South Africa

South Africa has a long history. Since a lot of human beings look at my words, I have decided to write on this issue since the recent events going on in the country of South Africa. Its history begins with black human beings as the first human beings on Earth in the great continent of Africa are black. It is found in the southern tip of Africa. It has been in the international news a lot lately. Many viewers here are from South Africa, so I decided to write about South Africa. It has over 51 million human beings living there. Its population is mostly black African in about 80% of its population, but it is still highly multiethnic. Eleven languages are recognized in the South African constitution. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy. It is made up of a parliamentary republic. Unlike most Parliamentary Republics, the positions of head of State and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President. South Africa has the largest communities of European, Asian, and racially mixed ancestry in Africa. The World Bank calls South Africa as an upper middle income economy. It has the largest economy in Africa. South Africa has been through a lot of issues in the world. Also, South Africa can make a much better future. Apartheid is gone, which is a good thing. It is good to not see reactionary mobs and the police to not massively kill university students in Soweto. It is good to not allow certain papers dictate your total travels. It is a good thing to not allow innocent activists to be jailed or face house arrest based on their opposition to South African apartheid. That is a good thing indeed. Now, it is important for us to understand real issues in the world. We should go out and learn about the rich cultures of the world. Africa has a special place in my heart like always since it the origin of human life. It has great value and beautiful fauna including flora. Its people are very strong, intelligent, insightful, and one of the strongest members of the human liberation movement in the world. I am a black American, so Africa is in my mind, body, soul, and spirit forever.

A Summary of South Africas History

More than 170,000 years ago, modern human inhabited Southern Africa. There was a huge Bantu speaking human migrations into South Africa. Many of them use iron, some were agriculturists including herdsmen. They can be found thousands of years ago in south of the Limpopo River. Some of them displaced, conquered, and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers (or the Khokhoi and San peoples). The Bantus worked in iron work too. The Xhosa is one famous ethnic group in South Africa. The Xhosa and Zulu peoples are important in South African history as well. The Portuguese Europeans navigates the cape of South Africa. They failed to extensively colonize the territory of South Africa, because the local Khoikhoi human beings resisted their aims. So, the Portuguese came into the Mozambican coast that was filled with bays, prawns, and links to gold ore in the interior. So, it is always the system of white supremacy trying to dominate and control lands in Africa. Soon, the English and the Dutch challenged the Portuguese in the region for trade routes. Western imperialism continued to grow. WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT EUROPEAN IMPERIALISTS (INCLUDING THEIR WESTERN COHORTS) THEN AND NOW ARE ALWAYS THE ENEMY. THAT IS WHY THEY ALWAYS REFUSE TO TOTALLY LIBERATE AFRICAN PEOPLES, BUT TO USE ENTITIES TO FURTHER DOMINATE AFRICAN RESOURCES. AT THE END OF THE DAY, I BELIEVE IN GLOBAL BLACK PAN-AFRICANISM. I WILL NEVER HATE HUMANITY REGARDLESS OF THEIR COLOR (ALL HUMANS SHOULD BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND WITH RESPECT), BUT I WILL ADVOCATE FOR JUSTICE FOR MY PEOPLE (WITH OUR GREAT DARK MELANIN) THOUGH. SO, I WILL USE RIGHTEOUS ACTS AS A MEANS FOR FIGHT FOR JUSTICE. Many who came into the cape was a stopover for scurvy ridden crews. In 1647, a Dutch vessel called the Haarlem was wrecked in the present day Table Baby. They were rescued and the crew recommended that a permanent station to be established in the bay. The Dutch East India Company (or called back in the day by the Dutch with the term of Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) at first did not want to colonize the area. They wanted to form a secure base camp for passing ships could shelter and hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. A small VOC expedition came under the command of Jan van Riebeeck. Jan van Riebeeck reached Table Bay on April 6, 1652. The Dutch traded with the neighboring black Khoikhoi out of necessity. Their relationship was not exactly friendly and the Dutch authorities made deliberate attempts to restrict contact among the Africans and the Europeans. The VOC soon had a labor shortage. So, the Dutch allowed settlers to create farms. These farms would supply the VOC settlement with harvests. It was successful with forming abundant supplies of fruit, vegetables, wheat, and wine; they later raised livestock. The small initial group of free burghers, as these farmers were known, steadily increased and began to expand their farms further north and east into the territory of the Khoikhoi. Most of the burghers had Dutch ancestry. Most of them were from the Calvinist Reformed Church of the

Netherlands. This is similar to most Americans being religiously Protestants and Baptists today. Some of the burghers were from Germany and Scandinavia. Some of them came into South Africa to escape religious persecution under King Louis XIV. In addition to establishing the free burgher system, van Riebeeck and the VOC began to make indentured servants out of the Khoikhoi and the San. This was immoral and this was another tactic of white supremacy (which is to falsely dehumanize black human life and try to rule in lands that they never originated were in at the first place. No human should be an indentured servant point blank period). They or the VOC imported slaves into South Africa too from Madagascar and Indonesia. This was immoral. Many of these slaves married Dutch settlers (and their descendants were known as Cape st Coloureds and Cape Malays. These are what we call biracial or multiracial human beings in the 21 century). Significant numbers of the offspring from the White and slave unions were absorbed into the local proto Afrikaans speaking White population. We know that today, false beauty standards are advanced in Western society as a means to brainwash humans of color to accept inferiority complexities. The VOC expanded in the north and the east and it caused clashes with the Khoikhoi. The newcomers drove the beleaguered Khoikhoi from their traditional lands and destroyed them with their weapons when they fought back, which they did in a number of major wars and with guerrilla resistance movements which continued into the 19th century. So, this slick European imperialism started the apartheid system in the first place. This imperialism dealt with the theft of black African land and the unjust attacks on black human beings. Imperialism is always the enemy of any free people, especially us who are of black African descent. Europeans also brought diseases which had devastating effects against people whose immune system was not adapted to them. Many Burghers expanded into more territories. Some formed a pastoralist lifestyle. Many of them were religious. Their descendants became known as the Trekboere or Wandering Farmers. They are also known as the Boers. Many of the Boers were independent of official controls, selfsufficient, and isolated. They attempted to live their lives based on the teachings from the Bible (you can make your own conclusions about that. That is ironic to say the least). Now, the worst British imperialists (since their Empire stretched into multiple continents in a brutal fashion) tried to conquer South Africa as early as 1795. The British caused an oppressive slavery system harming human beings in South Africa. The British forced many of the Boers to live in farms. The British Empire discriminated and harmed the lives of black human beings in South Africa as well. It was good that slavery was abolished by the British Empire in 1833. Many Boers were wrong to oppose that abolition back then. Yet the British settlers' conservatism stopped any radical social reforms, and in 1841 the authorities passed a Masters and Servants Ordinance, which perpetuated white control. This continued the wicked system of white supremacy against black human beings. Meanwhile, numbers of British immigrants increased rapidly in Cape Town, in the area east of the Cape Colony (present-day Eastern Cape Province), in Natal. More diamond and gold finds in South Africa, caused more Europeans to travel into South Africa for the th purposes of greed and exploitation not genuine love for humanity. In the 19 century, the Zulu Empire grew in a greater fashion in South Africa. Shaka Zulu was the famous that expanded Zulu territory. They were undercut by British imperialists, but all of us understood Shaka Zulus bravery and strength during his life. The Great Trek dealt with the Boers too. Many of the Boers grew increasingly dissatisfied with British rule in the Cape Colony. The British proclamation of the equality of the races particularly angered them, and they were also unhappy with the process of payment of compensation for slave-owners whose slaves had been freed. The Boers were wrong on that front since all men are created equal regardless of race and slavery is always immoral. Beginning in 1835, several groups of Boers, together with large numbers of Khoikhoi and black servants, decided to trek off into the interior in search of greater independence. This was not true independence for blacks treated as servants though. North and east of the Orange River (which formed the Cape Colony's frontier) these Boers or Voortrekkers ("Pioneers") found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited grazing lands. The Boers were in conflict with African peoples in various territories. The Boers were resisted by the Ndebele and the Zulus. Many sides committed atrocities against each other. The Boers also were involved in two wars (called the Anglo-Boer wars. The British Empire wanted to have a monopoly of gold in the region) with the British over territories and power in South Africa. Both sides made errors. Lord Milner was governor of the Cape Colony from 1897 to 1901.

The British was wrong for placing many Boers in concentration camps as a means to punish them. Men, women, and children Boers were placed into concentration camps. The British soldiers looted and burned Boer farms. Atrocities occurred. Lord Kitchener was their most experienced soldier and the brutal architect of the concentration camp system. Boer children died by the thousands from dysentery, typhoid, and malnutrition. The British were wrong in trying to continue imperialism in South Africa against black human beings and others in South Africa. The Boers were wrong in denying voting rights among many settlers in the land. The British forced Blacks to pay hugely high taxation (which was unjust) in the early th 20 century and the British Empire formed the Union of South Africa. The Union remained British territory while it formed home rule for the Afrikaners. Despite a major campaign by Blacks and Coloureds, the voter franchise remained as in the pre-Union republics and colonies, and only whites could gain election to Parliament. So, this Union of South Africa back then was a racist, evil regime. We know that Cecil Rhodes wanted his perverted vision of allowing the British Empire to conquer the whole world. Rhodes was extremely xenophobic and he believed that all of Africa should be part of the British Empire. He believed that all other races (especially blacks) were inferior. He was very, very anxious to see the U.S. Republic destroyed and annexed to the British Crown. Cecil Rhodes overtly admitted that he wanted economic exploitation in the following words: We must find new lands from which we can easily

obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories." So, Cecil Rhodes was a white supremacist piece of work and he was a very
evil enemy of God. South Africa was independent of the Brits in 1961.

In South Africa, there was the Natives' Land Act of 1913. That was the first major piece of segregation legislation passed by the Union Parliament. It remained a cornerstone of Apartheid until the 1990's when it was replaced by the current policy of land restitution. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 forced blacks to be relatively restricted from the legal ownership of land (at that stage to 7 percent of the country). This 2 percentage later increased to 13%, at about 158, 734 km a 1/6 bigger than Greece, resulting in an 2 estimated population density of 30/km , the same as modern USA. The Act created a system of land tenure that deprived the majority of South Africa's inhabitants of the right to own land outside of reserves which had major socio-economic repercussions, because the owners did not develop and leverage the land into a successful commercial resource. Other segregationist legislation included the Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892. It limited the black vote by finance and education. There was the 1894 Natal Legislative Assembly Bill that deprived Indians the right to vote. The General Pass Regulations Bill of 1905 denied blacks the right to vote altogether. It limited black human beings to live in fixed areas. There was the Asiatic Registration Act (1906) requiring all Indians to register and carry passes; the South Africa Act (1910) that enfranchised whites, giving them complete political control over all other race groups; the above-mentioned Native Land Act (1913) which prevented all blacks, except those in the Cape, from buying land outside 'reserves'. The reserves were the "original homes" of the black tribes of South Africa. The reverses were later called bantusatans of which the failed objective was to make self-government, quasi-independent ethnically homogeneous states. The state reserved 87% of the land which whites exclusively could purchase. The Natives in Urban Areas Bill of 1918 was designed to move blacks living in "white" South Africa into specific 'locations' as a precautionary security measure. The Urban Areas Act of 1923 introduced residential segregation in South Africa and provided cheap unskilled labor for the white mining and farming industry. There was the 1926 Colour Bar Act of 1926 preventing blacks from practicing skilled trades. Even the Native Administration Act (1927) that made the British Crown, rather than paramount chiefs, the supreme head over all African affairs; the Native Land and Trust Act (1936) that complemented the 1913 Native Land Act and, in the same year, the Representation of Natives Act, which removed blacks from the Cape voters' roll. The final 'apartheid' legislation passed by the South African parliament before the beginning of the 'Apartheid' era was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill (1946), which banned any further land sales to Indians. So, these unjust laws were part of the white supremacist agenda of apartheid. The Black voters' roll was abolished in 1948. In fact, universal suffrage never came into South Africa until the 1994 general election in the post-apartheid era.

From 1948, the National Party administration extended the existing system of racial discrimination and the denial of human rights into the legal system of apartheid.
This lasted until 1991. There was the 1950 Population Registration Act that formalized racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of eighteen (that specifying their racial group). Official teams or Boards were established to come to an ultimate conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. Many families of the coloured people (or biracial human beings or multiethnic human beings that we call today) had their families separated and were allocated different races. There were rules banning interracial relationships in the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 and in the Immorality Act of 1950. Many areas provided for blacks under apartheid were inferior to those of whites. Apartheid harmed political freedom by banning any party subscribing to Communism back in 1950. A human being has the right to peacefully believe in whatever philosophy they want. There was internal opposition to apartheid for decades as well. The ANC opposed apartheid. There was the Pan Africanist Congress or the PAC that organized demonstrations against the pass laws. The pass laws were segregation laws that severely limited the movements of the nonwhite populace. The

Black population was required to carry these pass books with them when outside their homelands or designated areas. Failure to produce a pass often resulted in the person being arrested. Any white person could ask a black African to produce his or her pass in the era of apartheid South Africa. So, courageous antiapartheid activists were common in South Africa.

The Treason Trial of 1956 was another historic event in South Africa. It was a trial in South Africa where 156 human beings (including Nelson Mandela) was arrested in a raid and accused of treason. The main trial lasted until 1961 when all of the defendants were found not guilty. Oliver Tambo left the country and was exiled. He started to create an organization that would bring publicity to the African National Congress's cause in South Africa while he was in other European including African countries. Chief Luthuli said the following of the Treason Trial: "...The treason trial must occupy a special place in South African history. That grim pre-dawn raid, deliberately calculated to strike terror into hesitant minds and impress upon the entire nation the determination of the governing clique to stifle all opposition, made one hundred and fifty-six of us, belonging to all the races of our land, into a group of accused facing one of the most serious charges in any legal system..." On December of 1956, many key members of the Congress Alliance were arrested and charged with treason including almost the entire executive committee of ANC (including the SACP, SAIC, and the COD). 105 Africans, 21 Indians, 23 whites, and 7 coloured leaders were arrested. 10 of the arrestees were women. Many arrestees, including Nelson Mandela, were detained in communal cells in Johannesburg Prison, known as the Fort, resulting in what Mandela described as "the largest and longest unbanned meeting of the Congress Alliance in years. Yet, white men, white women, and black human beings were all held in separate parts of the jail. At first 156

defendants were charged with high treason and it was reduced to 92. In November 1957, the prosecution reworded the indictment and proceeded with a separate trial against 30 accused. Their trial commenced in August 1959. The remaining 61 accused were tried separately before the case against them was dismissed in mid-1960. Many of the defendants included Ahmed Kathrada, Lilian Ngoyi, Leon Levy, Helen Joseph (a trade unionist and women's leader), etc. British Canon set up the Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa to pay all legal expenses and look after the families of those on trial. This was one of the first examples of foreign intervention against apartheid in South Africa and proved very successful with over 75,000 being raised towards defending those accused. The trial strengthened the multi-racial Congress Alliance.

Many heroes have criticized the ANC in recent years. The ANC lost its original salt indeed. It is not 1994 any longer and the threat of corporate corruption has not ceased when the evil of overt apartheid was extinguished. Some in the ANC has sold out South African human beings, especially those who are poor. Now, we see that corporate power and neoliberal economics have infiltrated the ANC. The Born Free generation is a classification of the current South African young human beings. They have the right to vote and choose who will govern in a democratic society. Like all nations of the world, full equality whether social or economic is not in existence in South Africa. The oligarchy controls the vast

majority of the wealth of South Africa. There are challenges and frustrations with this new reality. Many veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle are speaking up against these evil conditions. Since 1994, some improvements have existed in South Africa. We witness

the growth of the construction of houses, cheches, schools, roads, and infrastructure. There are water and electrical power sent to millions. There is free education and health care. There is the growth of social grants and the increase of pension. Until the year of 2008, South Africa's economy growth was consistent. Yet, we have the issues of protests of the poor and marginalized communities. There are gross inadequacies and inequalities in education and health care sectors. In recent years, South Africa has experienced a huge rise in unemployment. There has been huge police brutality and torture. Ruling parties have power struggles as well. Since the ousting of Mbeki, political uncertainty has not been abated at all. The government of South Africa since 2008 has been more secret and authoritarian. Even a top ANC member took a cheap photo in violation of Nelson Mandela's privacy and dignity. We know the events of August 16, 2012 where the police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana mine. That mine is owned by the London based Lonmin Company. This tragedy is called Bloody Thursday. This was similar to the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Even the South African Communist party refused to condemn the police murder at Marikana. There was a cover up of the events too. The ANC fought for its soul from 1991 to 1996. Later, the ANC lost to corporate influence and it allowed corporations to exploit the mineral resources of gold, diamonds, etc. in South Africa.

We should never forget about what they did in the Mirkana Massacre where innocent workers were killed. I will never forget.
South Africa took an IMF loan with strings attached like they always do. Capitalists form the UK and the US worked together as a means to advance Western economics in South Africa. The Freedom charter's nationalization of the mines has been rejected. The debt was never canceled by the ANC. There was no wealth tax on the super-rich as a means to fund developmental projects. Many domestic and international companies never paid reparations for their involvement in apartheid. Tariff protection was eliminated, austerity, and other neoliberal policies made South Africa to experience these complications. In South Africa in 2008 the poorest 50% received only 7.8% of total income.

While 83% of white South Africans were among the top 20% of income receivers in 2008, only 11% of our black population was. That is why folks are having protests all over South Africa because of economic inequality and economic oppression by the powers that be. Many reasonable, strong human beings are still in the ANC. It is just that the pact that the ANC has with the elite must be broken. Therefore, it is important to note that huge institutions and independent South African human beings are fighting for real change. The fight is never easy. I respect real grassroots efforts as a means to build up a better South
Africa. Every time that you have social progress, you will experience the era of counterrevolution (as Dr. Martin Luther King eloquently said). Now, we should support the South Africans in fighting this counterrevolution and allow South Africa to experience more revolutionary solutions in their own lands. Even recently in 2013, we see many antiwar and socially conscious South African activists opposing Western imperialism when the President of the United States recently visited South Africa. These activists were found in Pretoria, Soweto, and Cape

Town. They protested the occupation in Palestine, the Cubans 5 imprisonment in Miami, the Guantanamo torture chamber operations, warmongering in Syria, the kangaroo court trial of Bradley Manning, NSA warrantless wiretapping the neoliberal structural adjustment philosophy, AIDS medicine cutbacks, and other injustices in the world. These South African heroes should be congratulated for their courage that is reminiscences of the heroic anti-apartheid who carried the torch of justice for all humankind.

It is obvious that most in South Africa reject big business interests, more privatization, and more neoliberal economics. The hope remains and the Dream shall never die.

Heroic South African Women

There are a lot of South African woman that heroically fought against apartheid indeed. You can't talk

about the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa without discussion about South African women. Many of them fought for political justice and social equality. The fight for gender equality is linked to the fight for racial equality. Back in 1905, Charlotte Maxeke
became the first black woman in South Africa to earn her Bachelor's degree. Charlotte was a schoolteacher. She continued her studies in the United States. When she returned to South Africa, she advanced the cause for racial and gender equality. That is why in 1918, she founded the Bantu Women's League of the South African Native National Congress. In 1935, she was the first President of the National Council for African Women. Cecilia Makiwane was the first black woman to register as a

professional nurse. Fatima Meer became the founder and chief architect of the Federation of South African Women or the FEDSAW in 1954. The ANC officially admitted women members for the first time by 1943. A year later, Adelaide Tambo (the wife of Oliver) is elected courier for the organization. She left South Africa in 1960. She worked as a courier for Oliver Tambo in London. She became one of the most important women of the Struggle in her lifetime. The ANC Women's League was formed in 1948. Treason trial defendant Ida Mtwana is its first president. Mary Malahlela-Xakana, who becomes the first female black doctor in South Africa in 1947, and Patricia Jobodwana, who becomes the youngest black woman to enroll at a university at Fort Hare, aged 14, for a degree in medicine. In 1936, Zainunnisa Cissie Gool founds the National Liberation League, and becomes its first president. She represents District Six in 1938 on the Cape Town City Council, the first coloured woman in on this allwhite council, retaining the position until 1951. She is also elected president of the Non-European United Front (NEUF) in 1940. She features prominently in Cape Towns political landscape for most of her life. The now legendary Albertina Sisulu joins the league in the same year. Fatima Meer united women from the ANC, the South African Indian Congress, trade unions, and self helps to fight the degrading pass book laws of the National Party. She is the Founder and the chief Architect of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1954. The Black Sash was created in the 1950's. Sonia Bunting was one of the keynote speakers at the Congress of the People in Kliptown and Francis Baard is a member of the committee that produces the draft copy of the Freedom Charter. Many women suffered in the early 1960's by the evil apartheid system. The ANC was outlawed. Many folks were placed under house arrest or restricted to certain places for being members of the ANC. In 1963, Miriam Makeba, better known as a singer, speaks at the meeting of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid in New York. She will go on to world fame as a Singer and Activist she is awarded the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1986. So, these Sisters deserve their real respect and praise as some of the leaders that helped to end the apartheid regime in South Africa indeed.

Never Forget Soweto

The killings in Soweto will always be remembered by me as a black man. It happened in June 16, 1976. This action of the students came about via a series of protests led by high school students in South Africa. Many Sowetan schools united as a means to protest the introduction of the Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. As high as 20,000 students took part in the protests. A range between 176 to 700 human beings died from the actions of protests. That is why June 16 is a public holiday in South Africa called Youth Day. It is utilized as a means to remember the events of 1976. The black high school students protested the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix as languages of instruction. The Regional Director of Bantu Education (Northern Transvaal Region), J.G. Erasmus, told Circuit Inspectors and Principals of Schools that from January 1, 1975, Afrikaans had to be used for mathematics, arithmetic, and social studies from standard five (7th grade), according to the Afrikaans Medium Decree; English would be the

medium of instruction for general science and practical subjects (homecraft, needlework, woodwork, metalwork, art, agricultural science). This unjust decree would only use indigenous languages being used for religion instruction, music, and physical culture. In the 1960's and the 1970's, black South Africans continued to fight back. There was the ending of overt colonialism in Africa, the rise of the Black Power movement in America (as us or Diaspora Black inspired Africans and the Africans inspired us Diaspora Blacks indeed too). The Afrikaaner oppressor wanted to force black human beings to exist under cultural colonialism. Teacher organizations such as the African Teachers Association of South Africa objected to the decree. In April 30, 1976, children from Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike. They refused to go to school under a legitimate grievance. The students wanted to be taught equally as white South Africans. A mass rally was planned in June 13 to allow their voices to be heard. The protest was intended to be peaceful and had been carefully planned by the Soweto Students Representative Councils (SSRC) Action Committee with the wider Black Consciousness Movement. Tsietsi Mashinini united other high school students from other locations to join in the protests. The Bureau of State Security (BOSS), which was in charge of South Africa's internal security, was caught unaware. A police squad was sent in to form a line in front of the marchers. They ordered the crowd to disperse. When they refused, police dogs were released, and then teargas was fired. Students responded by throwing stones and bottles at the police. Journalists later reported seeing a policeman draw his revolver and shoot without warning into the crowd. Other policemen also started shooting. Colonel Kleingeld said that students were throwing stones and other students were marching peacefully. When he fired a shoot, panic and chaos happened. Students screamed and ran. More gunshots were fired killing innocent children. The police loosed their dogs on the children. Some dogs were stoned to death in self-defense. Then, the police began to shoot directly at the children. One of the first students to be shot dead was 13 year old Hector Pieterson. He was shot at Orlando West High School and became the symbol of the Soweto uprising. 23 young human beings died including 2 white people (as part of as high as 700 human deaths). Both sides made errors in their conduct, yet the children suffered worst in the uprising. The police had no moral right to prevent young South Africans from protesting their legitimate grievances in society at all. The aftermath of the Soweto Uprising was that it galvanized more human beings to oppose the apartheid regime. Many white South African citizens were outraged at the government's actions in Soweto, and about 300 white students from the University of the Witwatersrand marched through Johannesburg's city center in protest of the killing of children. Black workers went on strike as well and joined them as the campaign progressed. Riots also broke out in the black townships of other cities in South Africa. Many student organizations organized nonviolent protests in South Africa. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 392 to condemn the Soweto incident and the apartheid regime. When you witness innocent black children being killed by militarized brutes in the Soweto incident, then that certainly inspires us to fight even more for Justice.

Steve Biko Steve Biko is one of the greatest heroes of South Africa. The human being in the image is Steve Bikos
wife named Ntsiki Biko. I have known about him for years. Steve Biko worked to fight for liberation in South Africa in the 1960's and the 1970's especially. He worked with the famous human rights lawyer named Barney Pityana. Steve Biko modernized the BCM movement or the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. This movie rejected apartheid and the view of white domination of South Africa. The BCM movement believed in black consciousness. The racist Afrikaner, apartheid government hated Biko and his BCM movement. Steve Biko was banned in 1973 from participating in the political matters of the state. He was banned from talking to more than one person at a time or speaking at public. Under South African law, Biko was deemed a terrorist. Biko was arrested in August of 1977 at a police roadblock and then he was taken into custody. Steve Biko was interrogated and tortured for 22 hours for unjust reasons. It is a shame that a man has to suffer like that just because he wanted legitimate freedom and justice for his people. Biko suffered more unjust, inhumane treatment for the following month. The criminals from the apartheid state strapped him naked and injured him to the back of a jeep and drove nearly 700 miles to the city of Pretoria in order to gain access to a prison with a hospital. Near death during the journey, Biko would succumb to his injuries on September 12 at the age of 30. Steve Biko always believed in Black Unity and the Black Consciousness Movement. Police initially said the activists death was because of a hunger strike protest, but an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a brain hemorrhage due to blows to the head. Many of Bikos supporters as well as external media suspected foul play in Bikos untimely death. After his death, international protests came about. There has been an U.N. imposed embargo on arms. As many as 10,000 human beings attended his funeral including world leaders. His friend, the white journalist Donald Biko, took pictures of him. He wanted to expose the case as murder. Woods was targeted by the apartheid government and he fled to England. He later penned the book Biko, which formed the basis for the 1987 film Cry Freedom starring Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline as Biko and Woods, respectively. The government did not prosecute the murdering officers. They just gave the Biko family $78,000 as compensation for his death. In 1995, after majority rule passed to Black South Africans, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to investigate apartheid-related abuses over the duration of the racist regime. In a clever but underhanded strategy, outgoing White government members asked the Commission grant them amnesty for those who

confess their past crimes as a condition of the power transfer. Police Colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt and four other officers confessed to their crimes in front of the Commission on this day in 1997, promptly applying for amnesty. Although a New York Times piece wrote that Bikos widow, Ntsiki Mashalaba, had finally gotten some closure on the death of her husband, she was fearful that justice would not be served. The officers were denied amnesty later in 1999.

We know that Steve Biko had a great legacy for South Africa and humans globally. He taught us that there is nothing wrong with Black solidarity and pride in the face of oppression. Steve Biko was buried in King William Town or the place where he was banished to by the government as a means to silence him. Steve Biko believed in the legitimate principle that Black Is Beautiful." That principle has resonance in my heart as a black man. So, we will continue to fight for human liberation and Black Solidarity including Black Unity in the world. So, Africa is our homeland. Hopefully, I can come into Africa before I pass away.

Lillian Ngoyi and Others

One of the greatest heroes of South African history was Lillian Masediba Ngoyi. She was a known South African anti-apartheid activist. The Sister Lillian lived from September 25, 1911 to March 13, 1980. She was born to six children in Pretoria. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress. She was arrested for trying to use post office facilities that were reserved for whites. This was part of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, which was about activists opposing publicly the evil system of apartheid. She helped to launch the Federation of South African Women. She joined the ANC Women's League in 1952. She was at that stage a widow with 2 children and an elderly mother to support. She worked as a seamstress. A year later, she was elected as President of the Women's League. On August 9, 1956, Ngoyi led a march along with Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn of 20,000 women to the Union Buildings of Pretoria in protest against the apartheid government requiring women to carry passbooks as part of the pass laws. She was internationally known globally as a human being who struggled against apartheid and sought the emancipation of black women. She traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland in 1955 to participate in the World Congress of Mothers. This was audacious and highly illegal, but she was courageous. The Congress was held by the WIDF or the Women's International Democratic Federation. She came there with her fellow activist Dora Tamana as an official delegate of FEDSAW. She traveled out of the country with Tamara. She visited England, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, China, and Russia. She meet with women leaders who were involved in progressive politics. She was a wanted woman when she arrived back into South Africa. Ngoyi was a strong orator and inspired many of her colleagues in the ANC. She was arrested in 1956, spent 71 days in solitary confinement, and was for a period of 11 years placed under severe bans and restrictions that often confined to her home in Orlando, Soweto. There is a community health center in Soweto that is named in her honor. An environmental patrol vessel was named Lillian Ngoyi in her honor (in November 16, 2004 via the South African Ministry of the Environment). By August 9, 2006, there was the 50th anniversary of the march on Pretoria, Strijidom Square from which the women marched. It was renamed Lilian Ngoyi Square and August 9 is commemorated in South Africa as Women's Day.

A SPECIAL NOTE: We need to know more of the truth as well. So, we should do our best to overcome ignorance and believe in the truth including justice. Some folks even want their capitalist rulers to harm them. We have to see things as they are if we want the future to be better indeed. When we see war crimes in Iraq and other nations of the world via Western war crimes, then we have to know that. We can never be brainwashed by violence and ignorance. For example, we should reject shows that glamorize violence and degenerate language that harms social harmony and harms real morality. We have to reject the militarism as found in American foreign policy. We have to stop supporting a regressive U.S. economic policy too. We know that human beings in Wall Street love the record bailouts sent to them and the neoliberal economic agenda. We have to think critically in the world. It is really the truth that the mainstream media is dominated by a handful of vast conglomerates including the leading newspapers and television networks. We should deal with social reality. We have to increase understanding of the world and eliminate our personal illusions. We have to continue to enact critical thinking of the world. We need self-awareness. That means that we need our autonomous self (and to think and act on its own initiative). Also, we should go out have concern for the human welfare of humanity in general. So, we should learn about social, political, and economic injustices as a means to take positive, constructive action against the oppressive elements of reality. We should use action as a means to build a real community in the world. We have to inform ourselves about the truth. We can never believe in the old lies that my country right or wrong, I am only following orders, and I carry out even unjust laws. Those sayings relate to totalitarianism. We have every right to execute independent thinking. That means that we should fight against police brutality as a means to disagree with the police state. That means that we confront evil. That is why many human beings now are creating free breakfast clinics, housing cooperatives, and political education. For education is superior to the lies shown by the establishment all of the time (from the lies about Iraqi WMDs years ago to the lie that Syria is some immediate threat to American soil).The global recession and the 12 million hungry American children is proof positive of how well capitalism works. One strong reason why poverty exists is that much of it is a product of the exploitative and now disintegrating corporate capitalist system. That is why it was the reactionary capitalist Krupp who once aided the reactionary Adolf Hitler. Also, institutional racism relates to black poverty as well. Institutional racism under capitalist conditions means superexploitation and economic dislocation. So, we should establish bonds with our families, friends, and loved ones. We should improve our health and wellbeing. We should never embrace pettiness and arrogance, but tolerance and truth telling. We ought to have love for our humanity and help out our fellow man.

The Government is not infallible. Government is only an executive control, a centralized authority for the purpose of expressing the will of the people. Before you have a government, you must have the people. Without the people there can be no government. The government must be therefore, an expression of the will of the people -Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887 1940)

The Inspirational Conclusion

One of the reasons why I want writing about this issue is because of the documentary about Venus Williams in the IX for IX series which is being shown now in ESPN. Venus Williams led an effort to allow women to be paid the same amount of money as men when they perform in Wimbledon. This never occurred until as late as in the 21st century. Venus Williams organized with tennis players and other leaders as a means to make equal pay a reality. A young woman from Compton showed the world that human beings from across socioeconomic backgrounds can make a huge difference in the world society via positive efforts. So, it showed the truth that many women contributed a lot to not only gender equality and equal pay movement, but the overall human rights movement in general. You know me. I will

show the truth from the rooftops, from the hills, from the valleys, from the mountains, and everywhere in between like a man supposed to do. Therefore, we have every right to stand up for the truth. We have every right to fight fascism and disagree with exploitation of any human beings regardless of their background. We have every right to stand up for Black Solidarity and Black Unity. We have every right to deliver the truth to the masses of the people all day and every day. So, we all wish South Africa the best. By Timothy

The Drum Still Beats, the Struggle Continues, and the Truth is Always Timeless. The Truth is always Fresh and it never Lags. I will continue to present that Real Talk Flavor on the Real, Guaranteed. That is how I get down. It is still RBG4Life.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

Ubenemini emnandi
Peace Friends and Allies.