New Page 1

NEWS & MEDIA

LETTERS FROM THE PRESIDENT

"Our historians must have courage to speak the truth"

The day after the publication of this edition of ANC TODAY, we will celebrate June 26th, the 49th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People. The evolution of our struggle has resulted in the unfortunate development that we do not pay sufficient attention to this important day in our historical calendar, June 26th. We will have to correct this.

Among other things the Freedom Charter says:

"The doors of learning and culture shall be opened.
" The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life.
" All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be opened to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands.
" The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace."

We have a duty to pursue all these objectives, which remain central to the kind of South Africa we seek to build. As part of this, in terms of our structures of government, we have separated Arts and Culture from Science and Technology, changing an arrangement we have maintained for 10 years.

This will help to ensure that our government pays the necessary focused attention precisely to some of the objectives contained in the passages from the Freedom Charter we have just cited.

To achieve the objective of teaching the youth to "love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace", we must, among other things, ensure that our youth has access to the rich history of struggle in our country for human brotherhood and sisterhood, liberty and peace.

This would also help to address the other goals of inculcating in the youth love for our people and culture. Familiarity with our history of struggle cannot but inspire such love. This is because of the heroism displayed by our people for 500 years.

It is also because the strength of our culture, informed by the spirit of ubuntu, ensured that throughout these centuries, we fought our struggle without resorting to the savagery and barbarism visited on us by those who colonised our country and subjected our people to white minority domination.

This year, we will mark the 49th anniversary of June 26, of the Freedom Charter, with the launch of a new book, the "The Road to Democracy, Vol 1". This is the first volume in a series that will record our struggle from 1960 onwards.

The book is the product of work that has been carried out under the auspices of the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET). The Trust was established a few years ago with the specific objective of ensuring that we record and tell our history of struggle.

Among other things, the Trust was very keen that our historians should have access to the veterans who made the history they would write about, before the veterans passed away. This is because the Trust was and is determined that the makers of history should tell their own stories as well as the story of the struggles they waged. In this sense, it wants the makers of history to be the authors who record that history.

A significant number of books have been written about the history of our struggle. Most of them have not been written by those who made this history. Outstanding among those written by patriots who helped to change our country for the better is the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, "Long Walk to Freedom".

But clearly there are not enough of these. The SADET series will help to address this deficiency. It will therefore be an important addition to the sources of knowledge that will help to form the consciousness of many generations to come.

Eleanor Marx wrote the Introduction to the 1886 English edition of the book written by Henry Lissagaray, "History of the Paris Commune of 1871". She said:

"Lissagaray's Histoire de la Commune is the only authentic and reliable history as yet written of the most memorable movement of modern times. It is true Lissagaray was a soldier of the Commune, but he has had the courage and honesty to speak the truth. He has not attempted to hide the errors of his party, or to gloss over the fatal weaknesses of the Revolution; and if he has erred, it has been on the side of moderation, in his anxiety not to make a single statement that could not be corroborated by overwhelming proofs of its truth.

"Wherever it was possible, the statements of the Versaillese in their Parliamentary Inquiries, in their press, and in their books are used in preference to the statements of friends and partisans; and whenever the evidence of Communards is given, it is invariably sifted with scrupulous care. And it is this impartiality, this careful avoidance of any assertion that could be considered doubtful, which should recommend this work to English readers.

"In England especially, most persons are still quite ignorant of the events which led up to and forced the people of Paris into making that revolution which was to save France from the shame and disgrace of a fourth Empire. To most English people the Commune still spells 'rapine, fear and lust', and when they speak of its 'atrocities' they have some vague idea of hostages ruthlessly massacred by brutal revolutionists, of houses burnt down by furious petroleuses.

"Is it not time that English people at last learnt the truth? Is it not time they were reminded that for the sixty-five hostages shot, not by the Commune, but by a few people made mad by the massacre of prisoners by the Versaillese, the troops of law and order shot down thirty thousand men, women, and children, for the most part long after all fighting had ceased?"

These observations about an heroic French struggle for democracy, written 120 years ago, should also inform those who write the history of our own heroic struggle for democracy.

Our own historians should have the courage and honesty to speak the truth. They should not attempt to hide the errors of our movement, or to gloss over the weaknesses of the Revolution. They should choose to err on the side of moderation, anxious not to make a single statement that could not be corroborated by overwhelming proofs of its truth.

Wherever it is necessary and possible, our historians should also use the statements of those who were our opponents, their press, and their books, in preference to the statements of friends and partisans. Whenever the evidence of freedom fighters is given, it should invariably be sifted with scrupulous care. The impartiality of the account, and the careful avoidance of any assertion that could be considered doubtful, should recommend the historical record of our struggle to those who are ill informed about what happened.

In our country too, and elsewhere in the world, there are many people who are still quite ignorant of the events which constituted the struggle for the destruction of the system of white minority rule. To some of those who do not know, our struggle still spells 'rapine, fear and lust'. When they speak of its 'atrocities' they have some vague idea of innocent people ruthlessly killed by brutal revolutionaries, of houses burnt down by furious petrol bombers.

We too must ask the question whether it is not time that those who do not know should at last learn the truth? Is it not time they were reminded that for a few casualties of the revolution, caused not by the liberation movement, but by a few people made mad by the massacre of many innocent people, the troops of law and order shot down thirty thousand unarmed men, women, and children?

SADET and those who generously provided the resources to make the history project possible decided that it was indeed time that those who do not know should at last learn the truth. They decided that it was time that an authentic and reliable history of one of the most memorable movements of modern times was told. "The Road to Democracy, Volume 1" is the first product of these important and timely decisions.

When I spoke at the University of Fort Hare in 1997 on the Need for a Culture of Learning and Teaching, I said:

"The culture of learning and teaching in higher education means a culture of silent reflection, of deep thought, of curiosity and questioning, of exploration and examination, of thought, search for more questions and more answers, of investigation, of more search and research. Only words that emerge out of these silent activities begin to bring us nearer to an understanding of the matters that we are grappling with as the human species. It is these activities that combine knowledge, new knowledge and the unknown, to produce the understanding and the programmes of action that will enable us to address the miseries of the people and help to make their lives better.

"Yet even as we engage in this quite reflection, this silent activity, we must allow our own history and past experiences to inform our decisions as to the correct path that we must follow for us to overcome the inherited legacy of ignorance and the poverty of the spirit; we must begin by understanding our own history, where we come from and where we are going. People that do not understand their own history are unable to comprehend the present, let alone engage in strategic thinking for the future."

We must tell the history of our struggle in the manner advised by Eleanor Marx. We need to tell this history so that those who are ignorant of it or fed falsehoods about it, should understand the truth. But, at the same time, we should understand our history so that we are able to comprehend the present, so that we are better armed to engage in strategic thinking about our future.

Our search for programmes of action that will enable us to address the miseries of the people and help to make their lives better, for a better understanding of the matters that we are grappling with as the human species, for the path we must follow to overcome the inherited legacy of ignorance and the poverty of the spirit, will bear no fruit if we do not understand where we come from.

History therefore does not consist in the recitation of a chronology of events. It is not a neutral catalogue of known incidents to which are attached established dates. It is but part of the broader struggle of humanity to understand itself and the societies born of human activity and thought. It cannot be insulated from the ideologies and prejudices that inform the formation of knowledge about the functioning of human society.

The telling of the story of the past is therefore also the making of value judgements about those who are the subjects of the story being told. Inevitably, it helps to form the understanding of these subjects about who and what they are. It is part of the process of the conditioning of those about whom the story is told, which helps to inform the ways they will behave in future.

SADET has created the possibility for us to tell our own story. It has given us the possibility to be our own mirror, ourselves to make the necessary value judgements about ourselves. It has given us the possibility to condition ourselves so that, in future, we conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with how we would have defined ourselves, through the telling of our own story with courage and honesty. It has enhanced the possibility for us to determine our destiny, in our own interest.