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When the roll of names of liberation heroes are mentioned, very few care to put the name of Onkgopotse Tiro alongside those of Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Nelson Mandela.
Whatever the reasons, the fact is very little was known about Tiro until now.
All that most knew is that he delivered a seminal speech at the University of the North in 1972 and was later killed in exile in Botswana.
But who was Onkgopotse Tiro, where did he grow up and what were his influences?
These are the questions that his nephew and journalist Gaongalelwe Tiro answers in this very well-researched book.
Gaongalelwe is so familiar with so many aspects of the story that it is difficult to imagine anyone else who would have told the story with more clarity, detail and context.
In an interview with City Press Gaongalelwe said, having listened to the story from a young age in the family and attending to the memorial lectures over the years, it was his destiny to share the story.
But he did wonder whether readers might trust his version of the story because he was too close to it.
“As you are aware he is a blood relative. He was my paternal uncle. I was born exactly eight days after he died, and in fact he was not yet buried because there was an issue of where he was going to be buried.
“The Boers would not allow his family to bring his remains here. So this was a story that impacted on the evolution of my own political consciousness.
“Because you grew up with conversations about Boers killing your uncle even before you knew why. It piques your curiosity. If there is a story that made me understand colonialism and apartheid subjugation it was this story.”
Gaongalelwe said he toyed with the idea of writing a long time ago but only got down to doing it in 2017.
“The idea first struck me in 1998 during the reburial [of his remains in South Africa]. Thank God I did not do it then. I don’t think I was ready as I am now.
“I was also uncertain if I was the right person to do it as you know, with projects like this, biographies and stuff, historical records are important and when you are family, people might think you might want to embellish the story. But maybe it was not such a bad thing [to write the book], because whatever claims are made in the book are corroborated and there is ample evidence.”
Gaongalelwe had the benefit of being particularly familiar with the story and having around him people who knew Onkgopotse, including his own father.
“My old man is two years older than Onkgopotse, but they started school the same year. And they went to the same school throughout primary [school]. And they also grew up in same household. They were raised by their grandmother. They are not brothers but actually cousins, but both their mothers were single mothers looked after by the grandmother.
“They attended school together until school was disrupted because of protests over the pass laws.”
Gaongalelwe was also driven by a desire to plug a gap in history and tell the story of what happened between the Sharpeville massacre and the Rivonia trial – from the 1960s until 1976 – which, he feels, has a historical void.
He says places such as the Apartheid Museum do not assist in this regard.
“I have this feeling that the way we narrate our history ... there is a systematic attempt to obliterate or airbrush the contribution of a particular generation to the liberation struggle.
“The Black Consciousness generation played a very fundamental role and through telling the story of Onkgopotse I am able to narrate the story of that time.
“For instance I go to the Apartheid Museum and, when you look at the exhibition there, you would think that from around 1961 of the Sharpeville massacre to 1976, there was nothing.
“Even the way the story of June 16 is narrated is like it was a spontaneous eruption of some sort. But the reality is that, after 1961, with the incarceration of leaders, the Rivonia trial, the incarceration of [former PAC leader] Robert Sobukwe, there was some lull until 1968 when this group of students decided to form Saso [the South African Students’ Organisation].
“And there were several milestones before 1976 such as the Tiro affair in May/June 1972, which literally affected all universities across the country.
“It would easily rival the Fees Must Fall movement of today. There were other milestones, such as the Viva Frelimo rallies, that resulted among others in the imprisonment of the Saso 9 on Robben Island.”
He said the eruption of June 1976 was the confluence of many factors.
“Yes, there was a spontaneous element to it, the influence of ANC underground structures, but the Black Consciousness created the atmosphere that led to 1976, a very important milestone in liberation history.
“This was followed by the killing of Steve Biko the following year. But that is not how the story of 1976 is told. If you ask young people today who Muntu ka Shezi is, they would have no idea.”
But beyond capturing the history and the broader political context, Gaongalelwe feels that even the personal story of Tiro and his formative influences were not known, even to his own comrades.
“There is a chapter where I talk about religion and radical politics. Onkgopotse attended the Seventh Adventist church and his activism started within the church, where he was fighting the disparities between black and white pastors whereas the church was collecting tithes from everybody. The church only hired white people at its offices. That is where he had the bulk of his impact in terms of conscientising people.
“The fact that he worked at the mines at an early age and was exposed to the worst of capitalist exploitation. Those are things about his political consciousness evolution that I wanted to highlight.”
The Bahurutse people
What Gaongalelwe does incredibly well in the book is narrate the history of the Bahurutse people of Dinokana and their surrounding regions.
He goes back to their fights with the British as well as the Boers, including touching on their ultimate land dispossession and how they ended up in the area.
“Sometimes you get the impression that the liberation struggle was waged only in urban areas. Little is written about the heroic actions of the women of Dinokana fighting against the pass laws. The uprising was so serious that school was disrupted for a full four years.”
He said the Bahurutse formed part of the first consignment of MK after it was formed but they also harboured activists who were leaving through the nearby Botswana border and coming back in.
“So I locate him within context of his area and the fight against land dispossession that Bahurutse waged.”
Inspiring the youth
Gaongalelwe said he did not write the book with any specific audience in mind, but would find it greatly satisfying if it reached younger people.
“Part of the idea was to inspire and have them read their own history, especially in these days of materialism, it is important to find out how people sacrificed. For them to internalise selflessness.”
Gaongalelwe said by today’s standards, Tiro’s Turfloop speech would not have been deemed that radical as it did not call for a coup or for anyone to be killed.
But in those oppressive times, it was unheard of to challenge authorities. But he also thinks that the authorities over-reacted, helping to ignite students’ ire.
“That speech was more consequential than people realise. Not only Tiro but the whole [student representative council] was expelled. Many then went into serious activism and others left for exile.
“The first wave of people who went into exile around that time was as a result of what came to be known as the Tiro affair. But what is quite interesting is that when you read the speech now, there is nothing extraordinary about it. It was a straightforward, honest assessment of the situation of the country.
“But the response of the authorities set off a chain of events.”
History must be accurate
Gaongalelwe said he does not lose sleep over assessing whether or not Tiro was adequately recognised for his efforts in liberation history.
“I am not particularly interested in street names and public amenities being named after him, but I am interested in history being taught accurately. Our history should not be distorted. There have been symbolic efforts to honour him. I know two schools, Onkgopotse Comprehensive outside Mafikeng and Onkgopotse Tiro primary in Roodepoort. There are also street names in Mafikeng, Seshego and the University of the North has also recognised him.
“I can’t complain much about that, but for me that is not what is critical. There is a whole lot of people who suffered like him or worse.”
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