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;; Pilie '24' S
e&fk)nA
,14
466iOber"10;`14197'.6't
S.F
. Sunday E
xaminer &
Chronicle
ilEExamintg—
Oc t ; 1 0 1976
Th
e African
leaders K
issinger ign
ored
David O
lsen, a former director of the C
ambridge-
based Africa R
esearch Group, is co-author of "R
ace to
Pow
er: The S
truggle fo
r South
ern A
frica" (A
nchor Press, 1974).
By D
avid Olsen
Pacific N
ews S
ervice W
ASH
ING
TO
N —
Secretary of State Kissinger's
ove to
foster a m
oderate b
lack g
overn
men
t in
hodesia carefu
lly av
oid
ed co
ntact w
ith th
e very
leaders w
ho will hold the trum
p cards in forthcoming
negotiations.
These m
en are the radical nationalist leaders. T
hey have overshadowed the older, m
ore moderate
leaders in
three o
f the m
ost cru
cial areas: Their
,com
man
d o
f military
forces, p
opular su
pport an
d
?: -backing by other important A
frican leaders. Y
et n
one h
as b
een in
clu
ded in
the e
arly
s. negotiations to try to establish an interim
government
. m R
hodesia.
The key radical leaders include:
—R
obert Mugabe, leader of the leftist political
party, ZA
NU
, and major representative of m
ost of the Z
imbabw
ean guerrilla fighters based in neighboring M
ozambique. M
ugabe, a former teacher, w
as impris-
oned by the an Sm
ith regime for 11 years for political
activities. —
Pres4dent S
amora M
achel of Mozam
bique, in
strum
ental in
creating th
e Zim
bab
we P
eople's
Arm
y in
1974 in
an effo
rt to u
nify
the g
uerrilla
factions. He probably has m
ore influence with the
guerrillas than any other outsider. —
Methodist B
ishop Abel M
uzorewa, leader of the
militant faction of the R
hodesian African N
ational C
ouncil, a coalition of nationalist groups. Some say he
has th
e strongest p
opular b
ackin
g o
f all black
Z
imbabw
ean leaders.
—T
he high comm
and of the Zim
babwe P
eople's A
rmy, com
posed of 18 leaders of ZA
NU
and ZA
PU
, th
e old
est and m
ost im
portan
t African
political
parties in Rhodesia.
—P
residen
t Agostin
ho N
eto o
f Angola. L
ike
Mach
el, he's w
ary o
f Am
erican attem
pts to
help
structure A
frica's future. U.S
. relations with N
eto's M
PL
A-led
govern
men
t hav
e been
strained
since
Angola's civil w
ar.
Kissinger concentrated instead on "m
oderate" and non-aligned politicians and on P
rime M
inister Ian S
mith, leader of R
hodesia's white m
inority govern-m
ent.
The only nationalist leader K
issinger met w
as Joshua N
komo, considered a m
oderate both at home
and abroad. He cam
e to prominence as one of the
original nationalist agitators in the late 1940s, but had lost m
ost of his following by early 1976 w
hen he
negotiated unsuccessfully on his own w
ith Sm
ith. A
devout Christian, N
komo stresses peaceful
negotiation and non-violent protest as the road to black m
ajority rule in Rhodesia. G
uerrilla leaders branded him
a traitor after his talks with S
mith.
Yet in
pro
of o
f the M
idas-to
uch
quality
of a
Kissinger visit, w
hen Nkom
o returned to Salisbury
Sept. 25 after the m
eeting, he drew a larger crow
d than the popular, radical M
uzorewa attracted five
days later.
The rad
ical leaders K
issinger sh
unned
hav
e called for an im
mediate transfer of pow
er. That's a
rejection of the British-A
merican proposal for a tw
o-year transition period.
"We are talking about m
ajority rule in four to six w
eeks, w
hen
with
the fo
rmatio
n o
f an in
terim
govern
men
t the p
ow
ers of th
e govern
men
t of
Rhodesia w
ill be passed on to the majority," said
Tanzania's P
resident Nyerere.
The m
ilitant leaders also have stressed that they w
on't allow the structure of the interim
government
to be determined by w
hites. And they have rejected
Sm
ith's proposal that the ministries of defense and
law an
d o
rder rem
ain in
white h
ands d
urin
g th
e transition period.
In addition, the radical leadership is comm
itted to som
e form of A
frican socialism. T
hey are believed to be neither pro-S
oviet nor pro-Chinese, but to w
ant so
me fo
rm o
f natio
nal p
lannin
g to
restructu
re the
white-dom
inated capitalist economy.
Kissin
ger's av
oid
ance o
f the rad
ical leaders
appears to
be in
keep
ing w
ith h
is inten
tions fo
r a R
hodesian settlement. D
iplomats aboard K
issinger's plane said he "is aim
ing for the emergence of a belt of
friendly
pro
-western
states from
Nam
ibia, o
n th
e so
uth
Atlan
tic seaboard
, thro
ugh lan
dlo
cked
Bot-
swana to R
hodesia."
Som
e observers point out that even if Kissinger
had
invited
these lead
ers to talk
, they
mig
ht h
ave
refused out of fear of losing credibility with their
peers. A
ll Zim
bab
wean
radical lead
ers hav
e de-
nounced Kissinger's involvem
ent in the Rhodesian
crisis.
Sam
ora
Mach
el, p
residen
t of M
oza
mb
iqu
e an
d th
e str
on
gest
ou
tside
influ
ence o
n
the g
uerrilla
s