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October, 1977 ■ New National BLA CK MONITOR
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A Close-Up View Os Third World Events 1 "
A Close-Up View Os Third World Events
.. .And What They Mean To You.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
—The Gabon Conference.. .The early
summer meeting of the Organization of
African Unity, comprised of the black Sub-
Saharan nations, was convened perhaps
significantly in the richest black nation in
Africa, Gabon.
Gabon is double the physical size of the
State of New York, with a population of
only 600,000. It is oil rich and belongs to
the Organization of Oil Exporting Coun
tries (OPEC). Its President, Albert-Bernard
Bongo, jokingly remarks that he is the only
hard-working citizen of Gabon. Such is the
easygoing nature of the country as a whole.
In preparation of the O.A.U. meeting,
some 50 new and lavish villas and public
buildings were erected, along with impres
sive new roads.
In spite of a trend toward nationalization
of industries, Gabon continues to encour
age huge investments by its former colonial
master, France, and to a far lesser extent,
the U.S.A.
The delegates, including nearly 25 heads
of state, were subjected to the most elabo
rate welcome in their history, a symptom of
Africa’s newly-found sense of its own dig
nity, worth and power.
Much this same spirit of grandeur was
evident in the black cultural festival held
this past year in Lagos, Nigeria.
A major figure at the conference in
Gabon was President Idi Amin of Uganda.
Despite his record, perhaps unmatched, of
ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE
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internal repression and “elimination” (i.e.,
mass murders), Mr. Amin is as deeply
feared and admired as he is disdained.
The fact which surfaces centrally is that
European colonization was and is hated so
deeply that any symbol of degradation to
that system would tend to be admired. In
this knowledge, delegates at Gabon were
obviously pleased when Mr. Amin self
servingly announced that Uganda’s De
fense Council (of which he is the head) had
awarded him “the highest order of the
Conquerer of British Imperialism.”
The principle at work here is one which
tends to complicate so much otherwise
rational black-white talk, namely that those
historically (i.e., for centuries) on the
wrong side command precious little sympa
thy for their fresh moralisms, regardless of
the specific justice which may be immedi
ately involved.
Africans hear Europeans and white
Americans hence in almost the same man
ner that Europeans and white Americans
would hear a reformed Adolph Hitler or a
reformed John Dillinger. In both situa
tions, more than rightness is crucial; it is
the perceived historic “validation” (or lack
of it) on the part of those who speak.
—The South African Situation... The
South African government has been rela
tively successful in its diversionary tactics,
involving the embroiling of major world
powers in a furor over the date to be set for
Namibia’s independence, thus leaving
South Africa’s internal problems for South
Africans alone.
But the South Africans, so it surfaces,
are displaying a divided internal mind as to
what future course to follow. The nation’s
most powerful Afrikaaner organization,
the Brotherhood, has begun to take the
position that an early accommodation to
black participation in South African life,
with some semblance of equity, will net the
most for white South Africans.
Meanwhile, the Vorster-led government
continues its hard line course, with only
little abatement. Some schools are opened
up and some new jobs. But the Vorster
government’s major internal thrust is to
divide and conquer by siphoning off able
black leadership potential and placing such
blacks in comfortable control of “federat
ed states” created by the South African
government.
The masses of blacks seem not to be con
tent with this, as youth violence increases
and as the African National Congress, the
major black liberation movement, is seen
to be attracting an increasingly large fol
lowing.
ON THE NATIONAL SCENE'* IN THE LAW
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The primary reconciling ingredient, still
lacking, is the emergence of a major white
political party capable of negotiating with
black leadership.
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It appears that time is more on the side of
the blacks than the whites in South Africa
in that, as time passes, the blacks are stead
ily more politicized and are more hardened
in the demands which they will make with
out concession and with the probable force
of world opinion behind them.
* * *
NATIONAL NEWS.. .IN THE U.S.A.
The United States Supreme Court has
taken a fresh and potentially encouraging
stand on a range of issues of concern to
black Americans.
One of these is the decision in a Georgia
case that rape, in and of itself, is not a suf
ficient cause for the death penalty. The im
port of this decision may be said to be pos
sibly immense in that it speaks to the his
torically accepted American notion that sex
violation was equivalent to life destruction.
Hence the decision in this case is a state
ment not only of changing sex mores (or
social patterns) but also of human values as
well. No longer apparently would the
nation condone as rational either the lynch
mob, even for proven rape, or the “instant
of insanity” killing of a wayward wife’s
lover.
Since a substantial number of blacks
have been sentenced to death for alleged
rape, the decision seems to signal a respite
for blacks in terms of conviction for some
capital crimes.
In a similar vein, the Supreme Court has
ruled that mandatory death for the killing
of a police officer may also be unconstitu
tional.
With the long—and continuing—history
of unwarranted abuse of blacks by police
men, it would seem gratuitous to belabor
the justice of this decision by the high
court.
One black patrolman, applauding the
high court’s decision, noted: “We are all
familiar with the police department’s his
tory of brutality in the black community.
In fact, just last year we had a case where a
police officer just shot a black youth for no
reason at all.
“If the Supreme Court had not ruled as
it did, a person in such a threatened posi
tion would be charged with murder if he
killed the officer first. Why should a man
get murdered by the state when... merely
protecting himself?”
In another area, but equally as positive in
spirit, the high court ruled 9 to 0 that the
lower courts could require school districts
to institute remedial classes when pupils lag
educationally as the result of segregated
education.
The high court has also affirmed the
right of lower courts to impose city-wide
busing, although other alternatives are to
be explored.
—More On Quotas... The Joseph A.
Califano determination to press forward
what he calls “goals, not quotas” was
underscored in an HEW directive to five
states to end bias on college campuses. The
five states were Oklahoma, Arkansas, Vir
ginia, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.
While pushing for an end to discrimina
tory student enrollments and faculty ap
pointments, the HEW directive made clear
that the traditional black-oriented colleges
were not to be diminished.
(Continued on Page 6.)
THE WHITE HOUSE • • • IN EDUCATION • • -INTHE ABTS