The Traveling Ted And Bill Show

The diplomatic act that some journalists in Africa call "the Traveling Ted and Bill Show" hopscotched around the continent last week--from Maputo to Dar es Salaam, Lusaka to Pretoria, Salisbury to Pretoria again, and on to London. Through it all, Britain's Minister of State for Africa Edward Rowlands and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs William Schaufele wore smiles that occasionally seemed frozen on their faces. "I think we have a measure of agreement," chirped Rowlands. Added Schaufele: "We are clear of all difficulties, and now the end should be achieved." Sure enough, at week's end the British government announced that the conference to set up an interim government in Rhodesia, first step in the transition to black majority rule, would be convened next week in Geneva.

The only trouble was that the parties involved--the white Rhodesians, the black Rhodesians, the five "frontline" Presidents of Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Angola--had sharply differing ideas of what the conference was supposed to accomplish. "Rowlands and Schaufele seemed to be trying not to offend or differ with anyone," said a Western diplomat in Tanzania. "Their idea seems to be to get a conference going, and then hope that things will work out simply because everyone is in one room."

Power Sharing. A week earlier, black and white leaders appeared to have agreed in principle to the "Kissinger plan," formulated during the U.S. Secretary of State's recent trip to southern Africa, to bring about black rule in Rhodesia within two years. But they disagreed as to what the plan specifically was. As spelled out in public by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, Kissinger's formula would set up an interim government in which whites would share power with blacks--but would remain dominant during the changeover.

Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, most influential of the front-line Presidents, challenged this view, insisting that black majority rule must come immediately. Mozambique's President Samora Machel, host to the largest band (5,000 to 8,000) of Rhodesian guerrillas, said he would continue to support "armed struggle by the gallant freedom fighters of Zimbabwe [the black African name for Rhodesia] until the day independence is achieved." Ian Smith was grousing that Kissinger's package deal included an end to guerrilla warfare and international sanctions. To make matters worse, after a week-long conference in Mozambique, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, rival leaders of nationalist factions, claimed to have cemented their differences in a new "Patriotic Front." Rejecting the Kissinger proposals as a basis for discussion, the two black leaders demanded that the conference in Geneva be postponed. While agreeing to attend talks, both indicated that the only subject for negotiation should be "immediate transfer" of power from the "colonial power"--Britain--to the "people of Zimbabwe." Should Ian Smith or any white Rhodesian at tend, Nkomo and Mugabe said, "we can only regard him/them as an extension of the United Kingdom delegation." Both vowed to "intensify" the guerrilla efforts under the joint command of the "Patriotic Front."

Has a Rhodesian settlement gone off the tracks? Possibly. But the U.S., Britain and South Africa were still committed to the principle of majority rule within two years. If they remained firm, the agreement still had at least a chance of success.

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