Transkei Looks for Recognition

...Such statements, despite their ring of old-fashioned tribalism, reflected Transkei's history...

...Led by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), whose offensive began well over a year ago, a spate of international organizations have echoed a UN General Assembly resolution last October 26 opposing "any dealings with the so-called independent Transkei or other bantustans...

...But beyond these aims that pretty much resemble those of almost every other newly-independent state, Transkei has taken on a special mission: leading the drive for the liberation of blacks still under South African control...

...and has a literacy rate of 22 per cent, above that of 19 African countries...

...It commands me in the name of nationhood to sacrifice the best of my abilities to the advancement of my own nation in its own country according to the terms of its own culture...

...I was swaddled in it since the day of my birth...

...And you say you are against racism...

...There is no gainsaying the fundamental objection to Transkei: Its leaders did achieve independence by working under the separate development policy, and Pretoria does believe the policy will be legitimized if other nations recognize Transkei...

...Matanzima insists that they are as much South Africa's responsibility as black children born within Britain are Britain's...

...Some Africans from countries that ostracize Transkei will admit in private to feeling that the Transkeians are on the right track...

...In October 1975, just before announcing Transkei's decision to become independent (he "consulted" about this with his people but did not hold a referendum), Matanzima declared: "The black people of Africa can never be entirely free until the blacks of South Africa are free...

...He rules with the help of emergency regulations that have permitted him to control the opposition, win elections and prevent the formation of trade unions...

...that Transkeians are far better off and live in a far more dignified fashion than they did prior to independence...

...What is significant and new is that we speak as equals, as free people who can look the white oppressor in the eye...

...His strategy sometimes resembles that of Tunisia's Habib Bourguiba...

...I am a disciple of the creed of nationalism," he stated in 1966 at Rhodes University...

...And since South Africa had decided that its natural allies within the homelands would be the tribal leaders, Matanzima, a minor Tembu ohief with a good reputation as a lawyer, was a candidate for power...

...Transkei's decision to become an independent, sovereign state," explains Finance Minister Tsepo T. Letlaka, a youthful-looking 51-year-old lawyer, "introduces an altogether new factor in debates between black and white in South Africa...

...Transkei Looks for Recognition By LORNA HAHN Umtata Since it officially became independent of South Africa on October 26, 1976, the Republic of Transkei has been rapidly desegregating schools, hospitals, hotels, swimming pools, and other facilities...

...Transkei's independence will be a material contribution to that cause...

...An important section of the victims of apartheid can now speak to the world not only on the race issue, but also on other issues concerning national domination and oppression...

...At the same time, through his growing contacts with black southern African leaders, trips abroad and recruitment of militants like Letlaka, Matanzima became increasingly conscious of his kinship with other blacks...

...Pretoria extends technological assistance to a number of its black neighbors...

...Most troublesome to Pretoria, though, has been his stand on the crucial matter of whether persons of Transkeian origin who were born in South Africa, or have long resided there, can be forced to accept Transkeian citizenship...

...Our top priority right now is the development of our country...

...Transkei's opposition party is at least functioning...

...Matanzima has been equally outspoken in demanding more land to accommodate Transkei's Tapidly growing population and to link its two sections...

...But this situation cannot last for long...

...Whether or not the outside world likes it, Transkei can speak on apartheid with an authority no self-appointed outside body or nation possesses today...

...It is ironic," says Chief George, as the Justice Minister is called here, "that the world associates us with South Africa when we are so busy trying to disassociate ourselves from it...

...It hopes to capitalize on the beauty of the lush, rolling countryside, and of the untouched Wild Coast along the Indian Ocean, by developing a tourist industry...

...In fact, says the Potomac Association on Southern Africa (a Washington-based study group), Transkei simply provides "labor reserves for the white-controlled economy of South Africa, and a location for agricultural workers and those deemed unproductive: the old, the very young, the sick, those 'endorsed out' of the white areas and resettled to the home lands, and the 'undesirables.'" South Africa, meanwhile, subsidizes 65 per cent of Transkei's $180-million annual budget and trains its 250-man Army...

...Should the plan fully succeed—and several homeland leaders have recently opted to follow Transkei's example—South Africa, a highly industrialized society built largely by native labor, will have managed to strip all its blacks of citizenship and other rights...

...Finally, few African leaders are in a position to protest authoritarian tendencies on the part of anyone else...

...and Transkei happens to be phasing out its South African officials...

...Throughout most of his career, the 61-year-old leader had been devoted more to his Xhosa tribe than to his race...

...Their disappointment with the world's attitude notwithstanding, the Transkeians are hopeful that things will change...

...Your country," wryly observes Secretary for Planning and Commerce Dunjwa, "assists white South Africa, but will not assist black Transkei, which has broken away from South Africa...

...The government also plans to modernize agriculture, introduce cash crops, and create jobs and income by adding to the 31 modern textile factories already here...

...has more .inhabitants than do 31 UN members...

...But perhaps most important, it has become the preoccupation of Prime Minister Matanzima...

...It does so partly out of sheer ignorance, partly because the OAU has so often and so ritualistically condemned separate development that the merits of Transkei have been obscured, partly because individual nations are afraid to break ranks, and perhaps partly, as some Transkeians suspect, because Tanzania and Zambia wish to monopolize the antiapartheid assault themselves...

...As opposed to the other homelands created under the relatively recent separate development laws, Transkei had been a recognized independent entity at the end of the 19th century: It received its name in 1895 (before the Union of South Africa was formed or christened) and for many years had its own legislative assembly, the Bunga...

...and that Transkei could play an important rcrle in promoting change within South Africa...

...Yet thus far only South Africa has recognized Transkei...

...The anti-Transkei forces have devoted much of their effort to demonstrating that the tiny, geographically split, underdeveloped country is incapable of standing on its own feet...

...The belief that an independent Transkei could and must lead the liberation struggle caused Letlaka, an erstwhile PAC militant, to return from enforced exile in 1975, take diplomatic training in the South African Embassy in Washington, run for Parliament last September, and then accept his present Cabinet post...

...I believe in Xhosa nationalism because I was born to it...

...And although some preindependence statutes?notably the (anti-) Mixed Marriages Act, the (anti-) Terrorism Act and the Suppression of Communism Act—remain on the books, Minister of Justice George Matan-zima promises, "These laws will be repealed as soon as we can draft suitable ones to replace them...

...The separate development policy, actively initiated by Pretoria in 1951, suited Matanzima's early concepts of developing Transkei nationalism...

...Grand apartheid," as the program is also called, has grouped South Africa's blacks into 10 homelands or bantustans, with the ostensible objective of grooming them for self-rule...

...Further, the Constitution of this small, predominantly black country on the Indian Ocean states that all persons bora here, regardless of color, are to be considered citizens...

...The reason for this, of course, is that the rest of the world, taking its cue from black Africa, shuns the new nation as a puppet of Pretoria, a product of the policy of "separate development...

...Critics therefore charge that the Transkei leaders are simply playing along with Pretoria in accepting a sham "independence," and denounce them as stooges and traitors who must not be accorded the dignity of recognition...

...Once we are able to devote our energies to putting our case for recognition before other countries, they will surely see what we are accomplishing and are bound to recognize us...

...But officially Africa continues to oppose any recognition of Transkei...

...the United States has diplomatic relations with Pretoria, too, and is probably in the most hypocritical and least logical position of all...

...It induced other militants—like his brother-in-law Digby Koyana and sociology professor Mlahlene Njisana, now ambassador to Pretoria—to return home as well...

...Like other politicans whose only weapon is language, Matanzima used words to gain whatever he could from his adversary...

...Independent transkei, in short, is considered by Matanzima and his colleagues as both an end in itself and a beachhead in the overall liberation struggle...

...His brother, Prime Minister Kaiser D. Matanzdma, has in a similar vein declared that neighboring blacks seeking to overthrow the apartheid system, including members of the outlawed Pan African Congress (PAC), are welcome...

...has a higher annual per capita income ($210) than 17 of its neighbors...

...that Matanzima achieved the best possible deal for his people...

...As for Prime Minister Matan-zima, critics point out that he is a conservative chief handpicked for leadership by Pretoria, and has made sharply contradictory statements for and against the separate development policy...

...Its rural economy is still based largely on traditional tribal land tenure systems and primitive farming methods, they note, and cannot provide sufficient food or employment for a population of roughly 3.5 million: Some 335,000 Transkeians, most of them young men, must work in South Africa, and with their families make up a total of about 1.5 million Transkeians now living in South Africa...

...In addition, Lesotho and Mozambique send far more laborers to South Africa than does Transkei...

...But officials here argue it does not automatically follow that the country is a puppet, or that to deal with it is to play into Pretoria's hands...

...Whatever the motives, though, the result of nonrecognition is that South Africa is not being harmed, while Transkei is...

...As a result, he has advocated association of the homelands (most of them are small, fragmented and poor), and in 1973 he suggested their federation with South Africa, which would give blacks a Parliamentary majority...

...Then we will really be able to accomplish something in southern Africa...

...He played ball with Pretoria, becoming the head of an internally autonomous Transkei in 1963, and founding his Transkei National Independence party shortly thereafter...

...Alternately cajoling and threatening, he obtained another patch of land here, another fiscal favor there...

...The United States abstained in the 134-0 vote, but the State Department, whose Africa Bureau has stayed virtually intact under the new Administration, firmly supports the UN position...

...This position constitutes a mighty blow to the theory of separate development and the ultimate placing of all blacks under homeland jurisdiction...

...Interestingly, the feasibility of the idea is even being accepted by the opposition Democratic party, which formerly claimed independence would weaken rather than strengthen the fight for freedom...

...At least 19 of the African states that refuse to help Transkei do some sort of business with South Africa...

...South African Premier John Vorster says they can and will...

...several long-independent African nations continue to depend on their former colonizers for assistance...

...All of the criticisms are essentially correct, but in themselves they hardly constitute a case against Transkei's qualifications for either independence or acceptance by the United Nations...

...And they are particularly distressed that critics such as Senator Dick Clark (D.-Iowa), who turned down an invitation to visit Transkei during a recent trip to southern Africa, refuse to investigate the situation for themselves...

...While it is indeed small, it is larger than Belgium, Israel, Lebanon, and 25 other UN members...

...Forced by accident into South Africa in 1910, it was not able to work for independence through internationally acceptable anticolonial means—as were, say, the former British protectorates of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland...

...A Marxist diplomat from Mozambique even went so far as to contend that Matanzima's strategy is comparable to Chairman Mao's concept of building liberated areas from which to attack the enemy...

...Lorna Hahn is the director of the Association on Third World Affairs...

...Transkei is determined, one official after another insists, to do everything possible "to help our people" and "to become as independent as possible of South Africa...