Oliver Tambo: Mobilise Our Black Power

Oliver Tambo: Mobilise Our Black Power

(Extracts from a Statement by Oliver Tambo, Acting President of the African National Congress, to the People of South Africa on the Tenth Anniversary of Umkhonto We Sizwe, 16 December 1971)

“Now let us talk of Freedom. Everywhere in the world today, the oppressed and exploited masses of people are up in arms. They are fighting against the forces of colonialism and imperialism. They are making great sacrifices to redeem their human dignity and fundamental liberties from the shackles of bondage. They are revolting against oppression, against foreign aggression, against the usurpation of their land; against human degradation. They stand for peace and justice: they clamour for an end to imperialist wars; they yearn for the birth of a new order. And to uphold their convictions they are prepared to pay with their own lives.”

“We call upon all the oppressed and exploited black masses of the people of South Africa to unite and close ranks against the apartheid monster.”

“In 1967 we made our voice quite clear in the battlefields of Zimbabwe. There the white oppressor learnt the lesson which we must teach him again and again – that a bullet kills a white man too. And out of the barrels of guns and homemade bombs let us go on showing Vorster and his Gestapo that we are determined to smash apartheid; to end racism: and to liberate the oppressed black people of our country. We are many and the white oppressors are few; our cause is just and white domination is condemned everywhere.”

“The hour to talk Freedom, has come. And Freedom, means struggle against every form of injustice, against every instrument of oppression. … Refuse to be hoodwinked by empty promises. Fight for Freedom, throughout our country; smash apartheid and the vile system of racist oppression of the blacks. … Let us now mobilise our black power to liberate ourselves from alien bondage. It is our power that sustains the life in South Africa. Let us fight for Freedom.”

“Let us arm ourselves with the willpower and fearlessness of Shaka: the endurance and vision of Moshoeshoe: the courage and resourcefulness of Sekhukhuni; the tenacity and valour of Hintsa; the military initiative and guerrilla tactics of Maqoma, the farsightedness and dedication of … all founding-fathers of the African National Congress. Let the dream of Moshoeshoe who cherished a great alliance of African people to resist their separate conquest come true in our lifetime. Let us fight for Freedom. The white enemy in South Africa can and must be defeated.”

“Our bedrock is the support of our own black masses; it is the support of all national liberation movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America; it is the support of democratic forces in Europe, Scandinavia, North America; it is the stirring conscience of humanity that is at last echoing from worldwide religious organisations; it is the consistent anti-imperialist support that the entire socialist camp renders to our liberation struggle. Our bedrock is unshakeable; it is international solidarity that so firmly rejects apartheid and race oppression.”

“This is the day when we pause and reexamine ourselves and our organisation. Are we living up to what is expected of members of a revolutionary and fighting organisation? Is the OATH we took of any meaning and substance to those who swore to fight until freedom is won? We must unite and follow in the footsteps of our martyrs – in the footsteps of the men who fell in the frontline in South Africa and Zimbabwe and in other countries … And many more have been killed and continue to die in jail. They go unheralded but confident that we will avenge their death.”

“Let us rededicate ourselves to the struggle to liberate South Africa and smash the apartheid monster. Let our courage and inspiration spring from those fallen heroes who have already set us a good example on the battlefield.”

Eternal glory to the martyrs of freedom!
To battle, Comrades, to battle!
Mayibuye! Mayibuye! Afrika!
Tokoloho ka nako ya rona!
Freedom Now!

– Oliver Tambo (16 December 1971)

Source:
Oliver Tambo, “Mobilise Our Black Power”, Sechaba, Vol. 6, No. 2, February 1972, pp. 4 – 5.

Castro Khwela
Good morning fellow Compatriots!🙏🏾✊🏾👊🏾