Osvalde Lewat’s latest documentary is a unique opportunity to discover some of the shadow soldiers of the fight against apartheid. Their victory will give birth to the rainbow nation. The filmmaker collected unpublished testimonies from soldiers of “MK, Mandela’s secret army” in South Africa.
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They still have the strength to sing and dance: these veterans have kept the rhythm, that of the music, but above all of this old military routine when they officiated in the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), the political formation which liberated South Africa from apartheid. It is on their performance that opens MK, Mandela’s secret army, the documentary by Franco-Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat broadcast Tuesday April 9 on Arte at 11:35 p.m.
The documentary filmmaker collected testimonies from around ten former members of the secret army Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which means “the spear of the nation” in Zulu. Their words feed into exceptional archives brought together in the film.
“Africans (Blacks)”, “Whites”, “Indians”, “colored” people (terms used during segregation), South Africans or foreigners, young men or even young girls barely out of childhood, like Dudu Msomi who testifies, will join the armed wing of the ANC. From the launch of the movement in 1960 to its dissolution in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, the movement brought together thousands of people from all walks of life. They will each time risk their lives to put an end to apartheid and its violence.
“Purely defensive”
It was following the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960 that Nelson Mandela decided to resort to armed struggle. Black people peacefully protest against the “pass”, a control document, when they are violently repressed by the segregationist regime. “Our resort to armed struggle in 1960, with the formation of the military wing of the ANC, was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid”, explains the wrestling icon upon his release from prison on February 11, 1990 after 27 years in prison. Mandela, a guerrilla and pacifist, notes in the documentary Mac Maharaj, former MK leader. “The idea of presenting Mandela as a pacifist is yet another way of dispossessing us of our history,” believes the veteran.
Sabotage becomes the specialty of MK, now the regime’s number one enemy. The arrest of its main leaders, including Nelson Mandela, then their sentence to life imprisonment following the Rivonia trial (1963-1964), have “annihilated” the movement, we confide in the documentary and set it back “two decades”. It was in 1976, following the riots in Soweto resulting from the repression of a march by high school students in opposition to the hegemony of the Afrikaans language in black schools, that the movement returned to the front line of the fight.
Many joined MK training camps abroad, particularly in the Soviet bloc and in friendly countries such as Algeria. In the following decade, these volunteers, who became trained soldiers, constituted the armed wing of an organization which gave no respite to the white minority, “the Boers” (term designating white settlers in South Africa).
From logistics to weapons handling, assassinations and special operations, they are trained in everything. In MK, Mandela’s secret weapon, some recount how they allowed men and munitions to transit through neighboring Swaziland, a capital rear base. Not all members of MK have the opportunity to operate on South African territory; it is a real “honor” to do so, say the veterans.
An inspiration to resist
In 1983, Oliver Tambo, then head of the ANC, ordered his fellow citizens to make the country “ungovernable”. It is perfectly understood by the populations. And MK, through his spectacular actions, infuses them with the energy necessary to resist. Particularly through an unexpected aspect of the training of MK soldiers, the “Jazz Hour”, remembers veteran Zola Maseko. The songs composed during these sessions were broadcast on MK radio and widely throughout the country. Result: they are taken up in the townships (black neighborhoods) and galvanize the populations.
Caught between the pressure exerted on its national territory and an international anti-apartheid movement, the South African regime is forced to negotiate with Mandela. A process which will lead to his release. And that of Jabu Masina. The MK veteran, who operates in a unit responsible for Boer assassinations, is arrested and tortured. He escaped death row when Nelson Mandela regained his freedom.
Forgotten sacrifices
Today, the sacrifices of these veterans seem to have been forgotten in South Africa. Living in poverty, in addiction or in the suffering of their loved ones whom they abandoned to fight, Osvalde Lewat’s witnesses only regret that there was no official recognition of their commitment to transmit it to future generations. “That’s not what we fought for!“, recalls one of the veterans, who nevertheless believes that, in a certain way, the members of MK have abandoned the country “to the hyenas”, “those thieves in power”namely the current leadership of the ANC plagued by corruption affairs.
For Aboobaker Rashid Ismail, having belonged to the command of MK and present on April 4 at the Parisian screening of the film, which was also broadcast in South Africa, it is “tragic” that the role of MK be minimized in his country. “It was in fact the armed struggle that inspired the people and pushed them into a struggle and then a war, because it is in reality the people’s war that overthrows the regimes. It is not the armed struggle in itself. It is the populations who become their own liberators”.
Osvalde Lewat’s documentary complements the one produced in 2018 by Nicolas Champeaux and Gilles Porte, The State against Mandela and the others, on the Rivonia trial. “This is the very first film made about Mandela’s army.recalled Osvalde Lewat during the premiere of his documentary in Paris. “For me, it was important to pay tribute to these young Africans who committed themselves to liberate their country. There is also an incredible resonance with current events (…) in different parts of the world.” “I wanted to make this film”, she sums up, “because it is important that we tell our stories and above all that we do not forget history.”
“MK, the secret army of Nelson Mandela”, a 52-minute documentary film by Osvalde Lewatbroadcast on Tuesday April 9 at 11:35 p.m. and available on Arte.tv.