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ALEXANDRA HEALTH COMMITTEE

A Meeting of the Alexandra Health Committee will be held at the O f f i c e of th<= Committee on TFU^SDAV the 1ST SEPTEMBER, 19^5, at U.-JO o.m.

101112

H15 1 6 17 1 ?

19

S E CRET ARY /T IREA SljpER.

A G E N D A :

Compost Contractor* r° Complaints.Fencing: off Souo Kitchen.Purchasing of 2 Tractors - *4# Discount.Bridge at l?th Avenue beine- Proceeded with.Rock Drill purchased - extra costs for certain

d rills .

Representatives on Entokozweni Board.Findings of Social typlf^ra Conference.Additional Staff for T .B . and v .D . work - Clinic

asked to call for applications.Board of Control for all Soorting Bodies in

Alexandra.Monthly donations to th*> Clinic .Additional Building Regulations.Social Welfare T,rork by the Alexandra Health

Committee.^au'per burial - N. Willemse.Street Collection Marsraret Ballinger Hom°.Supply of Fresh Milk to Milk Depot.

Findings of Tuberculosis Conference at " P r e t o r i a .

Requests by Rev. Tanci.Leave Requirements.G E N E R A L .

noOoo

29th August. 1955 .

-HSK/MF.........05/ l .

ADDISIONSLE BOUREGULAPIES VOORGES^EL VIR ALEXANDRA

INO-EVOLfrE ARTIKEL ffQ (t<-̂ ). (SO), (51), (qg). (51)

EN (5*0 SOPS TOEGEPAS DEUR ARTIKEL 12£ VAN OR D .17 /19 .

*

1 . Met die oog op di^ oorbevolking en oorbeboulng van

Alexandra en die euwels wat daaruit vloei, word die G-eaond-

heidskomitee van Alexandra gemagtig om die bou van enige

nuwe of addleionele geboue of die oprigting van enige nuwe

of gedeeltelik nuwe geboue in die plek van oues, op enige erf

of perseel, te beperk of te belet, en/of ora die grootte en

aantal vertrekke te bepaal en te beperk, b o o s die Komitee dit

goedvind in iedere geval of i^dere arnsoek vir !n boupermit,

en geen bouery wat nie alreeds goedsrekeur is nie, rase: onder-

neem word sonder die goedkeuring van die Gesondheidskomitee

nie .

2 . Hierdie regulasie raoet beskou word as deel en mo^t

saamgelees word met die bestaende Bouregulasios.

/

AFRICATODAY

iulletin of the . . . .

AMERICAN COM M ITTEE ON AFRICA

28 East 35th Street

Mew York 16, New York

July - August 1955 Vol. II, No. 3

NEWS

Self-Government for Uganda by 1960? - 2

Russians Visit the Sudan - 2

Assassin's Bullets Miss President

Tubman - 3

New Violence in Morocco - 3

French Crush Cameroons Uprising - 4

U. N. Urges Somali Settlement - 5

Tunisians Acclaim Home Rule - 6

Fort Hare College is Re-Opened - 6One Miner in Four Sacked on Copper belt - 6Mau Mau Make Their Own Guns - 7

Unrest in Eastern Congo - 8South Africa Takes Over Naval Base - 8Kabaka May Return to Buganda - 8 Congress of the People Held in South

Africa " 10

FEATURES

"East Africa Royal Commission Report”

The Prisons of South Africa

What Americans Know About Africa

Profile: Father Trevor Huddleston, C . R.

Editorial: Freedom Versus Colonialism

Afro-American Notes

Book Reviews

ACOA ACTIVITIES: Needed -- Office Secretary for ACOA

Project Fund Reaches $3,000

NGO Status for ACOA

ACOA Hosts Somali Petitioners

EDITOR: Keith Irvine

Editorial Board: Robert Browne, Alvin Chriss,

George Shepherd, Lydia Zemba

Sample copies

Price 20£

- George W . Shepherd, Jr.

- Monica Whately - U

- George M . Houser - 13

15

17

18

20

SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR UGANDA BY 1960

A demand for self-government for Uganda by 1960 was presented to the British Colonial

Secretary (The Right Hon. Alan Lennox-Boyd) when a delegation of the Uganda National Con­

gress visited London in mid-June. The eight-man delegation was headed by Mr. A . K .

Mayanja, a Muganda student now at Cambridge University. Mr. Mayanja, formerly of

Makerere College, was the secretary-founder of the U. N. C . in 1952.

Fenner Broclcway, M .P . (who retained his seat in the recent British election) sponsored a

press conference and other activities for the delegation, but later dissociated himself from

some of their statements. After the Secretary of State for the Colonies had refused to meet

the delegation, Mr. Mayanja told a press conference that Ugandans would "fight for their

independence" if necessary. He said: "W e want our independence. It is no joke. We intend

to get our independence. If it is denied through the channels of administration, we shall have

to consider all possible methods of achieving independence. Let us have no quibbling. We

shall fight if necessary. We have tried a trade boycott and can repeat it. We shall go to all

lengths." Asked by a rewspaperman if the delegation meant physical fighting, Mr. Mayanja

answered: "Y es ." He added that the continued absence of the Kabaka of Buganda was a crying

scandal which inflamed public opinion. Asked whether the Lukiko (native parliament) of

Buganda was not the right body to undertake negotiations, M r . Mayanja replied that the Lukiko

could only speak for its own area, but that the Uganda National Congress spoke for Uganda

as a whole.

Apart from Mr. Mayanja, the other delegates were M R . I. K . MUSAZI, a Muganda, the

President General of the Congress, and its founder in 1952. He has been twice exiled for

political matters, has studied theology in Britain, and has been a school teacher: DR .

BARNABAS N. KUNUNKA, a Munyoro, Treasurer of the Congress, who practices medicine

in Kampala; FELIX K . D . RV/AMBARALI, a Mutoro, and president of the Toro Branch of

Congress. Now a farmer, he worked for the Yellow Fever Research Institute for nine

years; PETER L . OOLA, an Acholi, and a businessman who is now president of the Acholi

Branch of Congress; Y . ENGUR, a Lango, president of the Lango branch of Congress, now

a farmer; and J. W . KIWANUKA, a Muganda civil engineer and a journalist, who recently

returned from political exile . Having studied journalism in London, he is now the proprietor

of the Uganda Post and of the Uganda Express.

A committee of twenty, drawn from Uganda's three largest towns, was recently set up to

safeguard Asian interests in Uganda. On the committee were Mr. H. K . Jaffer, of the

Legislative Council, and Mr. A . N. Maini, lately Mayor of Kampala. Mr. Jaffer stated that

Asians in Uganda had always assisted African advancement.

Agreement was reached in London in May regarding the retcrn from exile of the Kabaka

(King of the Buganda), which is to take place following the introduction of certain constitutional

reforms to which the Lukiko (native parliament of the Buganda) has agreed. Meanwhile popular

sentiment in Uganda is impatient for the Kabaka’s early return.

RUSSIANS VISIT THE SUDAN

A Russian trade delegation recently visited the Sudan, where they suggested that a trade ad­

viser's office might be opened by Russia in Khartoum. They also emphasized that Russian

experts could replace those Britons who were leaving owing to "Sudanization". Meanwhile, a

payments agreement has been reached between the Sudan and East Germany, who also

recently sent a trade delegation to the Sudan.

ASSASSIN'S BULLETS M S S PRESIDENT TUBMAN

A bid to assassinate President Tubman of Liberia fimTnrt when, on June 23rd, Paul Dunbar,

revolver in hand, broke into the pavilion Of the Executive Maneion in Monrovia, and fired

three shots. The ohots missed the President, but one bullet hit a Liberian Congressman in the

leg. President Tubman was celebrating his controversial electoral "victory" by watching a

movie about himself when the attack occurred.

Paul Dunbar, who was immediately arrested, was a former ball! sties expert with the Liberian

Police Force who was discharged last year. He was also a member of the Independent True

Whig Party, which attempted to contest Tubman’s True Whig Party at the pells in May. After

the attack 28 members of the Independent True Whigs were arrested. The police then marched

on the rubber plantation of David Coleman, the national chairman of the Independents, which

lies 30 miles from Monrovia. They were met with a volley of machinegun fire, which killed

two policemen and wounded four others. The police then burned Mr. Coleman's house, and

chased its defenders into the rubber trees. Coleman was not seen. Police also surrounded

the house of the opposition candidate, Mr. Edwin Barclay, but did no more.

It is reported that on the recent election day, on May 3rd, President Tubman, who was running

for a third term, placed armed soldiers at the polls at different points to intimidate the people

against the opposition and to force them to vote for him. On seeing this the opposition with­

drew from the field and filed injunction in the Circuit Court to rule out the ballots and to

declare the election illegal. The case is now in court and the opposition, immediately before

the shooting incident was asking for a repetition of the election. The case was then to travel

up-to the Supreme Court. The period, between the election and the shooting, followed by

the arrest of the 28 Independents, was marked by confusion and unrest within Liberia.

NEV. VIOLENCE IN M OROCCO

Cnee again rioting and bloodshed has broken out in Morocco over the question of whether

Moroccans shall govern themselves or remain subject to France. Before the riots began on

July 14th (Bastille Day), Morocco had witnessed the arrival of a new Resident General, M . Gilbe

urandval. Moroccans had also seen the growth of a French counter-terrorist movement which

is proving more terroristic than the terrorists it opposes.

Rioting was set off by settler retaliation for the bombing of a French cafe by Moroccans. This

bombing was, in turn, a retaliation for French repression. Since this time, rioting has broken

out sporadically in Casablanca, Marrakesh, and elsewhere. At Marrakesh, El Glaoui, the

pro-French Pasha, was involved in an incident with rioters, but escaped unhurt.

M . Grandval, the new Resident General has been enthusiastically welcomed by Moroccans, for

he arrived armed with promises of reforms aimed at abolishing many of the controls which the

French have gradually introduced since 1912. Some Moroccans, however, who demand complete

independence rather than a return to the " -Protectorate" status envisaged by M . Grandval, feel

that it is too late for such "sops", continue to press for self-determination for Morocco/pre­

conditioned by the return from exile of Sultan Ben Youssef.

Casablanca, under martial law, has experienced a return to an uneasy peace. Meanwhile the

Arab-Asian states in the United Nations met to discuss developments in Morocco and in Algeria,

w ere similar outbreaks are occurring. Both questions may again be placed before the U. N. oeneral Assembly when it opens on September 20th.

FRENCH CRUSH CAM EROONS UPRISING

Outbreaks of violence which have taken place recently in the French-administered U. N. Trust

Territory of the Cameroons have been crushed by French troops. Although final estimates

have yet to be established, the dead are known to number not less than 26, in addition to which

the injured are believed to number about 188, of whom 114 were demonstrators, 62 members

of the security forces, and 12 bystanders. Amongst the dead are four Europeans, of whom

one was the Principal of the Technical College at Douals. Extensive fires also took place at

New Bell, one of the principal working class quarters of Douala. Yaounde, the capital, has

also been affected, as has the Bamileke region. The French flew in three companies of

troops from Brazzaville and Cotonou to help quell the disturbances.

The entire French press of both Left and Right appears to agree that the affair is symptomatic,

and of more than episodic interest. Comparisons have been drawn between the present dis­

turbances in the Cameroons and the 1948 riots in the Gold Coast, which drew attention to the

urgent need for a crash program for self-government.

The disturbances appear to have started when the U. P. C . (Union des Populations du Cameroun

attempted to break up a meeting of a smaller part, the Bloc Democratique Camerounais --

which, together with other minority parties, has been attempting to form a united front against

the U. P. C . The French administration, which accuses the U . P. C . of Communism, then

moved into action. News of the violence first reached the outside world in the form of dra­

matically petitioning for help. These telegrams appear to have n uch exaggerated the extent

of the outbreaks, at one time saying that "5,000 people" had been massacred. It has, however,

been confirmed that the U . P. C. headquarters at Douala has been burned down. It is unclear :

as yet, however, whether the French have, as is alleged, attacked, arrested, killed, or

seized the property of U. P. C . party members. The General Secretary of the U . P. C ., Mr.

Ruben Um Nyobe, is reported to have fled the territory.

A second type of telegram received at the U. N. constituted those sent by "chiefs and notables"

of various tribes and regions, upholding the French viewpoint. A frequent charge in these

telegrams was that the U. P. C . is a Communist organization. The noo-Conservative British

magazine, West Africa, comments upon this as follows: "Strictly speaking the U. P. C. is

not a Communist organization, as is often said, but a radical nationalist front, which has

maintained its associations with the French Communist Party since the breach between the

Rassemblement Democratique Africaine and the Communists in 1950. Main reason for the

Administration’s disapproval of the U . P, C . is its nationalism rather than its Communism,

since it stands for the ending of French trusteeship and re-unification of the two Cameroons."

According to French sources, the U. P. C . has a card-carrying membership of 20,000, and

has further support from 80,000 sympathizers. It has 450 local village and ward committees

together with a central executive. It even possesses its own U. P. C . college where a six-

week study course is run for the party elite.

Although tensions have been rising for some months, these violent developments were un­

expected. Preliminary impressions would seem to indicate that economic discontent has

been added to nationalistic fervor. European immigration to the Cameroons has raised the

European population from 2,600 in 194 J to about 13,000 today. Competition between white

and black traders, together with the fear that further numbers of European settlers will

arrive have not made for a climate of mutual trust and confidence. Before the outbreak

U . N . _UH j £S SOMALI SETTLE M E N T </'*

The struggle to unite the Somali nation was carried a stage further when, after a group of

Somaii tribesmen presented petitions to the U. N. Trusteeship Council in New York in July, the

Italian and Ethiopian administrations were urged to reach agreement on the limits of Somaii

territory.

Somaliland is now split into five pieces. The main part is Italian Somaliland, which is a

U. N. Trust Territory administered by Italy, and which is half-way through its ten-year period

of preparation for self-government in 1960. Another part of Somaliland is a British Protectorate

Another part is French Somaliland. A small part lies in Kenya. Last but not least is Ethiopian

Somaliland, which is the region now under dispute.

To complicate matters further, Ethiopian Somaliland is divided into three parts. The largest

part is the Ogaden, inhabited by the tribe of that name, which was handed over to the Ethiopians

by the British in 1948. In February of this year (see Africa T oday, May-June 1955) two smaller

strips were also handed over to the Ethiopians by the British. These were the Haud and the

Domo. The Domo was formerly called the British Reserved Area. Both these strips of terri­

tory are used as grazinglands by Somali nomads from adjacent territories.

Since Somalis are linguistically, ethnically, religiously, and traditionally different from Ethio­

pians, relations between the two are uneasy, if not openly violent. Whereas Ethiopia is tra­

ditionally Coptic, Somalis are largely Mohammedan, and therefore oriented towards Arabia,

ai.d (latterly) Egypt. There have already been a number of incidents between the Somali

population and the Ethiopian administration, in the most serious of which eight Somalis are

reported killed and a larger number wounded by Ethiopian forces.

Since Italian Somaliland is the nearest to independence, this territory is becoming the spring­

board for Somali nationalism. An important development is the formation here of a common

national front,embracing all tribes and parties, dedicated to national unification and inde­

pendence. The most powerful and modern political party is the Somali Youth League.

Directed by a Central Committee of 19 members (all of whom are traders) it is socialistic in

philosophy. All members of the S. Y .L . take an oath which binds them to put nation above

tribe. It also states that one is obligated "to support a brother in right, but not in wrong."

Membership of the S .Y .L . was, in 1953, 134,000. After the S .Y .L . the most influential

party is a tribal one -- the Hisbia, Dighil, and Mirifle Party. As a tribal group it tends

towards conservatism.

The two principal Somali petitioners before the Trusteeship Council this July were Mr. Abdul

Rizak Haji Hussen (representative of the S. Y .L .) , and Mr. Abdul Kadir Mohamet Aden,

(General Secretary of the Hisbia , Dighil, and Mirifle Party). Although they were also con­

cerned with details of economic and other progress within Italian Somaliland, the question of

Ethiopian Somaliland was foremost in their minds. On behalf of their organizations they

stressed that Ethiopian Somaliland had never been previously administered by Ethiopia.

Noting that negotiations were proceeding in Addis Ababa between the Italians and the Ethiopians

concerning Ethiopian Somaliland, the Trusteeship Council passed a resolution encouraging the

negotiators to reach a settlement. Should bilateral negotiations fail, the question will then be

arbitrated by the U. N. The question of Ethiopian Somaliland will also be raised at the U. N.

General Assembly in November, by which time fuither developments may have transpired.

("U . N. Urp;es Somali Settlement", conu from p> 5)

In the voting at the Trusteeship Council, the U. S. delegation has shown a tendency to oppose,

or at least to avoid supporting, the Somali claims. The colonial powers thereupon followed

the American lead. The reason for this is apparently the necessity felt by the U . S. Govern­

ment to maintain cordial relations with Ethiopia. (An agreement regarding the establishment

of U. S. air bases in Ethiopia was signed in May 1954.) hi this instance the strategic alliance

with Ethiopia appears to be preventing consideration of the Somali problem on its own merits.

TUNISIANS ACCLAIM HOM E RULE

Demonstrations of joy swept the streets of Tunisia in early July when the French Assembly

overwhelmingly, if tardily, approved the government's bill to ratify the conventions of

Tunisian home rule.

Coming at the conclusion of months of negotiations, the ratification inaugurated a new era in

Tunisian history. The vote was 538 to 44 with 29 abstentions, an unexpectedly favorable vote.

Premier Tahar Ben Ammar declared that the Assembly’s vote was an expression of confidence

in the self-governing Tunisia to come.

The joy was not unanimous, however, for dissident Tunisian nationalist groups feel that the

accords are a sell-out and that nothing less than full independence is satisfactory. At the

o bar extreme are the French settlers, apprehensive and dismayed, who are waiting to see

what their status will be under the new arrangement.

ONE MINER IN FOUR SA C K E D ON COPPERBELT

The giant Central African copper strike, which ended some months ago, had a dramatic post­

script recently when the copper companies sacked one in four of the present African labor force

of miners in the North Rhodesian mines. In an effort to break the strike the two companies --

one of which is American and the other South African -- took on 7,000 new recruits with the

result that when a settlement was reached, a great surplus of labor had come into being. At

first the question of what was to be done with the suprlus men was left in the air, but after the

miners had settled back to work the decision was announced. The men concerned will auto­

matically be evicted from their company-owned homes, which are "tied" to the job. The final

outcome of the strike has therefore been a major defeat for African labor. The position of the

African Mineworkers Union was undermined by the fact that the European Mineworkers Union,

which last year gave an undertaking to suppor the Africans in case of strike, broke their word

and stayed at work.

FORT HARE C O L L E G E IS RE-OPENED

By decision of the Governing Council, the famous college at Fort Hare in South Africa was re­

opened on July 1st. It had been closed down not, as some thought, in connection with the

Nationalist Government’s drive against higher education for Africans, but because of internal

difficulties. Following disciplnary problems in two of the four hostels, the Students Repre­

sentative Council embarked upon a policy of partial non-cooperation with the authorities. The

college was accordingly closed down and the curriculum interrupted. All students will be re­

quired to apply for re-admission. The Governing Council had appointed a commission to enquii

into the administrative structure of the college.

MAU MAU M AKE T H E IR O W N GUNS

Despite many signs that the Mau Mau resistence may be substantially ended by the British

within the next few months, it is expected that "Hard core" Mau Mau in the forests may con­tinue to fight on for an indefinite time, much in the same way that the Huks of the Phillipines

defied capture.

Recent British intelligence reports indicate that the Mau Mau have been making their own

guns. To begin with these were no better than the "zip guns" used by teen-age delinquents

in American cities, that is to say the mechanism was operated by shoe strongs, or elastic

bands. Now, however, African armourers, trained by the British during the Second World

War, have been fashioning -- often with primitive tools -- efficient breech-loading rifles.

Often safety catches, bearing signs of skilled workmanship, have also been made.

Collective punishment against the Kikuyu is now being practised by the British. The Kikuyu

farmers and their families are being forcibly herded into stockade villages, where they are

then obliged to live. Supposedly to protect them from Mau Mau "attack", these stockades

are in effect to prevent them from supplying the Mau Mau groups. Once behind the stockade,

the British have been known to "brain wash" them cut of their Mau Mau sympathies, although

with little result. The British Kenya Police and Home Guard have attempted "cleansing"

ceremonies by witch doctors, and also extorted confessions. Once a confession has been ob­

tained, the subject is then made to repeat it over the stockade’s ioud-speaker system. The

British have also dug a trench thirty miles long around the slopes of Mount Kenya. Bristling

with machine guns, marked out with watch-towers, and heavily mined, this "Hadrian's Wall"

(as it has been called, after the defense-wall built in Roman times to keep the Scots out of

England) is designed to cut off the Mau Mau gangs in the mountain forests from supplies in

lowland villages and farms.

More details are also known of the structure of the Mau Mau organization. It is directed by

a political body known as the Kenya Parliament; which is headed by Dedan Kimathi, who has the

title of "Field Marshall". The Parliament has a rhadow cabinet, complete with ministers.

Beneath the political body is the military body, known officially as the Kenya Land Freedom

Army, but to the world as "Mau Mau". This army is divided into four groups. One of these

groups is personally commanded by Kimathi, and another by the equally famous Stanley

Methengi. The other two groups are led by Mbariu Kaniyu, and Njath Kagiri.

After the expiration of the British surrender offer to the Mau Mau, which occurred on July 10th,

the British announced their intention of exterminating those tribesmen who continued to adhere

to Mau Mau.

Nine Africans have been sentenced to death, following the killing of two British schoolboys by

the Mau Mau. The schoolboys had gone into the forests armed with air-rifles "to shoot pigeons'

Following the completion of the East Africa. Royal Commission Report (see article on p. 9 )

the Kenya Government hrs launched a large-scale immigration drive, designed to boost the

4o, 000-strong white section of the Kenya community. The discovery of uranium and other

minerals has increased the attraction of Kenya for would-be immigrants. These are

expected to come primarily from the European continent.

Kenya’s staggering economy has alyo been reinforced by a grant of $4,161, 700 made by the U .S.

Foreign Operations Administration to East Africa. This follows a loan of $24,000,000 made

in March this year by the World Bank to modernize and expand East African transport systems.

UNREST IN TH E EASTERN CONGO

Settler-style tensions appear to be coming into existence in the Kivu Province of the Congo.

A temperate region, the K j v u area holds considerable attractions for European settlers.

Tensions are now developing, however, between the Belgian administration, which is driving

for a multi-racial goal, and between the local European settlers, who resent any reminders

about their responsibilities to the multi-racial community as a whole. Kivu Province adjoins

Ruanda-Urundi, and also Uganda.

SOUTH A F RICA TAKES OVER NAVAL BASE

The South African Government took over the Simonstown naval base from the British Roy al

Navy in July. South Africa has also announced that its navy is to be expanded rnder an eight -

year plan.

Now that the transfer of the naval base --an outstanding difference between the South Africans

and the British -- has been settled, Mr. Strijdom has told the South African Senate that

another thorny subject - - the future status of the High Commission Territories of Basutoland,

Bechuanaland, and Swaziland -- is unlikely to be discussed in the near future. The British

Government had told him that this was "not a suitable time" for further negotiations about

the future of these territories. The inhabitants of these territories are under British

protection. Whatever their future may be, they are disinclined to be transferred to the

mercies of the South African administrations.

KABAKA M AY RETURN T O BUGANDA

Following the reaching of agreement in London in May between Bagandans and the British

Government, the British Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, told the British House of

Commons on July 22nd that the Kabaka might return to his own country, perhaps within

six weeks. The only condition is that the Lukiko (Parliament of the Baganda tribe) accept the

constitutional changes agreed upon in practice as well as in theory. These changes limit the

Kabaka's absolute tribal powers.

The 31-year-old Kabaka ("King" of the Baganda people) was in the public gallery of the House

of Commons when the Colonial Secretary made his statement. He has been living in exile

in a London apartment since late 1953. He was banished by Sir /indrew Cohen, Governor of

Uganda, after he had refused to accept "reforms" too advanced to be acceptable to his people.

The British Government has since been making him a tax-free allowance of $22, 400 a year.

The Kabaka's banishment has shaken Ugandan confidence in British good faith to its roots. Fo?

although the Baganda, who live in the region called Bu^anda, occupy only one-quarter of Uganda

territory, their sense of shock and loss has been so personally felt by all of them, that the

banishment has had far-reaching political effects. To interfere with the Kabaka's liberty

has been regarded as sacrilegious.

A recent sign of the intermittent unrest prevalent in Uganda since 1953 has been the threat by

members of the Uganda National Congress to deprive Kampala and other towns of fruit, vege­

tables, milk, and other public services if the Kabaka is not speedily allowed to return. Other

suggestions have been (1) for Africans to boycott imported (i.e. British) goods, and (2) for

thousands of Baganda tribesmen to squat on the lawns of Government House at Entebbe until

the Kabaka’s return.

THE EAST AFRICA ’-? ROYA L COMMISSION REPORT

by Dr. George W . Shepherd, Jr.

Dr. Shepherd, the present Executive Director of the American

Committee on Africa, spent two years in Uganda recently as advisor

to an African farmer'cooperative. His book, They Wait in Darkness,

which is based on his experiences in Uganda, is being published this

Fall by The John Day Company ._____________________

Since our Foreign Operations Administration decided to make a grant of $4,161, 700 to British

East Africa for various community development programs, we now have an especial interest

in developments in this part of the world. However, we should bear in mind that too often in

the past American money has simply been used to shore up the collapsing status quo -- as in

French Indo-China.

Hope was kindled by the East African Royal Commission Report, published in June, that basic

reforms are being considered by the British Colonial Office. However, a Royal Commission

can only recommend, it cannot implement. It is therefore likely to be a long time before some

of the excellent ideas of the Commission are acted upon by the Colonial Administration.

For the first time the knotty problem of land ownership, which is at the seat of tension in East

Africa, and particularly in Kenya, has been given long and careful consideration. Hitherto

this issue was avoided by authorities in East Africa, who would sooner have thrown a match

into a keg of dynamite rather than suggest reconsideration of exclusive European ownership

of land in the "White Highlands" of Kenya. Back in the 1920s the Kenya settlers threatened to

hold their own Boston Tea Party when the Government sought to admit Indians to the White

Highlands.

The Royal Commission suggested that all reservations of land for racial groups — Crown

Land, Public Land, and Native Land --be eliminated, and that the land itself become a com­

modity controlled by the market. This would mean that African Reserves as well as the

White Reserves would be opened to lease by all peoples. To prevent hardship to any group

they further suggested that no transfer of land between Africans and non-Africans take place

without the Governor’s approval.

In theory this is an excellent suggestion. It would eliminate the bad psychology of an exclusive

area for white men which is at the root of the Mau Mau rebellion. It would also loosen up the

problem of commercial credit for African farmers and businessmen — who today cannot

obtain credit from commercial banks. The Commission has approached its task from the

standpoint of increasing the economic development of the country, and certainly such changes

in the land laws --if implemented -- would facilitate this end.

However, it is a pity that the Commission has contented itself with such academic solutions.

Neither the Africans nor the settlers are likely to accept these proposals. The Africans' fear

of losing more of their land by alienation is very great, and they would not agree to legislation

which would abolish their Native Reserves. The issues of the White Highlands is largely a

moral one, ,and it should be treated as such. The Commission might well have proposed an

interim solution in which the Governor of Kenya would be impowered to make such transfers

cf land among racial groups as he saw fit, without any formal abolition of the present status

of Crown, Public, and Native Lands. These sweeping recommendations make it only too easy

for the militants of both sides to condemn the entire proposals. Nevertheless, the proposals

represent the first healthy recognition of the problem, and we can hope for some reforms in

the right direction to follow.

Perhcps the most valuable part of the Report is its assessment of the economic position of

East Africa. The basic poverty of the area, in contrast to the Gold Coast and the Congo

(which produce twice as much wealth per head of population), is an important feet to recognize.

Tnere is to date little mineral wealth in East Africa, and rising standards of living and

improvements in welfare and education will depend upon increased agricultural production.

The Report recommends increased Government investment activity in the development of the

East African economies, but suggests that the policy of "forced saving" that has been

utilized in the past through the Price Stabilization Boards was too severe. Clearly outside

private and Governmental capital is needed to supplement what can be raised internally.

But the report sidesteps the controversial issue of the future of the East African High

Commission, and whether or not Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika ought to be developed as

a unit, or separately. The assumption of the Commission is that they ought to be developed

together from an economic standpoint, yet the Africans of Uganda and Tanganyika are opposed

to this, and no workable solution to the deadlock is proposed.

The Commission touches upon the emotional race issue jseve and urges the development

of a multi-racial society in which all racial groups will work together out of mutual respect.

The Commission has stressed the necessity for giving every aid and encouragement to the

Africans, and the need for removal of racial barriers that create animosity. Yet the recom­

mendations are not specific about just what barriers need to be removed in the fields of

social, educational, and governmental life. These barriers, represented, for example, by

differences in the salaries of crnl servants, are very real. One feels that here again the

Commission has sidestepped controversy, and ascended into the ethereal atmosphere.

CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE HELD IN SOUTH AFRICA

In a several-day session, concluding on Juno 27th, about 3 ,0 00 people from all parts of the Union of South Africa met in an open field near Johannesburg to hold the long-planned Congress of the Peoples. The main business of the Congress v/as to write a Freedom Charter which would re­present the just aspirations of the common man — black or white. The Congress of the People v/as jointly sponsored by the African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Colored Peoples Organization, and the Congress of Democrats.

Although the Nationalist Government made some arrests, it did not prevent the holding of the Congress. The largest representation at the Congress v/as African, but there were hundreds of Indians, and more than one hundred whites.

- 11 -I

THE PRISONS OF SOUTK AFRICA

by Monica YJhately

Miss IThately, an English Catholic, is a former member of the London County Council, and reported on South Africa to Members of the Human Rights Committee.

I have visited prisons and talked with prisoners in many parts of the world, but contact with

the prisons in South Africa was the most desolating experience I have ever recorded.

It is rare that an investigator succeeds in gaining admission to prisons in the country of a

dictator, or -- in the case of the Union of South Africa it would possibly be fairer to say a

group of dictators. But I managed to do so.

South Africa today is a police state with an average daily prison population of all races and

both sexes of 35,000 -- the hi ghee t rate in the world. That means that one out of 40 above

the age of ten is sent to jail every year.

For What? The greater number for breaking one of the "Pass Law s". For this one million

(Africans) are prosecuted in an average year. Few living outside South Africa can have any

idea of what the Pass Laws mean to those eight and a half million "Bantu " living under the

absolute control of two and a half million "whites". Thus the Poll Tax must be paid by

every Native between the age3 of 18 and 65. The receipt , or pass, to show that this has

been paid, must be carried at all times. For the police have the right to demand its pro­

duction at any hour of the day or night.

There is also an Identification Pass (to mention but a few of these laws); a Traveller's Pass,

without which an African cannot secure a railway ticket; the Six Days Special Pass which

enables him to come to a city to seek work. Failure to obtain work within six days makes

the African liable to arrest without warrant and imprisonment for vagrancy, or detention

for two years in a work camp, or farm colony. There is the Day Special Pass to visit a

location other than his own; and Night Special Pass if he wishes to be out after 10 p .m . ;

a Ledger's Pass (with a monthly charge) to all Africans over 18 living within a Municipal

Location; a Day Labor our's Pass for all Africans carrying on a trade. An immense monthly

income is drawn from these charges, and a huge stream of forced labor is derived from those

who are not imprisoned.

Hcjrc of time and money are spent by Africans in obtaining passes, which they loathe, and

regard as a grave injustice. The prisons I visited can best be described as a cesspool of

iniquity and filth. In some of them men are incarcerated fifteen to a cell. They lie on grass

mats on the earth or concrete floor, tlidr bodies touching, six stinking latrine pails at their

heads. They are frequently thut up from six at night until six in the morning without a book,

a paper, or anything to shorten the weary hours. At times a first offender may be shut up

with seasoned criminals and become the victim of homosexual practices.

("The Prisons of South Africa", continued from p. 11)

In the prison yards it is a common sight to see men eating their rations facing the privy in

which their fellow prisoners are relieving nature.

In one of the women's prisons I talked with the Senior Wardress in charge. I asked ter what

had brought such a number of women into her care? "Prostitution", she replied. They go

out, but are back again in a few days, more often than not pregnant. That society had

provided ro alternative job for these unhappy women did not appear to strike her. Che spoke

of them in a tone of contempt and 1 oathing. I asked her if any of the recommendations made

by the Commission on Prison Reform had been introduced. She laughed at the very suggestion.

"You will never reform such women", die said. "They are just a bad lot. No, we have no

church services . We have no chapel. We do not give them books. Moot possibly they would

tear out the pages. Vi/e shut them up when they talk sex and filth and boast of the men they

have robbed." She went on to tell me how she examined the women when they came in. She

explained that without any attempt at privacy she had them stretched out naked on the floor

while she looked for signs of venereal disease. If there was a discharge she called in a

doctor. She told me that many of these girls had their babies born in the prison. I said

I assumed that there was a hospital in the building, "Oh no!", she said. "I manage!" I

asked had she had any medical training? Once more she said "No -- none of any kind."

Puzzled I asked if a non-European suffered less in labor than a European. To this Question

she answered quite brightly, "Oh no -- exactly the same. But of course we don t give these

girte any drugs." Sc in their hours of labor these African girls were without a doctor, a

nurse, or a midwife; denied any drugs that might lessen their pain while the t tally unqualified

wardress "managed". That morning a very young Bantu girl had had a serious miscarriage

in the prison, and had their not been a European serving a sentence f r procuring abortions,

whom the wardress called in to help her, she might not have "managed", and the girl would

have died -- not that I imagine that would have worried anyone.

Later I was taken into a yard. All round, kneeling on the stone floor, were women and

girls, many of them with their babies tied to their backs. Their heads were down, their eyes

fixed on the tub before them in which was some filthy institutional clothing. The water wa s

cold, and in some instances there was no soap. I tried to imagine what it would be like

to be condemned to do such soul destroying work day after day, week after week, month

after month, and year after year, for some of these women were serving a life sentence.

Never to get away from the smell of those disgusting garments, never to ntraighten that

aching back and look you squarely in the face, never to see love, er pity, or underetanding

in the eyes that met yours, but to see only those hard-faced khaki-clad young women,

standing at intervals, a reminder that for you there was no freedom, no chance of escape from

this intolerable slavery. A brilliant young woman doctor, an Indian, when serving her

sentence for civil disobedience and non-violence told me that the blanket that she was forced

to use while in jail was so infested with vermin that she left prison covered with a most pain­

ful rash. She told me of floggings -- which, for civil disobedience, wili iafuture be given

to women as well as men. She spoke with horror of the means used to crush the spirit of

those who, like Ghandhi, were prepared to break unjust laws, and to accept without retaliation

the consequences of their act, to bear on their own bodies some of those 50,000 lashes

which in 1952, after the Simbok Act, cut into the living flesh of ordinary African people.

That such suffering should be inflicted is a sin crying to Heaven, and at the same time spells

the death in the very near future of white domination in Africa.

7/HAT AMERICANS IQ!O'.! ABOUT AFRICA

by George M. Houser

George Houser, one of the founders of the American Committee on Africa and the present Secretary of the organization, has worked in the field of race relations for thQ past ten years,, He was formerly Executive Directbr of the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Projects Secretary for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Last year he spent six months.travelling through thp greater paty of Africa,During this trip he conferred with African leaders in many parts of the continent.

For the past eight months I have travelled through the United States speaking about the

importance of developments in Africa today. My travels have taken me into parts of the South,

into New England, extensively into the Mid-West, and to the Far West. On the basis of

questions and informal discussions, rather than through formal meetings, I have been able

to make some observations on the present state of American opinion on Africa.

Firstly, there is a renewed American interest in African questions, as is shown both by

requests for speaking engagements and by the number of people who attend meetings on

African topics.

Secondly, the average American who is undergoing this renewed interest in Africa is not too

well informed. He is well beyond the "big-g?rr.e-and -Tarzan" stage, but is not yet precise

in either his geographical information nor in his political analysis. Africa is locked upon as

an undifferentiated country rather than as a complex and variegated continent. The tketchy

information he does have, however, reflects the problems which have been discussed most

frequently in the American press — Kenya and South Africa. Thus it is not uncommon for

people to reveal that they think that the Mau Mau uprising is in South Africa. I was

surprised when I was in Kansas a few weeks ago for a woman to inform me that she had

heard a member of the Mau Mau ‘■•peak only a short time since. The speaker, of course,

turned out to be a Kikuyu from Kenya, but anti-Mau-Mau in attitude. Many people with a

developing interest in Africa have either never heard of places like Angola or Togoland, or

have the vaguest notion about such countries. H 0wever, this general informational fuzziness

is disappearing as books and articles keep pouring off the press.

Thirdly, American opinion is definitely anti-colonial. There is, however, a lack of informa­

tion to back up opinion, and a tendency greatly to over-simplify. Anti-British sentiment

crops up frequently, perhaps as a carry-over from the days of India's struggle. The British

are blamed for many things not of their making. For iretance, South Africa is often looked

upon as a British colony, and the Brit ish Government is blamed for the apartheid policies

marked out there. There is very little appreciation of the contributions which have been made

by the European powers in Africa. I-have become convinced that the ease with which one

can mark out the solution to a problem depends upon the distance that one is from the scene

of that problem. Most white South Africans -- even the Nationalists -- think that there is

no excuse for segregation in the United States. The American Negro, they pcint out, is

educated and civilized. The African in South Africa, they say, offers no parallel. American^,

on the other hand, think that white South Africans are almost barbarous with their pass

system, etc. I am not sure that it would not make Americans more charitable towards South

iifricans to realize that probably 95% plus of the American people, were they in South Africa,

(continued on page 14)

would act like the majority of South Africans. I do not think that this is a cynical statment,

and certainly is not meant as an excuse for the utterly wrong Nationalist policy in South

Africa. But the sound American bias for freedom and self-government will carry more

weight as it becomes better informed.

Although there are many other observations which could be made, my final one concerns the

attitude of many Neg ro Americars toward Africa. Briefly, two contradictory factors help

to shape the more obvious attitudes of American Negroes towards African questions. One

factor is a resistance in the attempt of some people to identify the American Negro with the

African. The Negro is not particularly proud of his slave past. Africa reminds him of this.

Furthermore, the Negro is an immigrant to this country like practically all other Americans.

Why should he be any more concerned with Africa because he is a Negro than I am with German

because my great-grandfather on my father's side came from there? Finally, the Negro is

as ill-informed as the rest of the American populace about Africa. He still tends to think of

Africa as a continent of wild game and of not entirely civilized tribal people. To be identified

with the Africa pictured in most Hollywood films is not something which enhances the prestige

of the American Negro in the mind of the person who has very little information as to the

richness of the African past.

But the other factor is a kind of identification with the present struggle in Africa. The Ameri­

can Negro tends to identify himself with the struggle of any non-white group for freedom.

This was true of the Indian struggle for independence. It is true of the Gold Coast. The

reception which men like Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and President Tubman of Liberia got

from the American Negro populace in this country Jo a further indication of this. It is also

interesting to note that Negro protest literature has had its effect in Africa, as Peter

Abrahams points out in Tell Freedom. I believe there will be greater and greater indentifi-

cation of the American Negro with the situation in Africa as his information grows and as the

struggle intensifies.

("F rench Crush Cameroons Uprising", cont. from p .4 )

Cameroonian banana farmers were complaining that producers affiliated to the C . F. T . Unions

rather than to the Catholic Unions were being discriminated against, and that means of trans­

portation were denied them so that bananas were left "rotting on the plantations". In Douala,

which has a growing proletarian population, industrial unrest has been growing, and the

tendency of European employers to act tough with African unions has not helped the

situation.

The U. N. Trusteeship Council have appointed a Commission to visit the Cameroons. The

Commission will be composed of representatives of Belgium, the Republic of China, Haiti,

and the United States. The Commission is expected to leave New York at the end of

August.

A

r

PROFILE ' fBfHEflmm Ml, Cl

Ours has been called the "Age of Anxiety", and indeed, with signs of change and decay to

be seen everywhere at hand, it stands in sharp contrast to the various Ages of Faith which

preceded it. Yet even today, scattered over the surface of the earth, may be found, rising

like beacons amidst the contemporary storm, men for whom the Age of Faith is still a living

reality. They may be recognized by the characteristic that, in the last resort, they depend

upon no ultimate external authority to guide their actions, but strive constantly themselves

to embody the ethical principles by which they live. Struck by the contrast between their lives

and the lives of most of those around them, we are too facilely tempted to call them "saints"

— a conceit at which they themselves would be the first to smile. For whereas in bygone

times there were many more who strove constantly towards moral perfection, today the

quality that makes such men seem remarkable to us is their rarity, rather than the degree of

excellence that they attain — which we are not competent to judge. One such hardy surviver

from the Age of Faith is the Reverend Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston, a 43-year old

Anglican priest of the Community of the Resurrection, and principal of St. Peter's Mission School in Johannesburg.

Like John Bunyan, Trevor Huddleston was born in Bedford, England --a peaceful market town

where the air is constantly filled with the sound of church bells. Unlike the Bunyans, however,

the Huddlestons were not of humble station. As the choice of the name "Trevor" implies,

the family originated in the Cornish peninsula. They belong to that class that has for genera­

tions been the backbone of the English church and army. Military Huddlestons proliferate on

v-v; pages of "Who’s Who" and of the "Dictionary of National Biography". Trevor Huddlestons

f.Aher, Captain Sir Ernest Huddleston (retired) was no exception to the rule, for at one time

commanded the Royal Indian Navy. It was therefore in the nature of things that Trevor Huddleston should enter the church.

Taking honors at Christ College, Oxford, in 1934, he went on to study at Wells Theological

College in 1935, became a deacon in 19i6, and -- after a speU at the College of St. Mark in

Bristol -- a priest in 1937. Until 1939 he was a curate attached to the parish of Swindon.

(continued on page 13)

Photograph by Terence Spencer

Collection Number: AD843

XUMA, A.B., Papers

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