Administrators, upwizcampeditors
0
edits
Lusaka Manifesto: Difference between revisions
From Chalo Chatu, Zambia online encyclopedia
no edit summary
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{About|the 1969 declaration of African heads of State on human rights and white supremacy rule|the 1979 declaration of the Commonwealth of Nations on the same issue|Lusaka Declaration|the 1994 Angola ceasefire agreement|Lusaka Protocol}} | |||
{{Italic title}} | |||
The '''''Lusaka Manifesto''''' (originally the '''''Manifesto on Southern Africa''''') is a document created by the Fifth Summit Conference of East and Central African States which took place between 14 and 16 April 1969 in [[Lusaka]], the capital of [[Zambia]]. Produced at a time when the [[Republic of South Africa]] and its affiliated white-ruled regimes in [[Mozambique]], [[Rhodesia]], and [[Angola]] were relatively strong but politically isolated, the ''[[Manifesto]]'' called upon them to relinquish white supremacy and minority rule and singled out [[apartheid]] South Africa for violation of human rights. In the ''Manifesto'', which was subsequently adopted both by the [[Organisation of African Unity]] and the [[United Nations]], thirteen Heads of State offered dialogue with the rulers of these Southern African states under the condition that they accept basic principles of human rights and human liberties. They also threatened to support the various [[liberation war]]s if negotiations failed. | |||
The ''Lusaka Manifesto'' represented one of two strategies to deal with white minority rule in Southern Africa: To try to contain violence, preserve the status quo, and improve the humanitarian situation little by little through diplomatic means, small reforms, and compromises. The other strategy, to wage independence wars, would eventually prevail. | |||
==Background== | |||
In the late 1960s South Africa's [[apartheid]] regime became increasingly politically isolated, both internationally and continental. Under Prime Minister [[B.J. Vorster]] it developed the so-called "outward-looking policy", an effort to bind southern African countries economically, and in this way to discourage them from openly criticising its repressive internal politics. This policy first was openly opposed only by [[Tanzania]] under president [[Julius Nyerere]] and [[Zambia]] under [[Kenneth Kaunda]], but their lobbying made the [[United Nations General Assembly]] (UNGA) reject any further dialogue with South Africa.{{sfn|Ndlovu|2004|p=616}} | |||
At that time independence movements had been formed in all white-ruled territories of Southern Africa, either with an explicit commitment to [[guerrilla warfare]] and [[sabotage]] or recently having scaled their activities from passive resistance, petitioning, and lobbying to an openly armed struggle. The [[African National Congress]] (ANC) in South Africa had launched its military wing [[Umkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK) in 1961. It immediately executed several sabotage acts against the country's infrastructure.<ref>{{Cite web | |||
|title=Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Timeline 1961–1990, entry for 1961 | |||
|publisher=South African History Online | |||
|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/umkhonto-wesizwe-mk-timeline-1961-1990 | |||
|accessdate=11 September 2014}}</ref> In South-West Africa [[SWAPO]]'s paramilitary wing, the [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia]] (PLAN) was founded in 1962,<ref>{{Cite book | |||
|title=Warfare in Independent Africa | |||
|last=Reno | |||
|first=William | |||
|publisher=Cambridge University Press | |||
|date=2011 | |||
|series=New Approaches to African History | |||
|volume=5 | |||
|page=101 | |||
|isbn=9781139498654 | |||
|url=https://books.google.com.na/books?id=XSDTK95_-7UC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=SWAPO+PLAN+1962+-wiki&source=bl&ots=xBiwbEwp7H&sig=uOv0qsuoPDzIBNZ6_rPyS6jqhsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O4MRVK_nKsTC7AaYnICgCQ&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=SWAPO%20PLAN%201962%20-wiki&f=false}}</ref> its first military action occurred in [[Omugulugwombashe]] in 1966. | |||
Yet South Africa was politically strong at the time of the declaration agreed upon in Lusaka. Its border states except [[Botswana]] were all ruled by white minorities. In the [[United States]], [[National Security Study Memorandum]] number 39, issued by president [[Richard Nixon]] and Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], had just reiterated that "the Whites in southern Africa [are] there to stay".{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977|p=64}} Memorandum 39, nicknamed ''[[Tar baby]] memorandum'' for its reluctant acceptance of apartheid and minority rule in order to gain anti-communist allies in Southern Africa, strengthened South Africa's position internationally.{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=247}} | |||
Prime Minister Vorster had had a secret conversation with Kaunda for some time since 1968, eventually leading to the ''Manifesto''.{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=247}} A threat to reveal existence and content of this conversation was issued by Vorster to influence Kaunda's public presentation of South African politics. When Kaunda did not react, Vorster published the complete exchange{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977|p=68}} and later in 1970 confirmed it in the South African parliament.{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=252}} | |||
==Content== | |||
The ''Manifesto'' starts with a declaration on human rights and equality{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977|p=62}} and specifically rejects racial discrimination, both the then existing White [[reverse racism|minority racism]] against Blacks and discrimination by Blacks against Whites, a widespread fear of the White minorities at that time.{{sfn|Grundy|1973|p=115}} It further offers dialogue to the White regime in South Africa, stating that the signatories would "negotiate rather than destroy, talk rather than kill".{{sfn|Ndlovu|2004|p=617}} | |||
For [[Namibia]], Mozambique, Rhodesia and Angola the ''Manifesto'' called for self-determination and the establishment of [[majority rule]].{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977|p=63}} For South Africa its tone was sharper, and its recommendations went much further, including the suggestion to expel South Africa from all international political and economic bodies. This distinction between the suggested treatment of South Africa and the other white-ruled territories also contained an acknowledgement of South Africa's status as an independent, sovereign UN member, while Namibia, Mozambique, Rhodesia and Angola were colonies without recognition as states.{{sfn|Macmillan|2013|p=68}} | |||
==Significance== | |||
The significance of the ''Lusaka Manifesto'' has been compared to that of the [[Magna Carta]] and the [[Freedom Charter]]. The liberalism expressed in it was in direct opposition to South African apartheid which saw rights and liberties of individual people as tantamount to communism, and as irreconcilable with its own nationalist policies.<ref>{{cite journal | |||
|title=Inside the Laager: White Power in South Africa | |||
|last=de St. Jorre | |||
|first=John | |||
|journal=[[Foreign Affairs]] | |||
|publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]] | |||
|date=October 1976 | |||
|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/26616/john-de-st-jorre/inside-the-laager-white-power-in-south-africa}}</ref>{{sfn|Henderson|1974|pp=40–41}} | |||
The ''Manifesto'' was published in Britain in form of an advertisement, paid for by the Zambian government, in ''[[The Times]]'' and ''[[The Guardian]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal | |||
|title=The Lusaka Manifesto | |||
|last=Hall | |||
|first=Richard | |||
|journal=[[African Affairs]] | |||
|volume=69 | |||
|issue=25 | |||
|pages=180–183 | |||
|year=1970 | |||
|url=http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/69/275/180.extract}}</ref> It was endorsed by the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) and by the 24th session of the [[United Nations General Assembly]] (UNGA).{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=247}}<ref>His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie at the opening of the 7th session of the OAU [http://rastaites.com/speeches/africa2.htm rastaites.com], 2 September 1970</ref> | |||
The OAU issued several other documents after the ''Lusaka Manifesto'' that concerned the situation in South Africa, for instance the ''Mogadishu Declaration'' of 1970 and the ''Dar es Salaam Declaration'' of 1974. They were mainly updates, without a real diversion from the ''Manifesto''{{'s}} general direction,{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=247}} although, in reaction to South Africa's complete rejection of the original document, they are written in a decisively tenser tone and stress much more the support of armed liberation movements.{{sfn|Grundy|1973|pp=116–117}} | |||
==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||
North America and former colonial powers in Europe positively received the ''Lusaka Manifesto'', reportedly "because Africa argued, not shouted".{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=249}} | North America and former colonial powers in Europe positively received the ''Lusaka Manifesto'', reportedly "because Africa argued, not shouted".{{sfn|Shamuyarira|1977|p=249}} | ||
| Line 26: | Line 86: | ||
==Aftermath== | ==Aftermath== | ||
Only a few years after the ''Lusaka Manifesto'' the buffer of white-ruled countries north of South Africa disintegrated rapidly, forcing the apartheid regime to take a different course of politics.{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977}} Mid 1976 uprisings in Soweto and Gulguleto brought the country to the brink of a civil war. The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), the predecessor of today's Southern African Development Community (SADC) was founded in 1980 in order to "reduce member states' dependence, particularly, but not only, on apartheid South Africa".<ref name=SADC>{{Cite web | Only a few years after the ''Lusaka Manifesto'' the buffer of white-ruled countries north of South Africa disintegrated rapidly, forcing the apartheid regime to take a different course of politics.{{sfn|de St. Jorre|1977}} Mid 1976 uprisings in [[Soweto uprising|Soweto]] and [[Gulguleto uprising|Gulguleto]] brought the country to the brink of a civil war. The [[Southern African Development Coordination Conference]] (SADCC), the predecessor of today's [[Southern African Development Community]] (SADC) was founded in 1980 in order to "reduce member states' dependence, particularly, but not only, on apartheid South Africa".<ref name=SADC>{{Cite web | ||
|title=History and treaty | |title=History and treaty | ||
|publisher=SADC | |publisher=[[Southern African Development Community|SADC]] | ||
|url=http://www.sadc.int/about-sadc/overview/history-and-treaty/ | |url=http://www.sadc.int/about-sadc/overview/history-and-treaty/ | ||
|accessdate=30 December 2014}}</ref> The white rulers of South Africa eventually relinquished power to the black majority in 1994 but instead of acting on the moderate suggestions of the ''Manifesto'' faced independence wars in all affected countries. | |accessdate=30 December 2014}}</ref> The white rulers of South Africa eventually relinquished power to the black majority in 1994 but instead of acting on the moderate suggestions of the ''Manifesto'' faced independence wars in all affected countries. | ||
| Line 109: | Line 169: | ||
|last=Ramdhani | |last=Ramdhani | ||
|first=Narissa | |first=Narissa | ||
|publisher=University of California, Davis | |publisher=[[University of California, Davis]] | ||
|year=2002 | |year=2002 | ||
|url=http://hydra.ucdavis.edu/kobuk/files/vinecology/seminars/Ramdhani2002.pdf | |url=http://hydra.ucdavis.edu/kobuk/files/vinecology/seminars/Ramdhani2002.pdf | ||
| Line 146: | Line 206: | ||
|pages=315–324 | |pages=315–324 | ||
|year=1973 | |year=1973 | ||
|publisher=The Center of International Race Relations, University of Denver, and University of California Press | |publisher=The Center of International Race Relations, [[University of Denver]], and [[University of California Press]] | ||
|isbn=0520022718 | |isbn=0520022718 | ||
|url= | |url= | ||
