Full text of "Drum"
DRUM
The Drum, South Africa Issue
Volume 8, Numbers 1-2
Editorial, Circulation and
Advertising Offices
Located at 427 New Africa House,
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Mass. 01003
1-413-545-3120
Address
All Letters
Poems, Contributions
To The Above Address.
Copyright by Drum,
427 New Africa House
Printing: Hamilton L Newell, Inc.
Amherst, Mass.
CITYC0IMCIL0FPRE10RIA
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SHRUB ORTREMieEHUSEOnED.
CONTENTS
Page
4 Editorial Comment
6 Soutli Africa: The Imprisoned Society Allen Cook
12 Development of Dual Powers in South Africa Andrew Lukele
20 A Letter to Chancellor Bromery
32 Photo Essay: South African Children's Realities
41 Black and White: Behind the headlines in South Africa
47 Dateline: Nuremberg, South Africa
52 A Statement Miss Belinda Martin
57 An Open Letter on South Africa Playthell Benjamin
63 The Role of Afrikan Men in the Liberation Struggle
of the 70s and 80s Nkrumah L. Olinga
Preface to South Africa Issue
DRUM
"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem
of the colour-line, the relation of the darker to the
lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and
the islands of the sea."
W.E.B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folk,
1903
This issue of Drum is dedicated to our brothers and
sisters in Soweto, in what is now called South Africa,
who have begun to move with force and purpose to
solve in their part of the world the problem that Dr.
DuBois spoke of. And as we have an Afro-American
tradition of struggle, so have the captive and oppressed
peoples of Southern Africa. Since the European inva-
sion of the 17th century Africans have made many at-
tempts to alleviate the situation of oppression, degrada-
tion and poverty that has been the fruit of their contact
with a 'higher civilization.' One such effort, that of the
Xhosa peple, led by Makana in the 19th century, evoked
the following battle song:
To chase the white men from the earth
And drive them to the sea
The sea that cast them up at first
For Ama Xhosa' s curse and bane
Howls for the progeny she nursed
To swallow them again.
(version quoted in E. Roux,
Time Longer than Rope)
Makana and the Xhosa were unsuccessful, the Euro-
peans remained, but the struggle has continued into the
twentieth century carried on by such as the A.N.C.,
P.A.C., Poqo and the more recent Black consciousness
movements in Soweto. These efforts are all part of that
collective thrust for freedom, justice and equality that is
the fundamental task of Africans and peoples of
African descent. The interest shown by Afro- Americans
in the struggle in Southern Africa, as manifested in this
issue of Drum, indicates the accuracy of the conception
of Dr. DuBois, and its vaHdity in the lived experiences
of Black people.
The last decades of the twentieth century are crucial
ones for the world's peoples of color. The problems of
social, political and economic inequality are still for-
midable. But if we look to our past to those who have
struggled before us, we can find words of strength and
encouragement. Once again, Dr. DuBois:
"The coming world man is colored. For
the handful of whites in this world to dream
that they with their present declining birth
rate can ever inherit the earth and hold the
darker millions in perpetual subjection is the
wildest of wild dreams. Humanity is the goal
of all good, and no single race, whatever its
color or deeds, can disinherit God's anointed
peoples."
(The Crisis, 1911)
John Bracey
W.E.B. DuBois Dept.
of Afro-American
Studies
March, 1978
EDITORIAL COMMENT
South Africa
Over the past year, the situation in South Africa has
become one of grave importance. We are lampooning a
newly-found international bogeyman, one that we have
just begun to view as the epitome of all that could, and
did, go awry with humanity. Apartheid has been in
South Africa for years now — long enough to have
become an economically profitable system of govern-
ment. Foremost in that economic process is the
perpetuation of a social structure that is revolting to
most of us.
South African Blacks comprise over 70% of the
population, but may occupy only 13 % of the land, and
receive only 25% of the national income. Blacks may
not vote or be elected to Parliament, nor may they hold
a position supervisory to whites. Almost 80% of all
Blacks live below the Poverty Datum Line, a South
African government standard which only considers
food, fuel, and transportation; yet. Blacks must pay for
their inferior educations.
If all of this seems reminiscent of our Pre-Civil Rights
days, consider the United States corporate involvement
in the African country. We are the second largest in-
vestor in South Africa, and those investments increased
400% between I960 and 1970. Inexpensive Black labor
guarantees a high return rate for the U.S. corporations.
Black South Africans are being imposed upon and ex-
ploited in the international arena and in their homeland.
Our concern for the plight of the Black inhabitants of
South Africa prompted the staff of DRUM to dedicate
its energy, and this issue, to South Africa. There was the
need to expound upon the social and political portents
of the Apartheid juggernaut. Our expose is the result of
that need and an obligation to our contributors, our
readers, and ourselves.
A Blackman holding his identity card in Capetown, South Africa
Photo: United Nations
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10
RACIST
ATTACKS
M
OSTON^SaAFRlCA
photo by Edward Cohen
The thunder roared
The lightening cracked
moving Winds
of frightening hope
Shining colors
of darkened beauty
A rolling
goes the sweatbeads.
Sweatbeads of a long time
suffering
SOUTH AFRICA
Roar your thunder
Crack your lightening
Move your winds
With unpredictable
strength
Strength that only your
darkened beauty
can master.
Off with the head of the beast
Confront him with his own
falsehood of illtisional lies
While he blows his own mind.
Annie Carpenter
© 1976
11
Development of Dual
Power in South Africa
Andrew Lukele
The following talk was given by Brother Lukele at a
nass meeting held in New York city on November 20,
1976, attended by ovec 700 people. The meeting — A
Wight in Solidarity with the Struggle in South
Africa — was co-sponsored by Karabo, PASO A and
Youth Against War and Fascism.
Let me begin by introducing to you the organization I
am representing tonight, Karabo. Karabo is a group of
South African political refugees who are presently
residing in the United States. We remain commit ed to
the struggle for the liberation of our country. Towards
that end we have grouped together to undertake tasks
here which are relevant and helpful to the liberation ef-
fort in South Africa. As part of that undertaking we
have joined hands with our comrade organizations,
PASOA and YAWF, in organizing and sponsoring
tonight's forum. We wish to thank you all most heartily
for being with us.
NECESSITY FOR INFORMED SOLIDARITY
I should like to make a few remarks, firstly on the im-
portant subject of solidarity. The need for the solidarity
of the oppressed peoples in the world stems directly
from the condition of the world. It is dictated by
capitalist and imperialist domination which constrains
the lives of the oppressed millions in the world and
prevents them and their societies from developing and
realizing their full capacity. The same interests which
have, by means of white domination, reduced the
Blacks in South Africa to mere subjects of super-
exploitation and political repression; those very same in-
terests maintain in the western world, in the United
States, a kind of society which rests on the principles of
inequality and individual greed, a society which con-
demns the ordinary person to discrimination of all
forms, to insecurity, and to painful purposelessness and
worthlessness — and that in a country which has amassed
the greatest store of wealth on the earth.
This is the basis of your solidarity with the oppressed
in South Africa. The solidarity that we seek to build has
got to be a strong and enduring solidarity. A fickle tie
which caters to the momentary urges of self-indulgence
just cannot do. Our solidarity is a weapon against the
combined strength of our enemies. And their strength is
quite enormous. Our solidarity must equal and exceed
their combined strength.
How do we achieve such a solidarity of strength? It is
a solidarity that comes from deep human passion, a pas-
sion that is fed by conviction and sound knowledge. It is
nurtured by a deep desire for true freedom. It is an in-
formed solidarity that we seek. Uninformed acts of
"solidarity" can be disastrous. They can result in
assisting the very enemies of the people we believed we
were helping. We saw that happen in Angola not so long
ago.
Many people in this country and elsewhere gave a
tremendous amount of moral and material support to
what they believed were movements of liberation in
Angola. In fact this support went to organizations such
as the FNLA and UNITA which, as it turned out, were
not movements of liberation, but factions which were in
deep collusion with white racist South Africa and with
the CIA of the United States. Their aim was to set up in
Angola a puppet government that would rule in a man-
ner beneficial to South Africa and to the governments
of the western countries, the United States especially.
Had it not been for the vigilance and determination of
the MPLA — and the splendid revolutionary support of
the Cubans, a thoroughly reactionary and counter-
revolutionary government — composed of Black func-
tionaries of western countries would have been foisted
on the people of Angola. That, in part, would have been
the result of ignorant and uninformed acts of solidarity.
The lesson of Angola is that solidarity must be in-
formed if it is to be effective. This imposes on
whomever seeks to express solidarity in action the task
of making a painstaking and thorough effort to under-
stand the liberation movement one wishes to support: its
aims, its principles and methods, and its place in
history.
But this responsibility of the friends of liberation
12
toward the liberation movement is reciprocal. The
liberation movement has a duty towards those people
who rally to its support. It has the duty to take them in-
to its confidence and to reveal to them its view of itself:
how it looks at its problems; what principles underlie its
methods and style of operation; and its
worldview — precisely where it places itself in the con-
junction of forces on the world scene.
We in Karabo are keenly aware of the responsibility
of the movement of liberation in South Africa towards
people outside its ranks who seek to rally to its support.
It is for that reason that we undertook, jointly with
PASOA and YAWF, to invite Broither Jeff Dumo Ba-
qwa to be with us all tonight.
Brother Baqwa has played an important role in the
Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa,
especially in the South African Students Organization.
This Movement is at the forefront of the revolutionary
upsurge which is currently taking place in South Africa.
Indeed, it is in response to its echoes that you here and
hundreds of thousands of others in the world outside
South Africa are stepping forward to pledge support.
Jeff Baqwa has been in close contact with the Black
Consciousness Movement from its inception. We have
no doubt that he will tonight bring you into intimate
contact with it, so that you can feel the rhythm of the
movement and follow the logic of its develoment.
CRISIS CONSTANT IN SOUTH AFRICA
My further remarks, therefore, will be addressed not
so much to the current disaffection of the masses but to
attack the entire system of oppression. The sporadic and
unconnected rebellions of the past have now merged in-
to a unified and coordinated force of attack. The rumbl-
ings that we hear in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Capetown,
and Port Elizabeth are the march steps not of a mere
section of the population, not just students. In the
Soweto uprising we hear the beginnings of the march
steps of the whole Black population. This uprising aims
at nothing less than the seizure of power.
What stsmips a revolution with its special character of
being a revolution is that it goes beyond simply disturb-
ing the workings of the oppressive system. It demolishes
the existing structure of power and brings into being its
own center of command. And it accomplishes this by
means, not of the existing official organs and institu-
tions of authority, but by means of its own instruments.
It establishes a center of command that is alternative
and rival to the existing state power; and it implements
its command by means of its own organs — instruments
which have been fashioned by the people themselves,
home-made implements, so to speak. In revolution, the
principle of self-reliance finds its highest expression.
It is not possible to understand fully the significance
of the Soweto uprising and the incidents connected with
it unless one takes a view of the movement as a whole.
The individual acts and episodes should not be looked at
in isolation from the thrust of the total movement.
South Africa has its own special features which are dif-
ferent from those of other African countries which have
had their revolutions in recent times.
Typically, what happened in those other countries
was that the revolutionary movement was able, relative-
ly early, to establish its own physical and territorial
basis of authority. It created a zone which came com-
pletely under its jurisdiction of command — the liberated
zone. In South Africa, the establishment by the revolu-
tionary forces of their center of command has not yet
taken this tangible, physical form. But the center of
command has been established most undoubtedly. It ex-
ists and you can identify it by its results. Let me mention
only two of these results.
BLACK MASSES ESTABLISH CENTER OF COM-
MAND
You will recall that soon after the white racist state
had fired its first shots at the student demonstrators in
Soweto, in Alexandra, etc., the Black urban workers
came out in a massive solidarity effort of their own.
They downed their tools. This happened in Johan-
nesburg, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth, the three
largest cities in South Africa. I cannot think of a single
event in the whole history of our struggle against white
oppression which compares with this event in
significance. As far as I am aware there has not been a
place, even in the most highly industrialized countries of
the West, where workers came out in such large
numbers, in such solidarity, discipline, and firm deter-
mination. Make no mistake, this was not an ordinary
strike about wages, conditions of work, etc. It was an
extraordinary form of strike action: profoundly
political in its motivation; and it declared itself political
in its banners as well.
It is common knowledge that in South Africa strike
action by Blacks is prohibited by law. Black trade
unions do not have legal recognition. But the body of
Black workers established their strike action as an enor-
mous fact of life, albeit not of law. Everyone in South
Africa recognized this fact. Indeed it was recognized
practically everywhere on this globe. This fact, as a
13
reality, was "recognized" even by the South African
state power, though it continued to rave and say that its
law did not recognized strikes by Blacks. This sort of
thing happens only when the law and the state power
behind it cease having any hold n the social reality, on
actual events, that is.
The fact which these strikes so clearly established is
that the Blacks in South Africa are well on their way to
establishing their life, as a fact, away from the old order
of state and law, and independently of the existing
order. They establish their will; and they implement it
by their own instruments. This way they place their lives
on a self-sustaining basis. This is the basis of the
"power of the people," the concept that governs the
Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.
But we must be careful not to make the terrible
mistake of believing that the life of the people on a self-
sustaining basis can exist permanently alongside the old
order of white dominance. This is the belief which the
white supremacists have been at pains to foster.
Towards this end they have created the bantustans, even
the so-called "independent" bantustans.
The power of the peple does not develop parallel to
the existing white state power. It grows at the expense of
the present white state power; and, as the one grows in
strength and vitality the other progressively undergoes
death. The motion is quite like that of the liberation
movements in the other African countries, notably
Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and Angola. The expan-
sion of the liberated zone inevitably meant the reduction
of the area of jurisdiction of the forces of colonialism.
The expansion of our center of command likewise spells
the erosion of the authority and jurisdiction of the old
order. In South Africa this is already a fast-growing
fact.
OLD ORDER BEING SWEPT ASIDE
As another illustration of this fact, let me cite an ex-
cerpt from an article which appeared in yesterday's
(November 19, 1976) New York Times:
An elusive student group has emerged as
the single most powerful group in the black
township of Soweto except for the police,
who are busy jailing most of the student ac-
tivists they find.
While the Government reviews ways of
giving blacks more control over their own
communities, the group known as the
Soweto Students Representative Council has
become almost a shadow government in the
sprawling township outside Johannesburg.
Recently, after months of close involve-
ment in the uprisings against apartheid in
which more than 200 Soweto residents have
been killed since June, the student group
declared a period of mourning for the rest of
the year.
In a community of more than a million
people, it was far from clear that an edict
issued by a group of students, many in their
teens, the oldest about 25, would have much
impact.
However, the results have been an im-
pressive demonstration of the power the
students wield. Whether out of fear of
retribution or sympathy for the students'
aims, residents of the township have shown
remarkable respect for the young people's
decisions.
This report issues from a source which is not even
remotely sympathetic to our movement. The situation,
which it merely samples, is not confined to Sowete nor
to the student section of the population. It typifies a
nation-wide phenomenon. The incontrovertible fact
that has emerged is that the Black masses in South
Africa have at last established their center of command.
The powers that be are frantic; because, try what they
may, they have been unable to track it down. This is
because it derives ultimately from the will, passion, and
determination of the bulk of the oppressed nation.
There can be no doubt that the initiative in directing
events has begun to pass over from the rulers to the rul-
ed. The rulers still retain the instruments of force but
their capacity for implementing their will is rapidly be-
ing impaired. Real action and the capacity to initiate it
are fast gravitating into the hands of the revolutionary
masses.
REVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF STRIKE
ACTIONS
One of the "Great Lies" of the old order that has
come tumbling down in the revolutionary process now
underway in South Africa is the idea fostered by white
supremacists of the supposed omnipotence of their
system. The strikes alone have delivered a mortal blow
to this "Great Lie." The Black workers carried out a
massive political strike, and demonstrated to themselves
their own strength and the relative helplessness of the
state. They became convinced of what they have been
learning over time; namely, that their labor is the
14
LNS Women's Graphics
15
greatest force in society; that the entire establishment of
the white state rests ultimately on the force that comes
from their combined labor.
The slogan "power to the people" is no longer a
statement of hope and aspiration; it is a statement of
demonstrated fact. It is no longer merely theory,
because it has seeped down to the level of popular belief
and prejudice. When as revolutionary a concept as this
becomes the common property of the people, then there
is no longer room for the myth that there can exist a
power above that of the people. When we view the re-
cent strikes in South Africa from this angle, then their
significance emerges fully.
Their significance is derived, in the first place, from
the nature of South African society itself, the place of
Black labor and its relation to the mass movement of the
population. Almost the entire Black population are
working people. The displacement of the bulk of the
population from the land, which was effected by the In-
dustrial Revolution in most European countries, was ac-
complished by means of force and military conquest in
South Africa. Consequently, there does not exist in
South Africa a peasantry properly so-called. Almost the
entire Black population consists of industrial and
agricultural laborers. Because of color discrimination
there is hardly a Black bourgeoisie. The so-called Black
middle class is extremely small and weak, relative to the
extent of industrialization in the country and to the
numbers of the Black population.
This gives an idea of the potential strength of the
political strike in the South African situation. This form
of political action is accessible to almost the whole of
the Black population. Its importance cannot be
overstated.
South Africa combines important characteristics of
both the western industrialized countries and the
underdeveloped Third World countries. Like the first, it
is relatively highly industrialized: this makes feasible the
industrial form of strike action. But it shares with the
Third World countries the character of being an
underdeveloped country subject to a kind of colonial
domination, which makes the struggle for self deter-
mination a historial imperative. The movement towards
liberation gathers its momentum from these combined
urges: to eliminate capitalist exploitation and to achieve
self-determination. Because the South African white
state is recognized relatively easily to be the instrument
of capitalist exploitation, the Black workers realize that
the real and effective counter to such exploitation is not
along the lines of pure trade-unionism, but towards the
seizure of power. It is this combination of factors which
explain why the Black workers in South Africa have
been able to impart a political and revolutionary
character to their strike action well ahead of any work-
ing class movement in the industrialized countries of the
West.
THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT
I'd like to mention just one other falsehood that has
been spread concerning the liberation movement in
South Africa. When the uprisings first erupted in
Soweto on June 16, the white supremacists raised a hue
and cry, trumpeting that what they called riots and
disturbances were instigated by "irresponsible"
elements who were coercing the population by means of
"terror." As events developed, these happenings were
described as being the result of machinations by groups
and individuals operating from outside the country. In
truth, of course, these events were the revolutionary ex-
pression of the masses in South Africa.
The movement which ushered in these developments
is the Black Consciousness Movement. This Movement
is not a single party; it consists of a network of people's
local, regional, and nation-wide organizations which
operate among the people within South Africa, not
from the outside. It is truly a united front of people's
organizations. Among the largest within this network
are the Black People's Convention, the South African
Students Organization, the Black Allied Workers'
Union, and the Union of Black Women's Federation.
The claim that the uprising was being master-minded or
directed by groups outside the country is utterly false.
And it is in fact resented by the people in South Africa.
Rightly so, because this lie is also a slur upon their in-
telligence and self-respect. It takes the inveterate con-
temptuousness of the South African white racists to
fabricate such a lie about the masses of South Africa.
Let me leave you with this simple message:
The Black Consciousness Movement opens up an en-
tirely new chapter in the history of South Africa. The
movement of liberation belongs now, in the first in-
stance, to all the oppressed people of South Africa; and
uhimately to history, that is, to the whole of mankind.
We of South Africa are re-entering our history and the
history of mankind from which we have been excluded
for so long by the combined forces of international
capitalism, imperialism, and South African white
domination. Your solidarity will assist us in clearing the
great leap.
16
^--W^^^Sg^^-
I .,;i lilt*
.^•,
ANOTHER DEATH
The roof sags and creaks at the wind's gentle breeze;
Bemudes wasps vie for entry into the mud mound on the ceiling.
The clogged sewers stench beckons rats to a banquet;
The fungus hangs on grandpa's neck like lillies.
The flea-coated mongrel in the manger growls and strums her concertina
ribcage;
The litter sticks like ticks on it's ghostly chassis.
And mama heaves and sighs
And delivers Charles.
Bheki Langa
17
GOD BLESS THE CHILD
i'd promised to write
no more 'tortured' verse, again
i'd walk the beaten track
display servile manners to superiors
and earn myself an A on the attitude scale.
i'd wipe off history; obtain citizenship
and call veterans of the Anglo-Boer war,
comrades . . .
leaning on an iron fence, across Canadian Life Insurance,
a week to date,
Kaisey lectured me on human harmony; insisted
i pocket four tokens, i took them,
for luxury.
I've wiped all that now.
before these cemetery-like flowers on University Avenue
I need no lectures on responsibility.
I'm hungry, kaisey and want cash, today.
the Postman 's delay will evict me from the Y.
Lady Day who knew hunger, sometimes for days, once snapped;
you can 't begin to talk of love
with an empty stomach and no clothes on your back.
Jutting from the blossom, the angel-topped cenotaph recalls;
Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hills, Natal . . .
These names chiselled on the monument of hunger,
have tossed me on these gold glittering pavements.
Bheki Langa
Canada 1973 September
saj£^<;cet^*7 M-sTB/e^^-T7.
19
New Africa House
Room 115
Amherst, Massachusetts
To: Randolph Bromery, Chancellor
Robert Wood, President
Governor Michael Dukakis
From: South African Support Committee
Re: Investments by the University of Massachusetts
Dear Sirs:
The University of Massachusetts owns stocks and bonds in a number of corporations with major in-
vestments in South Africa. These corporations are: General Motors, fohnson and Johnson, General Electric,
Motorola, Nabisco, Lilly Pli, Pfizer, Smithkline, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, FMC, Newmont
Mining, Honeywell, IBM, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and Goodyear. The University is also considering pur-
chases of Ingersoll Rand and Caterpillar Tractor. The University has spent a total of $540,558.43 on these in-
vestments. We arrived at these figures by comparing the account of the University endowment fund of
February 18, 1977 with the latest report of the American Consulate General in Johannesburg, Republic of
South Africa (Commercial Section).
The South African holdings of these corporations provide material support and legitimacy to a white
supremacist regime. The facts of life for black South Africans — such as 53% of all black children dying by the
age of five— cannot be altered by these corporations. To the contrary, they are bound by the laws of the land
and can only strengthen the apartheid system. In fact, the legalized exploitation of black labor helps these cor-
porations make a 17-19% return as opposed to a world average of 11%. Their material interests makes them
resist any real reforms.
We must do more than simply hope for change. Points 3 and 4 of the University's "Guidelines for the In-
vestment of the Endowment Fund" state that: "The University will endeavor to take informed and ethical
positions whenever it exercises its voting rights as a stockholder and may communicate directly with manage-
ment when there is evidence that the corporation is not acting responsibly in the public interest. " and "When
there is evidence that a corporation in which the University owns stock is persistently engaging in activities
that are grossly contrary to these guidelines, the Treasurer, after consultation with investment counsel, will
recommend the sale of that stock. " Point 2 states "The University will seek to invest in corporations that have
a responsible posture in matters relating to . . . public health . . .[and] equal employment opportunities . . ."
The University's own criteria make these investments unacceptable from a moral and legal point of view.
We therefore request that the University immediately sell its holdings in the above corporations and
publicize its reasons for doing so.
Sincerely,
University of Massachusetts
South Africa Support Committee
copies to:
Boston Globe
Springfield Union
Northampton Gazette
Holyoke Transcript
N.Y. Times
Valley Advocate
Boston Phoenix
Collegian
Outfront
New Unity
20
SIGIDI!
(For Keorapretse William Kgotsitsile,
Afrikan scholar & Guerilla I poet)
Drums of our fathers,
hear us. Souls of our mothers,
bear witness . . .
When the Whirlwind sweeps
south of Zambezi, we
hope your eyes witness
the open graves of four
million monsters. (Guerilla
warrior completing Shaka 's task.
In Soweto, the children's
graves will blossom amid
the dust from troop carriers
and the earth they blessed
will sing lull a byes
to glorious dawn.
Willie the years
stretch like a string of
mine fields across the leprous
terrain of Caucasian madness.
Our lives are a thousand
rebellions, uprisings-
massive cries into the
Whirlwind of World Spirit.
Guerilla souls we are!
building bridges of revolt
from Harlem, Watts, Newark,
Detroit — a Black Bandoleer
stretching from New Afrika
to Manibia, Zimbabwe, Angola
and points South. (Comrade
when you march, 30 million
tramp in your footsteps:
Malcolm, Martin, Lumumba,
Cabral are loose again
in the Afrikan Whirlwind,
Willie
keep a steady
trigger-finger; don 't
stop shooting
'till the Cape is stained
a brilliant red, 'til
Zulu drums thunder from
south Atlantic to the
Indian Ocean, and
Azania blooms like
a red hibiscus in
the radient dawn I
Aikia Muhammad Toure (copyright Oct. 1976)
l:k
k
love poem no. 8
who are we to say
that we are lovers
in these days of unhappiness
neutral shifts upon the wind i
have forgotten their order
standing here at this point
somewhere between then and now
it is dark here sometimes
yet even when the sun empties
who am i to ask
and who are we to assemble
these broken seedlings
that we have gleaned after the harvest
(always after the harvest)
it is not easy for me
to speak of love
but this one time
when i am tired
i will say with meaning
i love you
and picture your face
in shadow.
John Williams
Black Cypress
Absorb yourself
and be nourished by the beauty of blackness
and be nourished by the richness from our home land
from which we once came.
As black women
we are faced with many challenges that days bring forth
BUT THATS ALL RIGHT
build it
make it strong
mold it into a figure shaped you
and you are one to set an example for all
and your men
feed them yourself
(talk-to-em)
don V test them
guide
don 't mislead
Black women (todays tomorrow)
WE ARE LIKE THE BLACK PEARLS IN THE SEA!!! rarest among jewels
SO SSSSSSsshine radiantly
Pam Benn
22
love poem no. 9
October 26, 1973
and today as i stand at the entrance
to november
making futile preparations
for the cold
my hands thrown away to the ends of the earth
on this day this holy day this Sunday
of racing winds and inaudible prayers
that find no difference between themselves
on this day
this day of many clouds and little warmth
on this day
my love is a tattered veil of arabesque
etched across into the hills laughing
into the wind
as it stretches and runs from me
to you
badly in need of repair,
for no other reason than it is the nature of a veil
to unravel, to be re- spun, and to unravel again,
i ask you to run to the mountains
to see my love painted there
a reflection of the sun growing older
slowly peeling off into the face of the earth
falling from the trees
the fastidious scrape me away
to be burned and my ashes scattered
into the dust
by which time if you will have not yet gone
up into the mountains
in search of me and my love
it will not matter then
for by then my love and i
will have turned inward
and have become
the mountain itself
John williams
23
The South African's Vow
I saw a free spirit out-distance the wind
on its journey home.
I saw him turn and laugh as she (the wind)
waved at his triumph.
I saw years of life comfortably lulled to
rest by happiness and fulfillment .
I saw the sun hunger after the Brightness
of the smiles of a nation combined.
Then I awoke, Dream gone.
I saw the storm's hand gently wash and
cleanse a quiet free land.
I saw love sit heavily about this land
and warm all in it's peaceful embrace.
I saw nature call to her proud children
and they answered like the rushings of a tide.
I saw one content face in this tide and
knew it to be a family picture.
Then I awoke, Dream gone.
I saw the back of a nation come alive
as the opressor's whip was cut short
by emotions that would be bruised no more.
I saw the life that grew out of this turning
point, flower and bring all of nature's beauty
with it.
I saw a people sweating out thrust and drive
as their labor built a nation.
I saw laughter and mirth run rampant
through bountiful ranks of strong young
children.
Then I awoke, Dream gone.
And through my hazy, sleep filled eyes,
I saw a living nightmare where my dream
should have been.
I leaped from my state of somnambulant
acceptance and grabbed my gun.
I'll have my dream.
I now marched through the corridors of
resistance and oppression.
The waiting claws of the resister,
the oppressor clamber for my soul.
I am determined that he shall not have
it.
Not when I have seen the free spirit in
me.
Not when I have felt the love of
freedom.'s kiss upon my heart.
Not when one free-smile is worth a
thotisand in bondage.
Not when I have been a king under the
reign of justice.
No. He shall not have my soul.
Bui I shall have his if he seeks to
restrict my freedom once again.
"This I Vow. "
Sandy Mclean
24
THE BLOOD LINE'S CRY
Listen, do you hear it 's cry?
Do you hear the cry of the blood line?
It is a cry that transcends all distance and time.
It is a cry that grabs you and holds
you for its full duration, its full
course.
It sails the impassionate seas to find its
way to a strangely familiar shore, (familiar thru
vicarious experience)
Now that it is here, it follows its natural
attraction to the Blood line.
A line that runs thru resistance and apathy to the real
people
called us. We are the line's end.
The red current flows to us and from us.
Once awakened, our ears tune to the sorrowful
howl it carries.
In the howl we see grey cold things which resemble
chains.
They drop from the heavens to conquer all within
their reach in the name of the oppressor.
They lock the free spirit to a block
called Apartheid.
Yet the picture slowly — quickly changes.
It turns in on itself and explodes into violent rebellion.
Brother who was suffering under their weight (those
heavycold chains)
now seek to breath freely.
The Blood line cries out for support, this then is the
cry we heard.
Brother is dying in the struggle.
Sister is crying in the struggle.
All are suffering in the struggle.
The Blood line comes alive and cries for strength that
comes
from here and goes all the way over to there.
To their hearts. Blood holds.
To their minds. Blood holds.
To their souls. Blood holds.
Dying blood, anguished blood, despairing blood
pouring blood. Right-on blood, fighting blood.
Our blood. Holds.
Yes blood.
We are with you blood.
For now blood,
and tomorrow blood.
With you all the way.
Sandy Mclean
25
TO MY MOTHER
To my mother
through whom God chose,
To bring me birth,
To my mother,
a humble
peaceful, submissive,
servant of God,
who nursed
me, gave me warmth
and tender care,
who taught me
the difference
of
right from wrong
who,
guides me along,
the correct path,
who is my
heart, life and soul,
for whom i pray
daily that she may
one day see the
abode of peace
who is a righteous
woman who has suffered
many hardships,
pains and sorrows,
but who has remained
steadfast to the truth
in times of trials
and tribulations,
who in this very
hour is a prisoner,
captive in an unrighteous,
nation that breeds,
unrighteous people.
May Allah, God, bless,
guide and protect
her.
To my mother,
i just want to say,
there are no
words to express,
the appreciation,
love and respect
i have for you
being the mother
you have been,
and are now
and i give all
praise and thanks to
almighty God, Allah
for having
blessed me with
having such
a spiritual
righteous mother
May we understand
Allah's, God's
divine plan
one day,
and if we
don 't see
one another
again in this
life,
May we
re-unite
in paradise
A.H. 1391
26
I AM UP
Mom, at school the writing on the wall
It puts me down, they say I'm not a man
21 I am I'm now a man, mom can't they see
Why do they say black men never grow up
since the day of my birth, I've grew in mind
I grew in strength and wisdom, I'm more than a man
those who oppose me I forgive them
For they do not know any better
Only a fool would go against God in the flesh
I've sacrificed my live for those to live.
I respect myself, I love it, its so good
I'm love, I'm black, I carry the wisdom of a king.
Tell me, tell my mom tell the fools
Tell them that if anyone is a man that it be me.
Keith Peters
A POEM OF BLACK MOTHERS OF YESTERDAY
AND WOMEN OF TODAY
Is there a woman with love more dear
To keep her man alive, she instilled in him fear?
Emasculating Black manhood and all manhood means.
Banking Blackfires with caresses and dreams.
Many are the lonely nights her heart wailed
For the son I husband in the white man's jail.
The salty tears Black eyes have shed.
Unwanted whiteman who favored Blackbeds.
But for a sigh and a prayer, now and then.
Who knows that hell a Black woman lives in?
All in all, that day is through.
Today, a Black sun shines on you.
Yet, there is still that fear in your eyes.
And still, you endure so Black man survives.
11
People of Power
We are the dancers and the singers; we are the music makers and
the poets; we are the star gazers and the spirituaUst; we are
the amazons and the Spartans; we are the metaphysicians and we are
the muse.
We are the laborers and the servants; we are the mangers and me-
chanics; we are the extensions of your machines; we are the
makers of your dreams; we are the exploited; we are the armies
waiting for employ.
We are the dangerous and the violent; we are the corrupted cre-
ations of this time; we are seekers; we are sought; we are the
wretched masses feeding on your shores; we are the damned mult-
itude of poor; we are what you fear.
We are the unassimulated natives; we are the unpacified captives;
we are the silent vigilants who perserve; we are the tortured
and tormented, the occupied oppressed; we are the incarnation of
your nightmares.
We are the people of the covenant; we are the people who will crown
your wealth with steel and gather together your technology devel-
oped at your expense to joyously celebrate our victory as we
hammer your bones on a cross of dollars * symbolizing salvation.
We are the people
And we promise
Liberation!
Jamila Semueya Grastou
1976
'from Pablo Neruda, revolutionary Chilean poet
John Kendrick
28
J I. y -
John Kendrick
29
30
SOUTHERN AFRICAN HUNTER
(For Dennis Brutus)
(According to a report in The Times, 17.8.1973, at the South African Prime Minister's annual get-together with the
world's press, in Pretoria, more than twenty journalists were given an informal plates-on-the-knees dinner of ostrich
egg omelette, roasted impala and eland cottage pie, devised by the Prime Minister's wife. The Prime Minister had shot
the game himself, he said, and during the meal, he talked about his love of hunting, but only of species in plentiful
supply.)
This circumspect hunter,
kitted out to kill,
certainly can't be challenged
by any still-centred
wild life preservationist.
Legal accusation? Murder?
What's that for Smuts' sake?
Our hunter's hands are clean,
his heart as lean as linen,
they'll definitely say
and mean every word of it.
There's more about him, too,
than the mere established
black and white crazy -paving
in his perfect public parks
and in his vast country garden.
His thinking is as direct as bullets;
his preference is to meet, head on,
whatever comes at him: meandering,
dangerotis, philosophical animals,
half-cocked, interrmtional sanctions,
split-second, trip-wire boycott campaigns,
looming investment nightmares,
or plain shooting trouble
preferably on the Zambesi
rather than on the Limpopo.
He's a southern hunter who knows
his river banks, whatever one says.
And one more thing: he eats well;
he likes a strict, native diet.
He shoots dead straight
(and so do his obedient beaters)
but only at those prescribed targets
moving in the greatest possible numbers:
a warning too late for several millions
swelling, year by year, to several more,
a river of man, which, will, one night
(knowing how long-imprisoned rivers are),
flood the southern hunter's private garden
his great acreage of deadly -accurate guns.
Andrew Salkey
SOUTH AFRICAN
ADOWS CASTED INTO TME RUBBLE
TO MAKE WAY FOR WHi™ EXPANSION
/«^
32
CHILDREN'S REALITY
PHOTOS: ERNEST COLE
Reprint from House of Bondage,
Random House, Inc., 1967
PHOTOS ON PAGES 32 to 35: ERNEST COLE
Reprint from House of Bondage,
Random House, Inc., 1967
33
FREE SICKNESS FOR ALL
IN THE HOSPITAL
FREE GOVERNMENT EDUCATION
EN-MASS
34
FREE HOUSING
\FTER TRESPASSIN(
WHITE AREAS
TROUGH
One- Way Traders
(For Mazisi Kunene)
PLAN TO MOVE
120,000 BLACKS
More than 120,000 members of the Swana race will
have to be moved from their present lands, South
Africa's Minister of Bantu Administration and
Development, Mr. M.C. Botha said today. He was an-
nouncing final land consolidation proposals for the
Bophuthatswana homeland in the Northern
Transvaal, Cape Province.
The Guardian Correspondent, Johannesburg
(26.5.1973) (25.5.1973)
Thinking that you're actually moving
the spirit of a people,
faith, hope and dream,
because the bodies shift
easily by decree,
is a dangerous illusion;
it fools the eye;
balances the accounts on paper, somehow;
but it does something violent
to the morbid mind.
The trees and homestead markings
rush past, flapping in the wind,
loose and serrated,
like torn bandages
blurred, at first,
but soon afterwards
like return signposts.
Those who persist
in working
in the moving business,
against the wishes
of their rooted customers,
are fascist handlers:
one-way traders
driving over shifting sand
to a desolating bend
farther down the road.
Andrew Salkey
36
arganta Vargas
37
Dangerous Singer
(in memory of Vuyisile Mini)
(Vuyisile Mini, popular singer
and songwriter, was executed
by the South African government,
in 1964.]
The uncertain, collapsing family house
was never the same, again,
after those songs blew over the stunted grass;
the walls pinched the cracks shut;
the doors swung free, wide open
to the inciting wind curving off the cockpit hill;
and your words were good, always real,
repeated over the years, going deeper down
into the ground where dangerous songs live like roots.
Andrew Salkey
Photo by Juan Durruthy
39
r
A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
40
BLACK & WHITE
Behind the headlines
in South Africa
Prosperity for South African whites has been achiev-
ed through the systematic denial of political rights and
the economic exploitation of its black majority. Whites,
who comprise only 17% of the population, take home
over 76% of the wealth. Why does such a large disparity
exist?
1. Whites may apply for any job; blacks are
restricted to certain jobs no matter what their
skills.
2. Whites organize trade unions and may strike for
higher pay; blacks go to jail for striking while their
trade unions receive no legal recognition.
3 South Africa has been divided into white and
black land areas — one-seventh of the land for the
19 million blacks and six-sevenths for the 4 million
whites. Every major city and town in the country
is reserved for white ownership and control.
4. The state spends approximately $340 a year for
educating each white child, only $30 for a black
child; education is free only for whites.
APARTHEID
SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL
The apartheid political system decrees that blacks
have no rights except in the reservation set aside for
them by the white government. These areas, known as
"Bantustans," comprise but 13% of the land. Africans
are defined as "temporary sojourners," in the "white"
urban areas. Thus, by definition, they are deprived of
all political and economic rights in 87% of their coun-
try.
The effects of domination and exploitation are clear:
1 . Whites per capita income is about fourteen times
that of the African — $133 a month for every white
man, woman and child, $9.50 a month for every
African.
2. Over 80% of all Africans live below the poverty
line.
3. One-half of the children born in the Bantustans
die before reaching the age of five. The death rate
is 25 times that of white children; tuberculosis, a
frequent aftermath of malnutrition, is 10 times as
common among Africans as whites.
4. Whites have one doctor for every 455 people, one
of the highest doctor-patient ratios is one to
18,000.
5. 93% of whites of high school age go to school; for
blacks, the figure is 8.9%.
South Africa is a police state denying basic human
rights and freedoms to most of its people. African men .
and women must carry passes; they may live or work
only where the stamp in their passbook — put there by a
white official — decrees. In fact, one half million people
are arrested and jailed each year for infringement of the
pass regulations. There are about one million migratory
laborers in South Africa, men who are forced to leave
their families behind in the Bantustans to live in prison-
Hke, single-sex compounds, often 16 to a room. Whites
vote and make laws in Parliament; blacks cannot.
Those accused of participating in "illegal political ac-
tivities" are detained without trial and, often, tortured.
THE UNITED STATES ROLE
This is a brutal picture, but true. It is also true that
the United States helps to maintain this system of apar-
theid. United States corporate investment in South
Africa has grown dramatically from $286 million in
1960 to over $1 .5 biUion today. US investment and trade
has played a critical role in developing manufacturing in
South Africa. US involvement provides not only much
of the capital for development of key industries, but
also the licenses, technology and personnel, which, in
many cases, are even more important than the capital
itself. With the approval of the US government,
weapons-grade uranium, aircraft and electronics
technology have gone to South Africa to assist the
military build-up against the majority of its people.
Some argue that economic growth and industrializa-
tion will automatically bring in their wake an improved
life for black people. But time has made a mockery of
this belief. After years of industrialization, Soweto and
the other black townships near major industrial areas
remain desperately poor shanty-towns. In fact, the gap
between white and black is growing.
41
a poem in late hours
i say now:
in this storm of conception,
it is difficult to gather words of
muhiple meanings
and spread them with clarity . . .
coherent bursts of profundity — so unprofound
laden in disparity.
i say:
it is difficult
in these evenings of awkward smiles
nnd genteel leanings
when voices accord the wind
beret the motion of your eyes
amidst the strands of concurrent beginnings,
your laughter 'rosed' in storm hollows
must yearn caravans of mornings
i say:
i am not the wind, my love
i cannot sweep
the broken tears as if no one
longed their magic,
i am not the
caretaker of yesterday warnings
of you and i —
embodied in postures . . .
of not knowing what to be.
aye, my love, i, indeed,
eye have cried
and seemingly i — again — embrace these
second thoughts,
i have cried . . . and again
i am alone
thomas waltet jones
42
SISTER
She must be so beautiful now
ripe like blueberries,
her eyes a blossom of jewels
her teeth a harvest of choice ivory . .
Yet, at dawn,
haven't I seen too many blueberries
promising a joyous bounty
nodding
languid on 125th and Lenox
picked by the icy wind
Long before midday?
Bheki Langa
Copyright 1975
43
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45
THANKSGIVING DAY 1977
Dick Gregory, his wife, and Senator Bill Owens, out-
side the South African embassy in Washington, D.C.,
are arrested for protesting U.S. involvement in South
Africa.
Photos by Edward Cohen
46
DATELINE:
NUREMBERG, SOUTH AFRICA
Beneath the social mushroom of Apartheid,
the Nationalist regime in South Africa has
erected, and is consolidating, an economic
pyramid. At the peak of this structure are
Whites. Coloureds and Asians constitute the
body. Blacks — who are the majority — form
the base. This state of affairs is nothing short
of compounding an already caluminous situa-
tion. Moreover, it is a foolhardy militation
against any effort to protect and work toward
a socially and economically integrated South
African nation, a nation that will establish a
common citizenship and merit the loyalty of
every race. The following is a sampling of the
Apartheid recipe as it exists today.
Marriage between whites and non-whites is
illegal under the Prohibition of Mixed Mar-
riages Act of 1949. Marriage officers enforce
this law, and where persons domiciled in South
Africa contract such marriages outside the
country, the act dictates that they be voided
within South Africa.
The Native Laws Amendment Act, enacted
the same year, focuses on restricting the flow
of African workers into the cities. This act
serves two exploitative purposes: the insurance
of an abundant pool of cheap laborers to work
in the mines, and the deterant to the establish-
ment of a large native population in urban
areas. The latter ramification makes it im-
possible to organize functional socio-political
black units, and increases the number of black
families that must separate. Special labor
bureaus enforce this law.
As a result of the Population Registration
Act of 1950, South Africans are required to
carry identification cards, on which is indelibly
inscribed the race and status of each person.
The provisions made in this act also establish-
ed a racial register; the population was
classified under three groups — Europeans,
Coloureds, and Africans. Of these groups, the
Coloureds and Africans were also registered
according to their ethnological sections. This
elaborate documentation process boosts the
separatist policies, and effectively hinders any
inter-racial alhances.
Perhaps the most glaring exhibition of the
monstrosity of the Apartheid system is the Im-
morality Amendment Act. Enacted in 1950,
this act prohibited carnal intercourse between
whites and non- whites. (The original 1927 Act
forbade intercourse between whites and
Africans). Thousands of people, ranging from
visiting seamen and clergy to a Prime Minister,
have been punished under this law. Over
6,000people were convicted under this Act bet-
ween 1950 and June 1966.
The ownership and occupation of land is
governed by the Group Areas Act. The land
and its uses are rationed along ethnic lines,
thereby creating racial ghettoes.
The Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952
controls the movement to and from and the
grouping of Africans in urban areas. Under
this Act, the Africans are not permitted to re-
main in an urban area over seventy-two hours
without a permit — unless it is their birthplace
and permanent residence. This law helps to
prevent the formation of a potentially
dangerous black proletariat.
The founders of apartheid might have
postulated separate but equal development,
however the Reservation of Separate Amen-
titiesAct of 1953 permits separate and unequal
facilities to exist. Persons in charge of any
public premises or public vehicle may reserve
such premises or vehicle for the exclusive use
of any race or class. The facilities afforded
non-whites were substantially inferior to those
47
available to whites; consequently the doctrine
of separate but unequal was enshrined in
South African law.
Strikes by African workers are outlawed by
the Native Labor (Settlementof Disputes) Act
of 1953. Industrial disputes involving Africans
were to be settled through a complicated
machinery, but this only compounded the
disputes.
In the urban areas, the number of Africans
residing in one building is also a matter of
regulation. The Native Amendment Act pro-
hibits landlords from allowing more than five
Africans to inhabit one building at any one
time — unless special permission had been
granted by the Minister of Native Affairs.
The Criminal Procedures Act, enacted in
1955, empowers the police to kill
suspects fleeing or persons resisting arrest.
In compliance with the Industrial Concilia-
tion Act of 1956, entry into trade unions and
job placement are based upon race. This
schematic ruling deprives blacks, who are
component units in the country, of a possible
platform for racial cooperation.
The Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act
stated that any African in receipt of a
removal or banishment order — rightly or
wrongly — cannot request a stay of suspen-
sion for its execution. This law dictates that
no court issue interdict to such orders, no
matter how arbitrarily those orders were
issued. The African is obligated to move first
and argue later — even at the risk of ir-
reparable personal and familial damage.
The dragnet against intimate relations bet-
ween the races is expanded and reinforced
by the Immorality Act of 1957. The penalty
for carnal intercourse between whites and
non-whites was increased to seven years im-
prisonment, while solicitation with intent to
commit an indecent or immoral act was
declared a criminal act.
Between 1961 and 1962 the pain-
ting of political slogans had flourished, and a
passed to prohibit this activity. The General
Law Act of 1962, one of a series of such acts,
made the slogan painting an offence that was
punishable with a maximum of six months in
prison and/or any other penalty that might be
imposed under the law.
The General Laws (1963) also provides for
the detention of persons without trial. A
similar Act (1964), among other things, allows
the government to jail anyone who refuses to
give evidence during criminal proceedings. The
jail term is a minimum of twelve months. In
addition to this, the Act authorizes the use of
force to make alleged accomplices testify- even
at the risk of incriminating themselves.
Freedom of speech and writing by exiled
South Africans is prohibited by the Suppres-
sion of Communism Amendment Act (1965).
This Act empowers the state to ban publica-
tion and distribution of hterary works deemed
a continuation of a work by the exiled person.
The Police Amendment Act of 1965 allows
the pohce, at any place within a mile of the
South African border, to search any person,
vehicle, or premises without a warrant. The
Minister of Justice declared these powers
necessary to combat infiltration.
Inter-racial marriages contracted outside
South Africa are voided in the African coun-
try. Under the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages
Amendment Act (1968), such marriages are il-
legal and cannot be consumated in South
Africa.
Multi-racial poUtical activities are also il-
legal according to the Prohibition of Political
Interference Act.
One may want to know how the South
African society is faring in the face of such
regulations. Statistics may not be conclusive as
proof of consequence, but the following serve
at least as primers on the South African social
scene.
In 1912, one out of every twenty-two per-
sons was brought before the courts. By 1960,
the figure was one in eight — and even more
startling is that one in every eight of the
48
African population alone was convicted. On The suicide rate, another social phenomena,
November 22, 1967, the United Nations reached 651 in 1962; 536 whites, 71 coloureds,
pubHshed a report stating that 1,066 people and 44 Asians. Figures on the Africans are
had been executed throughout the world in the unavailable. Still the crime rate grows,
years between 1961 and 1965. Nearly half of And what about 1978 or the year 2000?
this total had been hanged in South Africa. In what will the future hold for the people of
1920, one South African in 10,000 lost his Ufe South Africa?
through violence. In 1964 and 1965, the figure
was five times as high.
LIFES DIMENSIONS
When search was all,
She searched and found
A man, who was but
Less than she
They ran, like fluff balls
Through the town
and worshipped him
On bended knee.
The child she brought
And one he gave, sat
Entwined in company;
This child came in, so
Fair of face with eyes
That gazed upon the heart
So those around
With special sense
Made mention
He was more than smart.
With wayward mind
And unset time, the man
Turned tail to other things
but she sat hard on winded sea
And rode on balded eagle wings.
Some wonder now, the way they went
Or see them now and then again
(I've seen her sit on window's ledge
and hold her two quite close at hand)
(Then too, I've seen a better day, where laurel
spawn and
green fields roam)
(She dreams and searches not of him but of a
everlasting
home)
barbara j. black
49
^r( Uatei
Mothering Midnight Stars
Tonight
Ssshimmer
"" down
And open our minds
Lets the cries from your planets
Encompass our true growth
Quickening the spirits
That dwell within
Giving dreams direction.
Pamela Benn
51
STATEMENT
By Miss Belinda Martin aged 22.
I am a resident at 129 Cumberland Avenue, Nancefield,
Johannesburg.
I am employed as a computer programmer by Generex
Computer Bureau, Fedmis Buildings, Marshall Street,
Johannesburg.
I was detained by plain-clothes Security Police at my
place of employment at 8:30 a.m. on July 17.
I was handcuffed and taken by car to John Vorster
Square, to the 9th floor.
There were eight White Security Police present and one
Coloured Lieutenant Sons, the policeman who arrested
men.
I was threatened with violence if I didn't answer their
questions. I was told that if I didn't answer questions
put to me I would not be released.
I was then taken to the 10th floor where a number of
photographs were taken of me.
The police then handed me over to two White police
women. They were middle-aged (more than 32), one was
uniformed the other not.
The policemen told the two women to rough me up to
give me a taste of the treatment I was to get from them.
I was left alone with the two women. They stripped all
my clothes off me. I was handcuffed by my hands and
feet. Then they beat me. They hit me with their hands
and fists. I fell over and sprawled on the floor. The
policemen stood outside the door during this beating.
The police had told me earlier they could beat me as
much as they wanted to because I would have no proof
against them.
They then took the handcuffs off, and they allowed me
to dress. I was then handcuffed again, hands and feet.
I was put at a chair in front of a desk. It was a front
room of the building. They closed the blinds and stack-
ed chairs against the door.
Now there were the eight White policemen and Lieut.
Sons. They all crowded around me, and all spoke and
shouted at once.
I remember them asking which organization did I
belong to. Had I formed my own revolutionary group?
I just sat and looked at them.
They pulled my hair, whole handfuls, and they used ter-
rible language.
They said they would not let me leave the room. I would
have to wet the floor if necessary.
This went on till about 4:30 p.m. I didn't answer any
questions. They then unhandcuffed me, and left me
with a uniformed male and female policeman and the
woman who booked me in.
They took me to a cell on the first floor.
The cell was stinking and filthy. The toilet was full and
couldn't be flushed.
Before reaching the cell, we passed through two steel
doors.
I was given two blankes, if you can call them blankets,
they were more like rags. And I was told to sleep on the
cement floor. There was no mat. There was nothing in
the cell besides the toilet.
I was not given anything to eat or drink, nor was I
allowed other clothes. I was to stay in the same clothes I
was arrested in for the next 2-3 weeks.
Also I was not given any food or water for the next two
weeks, and only survived by drinking water from the
toilet pan in my cell from the fourth day after my ar-
rest— on Monday July 21.
The next day, Friday (July 18) I was fetched from my
cell at about 8:30 and taken to the 9th floor of the
building again. This time there were more security
police than the day before. They were all in plain
clothes, and included my main interrogator a Lieut.
Cornelius, a White policeman.
I was again handcuffed hands and feet and sat in a chair
in front of the same desk.
I was asked many questions about my brother
(Leonard) in exile n Botswana, and about his friends.
During this questioning, Lieut. Sons hit me in the face
twice with his open hand— he always gave the first shots.
My nose started to bleed. Even today it still bleeds some
times.
I just sat there and said I could not answer their ques-
tions.
They said that if I wanted to get out I should just agree
with what they said. They questioned me about SASO,
BPC, AFRO (South African Student Organisation,
Black Peoples' Convention, Anti-Coloured Peoples
Representative Council group) and about exiles, and if
they were engaged in a revolutionary project.
They accused me of having gone to Botswana for
revolutionary military training — I had gone there three
times to take money and clothes to my brother.
I have never belonged to SASO, BPC or AFRO.
I was questioned all day, and again given no food or
water.
Besides hitting me in the face, Lieut. Sons also kicked
me in the stomach with his knee. I don't think the White
security police would have assaulted me if Sons had not
52
been there.
They suggested at one stage that the women should beat
me up. He said no. He said I was a revolutionary bitch
and should be treated as such regardless of my sex.
I was taken back to my cell, and that night I was given
no food or water. I was deprived of food and water for
14 days. The security policemen said that I should talk if
I wanted a drop of water.
That day, Friday, they had fixed the toilet, but I didn't
drink out of it until the Monday. Also the cell light did
not work, and I was left in the cell in the dark.
I was left in the cell the whole of the next two days,
Saturday and Sunday, without food and water.
On Monday morning (July 21) I was fetched from my
cell.
I asked to be allowed to wash and was told "you're not
in a hotel, remember you are in prison."
I was taken to the same interrogation room. This time
there was only Lieut. Sons and Lieut. Cornelius present.
I was again handcuffed hands and feet.
They removed my shoes, and in my socks, I was made to
stand on a block of hot ice (dry ice). They ice was stan-
ding on a tray, and a row of iron spikes was put in front
and behind the tray, so that if I fell or wanted to get off
the spikes would stick into me. I must have stood for
about 8 hours in this way, without moving. I can tell it
was about this long, because I remember the two
policemen preparing to stop work, as they did each day
from about 3:30 p.m.
Throughout that day they just carried on with office
work at desks in the office.
They told me that if I was prepared to tell them what
they wanted to know, they would release me.
I was completely dazed after a while. They may have
removed the spikes. I complained of feeling dizzy and
said I could not see.
My feet swelled up and I felt a burning pain through my
body. Then at some stage everything went black. I must
have collapsed and lost consciousness.
I woke up in my cell. I had a terrible migraine.
My whole body was swollen, as if it was full of water.
I was very thirsty and drank form the toilet in the cell
for the first time.
The following morning Tuesday (July 22) I was taken to
the District Surgeon in town. I wasn't handcuffed, and
was taken there by Lieut. Sons and a White policeman.
I didn't answer to any of the doctor's questions.
I had difficulty walking, and he must have seen the
swelling on my body.
He checked me over. He gave me tablets for a migraine,
although I didn't complain of one.
He was a very old doctor. He could hardly see. He had
thick glasses.
He asked if I had been assaulted. I didn't say I had
been — it wouldn't have served any purpose.
I didn't tell him anything. I saw no reason to complain.
I was then taken back to my cell and left for the whole
day.
The next day, Wednesday (July 23) my nose started
bleeding, and I started wretching and my bowels pro-
duced blood.
I didn't ask to see a doctor.
I wretched all over the cell floor. Nobody cleaned up,
and I used my pantyhose to clean up.
I felt I was dying, as I had a burning inside me.
The toilet was still filthy, and I used the same pantyhose
to wash it out.
I was then left alone altogether. I was not brought any
food or water for two to three weeks.
I was told that if I wanted to talk, I should just press the
red button on the cell wall. I lost some sense of time, but
could tell it was day by the light from the window high
up on the wall of the cell.
I was given no toilet paper or soap, and washed myself
from the water in the toilet pan with my pantyhose.
I was terribly cold, especially at night. 1 had a cough,
and my throat used to burn.
Then the Friday of the next week, I think, a magistrate
came to see me.
I couldn't tell him anything. I just couldn't com-
municate with him — I saw no purpose being served.
He asked me a number of questions. I didn't reply.
He must have seen I wasn't washed, that my clothes
were dirty and that the cell was filthy and smelled.
After that weekend, on Monday morning I was taken
for a shower on the first floor. I was given a piece of
Lifebouy soap, but no towel. I was given toilet paper to
dry myself with. After the shower I had to get back into
the same filthy clothes.
The next day, Tuesday (August 5) I was given clean
clothes which my family had sent.
That Monday (August 4) I was given food for the first
time. I was brought a piece of fish with carrot or
beetroot peels. There was no bread, but a cup of cold
coffee.
I ate only the fish. After eating it I had a terrible craving
for more food. My head started swimming and I started
shivering, going from hot to cold.
That night they brought me a sort of stew, with pieces of
fat in it. I ate one spoonfull and felt great relief, but
decided not to eat the rest — I thought it might be drugg-
ed.
53
The next day Tuesday (August 5) besides the clean
clothes, I was brought some sandwiches which I decided
not to eat because I thought they had been drugged.
Then a White matron in the cell block started smuggling
sandwiches which she had made to me. Also fruit juices
and milo or cocoa. I don't think I would have survived
without those.
She could see what a state I was in and probably took pi-
ty on me.
From then on they brought food to me regularly. All I
took was the water they brought. I wasn't interrogated
again.
Then in the 4th week of detention they brought me more
clothes and a packet of biscuits, two packets of crisps, a
bar of chocolate, a bar of soap and a packet of washing
powder sent by my family.
I was able to wash my clothes, and kept a spencer and
slacks in back of the dirty clothes so as to keep one set
clean.
The matron who brought me sandwiches told me she
had been threatened and that she could be jailed if seen
speaking to me. She had been asked if I was sending
notes through her.
On Wednesday (August 27) I was taken to the 9th floor
to see my parents. I didn't want them to see me in such a
terrible state.
My feet were swollen.
There were two security police present, including Lieut.
Sons, and they had a tape recorder on.
My mother started crying, and asking what had happen-
ed to my feet. She could hardly speak.
We chatted for a while and I was then taken back to my
cell.
That day I was accused of sending letters out of my cell.
The next day Thursday (Aug 28) at about 2:30 p.m.
Lieut. Sons came to my cell and told me to get ready to
go home.
I was again taken to the 9th floor and told that my
release was temporary. I was told that I would be put
under house-arrest if I spoke to the Press or had any
contact with people they still wanted to arrest. They
didn't say who these people were.
They gave me a typed slip saying I would have to appear
as a State witness against Joseph Molekeng — whom I
don't even know.
In all the time I was detained I never made any
statements to the police, and never signed anything.
At one stage they asked me to copy from a book onto
paper saying they had hand-writing expert.
That day Lieut. Sons drove me home. The next day he
returned and asked for my passpost, which my father
gave him.
I broke down for the first time when I got home. I just
cried and cried.
I cannot sleep at night.
There are three other things I should mention.
The night I woke up in my cell after being made to stand
all day on hot ice, I found a burn mark on my neck. It
was as though I had been burned with a cigarette. It was
painful. I still have the mark.
Also, one night, I don't remember which night, the
security police came to my cell in the middle of the night
with a doctor, who was dressed in black.
They shone a bright torch in my face. They said they
had arrested my brother and others.
The doctor asked if I was unwell. I said I was well and
feeling fine. I don't remember anything more.
During my detention there were times when I found
myself talking and laughing to myself. When this hap-
pened I stopped myself and clenched my fists and tried
to sleep. I found great difficulty in ever getting to sleep,
and when I did, it was only half-sleep.
Witness:
Witness:
Signed:
Date:
Christopher Themptander LNS
54
SEEING IT THROUGH
"Above all, it (revolution in Africa) is made up of or-
dinary people. We are not born revolutionaries, just
people who could no longer support a situation. You
get caught up in a revolution and then you see it
through."
A Frelimo cadre talking to Barbara Cornwall, author
of The Bush Rebels.
In our open house
in underdevelopment,
first, saying no to oppression,
then, getting caught up
in the struggle for change,
lasting out
and seeing it through
are really all the matter.
In our broken house
in underdevelopment,
the trampled grass
and the dynamited walls
are the things
that pitch our responses forward
and make forests of our people.
In our new house,
because we've lasted out
and seen the long night through,
because we've humped our pain
and sliced away our self contempt,
the new land will bind our promises,
sprout tall grass, again,
rebuild our defoliated dreams,
wait for our love, a second time,
and guide our scientific hand.
In our new open house,
all our children will be equal
and their parents will learn from them
those things that will last
and last
and last.
Andrew Salkey
55
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W.E.B. Du Bois Department
of
Afro-American Studies
Area Code 413
545-2751
An Open Letter on South Africa
To the Management of C.B.S. News:
I am compelled to write this letter because of my deep
concern with the way you have reported on recent events
in southern Africa. In the past I have been an en-
thusiastic fan of C.B.S. News. In fact, I have often
defended the breadth and objectivity of your coverage
against charges to the contrary from many of my col-
leagues. However, your recent reportage on southern
Africa has forced me to reconsider my previous judge-
ment as to the honesty and neutrality of your presenta-
tion of certain events.
As one who has studied Africa's problems, offered
university courses on Africa, and is presently engaged in
research and writing on the subject, I find your (C.B.S.
News) view of southern Africa astoundingn In my opi-
nion, the images of southern Africa that emerges from
both your reportage and commentary supplies an im-
pressive, logical and persuasive argument in favor of
white facist minority rule in southern Africa. This fact
raises a fundamental question: How can C.B.S. take
such a position when you, like the American govern-
ment, profess to stand for democratic government (i.e.
majority rule) and basic human freedom? In the final
analysis the central question is: What does C.B.S. stand
for?
Since I am certain that you possess both a reasonable
knowledge of and respect for the rules of inquiry, let us
seek to answer the question by reviewing the record.
Since I have neither the time nor space to review the
total product of your reportage on southern Africa, I
have selected a representative sample. To demonstrate
my point I have selected several programs and analyzed
their content and point of view.
Having sufficiently stated our case in general terms let
us get down to specifics. On Wednesday evening April
28, 1976, Eric Severied presented a commentary which
addressed the question of white rule in southern Africa.
The tone and character of his remarks were in-
distinguishable from the official propaganda of the il-
legal white South African regimes. Mr. Severied took
the position that in southern Africa "Whites have
created everything that means anything in twentieth cen-
tury terms". I would Hke to ask Mr. Severied: Does not
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" mean
anything in twentieth century terms.?
Perhaps Mr. Severied considers these principles to be
unfashionable eighteenth century anachronisms, or that
they apply to whites only! In any case, even if Mr.
Severied is intellectually perverse enough to believe the
latter, it should be pointed out that there is precious lit-
tle freedom for whites who oppose official policy in
southern Africa. The experiences of anti-apartheid
white South African intellectuals such as Dr. Beyers
Naude and Ronald Segal among others are excellent
cases in point.
It is precisely because there is such an abundance of
reliable information on South African society that
C.B.S. motives are suspect. When viewed from this
perspective it is clear that you hold a double standard on
the question of human freedom; one for whites and one
for non-whites.
There is abundant evidence of this double standard at
work in the remainder of Mr. Severied's commentary of
April 28th. For example, he refers to the "barbaric
treatment of Asians" in East Africa, and to tribalism
"as a form of racism". He also spoke of tribal conflict
as "wars of extermination". Notice the extravagant use
of the negative adjective when he addresses what he
perceives as African shortcomings. When viewed
against the feeble or non-existent treatment given these
same questions when blacks are the victims of whites; it
does not require extraordinary intelligence to recognize
a double standard.
Here again Mr. Severied's commentary obscures
more than it enlightens. Every reasonable observer of
the East African scene recognizes the racist, oppressive,
exploitative role traditionally played by East Indians.
The East Indians came to Africa from a society with
what is perhaps the world's oldest and most deeply en-
trenched system of institutionalized inequality. (Though
we readily admit that the present government is attemp-
ting to change this). They entered Africa with a highly
developed sense of social discrimination, and were given
a privileged position within the British colonial system.
There is a also a long tradition of racism that is in-
digenous to Indian society. The age of this racist ethic is
57
58
well documented in the great Hindu Epics. They tell of
battles between the black Dravidians and white Aryans
for the possession of India several thousand years ago.
In all these accounts it is the white Aryans who are the
aggressors. Since Mr. Severied is either unwilling or
unable to do the necessary reading to comment in-
telligently on these matters, he should seek alternative
means of education.
On Thursday morning April 29th the C.B.S. Morning
News presented Dr. Milton Freedman in a commentary
on southern Africa. Dr. Freedman had recently return-
ed from a trip to the Republic of South Africa. His
remarks on the South African situation sounded as
though they were written by the South African Ministry
of Information. He proceeded to argue that "most of
the blacks are freer and wealthier than elsewhere in
Africa". He goes on to point out "southern Africa with
8% of the population (of Africa at large) produces 25%
of the goods". He then uses these arguments to call for
American support for the white South African facist.
This commentary raises so many questions one hardly
knows where to begin.
The most pressing question raised by the Freedman
commentary is why was he given the opportunity at all?
To begin with, Mr. Freedman has no credentials on the
subject, academic or otherwise. He is not noted as a stu-
dent of African affairs, nor does he have extensive per-
sonal experience there. And to this observer, his com-
ments on C.B.S. does nothing to recommend him as a
credible analyst of South African affairs. In fact, he
remarks strongly suggest that he is either a dupe or a
brazenly forward apologist for South African facism.
However, it is not at all difficult to conceive of Mr.
Freedman in the latter role: particularly when one con-
siders his present relationshiop to the facist pinochet
junta in Chile. As you probably know, Mr. Freedman is
a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
He is also the principal architect of the present
economic policy of the Chilean junta. In the opinion of
many economists this policy known as "shock
treatment" is one of the most inhumane in the world.
But one need not be an economist to recognize that
anyone who could work so closely with an outright
facist regime must be of like mind. Here we defer to the
superior wisdom of the folk as expressed in the old ad-
dage, "Birds of a feather flock together."
As an intellectual and moral statement on South
Africa, Mr. Freedman's commentary is at best a burles-
que of analysis and a reflection of moral bankruptcy.
To argue as he does that blacks in South Africa are
"freer and wealthier" than anywhere else in Africa is
prima facie absurd. This argument bears a strikingly
close resemblance to the arguments of those who tell us
that black U.S. slaves were better off than their poor
white counterparts. The latter argument is presented in
the multi-volume quantitative tome by Professors Fogel
and Engerman, entitled "Time on the Cross".
In reply I would argue two things: It is not possible to
determine the quality of life from mainly quantative in-
dices, and in both cases the statistical data was provided
by the oppressors. In other words, to base such an
assumption on records supplied by the South African
government and the U.S. slaveholders is to disregard the
most basic lessons of human history. In both instances
Professors Fogel, Engerman, and Freedman base their
judgements on the quality of black life on quantitative
data expressed in statistical interpretations. The most
important of which is per capita income. (With Freed-
man, this is his only index).
In regard to Mr. Freedman's statement that white
dominated, southern Africa with only 8% of Africa's
population produced 25% of the goods, we say, "So
what"! What was he attempting to demonstrate by this
proclamation? That the whites are therefore superior
and ought to rule? If so, we say this is nothing more
than the pious palaver of a diseased mind! There is no
mystery in regard to the reasons for the productivity of
the white dominated areas of southern Africa. Whites in
South Africa are Europeans and have had all of the
benefits of European capital, technology, and fraternal
assistance.
Europe was the incubator of the industrial revolution
and as such leads the world along with her North
American descendants — as the center of capital and
technology; no one who is reasonably informed on
world history denies this. However, I would remind
you — as Arnold Toynbee and others have done — that
the European domination of the world is only a few
hundred years old; and is due almost entirely tothe
white monopoly of capital and technology in the
modern world.
Hence, one does not need to resort to Hitlerian
theories to explain the superior productive capacity of
white dominated southern Africa. The more important
question that begs an answer is: How much has this pro-
ductive capacity benefited the African majority? The
black South African as a people are in every important
respect far worse off than they were before the coming
of whites. In fact, one could argue that in many respects
they are in worse condition than the U.S. blacks were as
slaves. For example, the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936,
allocates only 13% of the land to blacks while preserv-
ing 87% for whites. Hundreds of thousands of black
husbands and wives see neither each other or their
children but two days a year.
The balance of the year is spent toiling in the white-
owned gold mines and lavish households. In both in-
stances they are generally paid less than $500 a year. Is
this the wealth and happiness of which Professor Freed-
man speaks? What fairly sane person could seriously
argue that this is not slavery? Black labor cannot
organize, black womanhood is not respected, black
children are exploited, and the black community is
defenseless before the bar of justice]
Being Jews, one therefore wonders how Professors
Freedman, Fogel, and Engerman would react to the sug-
gestion that perhaps Hitler was right with regard to -
Jews. After all there is not a dimes worth of difference
59
between Nazism and Afrikanerism. The only differnce
is that Nazism was directed towards a white European
minority and Afrikanerism is aimed at the black African
majority! The best evidence of the similarity between
these two ideologies is that most of the Afrikaner
leadership actively supported the Nazis. This includes
the present Prime Minister, John Vorster!
Thus far we have confined our attention to C.B.S.
commentary, now let us examine some examples of
reportage. On the Morning News May 17th, C.B.S. did
a report on Zimbabwe. (Whites refer to this country as
Rhodesia). This report dealt with the white farmer in
Zimbabwe. It featured the Deal family and their
neighbors. The artistic acuity of the camera work con-
trasted sharply with the propagandistic banality of the
narrative. As the commentator introduced them, the
camera panned around revealing pompous white
farmers smiling, waving guns, and making every variety
of racist statements. They swore to "uphold our land
rights and way of life". The C.B.S. reporter later
quoted remarks by Ian Smith — the Prime Minister of
the illegal white regime — to the effect that "majority
rule means marxist rule".
Throughout this report the whites are presented as
just nice hardworking folks, simply fighting to protect
what is rightfully "theirs". No member of the African
masses or their representatives were interviewed. What
is wrong with this report should be obvious. In order to
clarify my objection it is necessary to review certain
facts regarding Zimbabwe. The beginning of white set-
tlement in Zimbabwe was due to the activities of Cecil J.
Rhodes in the late nineteenth century. To whites,
Rhodes is remembered as am empire builder; to think-
ing Africans he is remembered as a pirate, brigand, and
rogue. The history of Rhodes relations with Africans is
replete with treachery and debauchery.
Driven by a lust for African land and gold, he made
agreements with Africans then unilaterally disregarded
them; smuggled in an army from England while feigning
good relations with the African king; and caused the
murder of the trusting king, Lubengula, ruler of the
Ndebele people. The direct result of Rhodes thievery
and murder is contemporary Zimbabwean society. The
difference between South African and Zimbabwean
society is like "Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum"; you
have six on the one hand and a half dozen on the other.
It is impossible to believe that the specter of ignorance
prevails so heavily at C.B.S. News that no one
understood these facts.
Finally the issue here is why is C.B.S. so unabashedly
partisan to white minority rule? Enlightened world opi-
nion has soundly denounced the Smith clique, yet you
possess the unmitigated gall to openly defend them. To
quote as credible information Ian Smith's remark that
"majority rule means marxist rule" appears to us as a
willful derelection of reportorial duty. It also lends the
He to any contention that C.B.S. News attempts to be
objective on all issues.
If there be any reader who having followed our argu-
ment thus far remains unconvinced, we submit a final
piece of evidence. On Thursday morning May 20th,
C.B.S. News presented a series of interviews with whites
in Zimbabwe. They were all pro-minority rule and
represented Europeans as well as Americans. One of the
characters most prominently featured was the white
American who directs the psychological warfare effort
for the Smith regime. There he stood, reflected on the
silver screen, pasty-faced and foggy-minded, spouting
pious platitudes in a vain attempt to justify white
minority rule. He then went on to bore us with
sophomoric tales of super whitey.
There were other Americans who argued that the
white minority should remain in power because "the
streets of Salisbury are safer than the streets of Los
Angeles". It seems that C.B.S. had an infinite capacity
for nonsense when apologizing for white racism. This
seems an almost inescapable conclusion after carefully
scrutinizing your commentary and reportage on
southern Africa. If we are to accept the argument that a
white facist minority should rule Africa by virtue of
superior technology and the ability to impose order,
then it is equally valid to argue in defense of the Nazi
Reich's right to rule in Europe.
Let us be abundantly clear on one final point; the
capitalist nations of the world created the problem in
southern Africa. It is they who created the anti-
democratic colonial systems in Africa, while at the same
time proclaiming the virtues of democracy. In South
Africa, blacks outnumber whites four to one, and in
Zimbabwe, twenty-two to one. The black liberation
movements in southern Africa (The P.A.C. and A.N.C.
of Azania, the A.N.C. of Zimbabwe and S.W.A.P.O.
of Namibia) enjoy a dedicated, articulate, and in-
telligent leadership. They have demonstrated their com-
mitment to their people through devoted struggle. They
have gone far beyond any reasonable expectation in
seeking a peaceful solution. The leaders of the capitalist
world consistently turned a deaf ear to their pleas for
justice.
There are so many questionable aspects to C.B.S.
posture on this matter that it would be easily possible to
double the length of this discourse. However, we
recognize the virtual impossibility of overcoming a
lifetime of racist indoctrination in a single discussion.
We fully recognize the limitations of our discussions due
to the restrictions of time and space. Still we feel the
leader is likely to learn more from this analysis than
anything yet presented by C.B.S. News on African af-
fairs.
There is a larger issue which haunts this entire discus-
sion. That is the absolute disrespect shown to milHons
of Americans of African descent by C.B.S. No other
ethnic group is treated with such abject disregard when
discussing issues relevant to their motherlands. This is
not meant to suggest that Africa is the traditional home
of the black race. As has been pointed out elsewhere,
the slavery experience and the constant onslaught of
racist propaganda emanating from the mass media,
60
resulted in a rejection of Africa by many black
Americans.
One of the consequences of this rejection of Africa by
black Americans is that whites have been free to pursue
any sort of racist policy towards Africa. Well, as you
will see, those days are long gone! This letter represents
the beginning of a comprehensive investigation into the
racial policy of C.B.S. One of the major questions we
seek to answer is: Why does C.B.S. think it can con-
sistently insult over thirty million Afro-Americans with
impunity! We seek to know if this attitude can be cor-
related to an absence of blacks in management and
ownership positions in C.B.S.
The result of this situation is that non-white
Americans — along with most white workers, students,
and radical intellectuals — have no access to the major
media institutions. One of the obvious consequences of
this state of affairs, is that the major media caters to the
special interests of select class, racial, and ethnic
groups. Indeed, as the outstanding Afro-American
social theorist, Harold Cruse, has pointed out, the mass
media as it presently exists, represents an extension of
the power of the ownership class. One could therefore
argue, that perhaps a great deal of C.B.S.' attitude on
the southern Africa issue might simply reflect your
special relationship with the U.S. corporate elite.
For example, it is a well known fact that many of the
three-hundred U.S. corporations doing business in
South Africa are also clients of C.B.S. The fact that
these corporations reap huge profits by observing South
Africa's slave wage standard is also well known. In fact,
the National Council of Churches has been fighting on
this question for several years. They have even waged
proxy fights in their laudible efforts to change American
corporate poHcy in South Africa. Perhaps it would be
helpful to investigate the nature and extent of C.B.S.
business interest in South Africa. However, that ques-
tion will have to await a more wide ranging study.
It seems that C.B.S. places a much higher value on
the interests of its corporate clients than on that of the
millions of Afro-Americans who consume their pro-
ducts. If so, we say this is plainly anti-democratic, a
form of media tyranny as it were. This situation
presents us with an extraordinary paradox in this
bicentennial year, when the entire nation is called upon
to rejoice in the destruction of tyranny! In order to
democratize the reportage on southern Africa, certain
steps must be taken immediately. There are two reasons
why we are taking the liberty to spell out alternatives.
Firstly, we believe there is merit to the argument that
criticism is not enough. Secondly, we are supplying the
black community with a yardstick by which to measure
your response.
There are certain minimum essentials which must be
met, in order to bring some semblance of democratic
fairness to your coverage of the southern African situa-
tion. The first step is glaringly obvious: the leaders of
the black liberation organizations must be given equal
time to present their case. The American public has been
preyed upon long enough by the one-sided, racist, anti-
democratic propaganda which passes for objective
reportage. The southern African liberation movements
possess a wealth of intelligent, articulate, spokesmen
who are quite capable of speaking for themselves.
One wonders in bewilderment, at the callous
disregard with which you have treated the legitimate
spokesmen of the African people. Abel Muzerewa and
Ndbaningi Sitole are both respected men of the cloth.
The former is a bishop and the latter a minister in a ma-
jor Christian denomination. They are also respected
leaders of the African National Council of Zimbabwe,
this organization is the national voice of the African
people. In the American context this organization
would be equal to the N.A.A.C.P., C.O.R.E.,
S.C.L.C. and the Urban League combined. What possi-
ble reason could C.B.S. have for ignoring such men,
while simultaneously subjecting the American pubhc to
the ignominous rantings of white racist buffoons'!
How is it possible that C.B.S. could overlook a man
such as Joshua Nkomo? Here is a man even Ian Smith
referred to as "reasonable", until he refused to par-
ticipate in a sellout of his people at the recent constitu-
tional talks. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
(whites refer to this country as the Republic of South
Africa) enjoys a highly intelligent and articulate
spokesman in its Foreign Minister, Mr. David Sebieko.
Mr. Sebieko is often in New York and can be contacted
at the U.N. delegates lounge. I have personally met and
talked with several of these leaders, especially Mr.
Sebieko, and found their ideas infinitely more in-
telligent than those of Ian Smith, John Vorster or Henry
Kissinger's for that matter.
The United Nations, representing most of the nations
of the world, has declared the white South African oc-
cupation of Namibia (popularly known as Southwest
Africa) to be illegal. They recognize the South West
African Peoples Organization headed by Mr. Sam
Ujoma, to be the legitimate representatives of the Nami-
bian people. It is well known that the U.N. provided the
original mandate for the temporary administration of
Namibia by South Africa. Therefore the U.N. was
operating well within its realm of authority when it
chose to terminate South Africa's mandate. In view of
these realities we insist that C.B.S. stop presenting racist
white South African spokesmen, and provide
S.W.A.P.O. representatives with the opportunity to lay
their case before the American public.
In regard to the issue of American spokesmen on the
South African question, it is high time you cease the
parade of white racist ignoramuses. There exists within
the U.S.A. a highly talented group of Afro-American
scholars on African affairs. They are ready, willing, and
more than able to comment on the South African situa-
tion with sensitivity and intelligence. Among them are
scholars of the calibre of Martin Kilson, who holds the
same academic rank in the same department as Henry
Kissinger, professor of Government at Harvard.
There is Professor Willard Johnson, Chairman of the
61
Political Science Department at M.I.T., Professors
Elliot Skinner and Wilfred Cartey are both full pro-
fessors at Columbia University. All of these men are
outstanding scholars with international reputations.
Professor William J. Wilson holds the same academic
rank as Milton Frbedman at the same institution. Fur-
thermore Professor Wilson, a social theorist, has writ-
ten a major book on South African society. The title of
this book is "Racism, Power, and Privilege". We sug-
gest that had Messrs. Freedman and Severied availed
themselves to its contents beforehand, they might have
commented with considerably more intelligence.
Scholars such as Professors John Hendrik Clarke and
James Turner, of Hunter College and Cornell Universi-
ty respectively, are men of wide experience with much of
the leadership of Africa. Dr. Beverly Lindsay of Penn.
State University is an important observer of African af-
fairs and has conducted first hand interviews with black
Zimbabweans. To be sure, this is only a partial listing of
the available black scholars on African affairs. We
would argue that the American public in general, and
blacks in particular, have a right to hear the views of
these scholars. Instead, we are abandoned to the in-
competent meanderings of neophyte white reporters
bemused by the complexity of events, eloquent old
silvery haired hypocrites, and academic hired guns who
pose as objective social scientists.
In the geopolitical circumstances of the U.S. you
possess an awesome power to determine events. In many
ways this power exceeds that of a poweful army in less
developed areas of the world. One therefore wonders as
to your objectives in giving license to the vice of racism
in your coverage of southern Africa. It is virtually im-
possible to escape the conclusion, that you are engaged
in a sinister attempt to manipulate American sentiment
in favor of the white facist minority. In our view this is
an extremely dangerous development and must be op-
posed!
Professor Fred Friendly of the Columbia School of
Journalism, recently pointed out, that the public has
virtually no means of opposing the excesses of broad-
cast media. That is why we have chosen the open letter
as the vehicle to express our objections. This document
will be published and widely circulated in this country
and in Africa. We call upon African Americans in par-
ticular and progressive Americans in general, to resist
this attempt at subterfuge by C.B.S. It is conceivable
that you may be so intoxicated with the arrogance of
power, that you will choose to ignore this expression of
dissent. But you may rest assured, that you will hear
more from the black community on this matter.
Playthell Benjamin
Adjunct Professor, W.E.B. DuBois Dept.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
?ve Bj'Ko
if Antji- SK*'
Steve Biko
by
Antar Shakir
62
The Role of Afrikan Men
in the Liberation Struggle
of the 70's to 80's
"Some of the contradictions of Afrilon men will
be briefly analyzed. The present role of Afrikan
men in the liberation of Afrikan's colonized in the
U.S.A. is strategic. One of the first suggestions for
Afrikan men providing leadership in our struggle
is to first change our view point of the Afrikan
females being an object rather than our equal. The
next step would be changing our behavior pattern
in the Afrikan family household.
The total roles of all family life must be changed
if we as a people really desire freedom in our
lifetime. Present struggles in Afrika and other
developing and other developing countries have
had to deal with the question of men and women's
relationships to each other. Afrikan men can no
longer afford to continue to be an oppressor to the
Afrikan female.
We must begin to deal with each other as one
family if we are going to change our conditions
now, in our lifetime.
The struggle continues.
Agitate, work for the people without a thought
of material reward."
NKRUMAH LUMUMBA OLINGA
63
!UNW. m MSI,
ARCHIVES
m 51980 DRUM STAFF
Editorial Staff Vicki Taylor
Angle Small
Janet Rausa
Lisa DiRocco
Deborah Maley
Cheryl L. Crowell
Onyeabo Okoro
Art Editors Carl Yates
Margarita Vargas
Photography Staff Juan Durruthy
John Matthews
Kenneth Robinson
Matthew McDonald
Sonali Williams
Edward Cohen
Keith Peters
Lloyd Alford
Business Managers Dawne Bates
Roy Tiller
Ron Conyers
Carl Yates
Administrative Secretary Pat Smith
Office Staff Kathy Rose
Doreen Gurley
Jeanette Worley
Rosilyn Paige
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Layout and Distribution Cathy Anderson
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Cheryl L. Crowell
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Lisa DiRocco
Debbie Lee
Sherwin Moyston
Janet Rausa
Antar Shakir
Margarita Vargas
Kelly Wright
Carl Yates
Advisor Professor of Art Nelson Stevens
of the W.E.B. DuBois Department
of African American Studies
64