Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Transformations in the ANC External Mission and Umkhonto we Sizwe, c. 1960–1969*

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03057070902919850

1465-3893

Arianna Lissoni,

Military, Security, and Education Studies

Abstract This article focuses on key policy, strategic and ideological developments in the ANC external mission and its army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), during their first decade of exile. It seeks to illustrate that the ANC's transformation into a liberation movement in exile during this period and its continued survival were not a matter of unproblematic progression. Rather, this process entailed a series of re-negotiations and re-adjustments, which were triggered by changes in the material conditions of struggle as they unfolded after Sharpeville. The difficulty experienced by the ANC leadership in exile in grappling with these changes produced potentially disintegrative internal strains in the second half of the decade, which can be viewed as the main catalysts behind the call for a Consultative Conference in Morogoro in 1969. At a leadership level, these tensions concerned issues of representation, organisational structure and, ultimately, political strategy. At the heart of the debate between the ANC and its allies was the full incorporation of all South African exiles previously associated with the Congress Movement into the external mission, signalling a gradual transition from the multi-racialism of the 1950s to the creation of a unitary, non-racial liberation front. Closely related to the issue of non-racialism was the progressive adjustment of the ANC to the armed struggle, which was made especially difficult by the continued separation of military from political structures. Hence the concern of this article with the state of affairs within MK, in particular with pressures from below, matters of military strategy, and the relationship between the military and the political movement. Notes 1 Most accounts of the liberation struggle either end with the banning of the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1960 and the subsequent turn to armed struggle, or they almost literally ‘jump’ from the early 1960s to the Durban strikes of 1973. Until recently, Tom Lodge's chapter on ‘Revolutionary Exile Politics, 1960–1975’ provided the only overview of the period stretching from the early 1960s to the 1976 Soweto uprising. See T. Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 (London, Longman, 1983), pp. 295–320. * This article is based on my PhD thesis, ‘The South African Liberation Movements in Exile, c. 1945–50’, SOAS, May 2008. It was first presented at a joint SOAS-Birkbeck workshop on ‘Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa, International Solidarity and the Anti-Apartheid Movement: New Perspectives’ in January 2006. I would like to thank Wayne Dooling (my PhD supervisor), and Hilary Sapire for organising the workshop and Saul Dubow for providing initial comments. 2 See South African Democracy Education Trust (hereafter SADET) (ed.), The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Vol. 1, 1960–1970 (Cape Town, Zebra Press, 2004), and The Road to Democracy: South Africans Telling Their Stories, Vol. 1, 1950–1970 (Johannesburg, Tsehai Publishers, 2008). 3 Raymond Suttner's research on the ANC underground between Rivonia and the Soweto uprising has demonstrated that despite the severity of the blows suffered by the ANC in the early 1960s, the ANC never entirely disappeared inside South Africa. In fact, the ANC's continued – albeit little visible – underground presence throughout the 1960s helps explain its subsequent re-emergence after 1976. See R. Suttner, The ANC in South Africa to 1976 (Johannesburg, Jacana, 2008). 4 Lodge, Black Politics, p. 68. 5 S. Dubow, ‘Thoughts on South Africa: Some Preliminary Ideas’, in H.E. Stolten (ed.), History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2007), p. 67. 6 Interview with Reg September, Cape Town, 15 February 2005. 7 ‘Freedom Charter’, adopted by the Congress of the People, 26 June 1955, Document 11, in T. Karis and G.M. Gerhart, Challenge and Violence, 1953–1963, Vol. 3, in T. Karis and G.M. Carter (eds), From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964 (Stanford, Hoover Institution Press, 1977), pp. 205–8. Emphasis added. 12 SACP, Road to South African Freedom, p. 29. 8 According to Stalin's definition, a nation is a ‘historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture’. J.V. Stalin, ‘Marxism and the National Question’, Prosveshcheniye, 3–5, March–May 1913, available at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1913/03.html 9 A. Lerumo, Fifty Fighting Years: The Communist Party of South Africa (London, Inkululeko, 1971), pp. 63–6. 10 South African Communist Party (SACP), The Road to South African Freedom: The Programme of the South African Communist Party (London, Bowles, 1964), p. 27. 11 D. Everatt, ‘Alliance Politics of a Special Type: The Roots of the ANC/SACP Alliance, 1950–1954’, Journal of Southern African Studies (hereafter JSAS), 18 (1992), p. 19. 13 SACP, Road to South African Freedom, p. 4. 14 L. Callinicos, Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains (Cape Town, David Philip, 2005), p. 253. 15 University of the Western Cape (hereafter UWC), Mayibuye Centre Historical papers (hereafter MCH) 70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965. 16 Karis and Gerhart, Challenge and Violence, p. 332. 17 The SAUF was created by a small group of ANC, PAC, SAIC, SWANU and SWAPO leaders in exile. Its formation was announced at the second Conference of Independent African States in Addis Ababa in June 1960. The SAUF's aim was to mobilise world opinion and to draw governments into active participation in the application of various pressures (economic and political) on South Africa. The PAC's boycott of the May 1961 stay-away can be viewed as the main, although not the only, factor for the Front's final dissolution in March 1962. See Y. Dadoo, ‘Why the United Front Failed’, New Age, 29 March 1962. 18 Callinicos, Oliver Tambo, p. 264. The idea that the ANC and the PAC should unite in a common front was one that outlived the SAUF. For the rest of the decade and beyond, pressure for the formation of a united front was exerted by African leaders through the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963. The OAU's African Liberation Committee, the sub-committee in charge of channelling financial, military and logistical aid to liberation organisations, laid it down as a condition for recognition and support that different liberation parties in each given African country must come together in a common liberation front to direct political activities. 19 University of Fort Hare (hereafter UFH), Liberation Archives, Oliver Tambo Papers, Box 81, File B.2.3.1, Political Report of the NEC to the Consultative Conference of the ANC, Morogoro, April 1969. 20 B. Bunting, Moses Kotane, South African Revolutionary: A Political Biography (Bellville, Mayibuye Books, 1998, 3rd edn), p. 244. 21 Notes for Delegates to the All African People's Conference to be held in Accra, Ghana, December 1958, Issued by the ANC. Available at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/boycotts/accra58.html 22 Karis and Gerhart, Challenge and Violence, p. 321. 23 R.M. Sobukwe, Opening Address, Inaugural Conference of the PAC, April 4–6, 1959, document 39a in Karis and Gehart, Challenge and Violence, p. 516. 24 See Manifesto of the Africanist Movement, document 39b, in ibid., R.M. Sobukwe, Opening Address, Inaugural Conference of the PAC, April 4–6, 1959, document 39a in Karis and Gehart, Challenge and Violencepp. 517–24. 25 N. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (London, Abacus, 1995), pp. 369–71. 26 UWC, MCH70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965. 27 Prior to March 1960, the Congress Alliance had functioned through the Joint Congress Executives, the formal head of the Alliance, and through the National Action Council, a consultative, non-policy making body with delegates from each of the sponsoring organisations. 28 UWC, MCH70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965. 29 UFH, Liberation Archives, Oliver Tambo Papers, Box 81, File B.2.3.1, Political report of the NEC to the Consultative Conference of the ANC, Morogoro, April 1969. 30 UWC, MCH70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965. 31 UFH, Liberation Archives, Oliver Tambo Papers, Box 81, File B.2.3.1, Political Report of the NEC to the Consultative Conference of the ANC, Morogoro, April 1969. 32 ‘A Landmark in South Africa's History: The Sixth National Conference of the South African Communist Party’, International Bulletin, 4, December 1962, in A. Drew (ed.), South Africa's Radical Tradition: A Documentary History, Vol. 2, 1943–1964 (Cape Town, Buchu Books, 1997), pp. 358–64. 33 ‘A Landmark in South Africa's History: The Sixth National Conference of the South African Communist Party’, International Bulletin, no. 4, December 1962, in A. Drew (ed.), South Africa's Radical Tradition: A Documentary History, Vol. 2, 1943–1964 (Cape Town, Buchu Books, 1997), pp. 358–64 34 South African Freedom News, Dar es Salaam, African National Congress of South Africa, 12 July 1963. 35 The Observer, London, 1 March 1964. 36 UFH, Liberation Archives, Oliver Tambo Papers, Box 81, File B.2.3.1, Political report of the NEC to the Consultative Conference of the ANC, Morogoro, April 1969. 37 T.G. Karis and G.M. Gerhart, Nadir and Resurgence, 1964–1979, Vol. 5, in Karis and Carter (eds), From Protest to Challenge (Pretoria, UNISA Press, 1997), p. 36. 38 UWC, MCH70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965. 39 UWC, MCH70, Survey of the External Mission of the African National Congress of South Africa, February 1965 40 UWC, Mayibuye Archives, MCH70, Memo on Coloured People Congress External Representation [n.d.]. 41 UWC, MCH70, Barney Desai and Cardiff Marney, Memorandum to the External Mission of the African National Congress – External Representation, London, 18 June 1964. 42 UWC, MCH70, CPC International Bulletin, 19 March 1966, London. 43 UWC, MCH70, SACPC External Representation, Press Release, London, 19 March 1966. 44 See J. Frederikse, The Unbreakable Thread: Non-racialism in South Africa (London, Zed Books, 1990), p. 99. 45 UWC, MCH70, Proposals for strengthening liaison between the External Mission of the ANC and other organisations in the Congress Alliance, November 1965. 47 UFH, Liberation Archives, ANC Morogoro Papers, Box 6, File 53, Problems of the Congress Movement. 46 The bulk of the ANC executive had been elected in 1959 in conditions of legality and under a general policy of non-violence. Although the liberation struggle had undergone a radical transformation since then, the same leadership continued to function. 48 H. Barrell, ‘Conscripts to their Age: African National Congress Operational Strategy, 1976–1986’, D.Phil thesis, St Anthony's College, University of Oxford, 1993, available at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/thesis/barrel_thesis/CHAPT1.htm 49 V. Shubin, ANC: A View from Moscow (Cape Town, Mayibuye Books, 1999), p. 51. 50 University of Cape Town (hereafter UCT), Manuscripts and Archives, Simons Collection, P8, Internal Position. 51 University of Cape Town (hereafter UCT), Manuscripts and Archives, Simons Collection, P8, Internal Position 52 UFH, Liberation Archives, ANC Morogoro Papers, Box 6, File 53, Report of the Sub-Committee on Problems of the Congress Movement. 53 B. Turok, Nothing but the Truth: Behind the ANC's Struggle Politics (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2003), p. 211. 54 N. Ndebele and N. Nieftagodien, ‘The Morogoro Conference: A Moment of Self-Reflection’, in SADET (ed.), The Road to Democracy, Vol. 1, p. 584. 55 Present at the meeting, which was chaired by Oliver Tambo, were: Ray Simons, Moses Kotane, Robert Resha, William Marula (aka Flag Boshielo), M.P. Naicker, Joe Slovo, Moses Mabhida, Joe Matlou, Alfred Kgokong, J.B. Marks, Johnny Makatini, John Pule, Reg September, Michael Harmel, Joe Matthews, Ruth Mompati, Duma Nokwe, Mandy Msimang, James Hadebe, Yusuf Dadoo, and Mzwai Piliso. 56 See UFH, Liberation Archives, ANC Morogoro Papers, Box 8, File 68, ‘Notes on a meeting of the joint Congress Executives’, Morogoro, 26–28 November 1966. 57 UWC, MCH02, J. Slovo, ‘Thoughts on the Future of the Alliance’, April 1969. 58 See also Ndebele and Nieftagodien, ‘The Morogoro Conference’, pp. 586–7. 59 Interview with Terry Bell, Muizenberg, 19 February 2005. 60 A. Sibeko (with J. Leeson), Freedom in Our Lifetime (Durban, Indicator Press, 1996), p. 82. 61 A. Sibeko (with J. Leeson), Freedom in Our Lifetime (Durban, Indicator Press, 1996), pp. 84–5. 62 R.M. Ralinala, J. Sithole, G. Houston and B. Magubane, ‘The Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns’, in SADET (ed.), The Road to Democracy, Vol. 1, p. 483. 63 Sibeko, Freedom in Our Lifetime, p. 85. 64 ‘Gizenga’ Mpanza, quoted in Ralinala et al., ‘The Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns’, p. 483. 65 Sibeko, Freedom in Our Lifetime, p. 95. 66 Quoted in E. Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (Cape Town, David Philip, 2002), p. 221. 67 Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 27 January 1969. 68 Excerpts of their statement (which was sent to several Western organisations) appeared in the Johannesburg Sunday Times on 6 July 1969. 69 Some of these problems were not unique to MK but troubled other national liberation armies in the region as well. See for example Luise White's account of the mutinies surrounding the assassination of ZANU's National Chairman Herbert Chipeto. L. White, The Assassination of Herbert Chipeto: Texts and Politics in Zimbabwe (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 2003). 70 Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 6 July 1969. 71 UCT, Manuscripts and Archives, Simons Collection, P7, ‘Grounds of appeal and addendum thereto in the matter of expulsion from the African National Congress of Jeqa Buthelezi, Wilmot Bempe, Alfred Khombisa, Wilson Mbali, Jackson Mlenze, Chris Nkosana, Bruce Pitso, March 1969’. 72 See the article by Hugh Macmillan in this issue, ‘The African National Congress of South Africa in Zambia: The Culture of Exile and the Changing Relationship with Home, 1964–90’, which also discusses the ‘Hani Memorandum’. 73 UCT, Manuscripts and Archives, Simons Collection, P7, ‘Grounds of appeal and addendum thereto in the matter of expulsion from the African National Congress of Jeqa Buthelezi, Wilmot Bempe, Alfred Khombisa, Wilson Mbali, Jackson Mlenze, Chris Nkosana, Bruce Pitso, March 1969’. 74 Quoted in T.X. Makiwane, Against the Manipulation of the South African Revolution (Dar es Salaam, October 1975), p. 10. Long extracts from the memorandum are reproduced in this pamphlet. However, there appear to be no copies of the memorandum in any public archive. A complete copy of the document is forthcoming in Transformations as ‘The “Hani Memorandum”’: introduced and annotated by Hugh Macmillan'. 75 Quoted in T.X. Makiwane, Against the Manipulation of the South African Revolution (Dar es Salaam, October 1975), pp. 11–12. 76 Quoted in T.X. Makiwane, Against the Manipulation of the South African Revolution (Dar es Salaam, October 1975), p. 13. 77 Callinicos, Oliver Tambo, p. 322. 78 Karis and Gerhart, Nadir and Resurgence, p. 34. 79 The tribunal was composed of two members of the executive, Mzwai Piliso and Joe Matlou, and three of the military command. See H. Macmillan, ‘The African National Congress of South Africa in Zambia’ in this issue. 80 UCT, Manuscripts and Archives, Simons Collection, P7, Grounds of appeal and Addendum Thereto in the Matter of Expulsion from the African National Congress of Jeqa Buthelezi, Wilmot Bempe, Alfred Khombisa, Wilson Mbali, Jackson Mlenze, Chris Nkosana, Bruce Pitso, March 1969. 81 Quoted in Callinicos, Oliver Tambo, pp. 325–26. 82 Quoted in Callinicos, Oliver Tambo, p. 330. 83 UWC, MCH70, Duma Nokwe, Directive concerning preparation for Conference, Morogoro, 18 February 1969. 84 UWC, MCH70, Duma Nokwe, Directive concerning preparation for Conference, Morogoro, 18 February 1969 85 In fact, the conflict was to erupt again in the 1970s and lead to the expulsion of the Group of Eight in 1975.