decade into its hardwon democracy, South Africa and its ruling party, the ANC, have been through turbulent times, Confrontation between Thabo Mbeki, and his then deputy, Jacob Zuma the dismissal of Zuma as Deputy Zuma's defeat of Mbeki in ANC presidential elections and the recall of Mbeki as South African president are events that left many ANC cadres politically and emotionally aghast.
Were these events the result of personal enmity Was it the beginning of the breakup of the broad church that the ANC had become to unite all forces in the struggle against apartheid Or did the roots lie in the global dynamic that allowed South Africa its freedom as the Cold War cooled
Written in an anecdotal and cinematic style, Songs and Secrets explores these questions through the viewfinder of a former highranking member of the ANC's secret intelligence wing.
It follows the author into the ANC's military camps in Angola to Moscow for spycraft training to the underground in Botswana and into leadership positions in the administration of the new government.
Gilder's frank memoir explores the personal, political, psychological and historical realities that gave birth to the new South Africa, in particular the oftignored conditions in which the ANC government tried to turn apartheid around.
It took me a while to read this book but i thoroughly enjoyed it, so much rich history of our country's
past, I loved Barry Gliders life story! i would recommend it for anyone who is interested in where we come from a country Barry had poured his experienced and training as revolutionary , intelligence operative and later intelligence chief and combine it withb his extensive reading of liberal thoughts and Pop Culture
I don't find similarity to South Africa and India as our struggle as Indian freedom struggle since ours is non violent But congress Leadership had extensive used human courier as counter to Colonial govt intelligence
But leading a violent revolution is not congress cup of tea leave aside Indian National Army experiment which failed in due to Course That's the same reason our leader were never appreciation of naval rating and also they had not provided leadership's lo name,.
But when we read Berry book we began to appreciate that peaceful transfer of power is always preferable to violent revolution, That maintains order, but price for ours is Kashmir, which now is gangrene
In our country partitions happens when negotiations fails
but we here made successful transfer of power with partition cause causes bloodshed and suffering.
It also give rose to school boy rivalry among Jr Indie Pakistan which now both nation had cocked nuclear tipped guns now used as loaded toys
He has updated us on definition of intelligence and work of intelligence agencies task of which is to inform govt with development and above all forecast events.
Espionage activities help govt to see unseen
As south African walk towards democracy had just began, As writer is himself one of founding father guardians of democrats and officers of nascent government, he had tried to reach what he believes and thats a difficult task.
Transformation of Bureaucracy which cater to minority to cater for all inclusive govt is rather difficult in India it still not happened even afteryears of freedom.
There is always a differ between theory and real and when majority were uneducated and resources were controlled by minority Social Justice is writers aim which is hard and path thorny which was writers aim.
Political Revolution, transfer of power is easy But social transformation is difficult
But books deals with to much political matter and narrator hadjust touched upon his personal life this conflicts, family life.
We are still unclear what happened in writers mind after painful exile , guerrilla war, multiple identity
One thing worth mentioned his reference to surveillance of Muslims which found false and he is not buying theory of Islamic terrorism.
Thats true even in case of India, US can do profiling but in India where more thanis Muslims in some area this attitude of Agency is recipe for disaster as it can convert ordinary man into extremist.
His work in transforming home and others departments is exceptional and its aided by his extensive reading of books
Overall above book is among the best non fiction I Had read.
And it shows a insiders view of working of revolution , transfer of power and subsequent nation building,
Barry Gilder's pen is as welltuned and melodious as his guitar and his songs, A young white singer mobilising his fellow students on campus against apartheid, Gilder has done his compulsorymonths military service in the apartheid army but a few months before theSoweto uprising he refuses a call up which would almost certainly lead him to fight on the wrong side in Angola.
He has to go into exile where he is accepted in the ANC and chooses to join the armed struggle, The book starts strongly with a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg during which Gilder and an old comrade from struggle days painfully exchange their feelings about present day problems in the ANC, their silences filled with lyrical descriptions of the landscapes they fly over.
In part I Gilder then describes hisyears in the liberation struggle: his socialisation in Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, training in a guerilla camp in Angola, intelligence training in Moscow and underground work mainly in Botswana.
Part II covers his return to South Africa till his retirement in from government service, mainly in intelligence, and the ANC'sth anniversary in.
Extensive footnotes ensure the story is as fascinating to anyone not familiar with the subject as to someone who has also been involved in the liberation struggle and stays close to postapartheid South Africa like myself.
Knowing a number of the people and situations Barry Gilder writes about and having read many comrades' memoirs, this book is one of the best.
Reading was often reliving my own experience, reliving the words, sounds and smells, the comradeship, adrenaline and the awful but vital suspiciousness, the pain of loss, the successes, deceptions and next projects, brief, all the intensity of the years of struggle and the ANC in exile, of life in the middle of the turbulent stream of History.
Then the years after victory that we had imagined differently ignoring what older, wiser comrades told us: it would be another, even harder and more 'protracted' struggle.
And although noone could have foreseen the very different situation South Africa and the world finds itself in since, that is the new struggle Gilder paints in fine, sensitive lines without allowing himself or the reader to give up and lose sight of the horizon.
Gilder feels the soul of the ANC very much alive at itsth anniversary celebrations: "Today we are a movement not a political party, not a government.
We are the indefatigable flow of the river of history, the waters that propel us forward drawing their strength and their momentum from their sources in the mountains far behind us, driving us ever forward to that peaceful, calm, bountiful ocean we promised ourselves, our people, our children.
" Could not put it down! Fascinating and riveting, A white man, South African or otherwise involved in a black people's liberation struggle back in the day always aroused curiosity, sometimes bordering on heightened suspicion on the one side, and deep resentment on the other.
It was far worse for one who developed into a spy or for palatability, let's call it an intelligence officer for the movement!
Without qualification, the situation was for all intents and purposes always a simple one of 'them and us' whites in general, and non whites in their masses.
Inpages excluding his notes, Barry Gilder's book, 'Songs and Secrets South Africa from Liberation to Governance' seeks in one perspective, to explain the contradictions, and his personal motivation.
In another it narrates a common experience of activist cadres in the South Africa's almost century long liberation struggle movement, and central to which was the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.
Born to a Jewish family inand at, fled the country of his birth to join the ANC in exile, his entry point being Botswana Gilder in the book exudes a celebratory mood that in many ways seeks to justify his decision onJanuaryto abandon a privileged life of a white person in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
However in the main, he shares with mixed emotions, in a simple language, the experiences with and insights into the ANC led liberation movement that led to the first democratic elections inand its aftermath in the period he served in government up to.
Within this narration, emerges a web of issues some personal, others organisational ranging from poverty and richness of relationships established, dogged commitments and resilience under extremely tough conditions in exile aggravated occasionally by spells of inept management bereft of coherent leadership, to strategy and tactics some dangerously haphazard employed by the ANC and allies in establishing order in a chaotic new democratic state made all the more difficult by one key factor, lack of basic trust between parties previously adversaries.
That the ANC and its allies seemed to have been taken by surprise by the Apartheid regime 'sudden' about turn in the late's, this despite it boasting an intelligence network in which Gilder served, never mind clear pointers to a change of course marked by informal talks including South Africa's business leaders, made early days of governance of the new democratic state that more difficult, it emerges.
Interestingly, Gilder also does not shy away from expressing feelings about the pathetic squabble my description that ensued within the ANC Alliance in the periodover former President Thabo Mbeki and his then deputy and current organisation and country President Jacob Zuma and which led to the former eventually embarrassingly getting recalled from his post in Septemberwith only months to go to end of term as president of the country.
Indeed, Gilder states unambiguously his disappointment at the events thus: "This is not the ANC we grew up in mfo, I don't know this ANC, What happened to the discipline that was drummed into us in the camps What happened to the commitment to the struggle Nowadays, it's like everyone is in it for themselves.
This is not the ANC of Oliver Tambo, " p
Further down the book pGilder clearly reflects his enduring state of unhappiness in his hypothetical, even prayerful note to former cadre colleague and friend, the late Mduduzo Guma aka Comrade Manqoba ANC/SACP, Conquerer Ntswana uMkhonto Wesizwe
"The second thing I was to raise with you Comrade is some questions.
What do you make of the new South Africa we have built Does it even approximate the South Africa we dreamed about in the Coffee And our movement You see this fight between comrades Thabo and JZ Does it make sense to you From where you are, can you see into the future Will we ever get over this.
. . "
These expressions are, of course effervescently blunted of their potentially explosive true nature and possible impact by a precursor pthus: "If you opened this book in the hope of enjoying the confidences of a disillusioned cadre of the South African liberation movement close it, put it down.
. . The author is not a disaffected intelligence officer exposing the secrets with which he was entrusted in revenge for wrongs done to him.
. "
As if you and I would know a disclosed secret if we spotted one, despite the blatant, perhaps unnecessary denial, Gilder bluntly acknowledges the specific situation pas "a wound across my mind and my personal history.
"
Not a 'disillusioned cadre' It's unashamedly wide open for discussion!
'UMSHINI WAM' MAKES NO SENSE IN SCRIPT! A EVENTS MAP DOES.
In telling the story, Gilder the artist musician apparently noted for his incredible guitar skills, regularly breaks into a song, virtually all of them liberation struggle songs.
This is the part I hate most in the book because, while I am absolutely certain that these are great songs by a very able artist keen to share, I can't for the life of me hear a darn thing! He, rather than be rhythmic and loud, Barry is mute and starring, yet I don't read music.
I am only able to listen to it!
For consolation though, I take great delight in Gilder's passion of interspersing his narration also with related and unrelated country and world historical events, neatly mapped with dates to boot! A great source of reference for anyone with interest in such matters.
Ah, now that I also remember in his first year or so in exile Gilder was by his own account papparently tasked to investigate an organisation called Okhela ostensibly a 'white wing of the ANC established and led by Breyten Breytenbach.
I do not recall that he ever accomplished the task, .
End
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