Barring Winnie Mandela from Canada

The triumph of ending political apartheid in South Africa is at the doorstep of the Rt. Honourable Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. When the racist and murderous apartheid regimes in South Africa and Namibia forced many freedom fighters into exile, and/or otherwise silenced them, they could not succeed in getting Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to compromise her principles, even in the face of death threats, bullying and coercion.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s record as a freedom fighter is impeccable and she stood her ground under siege, harassment, wiretaps and all the apartheid dirty tricks in the world to degrade, humiliate, disrupt and create chaos in the African National Congress (ANC) when she was the voice and face of the ANC.

She is feared by the white world- inside and outside of South Africa- because economic, social and cultural apartheid in South Africa is alive and yet to be dismantled. She carries this message every where she goes and to whomever she speaks. White control of the commanding heights of the South African economy and social institutions is the reason why Winnie Madikizala-Mandela is demonized and vilified inside and outside of South Africa by powerful corporate media conglomerates. Quite the opposite view of her is held by the downtrodden masses of African people.

The recent spate of barring of African justice campaigners from entry into Canada by the Canadian government, has everything to do with the growing consciousness of African Canadians with respect to their daily experience of racial discrimination, negative profiling, denial of access and opportunities and deprivation of rights and entitlements under the law.

African Canadians are organizing to fight the injustice they have faced from the period of European enslavement of Africans inside of Canada and its current day legacy that continues to blight the lives of Blacks, especially our youth. This sacred duty is embedded in the struggle for reparations and restitution within a framework of law and justice.

The barring of Bobby Seale, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is a straightforward case of anti-Black racism long advocated and articulated by members of the “New Conservative Party of Canada”, the former “Reform Party of Canada”, that forms the present government of Canada. Many in the present governing political party have disdain for Black people and have said so openly. They are now implementing such a policy in various ways.

One of these ways is under the guise of Law and Order, to build bigger top- security prisons as opposed to joining Black community leaders in the crusade against poverty.

Responsible and progressive leaders in the African Canadian community are cognizant of the interrelatedness between poverty and the increasing violent behaviour in our community and told this to all three levels of governments in Canada. To date, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to meet with members of the Coalition of African Canadian Community Organizations to discuss this problem and search for practical, workable, solutions in the crusade against poverty.

A senior Cabinet minister in the present government did not have any problem giving his personal telephone number and returning telephone calls to a few leaders in the African Canadian community while in opposition. He is nowhere to be found today. Telephone calls placed to him are not answered either personally, or by ministry staff. Why is this Cabinet minister no longer available to work with the African Canadian community to address the removal of structural racism embedded in the Canadian society? Why is Prime Minister Stephen Harper fighting for Human Rights in Russia and China and not ensuring such rights for African Canadians at home?

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects the African Canadian community directly, affects all communities indirectly. The narrow provincial view of the “outside agitator” educating young people to understand their plight and inciting them to rebellion is a superficial social analysis that is avoiding the underlying causes of social alienation of African Canadians.

Freedom of speech is a right enjoyed by most white Canadians. Why should the African Canadian community have their rights guaranteed under the constitution taken away? Why do white societies think they can determine what information Black people should have and not have? Why do white societies think Blacks are incapable of deciding what to accept and what to reject?

Barring Bobby Seale, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and Winnie Madikzela-Mandela from coming to Canada is anti-democratic, racist and an affront to the sensibilities of African people. As Gandhi has said, “Freedom does not drop from the sky. One has to struggle and be willing to die for it.” This is something Black people understand and do not need any of the banned persons to tell them.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is one of our heroines, belonging to the pantheon of African heroes and heroines such as Harriet Tubman, Nanny (Maroon resistance leader against British slavery in Jamaica 1680-1750), Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, C.L.R James, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint L’Overture, Antonio Maceo, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Ture, Alfie Roberts, Walter Rodney -.the long list of Africans who fought against the turbulent history of slavery, and freedom from political and economic oppression.

How ironic that Nelson Mandela is revered all over the world because he was able to overcome his anger and bitterness at the apartheid regime’s crimes of murdering thousands of women, children, and men; Bantustan Laws (learned from Canada) and numerous crimes against humanity, including his imprisonment for 27 years? What lesson has the Stephen Harper government learned from Nelson Mandela’s political and life experiences?

Throughout the history of war there have always been casualties of war, and the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela-led ANC war against the criminal apartheid regimes in South Africa had its casualties.

The 2003 fraud conviction was related to bank loans while she was president of the ANC women’s league to assist women and children excluded from access to bank loans because of the criminal policy of the apartheid structure still waiting to be eradicated. The fraud was not for personal gain and benefit, unlike the British Royal family’s participation in the trade of Africans as slaves and slavery. The same can be said for the many Canadian government financial scandals where government officials’ participation was for personal gains.

African Canadians must lament and take action in relation to what is happening to their communities inside of Canada. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who reminded us that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressors; it must be demanded by the oppressed. The Global Afrikan Congress is not afraid to speak truth to power and we will. We encourage other African Canadian organizations to do the same.

The Stephen Harper government is ideologically committed to further marginalizing and excluding African Canadians from the mainstream of Canadian society. In November of 2006, at the United Nations debate on the bicentenary of the so-called abolition of the trade in Africans as slaves, this government said slavery was legal, in defiance of the United Nations World Conference against racism that declared the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. The Canadian government is leading the white world against paying reparations and repairing the damage of slavery.

The government’s intensification of oppression and the abuse of human rights of African Canadians must be exposed and resisted. The Global Afrikan Congress submitted a report to the United Nations Convention on the Eradication of all Forms of Racial Discrimination in January 2007 and will seek out organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the British Commonwealth of Nations to do the same. It is our blood responsibility and principles to defend the rights of African people, and we are proud to do so. We are not for sale and we will continue to inform and educate, speaking truth to power always with malice towards none.

Cikiah Thomas
Co-Chair
Global Afrikan Congress

Toronto, Canada
June 12, 2007