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to the national government. So con- forces in their Manchurian sanctuary. Mac-
Arthur said his forces were put under “an
. .cerned were our diplomats and their enormous handicap, without precedent in
military history.” Acheson defends his
advisers . with the imperfections of share of responsibility for these restrictions,
which were necessary, he argues, to avoid
the political system in China after 20 the danger of general war with Red China
years of war, and the tales of corruption and the Soviet Union. His only regret is
in high places, that they lost sight of that he waited so long to urge President
our tremendous stake in a noncommu- Truman to sack MacArthur. Acheson’s im-
nist China. plication that responsible military leaders
did not agree with MacArthur is, of course,
For one who has never had any military false. General Mark Clark, the last com-
training or experience, Acheson is remark- mander in the Korean War, said that if he
ably self-confident as a strategist. He recalls had been in MacArthur’s place he would
that General Lucius Clay and his politi- have “screamed to the high heavens for
cal adviser, Ambassador Robert Murphy, authority to bomb the bases, airfields, and
wanted to break the Soviet blockade of Ber- other installations in Manchuria and China
lin in 1948with an armed convoy. “TO say, from which these aggressors derived their
as Murphy has done, that the decision to source of strength and power.”
use the ‘airlift was a surrender of our hard-
won rights in Berlin’ seems to me silly,” Acheson’s book no doubt will convince
Acheson writes. It was equally silly, he his grandchildren that he was a combina-
argues, to interpret his speech to the Na- tion Metternich, Castlereagh, and Talley-
tional Press Club on January 12, 1950, as rand, as he fancied when the Austrians en-
a signal to the Communists that they could tertained him in the Ballhausplatz, where
attack South Korea without fear of inter- the Congress of Vienna met. And because
vention by the United States. In that speech of what passes for history in our colleges
he said the “defensive perimeter” of the today, the grandchildren probably will
United States ran south from Japan never know better.
through the Ryukyus to the Philippines,
thus excluding South Korea from our pro- Reviewed by CHESLYMANLY
tection. Yet he describes the communist at-
tack in June, 1950, as “an open, undis- For a Black Studies Course
guised challenge to our internationally ac-
My People, My Africa, by Credo
.cepted position as the protector of South -v7 usa’mazuiu Mutwa, New York: The
John Day Company, 1969. 257 pp.
Korea . . under the very guns of our de- $6.95.

fensive perimeter,” etc. ONE OF THE MOST interesting features of
this remarkable work by a Zulu witch-
Acheson charges that MacArthur’s re- doctor is the author’s defense of the South
ports from Korea were evidence of schiz-
ophrenia, one of the worst forms of insan- African government’s policy of apartheid
ity. He says the messages reflected alternat- and his scorn for those white liberals “who
ing “manic” and “depressive” states. Mac- talk loudly about equal rights in public,
Arthur’s Inchon landing, he writes, would but in private do nothing whatever to make
be “regarded today as one of the classic life easier even for their own Bantu ser-
military victories of history had it not been vants.” Inequality and apartheid, he ar-
the prelude to the greatest defeat suffered

by American arms since the Battle of Ma-

nassas and an international disaster of the
first water.” And for this Acheson blames
MacArthur, not Washington’s orders for-
bidding him to bomb the Yalu river
bridges or to strike at Chinese communist

206 Spring 1970

gues, are not the same. . . .thing of all that it has brought is doubt,

Apartheid is a law of nature. We do even atheism. [The converts] saw

not see different species of birds and an- that white men practiced anything but

imals mingling together indiscriminately, what they preached, and they were

but each remaining with its own kind, told by some that God made us out of

its own customs and instincts. Nor do we dust in his own image, while others told

see them arguing that one species is them we are all descended from monkeys.

superior to another. This argument sel- And now we see the white man turn his

dom arises among human beings unless . . .back on the religion he taught us so

two different races, nations or creeds fervently.

become mingled together in the same The Bantu are beginning to hate

place. Are the Afrikaners to be blamed Christianity-they associate it more than

for having made this discovery? anything with the political deceptions

What the world fails to realize is that have always been played on them.

that apartheid is what the Bantu In any riot it is the mission schools

wants-from the Transkei up to Ni- which are always the first to be burnt

geria and Ghana. Apartheid is what down. But what is to be put in its

we want and need-and what we do place? Many, many of these Bantu

. . .not want is discrimination. The are empty, bleak Godless zombies, ripe

only Bantu who do not want this are for conversion to any subversive

those poor creatures who are so de- creed. Man without God in his heart

tribalized that they no longer know is lost! Christianity is turning us into a

how or what they are or what is good race of atheists.

for them. The only alternative, as Mutwa sees it, to
revolutionary violence, civil war, and im-
To a contemporary American it doubt- measurable bloodshed is a reversion to
less seems both odd and ironic that an the ancient tribal pieties, traditions,
African black man should thus expound and social organization, free from white
the principle of “separate but equal,” but contamination. For this reason he is a warm
Mutwa believes that it has been associa- advocate of the Bantustans, those semiau-
tion with the white man’s civilization and tonomous enclaves in which the govern-
culture, and especially with the white ment is resettling the various Bantu tribes,
man’s religion, that has brought about the although he is critical of some aspects of
moral and spiritual degeneration of the the plans for them.
Bantu peoples.
These are bitter words, and doubtless
Many Bantu have turned Christian, have grieved the Right Reverend Bishop
but Christianity can never make them
happy. Christianity does not suit the Trevor Huddleston and other earnest
Christian opponents of apartheid. But it
Bantu at all. . . . Fortunately in the should be noted that Mutwa himself is a
former Christian. He is descended on the
case of most Christian Bantu, the veneer maternal side from a line of witchdoctors
-his great grandfather, Silwane Shezi,
...of Christianity is very thin. To many was in attendance on the Zulu chief Din-
gaan when Piet Reteif and his party of
it has brought only dissatisfaction with voortrekkers were treacherously murdered
tribal life, and a desire to be accepted at Dingaan’s command; but Mutwa’s father
was a Catholic catechist and the son’s
by the white men as one of them- given name is taken from the Nicene
selves-something that will never h a p creed (Credo in unum Deum!). Mutwa

pen. It has brought prostitution, illegit-

imate children by the thousand, and

. .venereal disease, because it preaches

against polygamy. . But the worst

Modem Age 207

received a European education in the Cath- felt.” He would do this “come iniprisoii-
olic schools; he must have been an assidu- ment, torture or death, and even if the fires
ous and intelligent pupil, since his book re- of Hell or the cold of eternal darkness stood
veals a considerable insight into Euro- in my way.” (There is no record of Mut-
pean history and thought. He also claims
wa’s ever having been tortured or imprison-
a wide acquaintance with European litera- ed lor any long period, though he speaks
ture, including Homer, Aristotle, Vergil, of having been locked up on occasion for
Voltaire, and Sir Walter Scott. One thing forgetting his pass book.)
about the white man’s culture, though,
has remained utterly incomprehensible- Mutwa’s two earlier books, Indaba, Afy
his music, especially violin music. Mutwa Children, and Africa Is My Witness, whicli
finds the noises that white men make on have provided most of the material for this
one, were written in the Zulu vernacular,
“those funny little chin guitars” to be but the English style of W y People, M y
frightening, indeed maddening; yet he Africa suggests a strong possibility of a
recognizes that white listeners “seem to white collaborator. That any Zulu witch-
understand this weird scraping and screech- doctor should write any book in any
ing that sounds as if a thousand witches language, let alone a book that revealed, or
were being tortured.” On the other hand purported to reveal, the secrets of his
Mutwa acknowledges that many white ancient and mysterious profession, would
persons (presumably those unhabituated have seemed only a short time ago a
to rock-’n-roll) find the Bantu tribal mu- fantastic improbability; but it is Mutwa’s
sic, with its shouting, stamping and hand- belief that a great many, if not most, of the
clapping, barbaric. From this he con- troubles between black and white in Africa
cludes that “what is right for one race is have been due to the ignorance and mis-
not necessarily right for another,” a truth understanding by members of either race of
that most Americans, black and white, the psyschology and customs of the other.
seem in danger of forgetting. It is easy nowadays, Mutwa believes, for a
literate Bantu to remedy his ignorance of
It was on a visit to his mother in Zulu- white ways-all he need do is observe his
land in 1958 that Mutwa was persuaded employers and patronize the second-hand
to renounce Christianity and to undergo bookshops; but to persuade a white man
some ritual of purification. Then began his that Bantu beliefs and practices may be
instruction in the lore and arts of a tribal something more than mere lies or pure
witchdoctor at the hands of his grand- superstitition is a more difficult matter.
father, Ziko Shezi, another famous induna
and a veteran of the Zulu War. In the The book begins with the creation myths
meantime Mutwa had fallen in love with still told by the old men and women to
a young Basuto woman, whom he hoped open mouthed boys and girls seated round
to marry. She was one of those killed in the village night fires “irr thc dark &xesLL-b
the great riot at Sharpeville in 1960
when the South African police fired into and on the aloe-scented plains of Africa,”
an unruly Bantu mob. Over her open tales of the Mother Goddess, of her “First
coffin he cut a vein in his left hand and People” and her “Second People” of the
let ten drops of his blood fall into “one origins of various African races, Pygmies,
of the gaping bullet wounds that de- Hottentots, Bushmen, and so on. The
filed her dark brown slender body.” This Bantu, it seems, believe in a soul and
ritual, it seems, is called “a Chief‘s Great conccive of it in the form of two worms,
Blood Oath,” and with it Mutwa swore to one good, one evil, and therefore con-
“tell the world the truth about the Bantu stantly in conflict. When the two are in
people and so save many of my country- balance the body the soul inhabits is well,
when they are not it is sick. A soul may
men the agony of the bereavement we have had many abodes-grass, a tree, an

208 Spring 1970

animal-before taking up its dwelling place Iti, such as bronze helmets and sword
in a man. When the man dies it goes into hilts, bits of armor, gold and silver coins,
a bird and then into a star. God, the God and so on have been preserved over the
of the Bantu, is beyond good and evil and centuries by generations of witchdoctors
is indifferent to man, but most of the
lesser deities are malevolent or mischie- and are still used, so Mutwa tells us,
vous and must be appeased. Then follows a in magic rituals. Other evidences of the
complex of legends, transmitted orally from presence of the Ma-Iti are to be seen in the
one generation to the next over thousands famous rock paintings, notably the “White
of years and having, as Mutwa not im- Lady of the Brandberg,” in South West
plausibly insists, at least as much historical Africa, about which there has been so much
validity as the written annals of literate speculation and controversy. Any Bantu
peoples. witchdoctor, it seems, could have cleared
up the mystery about this picture had the
One of the most fascinating of these white experts deigned to ask him. The Abbe
legends concerns the pink-skinned peo- Breuil was right, Mutwa says, in declaring
ple that Mutwa calls the Ma-Iti and iden- the central figure to be that of “a white
tifies with the Phoenicians, though they person of Caucasoid or Semitic origin,”
seem in some ways to have resembled but wrong in supposing it to be female.
Minoans, Pelasgians, or even Greeks. The Instead, it represents “a strikingly hand-
Zimbabwe ruins in Rhodesia do bear un-
mistakable testimony to the white man’s some young white man” who is confi-
presence in Southern Africa in very ancient dently identified by our author as the early
times. The architectural pattern indicated Ma-Iti Emperor Karesu 11. The rock paint-
by the ruins includes an acropolis, or ings, however, are not the work of the Ma-
inner citadel, a temple, and an elaborate Iti; most of them were made by Bushmen.
system of outer fortifications that could So far from being one of the most primi-
have been designed only by a military tive tribes, as they are commonly consider-
genius. This must have been the site of ed, the Bushmen are, we are told, one of
Zima-Mbje, capital of the Ma-Iti. Whoever the most talented and advanced.
the Ma-Iti were, and wherever they came
from, they were first seen, according to They were the first to have a proper
legend, some centuries before Christ, ad-
vancing up the Zambesi in their many- calendar. . . . They . . . kept track of
oared single-masted ships of Mediter-
ranean design. They had metal weapons the seasons, and with their great knowl-
and were highly versed in the arts of war
and soon subjugated the indigenous tribes edge of all other natural phenomena
and built a vast slave trading and com-
mercial empire. They introduced new crops they were (and still are) better long-
and a terraced form of agriculture, and
their vast plantations were worked by term weather forecasters then anything
thousands of black slaves. They became
enormously rich, addicted to every form of . . .the white man has at his disposal even
luxury, and so followed the familiar pat- today. Their knowledge of herbal
tern of political and social decadence.
Eventually, their empire was overthrown medicine, poisons and antidotes still baf-
by Bantu tribesmen led by a folk hero
called Lumukanda. Their magnificent city les white scientists. The durable quality

was destroyed and its inhabitants slaugh- of the materials in their cave paintings

tered without mercy. Artifacts of the Ma- puts modern industrial paint to shame.

Some of their pictures have survived the

elements for thousands of years while

the white man is still trying to find a

paint that will last, exposed to the

weather, for more than five or ten years.

Mutwa’s interpretations of the rock paint-
ings gain some additional authority, per-
haps, from the fact that he is himself an
artist of sorts. In February 1969 at the

Modern Age 209

Mona Lisa Art Gallery in Johannesburg he the power of the witchdoctors in trying to
exhibited four strange allegorical paintings, understand the religious psychology of the
somewhat reminiscent of the surrealist fan- heathen blacks. Still, if it had not been for
tasies of Salvador Dali, which attracted the missionaries and their schools, Mutwa
wide attention. would never have been able to write this
book. And as for white hypocrisy, one
There is nevertheless a hint of disin- might ask by way of riposte how it is that
genuousness about Mutwa and his book, Mutwa, the apostle of tribalism, up to now
and this is sometimes confirmed where has found reasons for preferring to live in
it is possible to check his narratives against the “asphalt jungle” of Johannesburg rather
known facts. For example in his effort to than in the idyllic bush with his tribesfolk.
justify the murder of the Retief party, on Yet he insists that all he wants is “to live
the ground that one of them had violated again in a typical Zulu kraal, at peace
a tribal tabu, he carefully neglects to men- with the world, with a Bantu wife to
tion that by previous arrangement with bear me stalwart sons and daughters to
Dingaan the voortrekkers were unarmed. whom I can teach the tribal law and in
Nor is there a mention of the subsequent
massacre of their helpless wives, children, whom I can instill respect and reverence
and Hottentot servants, the scene of which
is today called Winnen, or the place of for our tribal heritage.”
weeping. Again his account of the trouble The real value of the book is in its
over the construction of the Kariba dam of
the Zambesi is only partly correct. From repudiation of fallacies widely shared in
the days of the great southward migration Europe and America about race and poli-
of the Mambo, Nguni, and Xhosa, the river tics in the South African Republic, its pro-
gorge had been a burial ground for test against “the way in which ignorant
all the tribes and thus a holy place. people all over the world have blackened
Mutwa tells us that when the Tonga re- the present government worse than the bot-
fused to evacuate the dam site they were tom of a witch‘s pot.” Mutwa may or may
driven out by gunfire and many of them not know whereof he speaks when he asscrts
killed. In Zambia the Tonga resisted with that at the beginning of the Boer War
firearms and were fired on by the constab- the Bantu tribes wanted to fight with the
ulary. In Rhodesia the necessity of the Afrikaners against the British, but he is
flooding was explained to the Tonga; they certainly right in saying the Nationalist
were given time to remove the remains of governments of Dr. Malan and Dr. Ver-
their ancestors and left quietly. Mutwa’s woerd and their successors have won the
curious assertion that certain “guardians respect of the Bantu in a way that the
of Bantu history,” meaning, presumably, British-oriented government of General
the witchdoctors, were considering the
“elimination” of the Abb6 Breuil because he Smuts could not. He also recognizes that
had come so close to guessing the secret of
the Brandberg painting hardly squares with the separation of the races is the only prac-
the oft-reiterated dictum that blacks and ticable way of averting future violence and
whites need to know all about each other’s possibly revolutionary chaos, and that dif-
customs, beliefs, and traditions so as to ferences of color are only the outward signs
avoid giving offense.
of profound psychological and cultural in-
Nor should Mutwa’s animadversions compatibilities. Or in the words of a Na-
against Christianity be taken at full value, tionalist cabinet minister, “If the Bantu
though it is now admitted and regretted were green and we were green, the dif-
that the early missionaries did not spend ference would still be there.”
some of the effort used in trying to break
Reviewed by ALLENT. BLOUNT

210 Spring 1970