It helped to further organize black workers stablize recently independent Zimbabwe. fighting to improve working conditions. It sent delegates out to the international community. Their directive: Mobilize support. With its ear to the ground it kept an eye on the rising militant mood. Especially among students and the young, who adopted a philosophy of “black consciousness.” Take it to the streets they called upon other Africans. Take your life in your hands. Perhaps it was fueled by “black power” in the wind from America. Or word from already independent northern and central African states. Certainly it was inspired by the victories in neighboring Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. And the gallant defeat of the South African army by the people of Angola. Spurred on by the fiery leadership of Steven Biko, Winnie Mandela (wife of Nelson Mandela) and others, the black-consciousness movement became quite effective in “con- scientizing” and instilling revolutionary awareness in the African people. So inspired were the African youth, so fearless their hatred of apartheid, that on June 16,1976, in the township of Soweto they rose in spontaneous rebellion. Rather than accept any longer the poisonous “Bantu” education. Or the teaching of Afrikaans (white language) in the schools. Nor any of the other prisons of this white, racist rule. So the children of Africa roared with freedom and anger in the streets of Soweto: To hell with Afrikaans was their resistance, booming in the air. Until soldiers and the police shot them dead. More than a thousand of them. And the burning blaze of their spirit fired uprisings throughout South Africa. As over nine months thousands more were wounded and maimed. Even today there are African mothers who do not know where their children are. Or whether they were shot in the streets or arrested or what. David Ndaba called it “Bloody Wednesday.” A participant in the uprisings, he left the country when a warrant was issued for his arrest. At the end of 1976, the ANC strongly urged young people to become skilled freedom fighters. Thousands answered the call. Went into the anonymity of guerrilla warfare. They left the country illegally. Headed for Tanzania to learn to help liberate South Africa. Liberate her from the police killers of Steven Biko, murdered in 1977 in mysterious detention. Liberate courageous Winnie Mandela. From banishment hundreds of miles from home. Where she is confined with her youngest daughter, Zinzi, to the company of only one other person at a time. Where no one but relatives can visit. Today many of those who left are returning. To pick up where fallen heroes leave off. They come back with academic degrees. Technical skills. They come as trained freedom fighters. They operate from bases on the outskirts of cities and in the townships. Numbers of them are black women. They smuggle weapons, money, ammunition, word to the people. Often concealed on their persons. Or they cook. Or heal the wounded. Train to blow up railway lines and power stations. Come to help mobilize the people. Inform them. Arm them. Give them what they need. During this period, what Ndaba refers to as “armed mobilization,” the 1980s have already witnessed the movement’s rise to new heights. Despite severe penalties inflicted on anyone who openly supports it, the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Freedom for black South Africans is notjust around the comer. White South Africa is powerful. Covetous. The whites cannot imagine black, majority rule. Or blackpeople’s sharing in the billions in gold and minerals and uranium there. demonstrates a level of military efficiency and sophistication infuriating to Prime Minister Botha’s apartheid regime. For they attack, yet they are seldom caught. They strike and fade. Concentrate on sabotage via psychological effect: In oilpoor South Africa, alternative energy sources have been prime targets of the freedom fighters. During 1981 stepped up attacks on police stations, electric-power stations, economic installations, oil refineries and South African Defense Force installations numbered more than 50. “Our freedom fighters are everywhere in South Africa,” Mdaba says confidently. “These are not border operations. When we attacked the Keoburg nuclear plant in December 1982, it was in Cape Town. When we’ve attacked Durban and the military base Voortrekerhoogte in Pretoria and Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg, it has been from the inside.” Side by side with the armed movement, strikes, massive demonstrations by workers and growing outside support regularly attest to the fever of the people. “Every sector of the population is appealed to,” David Ndaba says. “Students, farm workers, the women—everyone must form their own unions and committees in the urban and rural areas to challenge each and every issue that affects our lives." Quiet as it’s kept, the white minority government is South Africa is worried: The ANC is openly supported by the people; more young whites than ever refuse to serve in the army, opting for exile. Some fight on the side of the freedom fighters. Others help swell the ranks of boycotters and demonstrators in the streets. In the international community, white South Africa has a leper’s image. Its oppression of black people makes it an outcast among nations. A crime against humanity.A threat to world peace. In the UN, economic and cultural sanctions against it are constantly proposed to isolate it from the world community. How can it not be worried? How can it not worry that the people’s victory is inevitable? That their leaders are ever as powerful, more than 20 years in exile or behind bars? Just how long can four million whites control 26 million Africans anyway? And ignore that the people have ubuntu—ability to carry one another through difficult times? Ignore their laughter? But freedom for black South Africans is not just around the corner. White South Africa is powerful. Covetous. The whites cannot imagine black majority rule. Or black people’s sharing in the billions in gold and minerals and uranium there. Or giving up some of that land. With each thrust forward of the people, white government retaliation also intensifies. Estimates for those detained go as high as 4,000. Between 1960 and the present more than 59 people have died in jail “in detention.” The reasons for death always questionable. Outside the country,, the white South African army perpetuates blistering raids against neighboring “front line” African states. And attempts to deIt is a difficult struggle. It has been 20 years of armed warfare and not easy. Fighting the most entrenched colonial regime on the African continent. Blacks in South Africa are not fighting simply the minority four million. For its allies are powerful nations of the Western world. Chief among them, America. U.S. money supports apartheid plain as day. While business and production decline over here and we lose our jobs and black unemployment rises with malignant speed, 300 or more American companies do thriving business in South Africa. They reap super-profits at black people's expense. Pumping billions of dollars into an ugly thing. Instead of better-quality life here at home. American computers are used to enforce humiliating laws. To store data of tracking systems used against armed activists. For ongoing police communications. Seventy percent of the computers sold to South Africa are American made. And since 1953 America has been largely responsible for South Africa’s nuclear capability. American business interests before the will of the people—a familiar story on the African continent. And to people of color worldwide. To the Reagan administration, white South Africa is a “friend.” Sanctions against South Africa proposed in the UN are vetoed as unworkable (so how come they work against Poland?) Reaganomics supports South Africa because the people who support Reagan get rich off it. And black South Africa be still or be damned. But black South Africans will do neither. Black people will rule South Africa. As a just, nonracial society, one day soon. Freedom will come. Awkward and complex; but they look forward. They come this far by faith. And the heartbeat of victory will thunder throughout the African Diaspora. For the gluttonous, outlaw government that is the last desert of white rule on the African continent will cease to exist. And we can help the liberation movement—as we always have, as Lorraine Hansberry in the early Sixties did with money from her plays, and Paul Robeson before her, ever speaking out for the liberation of Africa. As one day it might be our turn. No doubt about it. Alexis de Veaux is a poet, playwright and novelist born and raised in New York City, Isaac Shamsud-Din is an artist and muralist living in Portland. © 1983 Alexis de Veaux. Reprinted with permission of the author. This story first appeared in Essence magazine. PREMIUM & IMPORTED BEERS AND WINES • . TOSTADAS • ENCHILADAS • BURRITOS • SALADS - OMELETTES NACHOS • CHIMICHANGAS • SPECIAL SANDWICHES! -SGT. 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