TRIBUTE TO IMAM ABDULLAH HARON – A TRUE PATRIOTIC HERO
The valour and good deeds of patriotic heroes of the national liberation struggle often serves to provide inspiration to new generations of leaders. Patriots are a beacon of light for new pathfinders. Those who may be groping in the dark will only have themselves to blame if they are later found to have been lazy to search further for exemplary roles, and are themselves one dimensional and blinkered in the way they handle social issues, imbibing only from the official list of what is termed national, patriotic and heroic.
The group in power will always shine the light on its own version of heroes, in a biased and sectarian manner, and they will deliberately exclude social movements and great personalities they are embarrassed to acknowledge or give official recognition to. The dominant perspective of history at any given time is often that of the ruling party, and it is that of the newly-rich class in power. The post apartheid South African government is no exception to this trend.
When the leadership of the SA Coloured Peoples Congress withdrew from the Congress Alliance in 1966 on the grounds that their participation in a movement that entrenched Verwoedian racial stereotypes, under the guise of multi-racialism, was not reconcilable with the fight for a non-racial, Africanist socialist democracy where the colour of one’s skin or the shape of one’s nose would count for nothing. As “Coloureds” in the Congress Alliance they were expected to play second fiddle in the policy formulation and decision making structures; and the debate on the national question would not be entertained. Imam Abdullah Haron knew that the Azanian people had a bright future.
Nowhere in the progressive world were free people racially labelled as “Coloureds”. It was slave mentality of a high degree to accept to be cast into a racial mould, and then imagine that such nomenclature was correct and final in the just order of things. Led by patriots such as Barney Desai, Kenneth Jordaan, Bennie Bunsee, Cardiff Marney and others, the SACPC dissolved itself and some of its members joined the PAC.
They urged so called Coloureds and people of Asian descent to break free from the shackles of racial slots and ethnic divisions, and to form solidarity with the African people in a non-racial democratic nation building effort. They had come to agree with the PAC from its foundation position that San and Khoi descendants were African people.
The Imam Haron was inspired by this visionary leadership and he found that their views resonated with his own life experience and political outlook. He was aggrieved by the forced removals from District Six and the insults heaped upon his folks to keep them down with self limiting beliefs and negative victim images. Once he decided on what to do, nothing could hold him back.
The life of Abdullah Haron is written in a book titled The Killing of the Imam: SA Tyranny Defied by Courage and Faith (Quartet Books, London, 1978). It is not easily accessible in South African bookshops and public libraries because lily-livered local publishers refuse to do a reprint, and the schools and universities are in denial that such heroes – other than the conventional new government types – lived among the people of South Africa.
As champions of a noble cause, patriotic heroes display with their lives concepts such as selflessness; devotion to duty; a sense of responsibility; discipline, determination and dedication; and the ultimate personal sacrifice to die rather than betray those with whom you worked. The Imam Abdullah Haron’s name should be engraved in the national merit orders of South Africa. But inexplicably he is not. The day when those who acted collectively as the agents and levers of change decide to write their own story, the name of the Imam Abdullah Haron will find pride of place in the national annals of history.
By Jaki Seroke
indeed, history is written in the corridors of power. and those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. the ruling anc don’t want to learn from history. they won’t acknowledge heroes of other liberation movements because that will negate the lies that they have been spreading even in exile. they forget that no lie can live forever. in setswana they say maaka a maoto makhutswane. translated literally it means lies have short legs. the anc leadership must learn that it is impossible to turn lies into truth.
Dear Jaki Seroki,
Many thanks for your kind words about my father. FYI my nephew, Khalid Shamis, is about to complete a doccie on the Imam and I am re-working an old ms of mine for publication.
Regards
Muhammed
I came across an animated doccie on the killing of the Imam, possibly by your nephew. Good creative work. The late Barney Desai was deeply concerned with SA’s one dimensional approach to identifying patriots, and the work and contributions of the Imam Haron was in the backburner. Do continue with your manuscript.
assalamoalikum,
ALLAHOAKBAR,SUBHANALLAH.
true legend .if only there were more people like him.
may ALLAH SWT grant him highest status in paradise.aameen.
FROM BOLTON ,ENGLAND ,UNITED KINGDOM.