Late Guyanese President Forbes Burnham is to be honoured by the South African government with the Order of the Companion of OR Tambo, established in 2002, which is conferred on foreign citizens who have “promoted South African interests and aspirations through cooperation, solidarity, and support.”
During the 1970s and 1980s, under Burnham’s leadership, Guyana played a leading role among third world countries in opposing apartheid in South Africa and helping liberation movements in southern Africa.
According to a press release issued on behalf of his family yesterday, Roxane Van West Charles will travel to South Africa to accept the award, which was conferred posthumously on her father by President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. She will be accompanied by her sister, Dr Francesca Onu, and her husband, Dr Richard Van West Charles. The award ceremony will take place on April 27.
The release said that the letter from the South African government dated March 12, and addressed to Roxane Van West Charles, stated that the award was conferred on Burnham “… for his integral part in sport boycott against South Africa during the apartheid regime and support for the liberation movement and freedom fighters in South Africa.”
In the release, a spokesman for the Burnham family pointed out that the success of Burnham’s policies on the liberation of Southern Africa in general, and South Africa in particular, is a matter of public record and expressed the view that Burnham’s political, diplomatic and material contribution to the struggle for the termination of colonialism in Africa and the liberation of the states in the southern part of the continent is unarguable.
It said that as a student in London, Burnham had embraced the idea that the African continent must be liberated and worked along with his fellow West Indians and African students and intellectuals towards this goal. On his return to Guyana, Burnham, a deeply divisive figure in Guyana’s politics, made this an essential platform of his Party, the People’s National Congress, which was formed in 1957.
According to the release, there was a sustained effort to educate the Guyanese public about the evolution of events in Southern Africa. Symbolic of his commitment to the liberation of the African continent, Burnham and his political colleagues decided to celebrate “Ghana Day” in commemoration of the independence of Ghana, the first African country to win its independence after the end of the Second World War. It said that Burnham also delivered several speeches to the local legislature to support the argument for the isolation of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
The release continued that as Prime Minister and later President of Guyana the policy of opposition to colonialism and oppression in Southern Africa and the liberation of their peoples was firmly maintained and sustained. It stated that in carrying out his policies on Southern Africa, he was ably assisted by then Foreign Minister, Rashleigh Jackson, and the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Noel Sinclair, among others.
An example given in the release was Burnham’s announcement at the nonaligned Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1970, that Guyana would make an annual contribution to the fight for the liberation of Southern Africa.
A quote from his speech on World Solidarity Day, May 25, 1975, explained this policy of offering material assistance to the liberation movements in Southern Africa: “We give because we considered it our duty to give. We gave not only because to some of us, the Africans are blood brothers, but also because we were convinced, and still are convinced, that so long as imperialism wanders abroad in any part of the world, our own hard-won freedom is at stake.”
The release said that this was complemented by the award of scholarships to African students to educational institutions in Guyana and an active foreign policy which was geared towards isolating the apartheid regime in South Africa, particularly in sports, and sustaining political support for the liberation movements.
The decision to allow Cuban planes to land in Guyana in 1975 en route to Angola demonstrated Burnham’s support for the liberation of Southern Africa. The presence of Cuban troops in Angola not only tilted the balance of forces in favour of the freedom fighters but also changed the strategic equation in Southern Africa and hastened the liberation of several states. The liberation of Angola and Mozambique, among other factors, was consequential to South Africa itself gaining freedom, the release added.
Tambo was a revered South African freedom fighter
