Noble Son

Jesse's message of pride

The imposing, athletic black man wearing a red, white and blue track suit and white sneakers looked like a touring pro basketball star, but the crowds knew better. Instantly recognizing their visitor as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, black Africans reached out to touch the American civil leader as he made his way among the shacks and shanties that are home to more than 1 million people in the black township of Soweto, near Johannesburg. Earlier, Jackson had addressed a group of residents at Crossroads, a famed squatter community on the outskirts of Cape Town. He was greeted there by a banner reading WELCOME HOME, NOBLE SON OF AFRICA.

Arriving in South Africa on a two-week visit. Jackson offered enraptured black audiences the stirring mix of pep rally and gospel service that has made his program PUSH-EXCEL such a hit among blacks in the U.S. At two meetings in Soweto, he characteristically led the crowds in singing traditional hymns, as well as chants that stressed black consciousness and pride. He intoned: "I am somebody; I may be poor, but I am black, beautiful and proud." Then he called on his often tearful audiences to take up the chant. Referring to the 1976 racial riots, which were put down with murderous violence by South African police, he declared that "when dogs bit you here in Soweto, we bled in America." He characterized U.S. blacks as "African Americans" and said, "We bled in America when 1,000 of our brothers and sisters were killed here."

Jackson's public meetings with blacks were warm, emotional affairs, his private meeting with executives of U.S. corporations predictably though and cool. An ardent opponent of American investment in South Africa, Jackson was unimpressed by token attempts of some of the 350 American firms doing business in the country to challenge apartheid. Said he: "U.S. companies don't realize that real issue is not just providing social services but social change."

Surprisingly, Jackson's one man crusade received fair coverage in both the English and Afrikaans press, though he has long been under attack for his advocacy of sanction against the Pretoria government because of its racist policies. Indeed, the decision to admit him to South Africa at all was cause for astonishment. Though Pretoria denied that he had ever been blacklisted. Jackson said he had been turned down for a visa several times in recent years. This time he said he had turned to President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to support his visa application. Said one Pretoria government spokesman of the decision to allow him entry: " We considered we had little to lose. South Africa couldn't be worse than all things the Rev. Jackson has been saying about it all these years."

After a week of firsthand observation, Jackson conceded that the problem of producing meaningful social change was more difficult than he had imagined.

"American business leaders are caught between human rights provisions and the legal demands of our own Government while trying to maintain their business dealings inside this country," he said.

"The whole business establishment and the government seem to be on a collision course. The noose of apartheid is growing tighter, and the desire for freedom is expanding everywhere. This system is going to break."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.