Portland Advocate_1981-06

Page4 EBONY EXCELLENCE JOAN WHITE The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward ·J. White of Seattle, Washington, Miss White will becane one of the few Black Naturopaths in the U.S. She will be the first Black fenale fuctor of Natural Medicine in the country. "I became interested in Naturopathy when I was a student of Haki Madhubuti," author, poet, and Director of the Institute of Posit'ive Education. Miss White recently earned her N.D. degree from the National College of Naturopatic Medicine, she has done post-graduate v.ork in Parasitology, and has degrees in Human Biology and Zoology from Kansas Newnan College and Howard University. In spite of spending many hours studying, Miss White has been active in various community activities both in Portland and Seattle. AFRIKA IN BRIEF by N. Funga i Kumbula Sunday, May 31st is supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of South Africa's secession from the British Commonwealth and the proclamation of an Afrikaner republic. The commonwealth, a grouping of former British colo– nies and member nations were pressuring South Africa to give the Africans a vote and move towards majority rule as most sane nations the world over were doing. To thwart this pressure, therefore, South Africa left the commonwealth and pursued her current, nefarious and dangerous course. For that reason, this 20th anniversary is being observed only by the Afrikaners, white South Africans of Boer ancestry who make up about half of the white population of South Africa which totals 4 million or 20% of the country's total population of some 26 million. The other half of the white population are the descendants of the Bri– tish who stayed on in South Africa after the proclamation of the republic. So this holiday which should have been a time of extreme joy and pride, as well as patriot– ism, is actually being observed by less than 10% of the popula– tion; the Afrikaners. The rest, the Africans, Coloureds, Indi– ans, Asians, and the British will be sitting on the side– lines boycotting and doing all they can to disrupt the festi– vities. The Africans would like to see these festivities as the last Re– public Day celebration in South Africa as their cousins across the border in Zimbabwe witnessed the last 'Rhodesia Independence Day' in 1979. Toward tha~ end, they have stepped-up the guer– rilla campaign. In the past two weeks alone an army recruit– ing station was blown up and destroyed. The South African regime claims there were no casualties but there has been no independent verification. The .rail line from Soweto into Johannesburg proper was blown up again. This is the line used by the trains taking com– muters into Johannesburg to work in the white homes, fac– tories, and other white busi– nesses. The African National Congress fighting for the lib– eration of Azania has vowed more of these attacks until South Africa becomes the inde– pendent, African majority ruled nation of Azania. Three of its guerrillas opened up with sub– machine guns in a market place in Johannesburg also this past two weeks and several whites were killed and more wounded. The guerrillas managed to dis– app~ar into the crowd before the police arrived and have not been seen since. Can you ima– gine someone spraying the crowd with machine gun fire at the Saturday market .and then dis– appearing? A few weeks ago, more ANC guerrillas managed to blow up a power station just outside Johannesburg which cut off power to several hundred Durban businesses forcing them to close. The war is definitely on. Now the ANC has won sup– port from a most unlikely quarter: students from the white universities. All along white students have either kept out of the fray between the Blacks and the government or sided with the government. In the past week, however, they have taken to the streets denouncing the government's policy of apartheid and arguing for an open franchise in South Africa as the only viable alternative to averting the bloodbath that is right now at South Africa's doorstep. The police, of course, have moved on to the campuses in force and clashed with the students but that does not seem to have deterred the protestors. The white students have also started fighting among them– selves: those that support the government against those supporting radical changes in South Africa's race laws. The ANC's Freedom Charter long banned by the racist government has recently been reprinted in several papers both Black and white and the white students are using that to argue that it is a much better document than the current South African constitution which discriminate on the basis of race. The English community is also be– coming more vocal in its opposition to the Afrikaner government. Never before has the govern– ment faced so much opposition from so many different direc– tions all at once. And guess who's chuckling? None other than Comrade Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe because in a way he is the cause of so much of South Africa's grief. Not only has he made a success out of Zimbabwe where he was supposed to fall flat on his (Continued on Page 5)