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
Portland Observer
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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.