Rhodesia: Black or White?

...By J. Kirk Sale A story going the rounds of Salisbury these days concerns Sir Roy Welensky, the tough, bulbous Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland...

...But in the last two years more than 70 Africans have been killed, several thousand others have been jailed for political crimes (including seven leading nationalists kept "in detention" without trial) and police brutality has developed into a fine art...

...Moreover, in order to prevent a violent outbreak in Southern Rhodesia, it must grant Africans at least a 50-50 share in the government with provisions for universal franchise in the next five years...

...The only trouble was that no one seemed much interested...

...Sir Roy's party won all but one of the seats...

...It has attracted investment at the remarkable rate of $425 million a year, increased national income by 45 per cent and African real income by 23 per cent, and today is the ninth largest exporter in the free world...

...From the flurry of speeches, junkets, elections and headlines that have come from the Federation in recent months, there can be little doubt that the eight-year-old Federation is on its last legs...

...The Africans, however, have another answer: Black —and unless it is given peacefully, it will be taken violently...

...Strong and sweet," he answers, "like our Rhodesian women...

...At that time a new constitution goes into effect which removes Southern Rhodesia from all effective control by London...

...I believe in the Federation," he has said, "and I am prepared to go whole hog to defend it...

...And with black governments in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and a partnership in Southern Rhodesia, the Africans would certainly have this say...

...To intercede on behalf of the Africans would be a difficult move for the British Government to make...

...Thus Sir Roy's answer to the question of black or white is clear: White—and Britain and the Africans be damned...

...Southern Rhodesia, however much self-governing, is still a British colony, and the British government still has the power to take any action there that it chooses...

...At least once a month since last August, there has been a major clash between police and Africans...

...Improper and impracticable"— yes...

...But since Sir Roy refuses to participate in such a conference, and since the Southern Rhodesian Africans would not thereby be guaranteed the political power they want, this is impracticable...

...Under a new constitution the British gave to Northern Rhodesia this spring, the African party of Kenneth Kaunda is almost certain to gain control after this fall's elections...

...Against these centrifugal forces, Sir Roy Welensky alone is left to preserve the Federation...

...Since 1923 the Southern Rhodesian Parliament has had the right to make all of its own laws...

...Although nationalist leaders in Southern Rhodesia cannot say so publicly at the moment, they would certainly be amenable to a 50-50 government...

...Or at least—and here is a crucial point— it has this power until October...

...What is to be done to prevent this violence, and at the same time to preserve at least the economic benefits of the Federation...

...Although it has been flying the flag of "non-racial partnership" for nearly a decade, the Federation has done almost nothing to give Africans any political voice...

...It is the key question now before the troubled Federation, and upon the way it is answered—in Salisbury and in London—will depend much of the future of the southern quarter of Africa...

...Its course is evident: To keep part of the profitable Federation intact, it must see that Southern Rhodesia is given a government acceptable to the other two territories and provide for control of the Federation to pass into black hands...

...Already Nyasaland has an African-run government, headed by fiery Hastings Kamuzu Banda, whose almost pathological hatred of "Welensky's damned Federation" has inspired him to vow to dissolve it...

...Black or white...

...What is more, Southern Rhodesian Africans know how much their economy depends on the copper riches in Northern Rhodesia...

...All African parties and all but the lunatic fringe of the diehard whites refused to take part in the election...

...Aside from granting enough to the Africans to forestall violence and shifting power in the Federation to keep it intact, British intervention would also have two other advantages from the point of view of the British government...

...The solution, clearly, lies in the hands of the British government...

...As for Southern Rhodesia, the African nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo recently told me: "Southern Rhodesia is going to become an African country...

...No doubt British intervention would raise an anguished howl from the Southern Rhodesian whites, who feel that they alone are preserving proper British standards, and if their power goes Western civilization in Africa goes with it...

...One answer might be for Britain to hold a conference to review the Federation—as it was scheduled to do last year—and try to avert violence by making a few concessions in the Federal structure...

...Kaunda too, has vowed to dissolve the Federation...

...They would be eager to continue a federation which assured them this wealth as long as they could have the power to say how it would be used...

...In Southern Rhodesia Africans have not even been allowed to sit in the Legislature (though a new constitution which may be introduced this fall provides them with 15 out of 65 seats...

...At a reception following one of his famous give-'em-hell speeches, the hostess asks: "How do you like your coffee, Sir Roy...

...The anguished howl from Salisbury, after all, will be the death cry of white supremacy—and it will fall gentler on the world's ears than the screams of violence which otherwise would be heard...

...Second, a solution to the thorny central African problem would come as an enormous boon to the badgered Conservative party in England, and put it in an excellent position for the general election predicted for late next year...

...I am like the Rock of Gibraltar—I will fight to the end...

...Another answer might be for the Southern Rhodesians, led by semiliberal Prime Minister Sir Edgar Whitehead, to grant concessions to the Africans in the hope that the other territories would stay with the Federation if the whites' control of Southern Rhodesia were to become less than it now is...

...So complementary are the economies of these three countries that one economist has estimated it would have taken 20 years to have accomplished separately what together they have done in nine...

...But the British government must see clearly its legal opportunity to promote democracy and its growing moral responsibility to avoid violence...

...Since the union was formed in 1953 between copper-rich Northern Rhodesia, labor-supplying Nyasaland and well-developed Southern Rhodesia, it has unquestionably proved an economic success...

...Nonetheless, the African nationalists now coming to the fore in all three countries are unalterably opposed to the present Federation, for it is dominated not only by Southern Rhodesia but by Southern Rhodesian whites...

...Commonwealth Secretary Duncan Sandys recently said: "It would be constitutionally improper and impracticable for us, without the consent of Southern Rhodesia, to impose upon it a new constitution with a much wider representation to Africans, if we thought that right and desirable...

...And in Southern Rhodesia, the last territory not yet headed for African rule, violence may not be far away...

...Yes, Sir Roy...

...But neither Sir Edgar nor the other whites are sufficiently angehe to give up power voluntarily...

...It alone has the power to force Southern Rhodesia on a more liberal path...

...But constitutionally illegal—no...

...No matter how great an economic pedestal the Federation has built up, the political and social antagonisms of the Africans are bound to pull it down...

...Sir Roy and Sir Edgar might even talk— as their followers have in the past— of a "Salisbury Tea Party" in which Southern Rhodesia will signal its secession...

...If we are not given our rights now, I see no other course but violence...

...No matter what anyone thinks, neither the British government nor anyone else can do anything to break up the Federation...

...London has traditionally given a large measure of autonomy to such self-governing colonies as Southern Rhodesia, and for the British it is no easy matter to tread on tradition...

...They may be liquidating their responsibilities elsewhere in Africa, but it is we, the Federation, who will have the final say...

...The first is that the British and Rhodesian taxpayers would be spared the burden of paying off the $900 million debt which the Federation has rung up in the last nine years, and for which they would be responsible if the Federation dissolved...

...As recently as two years ago, Southern Rhodesiane proudly boasted that since a tribal uprising in 1896 "no African has ever been shot in anger...

...And so, in April, Sir Roy called for an election and prepared to show the British he had a mandate from his people to help him preserve the Federation...

...We are determined to have our rights...

...And what's more, they damn well know it...

...Thus, if Britain is to act it must do so quickly...

...It would be a sure step to the African-dominated rule they have been working for so long, and would forestall the violence which they know would wreak a greater cost on Africans than on the whites...

...Conversely, a blowup in the Rhodesias could irretrievably damage Conservative chances...

...And since at this juncture no minimal concessions will placate the Africans, this course, too, seems doomed to failure...

...it alone can balance the conflicting passions of the three territories to produce a new, workable Federation...

...African hatred of the Federation is partly illogical and partly misguided, but it is also deep, abiding and very real...

...J. Kirk Sale recently returned from an extensive tour of Africa...

...No one— not even the African nationalists who have complained so bitterly about it—is really happy about this...

...This is more than an idle punch line...