FRANCAISNorwegian People’s Aid - History
1970-1979
-From 1970, Honduras: NPA supports rural development projects in the countryside. After the Sandinista revolution in neighbouring Nicaragua in 1979, it also helps local NGOs which refuse funding from the American cooperation agency and which inform against the military interference of Washington against socialist regimes in the region.
-1974-1992, Tanzania: like in Zambia, NPA starts in 1974 to support ANC (African National Congress) exiles who struggle against apartheid in South Africa. From 1985, it builds houses in Dakawa, a site allocated to the ANC in 1982, 60 km away from Mazimbu. The original plans are based on a projected population of 5,000, but the number of inhabitants are approximately 1,200 in 1990. Near Morogoro, NPA also develops the older settlement of Mazimbu, an abandoned sisal estate where 3,500 South Africans live and which was given to the ANC in 1977. Refugees have a higher standard of living than the Tanzanians. This causes conflicts in a country where equality is a leading political objective. The Mazimbu complex relies heavily on Tanzanian labour and the resident representative of the NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) in Nairobi, Thor Stegne, criticises an isolated model town removed from the surrounding realities. Thus in 1990, 110 Tanzanians are employed at the farm in Dakawa, as compared to 20 South Africans. Moreover, the complex is a training facility for MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe), the ANC’s armed wing. In Mazimbu, the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO), which starts in January 1979, is named after an MK member who was captured and hanged by the South African regime. Even if there are no arms in circulation, attendance at the adult literacy classes is low, guerrillas disrupt education, and MK recruits put pressure on potential SOMAFCO students to join the armed struggle. The way the refugee camps are run also contradicts democratic and humanitarian Norwegian values. In Dakawa, the Rehabilitation Centre is virtually a penal settlement. In February 1986, for instance, one female and one male are sentenced to one year for abortion. The youth protest against the “militarist-type of structures” and demand that elected bodies run Dakawa. It is only in April 1989 that the ANC eventually suggests that a municipal council should be partially elected. Meanwhile from January 1988, NPA takes over responsibility for the implementation of the Norwegian government’s direct assistance to the ANC and PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress). It supplies food, soap, medicine and transport to refugees under the care of PAC and builds a road to its Ruwu settlement in Kitonga. The problem is that PAC is wracked by internecine divisions. A Tanzanian Foreign Ministry quoted in Tore Linné Eriksen’s book describes them as “a bunch of crooks who think of nothing else than how to enrich themselves”. Moreover, this group is involved in terrorist actions in South Africa and Norway eventually cuts off its support after an attack on a golf course in King Williamstown in 1992.
-1975, Portugal: NPA starts programmes after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of Marcelo Caetano’s government and the remnants of the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
-Since 1976, Guatemala: NPA sends relief to the victims of an earthquake in the region of San Martin, following an appeal to international aid from General Kjell Laugerud Garcia, who is of Norwegian origin and runs the country from 1974 until 1978. After some time, the organisation also helps refugees who go to Chiapas in Mexico. In the North, it works with Indians displaced by the civil war between the army and Marxist guerrillas in the 1980s. For instance, it supports the Consejo Campesino Kabawil, a structure set up in 1993 to organise resistance and defend the rights of landless Maya peasants.
-Since 1977, Angola: in co-operation with the “Marxist” authorities in Luanda, NPA starts to help exiles of the ANC (African National Congress), from South-Africa, and the SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation), from Namibia. In 1984, for instance, it builds up a health training centre in Viana, near Lusaka, and supplies the ANC and SWAPO with ambulances. Then, from 1987, NPA also helps the local victims of the civil war , but on the governmental side only. In 1995, it launches an important mine clearance programme which is financed by the Norwegian oil company Statoil in 2001.
-From 1978, South Africa: NPA handles the main bulk of the assistance of the Norwegian trade union confederation LO (Lands Organisasjonen) to Nelson Mandela’s ANC (African National Congress), which fights against the White racist regime in Pretoria. No amount is granted to a rival liberation movement, the PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress), except in 1978. Several testimonies in Tor Sellström’s book show how political this aid is. According to Garth Strachan, a Communist member of the ANC’s armed wing MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe), “the only form of support that to the best of my knowledge was not given was literally the military hardware itself. But without all the other elements, the armed struggle would not have been possible anyway. As ANC itself always said, the political and the mass struggle as well as the international struggle was more important”. Lindiwe Mabuza, the ANC Chief Representative to the Nordic countries, also explains: “everyday we had contributions coming in to the ANC fund without any tags attached. Individuals and organisations were saying ‘use the money as you see fit’. If we decided to buy guns or whatever the military wanted —which we did by the way— no government actually stopped the unmarked contributions, and it was assumed that if they were unmarked, ANC reserved the right to use them as it saw fit. These contributions came from all sectors of the Nordic societies: from political parties, trade unions, church organisations… They were there and without any conditions. I know, because we also had to make certain procurements in the Nordic countries related to the military, using these funds”. In such a context, NPA is not allowed to work inside South Africa and gives grants to partners in neighbouring countries. In January and September 1978 in Oslo, a spy for the South African BOSS (Bureau of State Security), Craig Williamson, introduces himself as a member of the ANC and applies for assistance to various projects in order to know more about the anti-apartheid movement. His applications are rejected because NPA deals directly with the liberation movements only. Until 1982, the organisation concentrates on first-aid courses for ANC refugees in Tanzania, Angola, Zambia and Mozambique. The programme in Oslo includes training in radio link and emergency operations in co-operation with the Norwegian Defence Forces. After 1988, NPA becomes the main channel for the Norwegian official assistance to the ANC. It is also involved in the LO’s campaign against apartheid, launched in 1976. The aims are to influence the Norwegian public opinion through information and to raise funds in support of the liberation movements and the trade unions in South Africa. Yet LO, a member of the ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions), does not adopt a consumer boycott, especially against Shell-Norway. Moreover, the COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) approves only bilateral contributions from national unions and refuses to receive funds through the ICFTU. This is because the COSATU is linked to the South African Communist Party and the Moscow-dominated WFTU (World Federation of Trade Unions), which opposes the “American” ICFTU (in 1997, COSATU will eventually apply for affiliation to the ICFTU and will be accepted with acclamation). The liberation of Nelson Mandela in 1990 is a turning point regarding the end of apartheid. With the Norwegian Council for Southern Africa (Fellesrådet for det sørlige Africa) and the NCA (Norwegian Church Aid), NPA starts in 1993 a campaign to support the democratisation process and to raise funds for the ANC’s election preparations.
-From 1979, Zimbabwe: NPA supports the trade unions and the anti-colonial movement, who demand and get independence in 1980. From Harare, the organisation then finances the ANC exiles fighting racial segregation in South Africa. It also tries to strengthen the capacity building of the civil society when the government of President Robert Mugabe becomes more and more authoritarian. From 1997, for instance, it relays the Ford Foundation to fund ZimRights (Zimbabwe Human Rights Association), an organisation established in 1992. With 3,000 members in 1995, 6,000 in 1996, 10, 000 in 1997 and up to 14,000 in 1998, this NGO is very divided. Its first general secretary, Nick Ndebele, is a former director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, where he was accused of embezzlement and had to resign in 1991. Yet he is elected in 1999 and succeeds Reginald Matchaba to chair ZimRights. An advocate of the government, he clashes with the director of the NGO, David Chimhini, who had fired Nick Ndebele because of gross mismanagement in 1996. The two men accuse each other of embezzlement and sexual harassment. They eventually have to resign while ZimRights is bankrupt, closes its doors and sells its offices in 2001.
