Portland Advocate_1981-08

~ ~ Pages AFRIKA IN BRIEF by N. Fungai Kumbula ANGOLA: South Afrika's cowardly raids into Southern Angola have continued from Angola's inde– pendence in 1975 to the pre$ent. Of late, however, particularly in July, the attacks seem to have taken on an "invasion character" according to the Angola Ministry of Defence. The latest attack included an infantry brigade, two battalions made u~ of mer– cenaries and South Afrikan troops, a motorized battalion . ' and a1r support. A total of seven villages were occupied by the invaders. ZAMBIA: Another wave of strikes gripped the Zambian Cooperbelt again last month. Some 10,000 miners walker off their jobs in protest over a governmental de– cision to cut credit privileges. The first strike was at Chili– labombwe on July 6, where 10,000 walked out. Later, other miners at other mines walked off the job too, demanding reinstatement of the revoked credit privileges as well as equal pay as foreign workers contracted to do the same job. Appatently, there was a differential for foreign work– ers. Four trade union leaders and a businessman were detained during the strikes. BLACK GENIUS. GARRETT A. MORGAN (1877-1963) As we drive along city streets, we usually take for granted the traffic lights that command us to stop and tell us. when to go. You are bowing to the powers of a Black genius, Garrett A. Morgan, the inventor of the traffic signal. Garrett Morgan was born March 4, 1877 in Paris, Ken– tucky. Being raised on a farm, Morgan managed to get an educa– tion through grade six. In 1891 he left home headed to Cincinnatti seeking a job. From Cincinnatti, he moved to Cleveland in 1895, the place The previous month when South Afrikan mercenaries and mur– derers invaded and murdered 49 civilians and 8 Angolan soldiers was considered "normal". South Afrika, as usual, denies invad– ing Angola and instead claims to have "destroyed" two regional headquarters of the Namibian liberation movement, SWAPO. SWAPO has recently scored a num– ber of spectacular successes in Northern Namibia. The most fa– mous of these was the attack at the South Afrikan base at Rau– cana on July 16th when more than 180 South Afrikans were killed EDITOR'S NOTE: This will be Fungai's last column written in the USA. The next column, for October, will oe coming all the way from the Republic of Zimbab– we. Fungai returns home on Sep– tember 15th - for the first time in eight years - where he wiJl continue to struggle. he would call home for the NIGERIA: The deteriorating rela- rest of his life. or very badly wounded. , The week of August 15, South Afrika was complaining that the government of Angola had just installed some surface-to-air missiles(SAMS) capable of shoot– ing down invading South Afrikan planes. Can you believe the gall! Maybe, when a few "precious" South Afrikan bombers come tum– bling out of the sky, South tions between neighbours Nigeria While there in Cleveland, a,nd Cameroun which led to border employed as a sewing machine clashes this past month seem to adjuster for a clothing manu– finally be reaching a resolution.facturer, his inquisitive mind Alhaji Amadou Ahidjo, President kept him tinkering with all of Camaroun will soon pay a visitsorts of mechanical things. On to Nigeria at the invitation of November 20, 1923, his tinker– his Nigerian counterpart, Alhaji ing paid off when he was Shehu Shagari. Cameroun has of- awarded a patent for inventing fered to compensate the families a three-way traffic signal. of the five Nigerian soldiers Before his invention, traffic killed in the border clash on signals had only two indicators; May 16th. stop and go: The three-way signal added the neutral or caution position that we are familiar with today. Afrika will think twice about There were more headaches in . violating Angola's territorial Kano state Northern Nigeria, integrity. And what a boon this however, following the impeach- is going to be to SWAPO. ment of Governor Balarabe Musa GAHBIA: There was a coup in Gambia in neighbouring Kaduna. Though Sir Dawda Jawara who has run The the demonstration$ that rocked Gambia since independence in 1965, Kano resulting in the death of was overthrown while he was away two people and causing some $300 in London at the royal wedding. million in damage were not sup- The coup was led by Kukli Samba posed to have been related to Sanyang of the Socialist Revolu- the impeachment, they did occur tionary Party with support from after Kano Governor, Abubakar part of the 500 member paramili- Rimi, had written a caustic let- tary Field Force. ter to the Emir of Kano criti– cizing the impeachment of his ally, Musa. Sir Jawara, however, merely re– turned to neighbouring Senegal which half-surrounds The Gambia and requested Senegalese troops to restore him to power. The Gam– bia and Senegal have a "mutual defence" pact. The Senegalese troops came in and quickly forced the would-be-coup-makers to re– treat to the Field Force barracks with the hostages they had taken, among them Lady Jawara, the President's wife. By week's end, ~he had managed to escape and the coup floundered. The presence of foreign troops however neighbourly, is going to leave a bad taste in the mouth of many a Gambian, the majority of who are reeling from hard times: the peanut crop, the country's second cash earner along with tourism, was down 40% in the 1980/81 year. ARTJENKINS(Mt(R MAJo AIRcoN ~~ AUTO D \ 3945 N.WILLIAA\S NINe 284-9061 SERVICE TRANSMISSION Another invention of Mor– gan's that precedes the tra– ffic signal is the gas mask. He was granted a patent for the gas mask in 1912. After passing rigid tests, Morgan tried for four years to market his invention. Sometimes he would pose as an Indian with a white man demonstrating his invention. Many whites can– celled their orders for Mor– gan's gas mask simply because he was a Black man. On July 25, 1916, an explosion occured in an .underwater tunnel in Cleveland. Poisonous gases and heavy smoke quickly filled the tunnel. Garrett Morgan and his gas mask was called upon to lead the rescue effort. He saved 32 lives that day, paving the way for wider acceptance of his invention in this country and Canada. Garrett A. Morgan, A Great Black Genius. Tell your children about him. *Advocate Note: Black Genius will be a regular feature in The Advocate highlighting the genius of Black people from Afrikan antiquity to the pre- – sent day. Read Black Genius regularly and learn of the greatness of our people.