Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu

Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was born in Pretoria on the 10^th of July, 1956. He was the second son of Martha Mahlangu, a domestic worker. His father left his family, and Mahlangu saw him infrequently. Consequently, Mahlangu’s mother was solely responsible for raising Mahlangu and his siblings.

Mahlangu’s anti-apartheid activism started when he was a student at Mamelodi High School. During that time, protests against Bantu Education were ongoing throughout South Africa, and as a result the school closed down and Mahlangu did not complete the 10^th grade. After being recruited by Thomas Masuku, Mahlangu joined the protests in Mamelodi.

Shortly after the 1976 Soweto Uprising, Mahlangu left South Africa to join the African National Congress (ANC), to be trained as an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) cadre. He was part of a new generation of MK named the June 16 Detachment, which mainly consisted of individuals who were part of the student protests. Mahlangu travelled with Temba Nkosi and Richard Chauke to Angola. On their way to Angola, they spent six months at Xai Xai Refugee Cape in Mozambique; thereafter, they were taken to an ANC training facility called Engineering in Angola. At Engineering, Mahlangu joined a unit of ten men under Julius Mokoena, and amongst the ten were George ‘Lucky’ Mahlangu and Mondy Motloung. The unit underwent courses in sabotage, military combat, scouting and political education.

When Mahlangu left South Africa, he did not inform his family. He left a letter under his brother’s pillow that read: “Boet Lucas, Boet Lucas, don’t look for me, I have left and you’ll never find me.” His family assumed he was selling goods on trains and had settled in Pietersberg. Nkosi’s father later on informed Mahlangu’s family that their son had left the country to join the ANC in exile.

In 1977, Mahlangu’s unit left Angola for South Africa, with the aim of joining the student protests commemorating the one year anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Mahlangu travelled with Lucky Mahlangu and Motloung to South Africa via Mozambique and Swaziland. On 13 June, and in South Africa; Mahlangu, Lucky Mahlangu and Motloung made their way to Diagonal Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg, where they planned to catch a taxi to Soweto. However, a black policeman on patrol noticed three men entering a taxi with large bags. The policeman approached them, asked to see what they have with them and grabbed a bag which opened to reveal a hand grenade and an AK-47. The policeman ran for cover, and the three men fled from the taxi. Lucky Mahlangu ran in the direction of Park Station, and managed to escape; on the other hand, Mahlangu and Motloung ran in the direction of Fordsburg towards John Vorster Square where infamous police station in the country was situated. Whilst running in the direction of Fordsburg, Motloung was involved in a scuffle with an off-duty policeman. He succeeded in freeing himself, but the policeman shot at the running men and hit Mahlangu in the ankle. Mahlangu, running ahead of Motloung, sought cover in John Orr’s warehouse. Upon entering, Motloung fired shots and killed two John Orr’s employees.

Mahlangu and Mothloung were beaten by bystanders, and afterwards, the police arrested the two men. They were detained at John Vorster Square under the 90 Day Detention Law; and while there, the two men were brutally beaten. When the trial started, Motloung was so badly beaten that he sustained severe brain damage, and was deemed unfit to stand trial.

Mahlangu’s trial commenced on 7 November 1977, and he was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and several charges of sabotage under the Terrorism Act. Mahlangu pleaded not guilty to all charges, but, on 2 March 1978, he was found guilty by the State and sentenced to death. Mahlangu should have been sentenced to five years imprisonment for his acts, since it was Motloung who committed murder. The State, on the other hand, argued that under Common Purpose Law, Mahlangu shared intent with Motloung and Lucky Mahlangu, and therefore, he should face the same consequences regardless of whether they carried out the same acts or knew of each other’s intent.

While awaiting the death penalty in Pretoria Central, Mahlangu attempted to appeal his sentence. He was, however, turned down on 15 June 1978 by the Rand Supreme Court and on 24 July by the Bloemfontein Appeal Court. At the same time; the United Nations; various governments; prominent individuals; and international and local organisations and groups attempted to intercede on Mahlangu’s behalf. Their efforts, however, did not work.

On 6 April 1979, Mahlangu, at the age of 20, was hanged at the Pretoria Central Prison. In an apparent defiance of Prime Minister PW Botha, Mahlangu’s last message before he was executed was, “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight. A luta continua.”

Fearing that there might be protests at the funeral, the police buried Mahlangu in Atteridgeville. Their attempt was in vain, as protests and appeals in South Africa and the rest of the world continued and heightened.

The late ANC President OR Tambo, delivering a speech in Asia called the spirit of Bundung said of Mahlangu: “In his brief but full life Solomon Mahlangu towered like a colossus, unbroken and unbreakable, over the fascist lair. He, on whom our people have bestowed accolades worthy of the hero-combatant that he is, has been hanged in Pretoria like a common murderer. Alone the hangmen buried Solomon, bound by a forbidding oath that his grave shall remain forever a secret, because, in his death the spirit of Solomon Mahlangu towers still like a colossus, unbroken and unbreakable, over the fascist lair.”

On 6 April 1993, Mahlangu’s body was reinterred at the Mamelodi Cemetery, and recently, Mahlangu has been honoured. A statue of him stands in Mamelodi, and there is Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square in Mamelodi too. A school in South Africa and a college in Tanzania is named after Mahlangu; and in 2005, he was posthumously awarded the “The Order of Mendi for Bravery in Gold for his bravery and sacrificing his life for freedom and democracy in South Africa.” A film named Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu, based on his life, was released in South Africa this year.

Most recently, higher education students from across South Africa have found strength and inspiration in Mahlangu. During the decolonisation project, and more specifically in the #FeesMustFall movement, the struggle song, Solomon Mahlangu, has been adopted as the unofficial anthem of the movement. It continues to be sung today, as students fight for the decolonisation of universities across South Africa, and on 7 April 2016, Wits University management agreed to name its administrative building, Senate House, to Solomon Mahlangu House. This, among other notable achievements accomplished by students, has been seen as a step closer to decolonising higher education.

Remembering her son, Martha Mahlangu, whom she only saw after his trial, said this about him: “My son had aspirations of becoming a school teacher. He was very conscientious and humble. He stood firm and unshaken in his beliefs. Now, in my old age, I miss him even more.”

Sources: 

http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=4496

http://www.enca.com/life/solomon-mahlangu-film-showcase-film-festival

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/solomon-kalushi-mahlangu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Mahlangu

Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was born in Pretoria on the 10 th of July, 1956. He was the second son of Martha ...

In South Africa, Freedom Day is celebrated on the 27^th of April of each year. In honour of the many heroes and heroines that contributed to our freedom and political dispensation, the theme for this month’s Friday Feature covers four anti-apartheid activists who, in some way or another, contributed to South Africa’s freedom. This week, we cover Moses Mauane Kotane.

Moses Mauane Kotane was born in Tamposstad, Maphusumaneng Section, in Rustenburg in Transvaal (now North West) in 1905 on the 9^th of August. He was raised in a Christian household of Tswana origins.

Growing up, Kotane received little formal schooling before entering the workforce; however he was an avid reader and taught himself in various subjects. At the age of 17, Kotane began working in Krugersdorp, there he worked as a photographer's assistant, domestic servant, miner, and bakery worker. Around the same time, he also enrolled in the Communist-run night school in Ferreirastown, Johannesburg, where he became known for his ability to master the most complex writings.

Six years later, in 1928, Kotane joined the African National Congress (ANC) but left the party, considering it weak and ineffective. Later that year, Kotane joined the African Bakers Union, an affiliate of the Federation of Non-European Trade Unions then being formed by the South African Communist Party (SACP). A year later, in 1929, Kotane joined the SACP, soon becoming a member of the party’s politburo and vice-chairman. Three years later, in 1931, Koatne became a full time functionary of SACP.

Within the Communist Party, Kotane worked on Umsebenzi, the party's newspaper. As a promising young party member, Kotane was sent to Moscow to study Marxism-Leninism at the International Lenin School for a year. In Moscow, Kotane studied under Endre Sík, a Marxist theorists and 1967 recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize,

Kotane returned to South Africa in 1933, and over the coming years he advanced through the SACP ranks to the point where he became the Party's General Secretary in 1939. Kotane held his post as general secretary until the Party was banned.

In 1943 he was invited by A.B. Xuma, then president-general of the ANC, to serve on the Atlantic Charter committee that drew up African Claims, and in 1946 he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee, a position he held until bans forced his resignation in 1952. Following the 1946 mine strike, Kotane was subjected with other leaders of the Communist Party to two years of futile legal proceedings, while the apartheid government tried to demonstrate its determination to deal with the "Red Menace," as the Party was referred to. As in the late Treason Trial, when Kotane was also a defendant, the government eventually failed to make its case, although in the meantime the burdens on the accused were heavy.

When the Party was banned in 1950, Kotane moved from Cape Town, which had been the Party's headquarters, to Johannesburg, where he opened a furniture business in Alexandra Township. He was one of the first to be banned under the Suppression of Communism Act, but he ignored his bans to speak in support of the Defiance Campaign. In June 1952, Kotane was arrested with one of the first batches of defiers. Occasionally critical of cautious leadership in the ANC, he did not hesitate to thrust himself forward as an example of militancy. In December 1952 he was tried with other leaders of the Defiance Campaign and given a nine-month suspended sentence.

In 1955, he attended the Bandung conference of Third World leaders as an observer and remained abroad for the better part of the year, travelling widely in Asia and Eastern Europe. It was in 1956, that Kotane was charged with treason alongside fellow South African leaders Nelson Mandela, Joe Modise, Albert Luthuli, Joe Slovo, Walter Sisulu and 151 other anti-apartheid activists. Kotane remained a defendant in the Treason Trial until the charges against him were dropped in November 1958. During the 1960 state of emergency he was detained for four months; and in late 1962, he was placed under 24-hour house arrest.

In early 1963, Kotane left South Africa for Tanzania, where he became the Treasurer-General of the ANC in exile; he held this position until 1973. In the elections held in Tanzania in April 1969, he was returned to the National Executive Committee; however, Kotane later suffered a stroke and went for treatment to Moscow, where he remained until his death in 1978 on the 19^th of May.

On the 1 March 2015, Moses Kotane's remains were returned to South Africa and he will be reburied on 14 March at Pella, North West.

Kotane was a well-respected member of the struggle for majority rule in South Africa by even non-communist leaders Walter Sisulu credited him as a "giant of the struggle" because of his logical and non-dogmatic approach. Kotane combined his strong convictions as a Marxist with a commitment to the goals of nationalism and a firm belief in the importance of an African leadership and initiative in the struggle for equal rights. As he rose to leading positions in both the Communist Party and the ANC, his loyalty to one organisation did not appear to be subordinate to his loyalty to the other. Even staunch anti-communists in the ANC held him in high regard for his clear-headedness as a thinker and his courage and pragmatism as a leader.

He was honoured with the Isitwalandwe Medal by the ANC in 1975. A local municipality is named after him in North West Province, South Africa, and has a memorial lecture in his name.

Sources:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/moses-m-kotane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Kotane

In South Africa, Freedom Day is celebrated on the 27 th of April of each year. In honour of the many heroes and heroines that contrib...

Solange, better known as Sonia, Pierre was born in Villa Altagracia, San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, in 1963 to parents of Haitian origin. Her mother migrated with a temporary work permit in 1957, and her father entered the Dominican territory illegally. Both her parents worked as sugar cane cutters.

One of twelve children, she was raised in a migrant worker camp called a batey or a “village slum”, where many of the Dominican Republic's people of Haitian descent (Dominico-Haitians) live. The minority of Dominican-born ethnic Haitians, between 500,000 and a million live in the Dominican Republic, live in bateyes. Most of those born in the Dominican Republic are descendants of Haitians who crossed the border fleeing violence or seeking economic opportunity

Pierre’s career as a human rights activist started at the early age of 13. At 13, she organised a five-day protest by sugar cane workers on one of the country's bateyes, which led to her being arrested and threatened with deportation. However, the protest attracted enough public attention that the workers' demands—namely, to have their living quarters painted and be given better tools and pay raises—were met.

Since then, Pierre fought to secure citizenship and education for the beleaguered Dominico-Haitians. In 1963, Pierre founded and worked as director of the NGO, Movement for Dominican Women of Haitian Descent (MUDHA). MUDHA endeavours to end antihaitianismo or discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic. MUDHA seeks to give visibility and address the needs of Dominico-Haitian and Haitian women, with and for whom the organisation began to develop primary health care, family planning services and educational programs in state neglected bateyes. Pierre and MUDHA’s “thinking on social exclusion has been intersectional from the start, paying attention to the ways in which gender and age make certain groups of Haitian migrants and their descendants even more vulnerable than others. Their analysis and corresponding action over the years has led them to focus on women, children, the elderly, and entire batey communities who are excluded from public services because the Dominican State does not recognize them as citizens, much less rights holders.”

In 2005, Pierre petitioned at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the case of two ethnic Haitian children who were denied Dominican birth certificates. Called Yean and Bosico v. Dominican Republic, the case "upheld human rights laws prohibiting racial discrimination in access to nationality and citizenship." The court also ordered the Dominican government to provide the birth certificates. However, the Dominican Supreme Court later ruled that "Haitian workers were considered 'in transit,' and that their children were therefore not entitled to citizenship."

The situation is even graver today, following the highly criticised September 23, 2013 ruling of the Dominican Constitutional court which, in practice, deprives many people of foreign descent of their Dominican nationality, making them stateless. It is to be applied retroactively to all those born to parents with irregular migratory status since 1929, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands, mostly Dominicans of Haitian descent.

For her work, Pierre won the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award handed down by former US Senator Edward Kennedy. In presenting the award to Pierre, Senator Kennedy quoted a long-time friend of hers who said: "I am a better person today for having met, worked, and travelled this road with Sonia Pierre. With certitude, I can affirm that Sonia is one of the most selfless, courageous and compassionate human beings of my generation.” When she received her award, Pierre denounced what she said were "massive abuses" against people of Haitian descent, particularly children.

Pierre also won Amnesty International's 2003 Human Rights Ginetta Sagan Fund Award, and she and MUDHA were nominated for the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education in 2002. In 2008, she was awarded the Giuseppe Motta Medal for protection of human rights, and in 2010, she was also honoured by the United States Department of State with a International Women of Courage Award.

However, her work as a human rights activist was not entirely admired by many, especially Dominican nationalists. Pierre was once chased out of her Santo Domingo office by a man waving a pistol. She was also punched at a stop light by another man who told her, "I know who you are."

On December 4, 2011, In the midst of fighting for the Constitutional Court to grant Dominico—Haitians citizenship, Pierre had a heart attack, and died, at the age of 48. Pierre is survived by three children.

Edwin Paraison, Executive Director of the Zile Foundation, a Haitian group that attempts to improve relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, said, "She was like a sister to me. The Haitian community has lost someone who was a huge advocate in the fight for Haitian rights."

Throughout her life, Pierre insisted she was trying to help her people and not criticise the Dominican Republic. "I am not a critic of my country, and this is my country," she said. "I am a critic of my government."

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sonia-pierre-human-rights-activist-6272657.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/20/sonia-pierre-obituary

http://mudhaong.org/en/la-lider-sonia-pierre/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Pierre

Solange, better known as Sonia, Pierre was born in Villa Altagracia,   San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, in 1963 to parents of Haitia...

Coretta Scott King was one of the most influential women leaders in our world. Prepared by her family, education, and personality for a life committed to social justice and peace, she entered the world stage in 1955 as wife of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a leading participant in the American Civil Rights Movement. Her remarkable partnership with Dr. King resulted not only in four children, who became dedicated to carrying forward their parent’s work, but also in a life devoted to the highest values of human dignity in service to social change. Mrs. King traveled throughout the world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women’s and children’s rights, gay and lesbian dignity, religious freedom, the needs of the poor and homeless, full-employment, health care, educational opportunities, nuclear disarmament and environmental justice. She lent her support to pro-democracy movements world-wide and consulted with many world leaders, including Corazon Aquino, Kenneth Kaunda, and Nelson Mandela.

Born and raised in Marion, Alabama, Coretta Scott graduated valedictorian from Lincoln High School. She received a B.A. in music and education from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and then went on to study concert singing at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, where she earned a degree in voice and violin. While in Boston she met Martin Luther King, Jr. who was then studying for his doctorate in systematic theology at Boston University. They were married on June 18, 1953, and in September 1954 took up residence in Montgomery, Alabama, with Coretta Scott King assuming the many responsibilities of pastor’s wife at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. 

During Dr. King’s career, Mrs. King devoted most of her time to raising their four children: Yolanda Denise (1955), Martin Luther, III (1957), Dexter Scott (1961), and Bernice Albertine (1963). From the earliest days, however, she balanced mothering and Movement work, speaking before church, civic, college, fraternal and peace groups. She conceived and performed a series of favorably-reviewed Freedom Concerts which combined prose and poetry narration with musical selections and functioned as significant fundraisers for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the direct action organization of which Dr. King served as first president. In 1957, she and Dr. King journeyed to Ghana to mark that country’s independence. In 1958, they spent a belated honeymoon in Mexico, where they observed first-hand the immense gulf between extreme wealth and extreme poverty. In 1959, Dr. and Mrs. King spent nearly a month in India on a pilgrimage to disciples and sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1964, she accompanied him to Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Even prior to her husband’s public stand against the Vietnam War in 1967, Mrs. King functioned as liaison to peace and justice organizations, and as mediator to public officials on behalf of the unheard.

After her husband’s assassination in 1968, Mrs. King founded and devoted great energy and commitment to building and developing programs for the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a living memorial to her husband’s life and dream. Situated in the Freedom Hall complex encircling Dr. King’s tomb, The King Center is today located inside of a 23-acre national historic park which includes his birth home, and which hosts over one million visitors a year.

As founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, she dedicated herself to providing local, national and international programs that have trained tens of thousands of people in Dr. King’s philosophy and methods; she guided the creation and housing of the largest archives of documents from the Civil Rights Movement; and, perhaps her greatest legacy after establishing The King Center itself, Mrs. King spearheaded the massive educational and lobbying campaign to establish Dr. King’s birthday as a national holiday. In 1983, an act of Congress instituted the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission, which she chaired for its duration. And in January 1986, Mrs. King oversaw the first legal holiday in honor of her husband–a holiday which has come to be celebrated by millions of people world-wide and, in some form, in over 100 countries.

Coretta Scott King tirelessly carried the message of nonviolence and the dream of the beloved community to almost every corner of our nation and globe. She led goodwill missions to many countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. She spoke at many of history’s most massive peace and justice rallies. She served as a Women’s Strike for Peace delegate to the seventeen-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962. She was the first woman to deliver the class day address at Harvard, and the first woman to preach at a statutory service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

A life-long advocate of interracial coalitions, in 1974 Mrs. King formed a broad coalition of over 100 religious, labor, business, civil and women’s rights organizations dedicated to a national policy of full employment and equal economic opportunity, as Co-Chair of both the National Committee for Full Employment and the Full Employment Action Council. In 1983, she brought together more than 800 human rights organizations to form the Coalition of Conscience, sponsors of the 20th Anniversary March on Washington, until then the largest demonstration ever held in our nation’s capital. In 1987, she helped lead a national Mobilization Against Fear and Intimidation in Forsyth County, Georgia. In 1988, she re-convened the Coalition of Conscience for the 25th anniversary of the March on Washington. In preparation for the Reagan-Gorbachev talks, in 1988 she served as head of the U.S. delegation of Women for a Meaningful Summit in Athens, Greece; and in 1990, as the USSR was redefining itself, Mrs. King was co-convener of the Soviet-American Women’s Summit in Washington, DC.

In 1985 Mrs. King and three of her children, Yolanda, Martin III and Bernice were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, DC, for protesting against apartheid. 

One of the most influential African-American leaders of her time, Mrs. King received honorary doctorates from over 60 colleges and universities; authored three books and a nationally-syndicated newspaper column; and served on and helped found dozens of organizations, including the Black Leadership Forum, the National Black Coalition for Voter Participation, and the Black Leadership Roundtable.

During her lifetime, Mrs. King dialogued with heads of state, including prime ministers and presidents, as well as participating in protests alongside rank and file working people of all races. She met with many great spiritual leaders, including Pope John Paul, the Dalai Lama, Dorothy Day, and Bishop Desmond Tutu. She witnessed the historic handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yassir Arafat at the signing of the Middle East Peace Accords. She stood with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg when he became South Africa’s first democratically-elected president. A woman of wisdom, compassion and vision, Coretta Scott King tried to make ours a better world and, in the process, made history. 

Mrs. King died in 2006. A few days after her death, thousands of Atlantans stood in line in the pouring sleet to pay their respects to her at a viewing in Ebenezer Baptist Church. She is today interred alongside her husband in a memorial crypt in the reflecting pool of The King Center’s Freedom Hall Complex, visited by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world year-round. The inscription on the crypt memorializing her life of service is from I Corinthians 13:13 –“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Coretta Scott King's biography was taken and can be found at http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-mrs-king 

Coretta Scott King was one of the most influential women leaders in our world. Prepared by her family, education, and personality for ...

There are numerous celebrations taking place in the month of March; two of them being International Women’s Day and Human Rights Day in So...