Going Home - Doris May Lessing [112]
An interview with Mr Nkumbula and Mr Kaundu, President and Secretary of Congress. Their views on Federation, Partnership and so on can be taken as read, for what is remarkable about this vast area covered by Federation is the unanimity of African opinion all over it. I was particularly concerned to find out the state of affairs in the Kariba Valley, and what was happening to the people being moved.
Mr Nkumbula had just returned from a trip to that point which is the nearest to the area he is allowed to go. He had come back at six that morning after travelling all night, and was aroused from his bed again at nine to see me. He was extremely tired, and very bitter over the treatment of Congress.
He told me that the villagers of the valley were angry and miserable; that Chiefs supporting Congress were being threatened or deposed; that young men talking Congress language were suffering all kinds of ill-treatment from the District Commissioners.
These people are being moved from rich, well-watered land to high, poor, undeveloped land, and their resentment is both on this count and because their attachment to their soil is religious and ritualistic. They are not prepared to believe that schemes like Kariba will benefit them at all, either immediately or in the future.
Interview with an opponent of Sir Roy Welensky. He says: ‘Roy is a typical white trade unionist. Now he makes himself sound like an old-fashioned liberal in public, but the leopard hasn’t changed his spots. Consider what he’s doing with the railways, now he’s minister. Our railways must be the most inefficient in the world. Why? Shortage of labour. In the meantime hundreds of Africans hang about, quite able to do the work, but unable to because of the colour bar. Welensky brings in unskilled Italians and Greeks on the grounds that “they will learn quicker” than the Africans. Why? Do you have to ask? Read his speech to his white trade-union electors at Broken Hill, which is his constituency. When he’s talking to his constituents he is all in favour of the industrial colour bar and white supremacy. He loathes the Africans. He doesn’t dare to say so now, of course. But he does. The only place he can afford to say it is in the pub with his trade-union buddies.’
I asked what sort of Prime Minister Roy Welensky would make.
‘What difference does it make? Garfield Todd is a decent type who really likes the Africans as people. But he has to toe the white line or he’d lose his job. Roy Welensky will do the same thing from conviction—that’s the only difference. Whether Garfield Todd or Welensky becomes Federal Prime Minister, they’ll have to do exactly the same thing in the end.’
The numbers of the police have been multiplied by seven since Federation. When asked why, the Administration said: ‘The white population has doubled.’
An interview with an African MP who told me, half-humorous, half-sad, about a long struggle he had just finished in his local council to get the Africans to accept a Government grant to improve their land. He said: ‘We need that money badly. We need to learn better farming methods. As an example of this, in our area there are a lot of Southern Rhodesians farming, and in a couple of seasons they outstrip our people and leave them behind because they’ve learned modern husbandry in Southern Rhodesia. But our people say: “If we accept the Government money and improve our land, the white people