AFRICAN POLITICS
Sm,-1 was born of British parents and grew up in a British territory, and 1 am not a nationalist, but I am a South African. What we• cannot understand about Britain is that, if your politicians are dull- witted, they should still be able to see the shambles of Kenya and Tanganyika and Nyasa- land (now Malawi) where dictatorship is rife, and now that the blacks are in power, no opposition is allowed. They should know th'at 80 per cent of the blacks have no education and are heathens of the dirtiest type, riddled. with bilharzia, malaria and other tropical diseases and have no interest in politics, except to obey whatever their chief or head- man decides.
They (the British) were almost indecent in their haste to hand over these colonies to the blacks, and yet, when asked-for similar treatment by Southern Rhodesians who fought beside them in two world wars, they refuse. They should know well that, apart from the chiefs and headmen, plus a relatively small number of black students, very few of the other Africans are competent to vote. Even if they are given a vote, what they do with it depends on how the village headman thinks.
Ian Smith knows this and he is fully aware of the control exercised by the chiefs over the rural Africans. It follows then, to have proper govern- ment in Southern Rhodesia as opposed to the shambles and bloodshed elsewhere, the white electorate must rule with an advisory council from the chiefs. We are thinking of applying an old adage to the British Government: 'Verily whom the Gods will destroy, they first make mad.
Previous page
