Bio of the week

Chris Hani

(28 June 1942 - 10 April 1993)

Political Activist

Chris Hani, born on 28 June 1942, in Cofimvaba, Transkei. General-Secretary of the SACP since December 1991 and ANC NEC member since 1974. Matriculated at Lovedale, 1958; Universities Rhodes and Fort Hare - 1959/61, BA Latin and English. Joined ANC Youth League 1957. Active in Eastern and Western Cape ANC before leaving SA in 1962. Commissar in the Luthuli Detachment joint ANC/ZAPU military campaign 1967, escaped to Botswana, returned from Botswana to Zambia 1968, infiltrated SA in 1973 and then based in Lesotho. Left Maseru for Lusaka in 1982 after several unsuccessful assassination attempts. Commissar and Deputy Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe, armed wing of ANC. Chief of Staff, MK 1987.

The following brief autobiographical account was written by comrade Chris Hani in February 1991:

I was born in a small rural town in the Transkei called Cofimvaba. This town is almost 200 kilometres from East London. I am the fifth child in a family of six. Only three of us are still surviving, the other three died in their infancy. My mother is completely illiterate and my father semi-literate. My father was a migrant worker in the mines in the Transvaal, but he subsequently became an unskilled worker in the building industry.

Life was quite harsh for us and we went through some hard times as our mother had to supplement the family budget through subsistence farming; had to bring us up with very little assistance from my father who was always away working for the white capitalists.

I had to walk twenty kilometres to school every five days and then walk the same distance to church every Sunday. At the age of eight I was already an altar boy in the Catholic church and was quite devout.

After finishing my primary school education I had a burning desire to become a priest but this was vetoed by my father.

In 1954, while I was doing my secondary education, the apartheid regime introduced Bantu Education which was designed to indoctrinate Black pupils to accept and recognise the supremacy of the white man over the blacks in all spheres. This angered and outraged us and paved the way for my involvement in the struggle.

The arraignment for Treason of the ANC leaders in 1956 convinced me to join the ANC and participate in the struggle for freedom. In 1957 I made up my mind and joined the ANC Youth League. I was fifteen then, and since politics was proscribed at African schools our activities were clandestine. In 1959 I went over to university at Fort Hare where I became openly involved in the struggle, as Fort Hare was a liberal campus. It was here that I got exposed to Marxist ideas and the scope and nature of the racist capitalist system. My conversion to Marxism also deepened my non-racial perspective.

My early Catholicism led to my fascination with Latin studies and English literature. These studies in these two course were gobbled up by me and I became an ardent lover of English, Latin and Greek literature, both modern and classical. My studies of literature further strengthened my hatred of all forms of oppression, persecution and obscurantism. The action of tyrants as portrayed in various literary works also made me hate tyranny and institutionalised oppression.

In 1961 I joined the underground South African Communist Party as I realised that national liberation, though essential, would not bring about total economic liberation. My decision to join the Party was influenced by such greats of our struggle like Govan Mbeki, Braam Fischer, JB Marks, Moses Kotane, Ray Simons, etc.

In 1962, having recognised the intransigence of the racist regime, I joined the fledgling MK. This was the beginning of my long road in the armed struggle in which there have been three abortive assassination attempts against me personally. The armed struggle, which we never regarded as exclusive, as we combined it with other forms of struggle, has brought about the present crisis of apartheid.

In 1967 I fought together with Zipra forces in Zimbabwe as political commissar. In 1974 I went back to South Africa to build the underground and I subsequently left for Lesotho where I operated underground and contributed in the building of the ANC underground inside our country.

The four pillars underpinning our struggle have brought about the present crisis of the apartheid regime. The racist regime has reluctantly recognised the legitimacy of our struggle by agreeing to sit down with us to discuss how to begin the negotiations process.

In the current political situation, the decision by our organisation to suspend armed action is correct and is an important contribution in maintaining the momentum of negotiation.

Chris Hani,

February 1991

Article sourced from: http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=2294#sthash.bfa7TeX9.dpuf

Bio of the week

Thabo Mbeki

 (18 June 1942)

 Former President, Activist

Thabo Mbeki is a South African politician born on June 18, 1942, in Mbewuleni, Idutywa, South Africa. The anti-apartheid supporter rose within the political ranks of the African National Congress. He served two terms as the second president of South Africa after Nelson Mandela. Mbeki's controversial stance that HIV did not cause AIDS is believed to have led to delayed medicines and the deaths of more than 300,000 people in his country.

Early Life

Thabo Mbeki is a South African politician born on June 18, 1942, in Mbewuleni, Idutywa, South Africa. Mbeki was the second child of Govan Mbeki and Ma Mofokeng. In 1953, a fire destroyed Mbeki's kraal and family shop, prompting his father to migrate to Johannesburg in search of work.

As a young teen in 1955 at Lovedale College, Mbeki developed an interest in politics. He joined several student political organizations, including the African National Congress Youth League at age 14.

In 1961 in Johannesburg, Mbeki met Nelson Mandela, who advised him to further his education outside of the country. Mandela believed Mbeki's life was in danger due to his political beliefs and affiliations. Mbeki left for London and enrolled in the University of Sussex, graduating with a master's degree in economics in 1966.

The next year Mbeki started a job with Communist Party leader Yusuf Dadoo at the African National Congress offices in London. In 1969 he moved to Moscow to study at the Institute of Social Science.

Career Success

In the '70s Mbeki rose within the ranks at the ANC. The South African government eyed Mbeki as a political foe, and in 1986 hired an assassin to bomb his house. The planned failed after the assassin was spotted and arrested.

Mbeki developed a different philosophy regarding change in South Africa's political structure. In 1990 he persuaded the ANC to stop the armed struggle against the apartheid regime, believing that negotiations, rather than guns, held the key to freedom. That same year he officially returned to South Africa from exile.

Mbeki's rise to political power continued in 1993, when he was elected chairman of the ANC. He addressed the elimination of apartheid at the United Nations. The next year Mbeki was sworn in by Nelson Mandela as the deputy president of the Republic of South Africa of the New Government of National Unity. Later in the year he was appointed deputy president of the African National Congress.

In 1996 Mbeki fired Winnie Mandela as deputy minister, for subordination and abuse of her position. The next year he spoke at the ANC's 50th National Conference to address possible policy changes due to Nelson Mandela's leave from public office. Mbeki was elected the president of the ANC and of South Africa in 1999, and then won a second term as president of the ANC in 2002.

During his time in office, Mbeki's views on AIDS caused much international controversy. He refuted scientific research, stating that AIDS was not caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. He believed poverty, bad nourishment and general ill health were the causes of AIDS, and that expensive Western medicines would not be the solution. Harvard researchers believe his AIDS stance blocked medicine from reaching those afflicted, resulting in as many as 300,000 deaths in his country.

In South Africa's 2004 elections the ANC won the majority of votes. Mbeki was elected to a second term as president of the country on the same day the country celebrated its 10th anniversary as a democratic entity. In 2007 his bid to win a third term failed when he lost the ANC presidential election to Jacob Zuma, though he retained his position as president of South Africa. However, amid allegations of political interference, in 2008 the ANC asked Mbeki to resign as president of South Africa, and he reluctantly obliged.

Mbeki remains involved in non-elected leadership positions in the African region.

Personal Life

In 1958, at age 16, Mbeki and Olive Mpahlwa had an out-of-wedlock son named Monwabise Kwanda. On November 23, 1974, Mbeki married Zanele Dlamini in London.

In 1981, son Monwabise Kwanda disappeared along with Mbeki's youngest brother, Jama, after allegedly trying to leave South Africa to join Mbeki. They were assumed to have been killed by apartheid agents. Mbeki stated, "I, too, and especially my mother, regret that the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] process did not succeed to unearth the truth about what happened to our loved ones who disappeared without trace."

Article sourced from: http://www.biography.com/people/thabo-mbeki-40153

Bio of the week

MARCUS GARVEY

 (17 August 1887– 10 June 1940)

Civil Rights Activist

Born in Jamaica, Marcus Garvey was an orator for the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. Garvey advanced a Pan-African philosophy which inspired a global mass movement, known as Garveyism. Garveyism would eventually inspire others, from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement.

Early Life

Social activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. was born on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. Self-educated, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, dedicated to promoting African-Americans and resettlement in Africa. In the United States he launched several businesses to promote a separate black nation. After he was convicted of mail fraud and deported back to Jamaica, he continued his work for black repatriation to Africa.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the last of 11 children born to Marcus Garvey, Sr. and Sarah Jane Richards. His father was a stone mason, and his mother a domestic worker and farmer. Garvey, Sr. was a great influence on Marcus, who once described him as "severe, firm, determined, bold, and strong, refusing to yield even to superior forces if he believed he was right." His father was known to have a large library, where young Garvey learned to read.

At age 14, Marcus became a printer's apprentice. In 1903, he traveled to Kingston, Jamaica, and soon became involved in union activities. In 1907, he took part in an unsuccessful printer's strike and the experience kindled in him a passion for political activism. Three years later, he traveled throughout Central America working as an newspaper editor and writing about the exploitation of migrant workers in the plantations. He later traveled to London where he attended Birkbeck College (University of London) and worked for the African Times and Orient Review, which advocated Pan-African nationalism.

Founding the United Negro Improvement Association

Inspired by these experiences, Marcus Garvey returned to Jamaica in 1912 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goal of uniting all of African diaspora to "establish a country and absolute government of their own." After corresponding with Booker T. Washington, the American educator who founded Tuskegee Institute, Garvey traveled to the United States in 1916 to raise funds for a similar venture in Jamaica. He settled in New York City and formed a UNIA chapter in Harlem to promote a separatist philosophy of social, political, and economic freedom for blacks. In 1918, Garvey began publishing the widely distributed newspaper Negro World to convey his message.

By 1919, Marcus Garvey and UNIA had launched the Black Star Line, a shipping company that would establish trade and commerce between Africans in America, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Canada and Africa. At the same time, Garvey started the Negros Factories Association, a series of companies that would manufacture marketable commodities in every big industrial center in the Western hemisphere and Africa.

In August 1920, UNIA claimed 4 million members and held its first International Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Before a crowd of 25,000 people from all over world, Marcus Garvey spoke of having pride in African history and culture. Many found his words inspiring, but not all. Some established black leaders found his separatist philosophy ill-conceived. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent black leader and officer of the N.A.A.C.P. called Garvey, "the most dangerous enemy of the Negro race in America." Garvey felt Du Bois was an agent of the white elite.

Charges and Loss of Authority

In 1922, Marcus Garvey and three other UNIA officials were charged with mail fraud involving the Black Star Line. The trial records indicate several improprieties occurred in the prosecution of the case. It didn't help that the shipping line's books contained many accounting irregularities. On June 23, 1923, Garvey was convicted and sentenced to prison for five years. Claiming to be a victim of a politically motivated miscarriage of justice, Garvey appealed his conviction, but was denied. In 1927 he was released from prison and deported to Jamaica.

Garvey continued his political activism and the work of UNIA in Jamaica, and then moved to London in 1935. But he did not command the same influence he had earlier. Perhaps in desperation or maybe in delusion, Garvey collaborated with outspoken segregationist and white supremacist Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi to promote a reparations scheme. The Greater Liberia Act of 1939 would deport 12 million African-Americans to Liberia at federal expense to relieve unemployment. The act failed in Congress, and Garvey lost even more support among the black population.

Death and Legacy

Marcus Garvey died in London in 1940 after several strokes. Due to travel restrictions during World War II, his body was interred in London. In 1964, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jamaica, where the government proclaimed him Jamaica's first national hero and re-interred him at a shrine in the National Heroes Park. But his memory and influence remain. His message of pride and dignity inspired many in the early days of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. In tribute to his many contributions, Garvey's bust has been displayed in the Organization of American States' Hall of Heroes in Washington, D.C. The country of Ghana has named its shipping line the Black Star Line and its national soccer team the Black Stars, in honor of Garvey.

Article sourced from: http://www.biography.com/people/marcus-garvey-9307319