Writting the struggle – Many
voices, one struggle
The actual war is fought out in the mountains and forests – the battlefields – but the
real effects of every war stay in the mind where those gifted with the talent of telling
stories tap and package them for consumption.
This was the case with Africa’s liberation struggles just about every other war
throughout the centuries.
Last year, in this column “Writing the Struggle”, we revisited such wars as put
down on paper by writers from Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe
and Namibia.
From Angola came Pepetela in his masterpiece “Mayombe,” a novel which deals
with tribal relationships within the context of the liberation struggle as waged by the eventually victorious MPLA in that country.
It captures a typical African problem during most struggles where small tribal
differences threaten to derail the bigger plans for the future.
Poetry by the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto, speaks volumes of the
desire haboured in every oppressed African’s heart to one day walk as a free person.
While in “Mayombe” Pepetela writes about the war front, Neto and
Antonio Jacinto – who was the first Minister of Education and Culture – write
about the wishes, desires and determination to fight.
Both Neto’s anthology “We Shall Return” and Jacinto’s “Letter from a
Contractor Worker” capture what it was like, not only in Angola, but the
whole of Africa.
From Mozambique come Bernardo Honwana (“We Killed Mangy Dog and
Other Mozambican Stories), Jose Rodrigues (“The White Angel”) and Mia Couto (“Sleepwalking Land”).
Dos Santos captures a moment during in the FRELIMO-led war while Couto
dwells on the ensuing civil war, with Honwana depicting the effects of war
on children.
Unlike other wars in the region, the Mozambique struggle was under-reported
by the mainstream media.
Thus Couto’s “Sleep Walking Land” comes in with a boy and a man fleeing
the war meet and see the struggle through the diary of a dead man.
There were poets too.
The liberation hero Eduardo Mondlane in his book “The Struggle for Mozambique”
says poets led the struggle through an inspirational cultural movement.
In particular he mentions José Craveirinha, Carolina Noémia Abranches de Sousa
Soares and Marcelino dos Santos, calling them “pioneer poets of rage”.
“They began a purely cultural movement by means of paintings and writings.
“They inspired a younger generation of intellectuals to join the armed struggle
when it began in 1964,” Mondlane wrote.
He added that “small, educated and therefore politically aware minority of
urbanites had to perform the difficult task of organising resistance among
the mass of illiterate African country people, with whom they had little contact”.
Zimbabwe’s war narratives – like those of South Africa – are from two
perspectives: blacks and whites.
Alexander Kanengoni, an ex-combatant, wrote so beautifully about the
pain of war; while John Gordon Davis spoke from the Rhodesian angle.
Kanengoni’s “Echoing Silences” explores war’s post-trauma and Davis’
“Hold My Hand I’m Dying” sweeps through the early days of township politics;
Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence and Independence in 1979.
Namibia’s war narratives are three-fold: those by ex-combatants during the
struggle but in exile; those after the war; and those by South African Defence Forces personnel.
One of those who wrote in exile is Mvula ya Nangolo (“From Exile” in 1976),
as well two others after independence (“Thoughts from Exile in 1991 and “Watering the Beloved Desert in 2008”).
Antony Feinstein, an apartheid defence forces wrote “Battle Scarred: The Hidden
Costs of the Border War” where he deals with the Namibian war.
Not to be outdone were a group of Namibian women who tell their stories in a
collection titled “Tears of Courage”, compiled by librarian Ellen Ndesheetelwa Namhila.
The women are the late Meme Priskila Tuhadeleni, Drothea Nikodemus, Justina
Amwaalwa, Lahja Iyambo and Aili Iyambo.
This year, the column “Writing the Struggle” will trace war narratives in Botswana,
This year, the column “Writing the Struggle” will trace war narratives in Botswana,
Zambia, Mauritius, Lesotho, Tanzania and Uganda.
These countries have one common thing – they never went through bloody
struggles to attain their independence but they experienced war in their own ways.
Be that as it may be, Africa’s struggle is one: attaining true independence.
