Several young women activists in South Africa have become articulate spokespersons on the SOWETO uprisings of 1976 and the present struggle in South Africa. In the following excerpts from Southern Africa (December 1976 and March 1977), two women, Sikose Mji and Nkosazana DIamini, speak out.
Born in Johannesburg, Sikose Mji is a 21-year old South African high school graduate who participated in the Soweto demonstrations last summer, was a member of the Black Consciousness movement, and is now active in the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. Because of her role in the uprisings of last year, she has been forced to leave her family and escape South Africa to avoid detention.
What happened in Soweto on June 16,1976?
MJI: The students were marching down the streets of Soweto in protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in the schools. When they gathered at one school they were shot at by the police. The students picked up stones and hit back at the police but the police kept firing on them. There was actually a fight between unarmed students and armed police. Many students were detained and several have died in detention which has caused the fighting to continue up to now. The people held huge funerals for those who had died in detention (and in the streets) and speeches were made against the injustices of the killings, despite the presence of police observers. Since June, there has been a whole lot of chaos, students against the police. Even the parents have joined, because their children have died.
What caused this uprising?
MJI: In recent years, there has been general discontent amongst everybody, and in particular, the youth. With Mozambique and Angola becoming independent, the young people of South Africa felt further challenged to follow the example of the people of Angola and Mozambique. When the government enforced this law within the system of bantu education, it came at a very wrong time - for the government, that is. The discontent and dissatisfaction had grown to such a point that people were ready to protest anything, even though they knew well what the government's response would be. The frustration could not be held in any more. It had to burst and go on and on, building in strength.
Were these uprisings an expression of spontaneous anger or part of an organized form of resistance?
MJI: It was probably a mixture of both - spontaneity and organization - because of the accumulation of frustration. Even if it had been organized though, if the people had not been ready to respond, they wouldn't have. So, to a certain extent, it was spontaneous. But I think that perhaps there are among the people some who are trained in the organization of this type of thing. I don't think they were there when the first protest occurred because I don't believe there would have been so many casualties if it had been organized. Whoever was organizing would have made some provision for the type of reaction that is always expected from the government and police. Once it happened however, those people who organize, namely the ANC and the underground in South Africa, had to come in and try to channel it towards. some organized form so that casualties would be minimized and some success gained. After this, came the workers' strike where 80 per cent of the people refused to go to work...
People at home are so conscious of the whole of Africa being free, even of the struggles in Zimbabwe and Namibia, countries smaller than South Africa, gaining independence before South Africa. So the South African people feel that they are ready for independence — they even claim that they are ready to die for it. In a number of interviews since June 16, this attitude has been expressed by parents, in the Black Parents' Association, students in the Students' Representative Council, women's organizations, the YWCA. When one looks at all the people in South Africa now, the mood and the attitude is the same. They want liberation. And this time they are not asking for it. They want to grab it for themselves.
Is this mood different from what your parents said about the mood following Sharpeville in 1960?
MJI: I think what is happening now is perhaps something that is quite similar, identical to what happened in Sharpeville, Even if in between there was perhaps a period of some silence, people have been getting caught, struggling individually or in organizations, getting burned, being sent to Robben Island (South Africa's most famous prison for political prisoners). Perhaps the type of upheaval that attracts world attention wasn't there until now, but I don't think the mood is different from that after Sharpeville. If there was some discouragement after Sharpeville, it's over now, especially for the young people, who only learned about Sharpeville, from their parents. People have passed to a stage where they don't fear what happened in Sharpeville any more.
But really I think Mozambique and Angola are very much responsible for this recent activity. It was a shock when Mozambique, for example, became independent overnight. We had never even known that FRELIMO was even fighting. Oh no, we never get that kind of news. Then one day, we woke up, and were told that Mozambique was free. People asked - how come the Mozambicans have made it and we are sitting here? This really started our people thinking and made them decide that they were not going to be left behind when other people were going forward...
What is the relationship between the black consciousness movement and the national liberation movement?
MJI: While the black consciousness movement within South Africa and the liberation movement are separate movements, the two movements complemented each other. The black consciousness movement came about when there was a vacuum created by the absence of the most powerful liberation movement within the country. Something really had to keep people going, yet it had to be something milder, something that wouldn't attract government attention and get banned like the other movements. The black consciousness movement could never have replaced the liberation movement and when the black consciousness movement was formed we were very aware of its shortcomings and the fact that it didn't really go far enough. It simply kept you busy, but you shouldn't forget that we are a struggling people. It takes years to form a liberation movement, and the people at home are now expecting the liberation movements that they know are somewhere outside the country, to come back to their salvation.
What was the reaction of the parents to the students' rebellion?
MJI: When the students began their protest of bantu education and all its sub-laws, at first the parents were shocked, but then they applauded the bravery of their children. Our parents, and especially those in ANC, were not taught in bantu education and have always refused to accept it since its establishment in 1955. My father who was a member of ANC at the time was always against this government institution. But the government as usual refused to hear their protest. When the students marched in protest the parents shouted, in our language, things like "our children are doing it " and they hailed the students who were being fired on. Then they too were prepared to demonstrate and refused to go to work. They felt young. Their support was much needed in this movement. It is important for us to remember, however, that the parents are the ones who get jailed everyday in their own organizations, like the Black South African Women's Federation, the Union of Natal Women, the YWCA, etc., without the outside world knowing it. When the students rose up among themselves, people wanted to say that the parents were not doing anything, but this was a false idea.
Nkosazana DIamini is the Vice President of SASO (South African Students Organization) and a member of the ANC underground inside South Africa.
She left the country last September 1976 after weeks spent evading a police search, by moving from room to room in the men's hostel of Natal University. She had one narrow escape: she was arrested for trespass, but gave a false name, was fined ten Rand, and released as one more routine "offender" caught in the relentless machine of repression.
Nkosazana, when she escaped, was the only member of SASO's executive not in detention. She was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, in 1949. She lived with her family in Glebelands location, Durban, and attended primary school there.
Her family was moved out when Glebelands was turned into a bachelors quarters, and they were taken to Umlazi - the "Soweto" of Durban. She went to high school at Amanzimtoti training college (formerly Adams College), and took her BSc in zoology at the University of Zululand. She was in her fifth year in medical school at Wentworth, becoming a doctor, when the uprising began.
Why in your view was there this sudden rallying over the education issue in June 1976 and then this sustained heroic militant action by the people everywhere? How do they remain so resilient?
DIamini: One reason why it has been sustained is that there had, in fact, been a great deal of political work going on before, which brought out the pre-conditions before the outbreak. The June incidents sparked off something among the people who were really prepared and determined to carry on the struggle. Lots of people who left the country did not do so to apply for asylum as refugees. They left determined to acquire the necessary skills to fight , and to help the people in their struggle.
To show that much of the work which has been done has come from the ANC - almost everybody who leaves the country looks for the ANC. They know where to go, they know who is going to give them the necessary skills to overthrow the regime.
As for the older people, they are staying and getting some education in t he role they can play as workers in the struggle. Especially in South Africa , we don't need everybody to be a fighter with a gun.
Even initially, during the peaceful demonstrations, parents supported the pupils. It was they who opposed the original introduction of Bantu Education, and the forced introduction of Afrikaans as a medium revived their original rejection of the system.
But what really thrust the parents into action was the brutal police killings. The police had always been ruthless with peaceful demonstrators, but nobody expected the coldblooded murder of young children. So besides their solidarity with young people they were angered - and their hatred and rejection of t he whole system came to the surface.They were completely with the students in their militancy. Even the workers' strikes were very successful.
Do organizations like SASO and PBC (Black People's Convention) still have a role to play? What should that role be? How should they work?
DIamini: I think they still have a role. They should concentrate on trying to break the racial and tribal barriers between different oppressed groups..
How do they go about doing this?
DIamini: We have lots of community projects ranging from literacy training to home industries, legal aid and medical aid. When we carry out these programs we also explain to the people why It is they have to be taught basic reading at their age, why they always fall on the wrong side of the law, why their medical services are so poor, in other words, how they are affected by the system.
We explain to Africans that Indians and Coloreds are paid more so that the oppressor will be able to divide different sectors of the oppressed people, so they will see their interests as different , and not fight against the oppressor in a group.
At our work camps we give talks too. V\/e explain when we are with Colored people, why the Whites seem to be favoring them - it is not that the Whites see them as better, but just part of the whole process of divide and rule; in fact they are just as affected as the Africans.
As medical students we ran clinics among all three black groups. Indian, African and Colored students would go as a team into African, Colored and Indian ghettoes to demonstrate that we can all work together to help each other, and we can fight the enemy together. So people begin to see each other as part of an exploited, oppressed group.
In the future, do you think the struggle will take a direction which shows that the people are understanding who the real enemy is?
DIamini: Yes - the whole theme of the last SASO conference was the socio-economic structure of the country. There were many commissions to discuss how to explain to the people that the problem lies in the socio-economic structure rather than in racial differences. We felt we could do this, because we now have solidarity . We have consciousness. If we had tried to explain to an apathetic man: the White man is not your problem as such, your problem is capitalism and imperialism — he wouldn't have known what we were talking about. Now that they are with us - the student body and the mass of people - it easier to explain the fundamental problems of our struggle in South Africa. There is lots of literature , some of which is being simplified to reach the ordinary person, with the facts. Some of it is coming from SASO, some through ANC underground.
In recent weeks you have been around Britain and in Europe. You have seen and addressed a number of support movements. If you had just five minutes to sum up the most important things for our Western supporters to realize, and to do, what would you say?
DIamini: They should understand, first and foremost, that our struggle is not really a racial struggle, that we are more concerned about the socio-economic structure
They have to stop their governments and others from any form of contact or collaboration with South Africa.
They must understand that the ANC is the answer to our struggle. The people inside cannot alone bring about effective change. They need the leadership of the ANC for an armed struggle - which is the only answer.
How do you see the present uprising in the context of the struggle that has been going on over the last few generations?
DIamini: I think what is happening now is at quite an advanced stage. The people are fighting at a national level, responding nationally to something which originally affected a smaller group in one place. Now, if you take the Bambata rebellion - those people were revolting against the poll tax, but the revolt never spread around the nation.
I would say also that people are more united, something which affects one sector is taken up by others. Even White students demonstrated in solidarity. This was quite a step forward.
The way the resistance has been sustained shows that our people are more determined. Also, in the past, students have demonstrated alone and workers never joined them, while workers have struck and students never realized that the strike was part of the national struggle. Now, people have got together.
Also, many people have realized they have got to go out of the country to join the ANC so that they can train and return to fight.