Trends in African Liberation Movements || Emerging Ideological Patterns among Southern African Students

Emerging Ideological Patterns among Southern African StudentsAuthor(s): John StrongSource: Africa Today, Vol. 14, No. 4, Trends in African Liberation Movements (Aug., 1967),pp. 14-17Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4184812 .

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Emerging Ideological Patterns Among

Southern African Students

John Strong The spread of nationalist aspirations to the

Afro-Asian peoples is one of the most important developments in the twentieth century. This phen- omenon is viewed suspiciously by the affluent white nations which tend to see nationalist liberation movements as reckless, violent and irresponsible. The world powers refuse to credit these movements with the a,bility to develop their own ideological foundation. Looking for signs of man- ipulation from others in their affluent club, the great powers ignore or de-emphasize indigenous developments. This subtle racial prejudice col- ors the lens of objective analysis and reinforces pre-conceived notions. There is a tendency among many western journalists, for example, to talk to each other about the liberation fronts, rather than to the men who are members and leaders of the movement. American attitudes towards the Na- tionalist Liberation Front in Viet Nam are a clas- sic example of this.

This brief article attempts an objective construc- tion of the ideological patterns developing out of the current struggle for independence in southern Africa. Material is based upon extended discus- sions-with students from southern Africa in the United States.

One approach to the difficult task of arrang- ing into a pattern the complexities of nationalist thought is to set up some arbitrary focus points and work around them. The following have been selected: intense politicization, oppositionalism, violence and racial awareness, socialism and populism. Intense Politicization

For the black man in southern Africa nearly every act carries political overtones. In one way or another he is continually called-upon to affirm his inferior status in the system. Whether the system is legitimized on the basis of culture as it is in the Portuguese territories, nakedly asserted as it is in South Africa or based on education and in- come as it is in Rhodesia, the individual African meets situations daily which humiliate him and forcefully remind him that political power is in the hands of the whites.

The political situation in these areas in the last few years has become increasingly tense. Set- tler and indigenous nationalist sentiments have sharpened with the numerous clashes between the two communities. By 1965 both groups were armed and preparing for a prolonged struggle. Settlers and Africans alike have defined the situation as one of crisis, a life or death struggle which brooks little compromise. The whites see themselves as the defenders of the last outpost of western Chris- tian civilization on the continent. Ironically, all three white minority regimes have been con- demned by the members of the western democratic community of nations. The Africans on the other hand define the struggle as a fight to the finish,

if necessary, for freedom and human dignity. The situation is intensified by the degree to

which the struggle can be personalized. Individ- uals, and more particularly educated youth in both groups, see that their own status and pro- fessional futures are at stake. It is difficult for the whites to see what role they would play under African majority rule. The young African has seen the speed with which educated young men in independent African countries have risen to po- sitions of status and power and realizes that he has no such future under a white minority government. This personal factor, when placed with other political and psychological forces, greatly intensi- fies the explosiveness of the situation. This climate has had a profound effect on a whole generation of young men in Africa, both black and white.

In each area two nationalisms have developed a symbiotic relationship, each gaining support as a result of the other. White nationalism has man- ifested itself politically in the intensification of police state measures in South Africa, South West Africa, Rhodesia, Angola, Mozambique and Portu- gese Guinea.

This political climate is reflected in the posi- tions taken on philosophical questions. Only in the political sphere can young Africans find meaning.

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As one student put it: "There was no place else to go. The church of- ferred nothing. Village life has no appeal. It seemed that you either had to go, to the biars or the political party offices to talk, but even in the bars you talked politics. You feel in the party like you are doing something, even if it is a small thing."

The search for meaning has led students to a revolutionary party and acceptance of the uncertain- ties inherent in such a movement. Oppositionalism

There was a tendency among Southern African students to oppose any form of authority that confronts them. In the life experience of black men in southern Africa, authority has been

14 AFRICA TODAY



irresponsible, arbitrary and grossly unjust. As a result, they tended to be skeptical and hypercri- tical of all established institutions, including their own movements. This posture transcends ideology.

Students who had visited the Soviet Union prior to their arrival in this country were quick to criticize the Russian system for its lack of freedom, for the way it continuously kept watch over them and for its crude attempts to convert them to doctrinaire Marxism. They were, however, not ready to give any comfort to their American hosts in this regard. The civil rights issue was nearly always raised and documented with inci- dents that happened to them personally. The problem of poverty in the United States, the am- biguities in U.S. foreign policy, and the C.I.A. were common themes in their everyday conversations. Authority in any form was treated suspiciously and manipulated cynically whenever possible.

Their political perspectives had a decided Pla- tonic ring; they were concerned with how things ought to be rather than with how they were. All existing authority systems were subjected to scathing analysis. They demanded a high degree of personal commitment and ethical behavior from their leaders. Unlike the citizen in a pluralis- tic society who is often more tolerant of a politi- cian's personal behavior, they were quick to see such lapses as justification for total rejection of the man in question. Criticism of leaders in the independent African states ran along the same lines. Only Nkrumah and Toure were spared in their attacks.

There was a general feeling of frustration with institutional procedures for change. In fact they seemed a bit hostile towards most established institutions. They have apparently developed a set of responses to institutional stimuli generated from the colonial administration at home and have continued to respond to all authority systems in the same way. All establishments were seen as insidious devices calculated to manip- ulate them, a clever enemy that would use them if they revealed too much of themselves. Hence they often took delight in fancy footwook, keep- ing the institutions continually off balance by ignoring or "forgetting" to comply with established administrative routines. Violence and Racial Awareness

To oppose is to imply a need for change. Op- position to colonial rule has been thwarted with stringent measures, choking off all legal means for redress. Working for reforms outside of the established political system does not automatically require the use of violence, but it does mean that violence comes much closer to the surface. In southern Africa, violence has been accepted by all of the major revolutionary parties as the only effective means left to them in the struggle for majority rule.

Many of the students were very much im- pressed with the writings of Frantz Fanon. His Wretched of the Earth was discussed over and over. He was quoted regularly by students from all over southern Africa. Fanon, a Negro psy- choanalyst from Martinique, wrote several tracts

during the height of the Algerian revolution, based on his experiences in a psychiatric clinic in Algiers. He treated both the Algerians and Frenchmen who were suffering from mental dis- turbances caused by their experiences with physical violence.' Deeply moved by what he saw, he broke completely with the French and joined the F.L.N., representing them at the first two All African Peoples Conferences, where he became acquainted with Nkrumah, Toure, Roberto and Lumumba, among others.

In brief, Fanon's treatise contains three major assertions supported with clinical research and some strategic "leaps of faith." Like Marx and Sorel, he combines these to unfold a manifesto that is believed by many observers to be the Bible of the twentieth century anti-colonial struggle, just as the Communist Manifesto and Reflection on Violence were to the nineteenth century working class movement in Europe.2 The fundamental assertion is that the decolonization proc z s must involve physical violence to be complete. "V'iolence is seen as a cleansing agent, a kind of therapy, essential to the regeneration of new men. Colonial rule was established violently and thereafter a master-servant relationship was enforced violently. In order for a colonized person to re-establish his masculinity, he must, ac- cording to Fanon, assert himself by violently striking down his oppressor. Unless he earns his freedom through violent action in which he risks his life, his emancipation is never complete. He has been given something that he did not earn. The colonizer has again asserted his power over the powerless subject by telling him when and how he could be "free". He is never emancipated psychologically.3 A corollary of this theme is that 'decolonization is the veritable creation of new men'. For the colonized, new life must spring out of the 'rotting corpse of the settler'.

His second assertion is that the source of mili- tant revolutionary energies is with the peasantry. Disagreeing with Marx who dismissed both the lumpen proletariat and the rural poor, Fanon feels that only the uncorrupted rural people who have no stake whatsoever in "things European" or "things urban" can truly commit themselves to the overthrow of the colonial powers. They have nothing to lose and only so long as the revolution remains with them in the countryside can it sustain itself.

Thirdly, he asserts that European influence must be rooted out or allowed to wither on the vine. European civilization in Africa has prevent- ed the flowering of a uniquely African civilization. On these three points Fanon has constructed what Lewis Coser feels is a new and highly rele- vant social myth, ranking with Sorel's general strike and Marx's proletarian revolution.

The decision to use violence was not a hasty one made in the passion of the moment. Nor is there, in spite of Fanon's influence, any tendency to romanticize the act of violence as an end in itself. Violence is seen as a necessary tactic to obtain freedom from oppression. They are aware that individual self determination and collective self determination have a symbiotic relationship, bult see violence only as an unpleasant means, not as an end in itself.

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Once the principle of non-violence was aban- doned, the principle of racial integration had to be re-evaluated. Although the policy of multiracialism was no longer accepted as sufficient ideological base for the nationalist movements and new variations on this theme were suggested, no one called for a rejection of the principle of racial integration itself. Variations seemed to spring from concern for identity and individual self determination. A South African student expressed it this way:

"It is only the blackman who is oppressed in South Africa and it is only we who are black who can free ourselves. If we get too much help from the white liberals, we can never be sure of our freedom. We have to do it ourselves. Besides the white m an doesn't really know how we feel inside. Even though some have gone to jail, they have never been treated as we have." For the most part this sentiment is not anti-

white, but it does move away from the concern for integration as an end in itself. Integration or multiracialism is now considered a by-product of self liberation.

Self liberation doesn't automatically come with national liberation as events in countries like Nigeria have all too plainly shown. The assertion of racial identity that is becoming more and more pronounced among the younger men in these nationalist movements is very much like the black power theme currently shaking the American civil rights movement to its roots. It may be that Stokely Carmichael will be as in- fluential to this generation of African freedom fighters, as Marcus Garvey was to Nkrumah's generation.

This racial identity theme has gradually become more pronounced among African and Afro- Americans and has been the center of discussion in the United States since the Meredith march. It would be difficult to measure precisely the im- pact that the debate over black power has had on the African students, but it was clear that everyone knew about Malcom X and Stokely Car- michael and most had a definition for black power. Criticism of Malcom X or Carmichael was generally met with vigorous opposition by students from southern Africa. Several had their own recordings of Malcom X's speeches. None accepted seriously Malcom X's pronouncement that the white man was the devil incarnate, but they did identify with Malcom's fierce pride in his Afro-American heritage and rejection of inferior- ity. This is the meaning of the new emphasis on blackness. In one sense black power is the political equivalent of Negritude as espoused in French West Africa.

Socialism The general consensus in favor of socialism

probably is a reflection of the oppositional pattern discussed above. It is also undoubtedly a part of the self assertion so necessary to the achievement of individual self determination. But to discuss African Socialism as merely a conveni- ent vehicle for insulting the western world would be a grave mistake. These young men, when asked for their definition, were able to produce ex-

planations which indicated more than a transi- tory interest in the ideology and practice of socialism. There was an awareness of the need for the mobilization of the whole society through effective planning so that the nation could be modernized as quickly as possible. As one student explained:

"We must first organize our society so that we can build our nation. We must plan and all production must be included in the plan. We can not afford to waste anything. We have no time." The only framework suitable for this mobili-

zation process seemed to him to be the central government.

"We must be concerned with the production of goods, ot the distribution of them at this time anyway. Only the central government can ef- fectively plan and control all of the means of production."

Attitudes towards private enterprise were ambivalent. There is a pronounced anti-chrematis- tic posture in the writings of southern African nationalists. The businessman, the person who seeks to accumulate wealth for its own sake, was held in considerable contempt. At the same time, however, there was a willingness to allow private enterprise to continue after the revolution, as long as certain controls were placed over it. This was in part a recognition of the need for foreign capital and in part a resistance to accept fully the Soviet or Chinese models of nation-building. As one South African student said:

"We are not going to copy blindly any foreign system. We want to work out our own indigenous answers, to cope with our own problems. We don't want the cruelty and 'hardness' of rugged individualism and neither do we want the totalitarian conformity that we see in the East."

It should be emphasized that the ultimate goal is a humanistic one and that the mobilization process is not an end in itself. Many voiced sharp criticism of independent African states where there were signs of a class conscious elite emerging who were manipulating the moderniza- tion process for their own gain.

"They drive around in big cars, live in the houses of the former colonial masters and treat the masses just as ruthlessly as the whites did. This is not freedom. This is not socialism. The worst dangers in Africa are those who use the slogans and machinery of the socialist state to exploit the masses more cruelly than the capitalists ever did."

Charles Andrain has, for analytical purposes, divided the African proponents of socialism into the following categories: African Marxism (Toure- Nkrumah), socialist humanism (Senghor) and the social welfare state (Nyerere).4 Within this framework the students tended to lean heavily towards the African Marxist model espoused by Nkrumah and Toure. Nkrumah's personal attrac- tion, however, may be as imp-ortant as ideological considerations here. Nkrulmah was cited on numerous occasions as a man who had been admired for years. He was one of the first prominent Afri-

16 AFRICA TODAY



cans school children had heard of, and his ringing verbal assaults on white minority rule and western imperialism were read and discussed enthusi- astically. The reaction that swept the refugee community here in the United States when he was deposed was almost traumatic. Populism

There are several ideological themes shared by southern Africans that closely parallel the ideologies of European and American populist movements. Richard Hofstader isolated the following elements in American populist ideology: the idea of a rural golden age in the past, the concept of natural harmonies in small village life, a sharp dichotomiy between good and evil, a con- spiritorial view of history and a concern for the common man (masses). Similar themes are developing in southern Africa.

The ancient empires of the Kongo and Zim- babwe, the reign of Shaka and the struggles of men like Gugunyane and Lobengela against the foreign invaders serve as a source of pride for southern Africa. There is also a tendency to look upon the pre-colonial past as an idyllic period when men lived in perfect harmony with their neighbors and with nature. African socialism is often seen as a return to the spirit of communal- ism found in the small village. The past is seen as an inspiration for the future, as a sign that Af- ricans can create their own institutions and fight their own battles.

The use of the ambiguous term "masses" continually reoccurs in party propaganda, in speeches and in everyday conversations. There were con- stant references to the need to "organize the masses" or to a particular leader who "knows the masses."

Political goals are very often defined and d e f e n d e d in terms of the "people." In southern African nationalist politics that can never be more than an assertion, because their people have never been given an opportunity to express themselves at the polls. Nevertheless, it has come to be a source of legitimacy in a Rous- seauean sense.

"We will have independence because the masses are on our side. They reject the white rule, but they are kept in bondage by superior weapons. The masses want to modernize. They want more hospitals, more schools. They want freedom."

This populism is not necessarily democratic. The will of the masses is often seen as something that can be known to a leader who acts in their interest.

The tendency to explain events in terms of conspiracies was a pattern recurring not only in politics but even in the everyday routine. Studies of minority groups in the west show that this tendency is encouraged by the very nature of a segregated social system and daily situations with racial overtones. From this reality the con-

spiracy syndrome gains its initial momentum and is than projected into all analyses of political events. Frustrations are blamed on outside force, on great conspiracies over which there is no control. One student speaking of the rivalry between the nationalist parties in his country said:

"Why have the parties split? For the same reason, Nkrumah and Ben Bella were ousted. The C.I.A. is always working to make sure Africa does not become a world power that would rival the Unit- ed States. There will never be any Pan Africanism as long as the C.I.A. works to subvert it. The Communists are no better. They are playing the same game."

Although not universally espoused, this rapid escalation from a discussion of the differences between rival parties to the international arena indicates a line of reasoning often taken in discus- sions of political issues pertaining to southern Africa.

The concept of a rural-basec. revrolution brings to mind once again the ideas 4 Frantz Fanon. Like Fanon, many of the students felt thai in order to be successful, the revolution must spring from the rural masses. This was a major souce of frustration for them, because the rural peasantry has thus far not become active. Going to the masses generally means going to the countryside to encourage the people to become in- volved.

The dualistic version of social conflict is most dramatically expressed in the words of the mid- western American populist, "Sockless" Jerry Simpson who said, "It is a struggle between the robber and the robbed." The southern Africans see their conflict in similar stark terms. Any person or any country which qualifies this definition in any way is suspect. There can be no fence sit- ters. To be neutral or to advise non-violence is to allow the "robbers" to continue unmolested.

What has been described above is the framework of an indigenous ideology which forms the underpinnings for truly indigenous movements. Any attempt to simply label these students and their movements as the dupes of the eastern or western blocks would be a tragic error.

NOTES 1. Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove

Press, 1965). This is an English translation of the 1961 French edition. Slowly Fanon's books are posthumously being translated into English. "The Ordeal of the Black Man" from Peau Noire, Masques Blanc (Paris, 1952) recently appeared in Wallerstein, Immanuel (Ed.) Social Change: The Colonial Situation (New York. John Wiley and sons, 1966). In 1965 Monthly Review press brought out a translation of L'An Cinq de la Revolution Algerienne under the title, Studies in a Dying Colonialism.

2. See in particular the introduction to The Wretched of the Earth by Jean-Paul Sartre; Coser, Lewis, "The Myth of Peasant Revolt," Dissent, Vol. XIII (May-Jurne, 1966) pp. 298-303 and Morganthau, Ruth Schacter, "Frantz, Fanon: Five Years Later," African Report (May, 1966) pp. 69-71.

3. Certain variations of this theme can be found In the speeches of Malcolm X and more recently in the pronounce- ments of "Black Power" issued by CORE and SNCC. 4. Andrain, Charles, "Democracy and Socialism: Ideologies of

African Leaders," Apter, David (Ed.) Ideology and Discon- tent (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964). This cate- gorization was formulated prior to the recent developments in Tanzania which seem to indicate that Nyerere is mov- ing closer to the Toure-Nkrumah model.

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Trends in African Liberation Movements || Emerging Ideological Patterns among Southern African Students