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Polity
Published: 27 Aug 2010
The glorification of violence
Raymond Suttner considers the "glorification of violence" under the current African National Congress leadership, as well as the party's decision to take up armed struggle in the 1960s.


Witherden: With the launch of the ANC military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 it was said that the nation had to choose whether to submit or fight. How do you interpret the ANC's decision to take up arms struggle in the early 1960s?


Suttner: It had been a long time coming in the sense that people had been talking about fighting back in the early 1950s, but it was not an organisational position and very many of the ANC leaders and their allies, especially in the Indian Congresses felt very strongly about non-violence.


It was really over time that the ANC came to believe that the government's intransigence had made it impossible to pursue the struggle against apartheid purely by legal non-violent means, exemplified particularly by the Sharpville massacre, but there had been many many other massacres before that.


In fact, Luthuli in 1952 had indicated the possible reasons even long before he agreed to it, when he said ‘I have spent 30-years of my life knocking against a door and what have been the results, more and more repression.'


I came in after that decision, but I didn't really consider that arms and military activities were never seen as a virtue, as heroic for all time. There was a time which made it a necessity, and even people like Luthuli came to see this and in fact, his Nobel Peace Price money was used primarily to buy farms in Swaziland that were used by MK.


Witherden: From 1990 to 1994 there was much debate over the continuation of armed struggle during the negotiations. How did you feel about this at the time?


Suttner: At the time of negotiations, many of us were involved in insurrectionary activities: make apartheid unworkable, make South Africa ungovernable, build people's power, and overthrow the State.


We were not aware of the talks that were impending. Consequently, when talks started very soon afterwards, there was a decision made by the negotiators to cease all armed action.


Now, a lot of us where taken by surprise by this and very many MK people, very many people on the ground mistakenly believed that they could overthrow the regime.


But, in fact, negotiations were not being undertaken against an enemy that was on its knees. So it was necessary to realise that it was better to spare bloodshed and find a peaceful way of achieving democracy.


Witherden: What is the role of the current ANC leadership in glorifying violence?


Suttner: Ever since Zuma's rape trial, you have had glorification of the gun. As in his coming out of the rape trial every day and singing what he called his favorite song, which he hadn't sung in public until then - "Bring me my machine gun".


Now, apart from the phallic imagery of the gun and bullets equating with ejaculation, this was a romanticisation of militarism and it has been taken up in songs like ‘Kill the Boer!'


The carelessness with which this is referred to as liberation heritage is problematic, because it is heritage, but heritage must be evaluated and is applicable in time and place. This is not the time, nor the place to preach violence. This is the time and place to build a society, which is at peace with itself.


One of the things about the Zuma project is that it is a very patriarchal project and there is violence against women, but it is committed primarily by men.


There is violence against political opponents, there is war talk and there is, I believe I may not have the statistics wrong, but I think the main victims of violence are actually other men.


So, it is a very gendered project. What we need to do is to explain to young boys that there are alternative models of manhood.


We must realise that violence is not just an act of hitting, there is also structural violence, whereby you are compelled to do some things because of unequal power positions.


It may be that you will be physically hit, but the coercion is similar.


Witherden: Next time, we will discuss the question of race on Reflections with Raymond Suttner.

 

 

 

Click here to watch Part 1: Raymond Suttner speaks on the evolution of the African National Congress, covering the party's formative years, its resistance to apartheid, mass participation and its rise to government.

 

Click here to watch Part 2: Raymond Suttner discusses models of African National Congress leadership with regards to outstanding individual leaders and the notion of collective leadership.

 

Click here to watch Part 4: Raymond Suttner speaks on race, non-racialism, and the relevance of affirmative action and black economic-empowerment today.

 

Click here to watch Part 5: Raymond Suttner discusses the state of the nation going forward with reference to the Freedom Charter, the performance of the current African National Congress leadership and what needs to be done to make South Africa better.