Rembering Aparthied: South Africa's famed offspring bare pain, pride of their past

By Randall Beach - Register Staff

STORRS - Pride, pain, anger and forgiveness were etched on the faces of the sons and daughters of South Africa's civil rights leaders Thursday as they described their parents' struggles and the toll on their families.

"When my father closed his eyes for the last time, my childhood evaporated," said Nkosinathi Biko, recalling the day Steve Biko died after being savagely beaten by South Africa's security police.

"I was a young boy of 6 1/2," Biko noted.

His testimony was part of a conference at the University of Connecticut titled: "Building Upon Legacies: Children of Human Rights Struggles."

The gathering also drew Nontombi Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Paul Robeson Jr., son of the activist- entertainer, several other "children" of the South African struggle and Dumisa Ntsebeza, the judge for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Several hundred people crowded a ballroom for the event, including college, high school and middle school students.
Social studies teacher Cordelia Isiofia brought 10 of her seven graders from Harborside Middle School in Milford so they could hear firsthand accounts of what they have been studying.

After leaders such as Biko and Tutu garnered international outrage over the South African system of apartheid (racial segregation), the system finally was overthrown and in 1995 the South African Parliament created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A new constitution with a Bill of Rights also was created and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela became president.

But the conference speakers said the commission has struggled to bring to justice those who carried out the cruelties of apartheid.
"South Africa has not won freedom and has not attained justice," said Somadoda Fikeni, who was detained six times for anti-apartheid actions. "Very little concessions have been made."

When Biko rose to speak, he captivated the audience with his emotional reflections, especially about receiving the news in September 1977 that his father had died in prison.

"I remember two things about the day of his death: extremely dark clouds covered the sky and the sight of my mother in tears," he said.

Biko noted the security police who killed his father still claim he was injured in a "scuffle" and have not been punished.

Later during the conference, Tutu, now studying in London, reminded the crowd that Americans have to keep working on their own racial problems.

Tutu said although her father and others are recognized leaders in the civil rights struggle, "They aren't the only ones. The real participants have to be all of us."

Tutu added, "It behooves us ... to be impatient each and every day there is oppression, whether in this country or South Africa or Bosnia."

Other speakers included whites whose parents fought alongside blacks to eliminate apartheid. Gillian Slovo, daughter of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, recalled the pervasive fear during her childhood. "There was the constant threat of losing our parents forever."
And on the day in 1982 when Slovo, then living abroad, learned her mother had been killed by a letter bomb sent by South African police, she said she wasn't surprised. "It was something I'd been dreading and expecting all my life."

The Harborside students were moved by the testimony. "It must have been hard to be a child of a person involved in the civil rights movement and see your parents going to jail, being beat up and getting threatening phone calls," said 12-year-old Jessica Banks.

"I'm really pleased at how much other people sacrificed for us," said Ashley Pandya, who is also 12.