Z Skweyiya behalf of N Dlamini Zuma: SS Mendi sinking of Troopship
anniversary

19 July 2007

Honourable Programme Director, Captain Lisa Hendricks
Her Excellency, Dr Lindiwe Mabuza, the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland High
Commissioner
Honourable Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan
The first Sealord, Sir Jonathon and Lady Band
Chief of the Navy in the South African Defence Force (SANDF), Vice Admiral
Mudimu
Members of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
High Commissioners and Ambassadors
Members of the Defence staff
Friends of South Africa
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

May I, at the outset thank Her Excellency, the High Commissioner Lindiwe
Mabuza for her kind and generous introduction as well as for hosting this
auspicious occasion. Thirteen years into our democracy in South Africa, we have
come a long way in charting a new course for our people in our collective
efforts to create a better life for all.

Certainly this has not been an easy journey and despite great progress made,
we still have a long way to go to fully meet the needs of all our people.
Poverty remains an overarching reality for many people and efforts in
healthcare, housing, infrastructure development, the providing of clean water
and sanitation and the imparting of knowledge and skills through education
remain among our primary concerns. The creation of conducive conditions for
economic development especially at local level remains a priority which various
government initiatives such as Joint Initiative of Priority Skills Acquisition
(Jipsa) and Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA)
are trying to address.

But we often forget that part of our developmental efforts, part of our work
towards full freedom, justice and equality has meant also the restoration of
dignity, cultural pride and the embrace of a new history, a People's History in
which the extraordinary contributions of seemingly ordinary people are spelled
out and written down for present and future generations to digest.

In this regard, the challenge has been to unfold the pages of history, to
correct the falsifications that apartheid imposed upon us, to re-piece the past
and to restore the contributions of those who others deliberately chose to
forget and to omit. We are faced with the important task of restoring to the
historical narrative those who colonial history chose to ignore, those whose
contributions have been lost or forgotten, mainly because the colour of their
skin had rendered them invisible in the eyes of the Empire and in the history
books of the oppressed.

But the fact remains that, despite all attempts to obliterate this past,
every act of greatness, every great tragedy and suffering as indeed every
victory, has its homecoming and indeed lives on in the minds of the people
whose history it is and whose testimony is passed on from one generation to the
next.

Such is the case with the great tragedy of the 616 young men who lost their
lives on the SS Mendi on that fateful day in 1917. The communities that gave
birth to these brave soldiers remembered them and honoured them by passing on
the story of their lives and the tragedy that befell them to their children and
to their children's children until even the children of those in England who
sent them first on their mission came to hear about the suffering and felt that
this too was their history and part of their homecoming as a people.

Ninety years may have passed since this great tragedy, but among us are
those whose knowledge of that history is strong and runs deep in their veins.
In this manner, telling the truths of history, the reality of a nation can also
offer possibilities for greater understanding, a higher consciousness and a
greater desire among all for reconciliation.

This is a story of young black South African men who had wanted to make a
contribution to the war effort during the first World War and indeed had
responded to a call to do so, yet it is also the counter narrative of those who
needed this assistance, yet chose that these young men could not carry arms in
this war, that they could only be entrusted to do other work like build roads,
chop wood, carry goods, since it was feared that to equip them with arms would
give them the power to defeat their own oppressors.

This brings to mind the words of the great Pan-African thinker, WEB Du Bois,
who in 1900 at the first Pan African Congress (PAC) in London had declared
that:
"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line."
Indeed the first twenty years of the twentieth century in which the SS Mendi
sailed and sank, were years filled with important developments that would
consolidate oppression, but would also plant the seeds for future
liberation.

For it was in 1906 that the young intellectual, Pixley ka Seme spoke of "the
regeneration of Africa." It was in 1912 that the South African National Native
Congress later the African National Congress (ANC) was formed. It was in the
same period that the Bambatha rebellion marked the defiance of the African
people against oppression. It was the time in which the Native Land Act was
passed that severely curtailed access of Africans to land and virtually
destroyed the peasantry that had thrived upon the land until then. It was a
period in which, a year after the sinking of the Mendi, women in South Africa,
under the leadership of Charlotte Maxeke had formed a women's self-help
organisation that would later become the ANC Women's League. In global terms,
this was the period of World War I and also the victory of the Russian
Revolution.

Ninety years later, as we meet here and now, this commemorative dinner marks
a new phase in the public acknowledgement and official recognition of the loss
of young lives of South Africans then on board the troopship SS Mendi. This
long overdue recognition will culminate with the laying of wreaths at Plymouth
on Saturday, 21 July 2007. The story of the sinking of the SS Mendi is a story
that began with the recruitment of hundreds of mainly young black males into
the "South African Native Labour Corps" enlisted on the side of the Allies
against the invading German Forces during the First World War.

The troopship SS Mendi set sail at the height of the war on 16 January 1917
from Cape Town. Little did the young recruits realise that this would be their
last journey from their beloved homeland, that the ship would not reach its
destination and that they would not return to their families. History tells us
that on approaching the English Channel, the Troopship SS Mendi was torpedoed
by a bigger warship the SS Darro and sunk within 25 minutes and with it an
estimated 616 lives of the 823 troops still trapped in the vessel in icy
waters.

We have been told that the crew of the SS Darro made no effort to rescue the
survivors. Was this racism on the part of the captain of the Darro? Was it a
reflection of the cheapness with which the lives of black labourers were viewed
that stopped others from saving all of them? Yet some acknowledgement must be
made that lifeboats from the HMS Brisk, the destroyer that accompanied the SS
Mendi, did save some lives. Those black South Africans, who survived and lived
to take part in the war effort, were not even awarded with medals upon their
return.

Among the black Africans whose lives were lost were prominent men such as
the Pondoland chiefs Henry Bokleni, Dokoda Richard Ndamase, Mxonywa Bangani,
Mongameli to mention but a few. History tells us that these young men in the
last 25 minutes of their lives, as they stared death in the face, joined
Reverend Isaac Dyobha in a death defying song that seemed to recognise, that
despite their different origins, their greater unity was as Africans.

We have learnt that in those final moments, a schoolmaster from near
Pretoria encouraged those around him with hymns and prayers until he passed
away. A white sergeant was supported by two black compatriots who swam with him
and found place for him on a raft. It is therefore heartening that on this
occasion we stand together with our British partners in restoring the dignity
of the unsung heroes as well as those of their dependents, dead and living. It
is welcoming to hear that South African High Commission and the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission has unveiled a school curriculum on SS Mendi for the
schools in the UK in October 2005.

Future generations of leaders should learn about the tribulations of the
past in order to do better in the future. This has also been submitted for
consideration in the South African Education system. While today, the SS Mendi
lies on the ocean floor some 11 miles south of the Isle of Wight, this ship has
been honoured by our modern South African Navy, which has among its fleet the
SAS Isaac Dyobha, a warrior-class fast attack craft and probably one of the few
naval warships in the world named after the cleric (who was aboard the SS
Mendi) and the new AS Mendi, a valour-class frigate.

The Mendi has also given its name to South Africa's highest award for
courage, the Order of the Mendi Decoration for Bravery, bestowed by the
President on South African citizens who have performed extraordinary acts of
bravery. A number of projects are being dedicated to those who perished on
board the SS Mendi. We are also grateful for the support received from the
Church of Newtimber.

For us, above everything else, the story of the SS Mendi is a story of
supreme courage in the face of death. The courage displayed by these men is now
legendary in South African military history. Nearly a century later, let us
also lament that in large parts of the world, conflict and war still continue.
As a South African poet reminds us, "History still writes itself in blood". In
the words of Cape Town poet, Deela Khan:

"Eyes focused, we try to prise the veils
of mist shrouding our many-faceted future
Together we look into the heavens and welcome
The breaking storm as its thunders its promise to
Unclog every river and wash all the spilt blood of the centuries away".

Let us continue to work together to cleanse the future of the past, to
ensure that the problems between the world's people can be solved through
dialogue and negotiations. Let all our efforts be geared towards permanent
peace and sustainable development, a more inclusive world for all the world's
people.

Indeed this is the pledge we must make to those who lost their lives on the
SS Mendi and to those who survived. This is our inheritance from them and from
history - to nurture a more people-centred globe, a caring world community of
nations and states that can work together for peace and harmony and equality, a
world free of racism, where people celebrate their diversity and each one
contributes to the greater good of all humankind.

The South African poet SE Mqhayi, who is also credited with writing the
lyrics of some verses of our National Anthem, paid tribute to the people who
died on the SS Mendi. I would like to conclude by quoting his words:

Awu! Zaf' int' ezinkulu ze Afrika.
Isindwe le nqanawa yada yazika,
Kwaf' amakhalipha, amafela-nankosi,
Agazi lithetha kwiNkosi yenkosi.
Ukufa kwawo kunomvuzo nomvuka;
Ndinga ndingema nawo ngomhla wokuvuka,
Ndingqambe njengomnye osebenzileyo,
Ndikhanye njengomso oqaqambileyo.
Makube njalo!

[A translation of an extract from: The Sinking of the Mendi by SEK
Mqhayi]
[Awu! Here come the strong men of Africa!
The load was too much for the ship, it sank,
Heroes and the king's soldiers perished,
Whose blood mattered to the King of kings.
Whose deaths will bear fruit and leave a legacy.
I wish to be counted with them at resurrection,
To be counted among those who sacrificed,
And shine bright like a brighter tomorrow.]
Together let us build this brighter tomorrow! Let us do so proud of the efforts
made by these and many sons of Africa.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
19 July 2007
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs (http://www.dfa.gov.za)