African Activist Archive

The pamphlet consists of testimony delivered on July 29, 1975. Houser expressed concern about the direction of U.S. policy toward Southern Africa, a region that has been the victim of conquest and exploitation for many years, persisting until today. In Rhodesia, where only 5% of the population is white, whites hold 50 of 66 seats in Parliament. In Namibia, approximately 13% of the population is white, yet no Africans are in the Legislature. In South Africa, 19% of the population is white, and, by law, no African can be elected to Parliament. Under apartheid, Africans have only the privilege, not the right, of leaving the reserve areas, or Bantustans, which occupy only 13% of the land. Guerrilla warfare finally succeeded in the Portuguese colonials of Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique, and the liberation movements also were the catalytic agents for the April 1974 coup that brought fundamental change to Portugal itself. For decades, the African National Congress attempted to peacefully change the institutions that Europeans created in South Africa. The banning of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) following the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 brought an abrupt end to the strategy of non-violence. American companies are in South Africa for profit, not to bring reform in the internal situation. U.S. policy towards southern Africa also is designed to maintain a good working relationship with those in power, the white minority. • The Situation in Southern Africa • The United States' Response

African Activist Archive

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RELEVANCE OF U.S. POLICY TO SOUTHERN AFRICA

Testimony of George M. Houser, Executive Director of the American Committee on Africa, to the Senate Subcommittee on Africa of the Foreign Relations Committee. Hearing on Southern Africa: Overview, July 29, 1975

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