Search:

Apartheid had a role in making of history

By: James N. Kariuki

[ Posted On: 2006-06-25 ]

African-American Pan-Africanist, Molefe Ashante, often laments that Europe has robbed Africa of its history. The charge is an inverted vindication of the old adage that, as long as the lion remains the writer of history, he will always emerge the victor.

In complacency, Africans may uphold the position that apartheid deprived South Africa of the opportunity to make history. Yet, victimized South Africa was a vibrant actor in the global political stage. Indeed, it is arguable that apartheid pushed the country into the global screen radar harder than would have been otherwise possible.

For decades, apartheid’s oppression provided the cement to hold the rest of Africa together. Its collective humiliation was the one issue that Africa shared; a perverted contribution, but a contribution nevertheless.

The Organisation of African Union actually established the Liberation Committee whose mandate was specifically to provide full support to the liberation movements of Southern Africa. In context of the OAU, "unfreed" South Africa was indeed already shaping the collective foreign policy of the African states three decades before the demise of apartheid.

It is true that some African states were more anti-apartheid than others. Tanzania was clearly a leader of the pack. In endorsing the establishment of the Liberation Committee, President Julius Nyerere declared that his countrymen were "prepared to die a little" for the final removal of colonialism in Africa.

Throughout the continent, Africans manifested their deep anger with apartheid. Nigeria, for example, imposed an apartheid tax attached to school fees to support the liberation movements of Southern Africa. But, by far, the most celebrated continental anti-apartheid activist was Kwame Nkrumah.

The frequently cited proof of Nkrumah’s denunciation of apartheid is the assertion that the freedom of his country in 1957 was incomplete and meaningless until all Africa was free. Less known is that, subsequent to Ghana’s independence, Nkrumah was sending empty aircrafts to Botswana to pick up Black South African students to be educated in his country, free of charge, in preparation for a liberated South Africa.

South Africa in bondage played a major role in defining the African icons among the founding fathers. True, Nyerere and Nkrumah were bigger heroes than just their opposition to apartheid would suggest. Yet, their uncompromising defiance to the "South African condition" contributed to the legendary status that they occupy in global Africa today.

Inevitably, white supremacy in Southern Africa became a stumbling block to the doctrine of freedom indivisible. In response, Africans devised a two-tier strategy. In addition to supporting liberation movements, they would isolate white-dominated region from the international community, deny it the brotherhood of mankind.

Congo’s Moishe Tshombe was the first African "traitor" to defy the isolation cordon. In the early 1960s, and for his personal ambitions, he embarked upon a domestic armed struggle and hired white mercenaries, mainly from Southern Africa, to do the job. He discredited himself in Africa for doing business with South Africa and, more fundamentally, for introducing the much-hated tradition of soldiers-of-fortune into the experience of the continent.

Malawi’s Kamuzu Banda went even further than Tshombe in defying the African dogma of isolating the African South.

Africa responded by banishing and isolating the two iconoclasts. Tshombe’s Congo and Banda’s Malawi were relegated to the status of pariah states; both leaders died lonely men. Unfreed South Africa had played its historic role of issuing the criteria to determine Africa’s black sheep.

Finally, apartheid played an immensely integrative role. To resist it, countless South Africans went to exile, spreading throughout to the world. But majority of them were scattered all over Africa where they integrated indistinguishably into the societies that they immersed. In this sense, no national group knows Africa as South Africans do. Conversely, all Africa knows South Africans. Could this not be a potent Pan-African resource in making yet more global African history?

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Authored By: James Kariuki

| View Profile & All Articles By: James N. Kariuki |

		Post Comment
		Blog This Article!
		Discuss Article in Forum(s)
		Publication \| Reprint Terms

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive African Insights Articles Via RSS!

| Category Feeds | All-in-one Feed | Other Feed & Syndication Options |

Additional Articles From - Home | Afro Issues | African Insights

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email To Friends
	Ezine Ready \| Syndication
	Make PDF Article
	Share in FaceBook
	Post To del.icio.us
	Post To Furl
	Add To Google Bookmarks
	Submit To Propellor
	Add To Yahoo! My Web
	Add Main Feed To Outlook
	Post to BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com

	Post To BookMarkAfrica.com

| More Subscription Options |

Site Home

Article Categories

More Search Options

Site Map

Submit Articles

Top Authors

Most Recent Articles