A freedom-song refrain
Over and over, the song rang out in Zulu, a cadence
that had summoned the strength of black South Africa in its struggle
to end white minority rule: "Hold it / you fighters / The sound of your
machines / reminds me / of Oliver Tambo!"
Engulfed by 2,500 people belting out the chorus
of the famous African National Congress (ANC) tribute to a movement
hero, I watched awestruck as protesters danced the toi toi, another
expression of the anti-apartheid struggle. I'd seen countless newsreels
of this sort of defiant celebration. Now, with apartheid history, I
listened as a new generation of fighters told the world that the war
for their lives has begun again.
"The toi toi gives me strength. I bring down
this foot," said HIVer-activist Mercy Makhalemele, stamping down one
foot while raising the other high, "and I feel it. I bring down the
other foot" -- her boot crashed to the cement -- "and I feel it."
That's just the reaction that organizers of this
July 9 march through downtown Durban sought to spark among the 4.2 million
South Africans who are HIV positive: a renewed spirit of resistance
against what they consider the nation's new oppressors -- multinational
pharmaceutical companies.
South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)
organized the protest in partnership with the U.S.-based Health GAP
Coalition, with scores of conferees from abroad joining in. The march,
which nearly upstaged the opening of the conference, revealed a growing
impatience among black South Africans from poor townships, both with
drug-company price gouging and with their own government's equivocation
about providing basic medications for HIV-related illnesses.
"The drug companies are strong. But we have right
on our side," said Zackie Achmat, a TAC leader. "We did not stop apartheid
by not fighting. We can't stop HIV without a fight."
The march witnessed the reassembly of the old
anti-apartheid coalition -- including a major trade-union confederation,
the South African Communist Party and rank-and-filers from the ANC.
But the most dramatic link between past and present came when Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, a national hero for her decades-long resistance
to apartheid, addressed the rally. Youthful protesters screamed like
adoring fans seeing a rap star, but her song went this way: "Today we
are marching again. It is part of the long walk to freedom. We brought
down apartheid -- who are the pharmaceuticals?"
