British settlers arrived and set out to conquer the indigenous people. But the Africans were a strong military force, not easy to conquer. They took up shields and spears. And the period of the Wars of Resistance began. From 1652 to 1906. Over 250 years. Of battles won and lost. Of fighting back. When finally the Africans’ shields and spears were no match against the settlerinvaders’ fire-arms, the Africans were defeated. Their leaders and heroes sent to prison. In 1906 the people themselves were disarmed. “The European realized that in order to dominate over the African poeple you had to disarm the African people,” says David Ndaba, administrative secretery and representative to the United Nations for the African National Congress. “Even today a black man in South Africa is not allowed to own a gun. Licenses are only given to whites, not to blacks.” Imagine life in your own country, where by enemy laws only the enemy has a right to bear arms. But whites could not shake black will. Stripped of traditional as well as modern weapons, the Africans turned to peaceful means of regaining their freedom. In 1912 the African National Congress (ANC) was founded. It was the first organized movement for liberation. Representing Africans and Indians (then organized by Mahatma Gandhi) from every sector, it aimed to speak on the people’s behalf. Delegations were sent to the ruling British government in London. Appeal after appeal was made. The people’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Except in 1913:-when the fury of the women rose in historic, collective resistance. No, they said, we will not carry your passes. We will not be treated as our men. We will not be so ruled. So loud and unshakable was their determination, the government quickly withdrew the passes. For more than 40 years after, pass laws were not as strictly enforced against the African women until the institutionalization of apartheid in 1948. It is pronounced “uh-partate.” It means “separate development.” The most extreme segregation. Nothing good for black people, no way, shape nor form. It was introduced by the Afrikaners (descendents of the Dutch) who wrested political control from the British in 1948. As the new rulers, they entrenched themselves in an already exploitive system. And developed it into one of the cruelest in the world. Under apartheid the oppression of African people became a hammer to their heads. Africans became “Bantu” in the government’s eyes. Bantu became another word for nigger. In 1948 (and for 28 years after) the white government forcefully removed 2,1 08,000 black South Africans from their homes. Bulldozed their communities. Actor Zakes Modae and his people were among some of the first. They were moved from Sophiatown to what is now called Soweto. “When we got moved,” he explains, “they had to bring in the army, the cops and the guards. And you’re sitting out there watching this big yellow bulldozer going through your house. Without warning they just come and say, ‘You have to get your stuff out,’ and then they just run your house down.” To make more room for whites. Considerable controls restricted black movement; racism was institutionalized. From government on down. Legal classification of blacks, coloreds and Asians * The triumphant women dispersed, singing “Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder, you will be crushed ” by racial category became entrenched. Divide and (hope to) conquer was the name of the Afrikaner game. The Group Areas Act of 1950 designated exclusive white residential areas. The 1950 Immorality Act out-lawed sexual relations and marriage between whites and nonwhites. So whole families were broken up, separated by geography. The Suppression of Communism Act (1950) prohibited any political activity the government defined as “endangering to the [white] state.” The devastating Bantu Education Act of 1953 institutionalized the inferiority of the African educational system. Newspapers sympathetic to resistance were banned. Extensive laws governed every black life. Yet despite such inhuman suppression by the Afrikaner regime, the 1950s was a decade of unprecedented black opposition. While strikes, boycotts and all peaceful means of struggle were met with violence and force, African and Indian militancy increased. And it was a decade of women’s rebellion. Organizing themselves into powerful instruments of change, the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women were critical to the surging resistance. On August 9, 1956, organized by the Federation, 20,000 South African women converged upon Union Buildings, the administrative center of government in Pretoria. They arrived by train, coach and car. Peasant women from the “homelands." Workers from urban areas. Intellectuals. The middle class. All races. All colors. They came to see Prime Minister Strijdom. Though all marches in Pretoria were banned that particular day, the women were not deterred. They came in groups of two and three. Five paces apart. They filled Pretoria with the sound of their walking. Filled the streets and the avenues. In the green-and-black ANC blouses. Indian women in saris. Xhosa women, ochre robes and elaborate head scarves covering them. They came with an unshakable will to resist. To demand the withdrawal of passes for women and repeal of the pass laws. Their leaders— Lilian Ngoyi, Frances Beard, Helen Joseph, Sophie Williams and Rahima Moosa—carried thousands of signatures and petitions into the prime minister’s office. The prime minister refused to see them. Undaunted, those women rejoined the others, standing in the sun. They stood in silence with their fists raised in salute. Even the babies did not cry. Then the 20,000 strong, 20,000 brave black women burst into song. And the pillared wings and the trees and the gardens of Union Buildings rang in haunting four-part harmony: Nkosi Sikele 'iAfrika. The anthem of free Africa. Echoed over the city. When their protest was over, the triumphant women dispersed, singing “Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder, you will be crushed.” The march was a critical turning point in the South African women’s struggle for freedom and human rights. Impressive evidence of their angry, organized power, it rattled the white minority government. And marked an important step forward to unity among African people. If the 1950s saw tremendous black opposition, the Sixties ushered in a deafening white backlash. When the Pan-African Congress (PAC, a group founded by former ANC members) launched its AntiPass Laws Campaign in 1960, nearly 100 peaceful, unarmed demonstators were brutally shot down while protesting the laws. Another 178 were wounded. In the streets of Sharpeville Township, the government killed the people rather than listen to them. Fearing the mood of the African people after the Sharpeville Massacre, the government declared a state of emergency. The ANC and the PAC were banned. As well as many other organizations and newspapers. There were daily mass arrests. To stay alive, the ANC went underground. The following year the African people and their movement, the ANC, made a decfaration of armed resistance. Shortly after, the military wing of the ANC, Um- khonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), was formed. It was a difficult and daring decision to make. It took years to come to. And generations of second-class citizenship. With the charismatic Nelson Mandela as its commander-in-chief, Um- khonto we Sizwe dedicated itself to the sabotage of economic and politically important targets. In key/critical areas. While strikes by the people supported the new thrust. Predictably, the minority government’s response was deliberate and crushing. All plugs were pulled in pursuit of the fledgling organization; in 1964, Umkhonto we Sizwe suffered a major setback. “We were not used to illegal, underground operations. We were used to legal forms of struggle,” Ndaba says. “As a result, the entire military command and all of our documents were captured by the enemy—people like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and others. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. Toda’y, 20 years later, they are still on Robben Island and in other jails in South Africa.” Even though jailed under maximumsecurity prison conditions, Nelson Mandela is still a leader and a symbol of resistance. Last year he was moved from Robben. Island (off the coast of Cape Town) to Pollsmoor, a jail on land. There he was hospitalized for suspected cancer later reported benign. As the ANC regrouped toward the end of the sixties and the early seventies, its underground work continued. It went into battle on the side of Zimbabwe in 1967 and 1968 against the Ian Smith regime. . ■ x M H . I . r. r R M T . . > . ■ - ... .... The Riverway Inn will Re-open at 10th and S.W. Salmon — Saturday. Nov. 24th. Christmas craft spaces are available in our lobby. Enquires invited. ____________ _ O’CONNOR’S 50 YEARS O’Connor’s has been proudly serving you and the Downtown Portland area Since 1934 Open for Breakfast M-F 7am, Sat 9am Dinner Specials • Full Bar 529 SW 4th Ave. Portland, Oregon 228-0854 GJke RELAX IN OUR PRIVATE HOT TUB ROOMS, 239-TUBS 4747 S.£. Hawthorne JACUZZI WHIRLPOOLS OPEN DAILY AT CEDAR SAUNA AVAILABLE WOON J ......;. . 7J DAYS A WEEK CHOICE OF MUSIC -TOWELS FURNISHED GIFT CERTIFICATES 36 Clinton St. Quarterly
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