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NELSON MANDELA IN 1962
Address to the PAFMECA
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 Nelson
Mandela.
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Mandela's
Address to the PAFMECA.
It follows the full text transcript of
Nelson Mandela's Address to the Pan-African
Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa (PAFMECA),
delivered at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - January 1962. |
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The delegation of
the African National Congress, and I
particularly, feel specially honored by the
invitation addressed to our organization by the
PAFMECA to attend this historic conference and
to participate in its deliberations and
decisions. |
The extension of
the PAFMECA area to South Africa, the heart and
core of imperialist reaction, should mark the
beginning of a new phase in the drive for the
total liberation of Africa - a phase which
derives special significance from the entry into
PAFMECA of the independent states of Ethiopia,
Somalia, and Sudan.
It was not without reason, we believe, that the
Secretariat of PAFMECA chose as the seat of this
conference the great country of Ethiopia, which,
with hundreds of years of colorful history
behind it, can rightly claim to have paid the
full price of freedom and independence. His
Imperial Majesty, himself a rich and unfailing
fountain of wisdom, has been foremost in
promoting the cause of unity, independence, and
progress in Africa, as was so amply demonstrated
in the address he graciously delivered in
opening this assembly. The deliberations of our
conference will thus proceed in a setting most
conducive to a scrupulous examination of the
issues that are before us.
At the outset, our delegation wishes to place on
record our sincere appreciation of the
relentless efforts made by the independent
African states and national movements in Africa
and other parts of the world, to help the
African people in South Africa in their just
struggle for freedom and independence.
The movement for the boycott of South African
goods and for the imposition of economic and
diplomatic sanctions against South Africa has
served to highlight most effectively the
despotic structure of the power that rules South
Africa, and has given tremendous inspiration to
the liberation movement in our country. It is
particularly gratifying to note that the four
independent African states which are part of
this conference, namely, Ethiopia, Somalia,
Sudan and Tanganyika, are enforcing diplomatic
and economic sanctions against South Africa. We
also thank all those states that have given
asylum and assistance to South African refugees
of all shades of political beliefs and opinion.
The warm affection with which South African
freedom fighters are received by democratic
countries all over the world, and the
hospitality so frequently showered upon us by
governments and political organizations, has
made it possible for some of our people to
escape persecution by the South African
government, to travel freely from country to
country and from continent to continent, to
canvass our point of view and to rally support
for our cause. We are indeed extremely grateful
for this spontaneous demonstration of solidarity
and support, and sincerely hope that each and
every one of us will prove worthy of the trust
and confidence the world has in us.
We believe that one of the main objectives of
this conference is to work out concrete plans to
speed up the struggle for the liberation of
those territories in this region that are still
under alien rule. In most of these territories
the imperialist forces have been considerably
weakened and are unable to resist the demand for
freedom and independence - thanks to the
powerful blows delivered by the freedom
movements.
Although the national movements must remain
alert and vigilant against all forms of
imperialist intrigue and deception, there can be
no doubt that imperialism is in full retreat and
the attainment of independence by many of these
countries has become an almost accomplished
fact. Elsewhere, notably in South Africa, the
liberation movement faces formidable
difficulties and the struggle is likely to be
long, complicated, hard, and bitter, requiring
maximum unity of the national movement inside
the country, and calling for level and earnest
thinking on the part of its leaders, for skilful
planning and intensive organization.
South Africa is known throughout the world as a
country where the most fierce forms of color
discrimination are practiced, and where the
peaceful struggles of the African people for
freedom are violently suppressed. It is a
country torn from top to bottom by fierce racial
strife and conflict and where the blood of
African patriots frequently flows.
Almost every African household in South Africa
knows about the massacre of our people at
Bulhoek, in the Queenstown district, where
detachments of the army and police, armed with
artillery, machine-guns, and rifles, opened fire
on unarmed Africans, killing 163 persons,
wounding 129, and during which 95 people were
arrested simply because they refused to move
from a piece of land on which they lived.
Almost every African family remembers a similar
massacre of our African brothers in South-West
Africa when the South African government
assembled aeroplanes, heavy machine-guns,
artillery, and rifles, killing a hundred people
and mutilating scores of others, merely because
the Bondelswart people refused to pay dog tax.
On 1May 1950, 18 Africans were shot dead by the
police in Johannesburg whilst striking
peacefully for higher wages. The massacre at
Sharpeville in March 1960 is a matter of common
knowledge and is still fresh in our minds.
According to a statement in parliament made by C
R Swart, then Minister for Justice, between May
1948 and March 1954, 104 Africans were killed
and 248 wounded by the police in the course of
political demonstrations. By the middle of June
1960, these figures had risen to well over three
hundred killed and five hundred wounded. Naked
force and violence is the weapon openly used by
the South African government to beat down the
struggles of the African people and to suppress
their aspirations.
The repressive policies of the South African
government are reflected not only in the number
of those African martyrs who perished from guns
and bullets, but in the merciless persecution of
all political leaders and in the total
repression of political opposition. Persecution
of political leaders and suppression of
political organizations became ever more violent
under the Nationalist Party government. From
1952 the government used its legal powers to
launch a full-scale attack on leaders of the
African National Congress. Many of its prominent
members were ordered by the government to resign
permanently from it and never again participate
in its activities. Others were prohibited from
attending gatherings for specified periods
ranging up to five years. Many were confined to
certain districts, banished from their homes and
families and even deported from the country.
In December 1956, Chief A J Lutuli,
President-General of the ANC, was arrested
together with 155 other freedom fighters and
charged with treason. The trial which then
followed is unprecedented in the history of the
country, in both its magnitude and duration. It
dragged on for over four years and drained our
resources to the limit. In March 1960, after the
murderous killing of about seventy Africans in
Sharpeville, a state of emergency was declared
and close on twenty thousand people were
detained without trial. Even as we meet here
today, martial law prevails throughout the
territory of the Transkei, an area of 16,000
square miles with an African population of
nearly two and a half million. The government
stubbornly refuses to publish the names and
number of persons detained. But it is estimated
that close on two thousand Africans are
presently languishing in jail in this area
alone. Amongst these are to be found teachers,
lawyers, doctors, clerks, workers from the
towns, peasants from the country, and other
freedom fighters. In this same area and during
the last six months, more than thirty Africans
have been sentenced to death by white judicial
officers, hostile to our aspirations, for
offences arising out of political
demonstrations.
On 26 August 1961 the South African government
even openly defied the British government when
its police crossed into the neighboring British
protectorate of Basutoland and kidnapped
Anderson Ganyile, one of the country's rising
freedom stars, who led the Pondo people's
memorable struggles against apartheid tribal
rule.
Apart from these specific instances, there are
numerous other South African patriots, known and
unknown, who have been sacrificed in various
ways on the altar of African freedom.
This is but a brief and sketchy outline of the
momentous struggle of the freedom fighters in
our country, of the sacrifice they have made and
of the price that is being paid at the present
moment by those who keep the freedom flag
flying.
For years our political organizations have been
subjected to vicious attacks by the government.
In 1957 there was considerable mass unrest and
disturbances in the country districts of
Zeerust, Sekhukhuniland, and Rustenburg. In all
these areas there was widespread dissatisfaction
with government policy and there were revolts
against the pass laws, the poll tax, and
government-inspired tribal authorities. Instead
of meeting the legitimate political demands of
the masses of the people and redressing their
grievances, the government reacted by banning
the ANC in all these districts. In April 1960
the government went further and completely
outlawed both the African National Congress and
the Pan-Africanist Congress. By resorting to
these drastic methods the government had hoped
to silence all opposition to its harsh policies
and to remove all threats to the privileged
position of the Whites in the country. It had
hoped for days of perfect peace and comfort for
White South Africa, free from revolt and
revolution. It believe that through its
strong-arm measures it could achieve what White
South Africa has failed to accomplish during the
last fifty years, namely, to compel Africans to
accept the position that in our country freedom
and happiness are the preserve of the White man.
But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown of
White supremacy in South Africa. The banning and
confinement of leaders, banishments and
deportations, imprisonment and even death, have
never deterred South African patriots. The very
same day it was outlawed, the ANC issued a
public statement announcing that it would
definitely defy the government's ban and carry
out operations from underground. The people of
South Africa have adopted this declaration as
their own and South Africa is today a land of
turmoil and conflict.
In May last year a general strike was called. In
the history of our country no strike has ever
been organized under such formidable
difficulties and dangers. The odds against us
were tremendous. Our organizations were
outlawed. Special legislation had been rushed
through parliament empowering the government to
round up its political opponents and to detain
them without trial. One week before the strike
ten thousand Africans were arrested and kept in
jail until after the strike. All meetings were
banned throughout the country and our field
workers were trailed and hounded by members of
the Security Branch. General mobilization was
ordered throughout the country and every
available White man and woman put under arms. An
English periodical described the situation on
the eve of the strike in the following terms:
'In the country's biggest call-up since the war,
scores of citizens' force and commando units
were mobilized in the big towns. Camps were
established at strategic points; heavy army
vehicles carrying equipment and supplies moved
in a steady stream along the Reef; helicopters
hovered over African residential areas and
trained searchlights on houses, yards, lands,
and unlit areas. Hundreds of White civilians
were sworn in as special constables, hundreds of
white women spent weekends shooting at targets.
Gun shops sold out of their stocks of revolvers
and ammunition. All police leave was cancelled
throughout the country. Armed guards were posted
to protect power stations and other sources of
essential services. Saracen armored cars and
troop carriers patrolled townships. Police vans
patrolled areas and broadcast statements that
Africans who struck work would he sacked and
endorsed out of the town.'
This was the picture in South Africa on the eve
of the general strike, but our people stood up
to the test most magnificently. The response was
less than we expected but we made solid and
substantial achievements. Hundreds of thousands
of workers stayed away from work and the
country's industries and commerce were seriously
damaged. Hundreds of thousands of students and
schoolchildren did not go to school for the
duration of the strike.
The celebrations which had been planned by the
government to mark the inauguration of the
republic were not only completely boycotted by
the Africans, but were held in an atmosphere of
tension and crisis in which the whole country
looked like a military camp in a state of unrest
and uncertainty. This panic stricken show of
force was a measure of the power of the
liberation movement and yet it failed to stem
the rising tide of popular discontent.
How strong is the freedom struggle in South
Africa today? What role should PAFMECA play to
strengthen the liberation movement in South
Africa and speed up the liberation of our
country? These are questions frequently put by
those who have our welfare at heart.
The view has been expressed in some quarters
outside South Africa that, in the special
situation obtaining in our country, our people
will never win freedom through their own
efforts. Those who hold this view point to the
formidable apparatus of force and coercion in
the hands of the government, to the size of its
armies, the fierce suppression of civil
liberties, and the persecution of political
opponents of the regime. Consequently, in these
quarters, we are urged to look for our salvation
beyond our borders.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is true that world opinion against the
policies of the South African government has
hardened considerably in recent years. The All
African People's Conference held in Accra in
1958, the Positive Action Conference for Peace
and Security in Africa, also held in Accra in
April 1960, the Conference of Independent
African States held in this famous capital in
June of the same year, and the conferences at
Casablanca and Monrovia last year, as well as
the Lagos Conference this month, passed militant
resolutions in which they sharply condemned and
rejected the racial policies of the South
African government. It has become clear to us
that the whole of Africa is unanimously behind
the move to ensure effective economic and
diplomatic sanctions against the South African
government.
At the international level, concrete action
against South Africa found expression in the
expulsion of South Africa from the Commonwealth,
which was achieved with the active initiative
and collaboration of the African members of the
Commonwealth. These were Ghana, Nigeria, and
Tanganyika (although the latter had not yet
achieved its independence). Nigeria also took
the initiative in moving for the expulsion of
South Africa from the International Labour
Organisation. But most significant was the draft
resolution tabled at the fifteenth session of
the United Nations which called for sanctions
against South Africa. This resolution had the
support of all the African members of the United
Nations, with only one exception. The
significance of the draft was not minimized by
the fact that a milder resolution was finally
adopted calling for individual or collective
sanctions by member states. At the sixteenth
session of the United Nations last year, the
African states played a marvelous role in
successfully carrying through the General
Assembly a resolution against the address
delivered by the South African Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Eric Louw, and subsequently
in the moves calling for the expulsion of South
Africa from the United Nations and for sanctions
against her. Although the United Nations itself
has neither expelled nor adopted sanctions
against South Africa, many independent African
states are in varying degrees enforcing economic
and other sanctions against her. This increasing
world pressure on South Africa has greatly
weakened her international position and given a
tremendous impetus to the freedom struggle
inside the country. No less a danger to White
minority rule and a guarantee of ultimate
victory for us is the freedom struggle that is
raging furiously beyond the borders of the South
African territory; the rapid progress of Kenya,
Uganda, and Zanzibar towards independence; the
victories gained by the Nyasaland Malawi
Congress; the unabated determination of Kenneth
Kaunda's United National Independence Party
(UNIP); the courage displayed by the freedom
fighters of the Zimbabwe African People's Union
(ZAPU), successor to the now banned National
Democratic Party (NDP); the gallantry of the
African crusaders in the Angolan war of
liberation and the storm clouds forming around
the excesses of Portuguese repression in
Mozambique; the growing power of the
independence movements in South-West Africa and
the emergence of powerful political
organizations in the High Commission territories
- all these are forces which cannot compromise
with White domination anywhere.
But we believe it would be fatal to create the
illusion that external pressures render it
unnecessary for us to tackle the enemy from
within. The centre and cornerstone of the
struggle for freedom and democracy in South
Africa lies inside South Africa itself. Apart
from those required for essential work outside
the country, freedom fighters are in great
demand for work inside the country. We owe it as
a duty to ourselves and to the freedom-loving
peoples of the world to build and maintain in
South Africa itself a powerful, solid movement,
capable of surviving any attack by the
government and sufficiently militant to fight
back with a determination that comes from the
knowledge and conviction that it is first and
foremost by our own struggle and sacrifice
inside South Africa itself that victory over
White domination and apartheid can be won.
The struggle in the areas still subject to
imperialist rule can be delayed and even
defeated if it is uncoordinated. Only by our
combined efforts and united action can we
repulse the multiple onslaughts of the
imperialists and fight our way to victory. Our
enemies fight collectively and combine to
exploit our people.
The clear examples of collective imperialism
have made themselves felt more and more in our
region by the formation of an unholy alliance
between the governments of South Africa,
Portugal, and the so-called Central African
Federation. Hence these governments openly and
shamelessly gave military assistance consisting
of personnel and equipment to the traitorous
Tshombe regime in Katanga.
At this very moment it has been widely reported
that a secret defense agreement has been signed
between Portugal, South Africa, and the
Federation, following visits of Federation and
South African defense ministers to Lisbon, the
Federation defense minister to Luanda, and South
African Defence Ministry delegations to
Mozambique. Dr Salazar was quoted in the
Johannesburg Star of 8 July 1961 as saying: 'Our
relations - Mozambique's and Angola's on the one
hand and the Federation and South Africa on the
other - arise from the existence of our common
borders and our traditional friendships that
unite our Governments and our people. Our mutual
interests are manifold and we are conscious of
the need to cooperate to fulfill our common
needs.'
Last year, Southern Rhodesian troops were
training in South Africa and so were Rhodesian
Air Force units. A military mission from South
Africa and another from the Central African
Federation visited Lourenzo Marques in
Mozambique, at the invitation of the Mozambique
Army Command, and took part in training
exercises in which several units totaling 2,600
men participated. These operations included
dropping exercises for paratroopers.
A report in a South African aviation magazine,
wings (December 1961), states: 'The Portuguese
are hastily building nine new aerodromes in
Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) following
their troubles in Angola. The new 'dromes are
all capable of taking jet fighters and are
situated along or near the borders of Tanganyika
and Nyasaland'; and gives full details.
Can anyone, therefore, doubt the role that the
freedom movements should play in view of this
hideous conspiracy?
As we have stated earlier, the freedom movement
in South Africa believes that hard and swift
blows should be delivered with the full weight
of the masses of the people, who alone furnish
us with one absolute guarantee that the freedom
flames now burning in the country shall never be
extinguished.
During the last ten years the African people in
South Africa have fought many freedom battles,
involving civil disobedience, strikes, protest
marches, boycotts and demonstrations of all
kinds. In all these campaigns we repeatedly
stressed the importance of discipline, peaceful
and non-violent struggle. We did so, firstly
because we felt that there were still
opportunities for peaceful struggle and we
sincerely worked for peaceful changes. Secondly,
we did not want to expose our people to
situations where they might become easy targets
for the trigger-happy police of South Africa.
But the situation has now radically altered.
South Africa is now a land ruled by the gun. The
government is increasing the size of its army,
of the navy, of its air force, and the police.
Pill-boxes and road blocks are being built up
all over the country. Armament factories are
being set up in Johannesburg and other cities.
Officers of the South African army have visited
Algeria and Angola where they were briefed
exclusively on methods of suppressing popular
struggles. All opportunities for peaceful
agitation and struggle have been closed.
Africans no longer have the freedom even to stay
peacefully in their houses in protest against
the oppressive policies of the government.
During the strike in May last year the police
went from house to house, beating up Africans
and driving them to work.
Hence it is understandable why today many of our
people are turning their faces away from the
path of peace and non-violence. They feel that
peace in our country must be considered already
broken when a minority government maintains its
authority over the majority by force and
violence.
A crisis is developing in earnest in South
Africa. However, no high command ever announces
beforehand what its strategy and tactics will be
to meet a situation. Certainly, the days of
civil disobedience, of strikes, and mass
demonstrations are not over and we will resort
to them over and over again.
But a leadership commits a crime against its own
people if it hesitates to sharpen its political
weapons which have become less effective.
Regarding the actual situation pertaining today
in South Africa I should mention that I have
just come out of South Africa, having for the
last ten months lived in my own country as an
outlaw, away from family and friends. When I was
compelled to lead this sort of life, I made a
public statement in which I announced that I
would not leave the country but would continue
working underground. I meant it and I have
honored that undertaking. But when my
organization received the invitation to this
conference it was decided that I should attempt
to come out and attend the conference to furnish
the various African leaders, leading sons of our
continent, with the most up-to-date information
about the situation.
During the past ten months I moved up and down
my country and spoke to peasants in the
countryside, to workers in the cities, to
students and professional people. It dawned on
me quite clearly that the situation had become
explosive. It was not surprising therefore when
one morning in October last year we woke up to
read press reports of widespread sabotage
involving the cutting of telephone wires and the
blowing up of power pylons. The government
remained unshaken and White South Africa tried
to dismiss it as the work of criminals. Then on
the night of 16 December last year the whole of
South Africa vibrated under the heavy blows of
Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation).
Government buildings were blasted with
explosives in Johannesburg, the industrial heart
of South Africa, in Port Elizabeth, and in
Durban. It was now clear that this was a
political demonstration of a formidable kind,
and the press announced the beginning of planned
acts of sabotage in the country. It was still a
small beginning because a government as strong
and as aggressive as that of South Africa can
never be induced to part with political power by
bomb explosions in one night and in three cities
only. But in a country where freedom fighters
frequently pay with their very lives and at a
time when the most elaborate military
preparations are being made to crush the
people's struggles, planned acts of sabotage
against government installations introduce a new
phase in the political situation and are a
demonstration of the people's unshakeable
determination to win freedom whatever the cost
may be. The government is preparing to strike
viciously at political leaders and freedom
fighters. But the people will not take these
blows sitting down.
In such a grave situation it is fit and proper
that this conference of PAFMECA should sound a
clarion call to the struggling peoples in South
Africa and other dependent areas, to close
ranks, to stand firm as a rock and not allow
themselves to be divided by petty political
rivalries whilst their countries burn. At this
critical moment in the history of struggle,
unity amongst our people in South Africa and in
the other territories has become as vital as the
air we breathe and it should be preserved at all
costs.
Finally, dear friends, I should assure you that
the African people of South Africa,
notwithstanding fierce persecution and untold
suffering, in their ever increasing courage will
not for one single moment be diverted from the
historic mission of liberating their country and
winning freedom, lasting peace, and happiness.
We are confident that in the decisive struggles
ahead, our liberation movement will receive the
fullest support of PAFMECA and of all
freedom-loving people throughout the world.
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