FrankTalk Competition Winners

Congratulations to the following winners of the FrankTalk Blog Competition on "What Does It Mean To be A South African?"

1. Nompumemlelo Zinhle Manzini
2. Phetego Kgomo
3. Tshepo Ntokoane
4. K.C Monareng
5. Mpho Mabala

Each of the winners gets a copy of The Steve Biko Memorial Lectures book.

To claim your prize, please send us your full address (where to post your book) via email at dibuseng@sbf.org.za or call 011 403 0310. Alternatively, you can inbox us your address via Facebook at The Steve Biko Foundation.

Many thanks once again to everyone who contributed an article to the FrankTalk blog.

Blacks Don’t Need White People

By Gcobisa Silwana

On the 19th of April 2013, Azania Matiwane’s article “Blacks need white people” http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2013/04/19/blacks-need-white-people-ilive was published on the times live. The following is my response to him.

Matiwane wrote: “On the May 20, 2013, African Union (AU) will be celebrating 50 years of Africa’s independence, alas albeit there would be no reason for celebration for Africa’s people as they continue to experience violent civil wars, corruption, poverty and neglect at the hands of weak leadership by African politicians. Therefore, celebrating the independence of Africa will only be confined to the elite, the African politicians who continue to loot resources of African nations for their respective families and friends under guise of their respective people.”

Mr. Matiwane, while this is true, it is important to keep mindful of what happened in Africa. Remember, white people came to Africa without invitation and as Africans, our natural response was to welcome them. They then abused our ubuntu and took away everything we had, including our self-respect; and then turned us against each other.

Slowly, they forced their ways onto us, and ridiculed our belief in Qamata. We then became known as kaffirs, non-believers. They killed our spirit. As if that was not enough, they made us beg for what was originally ours. We became their slaves. They instilled so much fear in us that we had to accept their dictatorship to survive.

In their eyes we were less human; the saddest part is that we ended up believing this, and some of us still do.
You speak about our attachment to white philosophy. Do you not know of Steve Biko? He was a South African philosopher whose message was that African people should not see themselves inferior or superior to white people. His message was that, even though we may be different, we are all people and we are all equal.

He was killed by the same people that you think we need, because they wouldn’t accept this truth.

I will not pretend that I know what happens in the Prime Minister of Britain’s office – so I will not compare it with Zuma’s office. Anyway, it would almost be the same as asking a pear why it does not taste like a banana. What I can say, however, is that colonialism was the perfect recipe for creating greedy, selfish people. If you deprive somebody of food long enough, the moment they get it, they will want to keep everything to themselves because they do not want to be deprived again. I am not applauding this behaviour – I am only saying that it is something that should be expected.

There are many things that need to be considered. And one of them is that we fought for freedom without properly defining what it is. The circumstances that we were under made us believe that freedom meant walking around without a dompas, and dining in white people’s restaurants etc. We were desperate!

We now walk around without a dompas and we eat in white people’s restaurants. But are we free?
To be honest, to some extent I understand why people like Mogabe and Malema do what they do. They feel Africa’s pain, deeply. But we cannot fight fire with fire. History has taught us that.
You say black people need white people to teach them to care for the environment. Whose factories dump waste products into the ocean?

Don’t forget that while white people got ‘education’ black people got ‘Bantu education’. This was the colonialist’s plan to keep black people dependent on them. And my brother, you fell for it!

I agree that practices such as Ukuthwala are harmful and should not be accepted – but you seem to forget that all cultures (including white people’s culture) have practices that are rather harmful, but some things are not spoken about. I have spent many years amongst white people and I learnt that they do not make a habit of mocking themselves in the presence of black people. They know that they do not have to please us, and we need to know this too.

We could never erase what happened in the past, nor can we forget it. But we have cried for too long, and if we don’t stop, we may never heal!

It would be silly of us to destroy white suburbs and build huts. But we should be able to enjoy what was created on African soil because colonialism did not allow us to develop Africa our own way. Who knows what we would have come up with? I get the feeling it would have been beautiful and free of toxic chemicals!

We do not need physical change; we need a change in consciousness!

I think what our forefathers really wanted was a country where all people are respected and treated equally regardless of their race. A country where an architect values the ‘uneducated’ bricklayer and the bricklayer knows his value. We all know that they are both necessary to making the project a reality.

Sadly, in 2013, the bricklayer still thinks he is nothing without the architect – and the architect benefits from this. We need a country that encourages the bricklayer to constantly aim to improve himself. He should know his value, and not be satisfied with doing the same work for 20 years. It was not by chance that we were all given a brain!

As long as people like you keep saying things like these, white people will never respect black people, and black people will keep on believing that they are inferior. You might get a pat on the back from your white colleagues (who, by the way, see you as a black man on their leash) but your kind of thinking is not beneficial to our people.

Vuka mntakwethu!

This article was first published by Times Live. Please find the original article at http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2013/04/23/black-people-don-t-need-white-people-ilive

Tendering Workshop for the Ginsberg Community

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, invites you to a Tendering Workshop in Ginsberg.

Facilitator: Lungile Sululu from the Steve Biko Foundation
Date: April 29, 2013
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Cost: R20
For more information please contact Mr. Sululu on 043 642 1177 or email lungiles@sbf.org.za

Tambo and The Fight for a Free South Africa

On 24 July 1951, Tambo qualified as an attorney. Mandela, by now also a qualified lawyer, had previously approached him to join in a partnership. They set up offices in Chancellor House, as Mandela and Tambo. As the firm became known, people travelled long distances, from around the country, to seek the services of the young law firm. When Mandela was banned in 1951, Tambo had to carry the workload on his own.

In 1953, Chief Albert Luthuli was elected President of the ANC and Tambo was appointed as National Secretary in place of Walter Sisulu, who had been banned by the government because of the Defiance Campaign. When the 1952 Defiance Campaign was called off, the ANC called a meeting of White activists. Tambo, Sisulu and Bram Fischer were the speakers at this meeting. Tambo carefully explained the aims of the Campaign and how Africans, Coloureds and Indians had responded to it. The audience was moved by his speech and shortly after this, the Congress of Democrats (COD) was formed, in 1953, with Fischer elected as chairperson.

When Canon Collins of St Pauls Church, London visited South Africa, in 1954, Father Huddleston and Tambo took him around to meet Sisulu and other ANC members. He spoke to Collins about his hopes of becoming an ordained minister of the church. This dream was not realised as Father Trevor Huddleston whom Tambo had come consider as his spiritual mentor was recalled to England in 1956.

At the 1954 ANC Congress, Tambo was elected Secretary General. That same year Tambo received his banning orders from the State. However, he remained actively involved in the background working as a member of the National Action Committee which drafted the Freedom Charter following extensive nationwide input and consultation. This was in the run up to the Congress of the People, (COP), convened in June 1955. When the COP was convened, Tambo could not attend due to the restrictions placed on him and had to observe the proceedings from a hiding place at Stanley Lollan’s residence in Kliptown, overlooking the square where the Congress was taking place.

During 1955 Tambo became engaged to Adelaide Tsukhudu, a nurse employed at Baragwanath Hospital. Their wedding was set for 22 December 1956, but it was nearly put off as Tambo was detained on treason charges on 5 December 1956. After all the accused were granted bail, the wedding took place as scheduled. After the preliminary hearings Tambo and Chief Albert Luthuli were acquitted. Altogether 155 members of the ANC were charged in what became known as the 1956 Treason Trial. In 1957, Duma Nokwe replaced Tambo as Secretary General of the ANC, while Tambo was elected Deputy President of the ANC. As early as April 1958 Tambo had confided in Adelaide that the ANC had wanted him together with the family to go into exile. By now the couple had three children, Thembi, Dali and Tselane.

During the ANC’s December 1958 conference the NEC appointed Tambo to chair the conference. A group of former ANC members, known as the Africanists, attempted to disrupt the meeting but Tambo was able to control the meeting leading them to eventually leave. The Africanists broke away from the ANC and in April 1959 constituted themselves as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). More than a decade later, Tambo wrote a stinging criticism of the PAC, accusing them of being divisive and irresponsible.

In 1959, Tambo headed the ANC’s Constitutional Commission. The Tambo Commission recommended that more constitutional recognition be given to the ANC’S Women’s League (ANCWL) and the ANCYL, and endorsed non-racialism and the Freedom Charter, amongst other issues. The constitutional revision of the ANC came to be known as the Tambo Constitution. All the while he had to carry the burden of political work and the work of the law firm alone, since Mandela was still on trial.

In the meantime, Tambo began corresponding with a number of overseas sympathisers. Following the Sharpeville Massacre, Tambo embarked on a “Mission in Exile” in order to gain international support for the South African liberation movement. On 27 March 1960 Tambo was driven by Ronald Segal, the editor of the liberal journal, Africa South across the Bechuanaland (now Botswana) border. Whilst in Bechuanaland, telegrams that Tambo sent to the United Nations (UN) were intercepted and passed on to the South African authorities. Tambo’s stay in Bechuanaland became perilous and haunted by the constant fear of being abducted and returned to South Africa.

Yusuf Dadoo, the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) was also in Bechuanaland, having fled into exile. Frene Ginwala arranged travel documents and transport for Tambo, Dadoo and Segal from the Indian Consul in Kenya. The three men took off from Palapye, in a chartered plane to Tanganyika (now Tanzania). After spending a night in Nyasaland (Malawi), they landed in Dar es Salaam, Tanganiyika where they were met by Ginwala who took them to meet Julius Nyerere.

After that Tambo flew from Tanganyika to Nairobi, where he was issued with further travel documents by the Indian Government. The next day Tambo left for Tunisia where he was invited by the General Secretary of the World Assembly Youth, David Wirmark. It was here that he delivered his first speech outside the country. He also met President Habib Bourgiba of Tunis and was able to explain the ANC’s position to him. From here, he went to Ghana where he had an audience with Kwame Nkrumah and explained the situation in South Africa.

Tambo’s first visit to northern Europe was when he went to Denmark at the invitation of the Prime Minister on 1 May 1960. He addressed meetings in Copenhagen and Aarhus outlining the history of South Africa and called for trade unions to help the ANC’s boycott call. From here, he flew to London where he was met by his friends Father Huddleston and Canon Collins. In London, he had meetings with ANC exiles, Dadoo and representatives of the PAC. His intention was to try to bring together representatives of the liberation movements fighting the South African regime.

Thereafter, he flew to Egypt to enlist the support of the Egyptian leader, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser. From here he flew to Ethiopia where he met with the Non-European United Front, a body made up of ANC and PAC exiles, that was set up to work together with a common purpose. Whilst in Ethiopia, he also addressed the first conference of African heads of state.

At the same time, arrangements were made for Adelaide and the children to travel to Swaziland and from there to Ghana and then on to London. A farmer from Swaziland, Oliver Tedley, transported them across the border into Swaziland. After six frustrating weeks, Adelaide and the children left for Botswana and from here, landed in Accra, Ghana three weeks later. A week later, on 15 September 1960, Adelaide and the children landed in London. Initially they stayed with James Philips a South African exile.

In the meantime Tambo had to go to New York to address the UN. The family then moved into a flat and Adelaide was able to find a job as a nurse at St George’s Hospital. There were times when she had to leave the children alone, locked up for the night, to work the night shift. In the years to come, Tambo saw very little of his family due to his hectic travelling and ANC commitments. Adelaide was forced to work between 12 and 20 hours per day to earn enough for the upkeep of the family. In addition, Adelaide opened her house to members of the ANC arriving in the United Kingdom. Tambo had little money and hardly spent his ANC allowance of £2 a week on himself, saving whatever he could for Christmas gifts and cards for his children.

In October 1962, a consultative meeting chaired by Govan Mbeki, was held in Lobatse, Botswana. It was to confirm the ANC’s NEC mandate, namely, that Tambo was to head the ANC’s diplomatic mission and to communicate to the world the situation in South Africa. As head of the ANC’s Mission in Exile, he had to oversee the growing number of ANC exiles, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) military camps, fundraising, the setting up ANC offices around the world, the welfare of ANC cadres were well taken care of and to interact with the international community. His use of consensus and the collective decision making helped tremendously.

When Chief Luthuli was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, Tambo accompanied Luthuli and his wife throughout their travels to Oslo. In January 1962 Tambo met Mandela and Joe Matthews in Dar es Salaam. Mandela explained to him the details of the decision to launch MK and armed operations, and the ANC’s need to cooperate closely with the SACP in this process. Mandela and Tambo then worked out a programme for the External Mission under the new circumstances whereby the latter had to develop diplomatic support for MK.
Mandela and Tambo travelled to a number of countries in North Africa. Together they returned to London where Mandela met with a number of important British officials and politicians. During this period Tambo also led an ANC delegation to the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Ethiopia in May 1963. In July 1963, the bulk of the MK High Command were arrested. With the incarceration of the Rivonia trialists, it fell upon Tambo to take up leadership of MK.

In 1963, he visited the USSR and China, hoping to gain support from these two countries. The USSR made £ 300,000.00 available to Tambo in 1964. He was later to say that it did not mean that since the ANC was accepting assistance from the USSR that it was aligned to the Russians. At the same time, he had worked to win over Western countries in order to gain support from them. In 1964, Tambo arrived in Dar es Salaam to take up his post as head of MK and the ANC. He shared a guesthouse with other members of the ANC office.

During 1963 and 1964, Tambo made a number of high profile speeches to present the ANC to the world, the most prominent being one made to the UN in October 1963. This speech inspired the UN Resolution XVIII of 11 October 1963 calling on the South African Government to release all political prisoners. Tambo addressed the UN where his passionate plea for the release of political prisoners received a standing ovation. It was at the UN that Tambo met ES Reddy, an Indian national who was the Secretary of the Special Committee on Apartheid. The two men developed a long lasting, enduring friendship. Over the years Reddy became a useful ally of Tambo and the ANC. Support for the ANC’s cause abroad also came from the London Anti-Apartheid Movement. In 1964, Ronald Segal together with the London Anti-Apartheid Movement and Tambo’s involvement organised an International Conference on Economic Sanctions against South Africa.

Following the Rivonia Trial, Tambo called a consultative meeting of ANC representatives from around the world, in Lusaka on 8 January 1965 as it was becoming difficult to meet with the increasing number of branches being set up internationally. That same year he also negotiated with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union [AU]) and the Tanzanian Government for land to set up a military camp in Dar es Salaam. In 1965, he also set up another camp in newly independent Zambia.

At the same time, MK and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) began to work together with the aim of infiltrating then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In 1968, Tambo accompanied the MK group on a number of occasions when they went on reconnaissance expeditions along the Zambesi River, sleeping in the open with the group. Tambo named the group the Luthuli Detachment, in honour of Chief Luthuli who was killed in a tragic railway accident in July 1967 in Groutville, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). The Wankie Campaign was the first significant military campaign for the ANC. In spite of some victories against Rhodesian forces, the group was forced to retreat, as they had to face the military might of the combined South African and Rhodesian forces.

OR lived under constant pressure and stress, which at times affected his health and given the demands of his position he had little time to recuperate from illness. At the same time, there were strident criticisms from rank and file members over a host of issues ranging from military to social to political.

A memorandum from Chris Hani’s group that was incarcerated in Botswana following the
Wankie Campaign issued a scathing memorandum, upon their release, of various senior ANC leaders and accused Tambo of failing to adhere to democratic principles. Tambo was disturbed by the memorandum and at the low morale in the camps. As a result, he decided to call a consultative conference of the ANC. He sent word, secretly, to the leadership on Robben Island about the conference. After months of intense preparation, the conference of about 700 ANC members in exile, MK and the Congress Alliance partners took place on April 1969 at Morogoro, Tanzania. In his address to the conference, Tambo emphasised that it was a consultative conference.

At this meeting, Tambo tended his resignation from the ANC, following personal attacks. This threw the conference into disarray and Tambo was persuaded to return. A new executive was elected and Tambo was unanimously re-elected as President. This position was endorsed by the leadership on Robben Island in a message conveyed by Mac Maharaj following his release from the Island. The leadership was restructured into the Revolutionary Council, chaired by Tambo and included Yusuf Dadoo, Reg September and Joe Slovo. Tambo kept updated about discussions on the Island as he was briefed by prisoners who were released and through correspondence, via various sources that he had clandestinely developed, was able to communicate to the leadership on the Island.

In the aftermath of the 1976 student rebellion, Tambo had to rethink ways of effectively managing the organisation. He approached the Tanzanian Government for a piece of land to establish a school for exiles. The school was named after Solomon Mahlangu, an MK guerrilla who was executed by the Government after an attack on a warehouse on Goch Street, Johannesburg. He also recruited Pallo Jordan to develop Radio Freedom, on which Tambo often spoke, in Lusaka to broadcast ANC propaganda.

Tambo reached other organisations such as the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). However, the death of Steve Biko at the hands of the police in detention and the banning of other BCM activists meant that a planned meeting with the BCM leaders was set back. Tambo also met a number of visiting homeland leaders, in particular, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in London. In 1978, Tambo headed a delegation to Vietnam where they attended numerous lectures and met with activists in the Vietnamese struggles. Subsequent to this visit, he commissioned a Politico-Military Strategy Council to lay the groundwork for mass support and mass mobilisation. The Commission recommended a programme whereby all opposition groups within the country would join forces around a broad programme of opposition to Apartheid.

Tambo was very mindful of the rights of women. He commissioned a Code of Conduct that saw that women’s rights are respected and upheld by all in the organisation. He tried to ensure that the abuse of women was eradicated.

Between 1983 and 1985, there were two mutinies in MK camps in Angola. Young cadres who wanted to be deployed back home mutinied when this did not take place. In addition deteriorating conditions at the camps also contributed to the mutiny. Tambo appointed James Stuart to head this Commission to investigate. It became known as the Stuart Commission. However, as early as 1983, Tambo visited camps, in Angola, to address cadres based there. Whenever he visited the camps, he would talk to the cadres about their problems. At times, he even entertained what one may consider trivial personal issues.

Following the signing of the Nkomati Accord between South Africa and Mozambique, cadres in the camps mutinied again, demanding to return home to fight. Again, Tambo addressed the cadres explaining to them the need for diplomacy under the circumstances, with the need to balance the undertaking of the armed struggle back home. As a result of growing frustrations of cadres in camps, in 1985, another ANC consultative conference took place in Kabwe, Zambia. Amongst many important issues that were dealt with and decisions that were arrived at, Tambo commissioned a Code of Conduct to deal with issues of procedure and detention. However despite the Code of Conduct, abuse in the camps did not stop.

Tambo remained acutely aware of the need to make and keep contact with both the civil and the corporate world. Already by the 1980s, he had met with American multinationals in order to explain the ANC’s position to them. Whilst Tambo was expanding the ANC’s network on a diplomatic, corporate, cultural and sporting level, the South African regime was becoming increasingly even more repressive at home and was engaging in more cross border raids.

On 8 January 1985, Tambo delivered his most dramatic speech calling on people to “Render South Africa Ungovernable.” Following the July 1985 State of Emergency, he appealed to all South Africans, Black and White, to make Apartheid unworkable and the country ungovernable. With social unrest increasing and the Apartheid Government under pressure, Tambo stated that this alone was insufficient and that alternative people’s structures had to be built.

That same year Tambo and the ANC met a high-powered delegation of the foremost captains of industry from South Africa. This meeting was due to the efforts of Gavin Relly, a director at Anglo American. At this meeting Tambo explained the ANC’s position and fielded questions from the understandably apprehensive business people. Subsequent to this meeting, the National African Confederation of Commerce, a Black business grouping, headed by Sam Motsunyana, also met with the ANC.

In October 1985, Tambo was asked to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons in London, where he had to field difficult questions and sometimes hostile questioners. The result of this was that the following year, the United Kingdom, as part of the Commonwealth, sent an Eminent Persons Group to investigate the situation in the country. Then in 1986, he called for a campaign to establish an alternative system of education and called for the unbanning of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS).
In 1987, Tambo appointed a high-powered Commission of ANC legal people to draw up a constitution to reflect the kind of country that the ANC wanted for the future. He also sat in on these meetings, often guiding the meetings. Tambo had consistently advocated support for a multiparty democracy and an entrenched Bill of Rights. Also in 1987, Tambo together with others conceived and headed a top-secret covert mission by MK known as Operation Vula. Tambo chose the operatives to infiltrate into the country to work underground establishing networks and arms caches.

In 1988, Tambo called an emergency meeting of the ANC’s Politico-Military Council (PMC) to determine the position of MK operations in South Africa. In spite of the South African Defence Force (SADF) massacring ANC members in Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique, Tambo insisted that the ANC should maintain moral high ground and avoid the loss of civilian life in its operations. This was in response, especially, to when MK struck at two “soft targets,” fast food outlets in the country.

In 1988 Tambo appointed a President’s Team on Negotiations to draw up the ANC’s position and approach to the negotiations drawing from viewpoints from the exiles and the Mass Democratic Movement in the country. In the meantime, the South African establishment was secretly making moves to approach the ANC for negotiations through exploratory meetings. On 31 May 1989, Thabo Mbeki, after receiving the go ahead from Tambo called Professor Willie Esterhuyse, who had been part of these meetings, to set up a meeting between the ANC and the South African National Intelligence Service. Mbeki was in many ways a protégé of Tambo as the pair worked very closely together.

Following extensive discussions with the Front Line State leaders, Tambo led and worked closely with the ANC team which drafted the Harare Declaration. The declaration acknowledged that there may be an opportunity for negotiations with the South African regime with the end of Apartheid in mind. It explained the climate and principles, which had to be created, before negotiations could begin.

Pressure and exhaustion took its toll on Tambo and in 1989 he suffered a severe stroke that resulted in him losing his speech. Following his stroke, he was rushed from Lusaka to London on Tony Rowland’s executive plane on the order of President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, to Harley Street in London. Rowland also paid for the medical treatment. Against the advice of his physician and the NEC, Tambo continued his punishing work schedule and travelling on ANC business. He suffered another stroke in 1991 whilst undergoing medical treatment in Sweden. Again Rowland flew him back to London where he was treated.

With the unbanning of the ANC in 1990 and the process of transition already underway, the entire Tambo family flew back to South Africa in December 1990. However, Tambo was unable to address the welcoming crowd at the airport due to his loss of speech. A welcome rally was organised at Orlando Stadium, attended by a crowd of 70,000 people. At the ANC Conference, in Durban in 1991, Tambo declined to stand for any position. The position of National Chairman was created in his honour. Nelson Mandela was elected President of the organisation.

In 1991, Tambo was installed as Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare. In February 1993, he opened a large international conference in Johannesburg, chaired by Thabo Mbeki. Foreign dignitaries and representatives of anti-Apartheid movements filled the hall to listen to Tambo thank their countries and organisations for their contribution in helping to end Apartheid. Despite his illness, Tambo came to the ANC, in Johannesburg, office every day and still addressed public meetings of organisations.

During the early hours of the morning of 23 April 1993, Oliver Reginald Tambo passed away after a heart attack. He was honoured with a state funeral where scores of friends, supporters, colleagues and heads of state bade him farewell. His epitaph, reads, in his own words:
It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither Whites nor Blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity.



Position:
President (1967 - 1991) Deputy President (1958 - 1985) General Secretary (1955 - 1958)


References
• Callinicos L. (2004), Oliver Tambo. Beyond the Engeli Mountains, (David Philips Publishers), Claremont, Cape Town
• Jordan, P.Z. (2007). Oliver Tambo Remebered. Pan Macmillan, Johannesburg
• ANC (date unknown).Oliver Reginald Tambo. Available at www.anc.org.za online. Accessed on 17 October 2011


Biography retrieved from the South African History Online at
http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/oliver-reginald-tambo

Biography of the Week: Oliver Tambo

Names: Tambo, Oliver Reginald
Born: 27 October 1917, Nkantolo, Bizana, Mpondoland, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Died: 24 April 1993, Johannesburg
In summary: Teacher, lawyer, President and National Chairperson of the ANC.

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (OR) was born in the village of Kantilla, Bizana, in the Mpondoland (eQawukeni), region of the Eastern Cape, on 27 October 1917. His mother, Julia, was the third wife of Mzimeni Tambo, son of a farmer and an assistant salesperson at a local trading store. His father had four wives and ten children and, although illiterate, lived comfortably. Mzimeni Tambo was a traditionalist, but also saw the importance of Western education. Later, Mzimeni converted to Christianity while Oliver's mother was already a devout Christian. After his birth, Oliver was christened Kaizana, after Kaizer Wilhelm of Germany, whose forces fought the British during World War 1. This was his father's way of showing his political awareness and his opposition to the British colonisation of Pondoland in 1878.

As a young boy, he was given the task of herding his father’s cattle. With his fellow herders, he soon learnt to hunt birds, take part in stick fighting (at which he was quite adept) and model animals from clay.

When Tambo was six his father informed him that he was to start school, which was about a kilometre from his home. After enrolling, his teacher informed him that he had to have a "school name" and therefore his father gave him the name Oliver. Tambo passed Sub A, after which he attended another school at Embhobeni. Here he was first introduced to formal music, which became a lifelong activity and hobby.

His father, intent on providing his children with a good education, moved his children to the Ludeke Methodist School, some 16 kilometres away from the homestead. Occasionally his father would lend Tambo his horse to travel to school. To overcome the inconvenience of travelling the long distance to school his father got him to board with three families, all of whom who lived near the school.

In April 1928, Tambo and his brother Alan enrolled at the Anglican Holy Cross missionary school at Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape. His father could not afford their fees, but through two English women who were total strangers to them, Joyce and Ruth Goddard, assisted by sending a sum of £10 every year to cover his educational costs. In addition, one of his older brothers who worked as a migrant labourer in Natal, (now KwaZulu-Natal) also sent part of his wages to cover any additional costs. Tambo’s spiritual life was nurtured at Holy Cross where he was baptised as a Christian into the Anglican fold.

At this school, Tambo became a good cricketer and soccer player, and acquired quite a reputation as an athlete. He also established his prowess as a stick fighter. Amongst the schoolchildren at this school, was Fikile Bam, who was later imprisoned on Robben Island for Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) activities and rose to become a prominent attorney.

Tambo excelled at his studies but due to a lack of funds he was forced to repeat Standard Six (Grade Eight) two times in spite of passing at his first attempt. In 1934 he set out for St Peter's Secondary School in Rosettenville, Johannesburg with the assistance of Miss Tidmarsh his former teacher.

Apart from participating in soccer, tennis and cricket at St Peter’s, he was also a member of the school’s choir. At the age of 16, while on holiday in Kantolo, Tambo and some friends formed the Bizana Students Association (BSA). He was elected as Secretary of the organisation and Caledon Mda, was elected Chairperson. The aim of the BSA was to mobilise students during the holidays and engage them in organised activities.

Tambo was offered the position of Head Prefect at school but declined in favour of another student. Instead, he took up the position of Deputy Head Prefect. At about this time he renounced alcohol, vowing never to consume any more, something he did throughout his life. Tragedy struck during this period as his parents passed away within a year of each other.

In November 1936, he wrote his Junior Certificate (JC) examination, alongside black and white students in the Transvaal (now Gauteng). For the first time in history, two African students, one being Tambo, passed the JC examination with a first class. The Transkei Bhunga (Assembly of Chiefs), awarded him a five-year scholarship of £30 per annum. The University of South Africa also awarded him a two-year scholarship of £20. He then sat for the matriculation examinations in December 1938, which he passed with a first class pass.
Tambo initially wanted to study medicine, but at the time, no tertiary medical school accepted Black students in that field. He opted to study the sciences at the University of Fort Hare. At university, he first met Nelson Mandela, where both were members of the Students Christian Association. From his first year, Tambo taught Sunday school. He was also part of a singing group of eight students that was broadcast over the local radio station in Grahamstown. At the same time, he was stricken with asthma, a condition that he endured throughout his life.

In 1941, a White person in charge of the university kitchen assaulted Black women working there. An enquiry into the issue exonerated the man involved. The students convened a meeting and following intense debate, influenced by Tambo’s guidance, went on a boycott. In 1942, he was unanimously elected as Chairperson of the Students' Committee of his residence, Beda Hall. After three years, Tambo graduated with a B.Sc. degree in mathematics and physics from the University College of Fort Hare. He then enrolled for a diploma in higher education.

During this period Tambo led an initiative for students to rebuild a disused tennis court on the campus in order to pass time on Sundays. When the tennis court was completed, the students scheduled an opening ceremony, which Tambo reported to the Warden. The authorities declined permission for the students to play tennis on Sundays, as they believed it was a breach of the faith. The students then embarked on a policy of non-cooperation with the university authorities. As a consequence, Tambo, who at the time was Secretary of the Students Representative Council, together 45 other students, was expelled. All but 10 of them were readmitted after two or three weeks.

After his expulsion, Tambo went back to his home in Kantolo. He then applied for teaching jobs but was turned down when prospective employers learnt that he was expelled from University. Fortunately, he was offered a position as a teacher in Physics and Mathematics at his alma mater, St Peter's, where he spent five years. Former students taught by him recall his engaging style of teaching and consider him as an outstanding teacher. During this period Tambo became part of a small network of the young African elite in Johannesburg.

In 1942, he met Walter Sisulu, an estate agent whose office was used as a regular gathering place by young intellectuals. It was here that he also met other likeminded young people like Anton Lembede, Jordan Ngubane and Nelson Mandela, a fellow student from Fort Hare. Sisulu invited Tambo to his house where he was soon a regular guest on weekends.
Tambo, Sisulu, Mandela and other young intellectuals of the time regularly visited the house of Dr AB Xuma, a medical doctor who was also the President of the African National Congress (ANC). Here they formulated a plan to revive the ANC and make it more accessible to ordinary people. Tambo became informally involved in discussions of a committee of ANC members and Xuma responsible for drawing up a document called the African Claims in South Africa. He continued to do so until the final stages of its preparations. The ANC adopted this document at its 1943 Bloemfontein conference.

The idea of a national grouping of young men was conceived by Tambo and this idea crystallised into the beginnings of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). In December 1943, the ANCYL was formally accepted by the ANC at its Congress in Botshabelo, Bloemfontein and in September 1944, it held its official inauguration. Speakers at this meeting included Dr Xuma, Selope Thema, Dan Tloome and Tambo. Anton Lembede was elected President of the new ANCYL, AP Mda as the Vice President, Tambo as the Secretary and Sisulu as its Treasurer.

In 1948, the National Party (NP) came into power and a number of discriminatory laws were put into place. At around this time, Tambo enrolled to study law through correspondence. With the NP Government, passing more stringent laws against the disenfranchised population, the ANCYL, with Tambo as the scribe, prepared a Programme of Action, selecting tactics employed by other organisations in other campaigns – the civil disobedience campaign of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign of the Indian organisations, strikes by the labour movement, mass action by the Communist Party of South Africa as well as grass roots campaigns such as that of James Mpanza’s Sofasonke movement.

At the 1948, ANC conference the ANCYL presented its document. However, Dr Xuma was not in favour of confrontational politics. The ANCYL resolved not to support his re-election as president unless he endorsed the Programme of Action. The conference itself accepted the Programme of Action but Xuma rejected the principle of the boycott tactics suggested by members of the ANCYL. Tambo and Ntsu Mokgehle (later to become the Prime Minister of Lesotho) then went and convinced Dr James S Moroka to stand as the ANC’s President. He was duly elected and the conference formally adopted the Programme of Action.

By 1948, Tambo was serving his law articles with a company of White lawyers, Max Kramer and Tuch. At the end of 1949, Tuch and Tambo joined the company of Solomon Kowalsky. One of his first cases at this company was a dispute among the Bafokeng people over land rights in Rustenburg, Western Transvaal (now North West Province). His sound knowledge of customary law helped, successfully, to conclude the case. At the same time he enrolled and studied by correspondence through the University of South Africa, studying by candle light at home.

Read the full biography from the South African History Online at
http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/oliver-reginald-tambo

The First Crucial Steps to Starting and Running a Business

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, invites you to a workshop on the first crucial steps to starting and running a business.


Facilitator: Lungile Sululu from the Steve Biko Foundation

Date: April 25, 2013

Time: 10:00 – 12:00

Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape

Cost: R20

The Poor Black Masses Need Black Consciousness Now More Than Ever

By Nompumelelo Zinhle Manzini


In the Quest for a True Humanity, I Write What I Like Steve Biko wrote that “Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time, its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression- the blackness of the skin- and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that blind them to perpetual servitude”

I attended the fourth session of the FrankTalk Dialogues. These dialogues are intended for us as the youth to engage in discussions on prominent issues that impact our contemporary South African society ranging from political, to economic and social development. The key topic that we discussed together with the panellists and the live audience was Biko and Black Consciousness, Today. Mr Pandelani Nefelovhodwe, a panellist and former BCM leader, stated that “the apartheid economy is still intact” and that on its own suggests for me that the Black Consciousness is still greatly needed and relevant. The sad reality is that the movement is slowly dying out, whereas this is the time when it should be at its peak.

If the apartheid economy is still intact as Mr Nefelovhodwe suggested, this means that a large number of our people are repressed. Thus their “self” is inexistent and one of the key issues that Black Consciousness teaches is for people to have “a ‘self’ and to further find their identity. Therefore how can we as a nation progress effectively if there are still people who are repressed by the government that was meant to liberate them? Our people’s repression is a result of many issues such as the poor leadership that we have in our government, which has a trickle-down effect on our economic, social and somewhat political freedom. Instead of black men rallying together with their fellow brothers around the cause of their oppression which is “the blackness of [their] skin” and the dismal services it entitles one to, i.e. poor education system creates even greater divisions amongst blacks.

I for one feel that the reason that the BCM is dying out is because it’s only amongst the educated black elite in our society. For instance, most of the live audience members at these dialogues are young people who are largely informed and somewhat educated. The room gets full of conscious individuals and these are the people who don’t need to hear about BCM. It’s our fellow brothers and sisters who are somewhere in Alexander who don’t want to challenge the system that need to hear about BCM. Another possible reason why BC is fading away is because our generation engages in many dialogues but we don’t see much action! As Mr Nefolovhodwe said on Tuesday night as “the youth [we need] to organise [ourselves]” and use the many advanced resources that we have to awaken our people to consciousness”.

FNB Business Banking Workshop

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, invites you to a workshop on FNB Business Banking to be held in Ginsberg.

Facilitator: Representative from FNB
Date: April 24, 2013
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, King William's Town, Eastern Cape
Cost: Free

NB: Clients are urged to book in advance for the Micro MBA Workshop.

Police “Shoot to Kill” in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By Tshepo Ntokoane, Founder of the Andries Tatane Foundation
Bloemfontein, Free State Province, South Africa

During the apartheid regime, we firmly condemned the naked police brutality of the Sharpeville Massacre, the Langa Massacre and many other incidents of this nature. Today, decades after ‘freedom’, we give ourselves a round of applause and congratulate the inhuman acts of brutality by police. Cases such as the Marikana “Massacre” are referred to as “responsible policing.”

What happened to ubuntu? What happened to batho pele (people first)? Is it the truth or what we can prove in court that matters now? Where have we placed our people’s dignity in the rankings? Last?

The late Prof. Chinua Achebe once said “We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.” Where do recent patterns of police brutality place us in as far as ubuntu or humanity is concerned?

No one deserves to die like Tatane, Mido and the miners of Marikana. We all have the right of dignity.

Reducing police training from 2 years to 1 year; hiring anybody, even those with no passion to protect our communities because we want to create employment; employing (in senior positions) individuals without experience in policing is the reason South Africa is faced with this crisis today. It puzzles me that government refuses to set up a commission of inquiry into police conduct even though stats show 1 722 cases and 720 deaths related to police brutality reported to the IPID in 2011/2012.

The ideology behind the police actions in this country remains “shoot to kill” in a democratic country; similar to "skop, skiet en donder" during the Aparthied regime.

Steve Biko once rephrased to Aimé Césaire and said: “When I turn on my radio, when I hear that someone in the Pondoland forest was beaten and tortured, I say that we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead,” Perhaps I should add: “When I switch on my television and see someone being assaulted, dragged behind the police van, getting shot for protesting against service delivery, I say that we have been lied to: Piet Botha and James Kruger are not dead.” I ask myself, is this what democracy is all about? Is this what the freedom fighters died for?”

“Give black people guns. They will go and kill each other and murder cases among blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them.” that’s what P.W Botha said. Andries Tatane and many other cases not published on the media confirm this statement.

What happened to the truth if the accused are found not guilty in the murder case of Tatane? They were recorded live, brutally assaulting and deadly shooting him in the chest with one shot but two rubber bullets, one bullet which was reported to have gone to his heart and the other one to his lung. Not Guilty?

If we as the people are silent, if we are not going to testify as witnesses in court as was the case in Tatane’s, then police brutality will never end. We will continue to chant ‘rainbow nation’ while our people die like insects.

If we let this go on without punishment, history will repeat itself, strangers will become brothers, they will fight fire stone like the youth of ’76. They will no longer sing ‘kill the boer, kill the farmer’ but ‘kill the police, kill the enemy.’ They will sing with their last breaths and then we will want to listen;
‘wa thinta thina, wa thint’abangazokufa, safa sa phenduka, sa phenduk’ inj’ebovu… wanyakaz’umkhonto we nkonyane kaNdaba.”

Being South African Goes Beyond Pigmentation

By Benny-yock Aye Simon



As a black man, I often find myself being caught between being positive and being myself. Back in the days of our black leaders, they were not obsessed with being blacks. It was not an option. It was a situation that you were forced to live through. So this is what I mean that I am caught between being positive, and being myself. Because many times being positive is a farce, a front, a comfortable, a polite way of saying that I am proud of being a black African. I would like to think that being a South African is not by the colour of the skin but by the efforts that one has brought into the blacks and whites world. Therefore, being a South African is not a matter of skin pigmentation but the mental attitude.

We Remember Enoch Sontonga

Names: Sontonga, Enoch Mankayi

Born: 1873, Eastern Cape

Died: 18 April 1905

In summary: Composer and author of the first stanza of Nkosi Sikelel ‘iAfrika, the anthem South Africa adopted after its first democratic elections in 1994.

Enoch Sontonga was born in the Eastern Cape around 1873 as a member of the Mpinga clan, a part of the Xhosa-speaking section of the South African nation.

He trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Training College after which he was sent to a Methodist Mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg in 1896. He taught here for nearly 8 years. Sontonga was an artistic man and was also the choirmaster at his school, as well as an amateur photographer. He married Diana Mgqibisa, the daughter of a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who passed away in 1929, years after his death.

Sontonga was a distinguished and productive poet and also preached in his church on occasion. He wrote the first verse of our anthem as a hymn for his school choir and it was first sung at the ordination of South Africa's first Black Methodist minister in 1899. Sontonga lived in Pimville, Soweto, and died at the young age of 32 in 1905. He was buried in the ‘non-White' section of the Braamfontein Cemetery in Johannesburg.

Nkosi Sikelel ‘iAfrika was first recorded in 1923 as a result of Sol Plaatje's efforts, and verses were added by the Xhosa poet Samuel Mqhayi. The entire song was published in a pamphlet in 1927 by Lovedale Press and has since been included in the Presbyterian Xhosa hymnbook. By 1925 Nkosi Sikelel ‘iAfrika had become the official song of the African National Congress (ANC) and was also sung during the British Royal visit in 1947. In the 1960's Zambia adopted the song as its national anthem.

In 1994 Nkosi Sikelel ‘iAfrika and “Die Stem van Suid Afrika”, the old South African anthem, became our official national song. Sontonga's grave was declared a national monument on 24 September of the same year. The Gold Order of Meritorious Service was posthumously awarded to Sontonga for his service to our country.

References

Walker, G. (1996). Enoch Mankayi Sontonga. National Monuments Council [Online]. Available at: anc.org.za. [Accessed on 30 March 2009]

Biography Retrieved from South African History Online at http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/enoch-mankayi-sontonga

The Steve Biko Legacy Classes to Host The Qumbu District Schools

The Steve Biko Centre, an initiative of the Steve Biko Foundation, continues to facilitate legacy classes exploring the role played by Bantu Stephen Biko & Black Consciousness in the South African liberation struggle.


Currently, Steve Biko is a part of the school curriculum for grades 4, 9, 11 and 12. Biko also frequently appears on the matric exam. These factors make hosting students an integral part of the Foundation’s educational program. To facilitate these visits, SBF has developed Biko Legacy Lectures, which teachers book to bring their classes to in advance. During these lectures, an SBF program officer details relevant aspects of Biko’s life and the Black Consciousness Movement according to the requirements of the class. Students are also provided with worksheets that are then discussed in order to create an interactive environment.

On Friday April 26, 2013, we host the following Schools from the Qumbu Cluster District of Education:

1. Lutuka Senior Secondary School
2. Qumbu Village Senior Secondary School
3. Nkwiliso Senior Secondary School
4. Shawbury Senior Secondary School
5. Luthubeni Senior Secondary School


For bookings you may contact Mr. Jongi Hoza on 043 605 6700 or jongi@sbf.org.za during office hours.

I Am South African and Rich In History

By Mhlabuthini Sibiya

To be a South African means, I am reach in history, history which should not be an excuse of my failures but a drive to my success. That I'm a reflection of my thoughts and dreams for I am no more defined by colour nor my background but by the distance I can walk and the bridges I may build to cross the impossible to swim rivers. Born in the first ever generation of a united rainbow nation. I shout out loud "free at last, free at last, thank god almighty our heroes made us free at last!!!" I boast not of the numerous shields of rights I hold but the responsibilities I shot out. This means acknowledging that when I point out fingers three more point back at me. The people shall govern, means being a South African.

The Business Incubator collaborates with SARS to host an Income Tax Workshop

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, invites you to an Income Tax Workshop.

Facilitator: SARS Representative
Date: April 23, 2013
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Cost: Free

NB: Clients are urged to book in advance for the MICRO-MBA Workshop.

For more information contact Mr. Sululu on 043 605 6700 or via email at lungiles@sbf.org.za

Biography of the Week: Ahmed Ben Bella

Ahmed Ben Bella is a Pan-Africanist and nationalist leader of Algeria. He was one of the first to take up the armed struggle against French colonial rule. He became the first president of Algeria in 1963 and was deposed by military coup in 1965.

Date of Birth: 25 December 1918, Marnia (now Maghnia), Algeria
Date of death: 11 April 2012, Algiers, Algeria.



Early Life

Ahmed Ben Bella was born in Marnia, in the French department of Oran, Algeria, next to the border with Morocco. At the time Algeria was a French colony with over 1 million French settlers and a government which discriminated against the country's indigenous Mulsim population.

Ben Bella was one of seven children born to an Algerian farmer and small trader. The family were Sufi Muslims. He initially attended a local French school, then continued his secondary level education in Tlemcen, where he first became aware of racial discrimination (teaching was excessively Eurocentric). He also became aware of the burgeoning nationalist movement in Algeria -- as typified by the Parti du Peuple Algérien (PPA, Algerian People's Party) which was heavily persecuted by the settler authorities.

Military Service

Ben Bella left school without a qualification in 1937 and was swiftly conscripted into the French army. He was posted to Marseille and placed in an Alpine infantry regiment which had both French and Algerian conscripts. He excelled and was soon made a sergeant. He also played mid-field for the local football club, Olympique de Marseille. When Germany invaded France (WWII) he with the army, was mentioned several times in dispatches, and in 1940 was awarded the Criox de Guerre (War Cross).

Demobilized after the fall of France, Ben Bella was invited to stay in Marseille to play professional football, but he decided instead to return to Algeria and run the family farm.

Ben Bella was recalled into military service in 1943 and assigned to an Algerian regiment, but his outspoken opposition to the discrimination against Algerian soldiers by French officers got him transferred to a regiment of Moroccan tirailleurs. He saw action in the Italian campaign with the Free French forces and took part in the liberation of Rome. By 1944 he had risen to sergeant-major and been awarded the Médaille Militaire (Military Medal) by Charles de Gaulle.



The Struggle for Algerian Independence

In 1945, Ben Bella heard of the uprisings in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata and the subsequent reprisals by French settler authorities which resulted in the deaths of several thousand Algerian Muslims. He determined to return to Algeria and work for the nationalist cause. Returning to Marnia he took up the position of town councilor and resumed his nationalistic activities. He also joined the main Algerian nationalist party, Messali Hadj's Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques (MTLD, Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties) which had replaced the now outlawed PPA. When the French authorities confiscated his farm he relocated to Algiers, went underground as one of Messali Hadj's 'Young Turks'.

When Marcel-Edmond Naegelen was elected as Governor-General of Algeria in 1948, all pretense of achieving a democratically elected independent government disappeared. With the backing of Messali Hadj's party, Ben Bella founded the Organisation Spéciale (OS, Special Organization) -- paramilitary organization with the aim of starting an armed struggle against French rule.

In 1950 Ben Bella was part of group which robbed the main post office in Oran - ostensibly to obtain funds for the nationalist movement. Ben Bella was caught and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, but he escaped from Blida prison after serving only two years. He fled first to France and then to Egypt, where he re-established the OS with Egyptian help (including that of Gamel Abdel Nassser).

Biography retrieved from http://africanhistory.about.com/od/panafricanists/a/AhmedBenBella.htm

Letter From The Birmingham Jail: Martin Luther King Jr.

By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Background

- In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), targeted Birmingham, Alabama, with a series of peaceful demonstrations aimed at the ending segregation. The police reacted violently with attack dogs and high-pressure fire hoses. Hundreds of protesters, including King, were jailed. At first, King was criticized for taking on Birmingham; eight white clergymen published a letter calling his actions "unwise and untimely." But he responded with his own letter citing philosophers, religious scholars, and biblical figures to justify his actions.

April 16, 1963

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent directaction program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came, we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid!

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails so express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham that in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiations.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants -- for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs.

On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.

As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer. You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act...My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral that individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited for more that 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a crosscountry drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored" when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when your are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus is it that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. 'Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro the wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all it ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light injustice must be exposed with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion, before it can be cured.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber... Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let himmake prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -- and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus and extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like am ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvery's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists...

I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and when her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts, and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King Jr.

Mzansi and Me, Today

By Phethego Kgomo

THE DANGEROUS TIMES



"I am Selfless and Giving"
"I am one with Nature"
"I make you feel good about where you shouldn't be"
"We are One"
"I am beautiful"
"I have a father"


EVERLASTING PROTEST



"Lord, every year I fear for my children's future"
"Our voices are in shackles"
"We are caught in a cycle of perpetual destruction"
"Please deliver us..from everlasting protest"

Old Mutual and The Business Incubator to host a Basic Financial Management Workshop

The Business Incubator, an initiative of the Steve Biko Centre, in collaboration with Old Mutual, invites you to a Workshop on Basic Financial Management.

Facilitator: Representative from Old Mutual
Date: April 18 , 2013
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: The Steve Biko Centre, One Zotshie Street, Ginsberg, Eastern Cape
Cost: Free

For more information contact Mr. Lungile Sululu on 043-6421177 or email lungiles@sbf.org.za

NB: Clients are urged to book in advance for the Micro MBA Workshop