Celebrating Fourteen Years of Freedom in South Africa
Thanking South African Women for Women for giving us the Freedom Award:
Thank all those who contributed in their various ways to the giving of this award.
Thanking those who contributed to achieving Freedom in South Africa, without whose efforts this award would be meaningless. Thank my wife and sons for giving me the reason to live and fight on and thank especially our grandson who has become our reason to continue existing and who gives us the pride of having an heir to inherit a liberated South Africa after a long and hard fought struggle for freedom.
Please allow me to make these personal remarks. I started my quest for Freedom in my preteen years. I remember this as if it were yesterday. I was eleven years of age. It came by accident and not by design. It was a Sunday afternoon after church. I went for my usual a soccer game and on my way home I stumbled across a public meeting by the African National Congress of South Africa in its effort to mobilize the community to support the Defiance Campaign of 1952.
On the platform was the Rev. Tantsi of the AME Church of South Africa. I was attracted by the crowd singing a Xhosa Hymn called Lizalize Idinga lakho, roughly translated into English this will mean, “make the efforts of the seeker of Freedom fruitful”. At the end of the hymn Rev. Tantsi delivered an impassioned speech that still resonates in my mind today, more than a half a century later. He called on the assembled crowd to respond to the call by the African National Congress of South Africa to defy the Unjust Laws of the newly elected government of the Nationalist Party of South Africa. These laws were the entrenchment of the hated Apartheid system.
Although I was too young to respond to the ANC’S call at that time, I heard several speakers talk about Freedom and on leaving the public meeting I resolved that one day when I am old enough, I will defy those unjust laws. As soon as I turned 18 I join the struggle for Freedom. At that time I had a hazy idea of what freedom was.
My first education as an Anti-Apartheid Activist came when I attended a meeting called by the South African Congress of Trade Unions to discuss a plan to Stay At Home for One Day and not to go work in Solidarity with those who demanded to be paid a minimum of ONE POUND A DAY. Although I responded positively to the plan, I had a question in my mind. Was freedom worth one pound a day? The answer was No! as I came to learn later, no one can put a dollar value on the price of Freedom.
My education continued as I got arrested on that day for the first time. I met some more articulate activists. It was at that time that I heard of A Living Wage as a Human Right and the Cost of Living. My political education was beginning to move at break neck speed.
The year I turned 18 coincided with some dramatic events in my life. It was the first time that I attended a Political Conference as a delegate. I became caught up with a group of young militant men led by Robert Mangaliso Sobhukwe broke away from the ANC to form the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. They were demanding “Freedom In Our Lifetime.” I found the idea very appealing and decided to join the group. Because I was the youngest member of the group, I attracted the attention of the leaders.
Robert Sobhukwe loaned me a book, with the title of Pan Africanism or Communism, by George Padmore. On the cover of the book was a quotation by Jawalal Nehru, the first Prime Minster of Independent India, saying “Freedom is dear to all but dearest to all those who are slaves.” From this book I came to learn about the idea of Pan Africanism, the struggle against Colonialism, for Political Independence, for Self-Determination and Self-reliance as defined by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana ,Sekou Toure of Geanea, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya of Kenya, Ben Bella of Algeria, Julias Nyerere of Tanganyika and other International leaders like Marcus Garvey and WEB du Bois.
On the cover of the book was a quotation by Jahwalal Nehru, Independent India’s first Prime Minister, which said, “Freedom is dear to all but dearest to all those who are slaves.” I devoured the book voraciously. I learned that many parts of Africa were gaining their freedom from Colonialism and Imperialism. I enjoyed being part of Africa’s Liberation Movement. Young people were joining the organization in droves. We were organizing people to join the Anti-Pass Campaign of 1960, which scared the Apartheid Regime at its core. We were creating History. Freedom meant service to the cause, self-sacrifice and suffering. Those were truly exciting times.
In the process our Movement became a banned organization. We had to operate underground. Freedom meant taking arms against a cruel oppressor. The situation brought with it new challenges. Our leaders could not cope. More than a thousand of us got arrested and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. All those who were fighting for freedom were labeled as Communist by the Racist Regime. I began to equate Freedom with Communism on the one hand and Apartheid or White Supremacy with Capitalism on the other. Freedom meant biting the bullet!
I was particularly attracted by Communism’s promise of a classless society. It promised greater Freedom. However, most of our leaders warned us against this system. They said, given the cold war, it would be stupid to change one master for another. They taught us that Freedom means independence and self-reliance. They said Freedom means Non-Alignment with neither the East nor the West.
In this era of Globalization, Non-Alignment seems to be yesterday’s idea. Some say globalization will lead to the long anticipated World Revolution and World Peace. Time will tell. Thank you very much!
