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Mtxttt Cluster "WOW 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