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Barbara Follett’s visit to the Stevenage Kadoma Link
A report by Rose Hamilton
We are fortunate in our MP who has always been a great support and is in addition a specialist on Southern Africa
in the Labour Party in Parliament. She agreed to come to talk and answer questions to a special meeting on the 2nd
December 2005.
She explained the origin of her interest in Southern Africa in that she lived in South Africa. She was active in
the anti-apartheid movement there until house arrest and the murder of her husband led to her returning to Britain
as a political refugee. She had not spent much time in the UK until then but joined the Labour Party and then became
a Member of Parliament. She is still a regular visitor to South Africa not least because one of her daughters lives
there. She said she had visited many countries in southern Africa but not Zimbabwe as yet.
The questions we had asked her to address were the British Government’s policy on returning asylum seekers to
Zimbabwe and the consequences of the colonial legacy for the relationship between Britain and Zimbabwe.
On the asylum question, Barbara said that the government had to keep a balance between public opinion, which becomes
inflamed by the fear of outsiders, and the need to protect people at risk from repression overseas.
She reflected on Stevenage’s own recent history of recession and high unemployment, the Sangatte refugee camp and the recent extension
of the European Community in this context and seemed to make a link in this with the risk of British people rejecting
migrants whatever their reason for coming to Britain. She is very happy to represent the interests of any
constituents with asylum issues but this is infrequent in her constituency work. Barbara clearly felt this was
a politically sensitive area but thought the Government’s policy on returning people to Zimbabwe had been
responsive to the information available to it about the situation there. She said she would try to find out if
there are any forced repatriations taking place.
In considering the relationship of the two government’s and the difficulties posed both by the colonial history
and President Mugabe’s frequent reference to it for current political advantage, Barbara referred to the lessons
from South Africa. In particular she said Nelson Mandela and the other imprisoned ANC leaders had remained
disciplined in their planning for a future South Africa. This provided an important model for everyone that it was
more important to look forwards rather than backwards, while acknowledging that wrongs had been done.
Barbara’s address was a thought provoking and reflective event and we were most grateful to her for coming to
meet with us and for her continuing support. She encouraged us to keep in touch and offered to have a link on her
own website to our own.
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