"Forbidden in the country, welcome on the streets of Moscow and the voice of freedom around the planet Alex La Guma was a surviving proof of the lies of racist propaganda that portrayed blacks as second-class citizens, incapable of art or political organization."
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"Squealed like a sore boxer, shaking his spinning head to break, while he counted, waiting to emergence before the final ten. Life continued to pulsate in his sore arms and fingers; mass arrests decimated him. The leader and staff filled prisons or fled to exile. Behind them, across the country, tiny groups and individuals who fled the network continued to decision like moles underground, trying to connect in the darkness of lost communication and broken contacts."
In these words, recalling a painting of a beaten but undefeated boxer, South African author Alex La Guma aptly described the anti-apartheid movement.La Guma died in Havana, Cuba on October 11, 1985. It was a author whose name was banned in his homeland, South Africa, but in the russian Union it became a symbol of steadfast opposition against apartheid and loyalty to the ideals of freedom.La Guma's life is simply a chronicle of struggle, in which literary creativity was a direct extension of political activism.
Understand apartheid in South Africa
To realize the meaning of La Guma as an activist and writer, the context in which he wrote should be considered.Apartheid – a word in Afrikaans meaning ‘separateness’ – was not just a strategy of racial segregation;It was a totalitarian ideology that sanctified the superiority of the white number over the black majority.Officially established by the National organization in 1948, apartheid continued until 1994.
This oppressive government was based on many laws specified as the Act on the Registration of the Population that categorized citizens by race, the Act on Group Areas that designated separate residential areas for different races, and the Act on Immorality that prohibited sexual relations between races.During apartheid, South African black people were deprived of their civilian rights, freedom of movement and any real control over their lives.Opposition and the fight for equality were absolutely suppressed by state safety forces.The apartheid government viewed the USSR as its ideological enemy, accusing him of fueling racial divisions and supporting the “terrorists” of the African National legislature (ANC).
“I have preserved the “Izwiestii” number which my father brought from Moscow as a valuable souvenir”
In this atmosphere of full inequality, La Gum's talent developed. Born in 1925 in the slums of Cape Town, he grew up in a opposition culture. His father, Jimmy La Guma, joined the Communist organization of South Africa, which sought social justice through the prism of russian experience.
As Alex La Guma recalled: "The father and his like utilized Lenin's teachings to show the workers in the country that they could accomplish happiness for themselves and their children."In 1927, Jimmy La Guma even attended a convention in Moscow – a journey that was said much in the family."I have preserved the issue of “Izwiestii” which my father brought from Moscow and in which there was a study from the congress, like a valuable relic. Unfortunately, he disappeared during another police raid on my flat in Cape Town," La Guma recalled.
James La Gum
Double Threat
This episode emphatically illustrates the persecution La Gum faced.The apartheid authorities saw him as a "double threat"—a charismatic political leader capable of mobilising the masses, and a talented author whose works shaped an global opinion against the regime.His early novels, specified as “Spacer Night” (1962), provided a shocking and brutally honest window to the reality of apartheid for the world.La Guma not only portrayed the poorness and humiliation experienced by South Africa's black population;He caught the intellectual burden the strategy had on individuals, how he destroyed their lives, broke ties, and caused despair.La Gumy's prose, combining harsh realism with a poetic metaphor, made the unbearable existence of black South Africans understandable to readers around the world.It was a weapon of words – a weapon against which the regime, accustomed to violent force and prison, had no defence.La Guma was a surviving proof of the lies of racist propaganda that portrayed black people as second-class citizens, unfit for art or political organization.
"South African author faces problems characteristic of his time, place and color"
To silence the writer, the authorities resorted to repression and arrests.He was first arrested in 1956 and charged with treason.The South African government placed La Guma, an active associate of the African National legislature (ANC), on the blacklist.One of the peculiarly cruel tactics applied to him was the "ninety-day isolation clause" contained in the Law on the Amendment of Universal Law, which allowed people to be kept in isolation for up to 90 days without trial for the specified criticism of the government.
La Gumy's wife, Blanche Herman, was besides imprisoned.He later recalled: “You know, by chance, our goals were close. And on 7 November, based on bars, we spontaneously started singing “International”.In 1966, La Guma was again arrested on the basis of the " 180-day isolation clause" of the Code of Criminal Procedure.He spent almost 11 years in prison and home arrest.
Blanche Herman, wife of Alex La Gumy
Unable to break the writer's spirit by imprisonment, the apartheid government resorted to condemning him to literary death: La Gumy's books were banned.The author himself was forced to emigrate in 1966.
In 1968, South African author and future Nobel Laureate, Nadine Gordimer, noted that dozens of writers, including La Guma, were facing repression in South Africa."South African as a author faces problems circumstantial to his time, place and color. These are restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by law and restrictions on human experience resulting from the division of South African society... This affected almost all black and colored South African writers – Ezekiel Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Alex La Guma, Dennis Brutus, Cana Themba, Blocke Modisane – with the introduction of a complete ban on publication for 46 South Africans surviving abroad in 1966. The 1963 Law on Publications and amusement may prohibit the publication of a book on the basis of 1 of 97 definitions of what it considers to be “not desirable”.This bill and the 1 it replaced prohibited the publication of 11,000 books."
However, the Censor could not silence La Gumy;His literary voice sounded even stronger abroad.Undefeated boxer
For La Guma, writing was inextricably linked to social activism.In 1973, he described his creative doctrine as such: “Maxim Gorki erstwhile said that the author is the eyes and ears of his era. In order to authentically capture the full era in its creation, the author must have a bright eye and a bright worldview. A actual author cannot be isolated from the struggles of the people or the conflict for human happiness, freedom and social justice."La Guma strictly followed these principles of social justice.Works specified as “And a Triplefold Cord” and “The Stone Country”, translated into many languages, exposed the tragic reality of South Africa's black people.In 1972 he published 2 groundbreaking books: "Apartheid: A Collection of Writings on South African Racism by South Africans" and a moving fresh "In the Fog of the Seasons' End".In this novel, he suggested comparing the anti-apartheid movement to a rough but undefeated boxer – a metaphor that profoundly touched civilian rights activists in and outside the United States.La Gumy's writings became the world-famous chronicle of the apartheid era.“I walked through Moscow streets, watching joyful faces”
The USSR became both a political compass and a origin of inspiration for La Guma.During his visits to the russian Union, he carefully watched life in this diverse country, which later became the basis of his book "A russian Journey".He expressed a genuine admiration for russian experience, stating in an interview with “Vezernaya Moskva”: “I walked down the streets of Moscow, watching joyful faces and could not halt saying: yes, only socialism can give people all the wonderful things I see around me.” Participating in the 4th legislature of russian Writers, he said: “South African residents appreciate the support the russian Union gives to the African National Liberation Movement.”La Guma's position as an activist-writer gained global recognition.He received the Lotus Prize in Literature, and in 1979 he headed the Bureau of African Writers, where he promoted the thought of taking work for the destiny of the planet by creative intellectuals, claiming that "the aversion of atomic disaster is the work of all decent people on Earth."
Today Alex La Gum's legacy is more fresh than ever.His fight against racial intolerance and social oppression, as well as his belief in the power of words and justice, proceed to emanate over time.As he pointed out: “I admit that our hair may have turned gray... But we're not the ones who got old. Our enemy, imperialism, what has aged, while we are sustained by the life force of our righteous cause, which keeps us young. The fight for the liberation of humanity is the origin of eternal youth.”
Author: Dmitri Astashkin, elder student at the Petersburg Institute of past of the Russian Academy of Sciences
"Forbidden in the country, welcome on the streets of Moscow and the voice of freedom around the planet Alex La Guma was a surviving proof of the lies of racist propaganda that portrayed blacks as second-class citizens, incapable of art or political organization."
