Tuesday, July 16, 1963 Summer Session Kansan Page 5
Black Continent of Africa Burns White.
It is against this backdrop that the South African racial drama is being played out.
Rulers of the "Bantustans" will be the tribal chieftains, whose position and prestige have been greatly enhanced by the white government that pays their salaries.
Black nationalists say a black state ruled by these privileged chiefs and their "yes man" councilors can only have a mockery of independence. The chiefs, they say, must inevitably oppose the introduction of modern democratic concepts, or face the fate of Nobel Peace Prize winner ex-chief Albert Luthuli, who lost his position and freedom for fighting apartheid.
(Continued from page 2)
The South African government, in the hands of the largely Afrikaner National party since 1948, is pushing ahead rapidly with its Apartheid (or "separate development") policy. In the simplest terms it amounts to a massive and costly attempt to unscramble the South African racial omelette through rigid segregation, not only between white and black, but between the different tribal units among the Bantu.
It envisages an eventual checkerboard commonwealth of black and white nations within the borders of Sout Africa. The black nations, or "Bantustans," based on the wretchedly poor but potentially wealthy African reserves, will have their own industries, universities, highways, banking houses and parliaments. In these nations the white man will have no political rights, just as in the white areas the African must accept the status of a temporary laborer without property or franchise rights.
THE BLACK NATIONALISTS, who form by far the greater proportion of politically conscious Africans, want to see the same process take place in South Africa as has already occurred in Tanganyika, Nigeria and Ghana. They demand the right to vote and sweep the white man's privileges away.
The more extreme would sweep the white man away along with the privileges, and an active underground terrorist organization known as "Pogo" is a manifestation of this attitude.
Black nationalists in other parts of Africa had only a reluctant colonial power to deal with. In South Africa they face a large wealthy white minority equal to the white population of North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. This minority is determined to hold what it has, and is able to muster a well-equipped army, navy, air and police force to back up its determination.
The wealth of South Africa, built up on the basis of white enterprise and cheap black labor, is one of the wonders of the continent. Unlike other African states with a one-product economy, South Africa is a complex, modern, industrial state. Its gold mines alone produce $750-million worth of the precious metal a year. Streams of uranium, diamonds, platinum, coal, copper and manganese add to the mineral output.
THE AVERAGE WHITE South African sees no more reason why he should give up his privileges than, say, the inhabitants of the above-mentioned states would withdraw gracefully and hand them over to the Indians.
What is less generally known is that today manufacturing is far more important to the South African national economy than either mining or agriculture. In 1960 the factories of South Africa turned out manufactured goods ranging from
12:30 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Air-Conditioned JAYHAWK CAFE
- SANDWICHES
- FAVORITE BEVERAGES
- ORDERS TO GO
autos to zip fasteners, with a total value of more than $4 billion.
ATTEMPTS TO IMPOSE international trade boycotts against South Africa have failed, and today South Africans of all races have more money in their pockets, and more consumer goods in their homes than ever before.
1340 Ohio VI 3-9832
South Africans own more than 1 million cars (about one-tenth owned by non-whites) and well over 1 million radios—there is as yet no television service. In white homes the whole gamut of labor saving devices is common, despite the fact that almost every white household has at least one African servant. Even in non-white homes gadgety is on the increase, especially among the town dwellers.
The country is one of the great trading nations of the world. Its external trade is greater than any Western Hemisphere nation, except the U.S. and Canada. Its import-export turnover exceeds that of such highly-developed nations as Denmark, Norway, Finland, Austria and Switzerland.
THE CITIES OF the republic are as modern and impressive as any of comparable size in the United
States. Johannesburg, the richest and biggest of them all, has become a skyscraper metropolis of almost 1,250,000 population in less than 80 years.
For the African, city life often in the past has meant something raw and ugly. A few miles from the luxury and elegance of Johannesburg's wealthy, white northern suburbs lies the dusty shanty town of Alexandra Township where more than 80,000 Africans live a dark existence under the shadow of African gangland terrorism. But on the other side of town lie the huge African housing estates known as the southwestern townships where eventually 600,000 Africans will live in rows of identical, trim cottages, each with its own small garden. This is a happier type of African urban life comparing favorably with similar projects anywhere in Africa.
The average black African worker in Jobannesburg earns $605 a year. In contrast, the average white wage earner brings home $2,831. The African rental will be correspondingly lower than in all-white neighborhoods, as will cost of transport and several other services.
BAZAAR DAY
Thursday
BARGAINS GALORE
50c ● $1.00 ● $2.00 ● $3.00
$5.00 ● $10.00 ● $20.00
Town Shop
Downtown
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