Page 4 Portland Observer, October 22, 1981
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Lesotho: Death of an editor
by N. Fungal Kumbula
Masters wields the ax
W illia m Masters, A ctin g Com m isioner o f the
Agency fo r C hildren, Youth and Families o f our
federal governm ent, was less than honest w ith
parents and w o rk e rs o f H e adstart p rogram s
when he attempted to snow them about pending
cuts in the Headstart program.
No, the cuts have not been made— but they
are on the d ra w in g b o a rd . A n d when im p le ­
mented they w ill eliminate the child care and so­
cial service aspects o f Headstart.
The o rig in a l goals o f H eadstarts place p r i­
m ary emphasis on increasing social competence
o f young children, w ith secondary emphasis on
co g n itive developm ent. Research has dem o n ­
strated that children involved in the program at­
tain im provem ent in IQ scores and these gains
continue fo r at least one to three years, the per­
iod during which children are taught basic skills.
Aside fro m the “ headstart” to academic in ­
s tru c tio n m any program s, fo r exam ple A M A
Headstart, provide the added attraction o f fu ll-
day, fu ll-y e a r child-care. A M A provides c h ild
care only to children whose parents are in school
o r w ork, and offers them a program where their
children are happy and secure while away fro m
home.
The projected cuts w ill devastate these p ro ­
grams— cutting back to 6 hours a day, 8 months
a year. U n fo rtu n a te ly , m ost people’ s jo b s do
not fit these hours.
W h ile the Reagan A d m in is tra tio n has been
praising Headstart and prom ising it w ill not be
cut, plans are being made. A memo leaked last
August by the O ffice o f Management and Bud­
g e t-c a lle d the John H o p kin s re p o rt— lays out
the plans.
The report says: The th eory o f H eadstart is
that the educational program fo r children is in ­
exorably intertw ined w ith supplementary m edi­
cal, dental and social services to the c h ild and
other supportive services to the child and other
supportive services to fa m ily members: in order
to m ake genuine im provem ents in the lives o f
economically disadvantaged children, it is neces­
sary to pro vid e a w ealth o f supplem ental sup­
p o rtive services. The uncom m on p o p u la rity o f
HS rested in part in its capacity to deliver on this
promise o f supportive services.
The report continues: The obvious question at
this ju n c tu re is whether the HS concept should
be redefined.
The re p o rt o u tlin e s the cuts th a t should be
made in the budget year o f 1982-1983.
W h ile M asters rejected the re p o rt as ju s t a
“ ru m o r” — under pressure he proceded to o u t­
line m any o f the same projected changes.
It is u nfortu nate that Masters is so w illin g to
do his hatchet jo b rather than advocate fo r the
needs o f p oo r fam ilies and children. C h ild re n
deserve better.
The A M A H eadstart program is one o f the
few child care programs left in A lbina. The c iti­
zens stood by while the 4-C programs were gut­
ted and then removed to other areas o f the city.
Now is the time to draw the lin e ___
launched its ow n p la n ) to get a little credit fo r
themselves.
The area that needs some intense and sincere
assistance is being le ft out altogether. The plan
needs to go back to the d ra w in g b o a rd s — o r
perhaps the board ro o m — fo r another try .
O th e r areas o f the c ity have had th e ir p ro ­
jects. A ll that is offe red A lb in a is a small token
— very little .
( take that ...
AND THIS!
i
/
SCOTT FREE I
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leaders have often been arrested for
speaking out against government
policies they found to be unpopular
and detrimental to the masses) has
often been the only vocal critic o f
the iron-fisted rule o f Leabua Jona­
than.
On occasion, Motuba had said
only the paper's international
ecumenical ties prevented the gov­
ernment from shutting the paper
down altogether. It has been sus­
pended from time to time, though.
This time, however, somebody went
a whole lot furthe r than just
shutting I eselinyana down: the bul­
let-riddled body o f its outspoken
editor, Motuba, father o f two little
girls and a little boy, was found near
a small village called M ohale’ s
as now the prime minister, lost the
elections he had been mandated by
the constitution to call but refuse to
step down in favor o f the winner,
the Basotho Congress Party. In ­
stead. he arrested the President o f
the BCP and several o f its leaders,
declared the election results null and
void and declared a state o f emer­
gency. Over the years, as a result,
opposition to his rule has shifted
underground with the Lesotho Lib­
eration Army vowing to drive him
out o f office by force.
A long with the murder o f Mo-
tuba, there have been several other
sinister disappearances in the past
month among them, that o f Ben
M asilo, President o f the Lesotho
C hristian C ouncil knd that o f
Michael Kamarothole who was kid­
Hoek.
napped along with Motuba.
A spokesman for the family says
Someone should send word to
he had been abducted at gunpoint Jonathan that killing the leadership
from his home the previous evening. o f the opposition never guaranteed
The word from the Leabua regime is any dictator an eternal stay in o f­
that the persons responsible arc fice; au contraire it has only has­
“ unknown” and that an investiga­ tened the demise o f many such un­
tion would be conducted. Suspicion scrupulous characters. (As we go to
strongly falls on the security police press, I hear one Anwar el Sadat is
against whom M otuba had often dead; uh uh uh!)
carried out investigations when
As Matabai (the wife) and little
some prominent government critic Tabai, Motsoanyane and Mam-
disappeared. The tradedy, apart poestsi wait for a husband and
from the death, itself, is that now father who will not return this time,
there is no one to spearhead the in­ we all jo in together in reassuring
quiry into the death o f this fearless them that Mahlmomola did not die
champion o f human rights for all of in vain. He died fo r what he be­
Lesotho's people.
lieved: a Lesotho for all people and
In 1970, Leabua Jonathan, then who can ask for more?
Destroying Black education
Handing out tokens
Public response to P D C ’ s economic develop­
ment plan fo r in ner northeast is, fo r the most
p a rt, negative. The p la n to target the U n io n
A venue area fo r co n ce n tra tio n o f c ity m oney
and energy is a good one— but a p p arently not
a sincere one.
It lo o ks lik e som eone is a tte m p tin g to use
the development that w ill lo g ica lly come to the
in d u s tria l area n o rth o f C o lu m b ia B o ule vard
and the E m anu el area (E m a n u e l a lre a d y has
When they exercise iheir responsi­
bilities fa irly and fearlessly, espe­
cially in the face o f definite threats
to their life and person, journalists
can be a very precious lo t. Apart
from inform ing the world at large
about abuses o f human rights by
whatever dictator they also help to
curb whatever other excesses might
result if the public were unin­
formed. Journalists can also be the
mouthpiece o f the voiceless masses;
the articulate outlet for the revolu­
tio n . Many a d icta to r, therefore,
has found it ‘ necessary’ to detain,
incarcerate, torture and sometimes
permanently silence journalists in
the mistaken belief that ‘ Silence
means content.’ Think o f the hun­
dreds o f such persons ‘ silenced’ in
South A fric a , in the old ’ Rho­
desia,’ In M alaw i, Zaire, the list
joes on. The response o f the people
o all this has always been: ‘ You can
kill the revolutionaries, alright, but
you can never k ill the revolution.*
There are so many examples we do
not even have to enumerate them
any more. M ahlom ola Edgar Mo-
tuba was one o f us; was because he
is no longer with us. He was the edi­
tor o f Lesehnyana, Sesotho for ‘ lit­
tle Light,' a church affiliated news­
paper he had guided to a circulation
ten times that o f the government-
owned Lesotho Weekly. Motuba
had been detained several times be­
cause the paper, published by the
Lesotho Evangelical Church (a
Protestant denom ination whose
NNA
Aaaoclatlon - founded 1888
From the Grassroots
by Manning Marable
committed to the principle ot equat
.ustice under the law.” Interrupted
cpeatcdly by loud applause. Bush
promised to pressure public and pri­
vate sources to grant greater finan­
cial support to traditionally Black
universities. Bush was silent on
whether the Reagan Administration
would support the extension o f the
1965 Voting Rights Act. But college
administrators and local Black elect­
ed officials were generally pleased.
Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford stated
hat Bush’ s speech was "w elcom e
>y all o f us who walked across the
Edmund Pettus bridge” in nearby
Selma, in the fight for Black equal
rights and education.
in both system. The plan also fo r­
bids the Federal Government from
suing North Carolina officials over
the agreement for five years.
The N orth C arolina plan was
q uickly denounced as a return to
“ separate but equal” by the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educa­
tional Fund, Inc., by former Carter
A d m in is tra tio n o ffic ia ls , and by
Black alumni organizations from
the tra d itio n a l Black colleges in
N orth C arolina. Leonard L.
Haynes, director o f the O ffice for
the Advancement o f Public Negro
Colleges, inform ed the New York
Times that the Reagan Administra­
tion “ let North Carolina do what­
ever it wanted to do, thus abdicating
its responsibility to enforce T itle
V I.” Defenders o f the agreement in­
clude all five Black chancellors o f
the state universities, and probably
a majority o f Black college adminis­
trators and officials in the country.
Clarence Thomas, a Black attorney
from Georgia who was appointed by
Reagan as the Department o f Edu­
cation's Assistant Secretary for Civ­
il Rights, justified the plan with the
remark “ government fiat is not the
only way to enforce c iv il rights
laws.” The road toward desegrega­
tion, initiated by the 1954 Brown de­
cision, has returned full circle to the
Tuskegee-inspired dual educaional
structure.
Yet Bush’ s address at Tuskegee
Institute had a disturbing historical
precedent. In November, 1898,
another conservative Republican,
William McKinley, made a political
sojourn to that Black college com­
m unity. Tuskegee Institute Presi­
dent Booker T. Washington came to
national prominence several years
before by issuing his "A tlanta Com­
promise” address which accepted
the legal segregation o f the races in
return for Black economic and edu­
cational benefits. M cK inley ap­
plauded Washington as "one of the
great leaders o f his race” and stated
that Tuskegee Institute was a “ gen­
erous and progressive” model for
all Black education. M cK in le y’ s
speech, like Bush's, was prim arily
symbolic, yet both provided p o li­
tical support fo r the construction
and maintenance of all-Black educa­
tional institutio n s. W ith in three
years after McKinley’ s Tuskegee vis­
it, Blacks were com pletely disen­
franchised in the state o f Alabama,
and the rule o f “ separate but equal”
had become in stitutio n alized
throughout the South. The dual
system o f segregated higher educa­
tion would exist for over sixty years.
Would history repeat itself?
One o f the many promises made
by Presidential-hopeful Ronald
Reagan early in 1980 was a commit­
ment “ to improve and to defend”
traditionally Black colleges. Unlike
President Carter and independent
candidate John Anderson, Reagan
made substantial overtures to Black
educators and administrators at pre­
dominantly Black Southern institu­
tions. Reagan's chief Black aide.
Art Fletcher, was the former direct­
or o f the United Negro Colleg Fund.
The Republican nominee openly
embraced the Black College Day
demonstration held in Washington,
During the spring and summer the
D C., on September 29, 1980, and
Reagan Administration worked ag­
charged that “ the Carter Adminis­
gressively to d ra ft less stringent
tration— in the name o f desegregat­
terms for integration w ithin stale-
ing Black colleges—is forcing them
funded higher education programs.
to become schools for training ev­
By m id-A ugust, agreements fo r
erybody but Blacks.” Reagan also
F lorida, N orth C arolina, South
promised to encourage corporations
Carolina, Missouri, Louisiana, and
to increase their financial support
W est Virginia were completed which
for Black universities and pledged
would leave the old segregation era
“ to work to increase the share o f
Black and white in stitu tio n s v ir ­
Title III budget allocated to Black
tually intact. In general, the plans
colleges.”
ease pressures on the form erly
Under Carter’ s Adm inistration,
whites-only systems to hire addi­
Black colleges received a smaller
tional Black faculty and staff, and
percentage o f federal funds going to
cut back any additional Black super­
all universities than the Nixon-Ford
vision w ith in the governnance o f
years. Black educators had de­
state universities. They also include
nounced Carter’s intention to deseg­
provisions to improve both the aca­
regate two Black Texas colleges,
demic program and physical facilities
Southern and Prairie View. By lafe
available at formerly all Black col­
1979, Washington Post columnist
leges. The announcement o f the
W illia m Raspberry expressed the
newly relaxed desegregation policies
widely held view among Blacks that
had an immediate impact upon sev­
A dm inistration o ffic ia ls “ are un­
eral
court cases. Louisiana and Mis­
fam iliar with the historical role o f
sissippi
have consistently refused to
these (tradidionally Black) colleges
alter
their
dual college systems, and
and are indifferent to the vital ser­
were
sued
by the Federal Govern­
vice they perform .” Given this re­
ment
for
failing
to enforce Title VI
cent history, many Black college
o
f
the
1964
Civil
Rights A c , barring
administrators perceived that Rea­
racial
discrim
ination
by federally-
gan's election would mean a real ad­
supported
instutions.
The
Louisiana
vance for Black higher educational
case
was
postponed
as
state
and fed­
opportunities, despite his economic
eral
o
ffic
ia
ls
were
redrafting
a
austeriey program and conservative
settlement based on the North Caro­
social policies.
lina model.
The Reagan A d m in is tra tio n ’ s
first important announcement con­
The North C arolina agreement
cerning the fate o f Black colleges oc­
which was approved by Federal Dis­
curred, appropriately enough, at
tric t Judge F ranklin Dupree in
Tuskegee Institute. Institute Presi­
Raleigh on July 10, after eleven
dent Luther Foster had invited Rea­
years o f litigation, quickly became
gan to be the principal speaker at
(he basic document fo r all other
the April 12, 1981 “ Founder’ s Day”
Southern states. The plan keeps the
program , m arking the one-
dual educational system intact, and
hundredth anniversary o f the Tus­
has no provisions which would up­
kegee Institute Reagan’ s hospitali­ grade or expand m aster’ s or doc­
zation forced Vice President George toral programs at Black universities.
Bush to substitute for the chief exec­
It ignores any quotas for the hiring
utive. Bush did not disappoint his
or m in o rity faculty and s ta ff at
Black audience. Before three thous­
North Carolina’ s white universities.
and people, the Vice President de­
The plan commits the state to allo­
clared that his a dm inistration is
cate $80 m illio n “ to upgrade the
“ absolutely commited to supporting
physical plants and academic pro­
Dr. Manning Marable teaches pc
the nation's civil rights laws and to
grams” at the Black in stitu tio n s,
lilical economy at Cornell Universe
providing the resources necessary to
and provides some modest affirm a­
ly s African Studies Center, and i
make those laws work fairly and ef­
tive action guarantees to expand the
an activist in the National Black In
fectively for all Americans. We are
number o f Black graduate students
dependent Political Party.