Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero/Interview on Racism in South Africa

what would chris hani have said?

On 9/2/15 7:17 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
> Africa Update. vol. XV11. Issue 2.
> Spring 2010
>
> Excerpt from an Interview with the South African activist scholar,
> Hosea Jaffe
>
>
>
> This is an excerpt from a recent interview of the South African activist Hosea Jaffe by Gloria Emeagwali.
> Mr. Jaffe has published numerous books, including nine books in English. He was born in Cape Town in 1921.
> In 1943 he was a co-founder of the anti-imperialist Non-European Unity Movement, in whose activity he
> participated directly, until forced by the Suppression of Communism Act of 1952 to leave South Africa,
> in 1959. He addressed national conferences of the New Unity Movement in Cape Town and Johannesburg
> after first returning to South Africa in 1989. His most recent works deal with the conceptual category of race,
> missing from Marx's work and what he considers the quiet racism of 'first world' Marxism.
>
>
>
> GE: Mr . Hosea Jaffe can you please introduce yourself.
>
> Jaffe: I was born in a segregated hospital at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
>
> I left university in 1959. At UCT I was introduced to the Communist Party. They wanted to condone the
> Moscow Trials in the late 1930s. I refused. I became one of the founders of Trotskyism in South Africa.
> I was not interested in the pro-segregation position taken by the White South African Party at that time,
> and became the only non -European member of the Unity Movement. Mandela was a member of the
> Unity Movement for several years in the 1950s but we could not get him to remain. We had a policy of
> non-segregation, a big movement in the 1940s, with membership consisting of African peoples in the
> church, trade unions, peasant groups and a wide range of people. We wanted to overcome divide and rule policies.
>
>
> GE: You mention trade unions. Do you have any information about Clement Kadalie?
>
> Jaffe: He was a big figure. He formed the ICU in 1919 and was an active member of the African National Congress.
> He was probably controlled by the Labor Party in the United Kingdom. He was from Malawi and was a very fine speaker.
>
> GE: How did the Non-European Unity Movement differ from the Communist party and the ANC?
>
>
> Jaffe: Well first of all the South African Communist Party was a racist organization with no Black members.
> It supported the strike of the White Miners against Black skilled workers. It was founded by Whites and
> became in the 1940s and 1950s - until 1960 - White controlled. Daidoo, became the leader of the
> Communist Party after the 'Suppression of Communism Act.' He tried his best, but had no way
> of controlling the organization.
>
>
>
> ........................................................
>
>
>
> Selected Writings of Hosea Jaffe
>
>
>
> Fascism in South Africa. Cape Town, 1946
>
> 300 Years, A History of South Africa. Cape Town: New Era Fellowship, 1952
>
> Razzismo e Capitalismo in Rhodesia, Zambia e Malawi. Milan: Jacabook, 1971
>
> Africa, Movimiento di Liberazione. Milan: Mondadori, 1968
>
> A History of Africa. London: Zed Books, 1988
>
> Sud Africa Storia Politica. Milan: Jacabook, 1997
>
> Was Capitalism Necessary? Milan: Jacabook, 2008
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
> Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2015 4:37 PM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero
>
> gloria
> what is the reality of race in south africa? i have a hard time thinking that we have automatic categories. after all, there were blacks who sold out; whites who died fighting apartheid, and everything in between.
> there was a system of white supremacist oppression, and a movement that included blacks and whites that opposed it. if whites, generally, had it easier, that was part of the struggle; it didn't invalidate their views or participation.
> if you think of che, for instance, in the cuban revolution, or fidel, they were not members of the proletariat. neither was marx for that matter. consciousness is not determined, it is chosen.
> do you want to put people into categories automatically based on their skin? i could understand that in the midst of the struggle, but that would still be a blinded vision of the world.
>
> gloria, i agree with you that it wasn't a pretty, beautiful rainbow world; i agree much ugliness marked people and their actions.
> i also believe that in the struggle, for all of us, we make choices, draw lines, and make judgments.
> i strongly supported revolutionary causes in my younger years, and still believe in the goals. but i very much do not believe that the struggle could permit itself actions of any kind, like torture, like killings that were not grounded in combat but rather authoritarian judgments, etc.
> i might have wanted to rationalize such things in the 60s, but i don't any more. i would respect a che, a winnie, more, if they admitted that they had ordered killings unjustly, rather than stating, we had no choice.
> as for torture, i wouldn't accept any rationalization for it under any circumstances.
> for me, revolution is not an absolute; total systems are themselves oppressive.
> ken
>
> On 9/2/15 1:40 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
>> "i don't think whites who were part of the struggle are different in
>> their thinking from blacks."harrow
>>
>>
>> That really should be the case in a nice world, but in reality this is not so.
>>
>> I had the pleasure of interviewing Hosea Jaffe, a bona fide activist
>> within South Africa, and one of the points that he
>>
>> emphasized was the persistent racism of the white dominated communist party and even Joe Slovo himself.
>>
>>
>> Read Steve Biko's "I write what I like" and you will get ample
>> references to racism within the church
>>
>> and the student movement. In fact, that is one of the main reasons why SASO was formed.
>>
>>
>> The prisons of this world would be overflowing with the nationalists,
>> rebels and activists who
>>
>> killed in the struggle to gain independence. You can start with the
>> American revolutionary
>>
>> war in the fight against the British, and take it from there.
>>
>>
>> GE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth
>> harrow
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2015 5:37 AM
>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero
>>
>> i don't think whites who were part of the struggle are different in their thinking from blacks. a lot of people in s africa had opinions opposed by others, black or white, and there were struggles between the pac and anc and the black consciousness movement, etc. winnie had her supporters, and for them the killing of a boy, which she ordered, was not a problem. it isn't a racial thing to say that others believed she should have gone to jail for ordering the killing.
>> aside from that, the reading of mandela's choices get morphed into straight ideological instead of historical evaluations.
>> i wasn't very happy about how capitalism came out on top, like many other people. but the debate, a very old one now, needs more the mudslinging against mandela to be evaluated properly.
>> i would be interested in comparing his choices with those of kenyatta and later with mugabi to evaluate policies involving land appropriation, say.
>> ken
>>
>> On 9/1/15 2:46 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
>>> Fortunately or unfortunately a lot of Black South Africans think positively about Winnie.
>>>
>>>
>>> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
>>> History Department
>>> CCSU. New Britain. CT 06050
>>> africahistory.net
>>> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
>>> Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on
>>> Africa and the African Diaspora
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>>> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
>>> [harrow@msu.edu]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 6:22 AM
>>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero
>>>
>>> it read like a hatchet job to me, and an idealizing of winnie--she could do no wrong, so he musthave been bad.
>>> i agree that we can question mandela's choice to retain a capitalist system, call it a neoliberal one as well; but it is questionable that he had a lot of choice at the outset. what became of that choice, with mbeki and zuma, over time, is another question.
>>> ken
>>>
>>> On 8/31/15 1:19 PM, 'Chambi Chachage' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:
>>> He "explained his decision" in his 'Long Walk to Freedom':
>>>
>>> "I chose to tell no one what I was about to do. Not my colleagues
>>> upstairs nor those in Lusaka. The ANC is a collective, but the
>>> government had made collectivity in this case impossible. I did not
>>> have the security or the time to discuss these issues with my
>>> organization. I knew that my colleagues upstairs would condemn my
>>> proposal, and that would kill my initiative even before it was born.
>>> There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go
>>> off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the
>>> right way. Finally, my isolation furnished my organization with an
>>> excuse in case matters went awry; the old man was alone and
>>> completely cut off, and his actions were taken by him as an
>>> individual, not a representative of the ANC" - Nelson Mandela (1994),
>>> Long Walk to Freedom, page 627,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: "Anunoby, Ogugua"
>>> <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu><mailto:AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu>
>>> To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>>> (USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com)"<mailto:usaafricadialogue@google
>>> g roups.com(USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com)>
>>> <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><mailto:usaafricadialogue@googleg
>>> r
>>> oups.com>
>>> Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 1:10 AM
>>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Mandela Is Not My Hero
>>>
>>>
>>> The following was forwarded to me. Please read if you may.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "According to this documentary, the story goes back a few months before the release of Nelson Mandela. He is abruptly transferred from his prison, separated from his companions 26 years in prison, to a luxurious private residence with garden and pool. Now, this is where you should live, this is the standard that corresponds to your rank, he was told. No sooner said than done, Mandela was comfortably installed at home. His wife Winnie is conducted to this villa by the South African secret services. This was the big day for Mandela to consume his first intimate night with his wife after waiting 26 years. But Winnie refused. On that day, their marriage was over. Winnie visited all the rooms of the residence quietly, going to the pool, looking at the manicured trees. And returned to tell Nelson, she did not feel comfortable and she wanted to go. Winnie understood that her husband had been bought.
>>>
>>> "What surprised members of the ANC who were still imprisoned is that Mandela decided to negotiate with his murderers for the future 80% of the South African population without consulting anyone in the party who for 27 years had carried his torch lest he be forgotten, so that he would not be killed in prison. Nobody knows what really happened. He never explained his decision."
>>>
>>>
>>> http://pougala.org/no-mandela-is-not-my-hero/
>>>
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>>> kenneth w. harrow
>>> faculty excellence advocate
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>>> michigan state university
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>> --
>> kenneth w. harrow
>> faculty excellence advocate
>> professor of english
>> michigan state university
>> department of english
>> 619 red cedar road
>> room C-614 wells hall
>> east lansing, mi 48824
>> ph. 517 803 8839
>> harrow@msu.edu
>>
>>
> --
> kenneth w. harrow
> faculty excellence advocate
> professor of english
> michigan state university
> department of english
> 619 red cedar road
> room C-614 wells hall
> east lansing, mi 48824
> ph. 517 803 8839
> harrow@msu.edu
>
>
> --
> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu


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