Herman Toivo ja Toivo is "a man of remarkable fortitude and very forceful ideals", according to Helen Suzman, the South African parliamentary opposition spokesperson on civil liberties. He is "not the type of man who would change his beliefs".
Helen Suzman had discussions with ja Toivo, Nelson Mandela and other African leaders during a three hour visit to Robben Island in May 1980. It was the first time in seven years that she had been granted permission by the South African authorities to visit the prison. She spoke to ja Toivo for about half-an-hour in the presence of a prison official, but said that he talked freely and did not hesitate to speak his mind.
Suzman told the South African press that ja Toivo had made a deep impression on her. Twelve years on Robben Island had not changed his views or attitude towards the Namibian situation. It appeared that he was extremely hostile towards the South African authorities and more concerned about the problems facing other Namibians than about himself. He was anxious, in particular, that his fellow Namibian prisoners on the Island should be enabled to further their studies.
HERMAN JA TOIVO
Herman ja Toivo, a founder member of SWAPO and an internationally-known leader of the Namibian liberation struggle, was born in 1924, the son of an African teacher on a Finnish mission in Ovamboland. Ja Toivo received his secondary education at the Anglican High School at Odibo. During World War II he worked as a guard at a South African ammunition dump and was able to travel extensively outside Namibia. After the war he returned to school to complete Standard Eight.
During the 1950s ja Toivo became the leader of the Namibian contract workers employed in and around Cape Town. He was working himself at the time in a white grocery business in a Cape Town suburb. He succeeded in establishing a headquarters in a barber shop which became the central meeting place for Namibians in the Cape. Regular weekly educational and political meetings were held here, common problems were discussed, and individual Namibians in trouble were assisted.
In 1958, ja Toivo was arrested by the security police in Langa after he had despatched a tape-recorded message to the United Nations, hidden in a copy of the book *Treasure Island*. The statement said that South Africa's presence in Namibia was illegal and appealed to the UN to come to the rescue of the Namibian people. Ja Toivo was ordered to be deported from Cape Town as a nationalist agitator, and to be returned immediately to Ovamboland.
- We find ourselves here in a foreign country, convicted under laws made by people whom we have always considered as foreigners. We find ourselves tried by a Judge who is not our countryman and who has not shared our background.
We are Namibians and not South Africans. We do not now, and will not in the future recognise your right to govern us; to make laws for us in which we had no say; to treat our country as if it were your property and as if you were our masters.
We have always regarded South Africa as an intruder in our country. This is how we feel now, and it is on this basis that we have faced this trial."
Many of our people, through no fault of their own, have had no education at all. This does not mean that they do not know what they want.
A man does not have to be formally educated to know that he wants to live with his family where he wants to live, and not where an official chooses to tell him to live, to move about freely and not require a pass; to earn a decent wage; to be free to work for the person of his choice for as long as he wants; and finally, to be ruled by the people that he wants to be ruled by, and not those who rule him because they have more guns than he has.
Our grievances are called 'so-called' grievances. We do not believe South Africa is in South West Africa in order to provide facilities and work for non-whites. It is there for its own selfish reasons.
In 1959, the Ovamboland People's Organisation (OPO, the forerunner of SWAPO) was formed, building on the foundations which ja Toivo had helped to lay among the contract workers.
In 1966, at the outset of the armed struggle in Namibia, Herman ja Toivo was arrested together with 36 other Namibians. He spent almost a year in solitary confinement before being brought to trial under the Terrorism Act as "Accused No. 24". The 37 defendants, having been flown from Windhoek, were formally committed for summary trial when they appeared briefly before a magistrate's court in Pretoria on 27 June 1967. They were charged in an 11-page indictment with taking part in terrorist activities, while members of SWAPO.
The trial itself took place before the Pretoria Supreme Court from August 1967 to February 1968. Ja Toivo and his co-accused were the first people to be brought to trial under the South African Terrorism Act and as such faced possible death sentences. The Act had been gazetted on 21 June 1967, less than two months before the trial started. It was introduced specifically to cover the new situation created by SWAPO's decision to launch the armed struggle and was made retrospective to 1962 to allow for the trial of the 37 Namibians.
> I am a loyal Namibian and I could not betray my people to their enemies. I admit that I decided to assist those who had taken up arms. I know that the struggle will be long and bitter. I also know that my people will wage that struggle, whatever the cost.
The many charges against the 37 accused included taking part in a conspiracy aimed at inciting revolution and armed resistance against the South African government and administration in Namibia; receiving training in guerilla warfare; practising guerilla warfare in the USSR, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana and Tanzania; and entering Namibia fully armed with the intention of creating violent revolution and hostility between the races.
The trial attracted widespread international attention and numerous protests were received from abroad, calling for the release of the 37 accused. On 16 December 1967 the UN General Assembly approved by 110 votes to two (South Africa and Portugal) a resolution condemning "the illegal arrest, deportation and trial in Pretoria" of the men as "a flagrant violation" by South Africa of Namibia's international status. The resolution called on South Africa to discontinue "this illegal trial" and to release and repatriate the defendants.
> We feel that the world as a whole has a special responsibility towards us. This is because the land of our fathers was handed over to South Africa by a world body. It is a divided world, but it is a matter of hope for us that it at least agrees about one thing – that we are entitled to freedom and justice.
