The Grass and the Gallows

The Grass and the GallowsThe African Patriots by Mary BensonReview by: Thomas KarisAfrica Today, Vol. 11, No. 6 (Jun., 1964), pp. 15-17Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4184538 .

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Treason Trial Defense Fund. It was also at this time that she wrote her first book, "Tshekedi Khama," a biog- raphy of the Bechuana leader. Since then she has considered herself pri- marily a writer. ("Author" she con- siders a somewhat pompous term, and "journalist" is too ephemeral -although she has contributed to such ephemeral publications as the London Times and the Observer.) She might manage to get more writing done, however, if only it were not that "Life keeps interrupting." Having recently completed her latest publication, "The African Patriots," (the story of South Africa's African Na- tional Congress since 1912), she had just completed four pages of a new book when she heard, in early 1964, that the Rivonia trial of Mandela, Sisulu, and the others had reached a critical point. Her friends in London thought that it would be helpful if she would come over to the States once more (in 1963 she had appeared before the UN's Apartheid Committee as a petitioner) to assist, as a white South African, in the efforts that were being made to help Mandela and the others.

Since her arrival, she has com- mented that if one explains the situation to ordinary Americans, they at once understand, are sympathetic, and appreciate the significance of the trial and the stature of the men involved in it. Her own personal sense of commitment to Mandela, Sisulu, and the others is sincere and intense; Man- dela she has known since 1951, although as a friend only since 1957. Sisulu she also knew in 1951 when, as Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC), he was planning the Defiance Campaign. On one occasion in 1961, during a meet- ing with Mandela, who was "underground" at the time, he had to pre- tend to be her chauffeur, while she sat in the back of the car. Unfortunately the car kept stalling, and she was terrified that they might encounter the police, and that Mandela might be identified.

As a white South African, Mary Benson has also been struck by many similarities between the situation in her own country and that in parts of the United States. Travelling in the South last year, where she met such Negro leaders as Medgar Evers in Jackson, she noted the many resemblances between people's everyday lives in states like Mississippi, and

people's everyday lives in South Af- rica. "But," she says, "one has to allow for the very profound difference of the existence of the American Con- stitution over here." Apart from this difference, however, she finds that some white Southerners are extrenely like some Afrikaaners. There is also the great similarity between the cir- cumstance of the Civil War in the States and the Boer War in South Africa-and great similarity, too, in the bitterness that each has left behind; a bitterness which, she observes, is "continuously cooked up by ex- tremists in both places."

Other resemblances between Amer- ica and South Africa are between life in New York's Harlem and life in the African sections of cities like Johannesburg. American white North- erners and white English-speaking South Africans she also finds similar -both communities tending to feel a sense of- superiority derived from their more liberal principles, although when individuals are "put on the spot to make a personal commitment, they so often respond with either with- drawal or apathy." She also notes a likeness in the early days between the NAACP and the Native National Congress in South -Africa (later the African National Congress) -both being "committed to a cautious mid- dle-class approach" at that stage. And then, she adds, in all places one finds

"the marvelous few who are ready for full identification in this struggle." With many similarities between the situations in South Afrca and in the States, she has also not been surprised to find a gradual drawing together of like-minded groups. In Jackson, Mississippi, for example, she found that the Verwoerd Government and the local White Citizens Councils were exchanging propaganda mate- rials with each other.

And what, she was asked, might her future plans be? She grimaced. "What a horrible question to ask! What is the future of South Africa? South Africans have to be optimistic, or they would go and jump in a lake. Anybody who has come through pow- erful race prejudice, as I have, and who has come to know and work with people of other riaces must see race as totally irrelevant. Any white South African who has emerged from the total boredom of white country-club life into the diversity and fascination of real life in South Africa has a sort of vision of what the country could become if it were free. One tries to work towards' that. If only the British and American Govern- ments who are faced with the whole question of transforming the situation would be wise and daring enough to take action now, then one does see a future for the country. Otherwise- only catastrophe."

the grass and the gallows

Thomas Karis

*THE AFRICAN PATRIOTS. Mary Benson. New York: Encyclopaedia Britan- nica Press, 1964. 295 pp. plus bibli- ography and index $5.95.

It is easy to despair about South Af- rica. The country is virtually in a state of war. Under the deceptive calm and enforced order of a flourish- ing economy there is chronic discon- tent. Organized non-white protest has been stifled except in the Transkei, and there a state of emergency pre- vails. Individuals who show sympathy for the banned African National Con- gress or the Pan-Africanist Congress or who become politically suspect are liable to arrest and detention

without access to lawyers or friends. If white, they may be held in solitary confinement and subjected to threat- ening forms of interrogation. If non- white, they may be treated to sys- tematic brutality, including torture. Meanwhile, African leaders who should be among those included in the "National Convention" recommended by the United Nations group of ex- perts are in prison, under ban, in exile, or underground.

The pass to which South Africa has come has been most recently drama- tized by the trial of Nelson Mandela, the ANC leader who has achieved an almost charismatic character for many Africans, and of seven other

JUNE 1964 i5



men. Mandela testified that he and some of his colleagues had become fully convinced by June 1961 that "all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us" and decided to "embark on violent forms of political struggle." Knowing the risks of action that the Government could justifiably describe as high treason, they admittedly planned and committed violence to property and made preparations for the eventuality of guerrilla warfare. The major leaders were caught in July 1963 (Mandela wgs already in prison on lesser charges) in raids that revealed a newly superior level of police detection. The arrests were a setback whose seriousness the ANC's representatives in exile did not underestimate: they spelled, said one, "the death knell of amateurism." Fortunately for Mandela and his fel- low-accused, Mr. Justice De Wet ac- cepted the contention that saboteurs had been instructed to avoid injuring or killing any person and that the policy of active guerrilla warfare had not been adopted.

Branded by Dr. Verwoerd as "Com- munistic criminals," Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and the other non-whites among the accused are now serving life sentences on Robben Island near Cape Town. Robert Sobukwe, Presi- dent of the Pan-Africanist Congress, is also on the island, beginning his second year of ministerially imposed detention following the completion of a three-year sentence for incitement at the time of the police shootings at Sharpeville. Over 1,000 miles away, in a rural reserve, Chief Albert Lu- tuli is adjusting to life under a new and more restrictive five-year ban. He had known and had not disap- proved, said Mr. Justice De Wet, ef Mandela's activities.

Yet "moderate," that sadly mis- used word in South Africa, may still describe these men. Accepting violence as inevitable, they rejected terrorism and sought to force change by using a minimum of violence. Man- dela's four-and-a-half-hour address to the Court was eloquent in expressing his anguish about the growing popu- lar talk among Africans in favor of terrorism against both Africans and whites. He and other leaders felt con- fident of victory in the long run, but they had viewed with alarm the drift toward "interracial civil war." If this happened, "How could Black and White ever live together again in peace and harmony?"

One of Mandela's jailers, an Afri- kaner, is said to have femarked while

the trial was Irn progress, "What will happen tQ us if anything happens to Mandela?" He and other jail officials, responding to Mandela's bearing and obvious stature as a political leader, not only treated him with dignity but also revealed their awareness of his potential importance. Their paradoxi- cal sentiments were rather like those of the jail official described in a diary kept by one of the detainees during the 1960 national emergency. After demanding that the African nationalists in his charge address him as "baas," he asked for mnutual understanding and then added, "Re- member, thirty years ago we Afri- kaners were in a similar position to yours."

No African or other non-white leaders have yet been hanged for treason or other political offenses. The incidence of politically inspired murder has increased, however. Stan- ley Uys reported in the London Ob- server of June 14 that in the preceding 18 months 78 Africans had been found guilty of political murder, and 55 had been sentenced to death. (Fur- thermore, during that period, 269 members of the ANC or of Umkonto We Sizwe, the organization that Man- dela helped to found, were convicted of sabotage, and 162 members of the terrorist Poqo were convicted). The hanging of Mandela would have been the first execution for sabotage not involving loss of life. The long-run repercussions of such retribution would be difficult to estimate. For many Africans, inside and outside South Africa, it would have marked an emotional point of no return in the drift toward vengeance and racial hatred. An observation of Winston Churchill applies: grass grows over battlefields, he once said with refer- ence to the Irish troubles, but not over scaffolds.

More violence is in store for South Africa, although how soon and how terrible, no one today can tell. While international pressures intensify with some slight push from the United States, apartheid works, and it con- tinues to receive practical endorse- ment from a small number of Ameri- can businessmen. Despite the deter- mination of South African officials to prevent circumstances from arising in which another Sharpeville might occur, sporadic outbursts and disorder are possibilities at any time. But to foresee coordinated disruption of the economy within two or three years, one must underestimate the develop- ing techniques and po.wer of the

South African forces and the difficul. ties, including a network of inform- ers, that face the underground. One may confidently see inevitabilities in the South African complex, but any- one who will predict that the moment of truth for South Africa will arrive in, say, five years, ten years, or twen- ty years, or who even assumes that there will be a single moment of truth, oversimplifies the imponder- ables.

What then can relieve the despair to which the South African situation gives rise? One answer lies in the in- gredients that make up Mary Ben- son's stirring book, "The African Patriots: The Story of the African National Congress in South Africa." The essential ingredient is the qual- ity of the leaders-their intelligence, patience,. good humor, zeal, and ad- herence to the ideal of a non-racial patriotism. Miss Benson's book is essential reading for an understanding of South Africa's promise as well as of its tragedy. No other single ac- count tells so fully and fairly the story of such men as Seme, Dube, Mahabane, and Skota; Calata, Xuma, Matthews, and Lutuli; Kotane, Lem- bede, Sobukwe, and Mandela. South Africa has produced extraordinary personalities -including both Afri- cans and Afrikaners-whose South Africanism embraces the acceptance of a common society. Their heritage and existence is invaluable for the future of white and black in South Africa.

Miss Benson has not written dis- passionately; her first sentence states that here is a "committed book." Her history has a heroic ring, and at times it seems that all her men are handsome and her women flashing- eyed. But her sympathetic entrance into the minds and aspirations of her characters is the special value of the book. Miss Benson briefly sketches the three decades preceding the for- mation of the Congress in 1912 and then tells a richly detailed story of the following half-century, ending on the eve of the raids in mid-1963 that resulted in the recent trial. She has made an original contribution, thanks in part to extensive interviews that she had in South Africa in 1961-1962. One welcomes the publication of an American edition, but it is regret- table and surprising that "The Afri- can Patriots" has not yet received the attention in the United States that it deserves.

American readers may be particularly interested in Miss Benson's

16 AFRICA TODAY



stiTiotf6fward treatment of Com- munists and the ANC. She wisely avQids the slippery business of cate- gorizing degrees of Communist "in- fiueAice" in the organization and in its campaigns. But she describes vividly the differences that have arisen between Communists and African nationalists of varying views and the "identification and friendship" by which white Communists became ac- cepted by many Africans as allies. Thus Mandela, who supported a -move by the' militant Youth League in 194-5 to expel Communists from the ANC,

a move opposed by the older conserv- ative leaders, came to welcome Com- munist support. In the recent trial, Mandela made clear his readiness to accept such support and the influence upon him of Marxist thought, though Jie dislikes "Communist clich6s and jargon." But he denied that he was a Communist and expressed admiration for parliamentary institutions and, in particular, the American Congress and the doctrine of separated powers and an independent judiciary. It is sad to read in Miss Benson's book that following Sisulu's return from

a trip behind the Iron Curtain in. 1953, talk of sending Mandela to the United States got nowhere. ". . . there was the difficulty of getting a visa. Besides the Americans had shown no disposition to invite Congress leaders."

THOMAS KARIS is an Associate Profes- sor of Political Science, Baruch School of Business, and Public Administra- tion, City College of New York. He is the author of the chapter on South Africa in Gwendolen Carter's recent book, "Five African States."

On the Trail of Socialism George W. Shepherd, Jr.

*ON AFRICAN SOCIALISM. Leopold Sedar Senghor. New York: Praeger, 1964. 165 pp. plus notes. $4.95. Paper- back, $1.95.

CONSCIENCISM. Kwame Nkrumah. Lon- don: Heinemann, 1964. 118 pp. plus index. (12 sh. 6d.)

The intellectual has often been involved in leading she revolution in emerging countries, whereas in older states he usually seeks to preserve his "objectivity" and "tenure" by retiring to his ivory tower. When a country is taking its place in world history, and formative decisions re- garding the "terminal community" for man's liberty are being made, the intellectual is aroused not only to take, part in, but also to try to for- mulate the philosophy of, the new revolution. This is important because intellectuals in new states comprise a pool of the most talented and quali- fied people available for the immense tasks of nation-building. High salar- ies and prestige are not enough to at- tract them. Mere party propaganda offends them. They must be convinced that what they are doing has significance and is somehow linked to the fulfillment of history and the realiza- tion of man.

In the development of the African soc_ialist idea, African intellectuals and political leaders stand out in West African politics as "engage"' thinkers who have contributed sig- nificantly to the ideas of African socialism. Leopold Senghor has probab- ly the widest reputation for thought

in this area. But recently Kwame Nkrumah has produced a new book, "Consciencism," utilizing the philo- sophical method, similar in some ways to Senghor's, but following the posi- tivist and materialist school of the British tradition, and contrasting notably with the Senegalese philoso- pher's Catholic humanism.

There are several important points of agreement between Senghor and Nkrumah. One of the most significant is their common respect for MIarxism. Both accept much of the Marxian view of history and the dialectical process of development. Yet both these African leaders advocate the adapta- tion of Marxian thought to African conditions, agreeing that the class- war view of social progress must be seen within the essentially "communal" non-class character of African society. The strongest attraction to Marxism for both of them seems to be its anti-capitalist logic, which links colonialism and capitalism. The ex- treme individualism and economic ex- ploitation of capitalism, dividing society into economic classes, is to each of these African thinkers un- African and contrary to universal human principles. Their humanitar- ian outlook brings Senghor and Nkrumah closer together than does their anti-capitalism. Nkrumah states: "The cardinal principle of philosophi- cal consciencisih is to treat each man as an end in himself and not merely as a means. This is fundamental to all socialist or humanist conceptions of man." Senghor sees humanism

underlying Marxism: "Humanism,the philosophy of humanism, rather than economics, is the basic character and positive contribution of Marxian thought."

Senghor is not really an Afro- Marxian, as is Nkrumah. He has a very sophisticated interpretation of the failings of the Marxian system and is especially conscious and critical of the dehumanizing tendencies in modern Communist systems. He ac- knowledges his debt to Marx but claims other sources of socialist inspiration. He often quotes French Catholic socialist thought, especially in the writ- ings of Teilhard de Chardin. In re- jecting Communism, he points out: "The dictatorship of the proletariat, which was to be only temporary, be- comes the dictatorship of the Party and State in self-perpetuation. The Soviet Union, said a Senegalese on his return from Moscow, 'has suc- ceeded in building socialism, but at the sacrifice of religion, of the soul.'"

There is none of this direct intellectual confrontation of Marxism and, particularly, Communism, in "Con- sciencism." Nkrumah clearly distin- guishes his form of socialism from Communism because the former is African, but he is not very critical of Communism. In his view Africa bypasses' the revolutionary war of the masses against capitalism because it has a communal structure, and its indigenous spirit is "materialistic" rather than "idealistic." For Europe the necessities of the revolution may be different, in his opinion.

Socialism comprises basic human values as much as a production system, for both these African philoso- phers. In their view, Africa was socialist long before theoretical Euro- pean socialism developed. They have

JUNE 1964 17



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The Grass and the Gallows