In 1988 driving around the South African outback I saw Ted Kennedy pics hanging in villagers' homes

[HamdenRice]

This was around 1988-89. I was working on a project that was trying to document how the apartheid government had stolen black South Africans' lands over the preceding hundred years, and how they were threatening the last remaining black farming villages outside the homelands, in "white South Africa," with forced removal. I was especially focusing on the last black farming villages of the region called "The Transvaal" -- places with names like Mathopestad and Ga-Makgopa.

It was curious that these villagers, who knew little about American politics, had pictures of Ted Kennedy hanging on the walls of their stucco and thatched roofed or stucco and tin roofed homes. These were not formal pictures, but pictures of Ted Kennedy with village elders.

One of my interviewees, a wonderful storyteller named Abie Rankoko and his chief (a kind of village mayor) named Chief Mathope, told me that Senator Kennedy had come to South Africa to visit the villages threatened by the apartheid government's policy of force removal, and the villagers, only vaguely aware of who he was, had had their pictures taken with the "important" American politician.

They understood that Kennedy's visits made the villages untouchable. His visits showed that even though Ronald Reagan was in power -- Reagan supported the apartheid government -- there were important people in America who were watching. If Kennedy visited the village then basically the government could not steal that community's land.

I don't know the details of how he got there, but I do know that I saw those pictures in some very remote villages in the South African outback.

Without very much fanfare, Ted Kennedy had made trips to rural, black South African villages, to save them, one by one. In several places I went, despite how remote the village was, Senator Kennedy had gotten there before me.

[Jo March]

1. Thank you for posting this

I did not know that about Kennedy. I am not surprised,though.

he will be missed.

[Octafish]

2. Excellent post and work.

Thank you, Hamden Rice.

K&R.

[redqueen]

3. K&R

Thank you for sharing this.

[gateley]

4. Wow. nt

[Barack_America]

5. Happy to K&R this in honor of a truly great man. nt

[jjray7]

6. I believe you are confused

I highly doubt any black South African knew who Ted Kennedy was back in 1988-89 beyond, possibly, that he was the brother of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. OTOH, it would not shock me at all to see pictures of Bobby Kennedy proudly displayed on the walls of poor blacks in South Africa. Why? Bobby Kennedy gave the most famous speech against apartheid on South African soil by a western.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/speech/rfksa.htm

See also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbNJVMtG2OA
(part of the speech is found at the end of the clip)

Full audio of speech here
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkcapetown.ht...

[HamdenRice]

7. Uh, no, I'm not confused

This wasn't about a speech. It was first hand experiences from people I was interviewing who said Ted Kennedy had visited in order to stop forced removals.

As I posted earlier today, two years before the experience described in my OP, I had had the pleasure of having dinner with Sen. Ted Kennedy's national security adviser, Greg Craig (now Obama's White House counsel), who explained that Kennedy was deeply involved in trying to help get "talks about talks" started between the ANC and the government:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Ted Kennedy was deeply involved in South African issues in the 80s.

[tabatha]

14. Yes..

Thank you for sharing your stories.

Also, there were many whites who objected to Edward Kennedy coming to South Africa - so it was well known that he was there. Black and whites, despite the "apartheid", mixed in just about every facet of life.

[jjray7]

26. reply

Then my apology. But Bobby Kennedy had a much larger historically, significant connection to SA than Ted. For me, the taint of Chappaquiddick looms very large over Ted. OTOH, the assassination of Bobby is something I still haven't gotten over. He would have mauled Nixon in the general election in 68.

[HamdenRice]

8. That said, let me tell you a story

Around that same time -- when I was driving around trying to do interviews -- I knew a kind of Johannesburg activist/hustler named Mncedisi. One of his many jobs was that he was a driver/tour guide for the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which Bishop Desmond Tutu, and his successor, Rev. Beyers Naude, used to raise money to fight apartheid, and show visiting dignitaries the injustices of apartheid.

In 1988, a very progressive Senator from Illinois, Paul Simon, was running in the Democratic Primary. Because S. Africa was a big issue, other politicians began coming to SA for political purposes.

Mncedisi was assigned to drive Sen. Simon, some SACC officials and the press around Soweto, Johannesburg's biggest black ghetto. Sen. Simon would get out to shake hands, but the people had absolutely no clue who he was.

Mncedisi told me that at one stop, Sen. Simon was shaking hands with the residents of Soweto and an elderly black woman pulled Mncedisi aside and asked him, "Tell me, my child, is that the Pope?"

So you are right. The average black South African did not know who most American politicians were, but the victims of forced removals definitely knew who Sen. Ted Kennedy was.

[Goblinmonger]

10. This is exactly why, even given our differences and fights,

I would love to sit down over a drink with you. You must have some incredible stories.

[HamdenRice]

11. Same here. And if we have a beer in a bar ...

we will not be allowed to talk about religion!

[roguevalley]

20. Paul Simon was a good man too.

[tabatha]

15. Nope, he is not confused.

Ted Kennedy visited South Africa and walked the slums.

[HamdenRice]

16. Thank you! nt

[RFKHumphreyObama]

9. Cannot recommend this post enough

Have linked to it on my Facebook page as well.

We've truly lost a great man of compassion and courage

[malaise]

12. Lovely post

Teddy was one of the leading American politicians who fought against apartheid.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/03/politics/03REAG.html

[HamdenRice]

13. Here's another totally awsome find from the LA Times I never saw before

Only thing is, they get the geography of Mathopestad wrong. I know from having been there many times, that it is about 75 miles southwest from Johannesburg, not to the north of Pretoria.

Anyway, here's the account of Ted Kennedy bringing up the issue of Mathopestad with the foreign Minister, Pik Botha, and then flying off to the village (so my recollections are not insane):

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-01-07/news/mn-11690_1_...

Kennedy, S. African Talk Apartheid, Find No Accord

January 07, 1985

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), an opponent of the apartheid system of racial segregation, met today with South African Foreign Minister Roelof Botha but the two could not agree on anything.

"I told him that he sees things differently from us and that's it," the foreign minister said.

Kennedy, who is on an eight-day fact-finding mission to gain an understanding of the country and its racial problems, left the government guest house, where the talks were held, without talking to reporters.

Botha told reporters that Kennedy raised "various issues such as the citizenship of blacks in general, voting rights and political rights," and that he responded by stating South Africa's position.

"The purpose of such discussions is certainly not to reach common ground," Botha said.

Kennedy left by helicopter for the rural black settlement of Mathopestad, north of Pretoria. Botha told reporters that the senator asked him about Mathopestad, where black families are being uprooted to be resettled elsewhere.

"I said to him the South African government is against the forceful removal of people, but that must not be confused with removals that must take place for hygienic and medical reasons," Botha said.

Later in the day, after visiting Mathopestad, Kennedy said South Africa's forced relocation of black villagers from areas now designated for whites is "an inhumane and indecent policy, which must be changed."

The black village 80 miles north of Johannesburg is slated by the government to be eliminated and its 2,000 residents moved elsewhere.

"People are being uprooted out of their homes where they have lived for years with their children and their families," Kennedy said.

Under Pretoria's long-range plan, black villages located in areas now designated for whites are to be razed and their residents moved to tribal "homelands" established in rural areas by the government.

<more at link>

[tabatha]

17. The forced removal was brutal.

[HamdenRice]

18. Fortunately, Mathopestad was never removed and was the last attempt

That's how I remember it. Kennedy's trip basically encouraged the government to give up the attempt to continue removals, and Mathopestad survived. Mathopestad was famous for being the last rural Transvaal community the government tried to remove, and they failed, thanks to the Kennedy trip.

I just saw something on geography, and apparently it is to the north of Johannesburg-Pretoria -- but I remember the main cardinal direction was West. It was way out west in the Ventersdorp-Boons area. So it was northwest, not southwest, from Gauteng.

[tabatha]

25. Here's a map

[malaise]

21. Thanks for this link

[bliss_eternal]

19. thank you for the link, malaise...

...in my sorrow, i looked for articles about this and couldn't find anything, at the time. i was probably too tired (and sad) to search properly.

[malaise]

22. You're welcome

Sad day indeed.

[myrna minx]

23. Thanks for the link.

[SDuderstadt]

24. A very similar thing happened and, to my knowledge, still does in Northern...

New Mexico, where many of the modest homes not only have framed pictures of beloved relatives on the mantle but, also framed pictures of John and Bobby Kennedy. It is truly touching.

[AspenRose]

28. My grandmother had pictures of MLK, RFK and JFK in her house.

As a child, our churches and funeral parlors didn't have AC. So we had paper fans to keep us cool. There were pictures of those three on the fans.

That modest introduction has left a lifelong impression on me, obviously.

[applegrove]

27. That is a good example of the civic spiritedness of the Kennedy clan.

Let's hope we see the likes of Ted again.

[ddeclue]

29. Excellent story I never knew about! K&R n/t