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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 22, 1968
Rhodesia: anti-African
Rhodesian Information Officer H. J. C. Hooper seemed to have come to KU to misinform us with half-truths about the situation in his country.
He said there are six African doctors in Rhodesia today (this out of a population of 4,000,000!) and proudly added that this number would be increased by 60 more doctors in 1969. He implied that credit must go to the present administration for this rise.
But the present administration holds no proud record in African education. It cut down from 25 per cent to 12.5 per cent the number of African students eligible for high school education.
It scrapped and replaced by an all government appointed body the joint government-university scholarship awarding body at the University College of Rhodesia.
University professors opposed to UDI (unilateral declaration of independence) did not only lose their jobs. Some were detained, others deported. Twenty seven of the 30 professors who supported the student strike against the Smith administration in 1966 lost their jobs.
Six of the students are still under detention. Forty others have been forced into exile.
Hooper also said that "Everyone is equal under the constitution. Black Rhodesians are eligible to vote if they meet the constitutional qualifications."
Anyone acquainted with the requirements would see contradictions in his statement. Not many black Rhodesians have a chance to go to school, fewer still are chiefs, and with their investment mainly in cattle which is not classified as property because it is movable, they cannot qualify as voters.
Hooper reported that the average white man earns 10 times as much as the average black Rhodesian but failed to mention that a discriminatory dual wage scale that pays less to the black man was mainly responsible for this situation.
In his attempt to justify the rebellion against Great Britain, he ignored the fact that the Rhodesian Front acted to ensure the European
community's continued control of the pace of African advancement. That is why Smith's government refused to abide by Britain's NIBMAR proposal (no independence before majority rule).
Rather than do that it set out to effectively stifle internal opposition. The Zimbabwe African Peoples Union of Joshua Nkomo and the Zimbabwe African National Union of Ndabaningi Sithole were banned, their leaders imprisoned.
The few vocal white opposition was rendered ineffective by the restriction of Garfield Todd and the detention of Leo Baron. The remaining white opposition's only complaint against Smith is that he did not do things legally, not for ethical, political or social reasons.
The police and the army have been bribed with higher salaries. The press is censored, while radio and television networks are under government control. A state of emergency since U.D.I has never been lifted.
The African community, under continual surveillance, is rendered frightened, fragmented, and leaderless. The working class among them—in the mines, in the railroads, and on the farms, are mostly immigrant workers who did not want to be involved.
Seventy six per cent of Rhodesian whites live in the urban areas. But the power in Smith's party is in the hands of the farmers, who would not have land reforms. Their livelihood depends on a land area that comprises 50 per cent of the country and includes all the comparatively fertile soils of the high veld through which the railway line runs.
Then there is the business community, which receives credit from the government, and countries like South Africa, the United States, Germany, and Japan, which act as sanction busters or middlemen for Rhodesia in its dealings with the outside world.
Let's beware of our information officer. The reason why Smith's government has lived to this day is due to both circumstance and deliberate policy, not to the satisfaction of the African majority.
Swaeebou Conatch Assistant Editorial Editor
Letters
To the Editor:
For the sake of accuracy, I wish to call your attention to the coverage of the demonstration against Southern Rhodesia on the occasion of Mr. H. J. C. Hooper's talk at the Kansas Union (Minority Opinions Forum).
In two places in your Feb. 15 edition, it was reported that African students picketed.
So they did, but I think it should be pointed out that they were supported by several Arab, American and other students.
Thank you.
—Myrna Ewart Chicago senior
--mate size of the cartoons now used, and submit these to the editorial desk, Kansan News Room, Flint Hall.
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan encourages signed letters to the editor for publication. They should be typed and contain the writer's classification and home town. Letters are subject to conservative editing by the Kansan staff. Libelous statements will not be printed. Send letters to the editorial desk, 112 Flint Hall.
Please limit length to about 250 words.
--mate size of the cartoons now used, and submit these to the editorial desk, Kansan News Room, Flint Hall.
"We'll Let The Overcoat Out All The Way, And The Robe Will Hardly Show At All"
The Daily Kansan editorial editors are interested in seeing cartoons about KU for use on the editorial page. Please submit pen and ink drawings the approximate size of the cartoons now used, and submit these to the editorial desk, Kansan News Room, Flint Hall.
Kansan cartoons
The Hill With It by john hill
Little George Washington scampered into the house, and let the screen door slam loudly behind him.
"George!" yelled his father, from the living room where he was reading the evening paper. "Come hither and yon, my son."
Wish he wouldn't talk so funny, thought George,and stood in front of his father.
"My son, as I gaze out yonder window, I perceive that someone hath chopped the hell out of my cherry tree. This morning, I gave you an ax so I want to ask you something and I want you to look me in the eye and answer me directly and honestly." His father paused for a moment, for dramatic emphasis and slowly lit his snuff box, or whatever you did with a snuff box.
"No, son, I only want to ask you once. Did you chop down the cherry tree?"
I cannot tell a lie, George thought to himself, but I can sure run circles around it.
After a few moments, George's father finally said, "George, I only want to ask you once, so I'll ask you again. Did you have anything to do with the present horizontal positioning of our cherry tree?"
"Father, a safe assumption cannot be made at this time concerning this matter as there are many variables to be considered and any decision of a final nature would be grossly premature and lacking substantiated and verified conclusive evidence."
"On the one hand, one could say that whatever I do affects all men, for no man is an island, and that any act I might do could result in the situation you have so aptly described. On the other hand, to categorically alledge and imply that I, knowing full well the impact of my actions, would—"
"Kid," said the exasperated father slowly, "you want a trip to fist city?"
"Fist city? A good example, I might remark, of how various shades of meaning tend to overlap, inhibit and distort human communication, an area so vital in modern—"
"For a fistful of dollars, I'd drop-kick you across the Potomac. Now, listen. Me, I don't care about that stupid tree. Cherries make me break out. But your mother asked me to mention it to you, as she was up in the tree when it fell down. Now give me a straight, simple, unevasive answer."
"But, father! You know I plan on going into public service of some kind! I can't get anywhere without learning the field early.
"How in the world do you ever expect me to get into politics, or help run a university someday if I directly state—"
"All right, all right. I'll tell your mother that nasty little Benedict Arnold did it. Now take your credibility gap outside where we've told you to keep it, and go stand up in a boat or something."
Chip off the ol' block. Mr. Washington smiled to himself when little George left as he slowly puffed on his snuff box. That boy's gonna be president someday, he reflected with secret pride, if they don't hang him first.
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 Business Office—UN 4-3198
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
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