Misapprehensions and misrepresentations followed the=20 Irish Republican leader on his visit to South Africa,=20 writes David Beresford
There was, it must be said, room for misunderstanding,=20 and misunderstanding there surely was as the Irish=20 Republican leader made a triumphant entry into the=20 Transvaal shanty town of Phola Park on Sunday.
“I don’t know who this Gerry Adams is,” confided=20 African National Congress Youth League organiser Nonesi=20 Sogoni as she eyed the lanky figure of the Sinn Fein=20 president breaking into the toyi-toyi ahead of us. =20 “But maybe he’ll tell us where he comes from.”
Elucidation was to be limited, Adams offering the=20 residents of South Africa’s most militant squatter camp=20 little more than the message that “we come here from=20 Ireland and we bring you a message of solidarity”.=20
He then announced that a female colleague would offer a=20 message of solidarity to the women of Phola Park. The=20 assembled womenfolk immediately broke into a praise=20 song for Winnie Mandela. Which is itself something of a=20 misunderstanding, the good people of Phola Park still=20 clinging to long-standing promises from Mrs Mandela:=20 that she would provide them with houses. Waiting for=20 Winnie is akin to waiting for Godot in Phola Park. =20
Misunderstandings have been plentiful on Adams’ tour of=20 South Africa. Last week he met Pan Africanist Congress=20 leader Patricia de Lille. Asked afterwards what advice=20 she had offered the Irish delegation she said: “I told=20 them that, whatever compromise they make, they must=20 make sure the land issue is resolved first.”=20
“Land?” asked an incredulous Dublin newsman.=20
“Yes!” she said forcefully. “They must ensure that as=20 far as the land is concerned they get a better deal=20 than us.”
And misunderstandings, one suspects, lay behind the=20 particular pallor on the faces of Adams and his=20 colleagues. Seemingly under the misapprehension that=20 the lighter-skinned races shared a passion for the game=20 with the strange-shaped ball, someone in the ANC had=20 secured tickets for the Irish Republicans to Saturday’s=20 South Africa v France clash in Durban. The last rugby=20 match he had attended, confessed Adams, was in Dublin=20 when he had been a youthful demonstrator against a=20 Springbok tour of Ireland. Willy-nilly he found himself=20 in the VIP boxes at Kingsmead, cheering the Springboks=20 to victory.
Higher Authority having been under the apparent=20 misapprehension that the World Cup was a water-polo=20 tournament, the game was delayed for an hour for fear=20 the players would drown in a torrential downpour. The=20 ANC, having seemingly misunderstood the tenure of the=20 game, booked the Republicans back on a 1am flight to=20 Johannesburg. South African Airways having messed up=20 their scheduling, the plane’s departure was delayed=20 until 2.15am. Someone seemingly labouring under the=20 delusion that the quickest way to hop 500km from Durban=20 to the City of Gold was to travel some 2 000km via the=20 Cape of Good Hope the Sinn Fein delegation finally=20 staggered down the gang-plank at 7am the next morning.=20
It was therefore with an impressive display of=20 fortitude that they clambered into a motorcade a few=20 short hours later to go hurtling down Johannesburg’s=20 highways — the VIP protection service of the police=20 having long laboured under the misapprehension that the=20 best way to secure the safety of their charges is to=20 frighten them to death.=20
“We should send our joy-riders over here,” grumbled one=20 of the Irishmen clambering thankfully out of his car at=20 Soweto’s Avalon cemetery, for a walk to Joe Slovo’s=20
There, after exchanges of goodwill with ANC officials=20 and tributes to the late Communist Party leader — a=20 man whose supposed militancy was one of the signal=20 misapprehensions of the South African peace process –=20 Adams took a few minutes to denounce the British press=20 for misrepresenting his recent warning against a return=20 to violence in Northern Ireland.=20
“I made the point quite clearly that it was not a=20 threat,” he said. “The only threat to the peace process=20 lies in the stalling by the London government of what=20 should be a momentum towards all-party talks.” That=20 apparent misapprehension dealt with, the cavalcade=20 moved on to Phola Park.=20
For all the misunderstandings, misapprehensions and=20 misrepresentations there was something moving about the=20 scene that greeted them there, in a muddy clearing,=20 among the pitiful shacks, amidst the lengthening=20 shadows of a wintry Highveld afternoon.=20
Adams, alongside Robert McBride — a former ANC=20 guerrilla and a descendant of one of the executed in=20 the 1916 Easter Uprising — towered above the school=20 desks and children’s chairs laid out in their honour.=20 Afrikaner bodyguards, in dark glasses and sporting=20 green ribbons in their lapels, stood in stiff legged=20 attendance. A giant police Casspir murmured its way=20 unnoticed through the crowd as voices soared in Nkosi=20 Sikelel’ iAfrika.
Churchill once marvelled at the integrity of the Irish=20 quarrel. In Phola Park he might have pondered the=20 contrary message of South Africa.=20