the churches and southern africa - KORA

SQUEEZE ON TANG V/ENA
Hundreds of Tangwena village farmers fled into
mountain fastnesses when the Smith regime sent in police
by helicopters to arrest them for resisting displacement
from their homeland in the Inyanga Mountains. Of the 10
older men who were found in the villages, several
appeared in court with bandages resulting from police
attacks and police dogs. (Herald Tribune, July 28, 1972)
One of the older men told the magistrate that police dogs
were set on him. The dispute with the Tangwena people
has now been festering for four years. It is a typical
land-grab case, like thousands of other cases that
happened in the last 80 years. White settlers bought up
land which is and has been the homeland of a clan of
Africans for hundreds of years. The settlers pegged it and
came back 20 years later and told the Africans to move
away. The African clan resisted and settler government
forces came in with all power to annihilate or bodily
move the people. Luckly the Tangwena live high in the
I nyanga mountains which are not easy to occupy. And so
Tangwena and his people continue to resist settler
occupation of their land. Two years ago the settler forces
burned down all the Tangwena villages and crops, but
when the rains fell the village farmers came back and
rebuilt their villages and replanted their crops. This has
continued for four years. This time the armed forces have
decided to physically occupy the land and thus keep out
Tangwena and his people. Tons of supplies and
reinforcements have been flown into the mountain where
a base has been established, suggesting a long stay by the
armed forces. (Herald Tribune, July 28, 1972; New York
Times, July 28, 1972; Star, Johannesburg, July 29, 1972)
It is also learned that the regime has finally decided to
move Africans from Epworth and Chiwasha, two
missionary farms near Salisbury originally given to
missions ministering to Africans.
FULL CIRCLE APARTHEID
According to Guy Dickson of the Star (Johannesburg,
July 29, 1972), Rhodesia has come full circle to
apartheid, "back where it started in 1933." The policy
enunciated then by Godfrey Huggins was definitely one
of separate development-apartheid. But as the years went
by and economic development forced the settlers' hands
to admit Africans into the economy (largely as laborers),
the policy changed to one of enlightened apartheid to
near integration. Since UDI, however, the clock has
turned back and has now reached the 1933 point again.
Rhodesia st Minister of Internal Affairs, Lance Smith,
disclosed recently the regime's new policy of
"Provincialism," another form of Bantustans.
One of the major problems of full apartheid has been
the situation of Asians and colored (mixed blood)
peoples. In Rhodesia, up to now they have been
classified as white. But as one Asian discovered recently,
.the settlers are progressively demanding that everyone
who is not white be excluded from their little fool's
paradise. In bars, where Asians have been admitted up til
now, whites have walked out when an Asian is served, and
are patronizing more and more only those bars that serve
whites only. (Star, Johannesburg, July 29, 1972)
Rhodesia's brown "whites" have already been dealt a
blow by Residential Property Owners Bill which allows
whites to petition for the expulsion ,from housing areas of
nonwhites if the majority of the residents so desire. The
next fight is service in public places such as cinemas and
restaurants and bars. The 16.000 coloured and 9,000
Chief Tangwona with his people
Asians in Rhodesia will continue to fight the integration
battle on their own. Africans are now out of it. There is
complete separation of races for them. A few bars in
downtown Salisbury which were patronized mostly by
Africans are now going to be closed by a new law.
Africans who go to work in the city must realize that the
city is not their area. They can only have a drink in their
own areas, so designated by the whites. Apartheid has
come full force to Rhodesia.