For the nation to live, her tribes must flourish.

This saying may sound somewhat strange, because this is not how it is remembered. Was this not the quote for which Mozambican liberation leader Samora Machel became known? Well, not exactly.

But I did - to a certain degree - get it from him. Obviously with a slightly different phrasing.  Samora Machel is well known for the quote: “For the nation to live, the tribe must die”. And although Samora Machel coined the quote, many leaders before him, and just as many after him lived and governed according to their own interpretation of these words.

Let’s look at a few historical examples of leaders who tried to build a nation by killing certain tribes.

Uganda and the Indians

On 25 January 1971, while Ugandan president Milton Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit Singapore, troops loyal to a military general Idi Amin sealed off the Entebbe International Airport and took the capital Kampala.

Soldiers surrounded Obote's residence and blocked major roads. A broadcast on Radio Uganda accused Obote's government of corruption and preferential treatment of the Lango region. Cheering crowds were reported in the streets of Kampala after the radio broadcast.

Amin announced that he was a soldier, not a politician, and that the military government would remain only as a caretaker regime until new elections, which would be announced when the situation was normalised.  But Amin made sure that the situation did not normalise.

On 2 February 1971, one week after the coup, Amin declared himself President of Uganda, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Army Chief of Staff, and Chief of Air Staff. He announced that he was suspending certain provisions of the Ugandan constitution, and soon instituted an Advisory Defence Council composed of military officers with himself as the chairman. In 1977 after the so-called Entebe Raid he added the title conquerer of the British empire (CBE) to his long list of titles. The Ugandan radio station announced him as his

Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE".

Amin recruited his followers from his own tribe, the Kakwas, along with South Sudanese. By 1977, these 3 groups formed 60% of the 22 top generals and 75% of the cabinet. Amin also had his own version of broad based black economic empowerment. When asked about his policies of persecution of minorities, he answered:

"We are determined to make the ordinary Ugandan master of his own destiny and, above all, to see that he enjoys the wealth of his country. Our deliberate policy is to transfer the economic control of Uganda into the hands of Ugandans, for the first time in our country's history."

In August 1972, Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans.

Many of Uganda’s 80 000 Indians owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, which formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy. On 4 August 1972, Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens. This was later amended to include all 80,000 Asians, except for professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers.

Amin expropriated businesses and properties belonging to the Asians and handed them over to his supporters. The businesses were mismanaged, and industries collapsed from lack of maintenance. This proved disastrous for the already declining economy.

After Amin was ousted from power, estimates of the number of Ugandan people killed ranged from 300 000 to 1 000 000. But it was not only Idi Amin who was concerned about the so-called Indian question.

Recently, during interviews of the Judicial Services Commission, one commissioner of the JSC, the commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, former ANC Youth league leader, corruption and hate speech accused, and member of parliament Julius Sello Malema said the following when interviewing high court Judge Shyam Gyanda, a candidate for the position as Deputy Judge President of Natal:

“in the context of KZN, where we have an ‘Indian question’ particularly, the Africans feel Indians are dominating life in every sphere, including business and the legal sector.”

He added that “blacks were oppressed [during apartheid] but Africans were more oppressed”.

In response, Justice Gyanda later said: “I am an African. I was born in Africa, my parents were born in Africa, why should I be called an Indian when I am an African? Why should I be called an Indian because I am of Asiatic descent?”

Ruanda, the Hutu and Tutsi

But let’s look further from home for more examples of rulers who chose to kill tribes for their nations to live:

In the former Belgian colony of Ruanda-Burundi tension escalated between the Tutsi, who favoured early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement, culminating in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution: Hutu activists began killing Tutsi, forcing more than 100,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. In 1961, Rwanda was separated from Burundi and gained independence in 1962. Cycles of violence followed, with exiled Tutsis attacking from neighbouring countries and the Hutu retaliating with large-scale slaughter and repression of the Tutsi.

In 1973, Juvénal Habyarimana took power in a military coup. Hutus started referring to Tutsi’s as cockroaches and systemic discrimination continued, but there was greater economic prosperity and a reduced amount of violence against Tutsi. Rwanda's population had increased from 1.6 million people in 1934 to 7.1 million in 1989, leading to competition for land.

In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda, initiating the Rwandan Civil War. Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war, but by 1992 it had weakened the president's authority; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and eventually to sign the 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF.

But the cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994 when the president's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing him.

The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide, which began within a few hours. Over the course of approximately 100 days, between 500 000 and 1 000 000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks on the orders of the interim government. 

Iraq and the Kurds

When the Ba'ath Party of Saddam Hussain took power in Iraq, the new government, in order to end the Kurdish revolt, granted the Kurds their own limited autonomy. However, for various reasons, including the pro-Iranian sympathies of some Kurds during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, the regime implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a de facto civil war broke out.

From March 29, 1987 until April 23, 1989, the infamous Al-Anfal campaign, a systematic genocide of the Kurdish people in Iraq, was launched. For this, Iraq was widely-condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures, including the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds, which resulted in thousands of deaths.

After the Persian Gulf War, the Kurds began another uprising against the Ba'athists. The revolt was violently put down. During the same year, Turkey, fighting Kurds on its own territory, bombed Kurdish areas in Northern Iraq, claiming that bases for the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party were located in the region. However, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam, brought renewed hope to the Kurds.

The newly elected Iraqi government agreed to re-establish the Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq, but tensions soon started to grow gain in this yet unresolved conflict.

Mussolini and South-Tyrol

After World War I, the Austrian province of South-Tyrol was handed to Italy as a reward for Italy’s siding with the allied forces. When the Fascists took power in Italy under Mussolini, they adopted a policy that aimed at resettling all German speakers, concentrated in South Tyrol across Italy. German schools and universities were outlawed and Italian settlers moved into the South Tyrolian capital of Bozen. Italians soon became a majority in the formerly German speaking capital.

But the German speaking minority persisted in their efforts of regaining autonomy.

After World War II South Tyrol gained limited autonomy, albeit as part of Italy, interestingly enough as a result of interventions by South African prime minister, Genl. Jan Smuts.

German schools and universities were re-introduced form the 1960’s.

Today South-Tyrol is the wealthiest province in Italy and according to their former governor, Dr Luis Durnwalder relations between German speaking Italians and the rest of Italy are at their best ever.

As he states it “We used to stand against each other, now thanks to our autonomy we stand alongside each other”.

Mugabe and the Matabeles

The Shona word: Gukurahundi means "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains".

This was the name of Robert Mugabe and his military chief (now Deputy President) Emerson Mnangagwa’s campaign to, as Mugabe stated it “educate” the Matabele minority mostly supporting Joshua Nkomo, by Zimbabwe's North Korean trained 5th Brigade during the 1980s.

The campaigned followed after a few hundred disgruntled former (ZIPRA) combatants waged armed banditry against the civilians in Matabeleland, and destroyed government installations.

In the ensuing conflict thousands were killed—estimates range as high as 30,000.

The violence ended after the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) reached a unity agreement on 22 December 1987 that merged the two parties to form one party known as ZANU PF, with Mugabe as leader of the party and Nkomo as his deputy-president since 31 December 1987. For ZANU-PF to live, ZAPU had to die.

Conclusion

“For the nation to live, the tribe must die” – said Samora Machel.

But nowhere in the world did hostility to, or the killing of minorities lead to a better dispensation. In all examples given, hostility towards minorities led to decline, bloodshed and tragedy.

So if it is so clear from history, why do we not listen to the lessons from our past. I believe that for this nation to live, her tribes must flourish.

1. In a country that nurtures the diversity of its different tribes, some are not  classified less-African and more-African, they are all African regardless of whether they are white, pink, yellow, light brown, medium, dark brown, or pitch black;

2. In a country that nurtures the diversity of its different tribes, languages are not singled out to be labelled as colonial or oppressors’ languages, but all languages become the trade-marks of the diverse linguistic wealth of a nation. That means that our Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande should stop following the policies of Mussolini by outlawing the use Afrikaans as a language of tuition in universities and acknowledge the fact that, after English, Afrikaans is the preferred language of tuition for the most South Africans from all racial backgrounds. In stead of phasing out languages, one should encourage them and develop those that still need to develop into languages of tertiary learning and research;

3. A nation that nurtures the diversity of its different tribes learns from the experiences of Uganda under Idi Amin that a country cannot declare an economic war against itself and the very people who built up small, medium and large enterprises regardless of where their ancestors originated from 100, 200, 300 or 360 years ago – that is the road to self-destruction;

4. A nation that nurtures the diversity of its different tribes learns from the hardship and experiences of the people of Matabeleland that “to educate” does not mean that leaders must persecute, torture, murder their political opponents from ethnic minorities, but that they need to engage, accommodate and address their concerns;

5. A nation that nurtures the diversity of its different tribes does not wish that it can turn the clock backwards, so that “Jan van Riebeeck never arrived”, or that “Europe never colonised us”, or wishing away certain segments of society. Mugabe showed that if one keep on wishing to turn the clock backwards you will eventually take an entire county and all its people – backwards,

6. A living nation learns from the experience of Ruanda that blaming a certain identifiable tribe for everything gone wrong, and calling them names such as cockroaches, spells tragedy and sets the scene for genocide and murder;

7. A living nation knows from what was experienced in Italy and South Tyrol (and numerous other examples not even mentioned) that thriving autonomous tribal and cultural communities are the building blocks, rather than stumbling blocks, of a strong living and prosperous nation;

8. A living nation takes history as a given, but focusses on the future. It takes the good from history and built the future thereon while it learns from the mistakes not to repeat them.

For a nation to live, her tribes must flourish.

But I conclude with probably the best contemporary context given to the quote from Samora Machal given by his widow, and the widow of the late president Nelson Mandela – Graca Machal.

At a recent seminar she reflected on the words of her former husband and said:

“If tribal norms then ‘seed’ our identities, is the argument that for a national identity to thrive, the tribal identity must die?

[…]

I would argue that this is not the case. Let’s look at the analogy of a seed. When a seed is planted, it does not die. With the right conditions, including soil, water, sun etc, the seed does not die. It is transformed into another living entity.

The seed transforms – at one point spreading its roots, and then growing out of the earth and forming a stem, eventually a trunk, branches and leaves. It all depends on he very being of the seed maintains its identity in the transformation process. There is an Akan saying – ‘a crab does not give birth to a cow’. Thus the seed from an orange will produce an orange. The seed from an avocado will produce an avocado. The innate influences the transformation, yet does not kill in the transformation. And as human beings we are able to influence the transformation; to use old seeds to breed stronger hybrids; to develop new strains, new strengths”.

The article was first presented as a contribution by Willie Spies, a civil rights lawyer, legal representative of AfriForum and managing director of a community radio station, Pretoria FM at a seminar by Dialoog during the “Real Talk” seminar in Pretoria on Saturday 17 October 2015