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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 18, 1983
similar case is the Indian community (which is quite prosperous) in Natal.
The Indians speak English as their mother tongue.
South Africa's black nations--and they are nations, not tribes (the Zulus
are composed of 26 tribes)--are a different matter. Again, comparisons are
not exact, but South Africa's black nations--the Zulus, Xhosas, Sotho,
etc.--with their different and distinct languages, cultures and traditions,
are more nearly akin to Indian tribal nations in North America, such as the
Sioux nation or the Cherokee nation (the word "nation" is properly used in
these cases). South Africa's homelands are comparable to Indian reserva
tions in the U.S.
Relations between South Africa's native tribal nations have always been
marked by friction. The proud, numerous (five million) and militant Zulus
are feared by all the others. The Zulus, one would expect, would stand to
gain the most by fostering a Pan-African "black consciousness" movement
across tribal-nation lines. In fact, Zulu Paramount Chief Gatsha Buthelezi
has tried to do just that with his _
"Inkatha" movement. However, just a few
days ago, young Zulus disrupted an Inkatha rally at the University of
Zululand. Four people were killed and 100 injured. What were the young
Zulus protesting? London's DAILY TELEGRAPH on October 30, reported that
"many Zulus see Inkatha, which seeks a black alliance on non-tribal lines,
as� threat to Zulu identity."
How to devise a political system (in this age) to take into account these
very real inter-communal suspicions, fears, jealousies and animosities, is
an arduous task. It is made all the more difficult when part of the country
is composed of "first world" European cultured peoples, actually possessing
and administering a portion of the Abrahamic birthright, trying to uplift,
yet not be swamped by, great masses of "third world" peoples in their midst.
True the tourist motto of South Africa--"the world in one country."
Such are the realities of South Africa's extremely complex--indeed explo
sive, if not carefully handled--ethnic equations. South Africa is by no
means perfect, but neither are the 141 nations who "cast the first stone"
against her in the U.N. Most of these states are freedom-limiting, if not
outright totalitarian, societies. The background of the cautious new con
stitutional change should therefore be seen in the light of the Afrikaans
political slogan, stadig oor die klippe--"slowly over the rocks." Should
change come too rapidly ancf"raaically, the ship of state, like the old Boer
Voortrekker oxwagons being lowered over the rocky crags of the Drakensberg,
comes crashing down, to the ruin of everybody.
Thankfully, in the World Tomorrow real progress for all of South Africa's
peoples, shorn of worldwide misunderstandings, pressures and barely
concealed biases, can be made even more rapidly.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau