RaDical MiDDle - ColdType

16
Power to, Um, Who?
Radical Middle | 167
In 1971 I had worked at a construction site at Kafue in
Zambia. With a total lack of relevant qualifications I expected
to wield a pick and shovel. But literacy was in short supply
and I was appointed dogsbody to the site agent. One day, amid
howling sirens, an entourage of Landrovers drew up at the
agent’s office, bearing the Provincial Governor. He produced
a document with some 15 names. These employees, said the
Governor, were traitors; they were to be fired.
The agent expostulated. These were good and loyal
workers; he couldn’t just sack them. The Governor, high on
the pomposity of power, coldly declared: “They are unpatriotic
persons, members of the opposition. You must dismiss them
now while I am here.”
The agent did it. I collaborated, working out severance pay.
The Governor stood over us like a Gestapo Oberst in blackface.
Here was a rabbit-punch. Majority rule was supposed to be
a forward move from wicked white oppression. a funny idea of