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VOLUME 71. NUMBER 16
MERCER UNIVERSITY, MACON, GEORGIA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13. I**
Woods: Divestment will end apartheid
By DONNA M. ITZOE
Managing Editor
When Donald Woods arrived in Macon
Friday, his luggage was on its way io New
York. But for a man whose family's lives had
been threatened by South African State
Police and who managed to escape the reper
cussions of apattheid. he wasn't going to let
a little lost luggage keep him from spreading
his message.
At a SUAB/SGA sponsored lecture.
Woods, a white South African exile, invited
an audience io join his "undeclared war of
words" against the South African govern
ment and it racial policy of apartheid
"If we can shorten the life of apartheid,
we can save many lives, black and white."
he said.
Woods said dial divestment is the key lo
eliminating the South African government
and its racist policies. Although many peo
ple believe that economic sanctions against
South Africa would hurt the black people in
the country rather than help them. Woods
said that notion is unfounded.
He repeatedly said than any outside
pressures will eventually end the "tenure"
of the apartheid government and suggested
three particular methods to apply such
pressure: letters to Congressmen and other
governmental representatives; letters to
Nelson Mandclla (his address is Nelson
Mandetla. Pollsmoor Prison, Capetown.
South Africa); and involvement in human
rights groups such as Amnesty International
Speaking to a loosely filled Willingham
Auditorium, Woods cautioned the audience
lo consider the sources of reports about the
situation in South Africa. He said that he has
even been mislead by the "propoganda."
Woods and his wife head a voluntary associa
tion which "answers South African pro
paganda wherever it raises its ugly head. "
That association also raises scholarship funds
for black South Africans who have (led the
country and desire and education. Woods
said these people will be the leaders in the
future and that they deserve the best educa
tions. The association now has seven students
attending schools like Oxford. Cambridge.
Sussex and Johns Hopkias.
Woods said. "We all belong to the same
human family, and whatever happens to one
section of that family happens lo us all "
The racial separation in South Africa is the
result of the 312 laws of Apartheid. Woods
explained that the black South Africans are
interested in removing only one of those, the
one that keeps them from voting. He said the
rest of the laws would fall by the wayside
shortly after.
Presently, he said there are five million
white South Africans making the laws for the
27 million blacks. He pointed out the dif
ferences in the treatment of the two races.
For instance, he said for every one doctor,
there are 93 white South Africans, and there
is one doctor for every 93.000 and
sometimes 120.000 black South Africans.
Woods was not always outspoken about
Donald Woods addressed the Mercer and
apartheid and suggestions on how to free
Apartheid. He began to question the validi
ty of it when he was a 20-year-old law
student.
••Being raised conservatively this didn't
turn me into a radical protesting student.”
he said. "Rather, it made me a bit confused
and unsure about where the truth lay.’*
Woods worked for 12 years as Editor of
The Daily Dispatch, a South African
Macon communities Friday on the evils of
those oppressed by it.
newspaper, but he was repeatedly prosecuted
by the state for his criticisms of governmen
tal policies. In 1977. he was arrested and
punished without legal process for publishing
the details of Stephen Biko's death. Biko was
a friend of Woods and an outspoken black
South African who was murdered by the stale
police while in custody.
See Woods, page 7
Southern Humanities Conference
By EDDIE L. SANFORD
SUIT Writer
Thi* Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday. February 16-18. this
year's annual Southern Humanities
Conference shall convene at the
Macon Hilton. Sponsored this year
by Mercer University. Southern
Humanities Council and co
sponsored by Wesleyan College,
Macon College. Bibb County
Public Schools, the Conference is
chaired by Gary Richardson with
Adrienne Bond and Peter Brown
co-chairing.
According to Adnenne Bond, the
''Conference is a meeting of
academic people, but lawyers and
other interested persons do attend
In addition to people in attendance
being from the eight southern states
are people hailing from other parts
of the country and from Europe.
"We read academic papers but
also there’re presentations on the
humanities,'' Bond said in describ
ing the basic events of the Con
ference. It is a chance for teachers
to exchange their ideas about ways
to run humanities programs
"This is an interdisciplinary
organization,” she explained.
"They (the interdisciplinaricsj in
clude litemute. history,
philosophy, arid religion.
Bond al«/staled, ‘ * Mercer has a
wide repuiioori in the humanities.
Thai's ooe^f our strong points."
In fact, there are some people
from Mercer who shall be
moderating, introducing, and
speaking. Such persons include Lee
E. Heller. Peter Brown. Theodore
D Nordenhaug. Barbara Sheppard.
Kay J. Carr, Allison C. Gilmore.
Hal Simmons. Edgar Alan Tharpc.
Walter B Kalaigian. Adrienne
Bond. Frederick M. Gedicks.
Diana Stege. and Edward
Weintrout.
Ronald Light and Leigh W
White are the students from Mercer
Univeruty (both attending the Col
lege of Liberal Arts in Macon) who
shall serve on the student panel,
which is scheduled lo be in session
on the last day of the Conference
from 10.30-11:45 a.m.
Light shall present a paper titled
"The Students as Agent: Charles
Taylor's 'Concept of a Person' and
the Need for Significance in Educa
tion. ” In the absiract he submitted
for acceptance Light applies
Taylor's philosophical views of
reduction, which places emphasis
on performance criteria, and of
significance, which "focuses on
agents and argues that for them,
things matter." lo cducaiion.
Light favors the view of
significance in education, arguing
"As agents students become
originators of ideas, (recognizing
that (his is shaped by their incor
poration of what they leant). "With
[he reductionist view, he argues,
"the student is like a computer that
has information programed into it,
and then is measured as successful
if the program is adequately per
formed."
A senior from Atlanta. Light has
tnple major in philosophy, political
science, and history. Upon gradua
tion. he posns to study philosophy
at the graduate level.
While shall present a paper titl
ed "Adrienne Ricll, Judy Grahn
and (he School of Lesbian?
Feminist Cnticism." In her paper.
White argues that the poets Rich
and Grahn did much in establishing
a school of lesbian/feminist
criticism which has saved both
feminism and lesbianism from the
diictrena of depending on one of the
established schools of thought to
express themselves, while ignoring
what did nol apply lo them by
creating basic criteria which would
attract more critics, therefore,
creating a wider audience for les
bian poetry
In addition to using their uwn
. wurk. "they have annul.led the
need for a common experience
|among wotnen| as the basis for the
poetry, as well as an understanding
See Conference, page 6