Education in Exile SOMAFCO, the African National Congress school in Tanzania, 1978 to 1992 Seán Morrow, Brown Maaba & Loyiso Pulumani Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za Published by HSRC Press Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa www.hsrcpublishers.ac.za First published 2004 © 2004 Human Sciences Research Council All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0 7969 2051 6 Cover photographs and artefacts from ANC Archives, University of Fort Hare Cover artwork by Ros Stockhall Cover and text design by Christabel Hardacre Production by comPress Distributed in Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution, PO Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, 7966, South Africa Tel: +27 +21-701-4477 Fax: +27 +21-701-7302 email: booksales@hsrc.ac.za Distributed worldwide, except Africa, by Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610, USA www.ipgbook.com To order, call toll-free: 1-800-888-4741 All other inquiries, Tel: +1 +312-337-0747 Fax: +1 +312-337-5985 email: Frontdesk@ipgbook.com Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za Contents List of figures and photographs iv Foreword v Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1. Education and the struggle for freedom 5 2. Origins and early years of SOMAFCO 13 3. Teachers, administrators and students 29 4. The Charlotte Maxeke Children’s Centre 41 5. The primary school 51 6. The secondary school 63 7. Curriculum and pedagogy at SOMAFCO 79 8. The social life of students 101 9. South Africans and Tanzanians 113 10. Women at SOMAFCO 133 11. Dakawa Development Centre 143 12. Funding SOMAFCO 157 13. The end of SOMAFCO 173 14. SOMAFCO in retrospect 181 Notes 187 References and sources 203 Index 213 Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za iv List of figures and photographs Figures Figure 1 The regional context: map of Tanzania showing ANC centres in the country xiii Figure 2 The SOMAFCO campus at Mazimbu in 1992 xiv Photographs 1. Entrance to Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, now the Mazimbu campus of Sokoine University 2 2. Buildings under construction in Phase 2 of the school’s development 20 3. The ANC-Holland Solidarity Hospital under construction 27 4. Entrance to the Charlotte Maxeke Children’s Centre 44 5. In the playground of the Children’s Centre 49 6. Primary school children on an outing 55 7. A class in progress at the secondary school 72 8. Inside the library at SOMAFCO 75 9. Working in the vegetable gardens 91 10. Education with production – a group of students 92 11. Seminar on the Freedom Charter in the Hector Petersen Hall 96 12. Students playing scrabble outside their dormitories 105 13. Building SOMAFCO: Tanzanian workers such as these were essential to the school 122 14. Female students participating in construction at SOMAFCO 139 15. The first residents of Dakawa lived in tents 148 16. At the textile-printing workshop in Dakawa 155 17. Donor funding enabled SOMAFCO to build on a generous scale: erecting the roof over the main square 161 18. From left, Spencer Hodgson, architect, and Danish volunteers, Ingeborg Flensted-Nielsen, architectural technician, and Lisa Hansen, architect. The other person has not been identified 162 19. Primary school children on donated bicycles 167 20. Part of the graveyard at SOMAFCO with the memorial in the background on the left 178 Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za v Foreword I spent more than 30 years in Ireland, a country where for centuries the idea of exile has echoed through its historical, political and imaginative literature. As a political exile myself, that may be a reason, paradoxically, why I felt so at home there. In some ways, South Africans did not have the same cultural props as the Irish when many found themselves, in the second half of the last century, having to flee their country in the face of oppression and injustice. Each had to come to terms with his or her own displacement, their inner eye fixed on a receding South Africa while engaging with new people and cultures. Because they are resilient and often assertive, South Africans responded cre- atively to this challenge. One of the most remarkable instances of this is the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, the subject of this book. At SOMAFCO were gathered young people and their teachers, who had been obliged to flee a country whose regime had attempted to miseducate its youth and then turned viciously on them when they resisted. By contrast, in the difficult con- ditions of exile this remarkable school sustained and developed an education based on principles of equal opportunity, non-discrimination and the digni- ty and unity of mental and manual labour. SOMAFCO was a beacon of hope. South Africans from all backgrounds, and solidarity workers from many parts of the world, showed at Mazimbu and Dakawa what a new educational system might be and what new ways of thinking about teaching and learning could achieve. With others I was involved in the ANC’s international network of reflection and support that went to make SOMAFCO what it was. My wife, Louise, who visited the school, gave me vivid first-hand accounts of the institution. Though the scale and context are different, we need to think carefully about how the lessons of this brave and exciting experiment could be utilised in the context of educational planning and change in contemporary South Africa. A book like this enables us to draw the results of this reflection into the debates that are determining our educational future. I am delighted therefore to welcome this book on SOMAFCO. It describes the school clearly and readably, outlining its many achievements without ignor- ing the numerous difficulties and challenges of education in exile. I hope it Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za vi will be widely read by students, teachers, and all those concerned with the future, as well as the past, of South African education. We showed the world how a liberation movement could reflect in its practices the values that had bound us together. Professor Kader Asmal, MP Minister of Education Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za Preface This book, commissioned by the Batlagae Trust, re-lives the exile experience of many South Africans from 1978 to 1992 at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College. Much is known about the youth who fled South Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe. Less is known about the many who left the country to receive educa- tion and vocational training and to be part of a unique, self-reliant commu- nity at the ANC (African National Congress) settlements of Mazimbu and Dakawa, near Morogoro in Tanzania. This latter group of mainly young peo- ple were equally freedom fighters, dedicated to preparing themselves for serv- ice to the struggle and for reconstruction and development in a free nation. Indeed, many are now highly skilled professionals, contributing significantly to the growth and well-being of the new South Africa. The Batlagae Trust was set up by the National Co-ordinating Committee for the Return of Exiles and the liberation movements in 1991. Its purpose was, through a bursary programme, to integrate repatriated learners from nursery to tertiary levels, many from SOMAFCO, into the education system in South Africa. As part of the integration process, the Batlagae Trust established the Yeoville Community School in Johannesburg for returnee primary pupils and deprived inner-city children, and the Yeoville Educational Polyclinic to pro- vide them with remedial and psychological support. The Yeoville Community School was integrated into the Gauteng Department of Education in 1995, and the Yeoville Educational Polyclinic closed in 2000. Early in 1992, the Batlagae Trust facilitated the return of SOMAFCO documen- tation and artefacts to the University of Fort Hare, where the ANC’s archives are lodged. This book is part of the rich harvest of articles and papers ema- nating from research conducted by scholars and others wishing to gain a bet- ter understanding of SOMAFCO. It is a critical study of SOMAFCO that will hopefully fill a gap in the history of the struggle against apartheid. This book is dedicated to former SOMAFCO students, teachers and other work- ers. Most were aligned to the ANC, but others were politically non-aligned, in accordance with ANC policy to set up an institution for all South Africans, regardless of political affiliation. It is also dedicated to the Tanzanian workers who helped build SOMAFCO; to the Tanzanian people for their solidarity and hospitality; to the international workers who helped develop SOMAFCO, and to vii Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za the fraternal countries, non-governmental organisations and individuals all over the world without whose support SOMAFCO would not have flourished as it did. Finally, and above all, it is dedicated to the memory of Oliver Reginald Tambo, the former President of the ANC, whose vision and love for the young sustained SOMAFCO. Special thanks go to the Swedish International Development Agency, the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation, the Danish International Development Agency and the Finnish International Development Agency for the joint grant for this book. Barbara Watson Chairperson of the Batlagae Trust Mohammed Tikly Former Executive-Director, Batlagae Trust Former Director of SOMAFCO viii Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Batlagae Trust, which funded the research for this book, and especially its former Executive Director, Mohammed Tikly. The Trust was supported by the Swedish International Development Agency. The Advisory Committee, comprising John Carneson, Thembi Cele, Mzwandile Kibi, Thami Mali, Alpheus Mangezi, John Pampallis and Mohammed Tikly, provided essential information and courteous critique while at all times respecting our academic independence: we appreciate this greatly. The research was commenced while Seán Morrow was Director of the Govan Mbeki Research Resource Centre at the University of Fort Hare, and Brown Maaba and Loyiso Pulumani were postgraduate students of history and junior fellows of the Govan Mbeki Research Resource Centre: we would like to thank the University for its support, and especially the then Vice- Chancellor, Professor Mbulelo Mzamane, and the subsequent and current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Derrick Swartz, and the then and subsequent Registrars, Dr Isaac Mabindisa and Mr Alan Shaw. Professor Tim Stapleton, now of Trent University, Canada, and Professor John Hendricks, now Dean of African and Democracy Studies at Fort Hare, supported the research in its early stages. In particular, we would like to thank Yolisa Kambule-Soul, the Fort Hare Librarian, Mosoabuli Maamoe, Archivist at the African National Congress (ANC) Archives at Fort Hare, and Sadie Forman and Mark Snyders, also of the Fort Hare Library, for their invaluable guidance in the use of the SOMAFCO and Dakawa documents. All three authors are now working else- where, and we would like, respectively, to thank the Democracy and Governance Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council, the Steve Biko Foundation and the ANC Archives Unit for providing us with the intel- lectual and physical space to complete this book. Seán Morrow benefited from a research fellowship for some months at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town, during which he worked on this book. Aspects of our work have been usefully discussed at various academic fora: Professor Peter Kallaway has been a presence throughout, and we appreciate his critical and constructive comments. We would particularly like to thank the numerous interviewees, South Africans and Tanzanians, mentioned in the sources. We did not expect, when we began our work, that they would play quite such a crucial role: it will be clear from the text, however, that their testimonies have powerfully influenced this book. The archives of the Robben Island Mayibuye Centre were impor- ix Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za x tant to this research, and we thank the Centre for its assistance, as we do the Daily News in Dar es Salaam. We are grateful for access to papers kept by Terry and Barbara Bell. We have changed or omitted names in a few passages where we have touched on matters that could be considered personal. Some material in Chapter 11 has appeared previously in Seán Morrow, ‘Dakawa Development Centre: An African National Congress settlement in Tanzania, 1982–1992’, African Affairs, 97 (1998): 497–521. We are grateful to Oxford University Press and the Royal African Society for permission to use this material. We also gratefully acknowledge the ANC Archives Committee for permission to use photographs 2, 3, 7 and 9 to 18, the Centre for Democratic Communication for photographs 4 to 6 and 19, and Marjatta Lahti for photograph 8. In our travels, many people assisted us. We would in particular like to thank the then South African High Commissioner in Dar es Salaam, Thandi Lujabe- Rankoe, and her staff, who smoothed our way in Tanzania. The authorities at Sokoine Agricultural University allowed us to use their excellent guesthouse in Morogoro. In Johannesburg, we were fortunate to be given access to the ANC guesthouse in Yeoville. More recently, we have benefited from the assis- tance of Wandile Zulu. Lastly, we would like to thank our respective families for their support, and in particular our partners, Barbara, Bulelwa and Vuyelwa. Seán Morrow has worked in History and Education departments in universities in several African countries and is now a Chief Research Specialist in the Human Sciences Research Council’s Democracy and Governance Programme. Brown Maaba is Research Manager at the Steve Biko Foundation and a Research Associate of the University of Fort Hare. Loyiso Pulumani is Oral History Co-ordinator at the ANC Archives Unit. Free download from www.hsrc p ress.ac.za [...]... possible, independent of the uncertainties of supply in an impoverished country where growing economic problems in the 1980s encouraged the spread of corruption, theft and bureaucratic inefficiency Supporting the school: building, farming, health, manufacturing During SOMAFCO’s early phase, design and construction capacity was installed, including departments devoted to planning, programming, purchasing,... previously existing Department of Professional Bodies Explaining the reasoning behind the fully-fledged department, which came into existence in 1978, in August 1979 Sechaba said: Reacting to the crisis that is taking place within the country, the ANC has decided to streamline its machinery, departments and sub-departments dealing with various aspects of our work The creation of the Department of Education. .. on which education entered the political debate in South Africa altered over time For many years, the state took very little overt interest in African education However, the level of state involvement increased in the course of the twentieth century, culminating in the actions of the NP government, representing the most conservative elements in the white population After it came to power in 1948, this... drawing attention to the inconveniences caused by their delays Dennis also had to consult widely with ANC structures on progress at the school and on his requirements for skilled workers In a typical letter to Rusty Bernstein in London in 1981, he reported on the magnitude of the work at Mazimbu, saying he ‘estimate[s] the finished complex including vocational training, workshops, etc will be in the... were relatively informal and usually consisted of individuals who were willing to volunteer their time aside from their regular jobs It should be remembered that the ANC only began to develop a functioning, record-keeping bureaucracy in the late 1970s For a time, unstructured methods of operation existed parallel with the beginnings of something like a government -in- exile, mirroring the ministries and... later built One of the aims of Bantu Education, in line with apartheid ideology, was to concentrate black education as far as possible in the African reserves, renamed ‘homelands’, though no longer in mission schools This involved stifling educational expansion in the working-class black townships, especially at secondary level However, there was a conflict within the NP between the ideologues of racial... to sustain everybody’s interest The more they contained and the more constituencies to which they appealed, the better the chances of convincing donor agencies of the need for help The first students arrived in SOMAFCO in 1977, at the inception of the project They were also instrumental in clearing the land upon which SOMAFCO was to be built Amongst them was a student named Titus, who arrived in East... for the indefinite future, but matters requiring immediate and urgent attention The school was not just for those young people who happened to be at Mazimbu in the wake of the events of 1976 Clearly, whatever the ANC might do had to be in line with the movement’s policies towards education in a future liberated South Africa Developing the facility for exiles needed to go hand -in- hand with developing a... complex The underlying vision was that of providing an opportunity for South Africans to control their environment in a way that was impossible at home, in a non-discriminatory, communal way It was also intended to provide experience in organising and managing a large community and its social services All this required the training of masons, carpenters, electricians, sanitation engineers and community... Western influence than to the Islamic trading culture that the town so visibly reflects The largest of the educational institutions is the Sokoine University of Agriculture, standing slightly apart from the town at the base of the spectacular mountain that dominates the whole area Across town, in an area called Mazimbu, Sokoine Agricultural University has a second campus, where many students live in residence . of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval. Mazimbu and Dakawa what a new educational system might be and what new ways of thinking about teaching and learning could achieve. With others I was involved in the ANC’s international network of. The Yeoville Community School was integrated into the Gauteng Department of Education in 1995, and the Yeoville Educational Polyclinic closed in 2000. Early in 1992, the Batlagae Trust facilitated