The Coloreds
of the Cape

CAPE TOWN

HERE is a story told among

the old people which says
that one day, many years ago
God summoned White Man and
Colored Man and placed two
boxes before them. One box
was very big and the other
small. God then turned to
Colored Man and told him to
choose one of the boxes.

Colored Man immediately

chose the bigger and left the
other to White Man. When he
opened his box, Colored Man
found a pick and shovel in-
side it; White Man found gold
in his box.

The people have many ex-
planations for their lot. Some
of these take the form of folk-
tales, superstitions and myths;
others are downright logical.
But in all there is the common
consciousness that oppression
suffering and hardship are
facts of life. And they have
learned to temper hardship
with humor, and to sweeten
the bitter pill of their drab
lives with the honey of a sa-
terical philosophy. But always
they have been aware of pain.

*

According to the census
there are 1,170,000 Colored
people in the Union of South
Africa. Herded into slums,
shivering in shanties, scattered
along the hillsides, rocking in
busses to housing schemes, liv-
ing comfortably in bright
homes: Frigidaires, His Mas-
ter’s Voice, Edblo.

They toil in thousands in big
modern factories and push
vegetable barrows, dig up
roads and teach schools, grow
flowers and run shops. They
steal and sometimes murder,
they beg or carry loads from
the markets. They drink,
curse, make love and beat their
wives or cheat their husbands.
Heroes and cowards, villains
and gentlemen, saints and sin-
ners, people. :

They went through wars and
marched through the muck of
France and Belgium. They
sweated in Ethiopia, Egypt
and Libya, and stole the com-
pany beer, laughed at the Ger-
man army and cracked jokes
as the dive-bombers hurled
steel and death at them.

Some of them died and the
rest came home and shook
their heads and wondered
what they had fought for.
They voted at the polls and
shook their heads some more.
They clashed with the police
when they became a little tir-
ed of voting, and held their

bloody heads. The law,. har-

ness bulls, carried its guns
openly afterwards, to honor

them.
*

Saturday night is
night. The hall is crowded by
nine o’clock and the band has
got into its stride The drum-
mer has taken his coat off and
the saxophonist is tireless. The
bass-man’s head wags with
each slap at the strings. “Mister
Sandman, give me a dream..”’

Commercial quadrilles:
Arm in arm, corner swing, half
way, home James. Sambas all
the way from Brazil.

The girls are gay, wild, ec-
static. Their brilliant skirts
whirl and their hair-dos are
awry; red lips parted, panting;
eyes bright as jewels.

The boys are sharp in their
zoot suits, yellow socks and
Tony Curtis haircuts. They
swagger between the dances,
showing off their patterned
neckties and jingling their
silver wrist-chains. When it is
over and the band plays The
Queen they scatter reluctant-
ly, perspiring.

In the slums the people hud-

What can you do about

E often hear, “I’ve got an-
other cold. What can you

do to get rid of this thing? Do
you think a shot of penicillin
will help?” Of course this is
a good question but what can
be done for the common cold?

The truth is that we have
specific medication for much
more serious conditions like
typhoid fever, (with chloro-
mycetin) or Graves disease
(with radioactive iodine), but
there is nothing specific that
will help kill or inhibit the
growth of the viral organisms
causing the common cold.

The common cold is an acute
inflammation of the upper res-
piratory tract. It is communi-
cable and caused by a filtrable
virus. Studies made in isolated
ecammunities such as are found
in Northérn Norway reveal
that the virus is not found
there and the common cold is
unknown.

In the United States the gen-
eral population averages about
three colds a year.

How do we explain a boy’s
colds lasting for several
months, especially in the light
of the fact that uncomplicated

dance- _

dle; sleeping on staircases and
in packed rooms. Everywhere
is the smell of stale cooking,
sweat and stagnant water.

On the corners groups gather
in the lamplight and the dice
come out and the pennies arid
tickies c'ink on the asphalt,

Somewhere a guitar twangs
quietly and then ripples as
skilful, self-taught fingers fly
along the frets. The music
throbs and an artificially har-
dened voice rises in song.

*

When the pubs close the she-
beens are open for business.
The mailers work all day buy-
ing in stocks and are paid a
commission on each bottle.
Colored are only allowed two
bottles of wine per.day or one
brandy, so the mailers move
from store to store, giving false
names and addresses.

You can drink in elegant
parlors where liquor is serv-
ed discreetly in tea-pots or in
sordid little dens where the
children watch wide-eyed as
the bootleg bottles are pulled
from hiding places’ in_back-
yard drains and from under
the floodboards.

colds last 7-14 days? “How do
you know he has a cold,” I
may ask?

At this point the mother is
ready to take her boy to a more
competent physician, since any
one can see that he’s had nasal
congestion and a cough all
summer. Rather than argue
with the mother, I will pre-
scribe some antihistamines and
in a few days the “cold” dis-
appears.

This obviously was not a cold
but an allergic rhinitis or pos-
sibly an allergic bronchitis.

Perhaps this is where we get’

the idea than antihistamines
will cure or relieve the sym-
toms of a cold. They just sim-
ply will not, that is, unless
there is an allergic factor in-

volved.
@

Is it wise to give penicillin
for a cold? Since penicillin is
ineffectual against any virus,
the answer quite obviously
should be “no.”. However, in
certain cases where complica-
tions of a cold are suspected,
such as in otitis media, (mid-
d'e ear infection) penicillin
may be correctly used.

South African Coloreds demonstrate in Cape Town

Anywhere you pay through
your neck: the cheapest wine
costs three-and-sixpence a
bottle, and brandy ranges from
fifteen to twenty-five shillings.
It is whispered that the big
houses pay protection to keep
the police away.

“Yankee ship just come in,
and the taxi-cabs ply their
trade between the docks and
the bawdy -houses. “Know a
place where we can meet some
gals, buster?”

There are places. A house
ean be pointed out where the
girls are beautiful as fashion-
models and others where bit-

Penicillin is not a harmless
medicine. Allergic reactions
are reported in 5 percent of
cases where it is used. Some
reactions may be _— severe
enough tto require hospializa-
tion.

One of the great dangers to
be avoided in the use of peni-
cillin is the administering of
too large doses. Very fre-
quently one injection of 300,000
to 600,000 units of penicillin is
given and just that. This dos-
age may only “stun” the of-
fending organism in the same
manner in which DDT is often
ineffective in killing a fly and
from its offspring will develop
a new species resistant to DDT.

Usually if the infection is
severe and appears likely to
be suspectible (bacterial vs.
virus), then at least three in-
jections of penicillin should

be given.
What about the wonder
drugs or “broad spectrum”

antibiotics such as achromycin
and chloromycetin?

Here again, these drugs are
not wiithout dangers. They

may cause diarrhea, nausea,
vomiting and
cramps.

NOVEMBER 23, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAG

abdominal
Occasionally severe

ter, ground-under, young-olt
professionals smile plearliy
and flash: their gold-filling’:

In the third-class carriage
they were packed tight. 1 54
apposite a big-tough-lookiné
docker and talked to him. 1%
face was streaked with ¢0@
dust and dried sweat ane.
wore a ldéading-hook in his
belt.

“The

“What are we going 10 og
about it?”

He spat through the winder
“Don’t worry, chummy- ee
give them a go one day: sam
as Hit'er got.”

”

government? .:°"

a cold?
.
disabling side effects may °

cur. iF
Statistically speaking, © re
patie?

a small percentage of now

treated with antibiotics §
toxic or allergic reactions 2
this is small comfort to t ide
who suffer from thes apr
effects. , the
What shall we do abou spe
common cold? There is 2° inst
cific agent effective 4 gent
the virus up to the PT
time. of OF”
However, the days - phe
portuniity are not ovel: og
sum. of $2.5 million is peins | ic
fered in the U.S. for 4 spr iure
agent that will effectively
a cold. ‘ pe
The ideal situatio tbe
to treat all sufferers et tio?
common cold with 1s0@
and rest. an
My favorite treatment {Oe
early cold is two aspil? 4 of
lets, an ounce of whiskey» oct
tea with lemon and ned’ vel
Once a cold has fully tment
oped, symptomatic tre@ 5 of
with ephedrine nose GFOP™ ay
sprays (do not use }? and
early stages), aspirl?
fluids is advisable.

ii would

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