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MOHANDAS KARAMANCHAND GANDHI |
It may be asked whether there are legitimate historical
reasons for considering Mahatma Gandhi as a New African. The twenty years
he spent in South Africa from 1893-1913 fighting for the liberation of
Indians from white oppression is more than sufficient reason. His having
launched the Indian Opinion newspaper in 1903 with V. Madanjith, and his
founding the South African Indian Congress, more than entitles him as one
of the exponents of New Africanism. In this, the historical situation of
Mohandas Gandhi is similar to that of the Ghanian F. Z. S. Peregrino and
the African American Max Yergan, both of whom became participants in the
making of the New African Movement. This is how Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo,
arguably the greatest Indian political leader and intellectual in the twentieth-century
in South Africa, viewed Gandhi as corroborated by a correspondence between
them beginning on March 15, 1939 to October 10, 1946. Gandhi's autobiography,
Satyagraha in South Africa (1928) clearly delineates his South Africanness.
Although Gandhi left South Africa in 1913, approximately a year before
his assassination in 1948, he was still very much concerned with the country
in which he had spent two decades of his life, as this "Message to South
Africa" indicates: "Field Marshal Smuts is a trustee for Western civilization.
I still cling to the hope that he will not sustain it on the suppression
of Asiatics and Africans. South Africa should present a blend of the three.
To the people of South Africa, to whom I am no stranger, I would say that
they should no make the position of their representatives impossible by
their unwarranted prejudice against colour. The future is surely not with
the so-called white races if they keep themselves in purdah. . . To the
Satyagrahis I would advise strict adherence to the fundamentals of satyagraha
which literally means force of truth and this is for ever invincible. It
is a good sign that they have a progressive European group solidly behind
them. The Satyagrahis of South Africa should know that they have India
at their back in their struggle for preserving the self-respect of the
Indians in South Africa" (May 18, 1947; reprinted in Dr Yusuf Mohamed
Dadoo: His Speeches, Articles And Correspondences With Mahatma Gandhi [1939-1983]).
Given Mahatma Gandhi's life-long preoccupation with South African matters,
the tribute by Dr Dadoo on the occasion of his death was very much representative
of what practically all South Africans felt: " We in South Africa remember
with pride that it was here that the struggles which were later to become
his whole life were commenced. It was here in South Africa that his epic
struggles for the emancipation of his people were begun. It was here in
South Africathat the first inklings of democratic rights were won; and
it was to South Africa that he felt his great weapon of Passive Resistance
to vindicate our honour and lead us to freedom. Even absorbed as he was
in the greater struggle in India, his interest and support for our cause
remained unabated. The plight of the Indian people in South Africa was
a matter of grave concern to him and he was at all times willing to guide
and assist us. . . The greatest homage that we in South Africa can pay
to his memory is to further the great Passive Resistance struggle which
we have undertaken against injustice and racial discrimination and for
the vidication of our self-respect and honour as citizens of South Africa"
("'His Spirit Lives On': Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, January 1948", Passive
Resister, February 6, 1948; reprinted in Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo).
There can be no question that Mohandas Karamanchand Gandhi was one of the
extraordinary New African intellectuals.
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