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"The Nature of the Struggle Today."

Article by Potlako K. Leballo, in The Africanist, December 1957

There is as yet no common agreement between the Africanists and the present leadership of Congress together with its allies on the nature of the struggle. To the Africanists the struggle is both nationalist and democratic, in that it involves the restoration of the land to its rightful owners--the Africans--which fact immediately divides the combatants into the conquered and the conqueror, the invaded and the invader, the dispossessed and the dispossessor. That is a national struggle. It has nothing to do with numbers and laws. It is a fact of history. And both sides are each held together by a common history and are, in the struggle, carrying out the task imposed by history. That task is, for the whites, the maintenance and retention of the spoils passed on to them by their forefathers and, for the African, the overthrow of the foreign yoke and the reclamation of "the land of our fathers."

At the same time, our struggle is for democracy, if we understand democracy to mean the implementation of the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants of a country, as expressed in the laws of the country. A democratic struggle is essentially then, a recognition of NUMBERS, a National struggle is a struggle for the recognition of heritage. The Africans are in the fortunate position of being, not only the rightful owners of the land but also the majority of the population. Our struggle, therefore, is democratic, involving as it does, the dispossessed majority against the privileged minority.

The ANC leadership and its allies are preoccupied with the latter aspect of the struggle--the democratic, to the total exclusion, nay even the open renunciation and denunciation of the Nationalistic. And from that difference in our conception of the struggle, stem the differences in tactics and interpretation of events.

The forces involved in the Struggle:

Because we differ from the leadership in our conception of the nature of the struggle, we differ in our assessment of the forces for and against us. The Congress leadership, because it interprets the struggle as one for democracy and therefore a political struggle, designed to remove legal restrictions, recognises the foe as the present Nationalist government and accepts and treats everybody opposed to the Nationalist government whatever his motives and beliefs, as an ally. The congress leadership, therefore, if we are to judge by its actions and utterances, recognises the Nationalist government as the rightful government of the country whose policies, however, it is not in agreement with. The leadership, therefore, conceives of Congress as an Opposition party, with an alternative policy to which the people of South Africa are to be persuaded to subscribe.

The difference between the United Party and Congress (as conceived by the leadership) lies in the policies they advocate and in their composition. The United Party is an All-White party, standing for white leadership and supremacy while Congress, in so far as its policies, under the present leadership, are determined by all the Congress, is multi-racial and stands for a democratic franchise. But both the United Party and the Congress leadership accept the Nats as the rightful government of the country whose policies, however, are disastrous to the country. And both believe that the essential thing to do is to oust the Nats. Both believe that the way to do so is by appealing to the people of South Africa for support for their policies. That is why a certain "African leader" in an issue of "Liberation," could state that "we (i.e. Congress) should water down our demands in order that we should muster the broadest support against the Nats."

Congress, according to the present leadership, is a political party aspiring to Parliament though, as yet, having no representative in Parliament. That is why it is so difficult to effect a boycott of the white Native representatives in Parliament, in spite of the unambiguous statement of the Nation-Building Programme of 1949. It is believed by our leaders that the number of Whites subscribing to the Kliptown Charter will increase so that one day a White party committed to the Kliptown Charter will form the government and implement the hopes and wishes expressed in that document!

But the AFRICANISTS who are committed to the overthrow of white domination, club together all who stand for the maintenance of the status quo and can find no common ground with the United & Labour Parties. The AFRICANISTS are aware, too, that when danger threatens the interests of the rulers, they modify their policies in order to gain support of the oppressed. That is what happened during the dark days of the last war. But as soon as the danger is past, the rulers return to their old policies with more ruthlessness in order to crush any awakened hopes. The Nationalist government has trodden on the corns of many groups and many people are prepared to go a very long way to get rid of this government. But that does not mean that they subscribe to a thoroughly democratic constitution. Many, in fact, hate the Nats, because they are threatening the status quo. We are familiar with the diversionary role of the Liberals. And both Mrs. Ballinger's Liberal Party and Beyleveld's C.O.D. fulfill that role.

Current Events:

I do not intend to list the numerous oppressive laws manufactured by the Nats, or revised by them. What is essential is to note their trend and the reaction of the people to them. The Bantu Education Act , the Native Laws Amendment Act , the Universities and Nurses Apartheid Bills, etc., have one thing in common. They are all part of a desperate attempt to delay the Nemesis of white domination. They all aim at creating a feeling of insecurity among the oppressed and thus making them a docile labour force which accepts resignedly its inferior status. In fact the aim is to make the oppressed BELIEVE that they are incapable of equalling, let alone surpassing, the white man in any field. We must learn that we can't do without the white man. We must believe that modern 20th century technology, which is the distinctive feature of so-called western civilisation, is, like everything good in S.A., "For Europeans only--Slegs vir Blankes."

Take the Passes for women. As [Harry] Bloom so ably illustrates in his book "Episode", when dealing with the "Permit", every African woman, in the eyes of the white conqueror, is a potential prostitute, an undesirable element--not a woman, mind you, or a mother. No. An element'. That is why, therefore, there should be nothing wrong in subjecting her to indignity and humiliation. She is not a woman, just as her husband is not a man. If the dog, the man, carries a dog-collar in the form of a reference book, why not the bitch? Anthropologists all agree that a culture progresses only through contact. Prof. Childe goes further and states that a culture cannot remain static. It either progresses or retrogresses. And lack of contact leads to retrogression. And Eiselen, the Anthropologist, produces Bantu Educa­tion and ethnic grouping and Tribal Colleges TO STOP CONTACT on the side of the African, while maintaining it on the European side.

Reaction of the People:

But the people are not taking this lying down. The most important development in South Africa today is the militant resistance of the women to the extension of Passes to them.

The opposition is sporadic but brave. It is a little disorganised but courageous. Women in the rural areas and in Nationalist strongholds have defied Verwoerd and his henchmen. We praise the women for their stand and Congress for organising that stand with her limited means. But there is a danger which we Africanists foresee. And it is that we come to regard our duty and role as opposing Verwoerd's laws. The Nats are carrying out their programme and if we are going to do nothing but oppose, we will never get anywhere, for every year will bring forth, as every year has brought forth, new oppressive laws, on top of the ones we are opposing. Thus while we are fighting Bantu Education, Passes for Women come along. While we are organising against that, Universities and Nurses Apartheid come along. Our sacred duty is to carry out OUR PROGRAMME, irrespective of what Verwoerd is doing. Let us take the offensive and pursue the Nation-Building Programme of 1949, relentlessly and honestly. And white domination will collapse. Whenever any item of that Programme has been implemented, no matter how emasculated, it has drawn overwhelming and enthusiastic support from the masses and has sent the conquerer shaking in his boots. I am thinking particularly of the Defiance Campaign , the One Day Stoppage of Work, the Economic and Bus Boycotts. If these had been honestly and relentlessly pursued in the spirit of true African Nationalism, we would be discussing PRODUCTION today and not oppression.

POLITICAL FAITH FOR AFRICAN FREEDOM

The salvation of the African people as a nation lies in the ideal of African Nationalism, a dynamic and most powerful philosophy with tremendous force for the overthrow of foreign domination in Africa. The late Lembede emerged with his thesis on Africanism. He gave us the direction as probably no other man could have done, and in doing so, saved us as a nation. We must have faith and devotion to duty with courage and a determination to defend our cherished ideals that Africa is for the Africans, that the Cause of Africa must triumph, that we must remember Africa first, that African nationhood must be achieved irrespective of whatever odds are facing us, and that our right to determine the destiny of our Fatherland is an inherent one. The dawn of the day must come when fascist foreign rule shall have collapsed into a rubble.

The Freedom Charter is a political bluff. It promises a little wonderful heaven if not Utopia around the corner. The question is: How to get there? The answer is: There must be immediate implementation of the Programme of Action of 1949 and the principles laid down therein, item by item, for the achievement of the aims of the envisaged little heaven or the very proposed Utopia round the corner. It is utterly useless to go around shouting empty slogans such as "The people shall govern", "The people shall share", without practical steps towards that government. We are merely being made tools and stooges of interested parties that are anxious to maintain the status quo.

Africa wills to be a nation, both for her own sake and that of humanity. Our Programme of African Nationalism must be implemented fully to the free and full development of our faculties and powers of our intellect and our aspirations. African National Congress has made a catastrophic blunder by accepting foreign leadership by the whites. How can we have leaders who are also led? If this white leadership is denied, why was one Joe Slovo of the Congress of Democrats allowed to become Chairman of the A.N.C. Commission of Enquiry in 1954, into disputes involving A.N.C. policies? He presided over this A.N.C. Commission as Chairman and passed sentences of expulsion against certain members of the A.N.C., including a member of the A.N.C. National Executive, from Congress.

What Constitutional powers did Mr. Slovo have in the A.N.C.? He being a white man and a non-member of the A.N.C., why was he given such powers by Mandela's regime at the time? These are powers vested only in the constitutional authority of the National Conference of the A.N.C. Why did Luthuli fail to intervene in the matter? Is this not leadership by whites?

Afrika desires the progressive improvement of her sons and daughters. She reveres genius and virtue, not hypocrisy and brute force. She desires instructors not masters; the worship of truth and not falsehood and in order that a self-confident African people must exist it is necessary that they should, through action and self-sacrifice attain political consciousness and consciousness of their destiny. This must be achieved by the Africans for the Africans. It is possible that the battles of Blood River, Keiskamahoek and Thaba-Bosiu will be fought again, this time under the banner of African Nationalism; here, history must be repeated, if our African revolutionary struggle must be victorious. In this struggle for African Freedom, there can be no compromise or apology, nor collaboration, nor servitude. Here, we fight it out and to the finish. We either go under or exist as a nation. We are convinced that the struggle is between the conquerors and the vanquished and there can be no compromise nor surrender on our part, nor can we agree to go 50's with the oppressor in Afrika.

It is time that we do not cringe on our knees before the enemies of African national independence, lest we be crushed by the weight of our own cowardice. There is no bravery possible for fearful people. We either perish or survive as an African nation. Our task can never be accomplished through insincerities to our principles nor by false doctrines of expediency; but only through persistent efforts; and self-sacrifice; by ceaseless preaching of our dynamic ideas of a new Afrika. We must destroy the so-called foreign experts in African Affairs in Afrika; the foreign rule;foreign traffickers, the place-hunters and the empty slogan-mongers from the East and West. We reject inexorably and outright the petty intruders, the would-be diplomats. West and Eastern functionaries who infiltrate into our ranks to whisper "friendliness"for the sake of white domination as preached by Strydom-De Villiers Graaff axis and other non-African organisations.

We are putting forward to the African people with forcefulness and courage the postulates on African Nationalism, for the deliverance of our Fatherland from white fascism and win our independence from foreign rule. Together, let us seek the most active and effective method of struggle against the menace of foreign domination in Afrika. This is our urgent immediate task.

Afrika is our Fatherland by decree of Providence and Divine right. We rise to give a pledge that Afrika must be freed. Therefore, let us turn to the graves of our African martyrs, Moshoeshoe, Sekukuni, Makana, Tshaka and Dingani and pray for inspiration from them and from those who died for us in the Cause.

In conclusion, we must honour the memory of African revolutionary martyrs who have fallen beneath foreign tyranny; honour the tears of African mothers for their sons in prisons, in slavery, dead and in exile. We can no longer bear evil, injustice, usurpation and foreign arbitrary rule. If we ever betray the whole or part of our principles of African Nationalism, the Gods will destroy us.

Source: i-AFRIKA

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