This year, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress of South Africa. It also marks the 80th birthday of two heroines who played such a gigantic role in the discarding of white apartheid rule to the dustbins of history viz. Miriam Makeba (4/3/1932 – 10/11/2008) and Frene Ginwala 25/4/1932., albeit in different fields. Miriam in the musical world and Frene with her “pen” and gift of the gab. She has written a number of books dealing with various aspects of the struggle against injustice.
For their efforts, both the women have been honoured by scores of international and local institutions and governments. I will dare not attempt to enumerate them for fear of busting the space allotted to me for this script. The internet can do a better job.
Already as a little girl, Miriam Makeba was viewed as a nightingale. Her voice was out of this world. But being black and poor, her chances were very limited. So she hung around singing with one band or another, or in church choirs. Her wish was to leave home and build a career of her own. The idea behind this thought was to take care of the welfare of the family, especially her mother. She began her professional career in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, a South African jazz group.
Given the talents that she possessed, it was just a question time when Miriam would make a breakthrough. It came in 1959. Makeba made a short appearance in Come Back Africa an anti-apartheid documentary produced by American filmmaker Lionel Rogosin which fascinated viewers where ever it was shown; and the female lead in the South African musical King Kong. King Kong also performed in the UK and other European countries under the aegis of Union Artists, an organisation that looked after the interests of black artists in South Africa.
Miriam’s mother died whilst she was still on tour in 1960 and her trip back home to attend the funeral was thwarted by the South African authorities. Her passport was simply cancelled. Just like that. But the world reacted and she very proudly announced that she had about seven passports issued by various governments. Many of them were diplomatic documents.
“I never knew they were going to stop me from coming back (to South Africa – es). Maybe, if I knew, I would not have left. It is kind of painful to be away from everything that you have ever known. Nobody will know the pain of exile until you are in exile. No matter where you go, there are times when people show you kindness and love, and there are times when they make you know that you are with them but not of them. That’s when it hurts.”
Miriam was expressing a sentiment which many of us exiles had to undergo on our return home after long periods out of the country. In my own case it was a question of trust and firm belief in the justification of our cause. Our family tradition is cremation after which the remains are cast in a river or sea. My parents, convinced of our success, decided to be buried in the firm belief that I will return home and “check” them. And, that at a time when the situation looked very bleak for the liberation movement. My mother died in 1980 and father followed soon thereafter. My exile lasted 26 years.
After it was clear that the racist regime in Pretoria would not allow her to return to the land of her birth, Miriam threw herself fully into the struggle with that fantastic weapon which she possessed – HER VOICE. She was a household name in many parts of the world which rightfully earned her the title MAMA AFRICA.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who appointed Miriam Makeba South Africa’s Goodwill Ambassador to Africa in 2001, viewed her work thus:
“It was her voice that kept the struggle for freedom burning in many hearts during apartheid’s darkest times. It was her voice that kept the spirit of South Africa alive in the minds of those exiled far away from home. It was her voice that brought South Africa so many friends all around the world”.
Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, herself an exile, paid the following tribute this great heroine with the following words:
“Ever so humble, yet so powerful, she has touched us through her progressive songs, which reminded us of home away from home. Through her humanitarian work she has touched the poor. Like the colossal that she is, she strode the globe in pursuit of our just cause which in turn emboldened and taught us that despite the hardship there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel”.
This great life came to an end on 9 November 2008. In true Makeba style, she died on duty. While taking part in a concert in Castel Volturno in Italy in support of writer Roberto Saviano in his fight against a mafia organisation in the Region of Campania, she suffered a severe heart attack to which she succumbed.
Although she has not lived to celebrate her birthday, that beautiful voice will continue to bring hope and joy to millions of people all over the world.
Lala Kahle! (Rest in Peace).
Frene Noshir Ginwala has a very chequered life. Using her anonymity, she played a tremendous role in establishing underground escape routes for ANC leaders and cadres in the period following the Sharpeville massacre and the declaration of the State of Emergency (SOE) in 1960. These included Deputy-President of the ANC Oliver Tambo and Dr Yusuf Dadoo, two very senior leaders of the liberation movement.
She also organised safe houses for those who had to remain in the country. Frene also chauffeured NIC (Natal Indian Congress) leaders Dr Monty Naicker and J. N. Singh, who were operating from the underground after managing to dodge the police swoop. Their instructions were to travel around the province and raise money from secret donors in order to support the families left destitute through the arrest of their breadwinners under the SOE which hung over the country for five months.
Eventually she had to leave South Africa in the latter part of 1960 and together with Tambo, and Dadoo, they established an exile ANC office in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika which was still under British Colonial Administration until 9 December 1961. The overthrow of the regime in Zanzibar in 1963 paved the way for the formation of the United Republic of Tanzania in 1964.
The young activist Frene Ginwala became a “Mädchen für alles”. Apart from the ANC, she threw herself in a very broad field of activities. She gave lectures to trainees diplomats at Oxford University, she studied, she wrote for a number of the established media in the UK and elsewhere including the BBC.
Frene Ginwala was very instrumental in establishing a communications system in the newly born Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar. At the request of President Julius Nyerere, she became the managing editor of the English-speaking daily newspaper Standard, and Sunday News. During the entire period of her exile (she returned to South Africa in 1991) she traversed the world preaching the horrors of apartheid and the fight against it.
Despite the work load, Dr Ginwala found time to study and has a number of academic titles from a host of universities in Africa and abroad. She is a barrister at law; historian; a political scientist, and holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University.
In the first democratic national elections of 1994 in South Africa, Dr Frene Ginwala was elected to Parliament. She was nominated by the ANC caucus and elected by parliament as the first black, and woman, to the position of Speaker of the House. A position she held from 1994 until 2004.
Although “retired”, the activities of this woman who is celebrating her 80th birthday, is mind-boggling. She is serving in a number of international organisations including UN subsidiaries; Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation; Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu Natal. The list is long.
Sis Miriam, although you are “sleeping” in the belly of Mother Africa, we shall most definitely celebrate your birthday.
You Frene, take a break and have a ball on this honourable day.
Salute to the both of you.