American Committee on Africa Introduction

American Committee on Africa Introduction Africa i s today a continent in transition . It is the l and in which a great social revolution i s taking place . You can hear the deep rumbling of this from the Sahara Desert t o the Cape of Good Hope. Africans are united in their deep yearning for freedom and human dignity. They a r e de termined to end the exp l oitation of their lives and to have a full shar e in their own future and des tiny. The story of t his s truggl e for freedom and inde pendence i s a familiar one. It has been told by every ma jor American periodical and dramatized on practically every t e l evis i on c hanne l. It i s the theme of numerous speeches and the subject of many fireside discussi ons. Despite this unusua l coverage of African affairs , there are still areas in this vast and complex continent whose problems and conditions are little known to Americans. One such area is South West Africa. About the only thing most of us Americans know about South West Africa is its geographical l ocation in t he emerging continent; north~~e st of apartheid. This tragic l and for many years ~~as a German co l ony. After World War I it was a League of Nations ma ndate under the Union of South Africa. After World War II and the demise of t he League, South Africa tried to annex South West Africa . The League ' s legal successor--the United Nations- so far has prevented this action . The U.N. has not, however, yet been able to prevent South Africa from treating the Africans in this territory with the same regime of oppression and segregation as it gives the non-whites in its own territory. While Christianity has been timid in too much of Africa, I am gl ad that Michael Scott--a clergyman--for more than a decade has represented the Herero people of South West Africa when South Africa refused to allow the ir representatives to appear before the U.N. Nm~ two or three residents have managed to tell the U. N. their mm story. It is no t a pleasant story. At places, it has a nightmarish effect and points up some of the mos t tragic expressions of man's inhumanity to man. It is the story of more than 450,000 people constantly being trampled over by the iron feet of injustice . This is the story the American people should kno~~- - one which their delegates at the U.N. should act upon. If for no other reason, we should know this story and act upon it because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere . --Martin Luther King, Jr. Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A. THE SOUTH WEST AFRICAN STORY This is the story of the lone ly struggle of a g roup of for gotte n Afric an p e oples for d ecent liv ing and w o rking conditions and for the r e turn of the ir ancestral lands. The y live in a part of Afric a of whic h f ew Ame ric ans have h eard--South Wes t Africa, a n " inte rnational" territ or-y unde r the jurisdic tion of the Union of South Af rica. The lot of the inhabitants has b een bitter and harassed for many years and the United Nations has b een unable to exe rt the influe n ce which the Inte rnational Court of Justice at the Hagu e says it should have . This is the story of an e loquent and d eeply r e ligious c hieftain of the H e r e ro p e ople, Hosea Kutako, now in his e i ghty-ninth y e a r . He gave up his y e arning to b e come a Christian cle r gyman many y e ars ago in orde r to k eep his p e ople togethe r afte r a tragi c c olonial war in whic h great numbe rs of them p e ris h e d. This is the story of a white m an- -the R eve r e nd Michae l S c ott of the C hur c h of England. H e v isited the s e p e ople, was appalled at the ir situation, and for 13 y ears has d e dic ated himse lf to the ir c ause, urging the British and all w e ste rn gove rnme nts to take the ir side , ple ading p e rsonally at the U. N. for action year afte r y ear. This is the story of two young H e r e ros who manag ed against gre at odds to get out of South We st Africa a nd c ome to the U.N. in Ne w York to plead for all the tribes of the ir country. This is the story of two young Am eri c ans who hav e rec ently b e en able to inve sti gate the lot of the Afric ans in S outh West Afri c a at first hand. Finally, this is the sto ry of the Union of South Afric a's d e fiance of the U, N. b ecause the Union would like to annex the economic ally profitable are a for h e r ow n b e n efit and that of the white minority. South Afric a is also afraid that to lose South We st Africa would be to l e ave her flank s ev e n more exposed to the pre ssure s of African nationalism. The Background South We st Afric a was lost by G e rmany i n th e First World War and b ecame a Mandate of the L e ague of Nations - -that is , an in te rnati o nal territory- -and was allotte d t o the c are of its neighbor , the Union of South Afri c a. Under the terms of the Mandate , South Africa was supposed "to promote t o the utmost th e materi a l and moral w ell-being and the social progre ss of t h e inhabitants ofthe T erritor y." With the death of the L e ague - 1 - SOUTH WEST AFRICA, which was a German colony until the end of the first World War, became a Mandate of the League of Nations, an international territory, under the supervision of the Union of South Africa. Under the Mandate terms, South Africa was to "pr9mote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and the social progress of the inhabitants of the Territory." With the demise of the League of Nations, the mandate system was taken over by the United Nations. Today South We st Africa is a mandated territory with its exact status in doubt. But there can be no doubt about the poverty of the people, or the violation of the pledge to promote to the utmost their ma terial and moral well-being and their social progress. I - 2 - of Nations, the mandate system was take n ove r by the U. N., but South Afric a appe ars to b e trying to absorb South We st Afric a without inte rnational approval. South West Afric a is still a mandate d t e rritory. The plight of the Africans in South Afric a is g ene rally unde rstood. To know that South We st Africa is r e garde d within South Afric a as a sort of "fifth province " of the c ountry is to know a little of what the Afr i c ans of this "inte rnational" t e rritory have to e ndure . For 13 years the U. N. has had the item, "Que stion of South We st Afric a," on its agenda. For 13 years conditions have b e come worse, not better, for the non-white 88o/o of the population. The white 12% have bec ome wealthie r in a "buoyant and expanding" e conomy, acc ording to the 1958 U. N. report on the te,rritory. Let The Sleeping Dog Lie? Africans in many parts of the c ontinent are learRing today what independence means. Most of them admire white civilization and its democratic traditions. The y look, howe v e r, at the are as of the c ontine nt where Afric ans under white control are still little bette r than serfs, and they wonder .. , Why does the weste rn world, why does the U, N., allow the exploitation of Africans by white maste rs to continue? If d e mocracy is as d e sirable as the West claims, why doe s it not prac tice what it preaches? Will the West, the U, S , , or the U, N. give the p e oples of S outh We st Afric a the d ecent answe r - -supporte d by forthright action- -before it is too l ate? What follows is base d on offic ial U. N . documents and on the words of the Africans themselve s. Conditions as desc ribed by the Africans are supporte d from many sourc es, Where South West Africa Is The map of Africa shows to the northwest of the Union of South Africa, on the Atlantic Coast, the Mandate d T e rritory of South We st Africa.

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