SAY IT OUT LOUD -
The AP0 Presidential Addresses and other Major Political Speeches 1906 - 1940
of
DR ABDULLAH ABDURAHMAN
COLLECTED, EDITED AND WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
by
R.E. VAN DER ROSS
The Western Cape Institute for Historical Research (IHR)
University of the Western Cape,
Bellville, 1990
FOREWORD
I never met Dr Abdurahman in the flesh, but as a boy, and as a young student, I heard about him often as my father and his colleagues in the teaching profession talked about the affairs of the day, and continually spoke of "The Doctor". They spoke of him with respect, with affection, even with awe and reverence. Clearly, he towered above his fellow-men. One day, when I was doing practice-teaching at the Battswood Secondary School in Wynberg, my father, who was principal of the school, addressed the school assembly dressed in a black gown, which he wore on special occasions, and in a voice trembling with emotion, told us that Dr Abdurahman had died.
He despatched me, with a group of students, to Cape Town to attend the funeral. We could scarcely get out of the railway station, and stood jammed in the huge crowd, trying to look across the Grand Parade to where the procession passed in front of the City Hall where Dr Abdurahman had for almost forty years held court, carefully guarding the interests of the people of his beloved City.
He stood for freedom, and for the liberty of the individual. He spoke up when he saw liberty threatened, as it was in his time, as it is at all times. Since his passing, many of the liberties of his people, throughout the country, have been assailed and removed. It would have grieved him to have seen this. But it would also have pleased him could he have witnessed a movement to restore those liberties, and to have known that his philosophy is incipient in this restoration of rights, that his words are often repeated albeit unknowingly, and that his people have risen to his call to resist tyranny and to "snap the chains the moment that we may".
This book records many of Abdurahman's major speeches. In preparing it I have been encouraged and assisted by many people, of whom I wish to name my father, Mr David van der Ross, Mrs Rukeya Abdurahman (widow of the late A.E. "Sonny" Abdurahman), Mrs Rosie Abdurahman (widow of the late "Ashie" Abdurahman), my sister Edith Mulder, Professor Mogamat Ajam, and Dr Abdurahman's daughter Begum and her husband, Professor Ralph Hendrickse and Mr and Mrs James Fillies. My thanks are also due to Professor J.L. Hattingh and Mr H.C. Bredekamp of the Institute for Historical Research of the University of the Western Cape for their willingness to publish this book as a tribute to the life and work of Dr Abdurahman.
The reader will note that many words and phrases used in this volume are unacceptable and even offensive today. Inevitably, they are reproduced as in contemporary usage, as, indeed all of Dr Abdurahman's views are to be viewed in the context of the times in which he lived. Any royalties which might normally accrue to the editor of this book will be paid to a fund to encourage the study of history.
RE VAN DER ROSS
BELHAR
CAPE TOWN
NOVEMBER, 1989.
