Keeping it short:
Indeed, Sweden's role in the struggle against Apartheid , and Sweden's role in the Liberation of South Africa from the clutches of Apartheid was a very significant role indeed, and up till today it would not be a gross exaggeration to say that "half the story's never been told" - at least not directly from all of the horses' mouths. Sweden's role has been variously discussed in other fora apart from this one - the details of the morality could be discussed here if this thread needs to get longer - and it's acutely true that "Unfortunately, a lot of people have forgotten, and many Africans do not know, the role that Palme and his country played in the struggle against the insidious system called apartheid" . Stefan Löfven who is the current leader of the Social Democrats and Prime Minister of Sweden was twenty eight years old when Olof Palme was assassinated. A lot of other people were not even yet born or were mere toddlers by 1994 and not even acquainted with third hand reports and materials, and like some writers of glossy covers and titles, poorly informed, just as they are still badly informed and know next to nothing about what was once called The Nuremberg Laws
Sweden and the Liberation Of South Africa
The relationship between the Swedish Trade Unions and COSATU etc. was important., especially at a time when Sweden' s car manufacturing industry etc. was in dire need of raw materials from South Africa. My own brother was knee-deep and stood to be striking it rich in diamond mining in Sierra Leone at some time and needed suction pumps, galvanizers and separator and other mining equipment which was most readily available from Boliden and Granges, two Swedish companies in South Africa - but of course it was a no go from me to my Bro : SANCTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We should also not forget Nigeria's role (over the table and under the table) in the same struggle. Patrick Wilmot's article in the Nigerian Guardian in 1981 was advocating that Nigeria go nuclear – dance real mathematical rhythms and with nuclear capability then talk to the barbarians in South Africa. – this was at the exact time when the Ivory Coast's Francophone president Félix Houphouët-Boigny was recommending dialogue ( the exasperated Dr. Wilmot was asking how can a lamb dialogue with a lion? So he recommended that Nigeria go ballistic - nuclear – weapons of mass destruction and then you dialogue. An order was issued for the arrest of Patrick Wilmot ( by the uncle toms) Wilmot went underground completely, in Kaduna…
If only Olof Palme had lived on to see the fruition of the struggle then he could have joined in the song : Namhanje – and would have sung and danced jabula with Madiba Nelson Mandela. As things were Sweden is the first country that he visited when he was released from Robben Island - because his trusted comrade-in-arms and the ANC's second in command / charge d'affairs Oliver Tambo was recuperating at Ersta hospital in Stockholm at the time….
From the day that I arrived in Sweden ( July 1970 - and secondly in October 1971) I met various resident political exiles ( both White and Black) from South Africa, some of whom are not mentioned here, among others, writers and ideologues such as Molefe Pheto ( who was passing through - later on working at the Commonwealth Institute in London where he completed and published his prison diary) Sobizana 'Bizo' Mngqikana ( later on appointed South Africa's ambassador to Turkey and then ambassador to Finland ) Cecil Sondlo ( PAC , whose motto was "one settler, one bullet" ) wrote often in the Swedish press , musicians such as Ebrahim "Brian" Isaacs, the legendary Chetty, Jackie, Jeff Cartriers ( a friend of the Palmes) Peter Radise, Wana Makoba later on Bheki Mseleku and Johnny Mbizo Dyani (who gave me the name Themba Feza ( Hope to complete - after his late trumpet player Mongezi Feza) artist Lefifi Tladi and of course Dudu Pukwana who I first met when he played at his birthday here in Stockholm – at Fasching Jazz Club - and later at his residence in Marble Arch, London from where he was operating musically…
These friendship and contacts if not static can sometimes prove to be effective networks…
Music is a weapon ! We should not underestimate the contributions that various South African musicians in and outside of South Africa contributed to the success of that struggle. And we should not undervalue the contributions made by the Rastaman and his " free Mandela" music…
1986 – the always experimental Miles Davis : Tutu
I'm sure that Sonny Okosun did a lot of consciousness raising within his orbit with his Fire in Soweto and his Papa's Land
In 1979 in Stockholm , Wole Soyinka declared year of theatre war against the obscenity.
And in that regard we cannot underestimate Athol Fugard, one of the greatest dramatists alive..
The week that I arrived in Rivers State Nigeria for the first time - and it may sound incredible – but that week there was a debate - broadcast live on radio – between those opposed to Apartheid and those who argued against it. After the debate there was a vote and the con side won the debate, but only narrowly. Such a debate – could never have taken place in Sweden - Swedes are far too educated (informed) and therefore far too conscious and took up a moral stand against the such evil long before 1981…
About two months ago Alice Bah Kuhnke our Minister of Culture and Democracy started a new cultural centre in South Africa ( there's also one in Senegal and between me and you , I think that it's high time we had a few in Nigeria)
Very IMPORTANT:
Pär Wästberg ( Swede) the Chairman of the Pen Club was at the forefront of the literary struggle against the barbarism called Apartheid . It was a crucial, powerful , endless moral crusade.
We ( Sweden) hope that Sweden's role in various liberation struggles and the Olof Plame legacy and his spirit that lives on will help secure for us a seat in the Security Council after the voting in June this year
On Monday, 29 February 2016 20:19:55 UTC+1, John Mbaku wrote:
Unfortunately, a lot of people have forgotten, and many Africans do not know, the role that Palme and his country played in the struggle against the insidious system called apartheid. One member of this forum, however, did not forget. Consider the following:Abdul Karim Bangura, Sweden vs Apartheid: Putting Morality Ahead of Profit (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004). It is worth reading. It is a study that can help the reader recognize the "power of one" when it comes to making a difference in this world. Whether it is "one person" or "one country", even an individual acting alone or a country acting alone, against all odds, can indeed change the world. That is the legacy of Palme and that is the legacy of Sweden.On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 11:17 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:--Olof Palme was very popular in Africa and the rest of the third world. To what extent our world could or would have been different if he had not been brutally assassinated some thirty years ago is for a competent political scientsist to assess or speculateThis is something else:
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--JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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