Second Thoughts in Southern Rhodesia
THE withdrawal of the Preventive Detention Bill in Southern Rhodesia and the release of a tenth (but only a tenth) of the people detained are welcome signs that the Whitehead Govern- ment and the European community have had the moral courage to reconsider their hysterical actions. If they could proceed along this course to the healing sanity of facing the fundamental causes of their troubles and making the radical adjustments necessary to remove them, a new situation might arise. It is not yet clear whether they are prepared to. The real objective of the Southern Rhodesia emergency was, using the Nyasaland situation as an excuse, to carry out plans long conceived to nip Congress in the bud, exterminate enterprises such as St. Faith's Farm, and reaffirm actual White domination on the basis of professed partnership. The assumption behind the Prime Minister's speech on the second read- ing of the now defunct Preventive Detention Bill in the Southern Rhodesian Parliament on March 13 was that anything Africans did for themselves was misguided and wrong; they must accept their position as wards of the Native Affairs Depart- ment—a Government within a Government, ad- ministering Africans according to the White man's decrees, through a system independent of and apart from the social, political and economic pro- cesses set up for Europeans. That is, apartheid. He could not see that Africans had any legitimate cause for discontent. He labelled their protests subversion.
Unless Southern Rhodesians and the other European leaders recognise that Africans have legitimate grievances in full measure and set out to put them right by steps that seem to them at present inconceivable, the future will bring more, not less, 'subversion.' Cleaning up Congress and suppressing African plans will not work. The demand for social justice can only be restrained by tyranny. It is about tyranny that the Prime Minister is having second thoughts. Let us hope they will mature. He must see that it is useless to cauterise the symptom and ignore the disease. Five hundred or six hundred Africans gather into villages when Congress hold meetings because they are sick of obeying `lawful orders' of White men and carrying out Acts of Parliament passed by Europeans. As Guy Clutton-Brock wrote from prison : 'There has been a clash of motives in a colossal edifice of misunderstanding.' Does part- nership mean the equality that is successfully practised at St. Faith's Farm or the Black man's obedience to the White man's orders? The cause of the disease was the attempt to relegate two and a half million Africans to a second-class position in society; this was possible as long as it was done by open oppression and became impossible when 'partnership' became professed policy. The only cure is the abolition of the Land Appor- tionment Act, the Native Affairs Act, the Native Land Husbandry Act, the pass laws and a revision of the electoral system. African interests must be represented, in fair proportion to the number of Africans, and Congress must be admitted to the counsels of the country. If Rhodesians have the strength and the courage to accept an inte- grated society and disown segregation, exclusion and discrimination, they may find they can live in peace with Africans even now and not be 'swamped by a Black flood.' If they revert to the attitudes of the Prime Minister's speech, the momentary relaxation of the rigidity of absolute tension that prevailed a few years ago will be only the prelude to a real convulsion.
In Nyasaland, the job of `cleaning up the small fry' of Congress goes on unnoticed. (Another 160 are reported to have been arrested lately in Northern Province.) There and in Southern Rho- desia the remorseless CID screening—the inter- minable hours of cross-questioning behind closed doors—runs its leisurely course. It may soon begin in Northern Rhodesia. What is this but brain-washing? These methods have not failed to produce the evidence of plots required by the governments in Russia, Hungary, China or North Korea. They have not failed in Central Africa and their results are published in a White Paper.
This week's White Paper gives no indication at all of its sources. Surely if the Government wished to convince us it would have been worth sacrificing an intelligence source or two in the interests of veracity. They could be rewarded and protected as Macharia was—and in a far better cause, that of truth. It does not deal with Dr. Banda's sincere objection to violence, nor with the highly significant fact that Mr. Chiume, one of the four alleged coming men, was in London attempting to talk to the Colonial Secre- tary at a time when, if the allegations are true, his presence at home was essential. Why was the massacre to begin only when Dr. Banda was arrested? Why, if he knew this, did Sir Robert Armitage arrest him? What gcod would the massacre have done anybody when the available `security forces' were immeasurably stronger than the Africans?. Now that Mr. Lennox-Boyd has set up his commission of inquiry in London— another reassuring sign—we can expect some real explanation of the whole business. It is certainly overdue.
No one in Nyasaland will have acted in wholly bad faith. The intelligence men `on the ground' have only collected information. The higher-ups who evaluate it are quite out of touch with African life. The politicians to whom they present it are obliged to accept Special Branch reports and act on them. If they confirm the rightness of their policies, what a welcome re- assurance! Nevertheless, the final situation is one of sinister dishonesty. Any attempt to muzzle six or seven million people and force them into courses they reject is bound to be.
Federation can only survive as a country where African interests are paramount and adequate safeguards are extended to minorities. This must replace the hypocritical doctrine of partnership. If Sir Roy and his colleagues, and the British Government and Colonial Office, are capable of this, they may still do the biggest thing ever done in colonial or African history. They must not be afraid of doing the wisest thing a man can do— yielding to justified pressure. If they try to stick it out, an even worse situation than the present will follow and Central Africa will slowly dis- integrate into chaos.
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