NORTHERN RHODESIA: Shakedown

Northern Rhodesia, where blacks outnumber whites 31 to 1, has long been a bastion of rampant white supremacy among Britain’s African territories. For years African shoppers were not even allowed in stores, had to be served through hatchways in the wall. But encouraged by Britain’s Colonial Office, the protectorate last month promulgated a new law forbidding racial discrimination in hotel dining rooms, restaurants, cafés and movie houses.

At first all the worst fears of pessimists seemed justified. In the copper-belt city of Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia’s largest (pop. 78,300), angry white mobs swirled through the streets, shrieking curses and obscenities. One European sent an African sprawling in the gutter, gloated, “That’s the fourth one I’ve sorted out tonight.” In a Kitwe nightclub, two Africans were quietly having dinner when a white customer walked over and punched one in the jaw. Police urged the bleeding African to press charges. “No, sir,” he replied. “They’ve got to learn, and we must have patience.”

Firmly backed by the colonial government, police arrested scores of troublemakers, and the courts wasted no time in imposing fines and warning of jail terms for second offenders. As violence subsided, Rhodesian whites tried boycotting. Throughout the copper belt, cafe owners moaned that their white customers were nowhere to be seen.

Last week the boycott also seemed to be petering out. A few curious Africans continued to wander into hotels and restaurants to see how the white men spent their money; some brought their own lunches and merely ordered a soft drink to wash it down. But the majority showed little permanent interest in invading the expensive haunts of the whites, and Rhodesia’s European colony began to realize that the economic bar was practically as effective as the color bar—and far less embarrassing to maintain. There was even a spontaneous reaction against earlier hysteria. At Kitwe, when a mine company’s cinema tried to evade the law by converting itself into a club for white “members,” so many Europeans switched over to the desegregated commercial theater that the management flashed a grateful “thank you” on the screen.