Special Interest
page 5
Angelou Tells Inspiring story T ^cf
by Karen Lems Jl JL C C d L JLj dd L
In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of her four
autobiographies, writer and poet Maya Angelou confronts her early
childhood with touching honesty, with understanding and humor which
-raises it above other autobiographies. She writes not to praise herself,
scold others or even to condemn the oppressors of her youth, but instead to
reveal the blessings and curses of growing up black in the white South in the
days before the Civil Rights Movement. More than that, she writes to
share the dreams and heartaches of a romantic and intelligent girl
®I™gglirig to rise above prejudice and hate, daring to be more than times
allow.
The tale is colorful, spiritual, and poignant, at times infuriating and
violent; her warm, flowing prose conveys with surprising accuracy the
vvhirlwind emotions of her adventurous childhood. From Stamps, Arkansas,
where she lives as an orphan with her grandmother and crippled Uncle
Willie, to the sooty, living streets of St. Louis, where she first meets her
beautiful and daring mother and rowdy, powerful uncles, to California,
where she becomes the first black to operate a San Fransico street car - her
imagination, perseverance, and strength thrusts her up, above the
ambivalence around her, into excellence.
The characters of Maya Angelou's life are memorable and
larger-than-life. We see some part in each of them which contributes to the
Whole of the great woman who has given so much of herself to the literature
of our time. Of particular importance is her brother, Bailey, for years her
Only friend and the greatest influence of her childhood. It is inspiring, and
it is true.
Maya Angelou continues her story in Gather Together in My Name. Singin'
^d Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas, and The Heart of a Woman.
3ll available in Bantam Books. She has also published poetry, some of
which was featured in last week's issue of this paper. She is now a member
of the Humanities Department at Wake Forest University.
J Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was originally published in 1970.
Sociologist Entertains
by Tamiko Harrison
"Get down and get back up again" was one
of the many one liners Bertice Barry left with
the Salem conrununity. A doctor of Sociology,
Bertice made us laugh at ourselves while
giving insight on what is it like to be a black
woman in the United States. Some laughed
knowingly while others chuckled self
consciously when Bertice told of an incident
that took place in a public bathroom not long
after she got her PhD. It seems that there
were two women waiting to use the bathroom
after Bertice, yet neither of the women were
anxious to use the stall Bertice had just
vacated. Bertice was able to turn her
disbelief at the behavior of the women into a
double edged sword by exclaiming as she
pulled her sleeves over her hands before
turning on the water,"I always do this
because you never know about white people."
Through her humor, Bertice delivered a
message of understanding and appreciating
our differences. There was also an
opportunity to laugh at...excuse me, laugh
with some of Salem's finest as Bertice
encouraged Ty Rice to express himself as a
Tina Turner look-a-like. She also gave a new
twist to Shakespeare by updating the
language just a tad. Bertice also gave a small
lesson in linguistics, tracing the origin of the
infamous four letter word often used to brush
off unwelcomed male attention: For
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge man."
1
by Kara Hayes
"Universal suffrage on a common
voters roll in a united democratic
and nonracial South Africa is the
only way to peace and racial
harmony."
These are the words spoken by
anti-Apartheid activist Nelson
Mandela in his speech at Cape
Town City Hall upon his release on
Feruary 11,1990 after more than 27
years of imprisonment. It was in
1961 that the black
lawyer-activist spoke of the fight
against white supremacy in South
Africa as "no easy walk for
freedom" after almost three
centuries of white domination. His
walk certainly proved to be a hard
one when he was arrested on August
5, 1962 for leaving the country
illegally and organizing illegal
political protests through the
banned organization, the African
National Congress (ANC).
Sentenced to life imprisonment two
years later on charges of sabotage
and plotting to overthrow the
nationalist government, Mandela
spent 18 years at the high security
prison at Robbens island. It was
only in 1982 when he was
transferred to Pollsmoor prison near
Capetown that he was able to
communicate with his wife after
almost twenty years and to receive
uncensored letters and newspapers.
After a battle with tuberculosis,
Mandela was transferred to
Victor-Vester prison farm near
Cape Town.
Former South African President
Botha offered Mandela his
freedom in 1985 on the condition
that he renounce his policy of
violence. Upon Mandela's refusal
of the proposed terms of his
release, Botha began unofficial
meetings with Mandela to discuss
terms of his release. These
meetings were continued after F.W.
DeKlerk assumed the Presidency of
the South African Nationalist
government on August 14, 1989.
DeKlerk began reforms in
September 1989 when he armounced
that peaceful protests against the
governments were allowed. He
continued with reforms on Octobe>
15, 1989 with the release of six
ANC leaders and one
Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC)
leader. On February 2, 1990,
President DeKlerk removed the ban
on the African National Congress
as well as the bans on thirty other
organizations, and announced that
Mandela would soon be released.
DeKlerk described Mandela as an
'elderly", "dignified" and
'interesting" man in his press
conference on February 10, 1990
following the announcement that
Mandela would soon be released
unconditionally on the following
day. President F.W. DeKlerk
remarked that there was concern
ibout Mr. Mandela's safety due to
the rightist, white supremist
demonstrations against Mandela's
release, as well as extreme leftist-
protestors calling for the violent
ovethrow of the national
government. But Mandela had
refused any formal relationship
with the government, including
government protection, until the
state of emergency declared on June
12, 1986 had been lifted and the
political prisoners jailed for
protests against Apartheid were
released. DeKlerk was careful not
to speak on Mandela's behalf,
rather he talked of the proposed
peaceful negotiations for a
constitution for South Africa in
which he assured the 28 million
black Africans complete
citizenship rights but not black
(Supremacy over the 5 million white
South Africans. He called for an
open door policy for Mandela, and
any other black leaders to discuss
negotiations for the new
constitution and assured the
audience that the government was
taking steps that were in the best
interest of South Africa.
On February 11, 1990, Mandela
walked a free man from
Victor-Vester prison farm near
Cape Town, raising his fist in the
ibold, black nationalist salute to a
crowd of approximately 5000 black
and white supporters. His
entourage travelled down roads
packed with cheering South
Africans bearing signs that read
"Welcome Home" and "Power". He
spoke that afternoon in his unique
and eloquent but militant fashion to
a crowd of 20,000 South Africans at
the Cape Town City Hall. He
reaffirmed his support for the / NC
and stated that he would not
negotiate for the new Constitution.
Instead, he would encourage
negotiations between the ANC and
the national government. Mandela
forcefully called for an increase of
pressure in the white nationalist
government until Apartheid is
completely destroyed. He saluted
the "Spear of the Nation", which
is the military faction of the ANC,
cont on p. 9 - Mandela