Southern Africa

Matt Meyer

Samora Machel, martyred first president of independent Mozambique, often stated that the meaning of true solidarity was two hands striking a single blow - against colonialism, imperialism, and injustice.
In building towards a truly internationalpeace movement, it is often hard to bring those two hands together in tandem, or torealise that one hand must not overshadow the other due to greater materialresources or communication technologies. Mutual aid--understanding all that wehave to learn from one another--must be at the root of all our internationalism, andsuch was the sentiment when War Resisters' International sought, in 1994,to develop an Africa Working Group (AWG). The goals of the AWG have beento facilitate mutual contact and support amongst the grassroots movements ofEurope, North America and parts of Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America already inour network, and African groups, all too often left out of our conversations. As reported in a special Peace News Africa dossier produced in 1996, the history ofWRI and the African liberation struggles dates back to the early 1950s when a WRIgroup was set up in Ghana, the first African country to win independence from colonial-ism. Though the group was short-lived, it helped link the issues of disarmament anddevelopment in the political discourse of WRI at that time, and helped bring togeth-er activists who have, for the most part, continued to work for nonviolent revolutionin Ghana, southern Africa, and elsewhere.

Historic connections

In the 1960s, WRI played a small but official role in support of the freedomstruggles of Zambia and Tanganyika, as well as working against French nucleartesting in the Sahara. Some of these efforts were important predecessors for thefounding of an international peace brigade system, initially proposed by the GandhianShanti Sena movement. During the 1980s, WRI developed a special relationship withSouth Africa's End Conscription Campaign (ECC), a major force within that country'swhite community to oppose not only obligatory military service, but alsoapartheid minority rule. Many outside of South Africa saw the ECC as a way toconcretely demonstrate how work against militarism and racism could and shouldbe part of the same movement. In the 1990s, WRI activists played akey role in helping bring the International Conscientious Objectors' Meeting to Chad,as Tchad Nonviolence and other groups helped spread the message of nonviolenceto groups and individuals in their region. Since the last WRI Triennial of 1998,a lot has been done, but much work still remains. The South African and Chadianrepresentatives at that meeting reported strikingly on recent events in their coun-tries, and the pages of Peace News have continued to be a forum for informationfrom Africa not carried in the mainstream media. A planned dossier on Algeria andasylum has not yet been completed, but information exchanges--through emailand other mechanisms--continue to grow. In 1999 the WRI Council held specialmeetings, including a forum on "Africa: The Military As `Rescuer' of Society."Activists from the Congo and Angola made presentations to Council on the historicdevelopment of militarism in Africa, and on current efforts for demilitarisation andhuman rights. WRI has maintained communication with the International Fel-lowship of Reconciliation's Africa Nonviolence Training network, and WRI AWGmembers were represented both at the International Peace Research Associationconference in South Africa, and at the Women Peacemakers Programme AfricaConsultation in Zimbabwe in April 2000.

The "hot issues"

This special issue itself hopes, in part, to encourage renewed interest and activityin that two-way street of solidarity. The articles contained herein take a look atcurrent grassroots initiatives in Southern Africa, and attempt to shed some light onthe level of discourse--the "hot issues"-- which are confronting Africans in theirstruggles to create a better future. From regional women's anti-war coalitions toPan-African attempts at mediation, from movements for democracy and streetprotests in Zimbabwe to a look at South Africa's policies on gender, from Quakeractivism in Burundi to a political analysis of the peace possibilities in Mozambique,this issue covers a lot of ground in a few short pages. PN readers will find an accountof confronting corrupt state power and the arms industry, a practical look at howAfrican youth are being trained in active nonviolence, and an exclusive interviewwith world-famous musician Thomas Mapfumo. Also included is a unique mapof the region, and some in-depth information about African groups which PNreaders should want to connect with.
What readers will not find in this specialissue is a comprehensive look at the history of every country in Southern Africa. Youwill not find definitive answers on how to stop the cycle of violence confronting Africa(or, for that matter, any other region), nor will there be any singular perspectiveattempting to posit the "correct line" on how to proceed. Because of the enormityof the continent, we have tried to maintain a focus on one particular region; becauseof the complexity of the issues, we have tried to present a sampling of perspectives.At best, what this issue represents is a renewed attempt to shed some light onpeoples and places not often found in either mainstream or progressive presscircles. This renewal will only be successful if more people join in, write letters, askquestions, agree to write follow-up pieces or counter-perspectives.

Inevitability of change

For whether we pay attention to the war and peace efforts in Africa or not, social change on that continent will affect most dramatically the new century we embarkupon together. One Angolan independence leader (Augustino Neto), likening theinevitability of change in Africa and its connection with the rest of the internationalscene to the very forces of nature itself, put it this way in a poem: "No-one canstop the rain."
As an educator in New York City, Ioften have to remind both my students as well as my colleagues that Africa is not acity or even a country, but a continent which is geographically equal in land massto all of the US and Europe put together-- with room left to spare. Yet, even in peaceand justice circles, I still hear friends speak of trips to London, Paris, and Africa! Wetalk of the world, but have trouble imagining it. We campaign for internationalunderstanding-let us begin at home.

Matt Meyer (mmmsrnb@igc.org), and Jan Van Criekinge (Jan.VanCriekinge@ncos.ngonet.be), have been the joint convenors of the WRI Africa Working Group since it was founded. Matt is co-author, along with Bill Sutherland, of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan Africanist Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation (Africa World Press, USA 2000), see review p32. A former chair of the US War Resisters League, he is also editor of the special Blackwell Publisher's edition War in Africa and an African Peace (Peace and Change, V.25, N.2, Oxford, 2000).
War Resisters' International Africa Working Group, c/o 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY, Britain (tel +44 20 7278 4040; fax 7278 0444; email warresisters@gn.apc.org; http://www.gn.apc.org/warresisters ).