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PAGE 8
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, SEPTEMBER 13, 1985
And then there is Africa, a continent that William F. Buckley, Jr.
describes as nearing •a state of decomposition.• Just look at Nigeria,
black Africa's richest and most popular country, which has been plagued
with tribal conflicts and rival claims to power of civilian and
military elites since independence from Britain in October, 1960.
In
the last week of August, the all-too-familiar cycle happened again,
when the military government of Gen. Mohammed Buhari was toppled in a
coup headed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Babangida. On the last day of
1983 Gen. Buhari had ousted an elected government that had lasted only
four months.
Be complained of government corruption and weakness.
Foreign debts were mounting and oil revenues were dwindling. Someone
had to get a grip on things, he said. Now, editorialized the September
4 WALL STREET JOURNAL, •A new clutch of army figures is saying about
General Buhari the same sort of things General Buhari said about
President Shagari.•
In South Africa, so much in the news of late, the power struggle is
becoming intense and complicated.
And make no mistake about it, •The
fight in South Africa is over political power, not the socioeconomic
system called apartheid• (Smith Hempstone, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, August
23) •
The government is
determined
to
proceed
with cautious
evolutionary changes--to •devote power,• it says, to the various
groups.
Some challengers to the government aren't satisfied with
anything other than revolution now 1
Stephen Tshwete, a leader in one
of the opposition groups, the United Democratic Front, recently shouted
in a fiery speech, "k A.U. [t o 3fc a .tQ
des�roy
ey!aYthing
.in
.t.hi.s_ country,
and on the ashes orapart e
a,
we will bu1
a new So\itli""" Africa."
Earlier he said, "Our struggle is a struggle for a birthright.•
Jan Steyn, chairman of the Urban Foundation, crystallized South
Africa's only three alternatives:
reform, repression or revolution.
In this regard, one must also watch for developments
·
in the second
category (repression) represented by a growing white backlash.
The
antireform Conservative Party, for example, led by Dr. Andries
Treurnicht, is steadily gaining strength.
Another movement and name
that bears watching is the as yet very small Afrikaner Resistance
M ov eme nt led by a firebrand speaker, Eugene Terre Blance.
The move
ment's emblem bears resemblance to a swastika, composed of three repre
sentations of the number seven (said to be the antithesis of 666)
painted in red, white and black.
Some of the adherents are organized
as jackbooted stormvalke (storm troopers>. "I am not a Nazi,• exclaims
Terre Blanche.
"I am an Afrikaner nationalist.•
The 41-year-old
cattle rancher seems intent upon reconstructing a white fatherland
along the lines of the two former Boer republics, Transvaal and the
Orange Free State.
He does not foresee, reported the August 20 NEW
YORI< TIMES, "political parties running these republics, but rather a
movement led by a charismatic strongman."
It is also important to note that there has occurred a division in the
secret Broederbond society, with a new rightist split-off group, •The
Volkswag• (People's Watch), being formed.
It is said to be gaining
strength among academics, civil servants and army police officers.