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18
into children before they have asstrnt–
Jated even the most eJementary factual
information about them." This built-in
emotional attitude often leads to con–
flict on an interna! or international scale.
Of al! the explosive factors capable
of igniting strife and war, "Color and
race," said John Franklin, chairman of
the Department of History at the Uni–
versity of Chicago, "are at once among
the most important and most enig–
matic"
(Color and Race,
edited by John
H. Franklin, Boston, Houghton-Mifllin,
1968, page vii).
Racial strife, of course, is not limited
to white and black as sorne Americans
may think. For example, during the
week of the 1965 Los Angeles black–
white riot, brown meo and yellow meo
were also slugging it out in Malaysia.
And at that same time brown meo and
black meo were slaughtering each other
in the Sudan. Meanwhile, elsewhere in
Africa, black meo killed other black
meo.
Beyond Skin Color
"Color" as meo define it, however, is
capable of causing immediate reactions
in sorne humans. Of all the racial char–
acteristics that peg men, "skin color is
the most glandular," says MIT Política!
Science professor Harold Isaacs
(ibid. ,
page 75).
Skin color immediately marks the
identity of a man's group. But it is not
the skin which is at fault. "Color is
neutral," says Roger Bastide, professor
of Sciences Humaines at the Sorbonne,
"it is the
MINO
that gives it meaning"
(ibid.,
page 34).
Blind people who have recognized
the race of persons by their smell, skin
texture, voice - immediately reveal
their ATTITUDE toward the person being
recognized. The point being there is no
biological
reason for color to incite
hatred. The dislike stems from
atJitudes
concerning skin color which were
fNn–
neled into the mi11ds
of the people
involved.
Skin color is merely the most easily
observable characteristic of race. But
there are others. Korean and Japanese
people, who have about tbe 'same skin
color, find other distinguishing charac–
teristics to dislike about each other -
physical, religious, educational, social,
The
PLAIN TRUTH
dietary, linguistic and cultural, to name
a few.
In Nigeria, the most pronounced
...haracteristic between the Hausas and
the Ibos was their education, indus–
triousness - and tribal affiliation.
During World War JI Germans uscd
political and group affiliations as a mark
to pick out Jews and Gypsies.
America and Britain also have their
"cace" problems. However, neither Bri–
ton nor American has yet experienced
RACE WAR
to the degree that other
nations in our times have. But we would
be naive to think Britain and America
are immune from guerrilla cace war.
It would do us ALL good in America
and Britain - white, black, brown, red,
yellow - to pause and ask:
M11s1 1i'e
TOO
have 011r cities and toums filled
with the blood of milliom of human
beings in a horrendo111 raee war?
"The Dark Continent"
Whenever one discusses the problem
of group conflict, he is immediately
tempted to begin with Africa. Africa is
cursed with a cancer called tribalism.
lt
parallels the curse of self-.centered
nationalism among European states.
This group-oriented tribalism líes at the
root of the recent Nigerian civil war.
Tribalism has also unleashed the poten–
tia! of another group struggle in Kenya
since the 1969 murder of Kenyan poli–
tician Toro Mboya.
The past wars in Ethiopia, the Sudan,
Tanzania, the Congo, Zambia, Uganda
and others - almost
all
have their
tribal
component.
A tribesman owes his first loyalty to
fellow tribesmen, much as a citizen of a
nation gives his allegiance to that
nation. Members of one tribe often fear
and hate another. The Western ideal of
nationalism - itself a catalyst precipi–
tating ethnic war - is broken clown to
a grass-roots tribal leve! for Africans.
In Europe there may be twenty
nations - tribes grown great - who
explode periodically into national war.
In Africa there are about 6,000 tribes.
These range from a few thousand mem–
bers to many millions in population.
They compete for all the necessities
of life. And today many of them com–
pete for
political power.
The differences in tribes are matters
May 1971
of geography, culture, history, level of
development, social organization, reli–
gion. At times the differences are physi–
cal - as in the case of the tall Hamitic
Watusi and shorter Bantu Hutu.
lnfused into this constantly tense sit–
uation is the added historie memory of
Arab enslavement of black men. Few
realize that Arabs penetrated almost the
entire east coast of Africa. They were in
control over most of the northern part
of Africa. Islam today is the religion of
North Africa and perhaps a third of the
black population of east Africa.
Added to this is the legacy of
the sometimes discriminatory and cruel
"white man's burden" in Africa.
While Europe, and especially Britain,
held sway in Africa, the simmering
coals of racial conflagration - against
white, brown and black - were held
down. But shortly after World War
IJ,
the monolithic pre-eminence of Europe
began breaking clown.
Continent in Chaos
Agitation for independence was the
cry. In the late 1950's and 1960's,
nation after nation in Africa was
granted independence. Curiously with
the departure of the white man's power,
group and cace war - against black,
white and brown - increased.
The following examples and stat:stics
are NOT pleasant. But they graphically
portray the curse of race and group
hatred. These words are written in the
hopes that those who read them may be
able to impart
their influmce
so that
any further racial or group con–
flagration can be avoided.
Consider a quick summary of sorne
news events from January, 1964:
*ZANZIDAR
Approximately
12,000 Arabs die m less than two
weeks.
*TANGANYTKA
.. Army mutm1es,
President Nyerere goes into hiding.
*CONGO . . . . State of emergency in
Kwilu province, beginning of tragic
civil war, hundreds of thousands killed.
*UGANDA . . . . . . . . Army mutinies.
*Rw.ANDA-BURUNDI ... 10,000 Wa–
tusi killed in Rwanda, bringing total
to
about 100,000 dead.
*ANGOLA ... Portuguese drop napalm
onto guerrillas in "rotten triangle."
In a summary analysis for the book