AD1715-23-10-8-001-jpeg - Historical Papers

E d itio n A n g la is e — Fra n caise
2
No. 2
F e b ru a ry , 1962
IN UNITY LIE^OUR
UNITED AFRICA
T N my view a united A fr ic a — th a t is the political
-*• and econom ic u n ifica tio n of the A fric a n c o n ti­
nent— should seek three objectives.
Firstly, we sh ou ld have an over-all econom ic
p la n n in g on a pointed con tin e n tal basis w hich
would increase the in d u strial and econom ic power
of A frica .
Secondly, we sh ou ld aim at the creation o f a
joint M ilita ry C o m m an d . I do not see an y w isdom
in our present separate efforts to build up or m a in ­
tain va st m ilitary forces for self-defence w hich, in
an y case, would be ineffective in a n y m ajor c o n ­
flict.
T h e third objective w hich we sh ou ld have in
A fric a com es from the first two w hich I have just
described.
If we in A fric a set up a com m on econom ic p la n ­
n in g o rg an isatio n an d a joint m ilitary com m and , it
follow s that we shall have to ad op t a com m on
foreign policy to give political direction to our
n ation a l continental dcfence an d our n ation a l c o n ­
tin en tal econom ic and in d u strial developm ent
plan n in g.
— DR. K W A M E N K R U M A H
Contents
•
PROFILE OF THE GUILTY M E N
m POSITIVE ACTION
..........
•
THE BLAZING FIRE OF AFRICAN
STRUGGLE
..... .................
•
•
BRITAIN STABS AFRICA AGAIN
..........
W E SHALL FIGHT TO THE LAST M A N
by Kenneth Kaunda ....................................
Profile of
Guilty men
Moise Kapenda
Tshombe
Roy Welensky
TSH O M BE
“ T r a it o r m o st accu rse d”
T N the November 3, 1961 issue of the Time
A magazine, Thomas V. Jones, the notorious
financial tycoon, President of the Northrop
Corporation, Beverly Hills, California, said in
a letter that: “ Being on the cover of Time is
like facing the judgment of history while you
still have to live with it.”
To the disgust of all decent people, Moise
Kapenda Tshombe appeared on the cover of
December 22, 1961 issue of Time. It is not
necessary for judgment on this man to be
suspended. The evidence is available for the
verdict to be passed at once. In Africa, The
Voice o f Africa has declared him the “ traitor
most accursed” for 1961.
Tshombe’s shabby approach to the realities
of the African situation and his short-sightedness in an age when leadership of even a scout
group demand some amount of foresight,
prove how right we are to say that Tshombe has
Column One
Continued on next page
T h is man R O L A N D W E L E N S K Y : S e m i-L ite ­
rate B lo od staine d B ritish Pu ppe t “ R u le r "
o f th e R hod e sias
process of decolonisation in Southern
THE
Africa seems to have struck a rock in the
Rhodesias and an important chip in that
rock is no other than that protege of the white
herrenvolk below the Limpopo — Roland
Welensky. The herrenvolk of settler South
Africa stoutly cling to the master-race bating
propensities of the late Dr. Malan and Welensky
has imbibed these from them.
The South African born Welensky whose
mother is a Boer and father a Polish-Jew,
grew-up in Salisbury a barefooted ducktail.
After completing standard IV he joined the
Rhodesia Railways as a fireman and later
became locomotive driver—the only rank a man
of his slothful mentality could ever reach.
In the Railways he acquired one other deliquent title—that of champion boxer. In the
Column Two
Continued on next page
Tsliomlie
not got the slightest touch of leadership. Long
before he entered politics for the sake of filthy
lucre he was known in the back streets of
Elisabethville as an incorrigible rogue. In his
politics today Kapenda Tshombe reflects this
rancid background of his early days.
Apart from his unpopular role as a confusionist and a collaborationist in the Congo,
Kapenda acts as a liaison in surreptitious deals
between colonialists and reactionary African
nationalists.
Recently, Harry Nkumbula and Bennings
Lambe of the Northern Rhodesia African
National Congress visited Katanga and arranged
for 2,000,000 francs (about £14,000) and six
Land Rovers from Tshombe to fight against the
dynamic Northern Rhodesian leader, Kenneth
Kaunda and the UNIP. Tshombe has paid the
money through a bank in Kitwe.
Every schoolboy in Africa knows that
Kapenda murdered Lumumba, Okito and
Mpolo. Blood does not seem to get a chance to
dry in his palms.
North Katanga remains littered with moun­
tainous piles of rubble and myriad possessions
of the murdered dead. All the ineffable suffering
in the Congo today stems from the greed and
avarice of this mere factotum of vested interests
in Katanga.
Every African knows that Tshombe is running
at breakneck speed towards the great cavernous
emptiness of a most tenebrous future.
But that he is a traitor—a nervous one at
that—we are duty bound to tell the world. We
hold that he is politically bankrupt. We have
always emphasised that he is an arch-imperialist
stool-pidgeon. His chronic nervous breakdown
sums up our estimation of him. He is always
haunted by the nightmarish aberration of the
dark, hallucinatory underworld to which he
belongs.
A correspondent of the Voice who saw
Tshombe recently says, he is aging shockingly.
His face now haggard, lined and sallow, wears
a hollow haunted look. His hands shake un­
controllably. It is known that he does not sleep
at night. His eyes, which seem to stare at the
fearful world about him have great dark pouches
under them.
Moise Kapenda Tshombe is ending like all
traitors and murderers do.
Welensky
thirties he moved to Northern Rhodesia and like
all other “ promising” poor whites, was assisted
by business tycoons to purchase a farm at
Broken Hill.
In 1938 he entered the Northern Rhodesia
Legislative Council and was automatically
made leader of the white elected members
because of his donkey oratory. His donkey
oratory and deep-seated hatred for the African
people quickly won him favour with the giant
money magnates of the British South African
Company, the Rhodesia Select Trust and the
Anglo-American Group. He was thus introduced
to their spokesman Godffrey Huggins who was
then the brain behind the plot to impose
“Federation” upon the African people.
In 1953 they formed the “Federation” . In
1956 Welensky was knighted and became
“Prime Minister” of the “Federation.”
The unusually fat for a Prime Minister, 300 lb
—Welensky is a notorious tea-drinker and
non-smoker. This is the fattened calf the British
rentier-class have planted in Rhodesia to halt the
upsurge of African nationalism both within the
“Federation” and from the North.
Welensky is in sinister league with that equal
unholy trio Verwoerd, Salazar and Tshombe in
a diabolical plot to subvert the African struggle
for freedom and perpetuate the African’s
enslavement.
Die-Hard Colonialist;
His recently exposed activities in Katanga
clearly show Welensky to be a die-hard colonial­
ist and imperialist puppet, a lackey of the
White moneyed class and an irredeemable
degenerate specimen of humanity.
Roland Welensky — bloodstained capitalist
agent, is deeply implicated in the murder of
Great Lumumba and Dag Hammarskjoeld—
small wonder that he is unashamedly and irre­
vocably committed to backing to the hilt that
notorious murderer and traitor Moise Kapenda
Tshombe.
Welensky, you are on Africa’s “ BLACK
LIST” as Criminal Colonialist Puppet No. 1.
Your “ Federation” is a time bomb that is sure
to explode in your hands and smash you, your
masters and your “Federation” to smithereens.
Voice
of
Africa
Vol. 2 No. 2
A
February, 1962
MAGAZINE
OF
AFRICAN
NEWS
AND
VIEWS
Published by the
EDITCIBIIAILS
Bureau of African Affairs
African Unity
and
Printed in the
R EPU BLIC o f GHANA
by the
Guinea Press Ltd., (and reduced), Accra
Subscriptions:
Subscription fee is 9/- or its equivalent in
other currencies per annum
[postage inclusive)
A copy of the VOICE costs 9d.
Subscriptions should be addressed to
B U R E A U O F A F R IC A N A F F A I R S
P.O. Box M 24, Accra, Ghana
Editor-in-Chief:
KOFI BATSA
p REAT ideas, if firmly believed, can become
^ as real as reality. When magnified by
multitudes, they are rendered irresistible.
Great ideas have conquered conquerors, routed
legions, made armies invincible and sired
civilisations.
Like the biblical grain of mustard which grew
up as the greatest among herbs and became a
tree, so that the birds of the air came and
lodged in the branches thereof, the great seed of
African Unity which touched the soil of Africa
in Accra in 1958, is growing as the years go by.
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s recent
speech on African Unity before the Ghana
Parliament has made the whole idea of African
Unity very realistic.
The fear of some African leaders that they
will be swallowed in a union of Africa, has been
allayed by the Osagyefo’s statement that:
“ Countries in such a union will naturally
maintain their own constitutions, continue to
use their national flags their national anthems,
and other symbols and paraphernalia of sover­
eignty which they don’t have to surrender.”
He declared that a United Africa should seek
three objectives:
% An over-all economic planning on a
united continental basis.
0 The creation of a Joint Military Com­
mand for common defence and
Continued on next page
© A common foreign policy to give politi­
cal direction.
Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah’s speech has clearly
mapped out the basis of African Unity. It has
clearly put forward the idea that African Unity
is not an Utopia.
We recommend the speech to all African
leaders for study and scrutiny.
The sands of time have already run perilously
low; for the shape of things glaringly show the
danger that awaits a disunited Africa. From
Bizerta to Pretoria expensive lessons come up
each passing moment. The lessons to be learnt,
therefore had better be learnt in dead earnest,
lest our great Africa be made to plunge into
darkness instead of into the glory of the future.
FORWARD TO A UNITE AFRICA!
Incorrigible
R ogues
V V fE publish on page nine of the “ Voice” a
thorough revelation of imperialist shame­
less manoeuvre in Katanga. The facts are
accurate and the figures are true to the type.
We have more facts on hand.
The incorrigible rogues in this shameless
plot aimed at perpetuating the present impasse
in the Congo are known to us. Their activities
and their movements are quite clear to us.
We are strategically placed to destroy these
unrepentant violators of human rights who are
plagued by the monstrous alchemy of con­
verting human blood into gold. We know where
to hit.
Indeed, as if eager to accelerate still further
their rapid decline, these colonialists choose to
ride with the least enlightened forces: and
more—to become the paladin of combatants
preparing to make their mode of life prevail,
not by the creation of ennobling ideals but by
use of force.
The African masses are advancing to a
glorious future. Surely, any sane person should
feel the thunderous march of the African giant
racing to a bright future.
The colonialist must accept the realities of
the African age, however harsh they may be.
The target date—December 31, 1963—will
surely see Africa free. This fact has become as
real as reality. It has been magnified by the
action of the African masses and has been
rendered irresistible.
We Take the
L ea d
....
T \R . Samuel Johnson, famous scholar and
lexigographer, added two new words to
the English language: Johsonian and Johsonese, but these two do not appear in his
famous dictionary.
The two epithets may only seeming be rec­
koned as synonymous; but a close study of their
context of usage will confirm the truth of the
well-known aphoristic injection: “ there are no
sysnonyms in the E n g l i s h L a n g u a g e ” .
Johsonian refers to Johnson’s style or work at
its best and Johnsonese at its worst.
More important than the words themselves
are their suffixes— ian and—ese. The one has
clearly a complimentary meaning and the
other a derogatory one.
It is small wonder, therefore, that the
imperialists whose guiding philosophy is: “ give
a dog a bad name and hang him,” are today
indulging in the favourite pastime of bandying
backwards and forwards such coinages a
Angolese, Katangese and Congolese.
It is time that in liberation circles such
coinages are replaced by such usages as
Angolan, Katangan and Congoan.
The Voice will in future give the lead in this
matter.
We Shall Fight to
the Last Man
by Kenneth K aunda ( President, U N I P )
\V /"E are obviously now in the
” process o f m aking and writing
the m ost difficult and com plicated
chapter o f o u r history. We o f the
United N ational Independence Party
to look at the problem squarely in
the face and are prepared to meet
blows as they come and give twice as
much.
The evidence I gathered on my
recent trip o f the N orthern and
L uapula provinces m akes me charge
the so-called security forces o f
m urder, arson, plunder and savage
atrocities. F o u r cases o f rape were
reported to me but I did not receive
sufficient evidence because these are
alleged to have taken place in
Chinsali and A bercorn where I was
not allowed to go. I know the charge
I m ake is a serious one but it is true.
W hat has been happening in these
troubled areas—and is still happening
in Chinsali, A bercorn, M porokoso
and K asam a areas to a certain extent
—I am positive the C entral G ov­
ernm ent does n o t possess full facts
of—m uch less His Excellency the
G overnor himself. In the w ords o f
one prom inent chief “ I thought we
were going to m eet the G overnor b u t
he came and stayed w ith those
E uropeans at the Bom a and w ent
away.” H e was a disappointed ruler.
Whole villages have been razed to
the ground; food stuffs including
goats, sheep and fowls have been
taken away to say nothing of clothes,
pots, pans and other utensils. What
they could not take away they des­
troyed. It is either gross ignorance or
downright insincerity on the part of
those in authority to say those Africans
who wished could complain to their
District Commissioners. For instance
one official was involved in a riot and
has since been presiding magistrate
over cases of the very people he was
rioting with. How does any sane
person expect Africans to take their
complaints to such a man? In any
case, does anyone think justice can be
d jne?
One o f our local dailies reports
th a t I was n o t at all welcome in the
N orth ern Provinces and it reports its
source as G overnm ent Inform ation
D epartm ent. It is no longer a secret
th a t the K asam a G overnm ent Infor­
m ation D epartm ent has been biased
against U nited N ational Independ­
ence P arty because o f one m an there.
T o prove m y point, I was ju st coming
from interviewing one o f the four
chiefs organised by a certain official
not to see me. The chief in fact
received me very traditionally. In one
place Bom a messengers rushed to
shake our hands.
One white cadet came out and
shouted them back to their sitting
places. They were punished a few
m inutes later. One thing is clear,
these messengers are Africans. In the
same D istrict we were told no one
w ould see us—vet ju st outside
crowds were swelling as news spread
we had arrived, chiefs received us
w ith open arm s and we discussed our
problem s as ‘beloved father and son.’
W herever we went our people simply
p oured in to see us—who are
G overnm ent agents deceiving? N o
one ap art from the G overnm ent
itself o f course! Because o f intim ida­
tion A frican businessm en and those
in high scale-employment played the
N icodem us. A ll these atrocities ju st
help to m ake U nited N ational
Independence Party m ore and m ore
popular! This is the Gospel truth.
O ur people simply love the p a rty !
As for the P aram ount C h i e f
Chitim ukulu, I still hold him in high
esteem and will always be happy to
serve him. Tn his wisdom, w hat is
happening today he predicted in a
long talk w ith M r. Jam es Johnson,
form er L abour M P for Rugby when
KENNETH
KAUNDA
we invited him in 1957. W hen we
take over, which w on’t be too long
from now , he is one o f our natu ral
rulers we shall long rem em ber for his
courage and wisdom. He has fought
against Federation and nothing can
change my adm iration for him — no
m atter what colonialist intrigues may
try to p lan t between him and me.
H e is my beloved natural ruler.
The cam paign against identity
cards has been so successful th a t the
authorities are now so perplexed th a t
all they can do is to com pel my
followers to pay fines w hich they
refuse and then they send messengers
and others to forcibly take some
property o f the persons concerned.
Prisons are so full now th a t m ost o f
the prisoners at certain Bomas are
using their own clothes, there are, as
in the one case I am sure of, as m any
as three prisoners to a blanket.
Savage beatings by Police go on.
In view o f all this, I once m ore
appeal to the British G overnm ent to
send ajudicial commission o f inquiry.
I have been charitable by thinking
they do n ’t know w hat is happening—
and I believe this. I f they d o n ’t I will
have no alternative b u t to take this
m atter to some August International
O rganisation.
Continued on page 27
Lest We F o r g e t
Patrice
Lumumba
,
first Prime
Minister o f the
Republic o f
Congo in his
Last days being
Mishandled
and Tortured
by his
Murderers,
the Belgians
and Tshombe
....
Freedom is a Strange
Feeling
by H enri Allege
(A n Algerian hero, who escaped from a French ja il after five
years’’ imprisonment and torture and is now in Czechoslovakia,
a free man).
^
O W th a t 1 am free there is an odd
feeling th a t I cannot shake off.
It
is
the
strangeness, after
years in prison, o f being able to
walk freely in the streets, o f being
able to open a window and finding
th at no iro n bars obstruct the view.
N ow my h eart does n o t shrink
every time I meet a policem an; now
I can smile at him, know ing he is a
friend.
1 often think o f the prison where
I left so m any friends. Particularly
[ d o rem em ber the hard times in the
de Barberousse Prison in Algiers.
Jn a few days tim e it will be two
years since we began a hunger strike
which was to have lasted 12 days.
My prison m ates and 1 were ju st
above the death cell in which there
were 120 prisoners at th a t time.
We staged the hunger strike to
obtain some im provem ent in the
terrible conditions which prevailed
in th at and all other Algerian prisons.
The French colonialists refused to
consider us as political prisoners.
O ur people were often treated worse
than the com m on crim inals who
enjoyed advantages we were denied.
We didn’t have beds, bed-clothes
or tables. We ate from rusty pots
on the floor.
The prison guards beat the prison­
ers with keys, fists and constantly
insulted them .
On the slightest
pretext prisoners got tw o or three
m onths solitary confinement.
Step Failed Them
E ach m orning death awaited two
or three A lgerian prisoners.
At
night we waited in vain to sleep.
Sometimes sleep would n o t come,
and when it did we hoped th a t we
would not wake up in the m orning
to see another o f our friends die.
N o r did those sentenced to death
sleep. They rem ained awake so th at
they would not be surprised by the
sudden arrival o f the guards and the
police who w ould drag them to the
gullotine hardly awake.
They w anted to die fully awake
and alert so th at they could shout
their confidence in the victory o f their
country. O r if others were to die we
wanted to hearten them w ith our
songs.
We lived under such conditions in
1957 and 1958. T hanks to the
actions organised by the prisoners
and o u r hunger strikers, thanks also to
international solidarity and above
all the struggle o f the Algerian
people, things changed.
There were some im provem ents,
b u t no sooner were they won than
the F rench adm inistration put an
end to them and our problem s
started all over again.
This is why hunger-strikes were
held so often. A recent one lasted
until the Algerian prisoners forced
the F rench adm inistration to con­
cede to their dem ands and grant
them the status o f political prisoners.
This was a big victory for the
prisoners who had been dem anding
this for years.
Patriots
Their determ ination
and their
heroism have w on the adm iration
o f the whole world. Yet it is still
necessary to say th a t the conditions
o f the concentration cam ps in which
patriots are held, are rem iniscent of
those o f Nazi prisons.
The A lgerian people as a whole
have suffered terribly during the
seven years o f war. M ore th an a
million o f their sons have been
m urdered by the F rench colonialists.
T housands o f A lgerian men and
wom en who have been driven out o f
their villages now live in camps.
Negotiate
In spite o f this they continue their
struggle under the leadership o f
their G overnm ent. But their hopes
for peace are great.
Peace is possible if the French
G overnm ent stops m anoeuvring, if
it stops talking ab o u t peace while
continuing the w ar, if it ends its
plans to divide Algeria, and if it
sincerely wishes to negotiate w ith
the provisional G overnm ent o f the
Algerian Republic.
This is w hat the French people
themselves want.
N o m atter w hat happens Algeria
will becom e independent sooner or
later and the people o f A lgeria will
take the road o f social progress and
real democracy.
The Death of Central
A friea Federation
by Serious African
T ^ H E B ritish colonies in C entral
A frica were considered till
recently,
regions
of
relative
tranquillity am ong her possessions on
th e continent o f Africa. A fter the
establishm ent o f the Federation o f
the R hodesias and N yasaland, how ­
ever, the situation there radically
changed.
In exam ining the situation in
these extensive countries, it is better
to consider the situations w hich led
to th e lum ping together o f three
different countries— Southern R hode­
sia, N o rth ern Rhodesia and N yasa­
la n d —against the will o f the
A frican people.
F o r over 20 years the industrialists
and planters of Southern Rhodesia,
where over tw o-thirds o f the Federa­
tio n ’s white population live, have
fostered the idea o f setting up under
their rule in C entral A frica a big
state w ith dom inion status. This
w ould give them hold on the two
R hodesias enorm ous n atu ral resour­
ces o f gold, copper, chrom ite
m anganese, lithium , and so on, and
also enable them to utilise the labour
reserves o f over-populated N yasa­
land, which annually provides some
70,000 w orkers for the m ines and
plantations o f her m ore developed
neighbours.
A nalyzing th e results o f the
F ederatio n ’s eight years o f existence,
one sees th a t the Federation forced
on the A fricans has not solved a
single problem o f C entral Africa,
b u t on the contrary, has only aggra­
vated the relationships between white
settlers and A fricans, an d b ro u g h t
furth er com plications to the political
situation. A sober look a t the
schemes o f the E uropean colonialists,
n o t on the basis o f w hat they say,
b u t o f w hat they do, one sees in
their present efforts to strengthen
the unp o p u lar Federation, the wish
to consolidate their rule over one o f
A frica’s richest regions.
Let us consider the com position of
the Federation’s white com m unity.
Between 1947 and 1957 alone the
num ber o f im m igrants from the
U nion o f South A frica nearly
doubled. The m ajority o f industria­
lists and planters o f the Federation
are linked by origin and tradition
w ith their white brethren o f the
U nion o f South Africa. This un­
doubtedly has a great im pact on the
attitude o f the white settlers tow ards
the native population o f the two
R hodesias.
W hite d o m i n a t i o n in both
R hodesias began seventy-one years
ago and was linked with the nam e o f
one o f the m ost shameless colonialists,
Cecil R hodes, w ho, in the w ords o f
Lenin, “ pursued an im perialist policy
w ith the utm ost cynicism.”
T hrough one o f his agents, R hodes
concluded an agreem ent w ith K ing
L obengula o f the M atabele tribe
giving him right to mine gold in the
K ing’s dom ain. A territory o f
fabulous w ealth was acquired with
the help o f W hisky, in exchange for
a m o n th ’s rent o f £100, one thousand
rifles, a steam er for tripe along the
Zam besi River, which, however, the
K ing never had the good luck to
enjoy. A trifling incident was p ro ­
voked and the deal started by deceit
was clenched by force o f arms.
A war, which cost British four men
dead and the M atabele hundreds,
m ade Southern Rhodesia a British
colony. The South A frican Com pany,
founded by a charter granted by
Q ueen V ictoria, actually ruled South­
ern R hodesia fo r decades.
H aving got its bridgehead for
future advancem ents, the com pany
b ought for a song the “ copperbelt” ,
one o f the w orld’s largest copper
deposits on the upper Zam bezi— and
another British colony appeared—
N orthern Rhodesia. Then the British
seized Nyasaland.
Racialism
We see Southern Rhodesia as a
classic country of legalised racialism,
where the colour bar embraces all
spheres of public life. In 1930, the
Land Apportionment Act gave all the
best and most of the land to the white
settlers. Figures published in the “ land
in Southern Rhodesia” , a pamphlet
recently published in London, show
that 2.2 million Africans in the country
own only 41 per cent of the land, and
some million Africans have no land
at all, while 50,000 white settlers
possess one-and-a-half times more
land—the most fertile.
At the mines in Northern Rhodesias
where the Africans get higher wages
than elsewhere, 40,000
African
receive approximately £7,000,000 a
vear, while 7,000 white workers get
£14,000,000.
Race discrim ination bars Africans
from any professions. Recently, it is
true, A frican doctors and lawyers
have appeared in C entral A frica, b u t
they can be counted on the fingers o f
one hand.
The African, the legitim ate ruler o f
Africa, has to suffer race discrim ina­
tion at every step: in the hotels,
railw ay restaurant cars, in the shops,
where he is served w ith inferior
goods through a “ black” window.
The pass system restricts his freedom
o f movem ent. The Federation has a
total o f 60 colour b ar laws.
A nd this is all the m ore disgusting,
because the doctrine o f race segre­
gation— apartheid—which blossoms
so profusely in the U nion o f South
Africa, is not the official ideology o f
the Federation’s ruling circles. T oday
when colonialism is disintegrating all
over the world, and one A frican
people after another is winning its
independence, it is becoming in­
creasingly clear th a t the old way o f
ruling cannot go on. Racial policy
in the Federation has therefore, been
m ade to look respectable. I t is now
called “ partnership.”
To believe the racialists, the
Federation is destined to becom e a
“ great experim ent zone.”
“ The
C entral A frican m an will cease to be
considered as black, white or brow n,”
and “ henceforth the division will be
draw n between the civilised and the
Colonial Instrum ent o f Torture in iV. Rhodesia
These are freed om fighters in N o r t h e r n R h o d e sia Prison, F o r thre e days these men w e re told to hold the food in t h e ir hands w ith o u t
eating it. Later th ey w e re transferred to an o th e r P riso n som e 5,000 m iles aw ay fro m Lusaka and w e re forced to c a rry these tin s containing
food w hich w as n e ve r served on th e ir w ay to a n o th e r Prison. T h is is the m oral fibre o f the so-called B ritish “ civilizing m issio n ” in A frica
prim itive.” But Cecil R hodes also
advanced the principle o f “ equal
rights for equally civilised people.”
In his book Central African
W itness published in 1959, Cypril
D un, correspondent o f the influen­
tial British Sunday paper, the Obser­
ver, sarcastically ridicules the colo­
nialists’ n otion o f “ Civilised M an .”
“ Provided a m an earns m ore than
£750 a year, he is civilised even if he
is barely literate. Contrariw ise if a
m an’s incom e is low, his civilised
state can be recognised only if his
standard o f education is high.”
Partnership
“ P artnership” envisages the p aral­
lel developm ent o f b o th races and
gradual bringing o f the fruits o f
culture w ithin the reach o f the
native population.
But w hat is
being done to bring this ab o u t in
practice? N othing.
The policy o f “ parallel develop­
m ent” is a gigantic fraud. In C entral
Africa, every m em ber o f the segrega­
tion Society—which supports the
apartheid policy has the vote. Their
b latan t racialism receives no check
from the authorities!
Only the w hite m an is allowed to
assert his right to rule.
Every
attem pt o f the A frican to defend
his legitim ate right to rule his own
country is im m ediately treated as a
threat o f “ black racialism ” and is
repressed.
D espite the great publicity which
has been given to the “ p artnership”
policy, nothing is being done in the
F ederation to ease the policy o f race
discrim ination. F o r all the m anoeuvers o f the F ederation’s leaders on
this question are linked w ith current
political expediency and dom inated
by the desire to assure public opinion
th at they are n o t pursuing the
racists from the U nion o f South
Africa.
The ruling Federal Party acts
according to w hat an au th o r calls
“ the businessm an’s ethic.”
The
proponent o f this point o f view
consider th a t the A fricans m ust be
granted some m easure o f freedom
in the econom ic field, otherwise the
whites cannot prosper. But a t the
same tim e they do everything to
halt the political activities o f the
A frican and preserve the existing
social barriers.
Y ears will pass,
they say, and these barriers will
vanish o f themselves. But how long
will this tak e? “ Even in a hundred
or tw o hundred years’ tim e,” an­
swers Prem ier Roy W elensky, “ the
A frican shall never hope to dom inate
the F ederation.”
The fight
The peoples o f the two Rhodesias
and N yasaland, however, cannot
accept this geological rate o f change.
They understand perfectly well th at
under the w hitem an’s rule they will
never be able to overcome their
profound economic and cultural
backwardness.
D espite the flood o f loud hypocri­
tical phrases o f the colonialists
ab o u t their “ civilising” mission,
they are m ore alarm ed than pleased
at the prospect o f acquainting the
A fricans with education. A t any rate,
they are n o t at all keen on the job.
The Federation’s form er Premier,
L ord M alvern, spoke quite frankly
on this subject:
“ T here is no need to suggest to
the A frican th at we came here to
help him ” , he declared tow ards the
end o f 1956. “ W e came here to
earn o ur living . . .
A nd in tru th
during the last years m ore foreign
capital has been invested in the
Federation’s econom y th an in any
other A frican country, except the
U nion o f South A frica and the
Congo (form er Belgium).
The situation has been made
clear to us th at it is the aim o f
Britain to allow the m inority white
group to govern the R hodesias and
N yasaland to the exclusion o f the
seven million inhabitants.
T he British Conservatives, still
em pire-conscious, sensitive to the
plight o f their fellow countrym en
settled overseas, aw are th at the
w hite com m unity has m ade itself
rich by exploiting the A frican, feel
th a t the British G overnm ent has a
m oral obligation to safeguard E uro­
pean interests.
I t is surprising th at despite the
British boast th at they have faith in
dem ocracy, they find it difficult to
accept th a t universal adult suffrage
is the first m easure which m ust be
considered in guaranteeing the right
o f the m any over the privileged few.
Despite the arrest and im prison­
m ent o f A frican nationalist leaders
on flimsy charges; the alerting o f
troops throughout the F ederation;
the threat o f Europeans to sabotage
any constitution which ensures uni­
versal adult suffrage; the double
tongue role o f Iain M acleod, the
British Colonial Secretary; the num e­
rous raids by Roy W elensky’s Police
on the hom es o f A fricans; and the
tightening o f already stringent laws,
the A frican nationalist m ovem ents
have m ade several strides.
It is the view o f some people th a t a
path m ust be found in Central
Africa for a m ulti-national com ­
m unity in which the African would,
o f his own free will, co-operate with
the white m an, who would continue
the skilled work in developing the
resources o f the region. F o r en­
suring this co-operation an interim
period o f ten—fifteen years is neces­
sary during which time the m etropolis
is to act as a stabilizing factor
between white and black. This, they
say, may save us from b o th the
threat o f apartheid loom ing from
the South and from “ black d ic ta to r­
ship.”
Thus have these people based
their argum ent for preserving colo­
nialism in Central A frica. This
“ positive program m e” is n o t new.
It is beneath criticism and unaccep t­
able to the African.
Such form ulas as “ m ultifarious
com m unity” or “internal self-deter­
m ination” mean nothing.
This
mystification is aimed a t depriving
Africa o f her rights to freedom .
The Africans o f the R hodesias and
N yasaland are determined to win
their freedom and decide on w hat to
do w ith the minority groups in their
midst.
The pressure of the nationalist
forces has increased in the Rhodesias
and N yasaland. No use o f a tte m p t­
ing to dam n the revolutionary tide.
The British Governm ent by attem p t­
ing to side w ith Roy W elensky and
his crazy white settlers is precipita­
ting the destruction o f the E uropean
in Central Africa in rapids more
precipitous and turbulent th an the
V ictoria Falls.
The nationalist leader o f N o r­
thern
Rhodesia,
M r. K enneth
K aunda has sounded the w arning
note: “ N ot even an inch o f A frica
will be given to a foreign race. W e
are determ ined to clean the entire
Central Africa o f the evils o f im ­
perialism and colonialism .”
selves as brothers.
F o r the first
tim e in hum an history religion is
conceived as a bond uniting men of
different colour,
language
and
custom .
History and
Civilisation
by Staff Writer
lV/TR. Verwoerd recently assured us
^
once again th at “ it is the W hite
m an to w hom all progress m ust be
ascribed o f which people all over
the world at present boast.”
The learned D octor obviously
knows nothing or prefers to know
nothing ab o u t the history o f Europe,
A sia or Africa. He finds it m ore
convenient to replace history by
m yth ju st like his adm ired model,
Alfred Rosenberg, the “ philosopher”
o f Nazi Germ any.
A ccording to one o f the m ost
cherished myths o f the racialists
Europeans created civilisation out of
nothing, rather like G od creating the
w orld out o f chaos.
But the blessings o f civilisation
are n o t the property o f any one
hum an group which they can
graciously distribute or rightfully
keep, as they see fit. Civilisation
happens to be the product o f m an­
kind as a whole and to its develop­
m ent peoples from all over the
world have contributed. N o group,
least of all the people from the
N orth and W est o f Europe, who
arrived so recently on the historical
scene, can claim a m onopoly of
contributions to civilisation.
West Came Late
One wonders where civilisation
would be if Asian and African
peoples had not invented the use of
writing, discovered how to smelt
iron and cultivate grains, created the
wheel, produced m ultiplication tables
and minted coins thousands of
years ago before the people of
Europe emerged from the most
prim itive savagery.
We could easily fill several issues
o f Voice o f Africa if we tried to
give an exhaustive list o f Asian and
African contributions to civilisation
because it would turn out to be
practically a history o f hum an
civilisation as such.
W hite civilisation, in the “ purity”
with which it is propagated in
V erw oerd’s South Africa, does not
com pare too well w ith the ancient
civilisations o f A sia and Africa.
Just to take one example from the
m aterial sphere, it may surprise
some o f the pundits o f apartheid to
know th a t the elaborate drainage
system o f the ancient Indian cities
which flourished on the river Indus
about 4,000 years ago was superior
to th at provided by W hite civilisation
in th a t p art o f its tow ns which it
refers to as the “ location.”
Moral Ideas
A nd the m oral ideas o f these
ancient civilisations would seem to
have risen to a conception o f univer­
sal justice and hum an brotherhood
which is far beyond the grasp o f the
“ civilised” defenders o f A frikaner
tribalism .
“ Behold it is not to m ake for
him self slaves o f any people,” stated
the traditional address delivered by
the Egyptian P haraoh two thousand
years before the birth o f Christ.
Upon assuming office, high state
officials in A ncient Egypt were told:
“ Forget not to judge justice
Look
upon him who is known to thee like
him who is unknow n to thee; and
him who is near the king like him
who is far from his house.”
The social philosophy o f A ncient
Egypt reached its climax in the
universal
m oral
doctrines
of
Ik h n ato n (fourteenth century B.C.).
In his beautiful hymns Ikhnaton
m akes no distinction between his
own people and foreigners.
All m en are in the same degree
G od’s sons and m ust regard them ­
Greek Learning
The wisdom o f the Bronze Age
civilisations o f the Ancient N ear
East provided the basis for the later
cultural achievements o f the G reeks
who were great traders and travellers
and so were able to benefit by learn­
ing from the A sian and A frican
peoples w ith whom they came into
contact.
Subsequently,
the
barbarian
invaders from N orthern Europe
destroyed the old G raeco-R om an
slave civilisation and m ost o f its
cultural
achievements.
Europe
entered the long period o f its D ark
Ages, while the cultural heritage of
the ancient w orld was productively
developed by the great civilisation of
the A rabs.
W hen the C rusaders from W estern
Europe invaded the N ear East from
the end o f the eleventh century A .D .
onw ards they were am azed to find
themselves in the presence o f a
civilisation far m ore advanced than
their own. The same discovery was
m ade by the Venetian traveller
M arco Polo when he visited C hina in
the thirteenth century and found
there a degree o f culture which m ade
m ost o f Europe look like a jungle.
Surprise in Africa
A nd a similar surprise awaited
the readers o f the first reliable des­
cription o f the N egro civilisation of
W est Africa to be published in
Europe.
Its author, Leo Africanus, des­
cribed to his astounded readers the
huge libraries o f African scholars in
university towns like T im buktu,
the great w ealth o f the African
rulers and m erchants, their efficient
and peaceful adm inistration and
other m atters which m ight m ake
m any an inhabitant o f w ar-torn
sixteenth century E urope feel envious.
Civilisation
has
never
been
confined to particular hum an groups
but has grow n step by step through
the contribution o f people o f every
race and colour.
A t different
historical periods different kinds of
contributions have been m ade by
different kinds o f people.
Some
Continued on page 27
K E N Y A : The old Tori/
Game iff Divide and
Rule
Siddon
m m -J o h n
T H E statem ent on Kenya by Mr.
M audling, B ritain’s C olonial
Secretary, shows the Tory G overn­
m ent is up to its old tricks again.
Divide an d rule.
Bolster up
reaction. Play for tim e in order to
give added strength to the chosen
collaborators, and to allow disunity
to deepen and spread.
M ost people know how British
im perialism has used these tactics.
H indu versus M oslem in India.
A rab versus Jew in form er Palestine.
Catholic versus P ro testan t in Ireland.
Tam il versus Sinhalese in Ceylon.
A frica has been no exception to
this rule.
B ut in A frica further
refinem ents to the m ethod have been
added.
Division
Faced in the past decade w ith a
grow ing insistence by th e A frican
people th a t they be allowed to rule
them selves, British im perialism has
w orked hard to play on every division
and backw ard-looking force.
Its aim has been to m ake possible
the creation o f “ federal” States in
which feudal an d trib al reaction
w ould play a key role, and British
im perialism be left, in effect, to
rule the roost from behind the scenes.
I f anyone d oubts this, let him
read K w am e N k ru m ah ’s au to b io ­
graphy and learn how this trick was
attem p ted in G hana.
D espite the clear verdict o f the
1954 G eneral Election, w hich gave
the C onvention People’s Party an
overwhelming m ajority, reactionary
politicians in alliance w ith semifeudal chiefs in A shanti, started a
separatist agitation, hoping to secure
th e establishm ent o f a federal form
o f governm ent w hich w ould enable
them to resist and sabotage the
central governm ent’s program m e.
This agitation points out N krum ah,
was backed by m ost o f the Press,
while the actions o f the British
G overnm ent “ served as a stim ulant
to the unrest.”
Majority
By strong decisive action, backed
by the overwhelming m ajority o f
the G hanaian people, N krum ah
sm ashed this separatist p lo t and
G h ana was thus enabled to em bark
on a program m e o f advance.
T hough balked in G hana, British
im perialism has scored in Nigeria,
m aking use of the feudalled N o rthern
People’s Congress to ensure th at the
leading positions are in the hands of
a feudal reaction.
In N orthern Rhodesia, where the
“ th re a t” o f independence draws
ever nearer, British im perialism has
already m ade the first moves to
foster a separatist agitation in
B arotseland.
W hile in the Congo, largely due to
B ritish im perialist influence, the same
classic game has been played with
K atanga.
Background
Some understanding o f this back­
ground is necessary if one is to
appreciate w hat M audling and the
British G overnm ent are trying on in
Kenya.
T he present crisis arises from the re­
fusal o f British im perialism to accept
the dem ands o f the K enya people.
In the 1961 elections, deliberately
held before Jom o K enyatta’s release
and ap pointm ent as leader o f the
K enya A frican N ational U nion, th at
p arty received 550,000 votes against
150,000 votes for the K enya A frican
D em ocratic Union.
Y et it is not K A N U , w ith nearly
80 per cent o f the votes, w hich is the
G overnm ent o f Kenya. It is the
British G overnm ent w ith a Council
o f M inisters com posed o f K A D U
representatives
together
with
Europeans.
k / \ i s U, w ith support from all the
different peoples of Kenya, stand for
a united Kenya, for the form ation of
a strong central governm ent which
will be able to stand up to imperialism
and plan the developm ent o f the
country’s economy. It has called for
independence by February 1962.
K A D U , which is supported by the
G overnor as well as by m any settlers
in M ichael Blundell’s New Kenya
Party,
stands
for a
regional
federation.
This would give full scope to
tribal, separatist and parochial ten­
dencies, lead to disunity and leave
British imperialism in the background
but with decisive control still in its
hands.
Regional
A t t h e beginning o f O ctober,
K A D U p u t forw ard a plan for a
“ regional governm ent system” which
would establish no fewer th a n five re­
gional governm ents in a land o f only
seven m illion people.
“ The details of the plan,” said
The Times, “ were w orked o u t by
K A D U ’s European associates.”
Since then, kA D U has stirred up
hostility in the country and. openly
threatened “ civil w ar” if its plans
are unheeded.
K jn y a tta has rightly w arned
against the dangers involved in this
agitation by K A D U . “ Regionalism
leads to a Congo situation,” he said,
“ and we d o n ’t want th at to happen in
K enya.”
b u t the British G overnm ent, far
from trying to dam p dow n the
spreading flames, is only fanning
them further, as M audling’s state­
m ent shows.
In his announcem ent last week he
gave backing to the federal scheme
and refused to accept K en y atta’s
proposal o f February 1962 as the
date for independence, arguing th at
it “ will still take some tim e” before
independence.
Even on the very day o f his arrival
in N airobi, before he had acquainted
him self w ith the situation, M audling
said: “ Clearly, there could be very
We Shull Fight to
the Last Man
by Kenneth K aunda ( President, U N I P )
X K / E are obviously now in the
’ ’ process o f m aking and w riting
the m ost difficult and complicated
chapter o f our history. We o f the
U nited N ational Independence Party
to look at the problem squarely in
the face and are prepared to m eet
blows as they come and give twice as
much.
The evidence I gathered on my
recent trip o f the N orth ern and
L uapula provinces makes me charge
the so-called security forces o f
m urder, arson, plunder and savage
atrocities. F o u r cases o f rape were
reported to m e but I did not receive
sufficient evidence because these are
alleged to have taken place in
Chinsali and A bercorn where I was
n o t allowed to go. I know the charge
I m ake is a serious one but it is true.
W hat has been happening in these
troubled areas—and is still happening
in Chinsali, A bercorn, M porokoso
and K asam a areas to a certain extent
—I am positive the C entral G ov­
ernm ent does n o t possess full facts
of—m uch less His Excellency the
G overnor himself. In the w ords o f
one prom inent chief “ I thought we
were going to m eet the G overnor b u t
he came and stayed w ith those
Europeans a t the Bom a and went
away.” He was a disappointed ruler.
Whole villages have been razed to
the ground; food stuffs including
goats, sheep and fowls have been
taken away to say nothing of clothes,
pots, pans and other utensils. What
they could not take away they des­
troyed. It is either gross ignorance or
downright insincerity on the part of
those in authority to say those Africans
who wished could complain to their
District Commissioners. For instance
one official was involved in a riot and
has since been presiding magistrate
over cases of the very people he was
rioting with. How does any sane
person expect Africans to take their
complaints to such a man? In any
case, does anyone think justice can be
djne?
One o f our local dailies reports
th at I was n o t at all welcome in the
N orth ern Provinces and it reports its
source as G overnm ent Inform ation
D epartm ent. It is no longer a secret
th at the K asam a G overnm ent Infor­
m ation D epartm ent has been biased
against U nited N ational Independ­
ence Party because o f one m an there.
T o prove my point, 1 was ju st coming
from interviewing one o f the four
chiefs organised by a certain official
n o t to see me. The chief in fact
received me very traditionally. In one
place Bom a messengers rushed to
shake our hands.
One white cadet came out and
shouted them back to their sitting
places. They were punished a few
m inutes later. One thing is clear,
these messengers are A fricans. In the
same D istrict we were told no one
would see us—yet ju st outside
crowds were swelling as news spread
we had arrived, chiefs received us
w ith open arm s and we discussed our
problem s as ‘beloved father and son.'
W herever we went our people simply
p oured in to see us— who are
G overnm ent agents deceiving? No
one an art from the G overnm ent
itself o f course! Because o f intim ida­
tio n A frican businessm en and those
in high scale-employment played the
Nicodem us. All these atrocities just
help to m ake U nited N ational
Independence P arty m ore and m ore
popular! This is the Gospel truth.
O ur people simply love the party!
As for the P aram ount C h i e f
C hitim ukulu, I still hold him in high
esteem and will always be happy to
serve him. In his wisdom, w hat is
happening today he predicted in a
long talk w ith M r. Jam es Johnson,
form er L abour M P for Rugby when
KENNETH
KAUNDA
we invited him in 1957. W hen we
take over, which w on’t be too long
from now, he is one o f our natu ral
rulers we shall long rem em ber fo r his
courage and wisdom. H e has fought
against Federation and nothing can
change my adm iration for him— no
m atter w hat colonialist intrigues may
try to plant between him and me.
H e is my beloved natural ruler.
The cam paign against identity
cards has been so successful th a t the
authorities are now so perplexed th a t
all they can do is to com pel my
followers to pay fines which they
refuse and then they send messengers
and others to forcibly take some
property o f the persons concerned.
Prisons are so full now th a t m ost o f
the prisoners at certain Bomas are
using their own clothes, there are, as
in the one case I am sure of, as many
as three prisoners to a blanket.
Savage beatings by Police go on.
In view o f all this, I once m ore
appeal to the B ritish G overnm ent to
send a judicial com m ission o f inquiry.
I have been charitable by thinking
they d o n ’t know w hat is happening—
and I believe this. I f they don’t I will
have no alternative but to take this
m atter to some A ugust International
O rganisation.
Continued on page 27
Collection Number: AD1715
SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974
PUBLISHER:
Collection Funder:- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation
Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive
Location:- Johannesburg
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