Let My People Go
By Albert Luthuli
Collins (1962)

THE Berlin Conference of 1884-85 which regulated the colonisation of Africa was met with different resistances from the African people.
Some offered passive resistance, while many preferred active resistance against white colonial domination.
It was resistance against racial inequalities, economic, social and political subordination.
South Africa is one of the African countries that adopted active resistance, and after decades of armed struggled against apartheid, the country attained independence in 1994.
It is against this background that various nationalists are remembered for the roles they played in liberating South Africa.
This week, the book under review is an autobiography of a great African leader, Albert Luthuli.
Born in 1898 and died on July 21 1967, Luthuli‘s autobiography titled Let My People Go is a reflection of the history of South Africa and its struggle for independence.
In the book, Luthuli does not only pen down his own experiences but reveals the plight of fellow South Africans who suffered under colonial rule.
Let My People Go is a book that brings to the fore critical issues affecting Africans in a colonial set up.
It is a story that laments the sad state of a black man suffering racial segregation, societal apathy and subornation in the hands of white imperialism.
Luthuli does not mince his words when he points out unfair practices inflicted on the blackman.
Says Luthuli: “In Pietermaritzburg there would be a curfew.
The police, no doubt, would arrest us – the principal might have telephoned them.
There was a particular tone in the talk of the older boys which made me aware, for the first time in my life, of the feelings which Africans share about the police.”
Luthuli’s argument in the autobiography is to point out the white superiority complex, that has contributed to the whitemen accommodating the idea, that they own Christianity.
Apart from summarising Luthuli’s contribution in the struggle of South African independence, the autobiography does well in highlighting the hypocrisy of the whiteman.
Though having been born and grown up in a religious background, Luthuli’s Christian beliefs became a foundation of his critical analysis of the political atmosphere in South Africa.
“You close your eyes obediently to pray,” goes the saying, “and when you open them the whites have taken your land and interfered with your women.” says Luthuli.
The whiteman is presented as a hypocrite, who through missionaries introduced Christianity to black South Africans, but is also on the forefront of destroying it, through burning church buildings that blacks use to worship.
“White paternalist Christianity – as though the whites had invented the Christian faith – estranges my people from Christ. Hypocrisy, double standards and identification of white skins with Christianity, do the same,” notes Luthuli.
Luthuli‘s journey in the liberation of South Africa, also saw him acquiring the chieftaincy of the Groutville Reserve, a position which initiated his role in tackling the racial politics in South Africa.
Let My People Go is a book which also pleads for the emancipation of black South Africans.
Colonisation of Africa did not only destroy the social development of Africa but unfairly left the blackman with small and at times, useless pieces of land.
In his book, Luthuli stresses that the fight for independence in South Africa involves the unfair control of land between the colonisers and colonised.
The book is a reminder to every African that the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 was a meeting that was selfishly convened to divide and share Africa, while the owners of the land were not invited.
It is against this background that the former President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe initiated the Land Reform Programme which resulted in many black families benefiting from the white minority who possessed vast amounts of land.
Luthuli also highlights the unfair distribution of land between blacks and whites in apartheid South Africa.
“The average official Groutville allocation is now four-to-five acres per family,” writes Luthuli.
“Against this, rural white South Africa owns an average of 375 acres per person.”
Despite having attained independence, the land question is still controversial in South Africa today.
It is a pity, that critical figures such as Luthuli died in the course of the struggle for land and independence of South Africa, but his fellow countrymen, are yet to benefit from that struggle.
The appalling truth is, in spite of being independent, South Africa still presents a sad situation whereby the black man still lives in poverty, while the whiteman thrives.
The whiteman still owns the land.
The autobiography is not only a reflection of the ills of apartheid, but an eye opener.
It is a must-read for all Africans.
Luthuli writes about the oppression of blacks and ways which were crafted to cripple the ANC in its bid to liberate South Africa.
This is carried on through implementation of his ban, arrest, charge of high treason and assassination of 72 black Africans supporting him.
Luthuli, one of the greatest men in Africa, did not live to see the independence of South Africa, but his contribution in the struggle to liberate South Africa remains priceless.