Hon Deputy Speaker and distinguished members of this august House, a conference of the leading European powers meeting in Berlin in 1884 to 1885 carved up the African continent and shared the pieces amongst themselves as colonies and dependencies. By the end of that exercise, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, every other part of the continent came under foreign rule. Apart from these two countries, Haiti was the only other territory which remained independent after defeating the French colonial forces.
As a race, virtually all Africans had been reduced to a subject people, ruled and governed by others, usually Europeans or their descendants naturalised on the continent. Twentieth-century history was consequently dominated by the struggle of the Africans, in every part of the world where they lived, for the restoration of their human rights, their dignity and their freedom. The forms that struggle assumed were, in every instance, determined by the institutional framework in which it unfolded and by the manner in which the dominant power responded to resistance from the oppressed.
The year 1912 became an international dimension as one of the most significant fronts of a pan-African struggle by the people of Africa and the peoples of African descent, who were dispersed across the Atlantic by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, for freedom and self-determination. When we proclaim that this is one of the great and most moving days in the annals of our struggle, we know for certain that the sentiment is echoed in millions of African breasts around the world.
The year 1912 is emblazoned in the historical record as marking the inauguration of the pioneer of the African revolutionary movement, created by our forebears to reclaim the sovereignty of the peoples of Africa and to reassert the freedom the people of our great continent lost on a thousand battlefields, spread across Africa's landscapes. Since its inauguration in this city 100 years ago, the ANC has been at the forefront of the liberation struggle that culminated in the overthrow of white minority domination and the suppression of the crime of apartheid.
The significance of the 1923 Bill of Rights has a direct relationship to the Bill of Rights that is to be found in the Constitution of the Republic. The philosophy and wisdom that underpinned the 1923 Bill and the African Claims shaped our negotiations.
The annual conference of the ANC in Bloemfontein on 16 December 1943 adopted the African Claims, a document that expressed, in a dynamic way, the African position and status in the land of their birth, and which was addressed to the then government of the Union of South Africa. I quote from the document:
We want the government of the people of South Africa to know the full aspirations of the African peoples so that their point of view will also be presented at the Peace Conference. We want the government of the United Nations to know and act in the light of our own interpretation of the Atlantic Charter to which they are signatories. This is our way of conveying to them our undisputed claim to full citizenship. We desire them to realise once and for all that a just and permanent peace will be possible only if the claims of all classes, colours and races for sharing and for full participation in educational, political and economic activities are granted and recognised.
With regard to freedom volunteers, Nkosi Albert Luthuli, the president of the ANC, pointed out that the Defiance Campaign had served a notable purpose. He went on to say in 1954 that the first task of the freedom volunteers of that time was to work for the Congress of the People, "which will culminate in a great assembly, whereat our multiracial nation, through delegates elected democratically by people in all corners of the Union, will write our Freedom Charter - a South African Declaration of Human Rights".
The freedom volunteers' task was to visit men and women in their homes, in factories and all over, in order to explain the objects of the Congress of the People and enlist their support. The freedom volunteers are "field workers mobilising the people of the great Congress of the People", according to Chief Albert Luthuli.
Reiterating his call for 50 000 volunteers, Nkosi Luthuli concluded, and I quote:
Throughout history, no freedom has come to any people without blood and tears. Africans cannot be an exception to this divine test. But take courage in the knowledge that, no matter how dark the future may seem, right must triumph over wrong, and also remember that no national movement has ever failed.
The result was a national and international success. The adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People was widely recognised, both at home and abroad, as an event of major political significance in the life of this country. In his message to the Congress of the People, Chief Albert Luthuli, the banned national president of the ANC, declared:
Why will this assembly be significant and unique? Its size, I hope, will make it unique. But, above all, its multiracial nature and its noble objectives will make it unique because it will be the first time in the history of our multiracial nation that its people from all walks of life will meet as equals, irrespective of race, colour and creed, to formulate a Freedom Charter for all people in the country.
With regard to context and origins, without going into the vexing question of whether the extent of the recognition could have been less restricted, I want to underscore the point that such recognition is legitimised by the contribution of our traditional leaders to the struggle against the evils brought to our shores by colonialism of a special type in which the colonised people shared geographic space with the coloniser. Traditional leaders, like the female regent Queen Manthatisi of the Basotho nation, were in attendance at the 1912 launch of the South African Native National Congress, which in 1923 was renamed the African National Congress, whose centenary we are celebrating this year.
The traditional leaders were part of the launch of the ANC and formed a component of its leadership, and this was not incidental but a culmination of their resistance wars since the advent of colonisation in 1652. It is traditional leaders like Sekhukhune of Bapedi, Ngungunyane of BaTsonga, Queen Modjadji of Balobedu, Makhado of VhaVenda, Moshoeshoe of the Basotho, Shaka of amaZulu, Hintsa of amaXhosa and Lewanika of Barozwi of Zambia who fought against colonialism to the bitter end. It is appropriate, therefore, that as we celebrate the selfless struggle of our people we do so in recognition of what traditional leaders and religious leaders have contributed and continue to contribute.
We continue to be indebted to our forebears for their bequest of democracy to our generation. Even at its formation, the ANC demonstrated its dedication to democracy in a democratic election that saw its first president elected in absentia. Indeed, President John Langalibalele Dube was a democrat to the core, a man who believed in reaching consensus through constructive engagement. President Dube led the ANC deputations to plead with the then British crown not to assent to the 1913 Land Act. The lack of success of the campaign is attributable only to the intransigence of the crown and its tacit ratification of racial exclusion.
We cannot forget that our democracy is steeped in morality and humanitarian principles, because of the influence that Ethiopianism had on South Africa and the ANC in particular. This influence was in the main, brought about by the fact that many young South Africans went to the United States at the turn of the 20th century to study.
Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke, ne "Mannya", who later founded the predecessor of the ANC Women's League, studied at Wilberforce University, an African Methodist Episcopal Foundation. Similarly, while a student in the United States, President Dube was inspired by the famous educational institution at Tuskegee, Alabama, that had been set up by Booker T Washington, the leading African-American spokesperson of the time. On his return Dube established the Ohlange Institute in Natal at which Chief Albert Luthuli himself studied.
As we celebrate the fruits of a selfless struggle, we need to recall that Africa is the initiator of civilisation and that men and women of the world used to come to Africa to learn about the matters of the world, chief among which were Greek philosophers.
When it comes to deepening democracy, human dignity and equality, we said in the Reconstruction and Development Programme that -
Our people, with their aspirations and collective determination, are our most important resources. In linking democracy, development, human rights and a people-centred approach, we are paving the way for a new democratic order. The thoroughgoing democratisation of our society that must transform both the state and civil society is therefore an active process, enabling everybody to contribute.
Our Constitution, in its founding provisions, sets out the values of our new and fledgling democracy as values of human dignity, the achievement of equality, the advancement of human rights and freedoms, nonracialism and nonsexism, the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and universal adult suffrage, a national common voters' roll, regular elections, and a multiparty system of democratic government.
As I conclude, hon Deputy Speaker, allow me to say that, based on these provisions of the Constitution, we have transformed Parliament, set up Chapter 9 institutions, put in place programmes for public participation, repealed discriminatory laws and enacted policies and laws that enable greater gender equality. We have put in place a policy framework and institutions to ensure a caring society.
The strategy and tactics document of the ANC adopted in 2007 notes, inter alia, that the South African nation, as it currently stands, came from various streams and parts of the continent. Today we are pleased that all our people, both black and white, are united in their diversity and are working together to build a truly nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and united country in which the value of every individual will be measured by our common humanity. I thank you, hon Deputy Speaker. Happy Freedom Month! [Applause.]