Africa Day, 25 May: A resource-book for educators, Part 4
Independence, Front Line States and SADCC
Before the OAU there was oppression, going all the way back to the beginning of the days of slavery. After the OAU there is the AU of today, with all of the problems that it has. Approaching the OAU, and during its existence (1963 to 2002), great history was made. This was the independence struggle, of which the OAU was a consequence, and for which it was created to support, and to continue. South Africa’s first universal-franchise election in 1994 was its high point.
Each country has its specific circumstances, history, personalities, problems, class structure, and class dynamics. In Africa, by now, there are 54 fully-made nation states and ten remaining colonies. In South America, for comparison, there are twelve fully-made nation-states and one colony. There can be no question of stereotyping.
To comprehend the African liberation struggle in total is for this reason a special challenge. It requires a historical perspective, combined with at least a sampling of the detail. It requires a feeling for the revolutionary literature, such as books, pamphlets, speeches, articles and radio broadcasts that have informed the great revolutionary tide of the 20th Century that touched all African countries.
Here is a mixed list of influential writers:
Samir | Amin | Govan | Mbeki | |
Ahmed | Ben Bella | Eduardo | Mondlane | |
Steve | Biko | Gamal Abdel | Nasser | |
Amilcar | Cabral | Augustinho | Neto | |
Aimé | Césaire | Huey P | Newton | |
Angela | Davis | Kwame | Nkrumah | |
Cheikh Anta | Diop | ‘Mzala’ | Nxumalo | |
Frederick | Douglass | Julius | Nyerere | |
W E B | Du Bois | George | Padmore | |
Frantz | Fanon | Sol | Plaatje | |
Ruth | First | Paul | Robeson | |
Muammar | Gaddafi | Walter | Rodney | |
C L R | James | Thomas | Sankara | |
Martin Luther | King | Ousmane | Sembène | |
Moses | Kotane | Issa | Shivji | |
Alex | La Guma | Oliver | Tambo | |
Patrice | Lumumba | Ngugi wa | Thiongo | |
Albert | Luthuli | ‘l’Ouverture’ | Toussaint | |
Mahmood | Mamdani | Malcolm | X |