There are men who try to make a difference in the life of their countries, and then there are men who leave their mark on the world.
Ahmed Kathrada not only helped to bring about the liberation of this country, but he fought tirelessly for the rights of the oppressed and subjugated around the globe. By lending his voice to a litany of causes, he taught us that justice has no boundaries. He relentlessly reiterated that until all are free, we can never truly be free.
This undying solidarity to struggles abroad earned him the title of “revolutionary internationalist” which was etched in bold letters above the podium at his funeral service this week. For Kathrada, the cause could never be too small or insignificant. If the rights of people were being oppressed, he would lend his voice to their struggle.
How many South Africans have even heard of the struggle of the West Papuans? But Kathrada was intent on highlighting the just nature of their cause, and the fact that their plight has largely been ignored by the international community as a result of foreign media and NGOs being banned from entering the country.
What is the struggle all about? Since Indonesia’s enforced occupation of West Papua in 1963, over 500000 West Papuans have been killed or disappeared – 25% of the population. Yale and Sydney Universities have called the situation a genocide against the indigenous population.
For Kathrada, this was not acceptable anywhere in the world. It wasn’t a sensational cause, merely a matter of social justice.
As much as he took up the mantle of social justice far from our borders, he never kept quiet about blatant abuses of human right close to home. His message to ordinary Zimbabweans was “regardless of what they have to go through, the struggle for justice must succeed”.
While other local politicians in our country felt it politically incorrect to speak out in support of the civil and political rights of Pastor Evan Mawarire, founder of Zimbabwe’s #ThisFlag campaign, Kathrada’s voice of conscience filled the deathly silence. His conclusion was that when the masses of people took to the streets striking against a government, it could not be ignored.
Perhaps Kathrada had nothing to lose and could afford to speak truth to power. But then again, as a young man he had everything to lose and it never stopped him from putting his life on the line for justice.
Perhaps Kathrada was most outspoken on the issue of Palestine, much to the chagrin of his detractors. In a recent BBC HARDtalk interview, his commitment to the Palestinian struggle was interpreted as support for terrorism, although Kathrada was unapologetic in his support for the right of Palestinians under international law to resist occupation.
Kathrada was both lauded and castigated for his comments on the situation on the ground in Palestine: “In our short stay here we have seen and heard enough to conclude that apartheid has been reborn here,” he told Palestinians in Ramallah. “In its reborn form it is however worse than its predecessor.”
What he campaigned for most passionately was the release of Pales-
tinian political prisoners, making this a central campaign of the Kathrada Foundation. But it was also political prisoners around the world that Kathrada took up the cudgels for.
The campaign against the incarceration of the Cuban Five was one such example. Upon the release of the Cuban Five from a US jail, Kathrada accompanied them to Robben Island, and made it clear that the Cuban struggle still faced many
hurdles on the road ahead.
Kathrada echoed many of Nelson Mandela’s sentiments on Cuba’s long-serving leader Fidel Castro, staunchly loyal to a leader who stood by the struggle for liberation in South Africa when it was very unpopular in the West to do so.
It was not only the struggles for liberation or self-determination that Kathrada made his own, but it was the protection of basic rights and freedoms in democracies that he treated with equal importance.
The freedom of the press was one such right that Kathrada could not stay silent on, whether at home or abroad.
He courageously championed the cause of the incarcerated journalists in Egypt, and lent his unwavering support for freedom of the press in that country.
Kathrada was unfortunately one of the lone voices in the ranks of South Africa’s political elite that publicly condemned the detention of the Al Jazeera journalists by Egyptian authorities, and was photographed with a sign that read “Journalism is not a crime #FreeAJstaff”.
Even in his late 80s, Kathrada was no less a revolutionary than he had been in the days of Liliesleaf Farm. We have to ask ourselves how many of our former freedom fighters can say they have the same commitment to those values, and most importantly, are prepared to speak up about them?
International solidarity should not be seen as the purview of the retired or the agitators. It must be the purview of all of us who see and read about the injustices around us, but are lazy or reluctant to make our voices heard. Perhaps Kathrada’s legacy is a challenge to all of us: to have the courage of our convictions, no matter what the cost.