Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Daniel Mokonyane, Alexandra (Township) Bus Boycott Leader

Daniel Mogoasha Mokonyane (Mothlabaneng, South Africa, 16 October 1930 - London, 16 October 2010) was a South African political revolutionary and (in exile) writer and legal academic. Latterly residing in London, he was best known for his leadership during the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott, one of the most successful single-issue campaigns undertaken during Apartheid.[1]
Mokonyane was born in 1930 in Mothlabaneng, near Mahwelereng, in Limpopo province. After being expelled from boarding school in Polokwane for being argumentative about politics and the need for equality for all races, he moved to Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, living in a house owned by his father, in order to attend school in Soweto. He later majored in economics and philosophy at the University of Witwatersrand.
During his time at school, Mokonyane joined the Society of Young Africans (SOYA), a group aligned to the Non-European Unity Movement. He later left SOYA to join the Movement For a Democracy of Content. He met and discussed with many anti-apartheid leaders, including Nelson Mandela (African National Congress) and Robert Sobukwe (Pan Africanist Congress).
When the 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott was announced, in protest against the local bus company’s attempt to raise its fares, Mokonyane joined the boycott committee as Publicity Secretary and then later as the Secretary of the Organizing Committee.
He was frequently arrested and imprisoned during the campaign against the pass laws. In 1960, after the Sharpeville Massacre, he was served with a Banishment Order from Alexandra township and fled from South Africa to the United Kingdom. He was appointed to a research position at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He then studied for a law degree at the University of London, obtained a higher degree in human rights at the University of Kent and researched in planning law at the University of Wales. He eventually became a Senior Lecturer in Law at Middlesex University in North London, specialising in Jurisprudence. Despite increasing illness, he last visited South Africa in 2009.
Mokonyane published two books. Lessons of Azikwelwa: the Bus Boycott in South Africa (1979, second edition 1994) is a first-hand account of the Alexandra Bus Boycott.[2] The Big Sell-Out (1994) is a vehement critique of what Mokonyane saw as a contemptible failure by the Communist Party of South Africa and the African National Congress (and others) to translate the removal of Apartheid into improving the lot of the masses.[3] Both books were reissued posthumously in 2011, in corrected reprints with new introductory material emphasising their continuing relevance to South African politics, as well as biographical material.[4]
While in London, Mokonyane mixed closely with South African musicians in exile, such as Jabula, including his nephew the guitarist Lucky Ranku. Mokonyane's wife, Sue, predeceased him; he is survived by his partner, Mary. A memorial service for him was held in London and he was buried with a traditional funeral in Mahwelereng, where a brother and two sisters live.[5]

Roger Moens, Belgian Middle Distance Runner and 800 Meter Record Holder

Roger Moens (born 26 April 1930)[1] is a former Belgian middle-distance runner. In 1955 he broke Rudolf Harbig's long-standing world record over 800 meters.[2] At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome he won a silver medal in the 800 m.[3]

On 3 August 1955, in the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Moens improved Rudolf Harbig’s 16-year-old 800-meter world record of 1:46.6, running 1.45.7. He finished two-tenths of a second ahead of Norwegian Audun Boysen, who was also under the previous world record.
Moens' global record would stand for seven years, until it was improved in 1962 by New Zealander Peter Snell. As a Belgian record it stood for 20 years until broken in 1975 by Ivo Van Damme, who ran 1:45.31.
On 8 August 1956, Moens along with his teammates set a world record in the 4 × 800 meter relay with a time of 7.15.8. Yet he did not go to the Melbourne Olympic Games, which took place in November. In training at night on a tennis court, he ran into a pole, injured himself, and, as world record holder and Olympic favorite, was forced to withdraw from the Games.
At the Rome Olympic Games in 1960, Moens at the age of 30 felt confident about the 800 meters. Biding his time in the race, Moens followed the pack, waiting to unleash his final sprint in the straightaway. Coming off the final turn and into the straight, Moens moved strongly into the lead and appeared to have the race won but Snell, a complete unknown at the time, passed him on the left shortly before the finish tape. Snell won by inches in 1:46.3 to Moens’ 1:46.5. Immediately after the finish Moens threw himself on the grass and stayed there with his head in his hands. Years later, when asked whether the final in Rome still haunted him, he said, "Ah, it makes no sense to look back."[4]
After retiring from competitions Moens served as a sports commentator for VRT; he interviewed his former rival Snell at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. A criminology graduate he also worked for the Belgian judicial police, eventually becoming a commissioner general.[5]

Billy Modise, African National Congress Activist and South African Ambassador

Billy Modise was an African National Congress (ANC) veteran and former ambassador. He was born on 18 December 1930 in Bloemfontein and passed away on 20 June 2018.[1]

Billy Modise was born on 8 December 1930 in Bloemfontein[2], Orange Free State (now Free State Province).

He received an Anglican scholarship which enabled him to enrol for secondary school in Modeerport. After completing his schooling, between 1950 and 1955 Modise worked at a wholesale store and later for a medical doctor as a clerk to raise money to enable him to further his studies at university. In January 1955, he enrolled at the University of Fort Hare to study medicine[3]. As a student at Fort Hare, he came into contact with politicians such as Professor ZK Matthews and Govan Mbeki who inspired him to become politically active. He was elected Secretary of the ANC Youth League for the Fort Hare branch, and later served as secretary of the Student Representative Council. He also became a member of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) serving as an executive member. In 1959 he switched from studying medicine to a BA degree[4].


While at Fort Hare University, the apartheid government introduced the University Extension Bill, which legalised tertiary segregation, forcing students of different races to go to separate universities. He was at the forefront of fighting against the bill but did not succeed. In January 1960 he was asked by NUSAS to attend a conference in Switzerland[5]. Fearing arrest he initially declined, although after advice from his family and the ANC he then accepted. It was around that time that the Lund University Students Union in Sweden offered him a scholarship to go abroad and study medicine. While studying in Sweden, he started mobilizing college student formations against Apartheid and networking on behalf of the ANC. He was a founding member of the South African Committee in Lund alongside Lars-Erik Johansson and Ulf Agrell[6]. The Committee convened meetings, printed publications, leaflets and campaigned parliamentarians to help the battle against Apartheid.
Between 1960 and 1972, Modise travelled across Europe in an attempt to mobilize people in FinlandDenmark and Norway to boycott all South African products[7].
In 1966 the ANC Youth and Student Section (ANC YSS) was formed, with Former President Thabo Mbeki as leader in the United Kingdom. ANC YSS would later play critical roles in the country’s transition to a democracy[8]. The leadership of the ANC YSS included Billy Modise, Joe Nhlanhla who would later become Mbeki’s first minister of intelligence and was the chair of the ASA (The African Students Association) in Moscow and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Jackie Selebi along with many others[9]. The ANC YSS had two main objectives: looking after the welfare of the ANC youth and mobilising youth against apartheid internationally
In 1975 he was redeployed to the United States to work in New York for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)‚ where he was preparing policy papers on resettlements. From 1976 to 1988‚ he also worked for the UN‚ training exiled Namibians in political science‚ sociology and education‚ among other courses.
In 1988 he left the UN to work for the ANC full-time[10]. He was sent back to Sweden as chief representative of the ANC. Modise returned to South Africa in 1990 and was deployed at the ANC head office in Johannesburg. In 1991 he was tasked with heading the Matla Trust‚ which had been established to prepare for the 1994 elections at the then Shell House ANC headquarters. After the first democratic elections, he was posted abroad as South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada in 1995, to become democratic South Africa’s first black High Commissioner[11]. He also served as the Chief of State Protocol under President Thabo Mbeki from 1999 to 2006. Modise served on a number of boards, including those of South African Airways and Kgodiso Investments.
Billy Modise married Yolisa Bokwe in 1964. They then went on to have one daughter, Thandi.
Modise is a recipient of the annual Ubuntu Awards[12], which recognise South African industry leaders and distinguished persons for their distinguished service and contribution to promoting South Africa’s national interests and values across the world.
In 2008 Ambassador Modise received the Order of Luthuli – Silver Class from former President Thabo Mbeki for excellent contribution in the achievement of a South Africa free of racial oppression and contributing to the building of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa[13].
He also received the Premier’s Excellence Award from the Premier of the Free State for his contribution towards the liberation struggle and South Africa in general[14].
On 16 November 2017 the Swedish Ambassador to South Africa, H.E. Ambassador Cecilia Julin, at the decision of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, bestowed the Order of the Polar Star on ACCORD Trustee H.E. Ambassador Billy Modise[15].
Ambassador Modise was a member of ACCORD’s Board of Trustees from 2007 until his passing in June 2018[16].


Saturday, November 3, 2018

Mobutu Sese Seko, Military Dictator of Zaire

Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga[a] (/məˈbt ˈsɛs ˈsɛk/; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was the military dictator and President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which he renamed Zaire in 1971) from 1965 to 1997. He also served as Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1967–1968.
During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu, serving as chief of staff of the army and supported by Belgium and the United States, deposed the nationalist government of Patrice Lumumba in 1960. Mobutu installed a government that arranged for Lumumba's execution in 1961. Mobutu continued to lead the country's armed forces until he took power directly in a second coup in 1965. As part of his program of "national authenticity", he changed the Congo's name to Zaire in 1971, and his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko in 1972.
Mobutu developed a totalitarian regime, amassed vast personal wealth, and attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence. At the same time, he was given considerable support by the West and China, owing to his strong anti-Soviet stance. He was the object of a pervasive cult of personality.[1] During his reign, Mobutu amassed a large personal fortune through economic exploitation and corruption, leading some to call his rule a "kleptocracy".[2][3] The nation suffered from uncontrolled inflation, a large debt, and massive currency devaluations. By 1991, economic deterioration and unrest led him to agree to share power with opposition leaders, but he used the army to thwart change until May 1997, when rebel forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila expelled him from the country. Already suffering from advanced prostate cancer, he died three months later in Morocco.
Marshal Mobutu became notorious for corruptionnepotism, and the embezzlement of an estimated US$4 billion and $15 billion during his reign. He was known for extravagances such as shopping trips to Paris via the supersonic and expensive Concorde.[4] He presided over the country for more than three decades, a period of widespread human rights violations. In 2011, Time magazine described him as the "archetypal African dictator".[4]

Mobutu Sese Seko, also called Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, original nameJoseph (-Désiré) Mobutu, (born October 14, 1930, Lisala, Belgian Congo [now Democratic Republic of the Congo]—died September 7, 1997, Rabat, Morocco), president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) who seized power in a 1965 coup and ruled for some 32 years before being ousted in a rebellion in 1997.
Mobutu was educated in missionary schools and began his career in 1949 in the Belgian Congolese army, the Force Publique, rising from a clerk to a sergeant major, the highest rank then open to Africans. While still in the army, Mobutu contributed articles to newspapers in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). After his discharge in 1956 he became a reporter for the daily L’Avenir (“The Future”) and later editor of the weekly Actualités Africaines.
Through his press contacts Mobutu met the Congolese nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba, whose Congolese National Movement (Mouvement National Congolais; MNC) he joined soon after it was launched in 1958. In 1960 Mobutu represented Lumumba at the Brussels Round Table Conference on Congo independence until the release of Lumumba, who had been jailed for his nationalist activities in the Congo. During the conference, Mobutu supported Lumumba’s proposals (which were adopted) for a strongly centralized state for the independent Congo.
When the Congo became independent on June 30, 1960, the coalition government of President Joseph Kasavubu and Premier Lumumba appointed Mobutu secretary of state for national defense. Eight days later the Congo’s Force Publique mutinied against its Belgian officers. As one of the few officers with any control over the army (gained by liberally dispensing commissions and back pay to the mutineers), Mobutu was in a position to influence the developing power struggle between Kasavubu and Lumumba.
Mobutu covertly supported Kasavubu’s attempt to dismiss Lumumba. When Lumumba rallied his forces to oust Kasavubu in September 1960, Mobutu seized control of the government and announced that he was “neutralizing” all politicians. In February 1961, however, Mobutu turned over the government to Kasavubu, who made Mobutu commander in chief of the armed forces. Many believe that Mobutu bore some responsibility for the death of Lumumba, who was arrested by Mobutu’s troops and flown to Katanga, where, it is believed, he was killed by Congolese or Katangese troops.
As commander in chief Mobutu reorganized the army. In 1965, after a power struggle had developed between President Kasavubu and his premier, Moise Tshombe, Mobutu removed Kasavubu in a coup and assumed the presidency. Two years later Mobutu put down an uprising led by white mercenaries attached to the Congolese army. His efforts to revive the Congo’s economy included such measures as nationalizing the Katanga copper mines and encouraging foreign investment. Agricultural revitalization lagged, however, and consequently, the need for food imports increased.
As president, Mobutu moved to Africanize names. The name of the country was changed in October 1971 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo [Kinshasa]) to the Republic of Zaire (the country reverted to its earlier name in 1997). In January 1972 he changed his own name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (“The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”).
Mobutu attempted to soften the military nature of his regime by filling government posts with civilians. He sought to build popular support through his Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution; MPR), which until 1990 was the country’s only legal party. Opposition to his rule came from numerous Congolese exiles, ethnic groups that had played decisive roles in previous governments, small farmers who gained no share in the attempted economic revival, and some university students. He also faced a continuing threat of attacks on the Shaba region (Mobutu’s Africanized name for the Katanga province) by Katangese rebels based in Angola.
In 1977 Mobutu had to request French military intervention to repel an invasion of Zaire by Angolan-backed Katangese. He was reelected to the presidency in one-man contests in 1970 and 1977. Over the years Mobutu proved adept at maintaining his rule in the face of internal rebellions and attempted coups, but his regime had little success in establishing the conditions needed for economic growth and development. Endemic governmental corruption, mismanagement, and neglect led to the decline of the country’s infrastructure, while Mobutu himself reportedly amassed one of the largest personal fortunes in the world.
With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, Mobutu lost much of the Western financial support that had been provided in return for his intervention in the affairs of Zaire’s neighbours. Marginalized by the multiparty system and ill, Mobutu finally relinquished control of the government in May 1997 to the rebel leader Laurent Kabila, whose forces had begun seizing power seven months earlier. Mobutu died in exile a short time later.

Hank Mobley, American Tenor Saxophonist

Henry "HankMobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Stan Getz, and his style that was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players like Sonny Rollins and Coltrane. The critic Stacia Proefrock claimed he is "one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era."[1]

Mobley was born in Eastman, Georgia, but was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near Newark.[2] When he was 16, an illness kept him in the house for several months. His grandmother thought of buying a saxophone to help him occupy his time, and it was then that Mobley began to play. He tried to enter a music school in Newark, but could not, since he was not a resident, so he kept studying through books at home.


At 19, he started to play with local bands and, months later, worked for the first time with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach.[3] He took part in one of the earliest hard bop sessions, alongside Art BlakeyHorace SilverDoug Watkins and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. The results of these sessions were released as Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. They contrasted with the classical inclinations of cool jazz, with Mobley's rich lyricism being bluesier, alongside the funky approach of Silver. When The Jazz Messengers split in 1956, Mobley continued on with pianist Silver for a short time, although he did work again with Blakey some years later, when the drummer appeared on Mobley's albums in the early 1960s.
In 1956, Mobley recorded the album Mobley's Message with Jackie McLean and Donald Byrd. AllMusic gave the album 4 stars out of 5, and users gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars.[4]
During the 1960s, he worked chiefly as a leader, recording over 20 albums for Blue Note Records between 1955 and 1970, including Soul Station (1960), generally considered to be his finest recording,[5] and Roll Call (1960). He performed with many of the other important hard bop players, such as Grant GreenFreddie HubbardSonny ClarkWynton Kelly and Philly Joe Jones, and formed a particularly productive partnership with trumpeter Lee Morgan. Mobley is widely recognized as one of the great composers of originals in the hard bop era, with interesting chord changes and room for soloists to stretch out.
Mobley spent a brief time in 1961 with Miles Davis, during the trumpeter's search for a replacement for John Coltrane. He is heard on the album Someday My Prince Will Come(alongside Coltrane, who returned for the recording of two tracks), and several live recordings (In Person: Live at the Blackhawk and At Carnegie Hall). Though considered by some as not having the improvisational fire of Coltrane, Mobley was known for his melodic playing.

Mobley was forced to retire in the mid-1970s, due to lung problems. He worked two engagements at the Angry Squire in New York City November 22 and 23, 1985, and January 11, 1986, in a quartet with Duke Jordan and guest singer Lodi Carr a few months before his death from pneumonia in 1986.[6]