by ERIC BURTON & KATHARINA FOGER
South African politician/journalist who from 1994 to 2004 was first Speaker of South Africa’s National Assembly IMAGE/SAHA
Many know Frene Ginwala, the iconic anti-apartheid activist, as democratic South Africa’s first speaker of parliament. But few know of her time building pan-African media in Dar Es Salaaam.
On April 12, 1960, a few weeks after the Sharpeville Massacre, the South African lawyer and journalist Frene Noshir Ginwala arrived in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanganyika. In that year, British-ruled Tanganyika was already transitioning towards independence with internal self-government. This transition provided the country’s subjects with more opportunities for political activities than most other countries in Southern and East Africa could provide.
Ginwala’s important role in the anti-apartheid movement is well-known. Many obituaries written after her death on January 12, 2023, mention that she paved the way for Oliver Tambo and other South Africans to set up the ANC’s external mission after the apartheid regime banned the organization. Later on, she became the first speaker of South Africa’s first post-apartheid parliament.
What is less known is that Dar es Salaam in the early 1960s was a launching pad for Ginwala’s monthly newspaper called Spearhead, subtitled The Pan-African Review. Through her various activities in journalism and beyond, Ginwala also became an integral part of Dar es Salaam’s transformation into a global hub of radical activists, anticolonial organizations, and Cold War rivalries in the 1960s.
Ginwala established Spearhead just one month ahead of Tanganyika’s full independence in October of 1961 – it was published monthly between November 1961 and May 1963. In this short period, Spearhead made a gradual turn towards including more radical and partisan perspectives on its pages. In the editorial to the very first issue, Ginwala states bluntly that the newspaper’s readers will not “be interested in, nor will they be subjected to, the propaganda outbursts of so-called “freedom fighters” any more than they are likely to be taken in by the more skilled propaganda of the colonial powers.”
The newspaper’s proclaimed mission was to discuss questions pertaining to the politics of the continent and to “build bridges from Cape to Cairo, from Dar es Salaam to Accra.” In the first of three regular sections, Spearhead provided “News” from all over the continent. In its regular second and third sections, it tackled all the major political themes of the early 1960s. In “Views,” and the “Seminar,” discussed the best forms of democracy and trade unionism for postcolonial contexts, as well as African socialism, Pan-Africanism, and liberation struggles. The occasional section “Profiles” paid tribute to notable figures like Nelson Mandela, Tom Mboya, or Hastings Banda.
A clear Pan-African and anticolonial standpoint characterized Spearhead. This was coupled with a commitment to journalistic standards, democracy, and open debate. Spearhead found itself operating in a tight spot because it sought to become mainstream and influence political debates in a newly independent African state. Not only did it espouse a model of political journalism that provided news and commentaries, but it also provided a space for debates on themes that resonated beyond the borders of Tanganyika. In the editorial to the first issue in November 1961, Ginwala envisioned a “forum where our political, economic, social and racial problems can be discussed, and the rostrum from where the ideas of a new Africa will be expounded.”
Editing Spearhead, Ginwala could draw on a wealth of experiences and her continent-spanning network. Not long after finishing her law studies in the UK and the US, Ginwala worked as a correspondent for British media. She became involved with Ronald Segal’s Cape Town-based magazine Africa South, many of whose contributors would also come to write for Spearhead. As a representative of Africa South, Ginwala traveled to Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaya, and India in 1959. Shortly thereafter, she represented the journal in East Africa whilst based in Dar es Salaam. Here, she also campaigned to boycott South African goods. Ginwalabegan raised funds to buy a share of the Tanganyikan National Times press, and to establish a new newspaper for £35,000-£50,000 but failed. Fearing her activities and her reputation of being a communist, the governments of Kenya, Uganda, and the Federation of Nyasaland and Rhodesia declared her a prohibited immigrant. This made Dar es Salaam as a site even more significant for Ginwala’s plans.
In the same spirit as other Pan-African journals produced in various African “hubs of decolonization in the early 1960s,” Spearhead discussed issues of postcolonial state-building and reported on anticolonial struggles on the continent. Yet, unlike other either fully or partially state-controlled journals such as Accra’s Voice of Africa and the Spark, or Cairo’s African Renaissance (Nahdat Afriqa), Spearhead was financially and editorially independent. The numerous advertisements in each issue certainly financed part of the newspaper’s operations. The range of sponsors included Twiga Soft Drinks, a Cantonese restaurant in Dar es Salaam, and Mosaic Tiles Factories. It also included Radio Moscow and the Indian Ministry for Tourism which advertised relaxing vacations. Particularly eye-catching were the regular advertisements from West German institutions such as the Goethe Institute or the Berlin Industrial Exhibition, which promoted “African Fashion, made in West Berlin.”
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