South Africa's progressive publisher

The Long Journey: South Africa's quest for a negotiated settlement
Edited by Steven Friedman
Ravan Press, 1993. 206 pp., R66

Heroes or Villains? Youth politics in the 1980s
By Jeremy Seekings
Ravan Press, 1993. 108 pp., R44
Marabi Nights: early South African jazz and vaudeville
By Christopher Ballantine
Ravan Press, 1993. R80 with companion 25-track cassette
(All prices are approximate and include postage. Fax or phone Ravan Press for exact prices before ordering.)
Reviewed by Norm Dixon

Anybody who really wants to know about South Africa and the struggle against apartheid, the history of the liberation movement, the dynamics and intricacies of South African society, culture, music and literature and a myriad of other topics must inevitably turn to one of the many titles published by Ravan Press.

Ravan Press is South Africa's leading publisher of progressive books. Unfortunately, these books are extremely hard to obtain in Australia. At the moment Ravan Press has no Australian distributor, its most recent one having closed its operations a few years ago without bothering to pay its bills or return unsold stock.

In 1993, Ravan Press celebrated its 21st anniversary. That such a radical venture has survived and flourished, in spite of the repression against all those who opposed apartheid and promoted democracy, is a remarkable achievement.

In their birthday message to the South African people, Ravan's staff and trustees said: "Whether in the field of creative writing or social engagement, progressive education or working class history, Ravan has kept alive a flame of freedom and democracy which at times flickered dangerously low in other areas of society". They pledged that "while the social context within which Ravan publishes has changed — and, indeed, continues to change — the original guiding principles of excellence in critical, progressive and independent publishing remain unaltered".

If evidence for that is required, you need look no further than three of Ravan Press's newest titles.

The Long Journey is an invaluable book for anybody who has sought to follow the complicated, and at times confusing, negotiations process.

This book outlines how the mass struggles led by the African National Congress in the '70s and '80s forced the ruling National Party to the negotiating table. It follows the negotiations from the unbanning of the liberation movements in 1990 to the breakdown of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) talks in May 1992. It describes how the resumption of mass action by the liberation movement under the pressure of an increasingly dissatisfied population allowed the ANC to regain the initiative and force key concessions from the de Klerk government, thus breaking the deadlock.

The book identifies the fundamentally contradictory agendas of the regime and the ANC, and recounts the fascinating contest that developed.

The ANC, consistent with its continued demand for majority rule, insisted that only a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage could draw up the new constitution. The NP proposed an unelected multiparty conference, comprising all political parties "with an identifiable constituency" as the constitution-making body.

Another fundamental, and related, difference was the pace at which negotiations should proceed. The ANC sought a swift transition from minority rule to a new order shaped and ruled by the elected representatives of the majority. The NP wanted as slow a transition as possible. This explains both the regime's resort to covert violence to weaken the ANC, and the ANC's effort to find principled compromises to remove excuses for delay.

The Long Journey reveals that the collapse of talks also highlighted a serious weakness in the ANC's approach to negotiations. Despite the ANC's view, stated from the beginning, that negotiations were "a terrain of struggle", the mass movement was not called upon often to back up the ANC negotiators.

The mass movement became increasingly divorced from the proceedings as the negotiators disappeared into working groups operating behind closed doors.

In May 1992 a special ANC conference insisted that the link between negotiation and mass struggle be re-emphasised. The mass action campaign launched on June 16, fuelled by mobilisations around the Baipatong and Bisho massacres in 1992 and the assassination of Chris Hani in 1993, forced the government to return to talks and agree to the April 27 election of a constituent assembly and the establishment of a multiparty Transitional Executive Council.

The Long Journey is a quick-paced, suspense-filled, account. The prospects for the future are discussed in a depth unavailable in any other book about South Africa yet published.

Heroes or Villains? examines another important part of South African history. That South Africa has come so close to democracy is in a large part the result of two decades of revolutionary activity by young people, the celebrated "Young Lions". But sections of the press, the regime and even elements within the liberation movement are beginning to express apprehension about the role of those politicised generations in the future.

Jeremy Seekings soberly digs beneath the stereotypes, both the romantic and demonic, to study the complex reality of youth politics and culture and the motivations and aspirations of the young activists who helped bring the apartheid regime to its knees. The history and development of the youth organisations — the South African Youth Congresses — and their evolution into the ANC Youth League are examined.

Marabi Nights is a fascinating examination of the origins and socio-political context of the vibrant "township" jazz. Christopher Ballantine unearths South African jazz pioneers like Peter Rezant, "Zuluboy" Cele and the Jazz Revellers and the Merry Blackbirds — African equivalents of Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven or Jelly Roll Morton — long buried by the white ruling class's racist indifference.

Ballantine's slim volume is the result of years of research and interviews with musicians unheard of for decades. He combed through hundreds of back issues of magazines and newspapers, and tracked down and listened to hundreds of rare out-of-print 78s.

Marabi Nights comes with a 25-track cassette of recordings made between 1930 and 1945, many of which have not been available — let alone heard — for more than 50 years. Included are rare photographs and reproductions of posters. The tape and photos alone are worth the purchase price.

Ballantine also examines the exploitation of black musicians by South Africa's music industry, the politics of white and black music unions, and the musicians' links with politics and the ANC. The evolution of indigenous South African jazz styles such as marabi, kwela and mbaqanga in explained.

To order or its latest catalogue, write to Ravan Press, PO Box 31134, Braamfontein, 2017, South Africa. Ravan's phone number is 0011 27 11 403 3925, fax 0015 27 11 339 2439.