Liberation Struggle In South Africa Research Articles

Zambia’s Support for the African National Congress’s Radio Freedom in Lusaka, 1967–1992

ABSTRACT This article explores the contribution Zambia made to the liberation struggle in South Africa by hosting the ANC’s Radio Freedom in Lusaka. It relies on a combination of archival evidence (audio and documentary sources) from both countries, and interviews conducted with the broadcasters and other media workers of both Radio Freedom and the Zambian national broadcaster. The article argues that Zambia offered immense support to Radio Freedom in the form of broadcasting equipment, working space and airtime on the external services of the national broadcaster. While it waxed and waned in the early years, this assistance increased considerably in the aftermath of the Soweto student uprising of 1976, which enabled the ANC to have a sonic presence among its supporters back home, where listening to this radio was illegal. The support given to Radio Freedom was not isolated but part of a wider struggle and solidarity with the liberation movements in the Southern African region fighting white minority rule. Through Radio Freedom, the ANC was able to shape the course of the unfolding struggle and internal political developments and to attain the cultural hegemony of the Charterist tradition over the Africanist and Black Consciousness camp.

The impressions of writers of isiXhosa literary texts about the pre-Soviet and Soviet-era Russia

The argument of this transdisciplinary article is that isiXhosa poetry is a primary source of historical evidence. The article argues that through the study of isiXhosa literary texts we can discern the impressions of isiXhosa writers about the sociopolitical and economic relationship of South Africa with pre-Soviet and Soviet Russia. The support of the Boers by Russia during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902 resulted in resentment of Russia as a Xhosa writer demonstrated support for Britain, which was, according to him, less oppressive. A revolution in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union, attracted the attention of Xhosa writers who admired the socialist principles of non-racialism and equality. In South Africa, the anti-socialism legislation of the segregation and apartheid governments resulted in caution and a mute voice about Russia. During the post-Sharpeville massacre era, linguistic devices which were intended to evade censorship were utilised to conceal the calls for support from the East or Russia in the struggle against apartheid. Some writers in the seventies were ‘interpellated’ by the anti-socialism/Russia/Communism/Soviet ideology propagated by the apartheid regime. The writers of the late eighties and nineties rebutted the abovementioned stance with compliments and expressions of gratitude to Russia for military support for the liberation struggle in South Africa.

The role of archives in documenting African National Congress Women’s League records that impacted the development of their records

Purpose This paper aims to assess the role of archives in documenting African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) records on the liberation struggle of South Africa from 1960 to 1990 with a view to recommending the best method of collection and preservation of archival materials. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were collected through interviews with purposively selected employees of the African National Congress (ANC), the Nelson Mandela Foundation centre of memory, the national heritage and cultural studies at the University of Fort Hare, the National Archives of South Africa and provincial archives of South Africa. Interview data were augmented through content analysis of ANC documents such as policies, websites and annual reports. Findings The study found a gap of documentation of the role of archives in documenting ANCWL’s contribution to the liberation of South Africa. The National Archives of South Africa did not play a meaningful role to document the history of African National Women’s League in the liberation struggle of South Africa. There was also a lack of coordination of community archives that keep ANCWL archives materials. There is a need to embark on oral history and bilateral relations with overseas archival institutions to repatriate ANCWL archives to South Africa. Furthermore, contemporary history records about the ANCWL records need to be listed, arranged and described and made available to the public. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to the role played by the National Archives of South Africa and community archives such as the ANC archives, the Mayibuye Centre archives based at the University of Western Cape in documenting ANC and ANCWL and contemporary issues that impact the development of ANCWL records created from 1960 to 1990. Practical implications The findings are expected to be instrumental to document the history of women’s struggle for democracy in South Africa. The ANCWL collection may contribute to social cohesion to enable society to understand the role of ANCWL during the struggle for democracy in South Africa. While the literature on women’s archives is limited, there is still much research that needs to be conducted. Increasing the body of research will strengthen understanding of the role of the National Archives of South Africa and community archives on documenting women’s liberation struggle in South Africa. Social implications The document of women’s history would enrich the archival collection. This means that records with historical, cultural and social significance will be permanently preserved by archives. Originality/value The research appears to be the first of its kind to assess the documentation on the role of archives on documenting ANCWL. The archival heritage of women’s struggle for democracy forms part of the national archival heritage of South Africa as they bridge the gap of undocumented history of South Africa.

Mandela’s Army: Urban Revolt in South Africa, 1960–1964

This article focuses on Nelson Mandela’s tenure as the first commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). It emphasises his objectives for MK as reflected in the archive of diaries, notebooks and reports that he produced at the time. It also looks at the effectiveness of his work as Commander by exploring how the army he built fared in its insurgency against the state. The article emphasises the seriousness of purpose of Mandela and colleagues, which is something they have not always been credited for in the literature. Also explored is MK’s history beyond Mandela’s arrest. This involves revisiting what would be the first ‘Free Mandela’ campaign in history. Led by the underground within South Africa, the campaign offers a platform from which to assess the durability and effectiveness of the structures that Mandela left behind. The history of the post-Mandela underground also encompasses ‘Operation Mayibuye’, which was the MK High Command’s first attempt at launching guerrilla warfare. Operation Mayibuye was not implemented. This was a result of a crackdown by the state, most notably with the raid on Lilieslief Farm in July 1963. The article looks at how the underground absorbed the blows that it received at the hands of the state from 1963 to 1964, including the process by which the leadership of MK shifted to the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) External Mission, led by Oliver Tambo. The contribution of the Communist bloc and independent African states in facilitating the transition is discussed, as well as the embedding of the armed struggle in the larger conflicts of the Cold War and decolonisation. Finally, the paper considers the legacy of the urban revolt of the early 1960s and its significance for the larger debate regarding the role of the armed struggle in the broader liberation struggle in South Africa.

Stephen Bantu Biko: An agent of change in South Africa’s socio-politico-religious landscape

This article examines and analyses Biko’s contribution to the liberation struggle in South Africa from the perspective of politics and religion. Through his leading participation in Black Consciousness Movement and Black Theology Project, Biko has not only influenced the direction of the liberation agenda, but he has also left a legacy that if the liberated and democratic South Africa were to follow, this country would be a much better place for all to live in. In fact, the continent as a whole through its endeavours in the African Union underpinned by the African Renaissance philosophy would go a long way in forging unity among the continent’s nation states. Biko’s legacy covers among other things identity, human dignity, education, research, health and job creation. This article will have far reaching implications for the relations between the democratic state and the church in South Africa, more so that there has been such a lack of the church’s prophecy for the past 25 years.

Introductory Note to “South Africa and the Turn to Armed Resistance” by Mac Maharaj and Z. Pallo Jordan

I should like to begin by repeating a statement known to all of us though often ignored when dealing with the subject of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Carl von Clausewitz tells us that ‘...

THE CHURCH AND ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUGGLE TO LIBERATE THE FREE STATE PROVINCE

The article outlines the contributions of the church to the liberation struggle in South Africa. In doing so, we limit the content to the contributions of church activities in the Free State. The point of departure is that the liberation of South Africa was not only a result of the barrel of the gun – instead, the barrel was complemented by various peaceful liberation forces, including the activities and the narratives of the church. The arguments of this article are based in decolonial theory, a discourse that sensitises understanding that the liberation of South Africa should not only be interpreted politically, but that liberation transcends politics to other spheres of life, and it involves total liberation and emancipation. Data in this article was collected through interviews and questionnaires, which focused mainly on the role of the church in the liberation of the Free State. In this article, it is argued that the place of the church in the post-1994 histories and narratives should be one of being a champion of social justice, equity and the fair distribution of resources, as well as playing a role to unmask corruption, which continues to subject the people of the Free State to poverty and marginalisation.

Chiefly Power in a Frontline State: Kgosi Linchwe II, the Bakgatla and Botswana in the South African Liberation Struggle, 1948–1994

Kgosi Linchwe II of the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela – a cross-border chieftainship in Botswana and South Africa – was at the centre of a network of trans-frontier links that played an important role in the liberation struggle in South Africa. In the context of the reluctant inaction of Botswana's national government, as a state surrounded by states under South African influence and economically dependent upon them, this case demonstrates a hitherto hidden aspect of the activities of the liberation movements in the region. The case of Linchwe II demonstrates the ways in which the authority, influence and connections that underpinned his chiefly power made it possible to assist the liberation movements in ways that the state government was unable to do because of concerns for national security. This study reveals a hidden history of involvement in the struggle that has been obscured by the historiographical focus on the international politics of Botswana, using a deep, micro-historical focus on a region that was highly involved in, connected with and affected by the South African liberation struggle.

Women and national liberation in South Africa: an oral history perspective

The historiography of the national liberation struggle in South Africa is dominated by the feats of heroic male activists, in which women’s activism and the impact of the antiapartheid struggle on women and families are largely occluded. The past decade has witnessed the growth of a more inclusive ‘struggle’ historiography due to the mushrooming of women’s biographies and autobiographies. This article is based on interviews with five women whose partners were involved in anti-apartheid activism and who were either banned, forced into exile or incarcerated on Robben Island. Focusing on ‘ordinary’ women who had to see to the subsistence of family and household for extended periods contributes to a more inclusive narrative of anti-apartheid struggles. These gendered biographies highlight the multiple forms of oppression to which women were subjected and their multiple roles in the anti-apartheid struggle, and stress that gender should be a key part of one’s analytical toolbox.

Voices of Liberation: Songs and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa

Many communities around the world have taken part in songs and dance or have witnessed roles played by songs. However, scholarly focus on such a field of study has been very limited. This study challenges for a new consideration of what songs are and the roles they play or played in contemporary society. Songs have been means of communication, education and importantly played important roles in the struggle against apartheid. When the apartheid regime became repressive by banning or exiling leaders, suppressing information, songs in vernacular or indigenous languages flourished in promoting resistance texts. These songs flourished like graffities in repressive environments. They were used as propaganda tools by the liberation movements and at the same time dealing with state propaganda. They were platforms of propaganda in a dialectical relationship with the state but also embodied other elements beyond these parameters. Songs have been fundamental instruments of resistance, heritage and history. This study looks at how South African activists used songs and the struggle against apartheid and the post-apartheid scenario. Focus will be on the pre-1960 period, exile and the post- apartheid dynamics. A qualitative research methodology has been useful for this study because of the human agency aspect. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p985

The struggle continues towards a genuine and lasting emancipation: South Africa in the past 20 years

The article underlines the fact that most of the problems facing the African National Congress (ANC) as the ruling party in South Africa are not new. A comparative analysis of the ANC's Consultative Conference held at Morogoro in 1969 with its national conference held 38 years later at Polokwane in 2007 proves this glaring point. The article also focuses on the battle of ideas by highlighting the intellectual struggles waged by African leaders against neo-colonialism – including racist white rule in apartheid South Africa. These leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Nyerere and O.R. Tambo among others, emphasised the centrality of both African and international solidarity in the struggle for national liberation in South Africa. Their viewpoints can be contrasted with intellectual diatribe against the national liberation struggle in South Africa spewed by white academics such as Belinda Bozzoli and Peter Delius. The latter were also dismissive of the role of African intellectuals in providing solution to the South African question. Such viewpoints correspond to those held by the President Jacob Zuma who contemptuously refers to African intellectuals as ‘clever blacks’ and has consistently ignored their crucial role in terms of providing lasting solutions and innovative ideas to problems bedevilling the post-1994 democratic state. Regardless of Zuma's foibles, the persistent battle of ideas in South Africa underscores the central role of African intellectuals in defining the African Progressive Movement whose task is to defeat the forces of neo-colonialism, continue to fight against the rampart poverty afflicting the masses and corrupt self-enrichment of the professional political class. This also includes fighting against the democratic South Africa reverting to a predator state after the demise of white rule. Furthermore, by discussing political dynamics in Zimbabwe, the article supports the view that among other pressing matters, the African Progressive Movement's task is to support South Africa's constructive conflict prevention role in the African continent. Steering away from international diplomacy and geopolitics, the article also discusses internal dynamics afflicting the ANC and its alliance partners by using GEAR as a case study. The resulting fractious debates have led to a situation wherein the ANC is treated as an organisation which has no right to be its sovereign self. Taking sectarian positions towards the ANC, antagonists view the ruling party as a candidate for capture by fortuitously positioned factions. Finally, the article showcases the ruling party's report presented by Thabo Mbeki at Polokwane. The report calls for organisational renewal and belabours the point that the fractured ANC, as a liberation movement which has attained political power in South Africa, needs to clear away the cobwebs of the present incumbency which has been veering off course because of high levels of corruption and the allurements of power.

The transition in South Africa: choice, fate … or recolonisation?

Locating his argument with reference to his own long acquaintance with Harold Wolpe, one dating from their first encounter as graduate students in Ralph Miliband's London School of Economics (LSE) seminar shortly after Wolpe's escape from prison and from South Africa itself, Saul emphasises in the remainder of his essay the extent to which the victory over apartheid has been only a very partial one. Indeed, a Fanonist picture of a ‘false decolonisation’, even a ‘recolonisation’ by a new Empire of Capital, fits – as elsewhere in southern Africa – all too comfortably the facts of the South African case. Several alternative ways of thinking about this reality are noted, as well as various alternative possible national projects, each of the latter suggesting the necessity of a ‘next’ or ‘second’ liberation struggle in South Africa. A number of key questions, arising from the analysis and inviting further discussion and exchange, are quite specifically signalled in the text.

Post-Liberation South Africa: Sorting Out the Pieces

The written history and narratives of the anti-apartheid liberation struggle in South Africa has been cast, albeit erroneously, as if it was waged and won solely by the African National Congress (ANC), its ally the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the three alliance partners that have held the reins of state power since the first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994. The truth is that the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania, the Azania People’s Organization (AZAPO), the New Unity Movement (NUMO), and several other liberation movements played significantly vital roles in that struggle. The ensuing discourse puts this state of affairs on the PAC’s diminished status in the politics of post-liberation South Africa, which derives partly from its radical antecedents from its inception that placed it apart from the ANC from which it split in 1959, earned it immediate proscription from the apartheid stage before it could root itself properly as well as notoriety in the West. The discourse argues and concludes that a more comprehensive narrative and written history of that struggle will benefit the on-going quest for the transformation of South Africa’s multi-racial democracy and the course of democracy in the rest of Africa.

Freedom for women: Mainstreaming gender in the South African liberation struggle and beyond

The liberation struggle in South Africa highlighted racial and class oppression as key causes of poverty,inequality, and a lack of rights for most South Africans. Drawing on the language of the struggle,women political and trade union activists brought attention to their oppression and exploitation aswomen, and were able to place non-sexism alongside non-racism and democracy as key liberationprinciples. However, while men in these organisations ostensibly accepted the idea of non-sexism, theywere not ready to change their behaviour or give up their power, and women activists met with ongoingresistance. During the negotiations for democracy, women drew on their experience of the years ofstruggle and were able to ensure a high proportion of women in parliament, influence the country's constitution, and advocate the establishment of State machinery to mainstream gender equality.However, in the post-apartheid era of reconstruction and development, both the demobilisation ofprotest movements and the emphasis on the technical aspects of development stand in the way of gendermainstreaming via the State.

The National Liberation Struggle in South Africa: A Case-Study of the United Democratic Front, 1983-1987

The National Liberation Struggle in South Africa: A Case-Study of the United Democratic Front, 1983-1987

INTERNATIONAL MONITORING OF THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1992–1994

SOUTH AFRICA S FIRST DEMOCRATIC elections have a strong claim to being the most monitored elections ever. This is evident from the number of national and international observers deployed, the length of the period of pre-election monitoring, and the range of election-related activities subject to monitoring. What accounted for this unprecedented domestic and global interest and concern? In the first place, in the absence of any robust tradition of political tolerance among either blacks or whites, grave doubts existed concerning the feasibility of conducting free and fair elections. Powerful voices in the country openly declared their determination to disrupt them. The sincerity of the apartheid regime was suspect, while evidence of security force complicity in the widespread violence was mounting. Above all, these were liberation elections with immense symbolic as well as substantive significance. Not surprisingly, they proved a powerful magnet for the international community which had long felt a deep emotional commitment to the liberation struggle in South Africa. 1 Until the week prior to the elections, the campaign was characterized by violent conflict, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and on the East Rand. Yet, in the end, the very real fears concerning the prospects of relatively peaceful elections miraculously did not materialize. Supreme efforts on the part of the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party (NP) government finally induced the last minute participation in the elections of two ethnic nationalist parties with great disruptive potential: the white Freedom Front (FF) and the black Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Almost overnight, politically-related violence plummeted dramatically. In the process, the course and character of the elections were transformed. In addition to the political context and constraints within which elections were conducted, the electoral arrangements on the ground are also crucial to an understanding of the role observers played. The decision of the IFP one week before the voting to enter the contest compounded the profusion of problems already plaguing the Independent Electoral Commission

Human Rights and Foreign Policy: Principles and Canadian Practice

This article has two purposes. First, it attempts to establish the bases for legitimate state interference and possibly intervention in the internal affairs of another state to promote basic human rights. Second, it will test the utility of this argument by applying it to a consideration of Canadian policies related to South Africa and to development assistance. We will first define and defend the concept of basic human rights. We will then consider the strength of the argument that the principle of nonintervention should be given primacy in interstate relations. Against this argument we will develop the basic propositions which seem to require human rights components within a foreign policy. On the basis of these propositions we will hazard a series of policy prescriptions. We will then discuss the process which determines the priority to be given to these prescriptions in comparison to the policies required by other foreign policy objectives. All that accomplished, we will consider in turn Canadian policy in two important issues: first, whether Canada should actively interfere or perhaps even intervene in the liberation struggle in South Africa; and secondly, whether Canadian foreign assistance should be used to press Third World recipients to greater respect for basic human rights. We thus hope to contribute to the body of literature that seeks to apply to important issues of foreign policy concepts of basic human rights and morality.'

Subaltern Consciousness in South Africa's Labour Movement: ‘Workerism’ in the KwaZulu-Natal Sugar Industry

The liberation struggle in South Africa that eventually brought the apartheid state to its knees had its roots in the workers' movement that emerged in the early 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s, this movement shifted from a ‘workerist’ orientation around shop floor issues to a ‘popularist’ articulation with the broader liberation struggle – a shift embodied most fully in the transformation of FOSATU into COSATU in 1985. In the sugar industry of KwaZulu-Natal, this ideological shift opened up serious conflict among workers who had previously co-existed without quarrel. Workers from rural Zululand tended to reject the liberal-egalitarian tenets of the ‘national democratic revolution’ promoted by Sweet Food, the sectoral COSATU affiliate. Instead, they sought refuge in an organisation known as National Union, which – following elements of the workerist tradition pioneered by FOSATU – created space for them to operate as activists without having to fit within the mould of secular political modernity. This history provides clues about the tenets of political consciousness among migrant workers, helps explain ongoing conflict between Inkatha and the African National Congress, and forces us to rethink some of the assumptions about workers' politics in the dominant labour historiography.