It does not make sense to see Africans fighting each other, at a time that so much effort is being made to open up the continent for free movement to allow trade to flourish.
Unfortunately, young South Africans are doing just what Africa should not condone. Officials of the African Union (AU) are not helping matters by looking the other way, when there are reports all over that some young South Africans are forcing immigrants, especially Africans, to leave.
Perhaps the officials at the AU have never heard of the Zulu proverb, “Umvundla ziwunqanda phambili,” which literally means stop the trouble in front. In other words, deal with conflicts immediately, right at the start, rather than waiting for them to become uncontrollable. This is proactive conflict resolution!
The AU officials have the records that they can use to make young South Africans who, perhaps, have forgotten about their liberation struggle, to be told the truth that, without the rest of Africa, their country’s struggle against apartheid, and its independence, would not have been successful. That is why the sudden attacks on “undocumented Africans” in South Africa is worrying.
In fact, estimates by the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) show that Nigeria, for example, spent over $61 billion in economic, diplomatic, and military support to aid the anti-apartheid struggle, which brought independence to South Africa by 1994. In addition, Nigeria, acting as a frontline state, also forfeited roughly $45 billion in oil revenue.
In the case of Ghana, though its support cannot easily be quantified, it provided significant financial, material, and political support to South African liberation movements during the apartheid era, particularly under President Kwame Nkrumah (1957-1966). Ghana also served as a primary training base and “Mecca” for African freedom fighters, hosting ANC, PAC, and other southern African liberation movement representatives in the capital, Accra.
To show his gratitude, after the country’s independence, President Nelson Mandela found time to go round some of the countries that helped in the liberation fight. At the Commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of President Samora Machel, on October 17, 1996, President Mandela said, “the devastation that Angola had suffered in a civil war in which South Africa and its Western allies had chosen to support opponents of the new government, was worthy of profound acknowledgement.”
He said “Angola’s solidarity with South Africans struggling for their liberation was of heroic proportions. Before your own freedom was secure, and within the reach of our ruthless enemy, you dared to act upon the principle that freedom in Southern Africa was indivisible. Led by the founder of liberated Angola, that great African patriot and internationalist, Agostinho Neto, you insisted that all of Africa’s children must be freed from bondage.”
In another speech to the Angolan National Assembly, on April 29, 1998, President Mandela recalled the role Angola played by providing military logistical support for South Africa’s liberation struggle during the apartheid era. Angola hosted uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants and staged major battles against the South African Defence Force (SADF) troops in the 1970s and 1980s.
While in Mozambique, he described President Samora Machel as “a universal hero, a son of Mozambique and indeed a son of Africa, who dedicated his life to the freedom of us all. He spoke about how President Machel “drenched the soil of our land with his blood. A tragedy had befallen Mozambique” to describe his death, and said, “we knew that Samora had cemented a bond between our two peoples that no force could sever.”
Referring to the plane crash that led to President Machel’s death, President Mandela said, “no corner of the region was spared the cruelty and scorched earth barbarity of the defenders of this crime against humanity. No country that identified with the yearning of the South African people, no leader who expressed practical solidarity with them, was spared.”
Other African countries also contributed immensely to help South Africa attain independence. Excerpts from the Mandela archives point to the fact that Mandela acknowledged the efforts of countries that helped to break apartheid.
In an address to a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament of Lesotho, 12 July 1995, he acknowledged the “geographic and filial contiguity,” and said, “we have fought the same enemies, mourned our losses together and celebrated each other’s victories as our own. The achievement of your forebears in holding colonial forces at bay was emulated, in our own time, [with the] apartheid regime encircling your land.
“For that, for the succour you gave to our sons and daughters, for your solidarity and selfless commitment to our freedom, you paid a fearful price. The wrath of our oppressors respected no borders. It knew no distinction between fighter and civilian, between adult and child, between South African and Mosotho,” he said.
Speaking at a Kgotla (traditional assembly) in Serowe, on September 6, 1995, President Mandela said, “the people of Botswana and the people of South Africa have so much in common. We share a long history. … The apartheid regime hoped that through kidnappings, bombings, armed raids, and assassinations that violated the sovereignty and peace of your country, they would intimidate you.
“But they were wrong. They were deceiving themselves! Today we can stand before you as the representative of a democratic country, and say, on behalf of the people of South Africa, ‘Thank you for what you did for our country during the long and lonely years of struggle.’ Despite the pressures from the apartheid regime, you stood defiantly on the side of freedom, peace, and democracy,” he said.
On May 20, 1997, President Mandela in a speech at a public rally in Masvingo, Zimbabwe, described Zimbabweans as “men and women who have fought for their freedom; allies who shared the trenches of struggle with us; and partners in rebuilding our societies. South Africans are free today because the government and people of Zimbabwe considered their own freedom incomplete while their neighbours were still oppressed.”
He was full of praise for Malawian leader Hastings Banda, whom he said during the war, rendered invaluable assistance, allowing weapons to be moved through his territory, he financed the Patriotic Front and helped Frelimo by making sure that their soldiers could move through Portuguese lines.
President Mandela was later to say in a speech during a state banquet hosted by President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, 29 May 29, 1995, that they both met in 1962, when he visited Tanzania seeking help during the armed struggle.
He was stuck with President Nyerere’s lucid thoughts, burning desire for justice everywhere, and his commitment to Africa’s interests. After the independence of Tanzania, President Nyerere continued to play an important role in the struggle for justice and democracy not only in Africa, but throughout the world.
President Mandela spoke about the bond with Zambia, and President Kenneth Kaunda, which he said was particularly close, dating from the time in 1961 when Mandela left South Africa to win support for the ANC’s armed struggle, adding that, “the many years during which Zambia hosted the ANC headquarters and other facilities made the country a second home.”
In the case of Swaziland, which he described as a small country on South Africa’s border, the country had, though vulnerable to the operations of the apartheid police and military, also given asylum and a base from which ANC cadres could, under difficult conditions, move in and out of South Africa.
Given all these, Mandela must be turning in his grave to see his grandchildren maltreating the very people who brought freedom to their land. For the AU, one can only remind them of the Swahili proverb, “huchelewi kujisahihisha,” which, simply put, means you are not too late to correct!
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Francis Koktuse is a free-lance journalist based in Accra. Currently, he is the local Stringer for the New York Times. He also writes for University World News, as well as Science and Development.Net. He was a Staff Writer for the African Concord, and Africa Economic Digest in London, UK.
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