the |

- fighti Wedge that

Someth

Such

Bens
“that’s leadership must
eae Sym
and , pathy,
as:

Teag

AN efficient government organi-
» Sttion has been set up by the
“an People of Kenya, in the

Midst of g brutal, full-scale war
of €xtermination.

4 This Sovernment is ready to
*Sotiate an end to the war, as
Son as the British are prepar-
ed to meet it openly on the basis

o 1 honorable setflement.

in London dated
» and signed “Chief Sec-

S development,

_ There

ment is an African parlia-

> Civil Service, judiciary—
tax collectors.

ware tories, hospitals, homes,
estab) eee ly and so on have been
, Ished in the “forests.

The British authorities’ have
aware for some time that
mg ‘has been going on, and
‘te 880 as April 12 last year
Eee Times referred to
nist “Ing up of “a parallel ad-

Tation with illegal tribu-
taxes, in the Kikuyu

as
the

< he Teality is now shown to be

"ation, emely effective adminis-

Dossip. ° development is only
A le Where there is a politic-

ns ure and highly organis-
th, ership, closely knit with

hele Tank and file.

enjoy
active understanding,
a up help from the people

ole that springs from
‘Shting ¢ ; they are
freq Ba r their own land and

the

fon ®vidence of the letter

for ie Freedom Forces ends

§ no the old claim that there

Which puttican leadership with
Titain can negotiate.

ain tee 1s, and it is time Brit-

“Foy -S2ised that fact.

N brow ess: the slaughter, is
Sught to an end it will

People. © extermination of a

This :
Now. ,'S beginning .to ‘happen ©

S @ result of the “emer-
000 Africans have
Some fighting, some of
‘eat SMe as a result of their
Over grt at British hands—and
amps y are’ in detention
4
the letter Says:

Bae as:

Minis iS Mean that British
Strators are

ns aa Who cannot by any

T doa, 7 the Kenya disease,

the ,,,/¢ Mean that they enjoy

S :
Means, oP ession of Kenya Af-

ene, »;
digg”?
Woun ds

*
accuses Governor
aring, and General
egtder in tskine, British com-
&q ay Chief, of being inter-
ON, IM getting the Resist-
F 0 ‘surrender.
brat the
Bake Te

h rae
fone in wv been: tentative

the official British
Whit.
a hag pacowners, who form-
"Borie in their heels and

__® Stated that nothing

of State,” gives details of.

’ Legisiative Assembly,

foolish men

ya jungle

WILLIAM GALLACHER

would move them from’ the
“White Highlands,” are divided.
Some are openly talking of
leaving Kenya — provided, of
course, that they get compensa-
ion for their farms. This is
something quite new in Kenya.
The letter describes an under-
hand effont at negotiation made
by the British during March.

The British secretariat in Nai-°

robi. and the chief of staff got
in touch with’ African Resistance
soldiers and gave them a letter
saying they would like to discuss
peace with delegates from the
Land and Freedom Anmy.

But thev did not write to the
African premier, Dedan Kim-
achi, or to the chief secretary of
state. : ats

Nor did they tell the members
of the British-controlled Kenya
nor the
white -landowners, what they
were doing. It was all unofficial
and wrapped in secrecy.

. As the letter asks:

“What peace or promises
could be done by two persons
who are fighting in the dark-
ness where no person sees or
hears what they are doing?

“The longer ithe emergency,

the poorer the country be-
comes, both Kenya and Eng-
land, and the more the enmity
and hatred grows strong and,
worse still, the British Empire
will be blamed by the world
for its injustice.”

As far as Britain is concerned,
the cash cost of the Kenya war
is more than $2.5 million a month
with a cost.in ee life and
suffering impossible to assess.

Young British National Ser-
vicemen are being thrust, almost
straight from the classrooms, in-
to a sea of blood, to which their
own may be added at any
moment.

If they live through the hor-
ror, its effect will never be blot-
ted out from their minds.

And they get nothing in -ex-
change for two years of their life
—if not all of it. P :

But the African people have
the sure knowledge that the
cause for which they. are fighting
and dying is a just one.

The letter ends with a posi-
tive proposal: “Our delegates
are always ready to state the
truth about Kenya in public
hearing.”

have failed to crush the stru

Kenya for freedom,
90,000 African lives,

British planes and guns, gallows and concentration camps,

ggle of the African peoples of

although that struggle has already cost

Even the children fight back

OUNTED, police, swinging
their batons, charged pro-
cessions of children and their
parents. Many were hurt. .Many
more were arrested. :

But the children refused to go
to schools that were degrading to
them.

This was just one incident in
the battle between the African
people and the apartheid policy
of Dr. Verwoerd, South African
minister of, native affairs.

The trouble began when, on
April 1, all African schools in
the Union passed under the con-
trol of the minister under the
Bantu Eudcational Act.

On that day thousands of
children stayed away from school
in protest against the mockery

of education that was being of- .

fered them.

At first the government treat-
ed the boycott with studied in-
difference, but when it continued

the police were ordered into
action.
The. police made _ house-to-

house’ searches, forcing the child-
_ren they found at home to walk

to school ini front of their vans.

Dr. Verwoerd announced that
all children not ag school by
April 26 would be permanently
expelled.

Those schools where the boy-
cott was near-complete on that
day would be permianently clos-
ed, he declared. Children over
16 would have to register for
jobs or go to Jabor camps as
“loafers.” A)

But when the day came, more
schools joined in the boycott,
organized and led by the African
National Congress. ~

it og 503

The African people regard the
cemonstrations so far as only
the first shots in what may ‘be a
long struggle against the govern-
ment’s Bantu Education Act.

The oppressed and exploited
Africans value education more

than other peoples of the Union. now headed by Prime Minister Strijdom.

To them it is the key that will
unlock the door to the future,
that -will enable their children
to live a better life than they
themselves have lived. |

Dr. Verwoerd now declares
that it is his government’s poli-
cy to block that path, to prevent
that advancement, fo refuse to
allow the African child to re-
ceive genuine education.

He tells the Afriéan cnild that

there is no future for him but

perpetual suffering and humilia-
tion.

The Africans are not (prepared
to accept such a future. ~

5 og es nm
Dr. Verwoerd has announced
that the aim of the Bantu Edu-
cation Act is to enable the Afri-

Sa

Colored people

=

of South Africa’s Cape Province demonstrate

can child to follow oral or written
instructions and to carry on
simple conversations with Euro-
peans about his work, in English
or Afrikaans.

That is all. “Jim, sweep the
floor!”—‘‘Yes, Missis.” That -is

-the full limit of education, as

planned and intended by the
South .African government of
Prime Minister Strijdom.

“The general aim,” said Dr.
Verwoerd, “is to transform edu-
cation for natives into Bantu
education.

“There is no place for him
(the Bantu) in the European.
community above the level of
certain forms of labor.

“For that reason it is of no
avail for him to receive a train-

against the racist apartheid Policies of the Nationalist government,

A

ing which has as its aim absorp-
tion in the European community.

“Until now he has been sub-
ject to a school system which...
misled him by showing him the
green pastures of European so-
ciety in which he was not allow-

_ ed to graze.”
r y o
The act itself takes African

education out of the hands of
the provincial authorities and
puts it directly under the minis-
ter of native affairs.

The minister is given unlimit-
ed powers to decide teachers’
conditions or service, what Afri-
cans shall be taught, the regis-
tration of schools and so on.

No one may run any sort of
school or class for Africans from
now on without the permission
of the minister. :

All mission schools pass under
his control — ana most educa-
tional establishments have been
run by the missions.

Some churches, rather than

cooperate with the government,
have suspended their schools en-
tirely. Others are limping along
on reduced funds.
. The fanatic in chargé of. this
act is the man who refuses to
allow African housing within
300 yards of a national road:
who plans to drive the African
People back into the grossly-
overcrowded reserves.

The fear at the back of Dr.
Verwoerd’s mind is the fear that,
if the Africans are allowed to
become urbanized, they may
Swamp the Europeans and end
white domination.

The African reply, expressed
by a delegate at the African Na-
tional Congress held to carry out
the schools boycott, was “Rather
no education at all than poison.”

But a national educational
council was formed at the éon-
gress to plan alternative educa-
tional and cultural activities for
the children withdrawn from
the schools.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 27, 1955 — PAGE 9