a new stage had been near him at the Tyhume River. This reached in colonial conquest. The paved the way for a meeting between "OOahina-ka-qhonono! Government, together with the mis­ Ngqika and the Governor's military Ma yizal'imaz'enkomo sionaries, became absorbed with events representatives, who came to a verbal Sizo kuty'isigqokro." in the east and north-east of the col­ agreement with him as paramount Now the maXhosa at this time had a ony. If the labour supply became more chief, a title which both he and they great leader in the warrior-prophet, "adequate" it was by reason of the kriew to be invalid — but it served the Makhanda (Makana), who, at the purpose of the invaders. By 1812 the head of the armies of Ndlambe and the Azania (South Africa) is an African country 23 paramount chief, Hintsa, routed Ng- part of Ngqika/s lands between the the Rev. Read of the London Missio­ quika. This gave the British their op­ Fish River and the Keiskama. Such we­ nary Society. Its specific aim was to portunity. Under the pretext of coming re the first bitter fruits of "divide and "strengthen the colony's defences to the assistance of their "ally," Ng- rule." against the Xhosa." While Stocken­ quika, two large commandos entered From their new vantage ground the strom was military head of the settle­ Xhosa territory, committing slaughter British could prepare for their next ment, a great deal of the control rested and devastation on a colossal scale land seizures, while meantime carrying with the missionaries. This is how he (1818). For this we have the word of on a daily war of aitrilition, cattle- described its success to Pringle, an Andries Stockerstrom, who himself led plunder and crop-burning, to describe 1820 settler and friend of Dr. Philip: one of the commandos. Describing which we once more fall back upon the "They pay ever tax. They have cost how his Government deliberately in­ words of Andries Stockenstrom, Com­ terfered "in a quarrel that did not con­ the Government nothing except a little missioner-General at Grahamstown, ammunition for their defence, some cern us." he goes on to say thai they and supervisor of these regions: "took from a vast populaiion the seed corn and the annual stipend for flocks upon which they, men, women To have denied the extermination of their minister. They travel great distan­ and children, were exclusively depen­ the Hottentots and Bushmen, the pos­ ces for divine service and their spiritual dent for their very existence." session of their country by ourselves, guides speak with delight of the fruits the cruelties with which their expulsion of their labours ... The same plan on Though the British, as in all their and just resistance had been accompa­ a more extensive scale would enable wars of aggression, aimed to defeat the nied, the hardships with which the laws the Government to withdraw troops al­ people by the plunder of cattle and the were still pressing upon their remnants, together against the natives." destruction of their crops, they were the continuance of the same system To this encomium, the Rev. Read, co- met with a subborn resistance from all against the Kaffirs, or the iniquity of begetter of the scheme, added: the maXhosa, united into a strong for­ the aggressions and murders lately per­ "The success of the settlement is un­ ce by Makhanda, who planned a cam­ petrated upon the latter race ... would questionably owing in pre-eminent de­ paign of attack that well-nigh succee­ have been ridiculous ..." (From his gree to the zeal, judgment and indefa- ded. The warior-prophet seems to have Autobiography.) tigible labours of the missionaries." known and distrusted the missionaries, for he had refused to allow the Rev. In the peculiar language of the her- The way in which the land for this Read of the London Missionary Socie­ renvolk the land that had been confis­ military Reserve was seized is an object ty to establish a mission station near cated from the maXhosa went by the lesson in British tactics. At the time of Ndlambe. His first step was to lay seige name of the "Ceded Territory" or the the dissenssions between the Rev. Tead to the military-mission station of Te- "Neutral Belt." Africans were exclu­ and Stockenstom, it was still occupied hopolis, and so little did the Khoikhoin ded, but on the day on which Ngqika by Maqoma, who had re-claimed it know their real enemies that they gave was suppposed to agree to the new tre­ when he found that the Whites were their lives defending it. aty, the Governor was writing to the swarming into the so-called "Neutral Imperial Government about the colo­ Belt." Now Stockenstrom had "allo­ The intrepid Makhanda, however, nization of the "Neutral Belt" since it wed" him to remain, provided he kept resolved to oust the English garrison was "as fine a portion of ground as ii down cattle-theft. It was part of the from the fort at Grahamstown. Wave to be found." Here military posts were peculiar terminology of the invaders to after wave of Xhosa warriors descen­ set up, British settlers were granted ascribe cattle-theft to those from ded from a nearby height upon the farms and, according to Stockenstrom, whom they had plundered thousands English soldiery, who were on the "some Boers had already been encou­ of cattle. Under the conditions of an­ point of surrender, when a contingent raged to squat up to the sources of the archy then prevailing in those parts, it of Khoikhoin under their captain, Boe­ Koonap." And these were not all. In was not difficult for Stockenstrom to sak, and reinforced by those from The- the Kat River valley, the fairest land in find a pretext for Maquoma's expul­ opolis, turned the tide in their favour. that region and the home of Maqoma, sion, and the device adopted was preci­ Thinking to save his people, Makhan­ who had succeeded his father, Ngqika, sely that which was to be used some da came to meet the Governor's repre­ a military-missionary settlement of sixty years later when the Ndelbele sentative, but was seized by Stocken- Khoikhoin was placed. chief, Lobengula, was attacked under strom and sent as a prisoner to Robben Kat River Settlement the pretext of "protecting" the ma- Island. Not long afterwards he died as Chona. In this instance Maqoma was bravely as he had lived, when he and a found guilty of pursuing some baTem- fellow prisoner were attempting to es­ The story of the Kat River settlement bu into the "Neutral Belt," and this, cape from the island, and for the next demonstrates on a larger scale than according to Stockenstrom, was an half century he remained the symbol of even Bethelsorp or Theopolis, the dis­ "insult to the protectors of the suffe­ Xhosa resistance. ruptive influences put into operation rers." When he was later questioned when one dismembered people is used on this point before the Commission of Makhanda's defeat opened the for the purpose of destroying another, the Aborigines (Protection) Commit­ floodgates of British invasion into who are actually their natural allies. tee, he had to admit that he had made Xhosa territory. The Governor, who According to a contemporary Wesley- no treaty with the baThembu, who we­ had treated Ngqika as paramount chief an missionary, the Rev. William Boy- re completely unaware that they were only until he had defeated Ndlambe, ce, the idea of settling a body of "de­ being "protected" by the Colonial Go­ and the chiefs, Phatho, Kama and serving" Khoikhoin, including the best vernment. Thousands of Maqoma's Chungwa, who had joined him, was of Bethelsdorp and Theopolis, in a Re­ cattle were confiscated, and when the now in a position to confiscate not on­ serve on Maqoma's land, resulted people resisted, Stockenstrom procee- ly the lands of all these chiefs, but also from talks between Stockenstrom and 24 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement ded to drive them out of the Kat River to the missionary, every idea out of the dors and Government go-betweens. valley-at the point of the bayonet. He new system that was insinuated into Quite as a matter of course they played then advised the Governor to let the their minds, served to undermine the a political role in the more obvious sen­ "Tambookies" (baThembu) know of authority of the chief, and therefore se. There was constant communication the Government's "interest in their weakened his position as the military between them and the Governor and cause." Why? "Because," he conti­ head of his people. The mission station the local military commanders. From nued frankly, "this will secure a coun­ itself was the spearhead of that attack their position of vantage in tribal terri­ terpoise to the Gaikas' (maNgqika) po­ on the authority of the chief, for there tory they proceeded to map out the wer and therefore make a salutary di­ the Christian converts put up their surrounding district, gather informa­ version in our favour." dwelling and were separated off from tion about surrounding tribes, find out the rest of the tribe. Allegiance to the the customs of the people, and pass on The missionary-controlled Khoi- missionary undermined allegiance to khoin, then, were placed in the Kat this information where it was most use­ the chief. Of course, this process took ful. Thus they not only charted un­ River Settlement in 1829, this being the place gradually, insidiously. The mis­ only way in which they received grants known territory for the use of the mili­ sionary came as a man of peace; he ca­ tary, but they communicated their of land after their "liberation" in me as a "friend". It was much later 1828. In keeping with the consistent knowledge of the Africans to influen­ that the chiefs themselves became awa­ tial parliamentarians in London, the labour policy of the Government, it re of what was happening and put their was split up into 47 locations, with Secretary for the Colonies and the rest. finger on the fact that the missionary Therefore it was natural that the Go­ plots no bigger than two to fifteen constituted a danger to their position. morgen, so that in addition to being a vernment made use of them when it ca­ me to drawing up "treaties" and evol­ buffer state between the Whites and "They mean to steal our people," the maXhosa, they were a reservoir of ving "Native" policy. The missiona­ said the chiefs, "and become magistra­ ries prided themselves on knowing the labour for the surrounding farmers. It tes and chiefs themselves." took the Khoikhoin some twenty years Africans better than anyone else. Once to discover how misplaced had been At first, then, the chief merely tole­ more we see here the beginnings of that their gratitude to the missionaries for rated the presence of the missionary, to tradition which for a hundred years procuring land for them. Here we can whom, as to anyone else, he granted le­ and more the liberals have kept alive do no more than mention that in 1850 ave to occupy a portion of his land. He and which is only now breaking down the Khoikhoin of the Kat River Settle­ was thus disarmed at the outset. Jud­ as the eyes of the people are opened to ment and the mission station at ging from a document like the Diary of their true function. The liberals have Theopolis joined forces with the maX­ the Rev. Owen, who preached the fo­ always specialized in "knowing" the hosa in an attempt to defeat the British reign doctrines under the sceptical eye Africans and in this sense have been soldiery. But it was too late, Dutch and of Dingane, the Zulu chief, the Chri­ the Government's most useful agents. stian dogma was dismissed as unaccep- British farmers clamoured for the set­ Of course we know that this claim tlement to be broken up because it had tabel to reason. It was rare for a chief himself to become converted. But as on the part of the missionaries to an become a "hotbed of sedition." But "intimate knowledge" of the Africans the truth is. The tide of invasion was the contracts between the tribe and the foreigners increased, he found it more was a false one, often compounded of ready to engulf it, together with the arrogance, ignorance and bigotry. It land of the maXhosa. and more necessary to rely on the mis­ sionary as go-between and interpreter. was true only in so far as they were in a Chapter V He had to rely on the very agent of im­ position to gather information useful to the Government and at the same ti­ Political Role of the Missionaries perialism whose task it was to under­ mine his authority. From this it was ea­ me, having been accepted by the chiefs The Missionaries and Ihe Chiefs sy to pass to the next stage. As the fe­ as intermediaries, could appear as their rocity of the military invasion increa­ spokesman. On the other hand it was The full extent of the political role of sed, the chief in desparation was more they who helped to build up a picture the missionaries in the Subjugation of willing to believe that the missionary of the Africans as a people who were the Bantu tribes becomes apparent du­ could help him to recover his lost terri­ morally inferior; "irreclaimable thie­ ring the Twenties, thirties and forties tory. Here we see the beginning of the ves," "treacherous, ungrateful sava­ of the 19th century. It is not enough to role of the liberal as the conciliator bet­ ges," etc., were missionary epithets say that they acted as peaceful forerun­ ween oppressor and oppressed. The handed on to headquarters in Govern­ ners paving the way for the governor missionary in actual fact identified ment reports. In their position first as and the military. They participated in a himself with the government, but he assistants in evolving "Native" policy very positive sense in conquest. was careful not to do so to the chief and then as the chief instruments in educating the Africans into the new sy­ For the invaders the problem at this himself. He came as his "friend" who was willing to intercede with the Go­ stem, they reinforced the subsequent period was to destroy the power of the policy of trusteeship, of imposing spe­ chief as the military leader of his peo­ vernment on the chief's behalf. He protested a great deal on behalf of his cial and separate treatment on all Non- ple. The breakdown of tribalism meant Europeans. i'irsi the removal of the tribal head, the protege. But the more the chief relied chief or chieftainship. Every effort had on the missionary, the more surely was At the period of which we speak (the to be directed to this end. During the he betrayed into the hands of the Go­ thirties of last century) it is understan­ period of military conquest', therefore, vernment. dable that a man like the Rev. William the missionary had a very particular Boyce, Wesleyan missionary and the part to play, distinct from that which The missionaries for their part seem Governor's confidential Adviser in he was to play later. Every step that to have had no difficulty in being at place of Dr. Philip, should make the brought a section of the people nearer one and the same time God's ambassa­ following boast: Azania (South Africa) is an African country 25

"Nothing can be effected without stematically beside every chief. The "We must be the masters." The mis­ the hearty co-operation of the missio­ Rev. Shaw mapped out a chain of mis­ sionary superintendent elaborated this naries, but, with this, no obstacles are sion stations in the south-east from the point when he said on another occa­ too difficult to overcome." Zuurveld (now AJbany) to Port Natal, sion: "Annex up to the tropics." He By this time the tentacles of missio­ a distance of 400 miles, and we shall had no doubt as to the tightness of Bri­ nary activity were spread throughout see later how persistently they carried tish conquest. What he feared was the Southern Africa. A glance at a map out the tactics of "divide and rule" in spirit of resistance in the chiefs goaded will indicate how far they had penetra­ this region. Beyond the Orange River by the sheer ferocity of the military ted. The Moravians and the London they became the political rivals - we machine. He had more subtle methods Missions had been followed by many use the word advisedly - of the Lon­ of subjugation. Failing outright others, Wesleyan, Scots, the Rhenish don Missionary Society among the Gri- annexation- and a Government and Berlin missions, the French and, quas and played their part in hastening which had plenty of unofficial agents finally, the American mission. Both the dismemberment of that nation. to carry on the job was not yet prepa­ the Rev. Williams and the Rev. Brown- Still furhter north they gained a foo­ red for the expense involved in annexa­ lee of the Glasgow Missionary Society ling among the baTswana (Bechuana) tion - Philip proposed making trea­ had added their efforts to those of the tribes and soon followed the French ties with the chiefs with the specific L.M.S. missionaries in breaking down missionaries into the land of Moshoe­ purpose of undermining their position the resistance of the Xhosa chief, shoe. in preparation for outright annexation of their territory. Ngqika. The Rhenish mission concen­ With this general survey of how the trated on the Namaqua and the vaHe- missionaries were strategically placed The first step was to persuade the rero ("Hereros") in the far north-west throughout Southern Africa, we must chiefs, through the missionaries, to ac­ beyond the Orange River. The Berlin now give a more detailed picture of cept the "friendship" of the British mission added its quota of missionaries how the position of the chief as milita­ Government, to accept its "protec­ operating among the maXhosa and ry leader of his people was undermi­ tion". The next step was to subsidise founded a mission station at Bethel; ned. It was not enough to place a mis­ the chief, i.e., pay him a fixed salary. they also attached themselves to the sionary beside him; the influence of the This was a revolutionary step, for it Koranas beyond the Orange River, ha­ Missionary had to be reinforced by ot­ meant making him a paid servant of ving obtained land from the Griqua her means. The plan for doing this was the Government, accepting payment in Chief, Adam kok II, who was himself largely envolved by the Superintendent the coin of the new economic system. under the influence of the Wesleyan of the London Missionary Society, Dr. This was what Dr. Philip meant when missionaries. Philip, who, at this time, was a politi­ he emphasised the necessity of "ruling cal adviser to the Governor. as we do to India", namely, through East of them the French missiona­ paid chiefs. It was the very cornerstone ries, on Dr. Philip's advice, ingratiated "We mast be the Masters" of the policy which he, as the self- themselves with Moshoeshoe, the great The British were aware that they had appointed political adviser of the Go­ chief of the baSotho, and the Ameri­ no easy task in subduing the Bantu tri­ vernment, proposed. And there was no cans, also at the instigation of the su­ bes. The maXhosa, who were in the doubt as to the purpose behind that perintendent of the London Missions, front line of attack, were preparing to policy. attempted to get a footing both among put up a renewed resistance. In the east the maZulu situated between the Dra- and in the north the chiefs Dingane "Had a few of the chiefs been subsi­ kensberg Mountains and the East co­ and Mzilikazi had no fear of the White dized," he said on one occasion, "by ast, and among the maNdebele (Mata- man;Dingane knew the value of the having small salaries paid to them, we bele), a branch of the maZulu who had White man's weapons and unceremo­ might by this time have had the affairs broken away from Tshaka and settled niously dismissed the missionary when of Kaffirland in our own hands." The further inland on the High Veld. Din- he couldn't get a sufficient number of plan involved the undermining of the gane, the Zulu chief, however, had as guns out of him. Moshoeshoe, the authority of the chief by placing beside little time for the Rev. Owen of the most resolute and sagacious of them him a resident agent (as the British re­ American mission as he had for a all, constituted a formidable barrier to presentative was called). This agent, handful of arrogant Trek Boers under the invaders, both Boer and British. ostensibly his guide and adviser, was Relief. The maNdebele, also, were later to fill the position of magistrate averse to foreign doctrines. Through his numerous correspon­ and gradually usurp his functions as dents, Dr. Philip, superintendent of head of his tribe. As the magistrate's Of all these missionaries the Wesley- the London Mission, was aware of the­ authority grew, so that of the chief di­ ans were the most remarkable for their se things. He did not make the mistake minished. Again, Dr. Philip left no thoroughness and came to be regarded of belittling those who had to be con­ doubt as to the purpose behind this I by the Government as its most efficient quered. And with his imperialistic out­ step. Recommending to the Governor agents. Their first mission was to the look, he saw further than military go­ the appointment of these resident Namaqua in the extreme west of the vernors and commanders. This deter­ agents beside each of the Xhosa Colony, whence they crossed the mined his line of approach to the pro­ chiefs's, he wrote: Orange River into Great Namaqua- blem. One of his correspondents, a land. But their most intensive opera­ merchant of Uitenhage, had summari­ "A total expenditure (on agents) of tions were among the Bantu tribes, sed the position in a very apt phrase. even Pound Sterling 3000 would cost both in the east and in the north. Un­ This Dr. Philip quoted and fully en­ much less than armies*' der the leadership of the Rev. William dorsed in his communications with The joint effect of a missionary on Shaw, a most zealous organiser, they Buxton, his supporter in the British the right hand of the chief and resident proceeded to entrench themselves sy­ Parliament: agent on his left, was to reinforce those 26 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement elements of disruption in the tribal sy­ rity of his method. The purely military ding Philip and the liberal, Fairbain, stem that already existed through the phase of conquest looked to be long, his son-in-law. Of course we are not teachings of the missionary. And when costly and wasteful, for it delayed the concerned with petty quarrels between subsequently the imposition of a magi­ initiation of the new order of society. missionaries, all of whom were serving strate over the chief was a settled point This larger perspective led the missio­ a common end. But there is point in of "Native" policy, it was perfectly nary superintendent to condemn the the Rev. Boyce's comment on his rival. natural that he should be a missionary plunder and pillage methods of the mi­ The subjugation of the chiefs was a or the son of a missionary. For did litary forces, the "Reprisal" system of matter of historical necessity, just as they not claim to "know" the Afri­ cattle-raids, which had the effect of the "liberation" of the Khoikhoin had can? stiffening the resistance of the chiefs. been. As the great Conciliator of the There is no doubt that Dr. Philip He condemned it in no uncertain chiefs, the missionary superintendent contributed much to evolving this terms. Once more he prepared reports was acting consistently as the agent of scheme of subjugation which proposed and memoranda for the London Mis­ a Christian capitalist civilzation. sionary Society in London, with in­ to emasculate the power of the chief. It was in the role of benefactor, Others took up the idea and elaborated structions to communicate certain pas­ sages to his supporters in the British then, that Dr. Philip was able to ap­ upon it, but he may well claim to be its proach the Xhosa chiefs Maqoma, Ty- begetter. The Governor, D'Urban, put Parliament, particularly Buxton. As usual the liberal is performing the use­ hali and Botomane, as a preliminary to the plan into practice about the middle a new treaty which would do some­ thirties, but a certain discussion that ful function of collecting information useful to the Government. No sooner thing to mitigate the barbarities of the took place between a military man, a Reprisal system. "I have resolved to missionary and a liberal, reveals them had the new Governor, Major-General Sir Benjamin D'Urban, assumed offi­ carry the whole of the system you have working out the problem nearly ten ye­ recommended into effect," wrote the ars before that time. On one of his fre­ ce, than he received a despatch from the Colonial Secretary, Lord Glenelg, Governor, D'Urban, to Philip. It was quent tours to the country, Dr. Philip, agreed that the missionary superinten­ accompanied by Thomas Pringle (sub­ a son of one of those "Philantro- phists", whose colonial policy was di­ dent would act as the Governor's fore­ sequently secretary of the anti-Slavery runner and gather information as to Society) discussed with the Dutchmen, rected to the best interests of the Bri­ tish industrialists. In this despatch the the temper of the chiefs. Philip wanted Andries Stockentstrom, the problem his visit to appear unofficial and gave of subduing the African tribes an civili­ Governor was instructed to "cultivate an intercourse with the chiefs on the it out that he came simply as their zing them, i.e., bringing them into the "friend." The chiefs, however, saw new economic system. Stockenstrom Kaffir Tribes," by stationing "prudent and intelligent men among them as Go­ him as one who had a great deal of in­ (as he records in his Autobiography) fluence with the Governor and not un­ emphasied the necessity of co­ vernment agents, and to consider the practicability of annual presents or sa­ naturally assumed that he would help operation between the Church and the them to recover their land, which was Government. laries for the chiefs." Subsequently D'Urban explained that: to them the vital question. It is hardly "These two forces combined," he necessary to say that this was very far said, "will not civilize unless they ma­ "I was well aware that the substance from the miisionary's intention. ke the Native chiefs the principal levers of that Despatch had originated in the The chiefs expressed themselves in the operations on their people. ... London Mission within the Colony. If we gain the confidence of the chiefs, freely to their "friend." With eloquent ... And Dr. Philip was my agent for anger Chief Maqoma pointed out the they, with the power of the Govern­ introducing the system which 1 con­ ment and the efforts of the missiona­ injustice of seizing land as a reprisal templated in accordance with the De­ for so-called cattle-theft. ries, will influence the masses. ... spatch." "A powerful Government like that "The Governor," he said, "cannot of England, with equitable treaties ... On the strength of Dr. Philip's role be so unreasonable as to make our exi­ will soon have the chiefs so completely at this time, herrenvotk historians have stence as a nation depend on a circum­ under its influence that its word will be depicted him as the Friend of the Afri­ stance which is beyond the reach of hu­ law without appearing to be so." cans, carrying out the same humanita­ man power ... You sanction robbery rian principles that actuated his efforts It is not at all incongruous that he by the patrol system. After having ta­ in "liberating" the Khoikhoin. But ken our country from us you shut us who talked of "gaining the confidence again we must reject the falsification of the chiefs," was to drive Ngqika's up to starvation, you threaten us with of history that obscures political expe­ destruction for the thefts of those to son, Maqoma, out of the Kat River diency with the cloak of humanitaria- valley and cover up this act of aggres­ whom you have left no choice but to nism. The Rev. Boyce, who succeeded steal or die by famine." sion with the hypocrisy typical of his Philip as the Governor's political Ad­ adopted countrymen, the English. The viser, was nearer the mark when he The missionary's reply to his is a apparent contradiction disappears commented that "The Kaffirs entertai­ classical example of how the liberal ad­ when we understand the common pur­ ned very extravagant expectations as to vised the oppressed when they seek his pose behind these two methods, name­ the good to be anticipated from Dr. advice. ly, the subjugation of the African tri­ Philip's advocacy," and added acri­ bes. "I said everything to soothe them," moniously: "The Wesleyans have done wrote Philip in his report of the inter­ The focal point of attack on the part at least as much as those whose names view. He asured them that the Gover­ of the military was the chief. This was have been trumpeted forth as the nor "was a just man and would redress no less true of the missionary. But Dr. friends and saviours of the aborigines" any real grievances. But they must not Philip had no doubt as to the superio­ - meaning the "Philip Party", inclu­ expect any more than was reasonable. Azania (South Africa) is an African country 27

He (the Governor) was obliged to pro­ first application of the new system of fifty years. The Xhosa chiefs, Maqo­ tect the Colony from depredations and treaties on the Indian model, i.e., ru­ ma, Tyhali and Botomane, led an at­ the chiefs would have to prevent all ling through paid chiefs. Thus, in 1833 tack into the Colony; farms and tra­ stealing and restore cattle." Waterboer was brought to Cape Town ders' stores were burned. But it is note­ The chiefs were obviously dissatis­ and went through the formalities of worthy that not a single mission station fied with the nature of this reply. Poin­ signing a treaty with the British Go­ was touched. The Africans drew a ting to the lands that bore the marks of vernment. Its primary purpose was a marked distinction between the missio­ recent devastations, Chief Maqoma re­ military one, making the Griqua na­ naries and the rest of the Whites. plied: tion a buffer state between the Europe­ ans and the Bantu beyond the Orange The assegai had to yield to the gun. "We have had these promises for River.. Colonel Harry Smith, who comman­ fifteen years." ded the British soldiery, drove back the While Dr. Philp was formulating Xhosa and laid their land waste. But Whereupon the missionary spoke as "Native" policy in what he considered the chiefs found an impregnable follows: the best interests of the British Govern­ stronghold in the Mathole fastnesses "If they (the soldiery) drive away ment, other agents of Imperialism were and from there carried on a guerilla your people at the point of the bayo­ pursuing their more violent methods. warfare which baffled the invaders. net, advise them to go over the Keis- Colonel Somerset, who was in charge A significant epilogue to the missio­ kamma peacably. If they come and ta­ of military operations, was particularly nary superintendent's "peace" nego­ ke away your cattle, suffer them to do active with his commandos during the tiations with the Xhosa chiefs a few it without resistance. If they bum your two or three months following Philip's months previous was his action on the huts, allow them to do so. If they conciliatory (but secret) visit to the outbreak of war. He immediately in­ shoot your men, bear it till the Gover­ Xhosa chiefs. Instead of the new order formed the Governor that he would nor comes and then present your grie­ that had been promised them by the send messages to all the missionary in­ vances, and I am convinced you will missionary there was still more ruth- stitutions, calling the Khoikhoin to de­ have no occasion to repent of having lessness. Even a military officer expres­ fend the Colony against the Xhosa. followed my advice." sed his "utter amazement" when, on This was done and the Khoikhoin were entering their territory near the Tyhu- armed. Dr. Philip was very confident of the me River, he found the whole landsca­ results of his pacification of the chiefs. pe ablaze. On asking Colonel Somerset While he waited at the Kat River Settle­ the reason for it, that worthy replied ment for D'Urban's arrival, he betook that he was expected to keep the coun­ Kampuchea Atrocities Refuted at himself to a great deal of writing, set­ try clear and this was the most energe­ United Nations ting down his ideas on "Native" policy tic method he could, think of - by to Buxton and others. In a letter to his smoking them out. The situation was (from Beijing Review) wife he made the interesting comment: working up for a climax; crops were *'I am now ready for him (the Gover­ burned and the people were faced with nor) with a grip of the whole famine; if an African lodged a com­ Besides making unfounded claims, the situation." To Miss Buxton, to whom plaint about stolen cattle, he was seized Soviet political news analyst repeats he often communicated things he wis­ as a prisoner; a chief's envoy bringing the old lie about "the extermination of hed to be passed on to her father and in stolen cattle (which it was the chief's three million Kampucheam" as a rea­ thence to the British Paliament, he duty by law to recover) would be shot. son for opposing Democratic Kampu­ wrote: "I consider my work in this pla­ In despair, Chief Maqoma sent a letter chea retaining its lawful seat in the ce done. Nothing is left to accident. I to Dr. Philip through the local missio­ United Nations. "Three million" is a can leave the frontier, should the Go­ nary. shocking figure. It was invented by Viet vernor not come at this time, without Nam and the Soviet Union to shock. caring whether I am at a public mee­ But the figure has no basis. When the ting of the chiefs or not. The principle "When shall I and my people be ab­ Lon Nol regime was overthrown in of my scheme (and that is all I care for) le to get rest?" said the chief. "Both I 1975, the population of Kampuchea is no longer an experiment that may and my brother, Tyhali, have almost was about 7 million, and it increased fail, but a law that must be enforced. no more country for our cattle to live somewhat in 1978. An AFP report God commands it. The Thing is practi­ in ... I beg the favour of your enqui­ from Phnom Penh last January said cable ... I stand as on a rock." ring at the Governor for me the reason that according to officials and interna­ of all these things." tional organizations in Phnom Penh British imperialism owes much to and data collected from various pro­ men of such character. In all likelihood the Xhosa were being deliberately goaded into attack vinces, the propulation at the end of To the Governor he pressed home as a pretext for the further seizure of 1979 was approximately 6 million. In the necessity of making a treaty with land. The frontier farmers, who, as addition, there were about 700,000 re­ the Griqua chief, Waterboer, on the well as Dr. Philip, were waiting for the fugees in the Kampuchean-Thai border northern frontier, where the Trek Governor to arrive, made no secret of areas. It was only after Viet Nam laun­ Boers were seizing land, but were unli­ their expectation of further grants of ched its war against Kampuchea that kely - he feared - to be able to pro­ land from him. It needed but the the Kampuchean population began to tect either themselves or the Colony wounding of a chief to give the imme­ shrink. It is the direct outcome of the from an attack by the Ndebele chief, diate signal for war - though indeed a genocidal policy Viet Nam pursues MziUkazi. As Waterboer was a particu­ war of destruction had been waging against the Kampucheans. Democratic lar protege of the missionaries, Philip against the inhabitants of Southern Kampuchea did indeed commit some considered him a good subject for the Africa for more than a hundred and grave mistakes in the past, including 28 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

the erroneous killing of some people. ding, sympathy and suppori of the Square, London, NW6, England. The Leaders of Democratic Kampuchea ha­ Kampuchean people at home and ab­ book takes the form of nine replies to a ve on many occasions publicly admit­ road. young English girl quering the history ted their mistakes and made self- of the struggle of the Kampuchean pe­ criticisms and have taken steps to recti­ ople. It comes out as a well documen­ fy them. Last year, Democratic Kam­ ted history of the struggle of the Kam­ puchea put forth a Draft Political Pro­ KAMPUCHEA puchean people. It takes a critical look gramme of the Patriotic and Democra­ at mass media coverage of world tic Front of the Great National Union CONNECTION events and analyses Peace with Horror of Kampuchea to replace the 1976 by Barron & Paul and other distorters Constitution, reshuffled the govern­ The Kampuchea Connection by CM. of Kampuchean's history, like John ment and adopted a series of democra­ Gomes (paperback Pound Sterling Pilger. Highly recommended for a tic policies to unite with people of all 2.75 p) has just been published by good account of the struggle of the strata. It is regaining the understan­ Grassroots Publisher, 101 Kilburn Kampuchean people.

tion in 1917, a new era was ushered, A Good Marxist-Leninist Analysis the era of World-proletarian revolu­ tions. It was at this stage that a false The APRP (Azanian Peoples the tasks, motive forces and goals of start was made in Azania. Once again, Revolutionary Party) which came out the National Democratic Revolution as the white workers took the initiative. of the turmoil of the Arusha Con­ it relates to a correct resolution of the Of course this was not surprising since ference, largely the result of the National Question. The first section they were better exposed to world machinations of P.K. Leballo has now which we have left out defines the events, and they were freed from produced a commendable Marxist- democratic tasks of the revolution in a labour repression. In 1921, they form­ Leninist document defining the nature much more through going and honest ed the Communist Party of South of the Azanian struggle, though we are manner than the notorious Freedom Africa, which was exclusively white not in agreement with every aspect of Charter does. It is necessary for Aza­ and colonialist in orientation; so that the document and have serious nian revolutionaries to overcome petty while in other colonial and semi- disagreements with the APRP's style squabbles, subjectivist views, fac­ colonial countries such as China (The of Party building. Certainly in our tionalism, clichism, etc. and to learn Communist Party of China was form­ view there is no contradiction between from one another and unite on the ed in the same year), Korea, Vietnam, building the PAC as a mass national basis of correct and principled policies Albania, etc., genuine Marxist- movement and in building an indepen­ relating to our struggle and revolution. Leninist Parties were formed - ours dent Marxist-Leninist Party, tasks to It is in this spirit that this document is was a racist party from the outset, no which IKWEZI is resolutely dedicated. presented. wonder that it has consistently (even We have produced the section defining when the majority of its members are black) followed and maintained an er­ roneous policy on the National Ques­ A Brief History of the National One of the factors that contributed tion. Liberation Movement In Azanla: to the petty-bourgeois nature of the national liberation movement was the lack of class consciousness and This was evident during the 1922 Before the First World War, the libera­ Rand Miners* strike, where racist tion movement in South Africa, like in organisation of the indigenous pro­ letariat, which by then had its social slogans were displayed. Chief amongst most colonial and semi-colonial coun­ these was the slogan: "Works of the tries was led by the petty-bourgeois, roots in the countryside, and owed its allegiance to its traditional chiefs. world unite to fight for a white South viz., the intellectuals, clergymen, Africa!" chiefs and businessmen. Such were Im- Class consciousness first developed bumba yarna-Afrika 1822; Natal In­ among the white workers. This can be In 1928, after the defeat of that dian Congress 1894, African People's illustrated by the first labour unrests, uprising, and when the Party member­ Organisation (predecessor of the Col­ viz., the miners' strike of May 1907, ship had swollen to 550 whites and oured People's Organisation) in 1902, the white miners' general strike of 1913 1600 blacks, the Executive Committee and the South African Native National and 1914. The first unrest by black of the Communist International made Congress (ANC) in 1912. The first workers was the night soil workers' this analysis of the South African three movements emerged and strike in 1918, followed by the African situation, and the tasks of the CPSA: developed with the decline of the wars miners' strikes in 1920, and numerous of resistance. The last war of resistance others right up-to-date. The first "South Africa is a British dominion was the so-called Bambata Rebellion in African labour movement, the In­ of a colonial type. The country was 1906. After conquest, and particularly dustrial Workers of Africa was formed seized by violence by foreign ex­ after the declaration of the Union of in 1917, followed by the Industrial and ploiters, the land expropriated from South Africa in 1910, the African peo­ Commercial Workers' Union (1CU) in the natives, who were met by a policy ple tactically renounced warfare and 1919, the South African Trade Union of extermination in the first stages of used political strategies and tactics to Congress in 1926, the South African colonisation, and conditions of semi-' regain their lost territory. There was a Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in slavery established for the overwhelm­ greater urge for unity of all the in­ 1955, etc. ing majority of the native masses. // is digenous nationalities, which resulted necessary to tell the native masses that in the formation of the ANC in 1912. in the face of the existing political and After World War I, and with the vic­ economic discrimination against the tory of the Russian October Revolu­ Azania (South Africa) is an African country 29 natives and ruthless oppression of The history of our struggle in South lustrated above how this force has them by the white oppressors, the Africa has taught us that: asserted itself in struggle since the Comintern slogan of a native republic (1) The petty-bourgeois class is too beginning of the century. means restitution of the land to the weak to lead that struggle to victory Among other reasons why it has not landless and land-poor population." because of the following reasons: made any headway in its struggles (Our emphasis). (a) It does not commit itself to any against exploitation and national op­ revolutionary theory. pression is that it has always struggled The next paragraph reads: as an appendage of the bourgeoisie "This slogan does not mean that we (b) Its organisation is weak. which has misused it, divided it, and ignore or forget about the non-exploi­ (c) It is inconsistent in its social prac­ misdirected it. It has no organisation ting elements of the white population. tice. It is easily manipulated by im­ of its own. perialism. On the contrary, the slogan calls for We are convinced that the Azanian 'full and equal rights for all races.' The (d) It is always suspicious of the class revolution needs a new engine in order white toiling masses musi realise that consciousness of the proletariat. that it should not be betrayed; and that in South Africa they constitute na­ (2) Historically, most of the struggles the new engine must be equipped with tional minorities, and it is their task to a new compass, a new barometer, a support and fight jointly with the that were led by the petty-bourgeoisie in Africa, Asia and Latin America new and powerful telescope, and native masses against the white above all, it must be of stainless steel. bourgeoisie and the British im­ have not accomplished their tasks. perialists. The argument against the After liberation they have failed to The Azanian proletariat is con­ slogan for a native republic on the solve the problems of the majority of fronted with a problem and tasks that ground that it does not protect whites the people, the workers and peasants. had confronted the Russian proletariat is objectively nothing else than cover From colonialism they have sunk as early as 1902, when Lenin observed: for unwillingness to accept the correct even deeper into misery (neocolonia­ "History has now confronted us principle that South Africa belongs to lism). They have not broken away with an immediate task which is the the native population. from the imperialist orbit. most revolutionary of all the im­ Under these conditions it is the task South Africa is a highly industrialis­ mediate tasks that confront the pro­ of the Communist Party to influence ed capitalist society. The struggle letariat of any country. The fulfilment the embryonic and crystallising na­ against white domination should be of this task, the destruction of the tional movements among the natives in combined with the struggle against im­ most powerful bulwark, not only of order to develop "these movements in­ perialism. Only a working class Party European, but also of (it may now be to national agrarian revolutionary can accomplish such tasks. The leader­ said) Asiatic reaction, would make the movements against the white bourgeoi­ ship of a genuine proletarian party is a Russian proletariat the vanguard of the sie and the British imperialists." (Our sure guarantee that the revolution will international revolutionary proleta­ emphasis). not be betrayed or carried forward on­ riat." ly halfway through. Our national de­ The next paragraph warned in part: (V.l. Lenin - What is to be Done? - mocratic revolution should therefore Vol. V. Collected Works, Progress "The failure to fulfill this task means be New-Democratic, in that it should Publishers, Moscow, 1975, p. 373). separation of the Communist Party of be led by a new class, the proletariat. South Africa from the native popula­ The Theoretical Basis of our Pro­ tion." Many labour unrests took place in the 40's and SO's; also the stay-at-home gramme: The Freedom Charter is in fact, a and pass campaigns in the sixties were direct refutation and betrayal of the some form of labour unrests. In the In our epoch a revolutionary party is above thesis of the Comintern. Be­ early 70's there were numerous strikes mainly concerned with the solution of cause it stubbornly opposed the above which led to the formation of the three problems: directive and warning, the CPSA Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU). alienated the African people from it, All this is proof that the black pro­ A. The National Question: for they, the Africans, rightly felt not letariat, the core of the working class represented by it and that it was not in Azania is long awake, but it is This involves the solution of national serving the interests of national libera­ misused and misguided by the oppor­ contradictions, the resolution of the tion. They also noticed that the ANC tunist leadership of the national libera­ problems of oppression of one nation by its close relationship with that tion movements and CPSA - just as by another, and the form that the organisation had deviated from its they had misused the peasant uprisings future nation should take. founding objectives. Hence the in the 1950's and 1960*s, and the recent emergence of the ANC Youth League student uprising in 1976. B. The Social Question: in 1943, with its radical nationalistic policies, which culminated in the for­ It is common knowledge that South This is the resolution of social con­ mation of the Africanist Movement Africa is a highly industrialised tradictions which have as their base the within the ANC, and finally emerged capitalist state. The racists have prevailing mode of production and as the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959. boasted that it is a powerhouse of production relationships which mould The Black Consciousness Movement Africa and the bulwark against com­ and condition social conditions. The which emerged in the late 60's is also munism. It commands the largest prevailing mode of production in inclined towards the PAC's position. working force (%'/i million) than any Azania is capitalism, which is Why a Party of a New Type other country in Africa, and perhaps in characterised by private appropriation the third world. We have already il­ of the products of social labour and 30 Build ihe PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

has engendered master-servant rela­ any constitutional means of political rural and semi-proletariat, there are tions. redress, resistance of self-defence, also the brutally repressed petty- since white domination does not regard bourgeoisie of various levels and walks Slate Power them as citizens and disallows their of life, as well as the landless and land- This involves the formulation and representation in any state organ: un- hungry peasantry. It is today, more creation of appropriate public institu­ paralelled economic exploitation by than ever before, perfectly undeniable tions by the dominating class for the -both settler capital (apartheid's that while all these African classes, purpose of solving the national and business) and western imperialism (big together with the peripheral strata social questions in the image of the buisiness) - the major feature of this within each one of them, may have dominating class at a national as well being "coercive labour repression", to divergent class interests, they however as at the international level. In all wit: the terror of influx control laws all cherish one major political desire: modem states whether national or exclusively enacted for the Africans, their National Liberation. For this multi-national, state power is either their forced regimentation under reason alone, they reject wholly and wielded by one class or a coalition of labour migration system, their starva­ contemptuously the whole concept, the classes. Forms may differ but the con­ tion wages, well below the Poverty entire programme and policy of "Ban­ tent is the same. Datum Line (PDL) - in all economic tustans" or "Bantu homelands in­ sectors, the worst conditions of work dependence" which Pretoria is forcing This part of the manifesto is meant to everywhere, their tack of any trade down their throats. Still, the differen­ deal with these three questions, and union rights, etc., ad infinitum; which tiation of the indigenous Azanians into any other additional questions. results in a staggering degree of social various classes must necessarily degradation that callously breaks up generate class views and aspirations A. The National Question their families while it ceaselessly har- with regard to the nature, meaning and rasses them from street to house and promise of this national liberation to The Status of the different National back, everywhere and always. This each of them. Groups in Azania: conquest, which was always and everywhere preceded or accompanied In today's race-dominated South The complex nature of the Azanian by relentless cultural aggression, also Africa, it is not only the native Aza­ national democratic revolution paved the way for the greater all-round nians who are the victims of foreign demands both a definition of the status cultural subjugation that every African domination; added to them are all the of each population group in the coun­ suffers today in Azania. other black peoples - the Asians of try, and an identification of their various oriental origins, and the so various interests in the country's un­ Thus today the indigenous Azanians called "Coloured" people. folding political process. For it is reel under the combined impact of II The Asians: beyond all question that each group of Christian-western civilisation (as people, each nationality or class, manifested by Calvinistic-herrenvolk- These are the various foreign ethnic cherishes a definite, identifiable ism in Azania), and backward African minorities who were brought in by material interest, exclusive or accom­ traditions that co-exist and collaborate European imperialism right from the modative, which is either served or with it to produce monstrosities like beginning of our social milieu - as damaged by the revolution. Who, then "Bantustans" and "Bantu Educa­ slaves from Malaysia and Indonesia, are the people who inhabit Azania to­ tion". and as indentured labourers from In­ day, and what is their relationship to dia and China. Collectively, they are the liberation process? (b)Thus taken as a whole, being the statistically the smallest minority on most oppressed population group in South Africa's racial scales. their fatherland; the Africans want to I. The Africans: fully and manifestly assume the effec­ Chief amongst them are those of tive control of their country. In a Indo-Pakistani origin. While some of (a) The Africans of Azania are the in­ word, to recapture it from foreign rule them have made it into "high digenous inhabitants, the natives of and then to govern it in the best and business" in South Africa's commer­ Azania; and they constitute the over­ truest interests of all who shall con­ cial world, the great majority remains whelming majority of the entire tinue to inhabit it as fullblooded exploited and wretched on the sugar population. They are the native members of the new Azanian nation. farms of Natal, a province of their original and rightful owners of the Therefore, the Africans constitute the main concentration. And while they country, who were robbed of it and its core of the nation. have been accorded some kind of natural wealth, along with their second-class status, they nevertheless livestock and other independent (c) Yet the indigenous Africans remain an oppressed group. economic means of livelihood by Euro­ themselves are no more socially pean colonialism. The colonial con­ homogenous than the ruling white For, while other Oriental ethnic quest which triumphed over 300 years' minority. They are today stratified into groups, namely the Japanese - who heroic resistance, and broke it at the social classes which, having been called came only recently as free immigrants end of the 19th century by sheer weight into their blighted and precarious ex­ - and the Chinese, were moved into of Europe's advanced technology istence first by European colonialism the "white" or "honorary white" (military) which was then unknown to (Dutch and British), and then by South status, the "Indians" remained "non- Africa, subsequently subjected the Africa's settler capitalism - live ac­ white" and therefore outside the Africans to the three huge mountains cording to the enslaving dictates of the maelstrom of South Africa's official that weigh heavily on them: ruthless country's race cloaked economic society. However, since they had political subjugation, whose chief system. So it is that quite apart from nothing more than their bare labour characteristic is the African's lack of the super-exploited African industrial. power to be seized from them when Azania (South Africa) is an African country 31 they landed in Azania, the Asians have final days of the Zulu kingdom, the framework of apartheid, (e.g. the retained their cultures and cultural in­ "Coloureds" live either as squatters or "Theron Commission's" liberal re­ stitutions to this day, keeping them ex­ labour tenants on white farms, or as commendations, and Stellenbosch clusive. townspeople of various walks of life. It University verkrampte intellectuals' reactions and counter-recommenda­ Historically the Asians have no is precisely these conditions that gave rise to their indeterminate status in the tions: 1975); the "Coloured" belong definite territory of their own in squarely in the ranks of the general Azania, and they have never made any race-defined relations of the country, making them psychologically "afloat" African national liberation movement. forceful claims on any piece of land in That much they have made quite clear that country. and split between their white and black parentage. by voluntarily throwing their lot with Herein, lies the difference between the indigenous Azanians (dissolution them and the European invaders. Even Whereas they are mostly influenced of their own liberation movement and those well-to-do gentlemen who have by western culture and traditions, joining the older African liberation been successful in one way or another especially the Boer stream - witness movement in the mid-nineteen sixties). to purchase some plots of land are now their speaking "Afrikaans", they have Herein lies the only true hope for their being ruthlessly uprooted and forced no identifiable independent culture of socio-political emancipation and the into segregated locations for Asians their own. In this respect, as in real, meaningful democracy for which only. Their plight is the same as that of everything else, they are under the they so much yearn. the dispossessed Africans, they are tutelage of the Boer faction of white land-less. And as is manifest in their domination. It is therefore perfectly clear that, like the Asians, the "Coloured" peo­ non-representation in any state organ, Thus, contrary to the false na­ they are also politically oppressed. ple, have a definite and identifiable in­ tionhood conferred upon them purely terest in the liberation of Azania. The Quite clearly, the oppressed Asians according to the race ideology and pre­ have a definite and easily identifiable national liberation of the much more judice of the white rulers, they are in heavily oppressed indigenous Azanians interest in the political transformation truth not a nation on their own. Rather of the country. In the solution of the spells emancipation for them too. they are manifestly part of the wider IV The Whites: land problem they will benefit equally African nation of Azania. This is so like any other citizen without any not only because the very idea of a discrimination. There is no question of "Coloured" nation is historically and This is the dominant group. Today a territorial autonomy for Asians or any theoretically untenable. Nowhere in conglomeration of the European na­ other minority in Azania. the world has the offspring of two dif­ tionalities, groups and even individuals of diverse origins, with the English and The Asians have a tradition of strug­ ferent races constituted a nation apart from their parents simply because of the "Boer" sections combining to con­ gle alongside the Africans in Azania, stitute its core, this group is a foreign and for this reason alone it would be their mixed pigmentation. Trapped by the oppressive circumstances of their minority in Azania. It is the extraor­ unjust to deny them the fruits of the dinarily privileged ruling group that revolution. As for the traitors among birth, where one of the parentage is master and the other is underdog, they first aggressed the indigenous Aza­ them, who are either busy crawling for nians in the 17th and 18th centuries, a stake in the "Bantustan" system or have invariably identified with the lat­ ter, especially upon being socially re- then later conquered and subjugated in the white camp, we shall deal with them at the end of the 19th Century. them in the same manner as we shall jcted by the former. with their other black counterparts. It has arrogated to itself the exlusive The uniqueness of the Azanian case power to shape, write and distort the lies in the fact that while the ruling history of Azania, and has today con­ Ill The "Coloureds": whites will not accept their "Co­ centrated all the reins of power ex­ loured" children into their own ex­ clusively in its own hands. Conse­ The so-called "Coloureds" of Azania traordinarily privileged ranks, they at quently, in every sphere of the coun­ are the historical product of miscege­ the same time, will not allow them to try's life it enjoys a supreme monopo­ nation and intermarriage between fully identify themselves with their ly, far out of all proportion to its size. various groups in the country - the black parents. With an occasional Africans, Asians and Europeans - classification or reclassification as With the victory of the ruling Na­ and are therefore hot a foreign group. whites, they keep them in the colour- tional Party in the all-white elections On South Africa's racial scale they are determined racial limbo of "Co­ of 1948, a division of power was clearly the next second large minority in the loured". effected between the Boer and the country. They are to all intents and English factions: The Boer took up the reins of state power, and are today purposes part of the African nation. Thus, from this viewpoint, as well as Precisely because of this historical politically predominant, of which they from the harsh realities of their every­ already had a firm grip. fact, and quite apart from the fact of day life, the "Coloured" Azanians, their small concentration in a few parts enjoy no political rights or representa­ Yet unlike the Asians, the whites of the country - mainly in the tion of any kind, and are subjected to came to Azania as colonists in pur­ Western Cape - these "Coloured" economic exploitation in every sector suance of their mercantile ends during Azanians, very much like the Asians, - they are, like the Africans and the advent of the Industrial Revolu­ have no separate territory of their own. Asians, also politically oppressed and tion. Having landed on the shores of For apart from John Dunn's descent socially degraded. Consequently, Azania in 1652, they established the dents, whose own territorial location in whatever white domination is doing, or bridgehead whence they "explored" Zululand was determined by some planning to do, about their political further afield, committing aggression specific historical conditions in the future and social status within the against the native inhabitants on their 32 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

way, and annexing the territories of the callous separation of the entire black and to impose their own cultural values vanquished, and subjecting them to proletariat from what passes for the upon everyone else. their expansionist will. Ultimately, white "working class", which was ef­ All this is based on South Africa's having violently robbed the Africans fectively brought about early in the anachronistic church-state relationship of their land, their sovereignity, and all century, and which was further em­ (Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk- means of an independent existence, phasised in the period of South National Party) that is reminiscent of they then alienated them from the land Africa's industrial leap, and was fully medieval Europe. of their forefathers by alloting them a realised during the 30 years of National paltry 13

Occupation by force (by white capitalism. It was precipitated by the of production brought about the 'nation') and political domination over needs of defence against outside inva­ emergence of classes and class struggle the indigenous African majority and sions. Thus multi-national states were in Azania. Asian minorities - these are the formed. Multi-national states characteristics of a colonial state. But (4) Unlike in Europe capitalism in its engendered national oppression and, new forms (colonialism) fostered because there is no metropolitan with the rise of capitalism, national ex­ power, it is not an ordinary colony, but balkanisation of territory and people ploitation. This gave rise to national in Azania. a settler colonial state (a state movements and the ultimate dominated not by the metropolitan (5) The advent of capitalism, unlike in disintegration of the multi-national Western Europe, did not foster na­ country, but by the settlers them­ states into national states. selves). tional formations but, on the contrary, it promoted racial and tribal forma­ We reject the concept "internal col­ ADVENT OF COLONIALISM tions which have culminated in the for­ onialism" because it is based on the mation of a super-white racist state false assumption that the whites are and nine mini tribal states. This is the Capitalism in Western Europe form of national oppression in Azania. natives of Azania, who are oppressing developed into imperialism, which the other nationalities of Azania. The sought more territory, raw materials, (6) Racism was used as a shield for na­ people of Azania know better, and fuels, markets, etc. Imperialism nobody can deceive them on this tional oppression and super-exploita­ engendered colonialism in Asia, Africa tion on a most unprecedented scale. historical issue. and the Americas. (7) Consequently, upon the new col­ This process disturbed and disocated onial racist and tribal formations - Inter-state Relationships: the normal natural development and the slave, capitalist and semi-feudal evolution of the nations of these con­ production relations - a new culture Domination of the economy, political tinents. and ideology, Herrenvolk ideology influence and military assistance by the (apartheid), was evolved. In this sense, western imperialist powers; these are In Azania for instance, tribes were the advent of colonialism (capitalism) the characteristic features of a semi- just moving towards the formation of in Africa, Asia and Latin America, colony. It is indirectly ruled by im­ nationalities and had not completely unlike in Western Europe, was perialism. This js self-evident in the emerged from primitive communalism. negative, divisive and reactionary. meddling of the five western powers - Colonialism imported slavery. With Hence our national-building process the US, Britain, West Germany, the discovery of diamonds and gold in will follow Western European pat­ France and Canada in the Namibian the mid-19th Century, there was a leap terns, more or less. issue. to capitalism, but this did not com­ pletely eliminate the development of Modern nations, a product of capitalist society, are nothing other Conclusion: feudal relations in the contryside. With the might of conquest, Africans were than class societies, (Azania is no ex­ * ception to this rule), and every nation South African has a dual character, in­ forced to sell their labour power in the mines, while white-owned farms and is composed of oppressor and oppress­ ternally, it is & settler colony, while ex­ ed classes. ternally, it is a semi-colony. other enterprises were generated by the rise of capitalism. In capitalist society the dominating B. The Social Question In other parts of Africa and Asia class is the bourgeois (capitalist) class, and the oppressed class is the working "The mode production of material life whole populations were uprooted and shipped away as slaves. class (and the peasantry). In the col­ conditions the social, political and in­ onies the dominating class is the tellectual life-process in general. It is Another phenomenon was that col­ bourgeois class of the metropolitan not the consciousness of men that onialism balkanised our territory into a power, with the settlers as its social determines their being, but on the con­ Union of South Africa (presently the base. The working class, the peasantry trary it is their social being that deter­ Republic of South Africa) and protec­ and the bourgeoisie of the colonies mines their consciousness." torates (Botswana, Lesotho, and Swa­ comprise the dominated classes. In this (Karl Marx) ziland), way class struggles have taken the form • of national struggles. The Azania People's Revolutionary Crimes of Imperialism: Party proceeds from the materialist conception of history that forms of Imperialism perpetrated the following Class Alignments in Azania: society that succeeded primitive com­ crimes in Azania: munal society, viz. slave, feudal, (1) Land robbery accompanied by In Azania, though the white capitalist societies, were class societies. foreign political subjugation (col­ bourgeoisie has broken all formal The emergence of modern nations in onialism). political ties with international Western Europe was stimulated by the capitalism, it still serves as a bridge for rise of capitalism. The rise of (2) The advent of colonialism brought continued imperialist domination and capitalism engendered a centralised with it new modes of production — exploitation of the African people, economy and the collapse of feudalism slavery, capitalism, while unconscious­ more especially the black workers. The and separate feudal states. ly and sometimes purposely retaining colonist white bourgeoisie therefore In Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, traditional semi-feudal relations in the conspires and collaborates with inter­ the emergence of centralised states countryside (present Bantustans). national capitalism in the national op­ took place before the rise of (3) The development of the new mode pression and economic exploitation ia (South Africa) is an African c 35 and cultural domination not only of mentioned above: Africa. The black peasantry con­ the black workers, but of other classes (i) Minority settler rule, which is most stitutes the basic motive force of the as well, including the black undemocratic and racist. revolution in alliance with and under bourgeoisie. the leadership of the working class." (ii) The Land question. In this process it has mobilised the This fundamental proposition of the white workers into its mass base by ac­ 1. Minority Settler Rule: Comintern is still valid today. Even cording them a "civilised" status. This though the situation has slightly chang­ is how the struggle which is social in ed in the countryside today. The coun­ It has two aspects. Minority rule tryside is divided into two zones accor­ content takes the form of national presupposes the absence of democracy struggle. ding to land tenure mode of produc­ for the majority of the population, tion - the so-called 'white areas' and In Azania therefore, there is national while settler rule defines the national the 'bantu homelands'. These as well as class oppression. status of the regime in power which is geographical demarcations were made colonist: by the settlers (Dutch and British) dur­ The Place of Antagonism in Azania: It is this latter aspect which ing their wars of conquest and engenders national oppression, and it dispossession, There are three main contradictions in is based on the land question. The (a) The 'White Areas'. Azania today: native republic thesis of 1928 described This covers eighty-seven per cent (i) The contradicdon between im­ this concisely in this manner: (87%) - 106,867,520 hectares - of perialism and the minority racist settler the total land surface area of Azania "South Africa is a British Dominion (122,100,000 hectares), together with regime on the one hand, and the of a colonial type. African indigenous majority and other all the natural resources that go with it. non-indigenous minorities on the other The country was settled by foreign After conquest the settlers founded the - National or Colonial Question. exploiters, the land expropriated from Union of South Africa under the the natives, who were met by a policy British Crown. The 1910 act of Union (ii) The contradiction between the of extermination in the first stages of was the first constitutional blessing Boers (land Barons) and Bantustan colonisation, and conditions of semi- and consolidation of the land that the puppet regimes on the one hand, and slavery established for the over­ settlers had occupied during the wars the peasantry and rural labourers on whelming majority of the native mas­ of dispossession. The indigenous the other in the countryside - Land ses." (Our emphasis). Africans were stripped of the right to Question. Of course we have already described own (even to purchase) land in the (in) The contradiction between western the present status of the country, but it 'white areas'. They were further denied imperialism and the white bourgeoisie is important to note that the dominion all political rights in the all-white on the one hand, and the workers on status has been removed (1961), while parliament, the government and the the other - Labour Question. Of the colonial status remains. This col­ armed forces. course, there are contradictions of a onial status can never change as long as national character that are non­ the land question has not been solved. The mode of production on the essential. Even political democracy, majority white farms is capitalist (commercial rule, etc., is contingent upon the farming), and it is well mechanised. At present the hotbed of antagonism realisation and admission that Azania lies within the first two contradictions, The white farmers enjoy a rare lux­ belongs to the indigenous people. Even ury of black cheap labour, indeed, the because they complement and support the minority nationalities cannot each other. cheapest on the South African black achieve any meaningful rights if the labour market. The black labourers The land question should not be majority is denied its birthright. That (1,2 million) are completely landless separated from the national and col­ is why we have said that the land ques­ and live as rural proletarians, paid onial question. The two contradictions tion lies at the base of the national partly in meagre wages and partly in differ only in scope but not in question. kind. They work the longest hours and magnitude, - they are highly ex­ the longest week and month (holidays plosive. The land question therefore, 2. The Land Question in Azania: are not counted on their calendar). lies at the base of the national ques­ Some are employed as 'squatters' tion. The native republic manifesto of 1928 (short contract labourers), 6T as Although there have been numerous puts it this way: labour-tenants (those who live with strikes by workers in Azania, from the • their families on the farms). The la­ early 20's to the early 70's, the general "South Africa is a black country, the bour-tenants are sometimes allocated tendency is that they are either inspired majority of its population is black and small plots for the green season, so by the national question or, even when so is the majority of the workers and that they should not 'steal* from the they are purely economic, they finally peasants. The bulk of the South boss's field. This plot is also payment turn into national uprisings. This latter African population is the black in kind. The family (women and chil­ contradiction is therefore secondary. peasantry, whose land has been ex­ dren) in most cases work gratis on propriated by the white minority. the. farmers' fields. These are the Seven-eighths of the land is owned by conditions of semi-slavery which were The Character of the A/anian Revolu­ referred to in the native republic tion: the whites. Hence the national ques­ tion in South Africa which is based on manifesto. Treatment is harsh, and the agrarian question lies at the foun­ floggings which sometimes result in The Azanian revolution is characteris­ deaths are a common occurence. ed by the two major contradictions dation of the revolution in South 36 Build Ihe PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

3. The whites, enjoying all the advan­ abroad. They lack every trace of (c) The socialist stage will deliver the tages of power and privilege, have with patriotism. Their political represen­ final assault on private capital in great arrogance not only presumed to tatives are the various English- general, and finally eliminate the shape the destiny of all the oppressed speaking opposition parties in the system of exploitation of man by man. people in racist South Africa, but have white parliament. They can never be also conspired and essayed to confer part of the Azanian nation. (b) On Ihe Land Question: But the upon themselves all sorts of posses­ From the above analysis it is clear Azanian proletariat has an interest in sion, mantles, titles and self- that the white workers and the white the bedevilled land question of Azania. definitions. The greatest falsehood democrats fall within the definition of For, long before it can bring about they have perpetrated in modern times oppressed and exploited people in social emancipation, it must have settl­ is the misconception that they are a na­ Azania, who will finally link-up with ed, or helped to settle, the Azanian tion. other oppressed groups in the course peasant's land problem. However, the This happened in 1961 when racist of the revolutionary process to form proletariat takes an ever broader view South Africa declared itself a republic, ONE AZANIAN NATION. of the land problem, a direct interest meaning that, having pulled out of the and an indirect interest in it. British Commonwealth of Nations, it The Particular Interest of Ihe Working Q ass: was no longer a dominion of Great Bri­ Direct Interest. tain either. The declaration was by (a) Socially. There is no longer any referendum, the nationhood was by in­ need to belabour the fact that the First and foremost, the land is a com­ terpretation thereof. South African economy is dominated mon heritage and common property by monopoly finance capital of the im­ Among the whites, there are real that needs liberation (seizure) from the perialists, with the white bourgeoisie as colonial expropriators. This is called democrats who deplore racism and their junior partners. apartheid, those whites have realised for by the class conscious patriotism of that they have no other home than This finance oligarchy is linked up the proletariat. Secondly, the land is an Azania (in recent years there has arisen with subsidiaries, associates and af­ object of labour, a means of produc­ a discussion amongst them about the filiates in different parts of the globe, tion, whence comes life itself. acceptance of the name Azania for i.e., from Europe, North America, Everybody depends on the land for South Africa). Some of them have Australia, and even some parts of in­ food, as well as for many raw even formed organisations that oppose dependent Africa. In this context materials, of which the land is the apartheid, while some (though very South Africa is a component part and source, which combine to ensure socie­ few) have joined the black liberation junior partner of international im­ ty's continued existence. But, since the movement. perialism, in plundering the natural land is monopolised and exploited by and labour resources of other countries the ruling white bourgeoisie and The white workers were the first to on a global scale. therefore cannot adequately fulfill its bring proletarian politics into the Aza- social function, it is the duty of the nian political arena. It is the most The workers of Azania and other af­ proletariat, in collaboration with other potentially revolutionary class among fected countries suffer double exploita­ oppressed classes, to liberate it and put the whites, though it has been much tion in the interests of imperialism. it at everybody's disposal ... corrupted by privilege. Owning no This is neither in the national interest means of production, this class is also nor in the working class interest. This In a nutshell, this is the direct interest oppressed and exploited by the white also illustrates the identity of interests of the proletariat in the land question. bourgeoisie and imperialism. It is clear of the bourgeoisie of different coun­ therefore, that objectively, the white tries. Indirect Interest worker and the white democrat would The interests of the working class of like to stay in peace with the oppressed Azania are self-evident: Because of the interdependence of in­ and exploited masses of Azania, not­ dustry with agriculture in the main, the withstanding the subjective factor (i) The radical removal of this exploita­ peasant is the most reliable ally of ihe which is determined by the herrenvolk tion which can only be effected by: proletariat. Because of the above fac­ ideology and social privilege this gives (a) A radical transformation (na­ tor, and alienation from all the means rise to. tionalisation) of the major means of of production, the rural worker (the production, both in the heavy and light farm labourer) is the class brother of Are we against all settlers? The only (manufacturing) industry and finance the industrial proletariat. The common category of settlers that we detest are capital, into social property - state bond that binds all these classes the colonists - those land-barons who property. This is only the first stage together is the realisation that they have usurped and arrogated to (New-democratic revolution). have a common enemy - imperialism themselves 87% of Azania's territory (monopoly capital) which, since its ad­ and are occupying it by armed force. Private capital should not be allow­ vent, has crushed the peasant economy We would call them landlords, but for ed to dominate the livelihood of the and changed the relations of produc­ their capitalist mode of production. people. tion in the countryside. Their political representative is the pre­ (b) Removal of the colour-bar in We have illustrated above the in­ sent ruling National Party. As for the labour policy, i.e. repeal of all racial big industrialists and merchants in the terests of the working class in the land labour legislation. This will facilitate question, and how they interrelate with cities, they belong to the comprador the unity of the working class in bourgeois class, they are the union those of the peasantry. This serves to Azania, and prepare the working class further illustrate that: partners of imperialism, who plunder for the final assault on capital in the the wealth of Azania and other nations next stage (socialist revolution). (i) the land question, i.e. the agrarian Azania (South Africa) is an African country 37 revolution, is basically a peasant cannot survive on their own as nations, right to acquire licences to trade as revolution. let alone as independent nations in that they wished, and even purchase land. (ii) The industrial proletariat, though society, because they have neither And finally, the Black Con­ definite territories of their own nor an not involved in agriculture has direct sciousness Movement has demonstra­ independent economic foundation on ted to them that these black groups can and indirect interests in the land ques­ which to build their nations. In fact, tion. only survive by forming a non-racial their conception of regarding them­ nation under the slogans 'Black (iii) For the successful prosecution of selves as nations in Azania means their Power' and 'One Azania', 'One Na­ the agrarian revolution, there must be differentiating themselves from the tion' in which Black means, African, a worker-peasant alliance. other peoples in terms of race. That is Asian and "Coloured". Let us add (iv) That because of its particular in­ why they adopted the racist concept of that the Azanian nation will include terest - direct and indirect - the multi-racialism. Realising the futility the white worker and the white working class has an obligation to take and baselessness of this concept, the democrat in its final synthesis. the leading part in the national "Coloureds" disbanded (CPO) and Therefore, there is no basis for a multi­ democratic revolution (his patriotic joined the PAC as Africans in 1966, national state in Azania. obligation). while the Indians and whites (INC and COD resp.) simply joined the ANC as (v) The working class alone has the in­ individuals in 1969. 5. On the Character of the Bogus terest and capacity to unite, direct Republic of South Africa: transform and develop all the produc­ At present the right wing elements of tive forces of the nation. the "Coloureds" and the Indians have It is often said that the South African opted for the Bantustan system, but situation is complex, exceptional, uni­ The Particular Interest of the they have not been granted any land by que, etc. Indeed it is difficult to Bourgeoisie the white bourgeoisie. Instead, they analyse and understand the real nature have been promised that they will graze of the South African state, because of The interests that have been dealt with with the white bourgeoisie in the the following: in this section, in exception of the in­ "white pastures". Politically they will (i) The factor that makes it exceptional terests of the working class - national have their own separate parliaments or unique is that it is not ruled by the liberation, political and social eman­ and governments under the central indigenous people, but by a settler na­ cipation that guarantee maximum leadership of the white executive presi­ tionality, and yet it is not attached to justice, a truly democratic society that dent (under white domination). This is any metropolitan power. has no room for national oppression just a new form of multiracialism. The and assimilation, freedom of cons­ particular interests of the various (ii) The other attendant factor is that cience, freedom of religion, 'free categories of the black bourgeoisie the settler nationality in power is a trade', private property rights and were: small minority compared with the rest 'free competition' - all these interests of the population, and denies them all are in essence bourgeois interests. The African: land and trade. political rights (it is fascist). bourgeoisie of the black nationalities (iii) The other attendant factor is that are interested in changing the status Asian: Commerce and trade. quo, i.e. in the overthrow of the white "Coloured": land and trade. the ruling settler nationality is racist, bourgeoisie and imperialism. (iv) The economy is dominated by The Congress of Democrats (COD), an foreign monopolies, with the settler From the period of the early fifties all white organisation, had the ability monopolies as junior partners; (i.e. from the Defiance Campaign, to and right to acquire all these and to be exact) until the mid-sixties, the even engage in industry by virtue of (v) As a result, the South African state liberation movement led by the petty- their national status as free citizens. is influenced politically and assisted bourgeoisie, i.e. the bourgeoisie of the Theirs, therefore, was an intellectual militarily by the western imperialist various nationalities, have organised at or theoretical interest, viz., democracy powers. All these factors, taken national levels and this resulted in the for the whole of society. They together, really make the situation proliferation of national movements deplored racism and fascism. This ex­ complex. The first three, viz., rule by apart from the African National Con­ plains why the Asians and the revolu­ the settler nationality, fascism and gress (ANC), there were formed Indian tionary whites are pre-occupied with racism, are clearly and undoubtedly National Congress (INC), Coloured civil rights; that is why they see the colonial factors. The second aspect of People's Organization (CPO), Con­ struggle of Azania as a struggle against the first factor, viz. there is no gress of Democrats (COD), African apartheid, against racism and against metropolitan power to which it is at­ People's Democratic Union of South fascism, pure and simple. That is why tached, bears the assumption that the Africa (APDUSA), and the Pan slogans such as "Izwe Lethu", state is independent. Africanist Congress (PAC). This pro­ "Mayibuye", etc. have very little The last two factors are a partial nega­ cess was motivated by the false notion meaning if any at all with these people. tion of independence. There are two that each national group was in fact a Hence they influenced the programme relationships which are clearly discer­ national in its own rights, disregarding of the ANC (the Freedom Charter has nible here, viz., intra-state relation­ all historical development and more laid much emphasis on civil rights). ships and interstate relationships. Only especially, the highly centralised The Asian bourgeoisie would be able by analysing these two relationships, capitalist economy of the country. to acquire all they needed if only, like can we understand the true character the liberal whites they had all the of the South African state. The disintegration and final collapse democratic rights, including full of the INC, CPO and COD has il­ citizenship, then they would have the lustrated that these minority groups Intra-state Relationships: 38 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

The farmers (about 90000) are the land surface area of Azania, as lands' " has this to say: highly privileged and protected by law. compared with the eighty-seven per They are subsidised by the state (R 300 cent (87%) - 106,867,580 hectares of "The major dilemma is the fact that millions a year) in the form of credits, the so-called 'white areas'. Of the 15.2 the reserves produce only 1.9 per cent artisans (3000 extension officers), million hectares, only fifteen per cent of the country's total production." seeds, implements, guaranteed prices (15%), i.e. between 3000 and 5000 for their produce, etc. Almost all, if hectares is considered arable or usable This is the situation in the so-called not all the cabinet ministers and land, as compared with 5 million hec­ 'homelands', and all propaganda members of parliament belong to this tares cultivated white farms. These about 'independence' is just rubbish, class (the Land barons). The farmers 'homelands' are composed of 300 because nothing has changed substan­ are organised into farmers' associa­ pieces of land scattered all around the tially, and nothing can change until the tions and cooperatives, while the four provinces of the country. The land problem is solved. labourers are not allowed any total population of the 'homelands' is Classes in the 'Homelands*: . organisation except the church. more than 10 million. Colin Bundy reports that as far back as Convict Labour Land Tenure in the 'Homelands': the 1870's and 1880's, there already was a certain "degree of differentia­ In the 1950's and the early 1960's, The predominant norm of land tenure tion and social stratification" taking despite the pass laws (which were ex­ is communal. This accommodates place among the peasantry. ninety-four per cent (94%) of the tended to women in 1958) and the (1) Peasant migrants; policy of labour registration, the 'homelands' population, while the re­ farmers continued to experience labour maining six per cent (6%) live under in­ (2) Marginally self-sufficient small shortages. This led to an intensified use dividual land tenure. These individual peasants; of unconventional methods to secure plots were purchased before the 1913 Land Act, in what are called 'schedul­ (3) Better-off middle peasants using labour. One of these was the use of family labour; "convict labour", which eventually led ed areas' in some parts of the Ciskei, to the establishment of special labour Transkei (both in the Cape Province) (4) "All the way up to the group of conscription camps called "farm and Zululand (Natal Province). The farmers who consolidated early pea­ prisons". administration of these communal sant successes and became small com­ lands is vested in the hands of the state mercial farmers. To overcome the anomally of president (since 1961) who acts It is patently clear that, in spite of treating ordinary farms as prisons, the through a spiral of bailiffs: the uniform land system in the Government later formalised the State President 'homelands', and the uniform priva­ system by encouraging interested and tion of agricultural capital and other approved farmers to build farm White Magistrates facilities, the African peasants do not prisons according to specifications of African Paramount Chiefs all compose one homogeneous class, the Department of Prisons. Over 20 African Headmen in the Villages neither are they equal. On the con­ such prisons now exist in Azania, and Theoretically every family is entitled trary, it is quite obvious that they are are concentrated in the western Cape to not more than 4 acres, as compared divided into strata - peasant strata - and in the Bethal and Middleburg with more than 200 hectares in the by this self-same uniform situation. districts of the Transvaal. 'white areas'. Thus, apart from the apparently rich After the harvest, the produce of the The land is divided into cultivated peasant class described above, there farms is stored in large wellbuilt silos plots, common pasturage and certainly are other peasant strata in the and go-downs and then railed to the woodland which is preserved for 'homelands', this social stratification harbours where it is shipped away for firewood and building material. being determined by the economic con­ ditions of these homelands'. export. Apart from the acute shortage of land, and mainly because of it, more So it is that we have, therefore: (b) The 'Homelands': than forty-eight per cent (48%) of the (1) Poor peasants without land, or with 'homelands' able-bodied labour force very little and poor land, who farm im­ The Bantustan system in Azania is not is away in the mines, on the white an original creation of the present plements or cattle, who often sell their farms and other heavy manual labour- labour for sheer survival; white ruling classes, but a form of col­ based industries, at any given time. onial policy that was well calculated (2) Middle Peasants with some land and formulated towards the close of Production In the 'Homelands': (poor, or barren, or slightly better than the 19th century and during the early that of the poor peasants), some farm decades of the 20th century, by British According to the FAO study mention­ implements, and sometimes more cat­ imperialists. The Hertzog government tle; they also sell their labour (1934-1936), and finally, the Malan ed above, the plot-holding African peasant in the 'homelands' can pro­ sometimes in order to make ends meet. government in 1948 put the final seal It is to be noted that these middle and systematised it as official govern­ duce no more than 4.2 bags of maize, his staple food per hectare of his four peasants themselves, are not equal in ment policy, which governs the lives of their circumstances, hence some are millions of our people to date. acres or less. This is not enough for his family and in case of droughts, the lower middle peasants others medium situation becomes worse. As for their middle peasants, and yet others upper The so-called 'homelands' cover on­ middle peasants. ly thirteen per cent (13%) 15,232,480 total production, Barbara Rodgers in hectares (Bantu, January 1972) - of "South Africa: The 'Bantu home­ Further it is to be noted that the Azania (South Africa) is an Afriran country 39 economic situation (improvement or end of the road; that this is the ideal of the proletariat in Azania. discipline) of all these rural strata is society, this is socialist society. The on­ (c) The Lumpen Proletariat. All people conditioned by the migrant labourers' ly guarantee that the revolution will who earn their living by illicit or illegal incomes, over and above the internal not be betrayed at this stage is the means. They usually form gangs to economic dynamics of the 'home­ leadership of the working class during protect their interests or to harm other lands'. Be that as it may, there is still this entire stage. people's interest. Prostituttes and beg­ some concrete, on the spot social in­ THE TARGETS (ENEMIES) OF gars fall within this group. vestigation to be made, in order to THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ascertain and verify the current socio­ REVOLUTION: (2)Semi-Proletariat: Basically small economic situation in all the 'home­ handicraftsmen, poor peasants and lands'. lower middle peasants. To be found in In Azania they may be classified as large numbers in heavy industry follows, according to their relations to transport, power stations, water The Social Tasks of the National the means of production and their at­ works, etc. They are employed under Democratic Revolution: titude towards the revolution: contract and are usually migratory (1) Imperialism - owners of multi­ labourers. Their greatest numbers are Socially, the National Democratic national corporations, cartels, trusts found in the gold, diamond and coal Revolution is meant to liberate the pro­ and syndicates. mines - swelled by the proletariat of ductive forces of the nation from (2) The Settler Big Bourgeoisie - (who the neighbouring countries of Lesotho, foreign control and exploitation. It is Mozambique, Malawi and Botswana, meant to achieve two things: work in partnership with imperialism) in industry, commerce, transport, on a similar labour contract employ­ (1) To liberate the peasantry and the land, etc. ment system. farm labourers (rural proletariat) by Most of the sewage carters, street launching a through-going agrarian (3) The Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie - those who wield state power and sweepers, grave diggers, cleaners in revolution, in order to sweep away the parks, unskilled manual labour in patriarchal semi-feudal relations in the manipulate it in order to accumulate or protect their capital. building and construction, hotel countryside, together with the master- workers and domestic servants - servant relations on the white farms. (4) The Land Barons - they are come from this category of workers. (2) To liberate the workers from engaged in agriculture, animal husban­ The semi-proletariat is a reliable ally of foreign exploitation (by foreign dry, orchards and plantations. In the proletariat and the rural proletariat monopolies and their junior partners, Azania there is no white peasant. All are the main force in the agrarian the colonist racist bourgeoisie), by whites who are in the countryside are revolution. either big or small fanners. When we launching a radical transformation of (3) Petty Bourgeoisie: the means of production and exchange speak of the land barons, we mean the in industry and commerce; from owners of the big farms and estates. Small shop-keepers, small merchants foreign to local, public ownership. This land was acquired by force of and traders, middle peasants, master This will go hand-in-hand with the arms and the indigenous majority of handicraftsmen, hawkers, small ar­ removal of all colour-bar and colour the Africans were forced into small tisans (tradesmen), professionals, high privilege in all trades and skills. pockets called 'homelands' - 13Vo of school and university students. All the total territory of Azania. The land people who have no surplus or have a The last measure will lay the barons constitute the big rural little surplus, who do not exploit or ex­ material base for the unity of the work­ bourgeoisie. ploit very little, who are always on the ing class and the working class move­ brink of bankruptcy. ment, in preparation for the socialist THE MOTIVE FORCES - THE revolution. PEOPLE: Students are judged according to their family origin or their life style. It should be noted that these two (1) The Proletariat: It is divided into measures do not constitute social three groups: (4) The Middle Bourgeoisie: liberation in general, because there is The yardstick here should be the black still room for the exploitation of the (a) All people who are employed in in­ dustry, transport, powerstations, "tycoon", the middle peasants, mer­ workers and peasants by the local (na­ chant and trader, small farmers, the tional) bourgeoisie and the bureaucra­ water works, construction, telecom­ munication, municipality, garages, rich peasants (rural bourgeoisie) and tic capitalists. However, it is a small industrialist. They are oppressed necessary step to be taken in order to shops, hotels and private houses (domestic servants), etc. who own no by imperialism and the big bourgeoi­ ensure the end of the colonial and sie. semi-colonial relationships in the coun­ means of production, and have no try. It is the real material foundation other means of livelihood but to sell (5) The WhitWhite Workers:: for political independence, because their labour power. The industrial pro­ They represent the labour aristocrats, without economic independence, letariat is the leading core of this class, the technocrats, the overseer (divorced political independence is only nominal. because of: from manual labour), the elite stratum (i) its high concentration and regimen­ of the working class. They are workers This stage (new democratic) should tation in so far as they sell their skills and are not be unduly prolonged, otherwise exploited by imperialism and their own the national bourgeoisie and more (ii) its discipline. bourgeoisie. As citizens they serve in especially, the emerging bureaucratic (b) Rural Proletariat. All wage the armed forces, police and prisons, bourgeoisie will be entrenched and it labourers in the countryside. It is most and as voters they form the social base will deceive the masses that this is the exploited and the most wretched strata of the white borugeoisie. Their "civi- 40 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement lised" status is protected by law, e.g. Azania the racists have created three tempts at self-criticism, but they still job reservation, etc. Economically they racial strata within the working class, hold erroneous views on fundamental enjoy a very high standard of living as viz., issues, more especially on the national compared with their class brothers. (a) The aristocratic strata composed of question. They must still be subjected to severe criticism. The same fate According to South African law the the whites. awaits the middle strata if they con­ term employee applies exclusively to (b) The middle strata composed of tinue to act in the same manner. white workers, hence they are the only Asians and "Coloured". ones who have the right to form legally The victory or defeat of the Azania recognised trade unions. Because of (c) The lower strata composed of revolution depends to a certain extent these exclusive rights and privileges Africans. on the proper or improper handling of they have developed a highly arrogant To do similarly will be a serious and these contradictions within the work­ and contemptuous attitude towards lamentable pandering to white racism ing class. the other workers (of the "lesser and narrow bourgeois nationalism. races"), and the black people in Hence we have said that the black Conclusion general. workers are the core of the working class in Azania. The same attitude can be observed The social question at this stage of the among the "Coloured" and the Asian We recognise the revolutionary revolution is still limited and subor­ Workers whenever they are found in potential of the white aristocratic dinate to the National Question. The large concentrations, e.g. in Capetown strata of the working class', and in so main objective here is to liberate the and Durban respectively, so much so far as it is ideologically backward, is nation from foreign oppression and ex­ that, African workers develop er­ not aware of its historical role, and is ploitation. Within the nation their are roneous attitudes towards them. prepared to learn, we shall treat it as still exploiting classes and exploited revolutionary and educate it; but in so classes. The final solution of the social We do not subscribe to the philistine question is the elimination of the ex­ and racist nationalist view that there far as it is racist, arrogant, contemp­ tuous and stubbornly clings to the ploitation of man by man. This cannot are two or three working classes in come about by the issuing of decrees, Azania. We contend that all workers apron strings of its masters, we shall struggle against it. making declarations and shouting by virtue of their relations to the means slogans, but by destroying the germ of of production form one indivisible Significantly, this is the strata that exploitation, the capitalist mode of class. formed the nucleus of the Communist production which is the material base In Azania we hold that the divisions Party of South Africa and influenced for its existence and growth. The that have been created by the colonist its policies and programme. We are socialist revolution is the necessary se­ bourgeoisie do not in themselves create aware that they (CPSA) have made quel to the national democratic revolu­ classes within the working class. In some amendments and even serious at­ tion.

Independent Zimbabwe - A Great Victory in the the supervision of the elections. And the social imperialists did not get a Struggle against Imperialism and Colonialism chance to interfere under the pretext of the support of the liberation stuggle. By Lutz Pliimer - from Communism and Class Struggle, June 1980 The fact that the government has been - Theoretical Organ of the KBW in West Germany. The author was extremely aware of the social im­ in Zimbabwe at the time of the independence celebrations. perialists has been shown clearly in several instances. For example the All ZANU representatives with The Agreement which was negotia­ delegation of the Soviet Union which whom I talked emphasised that the ted at Lancaster House concerning the wished to visit Zimbabwe before the solution to the tasks of realising the constitution of an independent Zim­ independence celebrations in order to aims of the liberation struggle after the babwe, the truce and transitional rule set up contacts was refused entry visas attainment of national independence until the holding of free and general for a separate visit. The GDR (East would not be easier than the struggle to elections is a compromise between the Germany) leadership, during its visit to gain national independence. "We did British colonial power and the people Mozambique had tried to blackmail not expect that we would take over the of Zimbabwe represented by the libera­ ZANU to condemn the actions of the government of Zimbabwe as we did. tion movement. The British colonial Peoples Republic of China against the We had planned to smash the colonial power had to accept this compromise border provocations of Vietnam. On regime through armed struggle, and because through armed struggle the this basis it was prepared to give then assume political power. But we biggest part of the country had already assistance to it. It also was not invited were also prepared to take over been liberated. It was a compromise to the independence celebrations. government after a negotiated settle­ because the colonial power still could Similarly, Poland, Hungary and ment and a victory at the polls. Accor­ retain important parts of the country, Czechslovakia were not invited. dingly we elaborated corresponding particularly the towns and the main plans for the latter solution. We pro­ communications. The main advantage The necessity to make such a com­ bably needed more time for our of the compromise was that the super­ promise as occured at Lancaster House preparations, but we will observe the powers could be kept out of the strug­ is supported by several reasons. The Lancaster House Agreement which we gle. The US Imperialists did not take establishment of a united front of the have accepted." part either in the negotiations nor in people of Zimbabwe as well as a united front with the African countries, above Azania (South Africa) is an African country 4! all the front line states, was an impor­ stated that if their leaders did not and the greatest parts of the soil are tant basis for the progress of the libera­ return they would neither. As soon as very fertile. tion struggle, while also being the basis we were allowed to return leading In Zimbabwe 1,5 million tons of as a defenceagainst the imperialist ef­ members of ZANU were given the maize, 78 tons of wheat, 270000 tons forts to intervene. The progress of this assignments to lead certain electoral of sorghum, 5000 tons of rice, 23000 united front would have been en­ districts. I was for instance responsible tons of potatoes, 2 million tons of dangered if ZANU would not have ac­ for the Victoria District. When we ar­ sugar cane, all sorts of vegetables, cepted the Lancaster compromise. The rived there it was virtually impossible 24000 tons of oranges, lemon and front line states have always supported to do anything. We were deceived in other citrus fruits, 2000 tons of tea, the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe, every respect. We were not given an of­ 73000 tons of tobacco, 44000 tons of but the continous threats and aggres­ fice. All the other parties were given raw cotton (without kernels) are pro­ sions of the Rhodesian Army, above offices. We were not even allowed to duced according to official statistics. all against Mozambique and Zambia, get accomodation. We had bought In addition there are herds of 5,6 were a great burden to the economies 2000 vehicles for the election campaign million cattle, 179,000 pigs, sheep and of these countries, which are also with money which we had received 1,9 million goats. All raw materials ex­ dependent upon imperialism. from solidarity organisations, for in­ cept crude oil are produced in Zim­ stance, the KBW. We were refused babwe. In 1973 3 million tons of coal, A quick end to the war and the permission to take the cars across the realisation of the political in­ 500,000 tons of ferrous metals, 32 tons borders. From the 2000 we could only of copper, 600,000 tons of tin concen­ dependence of Zimbabwe to lay the import 6. But when the masses realized foundations for a Southern African trates, 12,000 tons of nickel, 181 tons that the British and the Rhodesians of chrome metal, 4000 tons of pure economic community in order to countermanded us in every respect loosen the strangulation of the South silver, 16 tons of gold, 151 tons of they all rushed to us with assistance, Wolfram, sulphur, asbestos, African colonial state and to get rid of they offered us cars, we only had to it was an acute necessity for these choose from them. Our people were magnesium and so forth, was produc­ countries .We must also take into ac­ absolutely great. A woman from Vic­ ed. Most raw materials are in great count the fact that the Soviet social- toria gave us her office which we used abundance. Therefore all natural con­ imperialists benefitted greatly from the as our office. We received food and ditions to develop a national economy difficulties experienced by Mozambi­ everything we needed. When we had based on self-reliance are extremely que during this period in its efforts to realized that there were all these hin­ favourable. But all the wealth of the bring the country into a state of drances we carried out rallies and told country the imperialists have transfer­ dependence. Through the independen­ the masses: "this is the situation, what red to their private property. 300,000 ce of Zimbabwe the policy of non- can we do?" We have fought for this Europeans own more than 18,2 million alignment pursued in this region has country, we want to win the elections, hectares of arable land while 7 million been strengthened. that the sacrifices which we have made Africans are distributed over just 16.3 will be meaningful. The masses rallied million of Tribal Trust Land. The The conditions laid down in the and supported us in every respect. By European settlers have the most fertile Lancaster Agreement during the tran­ the time the election campaign really lands. The agriculture of the African sitional period and for the holding of got underway the Rhodesians got very peasants is mainly subsistence while elections were extremely unfavourable worried and began to persecute ZANU the Europeans produce mainly cash for ZANU. The difficulties which con­ with penalties. They started to detain crops for exports. The industries are fronted ZANU was reported by com­ sympathisers of ZANU in great completely controlled by the im­ rade D. Mutumbuka, Minister of numbers all over the country. The perialist monopolies. Investigations Education and Culture, thus: "When prisons suddenly were filled up with about foreign direct investment in we returned from London to par­ ZANU cadres and followers. As this Zimbabwe which was published just ticipate in the elections to carry on with did not help they even went further shortly before , independence in the election campaign, we had to face and detained the leaders one after Salisbury show that the proportion of numerous serious setbacks. One of the another. I, for instance, was arrested foreign investments in Zimbabwe is severest setbacks not only in connec­ and imprisoned thrice. Again and 70%. Since UDI the foreign net capital tion with the election campaign but again we were thrown into prison. We export including re-invested profits also for the entire revolution was the had to call at the police station three have amounted to 1.02 billion Rhode­ tragic death of Comrade Joshua times a week - until the day came sian dollars. The share of Great Britain Tongogara, our Secretary for Defence when the election results were publish­ in the foreign direct investments for 17 years who was head of ZANLA ed. And then you should have seen amounted to 815 million Rhodesian forces. It took us some time to recover how they reacted. Suddenly they dollars and the share of the South from this. Then we tried to return to withdrew their accusations and said we Africans amounted to 583 million Zimbabwe. Lord Soames virtually were the greatest. Now the Rhodesians Rhodesian dollars. South Africa itself hindered us. Finally the front line used sugar-coated bullets to moderate is a colony of U.S. Imperialism and states had to intervene. All others in­ us and to bring us to a certain situation British capital and in which the West cluding our colleagues from ZAPU favourable to them. German imperialists also participate to were allowed to return. They were a considerable extent. In addition Zim­ allowed to engage in the election cam­ babwe also depends upon South Africa paign immediately, but they put every for foreign trade. One reason for that hindrance in our path. Eventually they All the Wealth of Zimbabwe is the is the economic embargo which was allowed some of us to return, because Private Property of the Imperialists imposed upon Rhodesia after UDI by the comrades in the assembly camps Zimbabwe is an extremely rich country 42 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement the U.N. Further Zimbabwe has no larger battles at a point where the part of the category of European land direct link to the sea. It is planned in power of the people is not sufficiently but not settled and utilised, will be the future to carry the mainparts of consolidated. The amalgamation of given to the people. When we use up Zimbabwe's exports and imports the old colonial army and the libera­ this land which is a fairly great amount through Mozambique's ports, Beira tion forces of the two into a unified ar­ we will go further and look at the land and Maputo. But it wilt be some time my is supposed to be settled by the end which is in the hands of private proper­ before the railway of Mozambique and of the year. The amalgamation of the ty and see whether it is profitably the capacity of the Mozambiquan har­ two armies means that the com­ utilised. If it is not the case we will take bours can be enlarged to absorb these manders of the liberation forces measures to utilise this land more effi­ additional quantities. The colonial assume the decisive command posi­ ciently, either by transferring it into regime accumulated 200 million tions in the national army of Zim­ private land of the Black farmers or (British Sterling) debts with the im­ babwe. what we consider as still more impor­ perialists. From that 125 million tant, on the basis of cooperative pro­ Pound goes to South Africa and 70 The colonial Civil Service in the duction. We assume that we can satisfy million to British Banks. In order to ministries and in the provincial and the hunger of the people for land as a develop the trade with the imperialist district administrations were not first step on the whole without ap­ countries to get credits the Zimbab­ dismissed, but through the develop­ propriating such land which is private­ wean government was forced to take ment of democratic district administra­ ly owned. But in the long run it is our over these debts, as long as they did tions the colonial state machinery will duty to reduce considerably the exten­ not accrue from purchases of arms. be restricted step by step, in the course sion of the big and private agricultural This includes repayments of credits of this year. The nationalisation of the farms." from South Africa. "I do not agree imperialist capital is not envisaged in with South Africa's policies but let's the forseeable future, Mugabe said. "We want to reduce the concentra­ take the railways as an example. The Minister of Works and Social Af­ tion of people in the urban areas Presently, all our exports and imports fairs, Comrade Kangai, has announced because we assume the urban areas will go through South Africa. If we can cut the development of trade unions and not be able to absorb a great number this trade route at once we would cut the election of workers representatives of people. Additionally agriculture is our throats straightaway", declared and workers councils in the factories, the basis of our economy. It provides Enos Nkala, Finance Minister of Zim­ which with regard to work conditions sufficient food for our people and it is babwe. and on questions of production will also the basis of our export which helps have decisive rights as to participation us to obtain foreign currencies. and veto. On this basis the pre­ Therefore we want to employ a greater The dependence of Zimbabwe upon condition will be established which will part of our peoples in the rural areas imperialism cannot be overcome in a enable the African working class to and to reduce over-population and short period and the measures which take over the industrial production on pressure on the towns." can be taken to remove this all levels. On June 1st minimum wages dependence are restricted by the con­ were determined: 70 Dollars for in­ "We want to strengthen our stitution which was agreed at Lan­ dustrial works, 58 dollars for miners, agriculture. We want to diminish the caster. By the constituition private pro­ 30 dollars for agricultural workers, per flow from rural to urban areas and to perty was guaranteed. The expropria­ month. If one compares this minimum encourage the masses to return to the tion without compensation is forbid­ wages to the wage distribution upto rural areas because we are convinced den and the pension rights of the col­ June 1977, more recent statistics are that the land will provide accomoda­ onial Civil Service are guaranteed as not available, 90<7o of the miners, 75% tion and employment for their living well. But it is not only the constituition of the agricultural workers had lower for a great number of people.*' which is against the un-compensatory wages. One has to assume since 1977 nationalisation of industry, and the the wages in Zimbabwe has not incon­ "With regard to the development of whole landed property of the settlers siderably increased. The increase of co-operatives: it is correct we do not and its distribution to the peasants of minimum wages is enforced by the wish to force the people into participa­ Zimbabwe, the entire colonial state beginning of 1981 for industrial tion of any programme about which machinery is still in the hands of the workers upto 85 dollars a month and they are not yet clear, and with which colonial civil servants. The colonial for agricultural workers and domestic they might not be too happy. But our police and the colonial army still exist workers upto 45 dollars. Dismissal of hope is that if we explain to the while a great part of the liberation ar­ workers after the introduction of peasants the advantages and my still is stationed at the assembly minimum wages are to be prosecuted achievements of co-operatives then points. The administration of industry by the authorities. they will freely participate in them and is also fully in the hands of the col­ come together for unifying co­ onialists who in addition systematically operative work. There will be many have hindered the African proletariat Measures of the Government to solve who will agree in principle but would from acquiring the level of education the Land Question. like to get to know more about how necessary to handle the complicated in­ Simba Makoni, Assistant Vice this programme will look like in detail. dustrial activities. The colonialists still Minister for Agriculture told me the First we wish to carry out a programme concentrate considerable power in following about the measures that the of conscious building about what the their hands. government will take to improve the programe for co-ops means and what conditions of the African peasants and benefits it will bring to the farmers. When they understand that there will The course which the government of to get rid of famine in the country: "We envisage that the land which is not be the need to force anybody into Zimbabwe pursues is geared to break anything we will have from the beginn- this power step by step and to avoid presently not utilised, the land which is Azania (Souih Africa) Is an African country 43 ing a force of volunteers from our peo­ the contradictions between ZANU und On questions about the further ple who will paricipate in the co-op ZAPU was always an important con­ strengthening of the Patriotic Front movements." stituent pan of imperialist intrigues Comrade Zvobgo said: "Our aim is to About the effects of the war on the against the liberation struggle of the consolidate the power of the people. situation in agriculture Comrade people of Zimbabwe. To strengthen This government is no coalition Makoni reported: "The situation is at the unity of the nation of Zimbabwe government. It is a ZANU government the same time good and bad. It is good which has been founded in the struggle with which other parlies are invited to in the sense that the white commercial against colonialism and imperialism participate. It is important to em­ farms are not very damaged through will be an important task. Comrade phasise this difference. During the en­ the war, most of the the commercial Mutumbuka said to me that to learn tire 16 years liberation war, we were farmers, most of the white farmers, two languages in the schools (one of always treated as equals. We knew that settled in the central area and the the two African languages and this did not correspond with the real amount of military activities was not as English) would be obligatory. This condition. Now the people have pin­ big as in the urban areas where our would be valid for the Europeans of pointed this situation, one cannot have people are. The reason for this is that which presently not more than 0.01 °/o a dual government, a leadership of two the participation of our people in the know one of the two African co-Prime Ministers, two co-Presidents. war. We had to move where our people languages. It was O.K. when we carried out the were. Therefore most of the military armed struggle. Now the people have activities took place in the rural areas. Comrade Zvobgo, Secretary of ZANU for Information and Publicity spoken. The decision is quite clear. We The military action of the old regime do not wish to mislead anybody. This was mainly geared to protect those and Minister of Local Affairs, said: the imperialists have always declared is the government of the majority Par­ areas in which the white farmers lived. ty." To keep the white farmers out of the that after the elections there will be military actions was a basic tactic of war, there will be bloodshed between "We have said to ZAPU: we were the old regime. But the great bulk of ZANLA and ZIPRA if one of the two partners in the war, let us be partners our people was badly hit. The ressettle- parties would win. Where is there civil in peace also. We invite you to par­ ment of our people in the concentra­ war. We have stated that there will be ticipate in the government. They look tion camps, the so-called protected no civil war and there has been none. the position that they will win the next villages, the restrictions of free move­ Now the imperialists say that the election. Thai is their right. It is their ment of the masses, the curfew, the Ndebele would be angered because right to carry out a campaign to win situation of emergency, all this meant they feared their language and their the next elections. But it is obvious that they did not pursue agricultural culture would be negated. That is an that one cannot form a common activities and work as they would have old trick. There is clearly no basis for government and at the same time op­ liked. In the main part of our rural that. Nobody in this government will pose the common government. Either areas agriculture had come to a stand­ force a language on anybody. There is ZANU (PF) and the Patriotic Front still. The peasants could only cultivate no reason for that. In this country are in one government which presently near their homes without breaking the there exists two African languages. is the case and they assume common emergency regulations, Animal With this we can cope. It is not like in standpoint, or if that is not possible husbandry was also considerably hit, other countries of the Third World and the other partners wants to win the pariculariy in the rural areas where the where there are sometimes hundreds of next elections he is completely free to institutions of veterinary services and languages which produce real pro­ form an opposition." blems of administration. One cannot all other services were destroyed. I do not believe that one Patriotic Because of this half of the animal assume to be the government of a country if one would try to force a Front is necessary, in order to create husbandry was killed. To sum up one within ZANU and ZAPU the same can say that we have a fairly active language onto people even if it was a minority. What we want is that all situation as when we were abroad. We commercial sector but the rural areas will quarrel and quarrel and we will get have been hard hit and we must pro­ Shona and Ndebele forget to be Shona and Ndebele and that they build one nowhere. This is my personal convic­ vide a lot of help in order to tion. We will continue lhe alliance but rehabilitate and revitalise them. The nation. This is what we pursued in ZANLA all through the war. We had we must see how we can consolidate it. people and the government of Zim­ Because President Nkomo wants to babwe have to face in all other areas Ndebele and Shona and we gave a new name to everybody because we wanted become the Prime Minister, that is his similar great difficulties in the re­ right. It is possible to unify the 2 par­ construction of the services which have to root out tribalism. And one could not distinguish from the names ties and to build one Party, then been destroyed by the colonial regime ZANU is prepared for that. When we during the war. whether one would come from Umtali or Salisbury. I was not permitted to were abroad we always stated: the ask somebody where he came from. He question of leadership should be decid­ Question of further consolidation or would simply say "I am ed by the people. Now the people have national unity. Zimbabwean." This spirit we want to decided. We see no necessity to sit together and discuss the question There are two African peoples in Zim­ introduce amongst our entire people so that we can develop as one nation and whether Mr. Nkomo or Mr. Mugabe babwe: the Shona and the Ndebele should be President of the Patriotic peoples. The Shona people constitute not as tribes. The enemy did not ques­ tion whether you were Shona or Front. What remains to consolidate 80°7» of the population of Zimbabwe, our unity is that ZAPU follows us and the Ndebele people approx. 20*70. To Ndebele when he shot at you. You were a liberation fighter. That was we follow them. ZANU is prepared for stigmatise contradictions between this." these two people and to paralell to that enough for him - to try to kill you." 44 Build ihe PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement

production, too. One reason for this Brief History of the Mozambiquan Revolution - was that the advance of the national Part 1 liberation struggle together with grow­ ing international condemnation of the This paper was delivered by Peter background history of the Mozambi­ practice of forced labour forced the Meyns, author of two books on quan struggle. Part two deals with the Portuguese colonial regime to change Mozambique and Tanzania at the problems of transforming liberation its policy, as far as the form of ex­ Economic Symposium on Zimbabwe ideology into national development ploitation was concerned, and to give in Salisbury in September 1980. This strategyand will appear in the next up forced cultivation of cotton step by first abridged part deals with a issue. step. The colonial legacy, liberation idelolgy onies, and this Figure increased to 65% These changes did not lead to an im­ and post-independence development in 1946 and over 80% in the 1950s. provement in the situation of the strategy can be looked upon a thesis, Mozambique's export of cotton in­ African rural population because a antithesis and synthesis. This dialec­ creased from 4000 tons annually time of further expansion of the plan­ tical framewvork of analysis allows an before 1936 to 40000 tons of cotton tation and settler economy set in, fur­ understanding of the complicated and fibre in 1961. Cotton had by then ther alienation of large areas of the contradictory process of development became Mozambique's most impor­ most fertile lands from the African which Mozambique has been undergo­ tant export product accounting for peasants by white settlers. The "cotton ing since independence. 27% of the country's total exports in regime" had been terminated, but new 1. The colonial legacy 1961. regulations had been introduced whereby areas of up to 5000 hectares Independence left Mozambique with The advantage of the "cotton an economy geared to the interests of for farm land and 25000 hectares for regime" for Portugal's textile in­ pasture could be allocated to settlers. the former colonial power, Portugal, dustry, for a long time the country's as well as other international capitalist On the basis of this regulation 239312 main industrial sector, was twofold. hectares of land were alienated from interests, and largely integrated into For one it saved considerable amounts the economic structure of southern the indigenous peasants in the pro­ of foreign exchange. In addition, it vinces of Maputo, Gaza and Zambezia Africa under the domination of South benefitted from Portugal's protec­ Africa, The main features of this col­ between 1960 and 1964. The planta­ tionist policy whereby the price of cot­ tions and settler farms produced the onial legacy were the plantation and ton exported from Mozambique to settler dominated, and export-oriented major part of nearly all agricultural ex­ Portugal was Fixed at a level far below port crops, namely sugar, cotton, tea, agriculture; and the entrepot character the world market price and the export of the economy dependent on the pro­ sisal, citrus fruits, wood and copra. of fixed quantities to the metropole Even those products traditionally vision of services, such as railway and was obligatory. In the years 1947/48 to harbour facilities, and migrant labour regarded as the indigenous peasants' 1954/55 Portugal bought cotton from cash crops, namely cashew nuts and to neighbouring countries, in par­ Mozambique at an average price of ticular South Africa. cotton, were increasingly cultivated on 14,08 Escudos a kg, while the same settler farms and plantations. Colonial agriculture produce fetched 27,12 Escudos a kg on For decades Portugal geared colonial the world market. With the help of agriculture in Mozambique completely these protectionist advantages the Por­ The African peasants received hard­ to the task of propping its own tuguese textile industry was able to ly any support from the colonial ad­ backward economy. This policy in­ maintain its competitiveness. The col­ ministration in order to prevent them volved isolating the colonial economy onies were also reserved as the main from competing with the settlers, and, from other external relations. Produc­ market for the export of the finished at the same time, to make and keep tion of agricultural cash crops for ex­ products of the Portuguese textile in­ them available as cheap labour for the portation and the promotion of Por­ dustry. plantations and settler farms. Further­ tuguese settlement of the colony were more, the mining companies in the the main characteristics of a policy Those who suffered from this system neighbouring countries of South directed towards the integration of the of forced cotton production were the Africa and Southern Rhodesia were "Overseas Provinces" into the indigenous peasants. They had to also interested in cheap labour and "metropolis" Portugal. The system of reduce their acreage hitherto used for Portugal had signed agreements with exploitation of indigenous peasants is food crops drastically in order to plant the white minority regimes there to best described by forced cotton cotton. But then, due to the low prices supply them with labour. To provide cultivation. fixed for cotton, what they received cheap labour was, in fact, the main from their cash crop was often barely function of the African population in the colonial economy. In I960 12 commercial enterprises enough to pay for the head tax which with cotton monopolies were operating the colonial administration had also As a consequence African peasant in Mozambique. The largest of them imposed on them. Widespread hunger agriculture remained to a large extent covered whole provinces. In the early and suffering were the inevitable at the level of subsistence production. 30s the coercive measures were inten­ result. Plantation and settler agriculture re­ sified. It was not until then that Por­ The production of sugar, another of mained predominant in Mozambique tugal achieved the desired results. In the country's major export crops, was until the end of colonial rule. Planta­ 1925 Portugal had imported a mere similarly tied to the Portuguese market tion owners and Portuguese settlers 800 tons of cotton from its colonies. In by export regulations. Since the early were two major factions of the colonial 1937 its textile industry received 36% 1960's plantations and settler farms bourgeoisie and as such determined the of its cotton supplies from the col- came to the fore in the field of cotton agricultural policy of the colonial ad- Azania (Soulh Africa) is an African country 45 ministration. The distribution of land less than 100 million Escudos, i.e. 1978 for instance it stood at about 180 at the end of colonial rule in Mozambi­ about 2% of the total export income in US-dollars per oimce. This gave Por­ que aptly sums up the situation. 0,2% those years. tugal foreign exchange earnings up to of all units of production, namely the In face of such a large and increasing four times as high as before, because it plantations and the settler farms, own­ structural deficit of its trade balance could sell the gold it received for 42 ed nearly 50% of the cultivated land, Mozambique depended on other US-dollars an ounce on the free which, in addition, is the most fertile sources of foreign exchange income to market for prices up to 180 US-dollars land in the country. At the other ex­ pay for its imports and to avoid overall and at times even more. During the treme the small peasants with less than balance of payments deficits. These are colonial period this additional foreign 2 hectares of land each while totalling payments resulting from the use of its exchange income went straight to the 76,2% of all units of production port and railway facilities by metropole. It did not appear in the cultivate only 23,7% of the land. neighbouring foreign countries, from Mozambican balance of payments at Industry and foreign trade the money spent by tourists in Mozam­ all, even after the close financial in­ bique and from the transfers of tegration of the Escudo zone was Industrial development of any Mozambican migrant labourers abolished in 1972. significance did not start in Mozambi­ employed outside the country. These que until the I960's after the beginning features of Mozambique's external For the independent government of of the liberation struggle. In 1965 Por­ economic relations show the specific Mozambique the issue of exporting tugal abolished the remaining restric­ characteristics of the dependent migrant labour is a structural problem. tions on foreign capital investment in economic structure which Protuguese Given the backwardness of the order to win its allies, in particular the colonialism bequeated to this country. economy it inherited from Portuguese USA and South Africa, for a stronger colonialism it will need time to create involvement in its colonies. As a Dependence on South Africa productive employment for the belated attempt to prop Portuguese migrant labourers within Mozambi­ colonialism in Africa these measures Migrant labour from Mozambique had que. The number of migrant workers failed. already been employed in South Africa going to South has, however, been go­ before gold was discovered in the What they did achieve was a rapid ing down since independence. The Transvaal, the South African province figures for official recruitment were increase in foreign capital interests in bordering on southern Mozambique, Mozambique. Now additional in­ 1975: 91,356; 1976: 67,436 and 1977: in 1885. After the industrial exploita­ 34,817. vestments in the field of industrial pro­ tion of the gold resources started de­ cessing of agricultural raw materials, mand for cheap labour increased such as sugar, cashew nuts and cotton, South Africa has avoided putting rapidly. By the turn of the century Mozambique under direct economic as well as consumer goods production already saw over 40000 Mozambican were made principally by South pressure after independence though by workers go to work in the Transvaal supporting the illegal Smith regime and African and French companies but annually. Sending migrant labour to also by British and Italian. the Smith-Muzorewa coalition until South Africa was a profitable affair their end it was also indirectly working The search for mineral deposits did for the colonial administration. Accor­ towards the isolation and weakening of not start on a larger scale until the late ding to the system of "deferred pay­ Mozambique's stand. Principally, 60's. The belated investment boom in ment" the Mozambican workers only however, South Africa is trying to Mozambique did push industrial received 40% of their wages during break through its own isolation by development ahead at growth rates their contract period of up to 1 1/2 cooperating with its African neigh­ usually above 10% annually between years. The rest was transferred to the bours. The issue of the gold payments 1960 and 1973. colonial administration which was solved by South Africa in April deducted outstanding tax payments 1978 without a direct confrontation industrial development in colonial and other costs, and paid the workers with Mozambique. South Africa Mozambique was not based on the the remaining sum in Escudos when declared that it had decided to revalue country's own resources, and was not they returned to Mozambique. This its gold reserves as from April 10, 1978 geared to the consumption needs of the gave the colonial regime a source of in accordance with the abolishment of mass of the people, but to those of the foreign exchange. A further advantage the official gold price by the Interna­ colonial power, the settlers, the col­ related to the system of "deferred pay­ tional Monetary Fund in 1976 which onial army, and the white South ment" agreed upon in the Mozambi­ left it to all IMF-member countries to Africans and Rhodesians who used to que Convention did not become ap­ fix their gold price in line with the flock to Mozambique on business and parent until much later. market price. This meant that Mozam­ holiday. bique immediately lost the advantages Mozambique's external trade rela­ When the Convention was signed in from which it had benefitted as long as tions before independence also show 1928 it was agreed that South Africa payments were made according to the the structural weakness of its would pay Portugal the amount due lower official gold price. Given its economy, and its dependence on Por­ for the migrant laborers "deferred precarious balance of payments situa­ tugal and western imperialist coun­ payment" in gold calculated at the in­ tion this was quite a loss. In 1975 tries. The only mineral to be exploited ternationally fixed price, which stood Mozambique had received an addi­ in larger quantities was coal at the at 42 US-dollars per ounce after 1973. tional foreign exchange income of Moatize mines in Tete province, but However, today gold is traded on the about 150-175 millions US-dollars as a the amount exported was small and international gold market at a price result of the old agreement. Because of relatively insignificant. All mineral ex­ determined on the free market. As a the lower number of migrant workers ports together in 1970 and 197i result the gold price has risen to levels this amount had been lower in 1976 brought Mozambique an income of far above the official rate. In April 46 Build ihe PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement and 1977. Bui it was expected that Apart from that, however, the hy­ made immediate measures of support South Africa would send larger dro-electric scheme was geared from for the labourers and their families amounts of goods through Mozambi- the start to supplying South Africa necessary. Other fields where sanctions quea so as at least partially to offset with large amounts of energy, one of caused losses to Mozambique were the foreign exchange losses caused by the most important parts of the tourism, trade, and employment the new gold price arrangement. Cabora Bassa project being the 1400 generally due to lower production in South Africa does have economic in­ km transmission line to the Transvaal. various economic sectors. terests of its own to maintain relations In the short run, to finance the costs Needless to say all these losses are with Mozambique. Not only do the of the project, about 650 million US- also foreign exchange losses and, mines continue to need migrant dollars, Mozambique has no alter­ therefore, aggravate Mozambique's labourers, but South African wants to native other than supplying energy to balance of payments situation with continue to use Maputo's harbour South Africa. their full amount. For the first year facilities as an outlet for the external after sanctions the UN mission trade from the Transvaal. Maputo har­ The Portuguese state holds a share established the need for immediate im- bour was geared to the needs of South of 14%, and the rest is held by Por­ vestments in Mozambique to the tune Africa. Numerous facilities there tuguese finance institutions. The Por­ of 31 million US-dollars. These in­ specifically serve South Africa's tuguese side is in charge of the enter­ vestments result from Mozambique's foreign trade. The same is true of the prise until all commitments resulting dependence on Zimbabwe in a number railway lines serving Maputo. One from the construction of the Cabora of economic and infrastructure! fields. leads to the Transvaal and is virtually Bassa scheme have been met. For instance, the only railway link bet­ monopolized by South Arfica. One Thereafter Mozambique will take over ween Mozambique's two main towns, gives land-locked Swaziland its only the majority of shares, and three years ports and industrial centres, Maputo outlet to the sea. The third one leads to later will become the only shareholder, and Beira, runs inland via the Zimbab­ Zimbabwe and was closed from March i.e. Cabora Bassa will then be wean capital, Salisbury. When that line 1976 to December 1979 when Mozam­ transformed into a state enterprise. It was closed in 1976 additional transport bique applied sanctions against the il­ is likely to be 30 or 40 years before that capacity was needed in Mozambique to legal Smith regime. is achieved. maintain internal trade links between Because of its extensive use of these two towns and their hinterland Mozambique's transport facilities Sanctions against Ihe Illegal Smith via road traffic. South Afirca became Mozambique's regime most important source of foreign ex­ Much of what has been said about All in all the UN mission concluded change. The "deferred payments" on South Africa was true about Mozambi­ that the economic consequences of the migrant labour account and tourist que's relations to the white settler sanctions on Mozambique would total expenditure were additional sources of regime in Southern Rhodesia as well, an estimated 139 to 16S million foreign exchange from South Africa. before Mozambique applied the UN US-dollars in the first year, and bet­ Colonial Mozambique depended and sanctions against the Smith regime. ween 108 and 134 million US-dollars independent Mozambique continues to Migration labour and the use of for each following year. In addition, depend on economic relations with transport facilities were the two key the damage caused by the countless in­ cursions of the rebel Rhodesian army a east 31 1 elements of these relations. The United South Africa to pay for l P " of onto Mozambican territory between its chronic external trade deficit and Nations team investigating the impact of sanctions on the economy of 1976 and 1979 has to be taken into con­ bring its external payments into sideration. Not only were infrastruc- balance. The Cabora Bassa Dam is a Mozambique estimated that more than 80000 Mozambicans were working in tural installations, roads, bridges, further element of the dependence on railway lines etc., worth millions of South Africa Mozambique inherited Zimbabwe when sanctions were ap­ plied. US-dollars destroyed in these attacks from Portuguese colonialism. Its aim but hundreds of innocent people in the was to strengthen the integration of For the Smith regime Mozambique border provinces died and many Mozambique into a southern African was a vital trade outlet as Zimbabwe is villages and fields were ransacked. system led by racist South Africa and a land-locked country and the Beira- firmly controlled by US imperialism Salisbury railway line is the shortest Mozambique's situation as a result and its western allies. connection to the sea. of sanctions was similar to Zambia's situation when it imposed sanctions Today, the character of Cabora Bas­ For Mozambique itself applying against the Smith regime in 1973. sa has changed insofar as colonialism sanctions against the Smith regime Though in both cases the United Na­ has been defeated and Mozambique meant • accepting considerable tions appealed to all member nations has achieved political independence. economic burdens, because given the to help these two countries meet the Cabora Bassa has now become a externally oriented structure of its consequences of sanctions and though potentially enormous source of energy economy sanctions were bound to have quite a number of nations did make for the economy of Mozambique, but repercussions. The most important contributions to the Assistance Pro­ given the quantity and direction of factor was the loss of earnings from gramme in various ways, in both cases energy production installed it transport and harbour traffic. Migra­ Zambia and Mozambique had to carry represents a development potential for tion labour to Zimbabwe was also in­ the brunt of the weight themselves. In Mozambique that can only materialize terrupted causing a loss of money either case the main outside help came in a middle or even long-term perspec­ transfers by the labourers to their from other Third World countries. tive. families in Mozambique. This, in turn, However, on more than one occasion Azania (South Africa) is an African country 47

members of either government have system. Uniting three nationalist the Portuguese colonial regime's cam­ stated, as Mozambique's Finance organisations and other patriotic in­ paign of "psycho-social warfare" Minister did that his country "had dividuals FRELIMO, the Mozambique against the liberation struggle and received very little economic help to of­ Liberation Front, was founded in FRELIMO. fset the massive losses incurred after 1962. (31) The Front's platform cen­ On the 3rd February 1969 the Presi­ the closure of the border with tred around the demand for uncondi­ dent of FRELIMO, Eduardo Mondla- Rhodesia." tional and complete independence. ne, was killed by a letter bomb in Dar Economic sabotage and the exodus of The intransigence of Portuguese col­ es Salaam most probably dispatched white settlers onialism, however, quickly made it ap­ by the Portuguese colonial regime. parent that to achieve that aim the use The last, but certainly not least impor­ of force was inevitable. In April 1969 the Central Committee tant, aspect of the colonial legacy in of FRELIMO appointed a three man Mozambique we have to look at relates The struggle of two lines, 1968-70 collective to lead the organisation. It to the consequences of the colonial Between March 1968 and May 1970 a was composed of Simango, who had bourgeoisie's widespread acts of rapid sequence of events occurred been Mondlane's vice-president, economic sabotage before and after in­ which illustrate the various contradic­ Samora Machel, commander-in-chief dependence, which caused great tions which FRELIMO had to tackle of FRELlMO's liberation army, and damage and disrupted the country's during this period. Marcelino dos Santos. economy. They were not prepared to relinquish their political and economic In March 1968 the pupils of the In November 1969 and February 1970 power and their privileges without a FRELIMO secondary school in Dar es Simango published two documents in last-ditch struggle. The main forms of Salaam staged a rebellion in protest which he raised serious charges against economic sabotage used by the col­ against having to go to work in the Samora Machel and dos Santos as well onial bourgeoisie were:: liberated zones during their holidays as against Mondlane's widow and and, more generally, subordinating other white FRELIMO collaborators. -capital flight, i.e. the transfer of all their education to the requirements of He called for the broadest unity of the liquid assets out of the country. During the liberation struggle. Furthermore, "black masses", of all Mozambiquans the pre-independence period, when their action was directed against a within FRELIMO. He claimed that FRELIMO was not yet in power, number of white teachers and other ex­ Machel and dos Santos were conspir­ whole factory units were taken out of perts who were supporting FRELIMO ing to kill him. the country; in Tanzania. The Tanzanian In November 1969, after the publica­ - escape of settlers and factory authorities had to close the school. tion of Simango's first pamphlet the owners to Portugal or South Africa In May 1968 a group of unorganised Executive Committee suspended leaving their employees to their own refugees from Mozambique, who lived Simango from his membership in the fate; in Tanzania and all belonged to the presidential collective. In May 1970 the - outright destruction of factory and Makonde people from the province of Central Committe expelled Simango farm buildings, machines an other fix­ Cabo Delgado, stormed the from its ranks and from FRELIMO. ed assets which were left behind; FRELIMO office in Dar es Salaam. A Furthermore, Samora Machel was ap­ pointed as the new president of - running down of production, member of FRELlMO's Central Com­ mittee, MateusMutemba, was killed in FRELIMO and Marcelino dos Santos thereby creating bottlenecks and crises, as his vice-president. particularly in the distribution of con­ this clash. sumption goods; In July 1968 the 2nd Congress of In the analysis of these events we FRELIMO was held in the liberated pinpoint those positions and attitudes zones of the Niassa province. first of all which stood in opposition to - disseminating fear among white the successful advance of the national employees by organising criminal acts, In December 1968 the deputy chief of liberation struggle: the aspiration murders and so on in order to staff of the FRELIMO liberation ar­ towards the privileges of a new elite, precipitate their flight from the coun­ my, Kankhomba, was murdered as he racism, tribalism and economic ex­ try and thereby to further cripple the was crossing the Rovuma river from ploitation of the mass of the people. economy and throw it into chaos, as Tanzania to Mozambique. these people had hitherto supplied the During the liberation struggle an at­ In January 1969 Lazaro Kavandame, titude had emerged which Mondlane manpower in nearly all fields of FRELIMO Provincial Secretary of government administration and had characterised in his report to the Cabo Delgado province, was dismissed 2nd FRELIMO Congress when he economic enterprises in industry, trade from his post by the Executive Com­ and agriculture. said: "..., some Mozambicans want mittee and as a result automatically to have privileges now and after in­ lost his seat on the Central Committee. dependence." This remark was 2. Armed liberation struggle an the A FRELIMO commission of inquiry development of FRELlMO's ideology directed particularly at an important had established that he was misusing section of the pupils at the Mozambi­ his posts for his personal enrichment. The struggle of two lines, 1968 - 70 que Institute whom FRELIMO had He was also suspected of having given the possibility to attend a secon­ The national liberation struggle in organised the murder of Kankhomba. dary school. "They want to learn and Mozambique was initiated and Shortly afterwards Kavandame at the same time they want in­ developed as a complete negation of defected to the colonial administration dependence without having taken part the established Portuguese colonial and later put himself at the disposal of in the struggle to achieve this aim. For 48 Build the PAC into a Dynamic Mass National Movement they believe that after independence two lines within FRELIMO. For one it - finally the issue of the social aims of not those who have fought will rule the confirmed the leadership of Eduardo the struggle, establishment of a society country but those who have studied - Mondlane and the group around him without exploitation of man by man or the so-called intellectuals." which had consolidated itself since the just the takeover of the colonial system In contrast, the position which 1st Congress. What is more important, substituting black for white faces. however, is that it dealt with all the FRELIMO asserted frequently during The "values gained" the liberation struggle was to identify " tasks of the organisation on the basis the enemy not on the basis of race or of the requirements of the armed strug­ The advance of the liberation struggle national orign but of attitudes" and to gle. The Congress adopted resolutions in Mozambique was not purely related commit itself to work for "the com­ on armed struggle, on the administra­ to military achievements, the re­ plete abolition of racism and triba­ tion of the liberated zones, on national opening of the north-western Tete lism." reconstruction, on social issues and on front in 1968, its expansion south of foreign policy. The armed struggle, the Zambezi and the opening of a new The contradictions with Kavandame characterised as "hard and front in the central Mozambican pro­ had already sharpened before the 2nd protracted" and as "a popular strug­ vinces of Manica and Sofala in 1972, Congress. It became apparent that gle", had, in other words, been deter­ the opening of a fifth military front i