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.
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