SMUTS DOMINATED WHITE SOUTH AFRICA FOR 50 YEARS
Many factors contribute to the recognition of icons that dominate an era or a period. Timing, significance, circumstances under which the figures operate and the ultimate perceptions of their role are some of the factors that play a part in whether they are immortalized. Jay H. Ell would like to focus on one such giant who has slipped under the radar screen both nationally and internationally - the South African, Jan Christiaan Smuts, (1870 - 1950). South Africa, for a small country, has had the remarkable distinction of having four Nobel Peace winners - Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, F. W. de Klerk and Albert Luthuli. The latter an earlier leader of the ANC was a humble colossus who was part of the bedrock of opposition to apartheid in it’s earlier days. (Luthuli was a man of absolute conviction and integrity and who stuck to his non violent credo in the face of humiliation and abuse by the apartheid government). Everybody and every organization, supportive of change, who wanted his advice and imprimatur he obliged. Jay H. Ell remembers how gracious he was when he accepted the position of the Honorary Presidency of the non racial National Union of South African Students. But at least Luthuli is recognized in post apartheid South Africa if still largely unknown to the world. Smuts for his part, had an airport named after him that had its name changed - one of the few significant name changes that the post apartheid government effected. He is lumped with the whole racist Afrikaner Nationalist history and is very non politically correct in anti - apartheid circles. Smuts is, on the other hand, ironically, similarly overlooked by modern day South African writers when looking at the early history of twentieth century white rule. They rather focus on the evolution of the ultimate progenitors of apartheid.
So neither side claims him as their own. But Smuts completely dominated the first half of twentieth Century white South African rule and at the same time strutted large on the world stage. There too he has been largely overlooked and his legacy is as a supporter of apartheid and white segregationist rule. At best this is a very simplistic assessment of a highly complex man and ignores several dimensions including the time and era that he operated in.
COMETH THE TIME COMETH THE MAN?
Some historical figures are forgiven for their behavior that was in tandem with the norm in their era and the focus remains on their achievements. Thomas Jefferson, the father of American Democracy verbalized the concept of “inalienable rights” and the idea of protections against tyranny by the majority. Yet he was the owner of hundreds of slaves. He believed in the education of, literally, every man - woman not as yet. He has known to have cohabited with at least one of his slaves - could have hardly been a relationship based on equal power differential. Yet Jeffersonian democracy is what it is all about. Abe Lincoln would have not ventured offering the newly emancipated slaves a vote. That had to wait yet another 100 years. In other words politicians regardless of their beliefs can only go so fast and no faster. Jefferson apparently was against slavery and Lincoln would have loved to have given the “Negroes" the franchise. It is all such a slow process. In the words of Nelson Mandela it is “A Long Walk To Freedom”.
However, the consensus on Smuts was that he was more of the same as the progenitors of apartheid. Yet the election he lost to the Nationalists in 1948 was fought over the issue of the introduction of apartheid which he vigorously opposed. One serious commentator, Keppel - Jones was then prompted to write a book entitled, “When Smuts Goes”. This prophesied the future of South Africa sans Smuts. There Jones envisioned a United Nations force ultimately liberating a racist South Africa. So at least Smuts deserves another look before finally relegating him to the dustbin of history.
IN THE BEGINNING.
Smuts, an Afrikaner, was born into the politics of conflict between the two white groups that had colonized Southern Africa - the English and the Afrikaner or Boer, who were of Dutch extraction. The latter had a much longer history in South Africa, having been there almost 150 years earlier. The conquering English were deeply resented by the Afrikaners as they had taken away their slaves as well as driving them out of two Provinces, the Cape and Natal which they had governed. (Both Allen Drury - “A Very Strange Society" and James Michener - “The Covenant”, captured the conflict and the roots superbly).
Smuts was exceptional academically and after graduating, at a young age, he went to Cambridge, on a scholarship, where he studied law. According to Smuts, in his own writings, Lord Todd, the Master of Christ College Cambridge, claimed that the College had produced three outstanding minds in the past 500 years - John Milton, Charles Darwin and Jan Smuts.
Smuts on returning to Cape Town South Africa began practicing law but his abrasive, no - nonsense, non toleration of fools, and frank manner did not win him to many clients. Thus he drifted into politics and journalism. Smuts had been impressed with the English system of jurisprudence and general fairness from earlier times. This had been illustrated in his choice of oversea University in the pursuit of his scholarship.
SMUTS AND RHODES
At that time Cape was under British sovereignty although the four provinces in Southern Africa were self governing. Two were dominated by the English and were more “liberal” and the other two were the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. As a citizen of the more liberal Cape he very soon threw in his lot with Cecil John Rhodes the British Imperialist who was an outspoken activist for a united South Africa - i. e. the English and the Boers. This won Smuts few friends amongst the Afrikaners of the Boer Republics. His relationship with Rhodes ended when the latter attempted to invade the Boer Republic of the Transvaal. Disillusioned and betrayed he moved to the Transvaal where he was about to play a dominant role.
SMUTS THE BOER.
At the age of twenty - seven Smuts was promoted by the fundamentalist Boer patriarch, the President of Transvaal, Paul Kruger in the key role as Minister of Justice. In no time Smuts wrote legislation that allowed Kruger to do exactly as he pleased, including prosecuting Rhodes's allies that had attempted to oust Kruger. (While the ostensible aim of the coup was the Englishman’s rights in the Transvaal the real objectives were gold and British Imperialism). This incursion was interpreted as an act of war by the Transvaal.
In the aftermath of what became known as The Jameson Raid, it became obvious that no peace could be brokered between the two factions, so Smuts skillfully set the British a mandate that they could not fulfill and that would lead to war against an unprepared Britain, (1898). Smuts and a group of Boer Generals reeked havoc on the British in the early days of the war. The failure of the Boers to achieve an early victory allowed the British to regroup and send in large scale troop deployments. This failure was as a result of the timidity of the otherwise wily Boer Generals and their inability to capitalize on their advantage. They indulged in endless futile sieges of towns and declined to invade the Cape. De la Rey, a highly respected Boer General, cautioned restraint - “When God gives a finger do not take a hand”. The upshot of this all was the initial dominance was frittered away and the Boers were left to resort to gorilla warfare.
PEACE TREATY BETWEEN THE BOERS AND BRITISH
Largely as an outcome of the Boer tactic of guerrilla warfare it became obvious that no side could decisively win. General Kitchener, the then Head of British forces, selected Smuts to negotiate a truce and peace talks. He convinced Smuts on the basis that Campbell - Bannerman, the liberal politician, would soon take over British politics and would offer them everything they were fighting for.
Persuading Smuts was the easy part as his inherent trust in British fair play must have contributed plenty. The chief obstacle to this solution was the majority of Boer Generals who wanted absolutely no truck with their enemy. Smuts mercilessly cajoled the doubters, with the help of highly respected ally Louis Botha who was to be his protecsia for many years to come. He mislead several of the Boer Generals who agreed to lay down arms only on condition that they would take their country back when the British were weakened or had their backs turned.
So the Peace of Vereeniging was signed in 1902 on very liberal terms for the losers. South Africa was still divided into four provinces all now under British rule. The Afrikaners in the Transvaal with Botha and Smuts at their lead formed a party “Het Volk”. The latter’s main platform was to win back independence with Botha as the leader and Smuts, his all powerful deputy.
So in the real politik of South Africa those that were not white were not a factor other than the fact the Afrikaner held the fear that the English would join with the other races so as to permanently dominate them, (Afrikaners). The British for their part were relatively more liberal but were at best “paternalistic” - a position that they held everywhere till the post war breakdown of their Empire.
THE FOUNDING OF THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Fulfilling Smuts’s faith in the British they delivered Independence to the four Provinces. This was within a few years of the Boer War that ended in 1902. As Kitchener prophesied Campbell - Bannerman, who was elected in 1906, delivered.
The problem now was welding these four disparate provinces into a single country. Here Smuts was, once again at his negotiating best. The Cape already had a qualified franchise for the Colored and African population and their premier wanted rights for all in the Union. There was no way that the Boer Republics would buy this. Each Province wanted control. Smuts saw to it that Transvaal obtained the administrative capitol, the Cape the legislative capitol and the Orange Free State, the Judicial. Natal got monetary compensation. Each province retained control over their franchises, education, roads, health and other local activities.
The “native” question was not left totally in the Union’s hands. As a compromise English and Dutch, (to become Afrikaans), became the official languages. All in all the formation of the Union was yet another tour de force orchestrated by the wily Smuts. Botha became its first Prime Minister and Smuts held the power.
The Boers that opposed him were angered at his autocratic style and the fact that the English were still in dominance. But it hung together till the dawning of the first world war and Smuts’s unyielding attitude to the white mine workers. The latter behavior precipitated the formation of the National Party, the forerunner of the party that was ultimately going to introduce apartheid.BOER GENERAL REBELLION PUT DOWN BY SMUTS
THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
Just one note on the issue of race it was impinging only slightly on the white political scene as the disunity of the whites held center stage. South Africa was the theatre that Mohandas Ghandi premiered his passive resistance philosophy. He acted in support of the rights of the many of Indian descent that worked in the sugar fields of Natal. It is obvious that Smuts empathized with Gandhi and the two had nothing but respect for each other. When Ghandhi left South Africa in 1914 he presented Smuts with a pair of handmade slippers. Many years later Smuts returned them and in a rare moment of humility confessed that he could not be in the shoes of such a great man.
But that was by the by. The First World War was to cement the split between the Botha and Smuts and English axis and the purist Afrikaners. The Boer Generals came to Smuts and said the English were distracted in a war and it was now time to take back the country. Smuts reneged and told them they had the independence they had fought for and not only was he not going to fight the English he was going to fight for them. This lead to rebellion with some of the Boer heroes being killed in the process.SMUTS THE IMPERIALIST
Smuts captured South West Africa and East Africa from the Germans. His military expertise, according to experts, was grossly exaggerated but he became all the rage in Europe. This former enemy was made a member of the British War Cabinet whose opinion was avidly sought. Whatever was tricky was given to Smuts to work on both military and internal. There was a Welsh Miners’ Coal Strike that was hampering the war effort - they sent Smuts and he persuaded them to return to the mines. Also when Churchill had his Gallipoli catastrophe it was Smuts whose support saved him from utter humiliation and a lifelong friendship was forged.
PEACE OF VERSAILLES, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, PHILOSOPHER AND ONWARD UP TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR ON THE WORLD STAGE.
Smuts was one of the participants of two post World War 1 historic events. Both he and Botha played important roles at the Peace of Versailles. South Africa was granted the mandate over South West Africa. The League of Nations was really Smuts's idea although ownership is given to Woodrow Wilson with whom he formed a close alliance. The Peace of Versailles dragged on as the allies attempted to exact every drop of blood out of the vanquished. Smuts warned that if the allies stuck to their guns there would be a war in Europe within a few decades. Smuts was now very much part of the world scene. He was a key member of the then most important club in the world, the British Commonwealth.
In 1920 at a Imperial Conference he called for Dominion Status for Ireland, similar to that of South Africa.This after he was called into to broker a peace between the waring British and Ireland. He was a sort after guest speaker and honoree, anywhere and everywhere in the world where he spoke broadly of the concept of freedom. Back at home the Afrikaner opposition sneered at him calling him, "The handyman of the British Empire".
In 1926 he published a book entitled Holism and Evolution. This was the first time this time the word was coined and it represented the new paradigm. A new way of looking at the world. The world had always been defined in reductionist Cartesian terms and Smuts opined that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Smuts saw this evolution as part of the way he saw the world. There needed to be integrated bodies such as the League of Nations.This was a philosophical interpretation of Einstonian physics and Einstein acknowledged this in a letter to Smuts in 1936. Einstein stated that besides his own theories Holism and Evolution had influenced him more than anything else. This concept was being echoed in every discipline from anthropology to philosophy but it was Smuts who first used the term “Holism”.
He also was a fervent supporter of Zionism and corresponded with Weizmann, who was to become the first President on Israel, giving him his full support.
Smuts too was a botanist of international repute. He relaxed by climbing up Table Mountain in the Cape.
IN SOUTH AFRICA BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS.
Louis Botha was to die in 1919 and Smuts was to take over the Premiership. A position he held until 1925 when he was surprisingly beaten by the Nationalist Party under Herzog. The irony was that the Nationalist Party had made a pact with the socialistic Labor Party that was predominantly English speaking in order to defeat Smuts. Meanwhile Black rights were getting nowhere fast - not that were not trying, they were just being fobbed off. Herzog was to suffer defeat in the early 1930’s for economic reasons. He refused to go off the gold standard. Smuts saw this as a chance to once again unify the whites and formed the United Party giving Herzog the Premiership. The latter compromised on remaining within the British Commonwealth and Smuts gave in on “Native Policy”. In 1936 the Africans were taken of the common roll in the Cape in favor of three white representatives, who as it so happens effectively pleaded their cause for decades to come.
So Smuts once again compromised black aspiration for white unity.
This was all to come unstuck with the advent of the second world war. Once again the issue arose as to whether Britain’s war was South Africa’s. Smuts had no doubt. Herzog wanted to remain neutral. There were a group, who were to become the purified National Party, that either overtly or covertly supported the Nazis. Smuts won the day and once again assumed the premiership. This time he made as his deputy the leader of the liberal faction of the United Party, Jan Hofmeyer. The latter had an intellect that matched Smuts and while not officially acknowledged, was to assume the mantle of progressiveness. He was the strongest advocate for black rights in white politics and finally this important area was being addressed at the highest level. On the ground the Communist Party attracted much support for their all embracing support of equality and championing the black cause.
THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND AFTER.
Once again Smuts was to be thrust on the world stage. Militarily he was now a Field Marshall. He was a confidant of Churchill who consulted him often. Jay H. Ell was a personal friend of Smuts's Chief of Staff, the late David Graaff. The latter related to him a story where Churchill had summoned Smuts to Cairo. The issue was said to be so delicate that Churchill would only discuss it in person with Smuts. Graaff felt it related to Field Marshall Montgomery who had replaced Auchinlek as Commander of the Eighth Army. Apparently, Churchill had expressed reservations about Montgomery as popular as he was with the troops. Graaff’s recollections were that Churchill agreed with Smuts’s counsel and Montgomery was retained.
It was common knowledge that it had been discussed, with Churchill’s acquiescence, as early as 1940 in inner political and Royal circles that should some ill come to Churchill that Smuts should assume the leadership of the war struggle on behalf of the United Kingdom and the allies. Even talk of such an eventuality illustrated the esteem Smuts was held in. This would have made him leader of the free world - Roosevelt was still very much on the sidelines.
Immediately after the war Smuts drafted the preamble to the United Nations Charter becoming the only signatory to both the League of Nations and UNO and also the only signatory to both World War Peace accords.
MEANWHILE BACK IN SOUTH AFRICA
Smuts realized he could no longer put black rights on the back burner and in 1946 appointed the Fagin commission to examine the future of blacks in urban areas. He also faced a hammering at the UNO about Indian rights in South Africa and was acutely sensitive to the disparity between his world persona and the South African reality.
He now felt omnipotent both at home and in the world. He had hands down won an election in 1944 and appeared unchallengable. The whole royal family were to visit South Africa for an extended visit in 1947 clearly out of deference to him. He supported the findings of the Fagin report that would grant urban black workers rights of domicile with their families. This would obviously have to lead to political rights. The Fagin report created a massive reaction among the purified National Party. Their worst fears were about to be realized. The English and the Smuts Afrikaners were going to gang up with the Blacks against them and the true Afrikaner would never gain the ascendancy. Also looming ahead was massive English and European Immigration to South Africa that once and for all would settle the deal. They stirred up nationalistic resentment to what appeared to be the future. They injected the crudest racist barbs into the campaign.
The Nationalist propaganda was gaining support among the electorate. Smuts was approached by two of his younger but influential caucus members, Harry Lawrence and Hamilton Russell who told him that things were not going as well as he might think. Zac de Beer, a subsequent leader of the Progressive Party told Jay H. Ell that the latter pleaded with Smuts to redelimit the seats of parliament. Certain urban Smuts strongholds had four times as many votes as rural ones and he needed to correct the imbalance. Smuts was unmoved. He told them they need not worry while he was still around. They could see to that type of thing once he had gone.
Smuts’s party lost the election by a few seats having easily gained the plurality of votes. He had one more chance to retain power. The purified National Party did not have a clear majority of seats and the balance of power was held by a small middle of the road group called the Afrikaner party. Their leader wanted a coalition with Smuts. In return he wanted to be named the Deputy Prime Minister. Smuts refused this lifeline as there was no way he would deal with Mr. Havenga as the latter had voted against going to war with Germany.
The rest is sadly history. There was no delimitation or immigration from the United Kingdom or Europe. The Fagin report was ignored and the black rights that were on the books were whittled away. And with that, all of Smuts’s legacy vanished. Both he and Hofmeyer, his liberal heir apparent, died within a few years of each other. South Africa was to degenerate to the segregation standards of the American Southern States.
Jay H. Ell still believes that the man who nearly prevented apartheid deserves some recognition. Maybe the Cape Town airport could be named after him or does he deserve the oblivion he has been relegated too because of his arrogance at a crucial stage in South Africa’s history. One can hardly condemn a politician for not doing the impossible. As Lyndon Johnson, when President, answered a civil rights activist who enquired how after his opposition to Civil Rights he had become its greatest proponent - “Free at last, free at last - thank God almighty I am free at last".
The difference between Smuts, the visionary, the statesman, the warrior, the negotiator, the philosopher, the scientist and Lyndon Johnson was the latter never gave up counting votes and finally achieved what he stated were his life long goals - Civil Rights and The War on Poverty. (But then again LBJ too had his problems as his achievements were all but forgotten because of the Vietnam war……).
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