GANDHI’S LEGACY: THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS, 1894-1994 by Surendra Bhana (University of Natal Press, R64,95)
Though not the only Indian political organisation in Natal during the last century or so, the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was by far the most important in terms of commitment to liberation not just for Indians but for the disenfranchised as a whole.
Founded by Mahondas Gandhi in 1894, it was at first largely a movement of the merchant class. Its founders were aware that their relative political and economic privilege was under threat from proposed discriminatory legislation. But as Gandhi’s politica l vision broadened to include the working class, so did his political strategy, and he and the NIC moved from strictly constitutional means to non -violent direct action.
By the 1940s (Gandhi having returned to India) a new generation of leadership had emerged: at least at this level more secular, non-sectarian; appealing to a cross-class alliance of Indians. Most importantly, it was strongly committed to co-operation wit h the African National Congress. In the 1970s the NICvigorously – and effectively – mobilised opposition to the tricameral parliament.
Bhana’s book is very useful as a guide to the NIC’s history. It is, however, too short – and often a bit superficial in its analysis. The paradox of ethnically based organisations proclaiming non-racialism needs to be addressed more thoroughly. The defin itive history of the NIC and Indian resistance to apartheid remains to be written.
THE SMALL BEGINNING: NORTH END PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH EAST LONDON, 1962-1970 by Rob Robertson (Published by the author, R25)
The North End Presbyterian Church was set up in the 1960s by minister Rob Robertson in East London to oppose segregation in churches. From the start it consciously worked against apartheid not by any dramatic action but by simply being a church community where apartheid did not exist.
Robertson’s account, based mostly on his diaries, tells of the struggle to set up the community – a struggle as much against conservatism within Presbyterian circles as against the security police. It is filled with many small acts that in a normal socie ty would have been unremarkable but in the South Africa of the 1960s constituted acts of defiance.
My main reservation is that Robertson does not sufficiently draw out all the theological and political “lessons” that lie implicit in his story. But it is a readable, often touching, account of ordinary Christians who quietly and sytematically undermine d a pillar of apartheid.
ROBBEN ISLAND by Charlene Smith (Mayibuye/Struik, R69,95)
Robben Island is most famous as a prison, but it has also housed a leper colony, a mental asylum and a garrison and is a veritable haven of rare flora and fauna.
In a strongly anecdotal narrative, Charlene Smith recounts the island’s history. She writes of the numerous accounts of shipwrecks off Robben Island and the legends that have sprung up around them, in-cluding the sightings of the ghost ship the Flying Du tchman.
Much of the text, though, is devoted to the island’s history as a prison. For its recent past Smith has relied on oral testimony and the (growing) number of published prison memoirs.
The book is well-illustrated and simply written. Sometimes it is repetitive – on one occasion at least the same story is repeated more or less verbatim. There are also a number of historical gaffes – like calling the Ossewabrandwag a neo-Nazi movement, when it was contemporaneous with the Nazis. Much more needs to be written on Robben Island, though those more or less ignorant of its history coul d do well to start here.
DEALING WITH THE PAST: TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN SOUTH AFRICA (second edition) edited by Alex Boraine, Janet Levy and Ronel Scheffer (Idasa, R49,95)
In this second edition of a book published in 1994, we are presented with a range of views that articulate the need for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Based on a conference on the issue, this book draws on the insights of South Africans, Latin Americans, Eastern Europeans and human rights experts. We hear of the strengths and failings of previous truth commissions in Argentina, Chile and El Salvador an d of attempts to bring repressive regimes’ secret police and human rights violators to book in those countries and in Eastern Europe.
The second edition includes a revised foreword by Desmond Tutu and a new introduction by Alex Boraine. Both are interesting but offer little more than can be gleaned from the extensive media coverage of the commission.