The Africans
Page 46
Just as economic necessity has forced black African governments to start charting new courses, so must South Africa seek meaningful change if it is to survive as a republic. In both cases, the West can and should provide the needed technical, financial and moral support, but the impetus for change and the implementation of new policies can only come from Africa itself.
Africa still needs time, for the continent remains young in terms of independence. But the era is now past when Africa can blame all its problems on injustices rooted in history. Too much needs to be done. Africa must start looking forward—as I believe it has begun to do—and, with the help of the United States and Europe, undertake a rehabilitation program of post-wartime magnitude. The Africans really have no choice, because there is no alternative. The world needs a stable, self-sufficient Africa governed by the majority. And the Africans themselves surely need to be given hope that the worst is now behind them.
A STATISTICAL PROFILE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There is not room to thank the hundreds of people all across Africa who made this book possible by sharing their lives, confidences and knowledge with me. Many of them are mentioned in the preceding pages. I will single out only a few more here, but all have my lasting gratitude: The people who found me shelter in strange cities and towns where there was not an empty bed to be had; the teachers and doctors and government officials, the presidents and pesants whose hospitality I shall never forget; the American and European diplomats, particularly Chris Crabbie of the British High Commission in Nairobi, who became friends and confidants; the fellow journalists with whom I shared good times and bad. To all, I say thank you.
This book reflects as much of my wife, Sandy Northrop, as it does of me, for if ever a foreign assignment was a team effort, ours was. Sandy traveled with me through more than twenty countries, and her photographs appeared in the Los Angeles Times, her fluency in Swahili and French saved me much stumbling, her instincts for sensing what was happening in Africa were frequently sharper than my own. She helped shape many of my newspaper articles, and her sharp eye and red pencil worked miracles on the first draft of my book. “Why not try it this way?” she would ask, and she was invaribly right. But the greatest reward of all was Sandy’s companionship. It was her love and spirit that got me the extra mile.
I also want to extend my deep appreciation to John D. Panitza, senior editor of Reader’s Digest in Paris, who first suggested that I write this book; to my agent Carl D. Brandt, who offered much encouragement during the year that I spent six and seven days a week at my typewriter; to my editor at Random House, Robert Cowley, who showed me that the era of talented and caring editors did not end with Max Perkins; to Ambassador John Blane, an African expert at the U.S. State Department, who checked my manuscript for accuracy and who made suggestions that were incorporated into the text; to my editors at the Times, who gave me the opportunity to live in Africa, who worked with my stories while I was there and who later granted me a leave of absence to accept a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University: William F. Thomas, the editor; George Cotliar, managing editor; Robert W. Gibson, foreign editor; Nick Williams Jr. and Robert Trounson, deputy foreign editors. Three other colleagues on the Times deserve special mention: Jack Foisie, the Johannesburg bureau chief, whose excellent coverage of southern Africa helped focus many of my own thoughts on key issues; Stanley Meisler, former Nairobi bureau chief, whose African reportage remains a model—ten years after he left the continent—of perceptive, sensitive writing that Africanist scholars still value; and John Anguma, who managed our Nairobi office and whose knowledge of East African politics helped me greatly.
Most books represent far more than the moment in time the author is writing about. They reflect many past experiences and people and wanderings, and this one is no exception. Four people who influenced my professional life and to whom I am indebted are: Brooks Hamilton, professor of journalism at the University of Maine, who taught me that newspapering is an honorable profession and that nothing counts more than accuracy; Jim Leavy, who gave me my first newspaper job in 1965 when I pulled into Las Vegas, 2,500 miles from home, with an ailing car, $20 in my pocket and no work; Arthur Schiff, an American living in Australia, who taught me the difference between being a domestic reporter and a foreign correspondent; Paul and Cilia Miller of Boston, who showed me the wonders of moving beyond the confines of my own small world.
During our four years in Africa I collected 3,200 pages of notes and built a reference library containing more than 5,000 newspaper and magazine articles, several hundred books and scores of periodicals. This material represents the backbone of my research. But my primary source for the book is my own eyes and ears. The observations are my own, as, I might add, are any errors that have survived the close scrutiny the manuscript has undergone.
Statistics provided by African governments are notoriously unreliable, and I have, whenever possible, used figures provided by the World Bank in Washington, D.C., the United Nations and various Western embassies and research organizations. For general reference I used the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the World Almanac & Book of Facts (1981), and Statesman’s Year Book (1980). The best maps I found were printed by Michelin in Paris. There are also several useful periodicals, published annually in Europe, that provide statistical data and summaries of contemporary political and economic events. They are listed in the bibliography, which is by no means complete, representing as it does only a fraction of the publications I read before writing this book. But the list does, I think, provide an enlightened perspective on where Africa has been and where it is going.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID LAMB has spent eight years roaming Africa for the Los Angeles Times. Before that he was their Australian bureau chief and was a battlefront reporter in Vietnam for United Press International (it was Lamb who named Hamburger Hill). He has reported for the Times from more than a hundred countries and on all seven continents. He has been an Alicia Patterson Fellow and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and has been nominated six times for the Pulitzer Prize. He is at present on the Times’ national staff, based in Los Angeles. He is also the author of The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage.