IN 2005 during the South African/Diaspora conference held in Kingston, Jamaica, it was evident from the contribution, the organisational and the ideological experience of the ANC coordinators, that there existed a post-dated apartheid dispensation, a development that was forged on the vision of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, as well as Ruth First and her husband, Joe Slovo, amongst others. The award of the Oliver Tambo recognition specific to anti-apartheid solidarity at one level represents a pillar of Pretoria’s foreign policy. But there are several features of this dynamic. To those activists who have dedicated their entire life to national liberation, the Tambo award ranks in a qualitatively differentiated way as the highest form of tribute compared say to that of the Lenin Peace Prize, the Jose Marti Award or the Alfred Nobel Peace Prize.
Some weeks ago the BBC featured an item that referred to the formation of a new political party in South Africa, associated with the widow, spouse or partner of Steve Biko, who was murdered by the BOSS (Secret Police) during September 1977.
This party is opposed to the line, the policies of the ruling ANC and purports to discard the NEPAD as well as the pre 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme (NDP) initiated by COSATU as a prolabour demand during the Mandela ANC and DeKlerk administration negotiations or peace talks.
The recognition of Forbes Burnham for the OTW therefore, must be understood against a shift in the ANC towards accommodating foreign born ‘evolues’ whose contribution to the struggle against fascist apartheid was tinged with both opportunism and the practical Non Aligned garb identified with the two super powers, meaning in real terms playing the super powers off against each other (see Non-Alignment Rise and Growth, Yuri Alimov; 1987, 150-165).
The development of Beijing China as a major Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stake holder in southern and central African political economies is perhaps another critical factor, given Burnham’s ideological turn towards a Kim II Sung model of ‘revolution’ after 1975. It is against that background and one that has witnessed over the decades since the end of the Cold War, the deligitimisation of African nationalists such as Kenneth Kaunda and his successor Frederick Chiluba on the grounds that based on the dual nationality principle (these leaders) should not be considered as genuinely part of the jurisdiction within or over which they had won power through multiparty elections.
To suggest that the OR Award rewards Burnham for the assassination of Walter Rodney is to move in the opposite direction to that of the late British Tory Arch Conservative Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher publicly described Nelson Mandela as a ‘terrorist’ or more correctly as leading a terrorist organisation — the ANC.
To underestimate the power within the ANC of what Professor Issa Shivji and Othman Haroub have dubbed the (African) Silent Majority irreversibly part of a People’s Power ‘bloc’, is in practice to negate the dialectic of class struggle that is part of the unity principle within neo-colonial and post-dated Cold War Africa. Burnham will always be considered as a Guyanese version of Kasavubu amongst the popular wananchi.
At the same time it is somewhat perplexing for the vast majority of Africans in the diaspora, who remains culturally if not economically at a disadvantage but are quite aware of the balance of forces factor formulated by the Mandela/Mbeki ANC as it has evolved under the Zuma/Cosatu/Sacp alliance to learn that Forbes Burnham has been honoured just as Cheddi Jagan was in 2005 together with others who were part of front line anti-apartheid activities (Ricky Singh, Sunday Chronicle, April 21, 2013).
Proceeding from the South African AU equation that selects the most important Pan Africanists over the years since the 1945 Manchester Pan African Conference, the names of Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney and William Dubois feature prominently on the African Diaspora resumes together with those of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Frantz Fanon – though not necessarily in that sequence. Scant mention is made in this context (for example Pan African theory and practice) to those such as Eric Gary, Forbes Burnham and even Leopold Senghor.
The rationale here is that Walter Rodney is considered in the same way that Patrice Lumumba, Gama Pinto (of Kenya) Pierre Muele (of Congo), Chris Hani and Che Guevara were and continue to be. This indeed remains the most enduring trait that sustains Africa’s Silent Class struggle despite the fact that organisationally the sub elites as a social formation have not been empowered to measure up to the political demands. The other critical factor is that brought to the fore by the Barbadian author George Lamming when he links or associates the Walter Rodney legacy and contribution with the labouring masses (Stabroek News June 13, 2012 item, Walter Rodney Anniversary).
This brings on the front burner the fact that unfortunately the party Rodney did much to establish, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has aligned itself with the post Burnham PNC and participates in A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) at the present time.
Indeed the ANC policy planners and those who would have recommended the National Orders of South Africa schedules, may well be signalling to the African community, especially that of the diaspora, to redouble efforts to have a comprehensive International Inquiry into the murder of Walter Rodney and bring to justice those who conspired and prepared his assassination.
Some weeks ago the BBC featured an item that referred to the formation of a new political party in South Africa, associated with the widow, spouse or partner of Steve Biko, who was murdered by the BOSS (Secret Police) during September 1977.
This party is opposed to the line, the policies of the ruling ANC and purports to discard the NEPAD as well as the pre 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme (NDP) initiated by COSATU as a prolabour demand during the Mandela ANC and DeKlerk administration negotiations or peace talks.
The recognition of Forbes Burnham for the OTW therefore, must be understood against a shift in the ANC towards accommodating foreign born ‘evolues’ whose contribution to the struggle against fascist apartheid was tinged with both opportunism and the practical Non Aligned garb identified with the two super powers, meaning in real terms playing the super powers off against each other (see Non-Alignment Rise and Growth, Yuri Alimov; 1987, 150-165).
The development of Beijing China as a major Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stake holder in southern and central African political economies is perhaps another critical factor, given Burnham’s ideological turn towards a Kim II Sung model of ‘revolution’ after 1975. It is against that background and one that has witnessed over the decades since the end of the Cold War, the deligitimisation of African nationalists such as Kenneth Kaunda and his successor Frederick Chiluba on the grounds that based on the dual nationality principle (these leaders) should not be considered as genuinely part of the jurisdiction within or over which they had won power through multiparty elections.
To suggest that the OR Award rewards Burnham for the assassination of Walter Rodney is to move in the opposite direction to that of the late British Tory Arch Conservative Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher publicly described Nelson Mandela as a ‘terrorist’ or more correctly as leading a terrorist organisation — the ANC.
To underestimate the power within the ANC of what Professor Issa Shivji and Othman Haroub have dubbed the (African) Silent Majority irreversibly part of a People’s Power ‘bloc’, is in practice to negate the dialectic of class struggle that is part of the unity principle within neo-colonial and post-dated Cold War Africa. Burnham will always be considered as a Guyanese version of Kasavubu amongst the popular wananchi.
At the same time it is somewhat perplexing for the vast majority of Africans in the diaspora, who remains culturally if not economically at a disadvantage but are quite aware of the balance of forces factor formulated by the Mandela/Mbeki ANC as it has evolved under the Zuma/Cosatu/Sacp alliance to learn that Forbes Burnham has been honoured just as Cheddi Jagan was in 2005 together with others who were part of front line anti-apartheid activities (Ricky Singh, Sunday Chronicle, April 21, 2013).
Proceeding from the South African AU equation that selects the most important Pan Africanists over the years since the 1945 Manchester Pan African Conference, the names of Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney and William Dubois feature prominently on the African Diaspora resumes together with those of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Frantz Fanon – though not necessarily in that sequence. Scant mention is made in this context (for example Pan African theory and practice) to those such as Eric Gary, Forbes Burnham and even Leopold Senghor.
The rationale here is that Walter Rodney is considered in the same way that Patrice Lumumba, Gama Pinto (of Kenya) Pierre Muele (of Congo), Chris Hani and Che Guevara were and continue to be. This indeed remains the most enduring trait that sustains Africa’s Silent Class struggle despite the fact that organisationally the sub elites as a social formation have not been empowered to measure up to the political demands. The other critical factor is that brought to the fore by the Barbadian author George Lamming when he links or associates the Walter Rodney legacy and contribution with the labouring masses (Stabroek News June 13, 2012 item, Walter Rodney Anniversary).
This brings on the front burner the fact that unfortunately the party Rodney did much to establish, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has aligned itself with the post Burnham PNC and participates in A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) at the present time.
Indeed the ANC policy planners and those who would have recommended the National Orders of South Africa schedules, may well be signalling to the African community, especially that of the diaspora, to redouble efforts to have a comprehensive International Inquiry into the murder of Walter Rodney and bring to justice those who conspired and prepared his assassination.
