In his foreword to a recent biography of former ANC President Oliver Tambo, President Thabo Mbeki says the book begins the process of returning him to his rightful place in our national memory.
As we celebrate Ten Years of Democracy, it is right and fitting that we honour the memory of one of Africa's most illustrious sons, our own Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo - OR. More than any other, it was Oliver Tambo who kept our movement together through his skilled and sensitive leadership of the African National Congress during its 30 years of illegality and exile. It was during these trying times of struggle and sacrifice that Comrade OR became our exemplar, both to those in exile and to the millions of members and grassroots supporters at home, including political prisoners.
Oliver Tambo's life and character are a metaphor of our struggle for freedom and democracy. His life began in a small rural community in Pondoland, but moved inexorably in the next 75 years towards an ever-growing national and international reputation.
He played an historic role, helping to develop and mature the ANC into an inclusive, democratic African organisation. He was present and active at many key moments in its history, from the conceptualisation and formation of the Youth League, the adoption of the 1949 Programme of Action, the widening of the mass base of the ANC in the 1950s, the adoption of the Freedom Charter, to the historic defeat of the brutal repressive campaign of the apartheid regime to destroy our movement, at home and abroad.
He played a central role in shaping the ANC constitutions from the 1940s through to the 1980s, which, among other things, placed respect for human rights at the centre of ANC policy. Similarly, Oliver Tambo masterminded the road map of our negotiations, the Harare Declaration in 1989, and the strategic outline of our new democracy.
More than anyone else, OR personified the leadership of the ANC when many of its leaders were in prison or exile, and when some had been hanged or murdered in police cells. And he served in this capacity with humility, without thought of personal gain, always insisting that it was incorrect to present him as the President of our movement. Without ever wavering, he always argued that he was merely the Acting President of the ANC.
A key to Comrade OR's character was that he was an intellectual in the best meaning of the word. He was a person of reason, a person of rational thought and creative but rational action. This great ability, this gift of reason, was central to Comrade OR's make-up and central to his behaviour. It meant that here was a leader who could deal with both the concrete and the abstract. With the scientist's level of precision, he would always master the specific, the particular, while equally comprehending the general, the whole. As a political activist and leader, he would grapple with both strategy and tactics, with a full grasp of the interconnection between the two. This is a dialectical interaction, a synergy, which governed Oliver Tambo's political conduct and informed his diplomacy. This was made possible by the fact that he was a person of rational thought. His keen mind, his dedication to the liberation of our people, together with his deep humanism, enabled him to mobilise both the East and the West into the international struggle against apartheid, despite the fact that they were strategic opponents.
In the exercise of his leadership, Comrade OR was always ready and willing to listen to everybody, whatever their rank within the organisation. He would come to meetings having researched the topics that were to be discussed, having formulated a view, having thought through what it was that we had to do and what it was that we ought not to do.
He would not, however, air his views at the beginning of the discussion, but would rather wait, listen to people, take copious notes, and let everybody speak as they saw fit. Once he had heard what others had to say and reflected on it, only then would he speak. Nobody who worked with OR could ever claim that he did not consider their views when arriving at a decision. The ANC is proud of its tradition of collective decision-making and leadership. But if there were one person who symbolises "the crystallisation and personification of what the ANC is and became", as his legal partner, friend and comrade, Nelson Mandela put it, "that person would be Oliver Tambo".
Madiba explained, "When we assess the processes that brought about the watershed events of February 1990, we should never underrate the great importance of the individual personality in determining the pace at which matters moved to that turning point."
Yet, Oliver Tambo has not taken his rightful place in our national memory. In the tumultuous events that followed his death and the ten years of our democracy, the contribution of this humble but brilliant patriot and mentor of our movement has been overlooked. Together with many other comrades, I was deeply moved when our government decided to name our most prestigious international friendship award the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo.
Luli Callinicos' timely and well-researched social biography begins the process of reducing the yawning deficit caused by the unintended consignment of the memory of Oliver Tambo to the dark shadows of a forgotten history. In her previous work she has meticulously documented and made accessible to generations of readers, the neglected struggles of our working people. In this biography, she has captured the outstanding qualities of Comrade OR extremely well. Her biography is a welcome and fine beginning to a new historiography of OR Tambo.
I trust this work will be widely read, not only by the members of our movement, but also by all South Africans, so that all of us can learn about the heroes and heroines who gave us the freedom we enjoy.
Undoubtedly and deservedly, this book will stimulate debate and lead to further analyses, as befits the memory of a man whose historic contributions touched the lives of so many people.
Comrade OR's dear friend, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston commented: "History is never simply a chronicle of the past. It is always a challenge to contemporary thought for the future." The life, character and contributions of Oliver Tambo to our national wellbeing, a better Africa and a better world, will continue to be relevant to future generations, because the values he personified are universal values that underlie all great struggles for freedom, and the universal effort to build a people-centred human society.
For the sake of our heritage, identity and pride as a nation, all of us, South Africans, dare not allow ourselves to forget what Oliver Tambo did so that we could reclaim our human dignity. Without the memory and spirit of OR Tambo in our midst, serving as our guide, our present and future will carry the taint of barrenness, because they will be deformed by a poverty of meaning.
On 28 May 1987, Oliver Tambo delivered the 'Canon Collins Memorial Lecture'. Among other things, he said: "Such was the durability of his good works that it was inevitable that they would outlast the short life that is given to us all, and thus serve to turn the memory of the man into a material force that will continue to transform the destinies of the living."
Such is the durability of Oliver Tambo's own good works that they have served to turn his memory into a material force that continues to transform the destinies of the living.
Thabo Mbeki is President of the ANC.
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Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains
By Luli Callinicos
David Philip Publishers
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