One of my prized possessions was a Time Magazine Person of the Century issue published around December 1999-January 2000. Unfortunately I left it in Bulawayo in August 2007 when I migrated to South Africa. The person of the century award went to Albert Einstein, incidentally Einstein once said then that Jan Smuts was one of only eleven men in the world who conceptually understood the theory of relativity. Mahatma Gandhi was a runner up person of the century. Nelson Mandela wrote for Time about the life of Gandhi in an article titled, ‘The Sacred Warrior’. That article compelled me to read Gandhi’s biography years later. This led me to read about Jan Smut and will lead me to read about Winston Churchill.
Both Smuts and Gandhi were lawyers educated in Britain. Smuts had been the Attorney General of Transvaal colony and later Minister of Interior. There was a policy to restrict the settlement of Indians in the Transvaal. It is said the racial prejudices that Gandhi witnessed in South Africa and the violence he witnessed in the saw-called Bambata Rebellion changed him forever. Nelson Mandela wrote, “ he led his Indian stretcher-bearer corps to serve the Empire, but British brutality against the Zulus roused his soul against violence as nothing had done before.” Gandhi’s passive resistance inspired many including Dr Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in America.
As a native my first instinct was not to read Smut’s biography given the complicated history of colonialism and segregation in Africa. I am glad I did. Smut was an intelligent man, a brave soldier, a statesman, a legendary military leader, a man with a deep love for nature and above all a visionary as well as a realist. During the Anglo-Boer war, you can track his journey as a commander fighting the English in then Transvaal colony, Orange Free State, present day Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
A truce was declared, as the Attorney General of The Transvaal colony his presence was required in Pretoria. You then trace his journey fulfilling his vision of uniting the four colonies into one South Africa. He knew the importance of uniting Afrikaners and the English despite a difficult past between the two people. I believe he loved his people but he was realistic and sought to have South Africa declared as a republic under the protection of the British empire. He knew the painful reality that if South Africa didn’t have the protection of British empire, another foreign power such as Germany could have come and takeover.
During First World War, Smuts and Prime Minister Louis Botha led an army of volunteers to fight the Germans in present day Namibia. 12 years earlier these gentlemen had fought the English during the English-Boer war and now he was fighting for the British empire. Within six months, the South West Africa campaign was over, Germans formally surrendered. Smuts was invited by Britain to take Command of British forces in East Africa. By January 2017, he accomplished what the British government had asked him to do in East Africa.
Smuts headed to London and was included the Britain’s Imperial war cabinet. He had the ear of prime minister Lloyd George. To those of us aviation enthusiasts, the role of Jan Smuts in the formation of Royal Air Force can never be under estimated. Smuts used his influence within Britain to lay down the foundation of British Commonwealth. He was also instrumental in the formation of The League of Nations an organization that preceded United Nations a feat that later made Nelson Mandela to be excited listening to Smuts at a 1939 graduation ceremony at University of Fort Hare.
During the Paris Peace Conference after the end of First World War both Smuts and Botha were in favour of reconciliation. They had the foresight to see that a weakened Germany would be a danger to the future of Europe and the world at large. They lost the debate and hardliners won the day. In 1922 Prime minister Smuts made an attempt to include Rhodesia as the fifth province of South Africa. Thank god white Rhodesians voted against the move. Whilst in 1948 Apartheid started in earnest in South Africa and present day Namibia, in Rhodesia premiers such as Godfrey Huggins, Roy Welensky, Garfield Todd and Edgar Whitehead were not pursuing openly racist policies such as the ones in South Africa.
Garfield Todd introduced reforms aimed at improving the education of Africans in Rhodesia, before he became prime minister he ran the Dadaya Mission school for Africans. The openly racist Ian Smith took power in 1964 and later declared independence from Britain and followed a policy of segregation similar to Apartheid South Africa. Even though the education of Africans was not a priority of Smith’s government, reforms laid out by the likes of Garfield Todd and many church run schools from Tegwane, Kutama Mission, Murewa Mission, Nyadire, Gokomere, St Augustine, Waddilove Mission etc meant that a number of Africans still got educated unlike in Apartheid South Africa which introduced Bantu education. The legacy of Bantu education will require decisive government intervention to improve the education among natives in South Africa.
With the start of the Second World War in 1939, Smuts understood that South Africa could not remain neutral, the matter was put to vote and 80 voted to support Britain and 67 voted to remain neutral. Smuts was again in East Africa again this time to thwart Italy’s plans in Africa. The Allies captured Addis Addis Ababa in April 1941 and after the surrender of Italy, Emperor Haile Selassie was restored to the throne of Ethiopia. Fate is a funny thing, in 1963 Haile Selassie together with Kwame Nkrumah and other African leaders formed the Organization of African Unity and one of the goals of OAU was the freeing the rest of Africa from colonialism. OAU would fight for total liberation of Africa and would be at loggerheads with Apartheid South Africa. In 1962 Nelson Mandela under the alias of David Motsamai travelled to Ethiopia for military and political training.
During Second World War, Smuts travelled to Cairo were he met Churchill, the Allies were fighting in Northern Africa and Middle East. Smuts impressed Churchill and he was invited to London and he was again in the war cabinet. Towards the end of the war Smuts travelled to America to attend the San Francisco Conference towards the formation of United Nations, he suggested that UN Charter should contain a declaration of human rights.
During the 1946 UN General Assembly India laid a charge that South Africa was discriminating against Indians in Natal. South Africa was censured by the General Assembly and ordered to bring the treatment of its Indians into line with the UN charter. Smuts told the Indian representative, “This vote will put me out of power in our next election, but you will have gained nothing”. Smuts had become the first victim of the new institution he had been instrumental in creating. ANC representative Dr AB Xuma was impressed by the manner in which India’s representative had raised the banner on behalf of South Africa’s other races, Xuma forged links between the ANC and India which were to prove useful later.
In 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Smuts paid his tribute. Smut was voted out of office in the same year and in came the National Party led by D.F Malan. Policies of Apartheid and segregation were instituted in South Africa. Smuts died aged 80 in 1950. It is understandable that he was viewed with suspicion by his people as he was too close to the British Royal Family. Other races in South Africa might feel that he didn’t do much for them either. As a native, I grudgingly accept that Field Marshall Jan Smuts was also my hero.
The institutions he helped create such as UN and Commonwealth helped to transform many countries. In my native Zimbabwe Commonwealth was one of the institutions that stood up to the facist government of Robert Mugabe. Many citizens of the Commonwealth have been given bursaries to study at some of the world’s leading universities. The Commonwealth Games have also acted as a springboard to usher many athletes to greater heights.
The fight against fascism in the Second World War is one of my favorite moments in the life of Gen Smuts. During the 1936 Berlin Olympic, Hitler did not shake the hand of African American Athelete Jessie Owen who won four Olympics gold medal. Hitler considered people of “non Aryan (non white and Jewish)” to be inferior. I have no doubt that Hitler also despised Africans. Smuts as member of British cabinet and also and also as commander during Second World War, by fighting fascism to preserve the British empire he also saved Africans and other ,”Non Aryan” races. Over a million Africans also fought in the war and after the Second World War Africans started demanding independence from colonialism.
Smuts was also a friend of the Jewish people. He fought against government policy of restricting the number of Jewish immigrants. Smuts was friends with Dr Chaim Weizmann, founder and first president of Israel. He had met him in 1917 during the First World War. In 1948 South Africa under the leadership of Smuts announced the recognition of the state of Israel becoming among one of the first countries in the world to do so. He once went to Dublin, Ireland to meet Sinn Fein Leadership to convince them to attend a conference called by their arch-enemy Britain
One sentence to describe General Smuts, “ A prophet has no honour in his own country”, I am confident that Smut’s place in the history books of the world and South Africa is assured.
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