Monday, February 29, 2016

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – the world as it is, goes on after Olof Palme

Keeping it short:

Indeed, Sweden's role in the struggle against Apartheid , and Sweden's role  in the Liberation of South Africa from the clutches of Apartheid was a very significant role indeed, and up till today it would not be a gross exaggeration to say that  "half the story's never been told" -  at least not directly from all of the horses' mouths. Sweden's role has been variously discussed in other fora apart from this one  - the details of the morality could be discussed here if this thread  needs to  get longer -  and it's acutely true that "Unfortunately, a lot of people have forgotten, and many Africans do not know, the role that Palme and his country played in the struggle against the insidious system called apartheid" . Stefan Löfven who is  the current  leader of the Social Democrats and Prime Minister of Sweden  was twenty eight years old when  Olof Palme  was assassinated.  A lot of  other people were not even yet born or were mere toddlers  by 1994 and not even acquainted with third hand reports and materials, and like some writers  of glossy covers and titles,  poorly  informed, just as they are still badly informed and know next to nothing about what was once called The Nuremberg  Laws

Sweden and the Liberation Of South Africa

The ANC in Stockholm

 The relationship between the Swedish Trade Unions and COSATU etc. was important., especially at a time when Sweden' s car  manufacturing industry etc. was in dire need of raw materials from South Africa. My own brother was knee-deep and stood to be striking it rich in diamond mining  in Sierra Leone  at some time and needed  suction pumps,  galvanizers and separator  and other mining equipment which  was most readily available  from Boliden and Granges, two Swedish companies  in South Africa  - but of course it was a no go from me to my Bro : SANCTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We should also not forget Nigeria's role (over the table and under the table)  in the same struggle. Patrick Wilmot's  article in the Nigerian Guardian  in 1981 was advocating that Nigeria go nuclear – dance real  mathematical rhythms and with nuclear capability  then talk to the barbarians in South Africa. – this was at the exact time when the   Ivory Coast's  Francophone president  Félix Houphouët-Boigny was recommending dialogue  ( the exasperated Dr. Wilmot was asking how can a lamb  dialogue with a lion?  So he recommended that Nigeria go ballistic  - nuclear – weapons of mass destruction and then  you  dialogue. An order was issued for the arrest of Patrick Wilmot ( by the uncle toms)  Wilmot went  underground completely, in Kaduna…

If only Olof Palme had lived on to see the fruition of the struggle  then he could have joined in the song : Namhanje – and would have sung and danced jabula with Madiba Nelson Mandela. As things were  Sweden is the first country that he visited  when he was released from  Robben Island  - because his trusted  comrade-in-arms and the ANC's  second in command / charge d'affairs Oliver Tambo was recuperating at Ersta hospital in Stockholm at the time….

 From the day that I arrived in Sweden ( July 1970  - and  secondly in  October 1971) I met various resident political exiles ( both White and Black) from South Africa,  some of whom  are not mentioned here, among others,  writers and ideologues such as  Molefe  Pheto ( who was passing through  - later on working at the Commonwealth Institute in London where he completed and published his prison diary)  Sobizana 'Bizo' Mngqikana  ( later on appointed  South Africa's ambassador to Turkey and then ambassador to Finland ) Cecil Sondlo ( PAC , whose  motto was "one settler, one bullet" ) wrote often in the Swedish press , musicians  such as Ebrahim "Brian" Isaacs,  the legendary Chetty, Jackie,  Jeff Cartriers ( a friend of the Palmes) Peter Radise, Wana Makoba later on Bheki Mseleku  and Johnny Mbizo Dyani  (who gave me the name Themba Feza ( Hope to complete  - after his late trumpet player Mongezi  Feza)   artist Lefifi Tladi and of course Dudu Pukwana who I first met  when he played at  his birthday here in Stockholm – at Fasching  Jazz Club - and later at his residence in Marble Arch, London   from where he was operating musically…

These friendship and contacts  if not static can sometimes  prove to be effective networks…

Music is a weapon ! We should not underestimate the contributions that  various South African musicians in and outside of  South Africa contributed to the success of  that struggle. And we should not undervalue the contributions made by the Rastaman and his " free Mandela" music…

1986 – the always experimental Miles Davis :  Tutu

 I'm sure that Sonny Okosun  did a lot of consciousness raising within his orbit with his Fire in Soweto  and  his Papa's Land  

 In 1979 in Stockholm , Wole Soyinka declared year  of  theatre war against  the obscenity.

And  in that regard we cannot  underestimate Athol Fugard, one of the greatest dramatists alive..

The week that I arrived in Rivers State Nigeria for the first time  -  and it may sound incredible – but that week  there was a debate  - broadcast  live on radio – between  those opposed  to Apartheid and those who argued against it. After the debate  there was a vote and  the con side won the debate, but only  narrowly.  Such a debate – could never have  taken place in Sweden  - Swedes are far too educated (informed) and therefore far  too conscious and took  up a moral stand against the such evil long before 1981…

 About two months ago Alice Bah Kuhnke  our Minister of Culture and Democracy  started a new cultural centre in South Africa ( there's also one in  Senegal and  between me and you , I think that it's high time we had a few in Nigeria)  

Very  IMPORTANT:

Pär Wästberg  ( Swede) the Chairman of the Pen Club was at the forefront of the literary struggle against the barbarism called Apartheid . It was a crucial, powerful , endless moral crusade.

 We ( Sweden) hope  that Sweden's role  in various liberation struggles  and  the Olof Plame legacy and his spirit that lives on  will help  secure  for us a seat in the Security Council after the voting in June this year

Sorry, but I haven't read this over.
Cornelius

We Sweden   



On Monday, 29 February 2016 20:19:55 UTC+1, John Mbaku wrote:
Unfortunately, a lot of people have forgotten, and many Africans do not know, the role that Palme and his country played in the struggle against the insidious system called apartheid. One member of this forum, however, did not forget. Consider the following:

Abdul Karim Bangura, Sweden vs Apartheid: Putting Morality Ahead of Profit (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004). It is worth reading. It is a study that can help the reader recognize the "power of one" when it comes to making a difference in this world. Whether it is "one person" or "one country", even an individual acting alone or a country acting alone, against all odds, can indeed change the world. That is the legacy of Palme and that is the legacy of Sweden.

On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 11:17 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
Olof Palme was very popular in Africa and the rest of the third world. To what extent our world could or would have been different if he had not been brutally assassinated some thirty years ago is for a competent political scientsist to assess or speculate
This is something else: 

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
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Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics &  John S. Hinckley Fellow
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