Saturday & Monday, 28 & 30 June 1986: Some More Interesting Rotary Club Encounters in Lusaka

July 1, 1:30PM, home of Abe & Vera Galaun, Lusaka, Zambia

On Saturday evening, I was invited along with Bob, the Rotarian from Selibe-Phikwe, Botswana, to dinner at the home of Chris, the Rotary District Governor.  Also present were George, the District Governor-elect from Madagascar, as well as Nigel and his wife, Shirley, from Harare, Zimbabwe.  The latter were a charming English couple probably in their 60s who had spent many years in southern Africa.  They had lived under both white and black governments in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Northern Rhodesia/Zambia.  Nigel is a Rotary bigwig and was here as the Rotary International president’s representative.  He has been active for some time in Rotary District 925 which includes Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the conservative northern Transvaal area of South Africa.

  

I got very good vibes from black Chris and white Nigel as the three of us were talking in Chris’s spacious lounge (living room).  I decided to let these two influential Rotarians know what I really thought of Rotary in southern Africa.  My discourse went something like this:  “At this conference, I’ve met black, white, brown, and yellow people; English- and French-speakers; and people of various religions and political persuasions interacting positively and having fun together.  Yet, I’ve been to a number of Rotary meetings in South Africa which have been almost exclusively white – and most of these men have been English-speaking whites.  This has been a disappointment as I had hoped to meet non-white South African business and professional people through Rotary.  When I have mentioned this lack of diversity to the South African Rotarians, they seem to have ready-made excuses:  ‘Blacks aren’t interested in service organizations as helping less-fortunate members of the community doesn’t interest them.  Their only concern is with their own families.  Or even if a black man is interested in Rotary, his wife will veto the idea because she won’t want to socialize with white women.’  From what I’ve seen here in the last two days, I just can’t buy those arguments.  Of course, in defense of South African Rotarians, their racial situation is only a reflection of the larger society in which they live.  Still it’s too bad they aren’t working harder to recruit more non-white members.  To me, Rotary seems to be a good place to start building bridges between the races in South Africa.”

Even though he had been a district governor, Chris hadn’t been previously aware of the racial situation in South African Rotary Clubs.  Nigel was.  Here was an aging Englishman who seemed to be a likely racist.  Such was not the case.  He talked of his sadness and disgust with the situation in South African society.  Nigel told of one South African Rotarian who he’d thought to be a very moderate and reasonable fellow – that is, until he told Nigel that South Africa would solve its racial problems when it had all the blacks pushed back into the “homelands”.  Then whites would be in the majority.  Nigel added that most Afrikaners wouldn’t join Rotary because it smacked of internationalism.  He even knew of Afrikaners who hadn’t joined Rotary because to do so would have cost them their government jobs.  Nigel did recommend that I attend the Pretoria 6 Rotary Club.  He had helped to start the club, and says it is very multi-racial.

So I wonder when I go back to South Africa next week just how much patience I’ll have with the Rotarians there.  I was polite for two months and tried to overlook the racial make-up of their clubs.  Of course, if I get pushy on the issue now, they will just dismiss me as another American troublemaker.  It’s a dilemma, and I’m not sure if there is any comfortable middle road for me to take on this issue.

Back to our dinner with Chris’s family.  He has a nice home in the country outside of Lusaka that is decorated with African art, mineral samples, and charcoal drawings of his Kenyan wife, Charity, and their six daughters.  I had a long talk with articulate and pretty daughter Elizabeth who is about 17.  She and her twin sister are both first year students at the University of Zambia and plan to be veterinarians like their father.  Her political orientation is rather left-wing, reflecting her Zambian education and the local media propaganda.  It was great getting a young African perspective for once after listening to harangue after harangue from white neo-colonialists in southern Africa. 

I asked Elizabeth about the warning that blacks in South Africa will suffer more than whites if sanctions are imposed.  And what about people in places like Zambia.  Most of their imports and exports pass through South Africa.  Elizabeth said Africans are used to suffering, and they are already suffering anyway.  She felt the real reason the Americans and British do not want to impose sanctions on South Africa is not because they are worried about black people suffering.  It is because they don’t want to lose their business interests and trade with South Africa.  Elizabeth’s mother, Charity, a petite black woman with a big white smile, stared at me with piercing eyes and firmly said she would like to talk with “this Ronald Reagan”.  I doubt that Uncle Ronnie would like what she would say.

It’s interesting to come face to face with third-world people who don’t like the U.S. government.  On the one hand, it’s destressing that third-world leaders like Zambia’s President Kenneth Kaunda are willing to take U.S. foreign aid, then deluge their people with anti-American rhetoric.  On the other hand, why do the assholes in Washington always seem to be on the wrong side of history?  Why, for example, has the Reagan administration been practicing “constructive engagement” with the Botha regime in South Africa for years but only recently have they started making noises about talking with the ANC.  It’s all fucking politics with the American government.  It’s never an honest expression of the ideals for which our country supposedly stands. 

I asked Elizabeth if she felt expatriate workers were welcome in Zambia.  She said there was no racial animosity against whites working here.  This is the message I’ve been getting from most people here.  Zambia has been independent for 22 years, so there is little residual resentment left over from British colonial rule anymore.

Charity and her daughters served us an excellent meal with three kinds of meat smothered with tomatoes and onions.  It was the first time I’ve been a guest in an African home since arriving on the continent almost three months ago.

Lusaka had a population of around 650,000 when I was there.  It also had four Rotary Clubs.

 

Last night, I attended a Rotary meeting at Lusaka’s Nkwazi Club.  There were about 50 people in attendance including a number of wives.  The taxi to the meeting was actually twice the price of the meal itself:  30 Kwacha (US$4.00) to get the cab to come out here to Abe and Vera’s home to pick me up.  The delicious buffet dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel was Kw15 (two lousy bucks!) 

I started out drinking beer with three Filipinos who are here on contract with the World Bank as well as a local black psychiatrist.  Then, I talked to an Indian man who was originally from Uganda and fled the country to Britain when Idi Amin came to power.  He said it was a blessing in disguise for many of the people who left, because now they are doing much better financially elsewhere.  He recently came here from Britain to start a pharmaceutical company. 

At dinner, I sat with three local African couples including the club’s sergeant-at-arms who was quite the comedian.  There was also a Norwegian couple in their 40s who were here on contract working in agricultural development.

Chris and Charity were there to induct the new club president.  Chris was wearing outlandish light green robes and a gold sequined African-style hat.  Charity wore a black and yellow dress and huge white turban. 

There are now four Rotary clubs in Lusaka and this club is the newest.  When I presented them with the banner from North America’s highest Rotary Club, they drank a toast to members of the Summit County club, our club president, and me.

The evening’s speaker was the governor of the Bank of Zambia, an African gentleman who kept his speech delightfully short.  He basically said that Zambia welcomed foreign investment.  It is a young country and the leaders realize that expat workers can contribute considerable technical and business skill to Zambia.  They want Zambian workers and businessmen to learn from the foreigners.  It all sounded very positive, and I’d like to believe the guy.  But, my bullshit meter starts buzzing when politicians start talking.  At least his intentions seemed good.

After dinner, I talked with a Finnish man who is working here on contract.   He isn’t homesick because he has his family here, and there are about 35 other Finnish families in Lusaka that they socialize with.

At the introductions earlier, a couple from Gambia in West Africa was presented.  I had never met anyone from Gambia although I have a stamp collection from there.  So I introduced myself.  The woman was racially-mixed, pleasantly plump, and relatively quiet.  Her husband was considerably older – a tall black man with a grey beard.  He and I had a very animated conversation about South African racism and the prospects for English-speaking Gambia to form a new nation or federation with French-speaking Senegal which surrounds Gambia on three sides.  He thought it was a good idea but expressed his skepticism about good ideas ever getting very far in the African political scene.  I suspect the language differences would be an issue plus Senegal is much larger than Gambia in area and population.

I got a ride home with the out-going Nkwazi club president (a German), his wife, and a German co-worker.  Part of the point of my description of this meeting is to show the great diversity of people in this club.  I found it very interesting – very glad I attended.