Dr. Bhasker (Basker) Chhaganlal Vashee

Dr. Bhasker (Basker) Chhaganlal Vashee
(20 February 1944 - 18 July 2005)

Basker Vashee, Trustee and Fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, who died aged 61, was an African, a socialist and an internationalist. During his life, he never wavered in his idealism, his commitment to a world based on human solidarity. His colleagues at TNI noted he was particularly inspiring for the generation who grew up politically after the 1990s, regaling them with tales of the liberation struggles of the times before many of them were born. He was a modest, patient man endowed with immense charm and a contagious chuckle. He loved literature, was an avid fan of the BBC World Service, and unashamedly in love with Celine Dion, Nora Jones and Arundhati Roy! His deepest desires were to see Robert Mugabe fall, to retire to Zimbabwe and to have a family. The former is inevitable but regrettably Basker did not live to see it. His ashes are interned in the country he described as “the only place I really love and want to be a part of”. The latter he satisfied through his dedication to the three children of his great love Gretta Nieuwenhuizen and the staff of TNI.

Basker was born in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia to émigrés parents from India. His father was a businessman, while his mother raised Basker and his brother. When Basker was 17, he went to the University of Southern Rhodesia and enjoying rubbing shoulders as equals with blacks and whites for the first time. When he was 21, Ian Smith, the then prime minister of the British colony, made his illegal unilateral declaration of independence (UDI). Basker was quickly radicalised, unusual in his class and community. The student union split along colour lines and Basker was elected General Secretary of the Rhodesian African Students’ Union. His earliest memory of a political activity is making agitational pamphlets for the local Indian community condemning the injustices of white minority rule. He soon graduated to agitating among factory workers. Before the year was out, he was picked up by Smith’s security police and kept in solitary confinement for a year before being deported to Britain on his release in 1966.

On arriving in London, he concentrated on completing his B.Sc in Economics and went on to do an M.Sc at the London School of Economics (LSE). He had, meanwhile, become a card-carrying member of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). In 1966, the news broke that the newly appointed Director, Walter Adams, had been none other than Basker’s old principal at the University of Rhodesia, who had done nothing to defend him when he had been detained. Basker was outraged. In October 1966, the school's Socialist Society published its Report On Walter Adams, accusing the academic of failing to stand up to UDI. Within months the LSE - and Britain - experienced its first-ever militant sit-in. This was the time of the student revolts in Paris, the movement against the Vietnam War and flower power. The protests at the LSE escalated over the course of the period and in 1969, the school was closed for three weeks.

Basker went on to read for a PhD. in Economics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1974. Meanwhile, he co-founded and served as executive editor of Counter-Information Services (CIS), which monitored multinational corporations operations in the Third World. In 1976, he was appointed Executive Director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI), serving TNI in this capacity until his first heart attack, which saw him having to step down in 1986.

Under his leadership, TNI became the place in Europe for African liberation movements to meet. Basker had, since 1974, served the Zimbabwean national liberation movement in Britain and later Europe. He participated in the Lancaster House talks, which resulted in the first democratic elections in an independent Zimbabwe in 1980. He returned to Zimbabwe for three years in the hope of staying, but ZAPU had lost out to Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Within a couple of years, people in ZAPU’s stronghold of Matabeleland were being massacred by ZANU-supporting militia. Basker's elation gave way to disappointment as Zimbabwe became increasingly authoritarian. He returned to Europe and TNI.

His health deteriorated around this time. Basker had been diagnosed with a heart condition since the age of 34 and in 1986, suffered his first heart attack. After a period of recovery, he went to the USA for three years, where he was a Visiting Professor at Hampshire and Smith Colleges in Massachusetts, and gave evidence to the US Senate and the United Nations on apartheid in South Africa.

He returned to Amsterdam in 1991, serving as TNI’s resident Fellow. He represented the Institute at numerous conferences and organised a number at the Institute itself. In his last years, he regularly lectured on African political economy in The Netherlands and the UK. Basker served on the Board of Trustees of both TNI and the trade union-related Transnational Information Exchange he had helped found in 1978, as well as on the African Commission of the International Advisory Council of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He co-operated actively with the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA) and was engaged both socially and politically with the African diaspora in The Netherlands.

The Chronology of the Life of an African internationalist

1944

Born at home in Thornicroft House, Charter Road, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (Harare, Zimbabwe) to Shardabhan Shanta (née Naik) and Chhaganlal Lalji Vashee immigrants to Rhodesia from India. The date on the birth certificate is given as 20 February. He was a dual citizen of both India and the UK.

1950-1956

Attended Louis Mountbatten School, Harare, Zimbabwe

1957-1963

Attended Morgan High School, Harare, Zimbabwe a state school for Asian and mixed race children.

1963-1965

Registered for a B.Sc. in Economics at the University of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) Completed Part I.
University was his first experience of a multi-racial setting and a place where blacks and whites were equal.
In 1965, Ian Smith the then Prime Minister of the British Colony made his Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain and local white rule was officially instituted. Basker’s father, a Brahmin priest, tells him to go to India or commit to Zimbabwe. Basker takes him at his word and becomes political active. His first memory in this respect writing pamphlets for Indian Zimbabweans on the injustice of white rule, invoking Mahatma Ghandi. He was also active in agitating among factory workers.
Elected to the Students’ Representative Council and as General Secretary of the Rhodesian African Students' Union.
Joined the banned Zimbabwean African Peoples Union (ZAPU), forming an underground “Committee of Six” cell.

1965-1966

Arrested and detained without trial for his political activity in the black students’ movement. He is held in solitary confinement as the only Asian student political detainee. Stephanie Grant of Amnesty International worked tirelessly for his release.

1966

Deported to England upon his release from detention on 2 August. Active for ZAPU in the UK, helping to keep exiles together.

1966-67

Registered as an external student with the University of London as part of a scheme involving a special relation with University College, Rhodesia.

1968

Awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science (Economics) on 11 January.
Registered for an M.Sc. in Economics at the London School of Economics.
Meanwhile, the student rebellion of 1968 broke out at the LSE. Basker emerged as a key student activist leader. The original spark was a pamphlet published in 1966 contesting the appointment of the former Principal of the University of Rhodesia, Dr (later Sir) Walter Adams, as Director of the LSE in 1967. The LSE erupted and was closed in 1969 for three weeks. See account at www.selectedworks.co.uk and news.bbc.co.uk.
He met his lifelong friends Sabby Sagall and John Rose during this period.

1968-1969

Research Fellow, London School of Economics, Economics Department. Projects completed: The American Economy, 1883-1960; the correlation of consumption function to refute monetarist theories of the Chicago School (for Professor Lawrence Harris); an index of violence by country (for Professor Peter Wiles).
Spent time at Oxford studying anthropology, in particular how African matrilineal societies (Bemba) were better able to cope with poverty.

1970

Registered for a Phd in Economic Development with the University of Sussex, England.

1972

Co-founded (with Roland Muldoon, Duncan Brewer, Ian Lepper, Joanna Rolo, Elaine Dallis, Bill Ridgers and Teddy Bunion), and served as Executive Editor of, the Counter Information Services (CIS) in London, which monitored multinational corporations. Basker wrote “counter-reports” on companies operating in Southern Africa, including Rio Tinto and Consolidated Goldfields Ltd. The report on Rio-Tinto Zinc Corporation led to a House of Commons inquiry on wages paid to black workers in South Africa and Namibia. In all, CIS published twenty reports on multinationals and their global economic and social performance.

1974

Awarded a Ph.D., Economic Development, 1974. Thesis: "Differing Responses of Patrilineal and Matrilineal Societies to Colonial Rule in Central Africa." Between 1974 and 1977, he also served as an assistant to the Editorial Working Committee of the Institute of Race Relations. He meets Eqbal Ahmed of TNI around this time.

1975

The Portuguese revolution happened, freeing Mocambique and Angola and giving a huge boost to the Southern African national liberation movements. Basker left for Zambia, where ZAPU was headquartered. Basker was put to work on building projects in refugee camps, doing political education work and farming. He was part of a ZAPU mission crossing the Zambezi River into Zimbabwe, which was the closest he came to direct military engagement. Basker also witnessed the bombing by Rhodesian army of the Solwezi refugee camp in a forest on the Congolese border with Zambia. The camp housed thousands of children who had left Zimbabwe to take up arms against the Smith regime. Basker described as a “lifetime nightmare” seeing children blown to bits all around him.
Unbeknown to Basker, his posthumously claimed son, James, is born in London in September.
Published "Copper Mines and the Unions in Zambia", Review for Race & Class, Spring, 1975, London.

1976

Military life did not suit Basker and he was sent back to London as a ZAPU diplomat. Served as Vice-Representative of the Zimbabwe liberation movement to British Government. Duties included widespread speaking engagements to explain the struggle in Zimbabwe.
He applied for official permission to return to Rhodesia that year, which was granted with the proviso that he be warned that the government of Rhodesia was aware of his political activities in the UK and would be put under surveillance. He decides to stay in Europe. Meanwhile, the Transnational Institute (TNI) headquartered in Amsterdam had been established in 1974 under the directorship of Eqbal Ahmad until 1976. Exiled Chilean Orlando Letelier succeeded him, being assassinated in September of that year in Washington D.C.
Published "Unilever's World" and "British Leyland", Anti-Report, CIS, 1976, London.

1977

Basker was appointed Executive Director of TNI and moves to Amsterdam. TNI was (and is) an international network of scholar-activists engaged in intellectual work to challenge the unequal relationship between the First and Third Worlds, which served as an alternative academy and having as its inspirational source, according to Basker, “being and doing”. Aside from being responsible for general administration, fundraising, publishing and public speaking, Basker was directly responsible for the following projects:

• Post-colonial societies under socialism: Angola, Algeria, Mozambique, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Tanzania;
• West European research networks on multinationals in automobile, food and telecommunications industries;
• Aspects of the world economy and their effects on the Third World;
• Defining the West European constituency for support to the liberation movements in Southern Africa.

Under Basker’s leadership, TNI becomes a key meeting place for Southern African liberation movements. He facilitated the beginnings of the Southern African Economic Research Training (SAERT), which was aimed at providing intellectual resources for the ANC in the development of a post-apartheid economic policy, and was housed at TNI.
He was, at the same time, appointed European representative for the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe, responsible for making representations to governments and other social and political movements on behalf of the Front, including in what was then the Soviet bloc. He worked with student movements across Europe and mobilised collection of clothes, medicines and other essentials for refugees in Zimbabwe. Basker played this role until 1980 when Zimbabwe finally won its independence. He meets Gretta Nieuwenhuis around this time.

1978

Participated in the Lancaster House talks. The statements he made as a ZAPU representative are housed with the Washington Office on Africa. www.library.yale.edu
Published "Multinationals and the World Economy", TNI Report, 1978, Amsterdam.
Co-founded the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE).
Diagnosed with a heart condition at the age of 34.

1979

Basker is a member of the 120-person Patriotic Front Council. The Lancaster House agreement brokered by the UK under Margaret Thatcher is signed in December, and Zimbabwe prepares for its first democratic election.

1980

Zimbabwe holds its first elections and Robert Mugabe of ZANU becomes President. Basker returns to Zimbabwe, living in an hotel during the elections. ZANU won 75 seats and ZAPU 25 seats. Basker remains in Zimbabwe for three years, looking for a job.
Published "Socialism Project in Africa: the Main Issues", TNI Report, 1980, Amsterdam.

1982-83

Between 2,000 and 8,000 Ndebele people are massacred by ZANU-supporting youth militia in Matabeleland, the traditional stronghold of ZAPU.

1984

Disillusioned, Basker returns to Amsterdam, co-ordinating three projects at TNI: South African liberation; the African Crisis and Informal Economy.
Published "Democracy in the Third World", TNI Report, 1984, Amsterdam.

1986

Following a heart attack, Basker resigns as Director of TNI.

1987-1989

Basker stays on at TNI as a resident fellow and a staff member responsible for the Africa programme. He organises conferences and seminars on Africa’s economic crisis and movements for democracy.

1989

Basker leaves for the USA. He is appointed Scholar in Residence at Hampshire College, Amherst in Massachusetts. Taught course, "Southern Africa in Transition". He is then appointed Visiting Associate Professor of International Relations in the School of Social Sciences, Hampshire College (September to June). Taught courses, "Southern Africa in Transition" and "The Third World in the World Economy".
Witness before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "Sanctions Against South Africa".
Witness before the United Nations Inter-Governmental group, "Oil Sanctions against South Africa".
Gave seminars in Washington DC on “The West and Africa”.
His mother passes away.

1990-1991

Basker then moved to Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA where is he appointed Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Economics. Taught courses, "History of Economic Thought", "Africa in Crisis", "Macroeconomics" and "Political Economy".
Served as a member of the Organising Committee for the Conference “The Decolonisation of the Imagination: The New Europe and its Others” at de Balie, Amsterdam organised by TNI and a number of other Dutch and Belgian organisations.

1991

Returned to Amsterdam and TNI, where he serves as resident Fellow and advises the Institute on African matters.

1992

Granted Dutch nationality.
Established a new foundation called Global Village to raise resources for water projects in Southern Africa, suffering severe drought.

1993

Organised a conference of African opinion leaders on the link between Democracy and Development at TNI in Amsterdam. Published "The Broken Pot", Report of the TNI Workshop on Human Rights and Democracy, Economic Development in Africa and the International Response, Amsterdam, December 1993.

1994

Member of the Core Group for the project “Restructuring the Global Military Sector” initiated by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University. Co-edited the book of the same name published in 1997.
Basker took a course in Literature at the Instituut voor Algemene Litareratuurwetenschap, Amsterdam.

1995

Co-founder of the Dutch-based Association of African professionals.
Organiser of an international seminar on African success stories at TNI.
Published "Democracy and Development in the 1990s" in Jochen Hippler (ed), The Democratisation of Disempowerment. The Problem of Democracy in the Third World, TNI/Pluto Press, Amsterdam/London.
Represented TNI at the NGO conference “Africa’s Future, November.

1996

Published "Towards the Economic Restoration of Sub-Saharan Africa", Report of the TNI Workshop on African Success Stories, Amsterdam, 11-13 October 1996.
Lectured in Zimbabwe and Europe on debt, globalisation and the crisis of Southern Africa.
Represented TNI at the ACP seminar “Illusion, Reality and Perspectives: Migration, Citizenship and Legislation in Europe'”, 5-7 September 1996, Amsterdam.

1997

Speaker on two public panels “Lomé Passé?” organised by INZET at de Balie, Amsterdam.
Workshop leader at the annual conference “Green Light for Africa” organised by the Evert Vermeer Stichting for International Solidarity, The Hague.
Speaker at a workshop on “Economic and Political Participation of Africans in The Netherlands” at the Néne Conference organised by La Maison Africaine, Amsterdam.
Published "Revitalising EU-ACP Cooperation: How Decentralised Cooperation can Contribute to Poverty Eradication in Africa", ECDPM Working Paper No. 44, Maastricht, December 1997.
Published "Ce sont les petites rivières...", Liaison Sud, n°2, September 1997 [French].
Basker suffers his second heart attack.

1998

Appointed one of three members of TNI’s Board of Directors, serving until 2005.
Appointed to the Board of TIE, serving as treasurer until 2001.
Co-editor (with Mary Kaldor), Restructuring the Global Military Sector, Volume 1, New Wars, UNU/WIDER/Pinter.

1999

Visited the USA to pay tribute to the late former director of TNI, Eqbal Ahmad at the Symposium “Legacies of Eqbal Ahmad”, Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Attends the annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC held to honour the memory of former TNI Director, Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronnie Moffitt assassinated in 1976.

2000

Invited to serve on the Africa Commission of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Dutch Foreign Ministry. He serves until 2004.
Gave keynote address at the conference, “Development: Is it still relevant?” at the University of Coventry, England.
Guest lecturer on the “Political and Economic Situation in Zimbabwe”, Hendrik Kramer Institute, Utrecht teaching once a quarter until the end of 2004.
Published "Things Fall Apart", TNI Website, 13 June 2000.
Represented TNI at the founding of Zimbabwe Watch by Dutch NGOs.

2001

Renounced his Indian citizenship.

2002

Gave four public lectures on “Mugabe’s Zimbabwe” at de Balie, Amsterdam, followed by interview in the magazine Zuidelijk Afrika. Published a series of articles on Mugabe including, "A Big Man in Africa: The Reckoning", TNI Website, 18 January 2002; "Second Cry for Freedom", Socialist Review, Issue 261, March 2002; "The Storm before the Deluge", TNI Website, 14 November 2002.
Presentation at two seminars on New Economic Policy for African Development (NEPAD) at the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA), The Hague, followed by an interview in the magazine of the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Internationale Samenwerking, "Nepad is niks", October 2002 [Dutch].

2003

Served until 2004 as a member of “The Hague Process on the Future of Refugee and Migration Policy”, an initiative of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and the Society for International Development.
Represented TNI at Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA) conference on the New Economic Policy for African Development (NEPAD).
Guest lecturer on “African Informal Economy” at the University of Amsterdam.
Served on the jury of NIZA’s annual student thesis awards for two years.
Published "Zimbabwe: la tormenta antes del diluvio", Papeles de Cuestiones, número 28, verano 2003 [Spanish].
Member of the convening committee for the International Experts Meeting on Globalisation and Africa to take place at the European Parliament in 2004.
Represented TNI at the 5th People’s Assembly of the UN in Perugia in October. He was also the guest of the town of Potenza.

2004

Represented TNI at the International Experts Meeting on Globalisation and Africa at the European Parliament 15–17 April.
Basker in Intensive Care for a few weeks after suffering prolonged breathing problems.

2005

Exactly one month before his death, on 18 June, the Dutch world service broadcast Basker’s account of his life.
In his 62nd year, on the 18th of July, Basker cycles to the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, his favourite social hangout, and suffers a fatal heart attack just as he is about to dismount his bicycle.
On the announcement of Basker’s death, tributes poured in from all over the world, obituaries were published in The Guardian, Red Pepper and by the Institute of Race Relations in the UK; and in Het Parool, Zuidelijk Afrika and de Socialist in The Netherlands. His biography may be found at the Working Class Movement Library www.wcml.org.uk.
The night before his cremation, an all-night vigil was held at the offices of TNI on de Wittenstraat 25 in the west of Amsterdam, a solemn procession of some 100 people followed him to the Ketelhuis in the Westpark for the farewell ceremony, and a small group of close friends accompanied him to the crematorium. His oldest friend, childhood neighbour and foster brother, Chester Naik, returned to his beloved Zimbabwe with his ashes.

2006

Basker’s life is honoured and the much admired and loved man remembered at a public memorial held at the Filmmuseum in the Vondelpark, Amsterdam on 8 June. The Basker Vashee library is housed at TNI and a fund to promote African scholar-activism is launched.