14.
The Somalis, of course, describe Ethiopia as a colonial power to be
considered with the British and French and everybody else. I know there
was subregional imperialism that was practiced in Africa before the coming
of Europeans, but if we broke up all the countries on that basis of pre1800 political configuration we'd have 1,000 countires. So that, I
understand the 0.A.U. position that you can't begin to redraw borders now. And Somalia doesn't appreciate the fact that it has no African
support. But it has U.S. support. And the Kenyans, of course, are up
in arms about it, and part of the reason that we have to get $50,000,000 in arms to Kenya is because we gave $20,000,000 in arms to Somalia. And
then we talk about Cubans in Ethiopia and how to get them out? Well, if you scare the hell out of Ethiopia, you push them further into the
Soviet embrace. Ethiopia is in a sad shape. They've got insurrections
in about four provinces. The less defensible one, in my view, is the Eritrean one. But you've got a country controlled by about thirty per
cent of the population, an advantaged group, and a country that's afraid
that it's coming apart at the seams. And so countries like that get paranoid, and that just pushes them further and further into the Soviet embrace.
It is foolish for the Americans to pursue this kind of policy. And when
Dick Moose was asked what would the U.S. do if we had facilities there
and American soldiers there if the Ethiopians bombed Berbera. He said we would fight back. And there you find yourself enmeshed in a war you don't have the faintest understanding of. So I just think, again, it's
a ridiculous policy because we refuse to look at the area. It's the
chessboard again.
X: You were speaking before about Americans' attitudes towards Africa being
characterized as racist and with ignorance. What can TransAfrica do
to change Americans' attitudes?
R: Well, I think the first thing we have to do is to try to chip away at the
ignorance problem. It's not only a problem towards Africa, I think it's
a problem towards all of the Third World. America has to do something.
When I think of media. . let's talk beyond media, let's just say education generally. I'm from Richmond, Virginia. I'm thirty-nine now, I f inished high school in '59, I went from grade one through twelve in high
school, and I don't think I heard an African country mentioned five times.
But I knew all about Europe. So that I wasn't prepared. I got to college, and I remember a Nigerian student told me he was from Lagos and
T didn't know what that was. There is no basis for conversation because
you don't know anything about anything. Well, where's that? Is that
near London? I'm sure the African students here have had much the same experience in the United States. I went to a photographer, I was going
to Brurudi last November, and taking my wife and my children with me.
I go to a photographer to get the passport pictures, he said, "You're
taking your oiillcyz to Africa?" You know, this kind of thing is offensive. He's a nice guy though, he's just ignorant. And the sad thing
about it, he doesn't know he is, and he's just so terribly ignorant.
The question is how do you deal with it? Obviously, universities have
a role, and all of us have a role in trying to reshape our early childhood public school education. God knows what to do about the media.