PROMI T DETROITERS HO ORED BY W U - Dr. Ch rl Vincent (left) and Marle Farrell­
Don Id n (rt ht), both Detroit re Idents, reel ved 0 Un ul ed Alumni Award from Wayne State Unlver­
ity t the recent winter commencement ceremony. The p lr w greeted beforehand by Bo rd of Govemo
member Brenda Scott, Iso of Detroit. Vincent i the newly-named chlefo 0 tetri d gynecology at Detroit
Riverview Ho pltal. F rrel-Donald on l. om bud man for the city of Detroit.
Africans angered as
Arab aristocracy shuns
discussion of democracy
By MICHELLE FAUL
• ASSOCIATED PRESS WR�ER
DAKAR, SENEGAL (AP) - The
I absence of many Arab leaders
from the first Islamic summit ever
, held in Black Africa ha aroused
resentment and deepened rifts be­
tween the two Muslim groups.
Political, cultural and
economic issues that divide Arabs
. and Black Africans including a
long history of slave trade also
contributed to strains at this
week's summit of the Organiza­
tion of the Islamic Conference,
held in the Senegale e capital,
Dak r.
The organization represents
more than 1 billion Muslims.
When African delegates tried to
discuss their continent's growing
# pro-democracy movement and
human rights, delegates from
Arab countrie ruled by royal
families shunned the topic.
"I think after thi conference
the rift will widen between Black
Africans and Arabs, and by and
large the more fundamentalist
countries," said Mohamed
Mbodj, professor of history at the
University of Dakar.
SENEGALESE SAID they
. were disturbed by the attitude of
some Muslim fundamentalist
delegates, who eemed critical of
the ho ts' national dress and un­
covered heads and objected to the
availability of alcohol.
"We have always shown more
'respect for them than they accord
to us," Senegal's President
Abdou Diouf was quoted as
saying in an interview with the
French newspaper Le Monde.
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia,
Pre ident Hosni Mubarak of
Egypt, Morocco's King H�an II
and Tunisian President Zme at­
Abidine Ben Ali had been ex­
pected to attend the conference.
But they sent lower-level officials
instead.
The absence of many Arab
leader "i disappointing" and a
slight to Black Africans, Diouf
said. Africans noted that none of
the Arab leader di cu ed
democracy, a burning is ue on the
continent wher in th pa t two
year 21 former one-party states
have agreed in principle to multi­
party democracy.
GAMBIAN PRESIDENT Sir
Dawda Jawara, who addressed
the meeting on behalf of the
Africans, said human rights was a
continuing challenge for mem­
bers and said it "must be
promoted in a free and democratic
society if we are to ensure politi­
cal stability which is 8 sine qua
non for economic development. "
'Th'e "Arabs
give African
states money
.and expect
us to obey
their. wishes
without
question'
He spoke oon after the emir of
Kuwait, Sheik Jaber I-Ahmed al­
Sabah, whose royal family like
tho e of other P rsian Gulf tate
rules by right of birtH.
The 2 1.3 million Black Mus­
lim in Africa outnumber all
regional Muslim blocs except the
Indian ubcontinent, where an e -
timated 275 million Meslims live.
The gulf penin ula, where I lam
was born 14 centurie ago, c·
counts for 62.6 mUlion Muslim ,
according to conference statis­
tics.
Political difference 'at the
meeting were also highlighted by
the Asso iation of African Juri ts,
ba ed in Dak r, which thi week
denounced a conference re olu­
tion on human rights in the Is­
lamic world.
The juri ts said the re olution
"sanctions the death penalty and
gi es legal authority to phy ical
bodily damage such a the am­
putation of limb of convicted
people" according to Muslim
Sharia law. Africa's poverty and
the Persian Gulf's wealth is
another cause for division, Mbodj .
said in an interview.
"They give us money and treat
us like children that you give the
fare to go to the cinema so they
will shut up and get out of your
hair. The Arabs give African
states money and expect us to
obey their wishes without ques­
tion."
THE DI SENSION has in­
flamed ember of resentment
dating back to the seventh cen­
tury, when Arab warriors invaded
Africa, forcing their Islamic
religion on the continent's
animists and taking slaves back
home.
"Being Black is considered in
some aspect of the Arabic culture
as being linked to slavery and al 0
to a people who are not really
civilized," Mbodj said.
A Saudi journalist, Abdul Tash
agreed. "I cannot defend the
Arab .' said Abdul Tash, chief
editor of the Saudi weekly AI­
Muslimoon. "There are some
people thinking in that way. But I
think this is changing, though this
kind of change will take some
time, a long time." .
Senegal, the westernmo t
point of the globe at which Islam
w halted, has been in a r ci 1
conflict with Mauritania that
began with a border dispute in
1989 and degenerated into racist
violence between the so-called
white Moors, or Arab , and Black
Africans.
Hundred of people were
I ynched and lied.
BLACK STILL are
enslaved in Mauritania, although
lavery wa officially banned
there in 1980. Africa Watch; the
U.S.-ba etl international human
rights group, in a report I t year
quoted a lave describing a lave
martet that too place between
the end of 1989 and the begiMing
of 1990.
Y DANNY COOKS
A f w months 0, r pp r nd
"Boyz N'th« Hood" t r I ub
w the center of controv y du to
hi promotion of S1. Id m It liq­
uor. Because S1. Ide w mo 1-
coholic than oth r m It I iq u r ,
community activi t from around
th country demanded th t p ters
howing Ice Cube drinkin S1. Id
be pulled from Black and Hy pani
neighborh od .
R verend Michael Pfleg r of t.
Sabina Rectory in Chicago has
joined with Wayne County Com­
mi sioner Alberta Tin ley- Wil­
liams and other repeatedly to
challenge the right of br werie to
. t rget inner city communitie with
cheap, overly-potent conco tions.
He i one of tho e re ponsible for
removing billboards for Power­
master, another potent malt liquor,
from Black and Hispanic neighbor­
hoods recently. After the all-out ef­
fort mustered to eliminate
Powermaster, Pfleger doe n't in­
tend to stop beating back new and
improved poi ons di tributed t the
poor- by the rich.
"We're working on a more
general attack on the problem with
Attorney General Novello, (for)
legislation to wipe 'em all out,"
Pfleger told the Michigan Citizen in
a recent teleprione interview.
"Norvello's go I i to prohibit ad­
vertisement of any ort for al­
coholic beverage. A ta k force
comprised of govermental, in-
D where cr c
in i in, why thi ttention
t r? "Bee e th edu tion 0
ur kid. b gin with ci rette nd
b r," PO ger e plain d. H not d
that cig r tte and lcohol re th
t p tw kille in Am rica. "Even
the gov rnrnent admi that � of
11 crack and coc in u e began
With clg reu nd Icohol."
Saying Americ n tereotype
people by look instead of action,
Pfleger id all murderers don't ap­
p ar di org nized, wild-eyed, nd
Iranti . "Th mo t Ifective killers
wear three piece suits and work 9 to
everyday. They kill without pa -
ion nor cons i n e."
Last month Pfleg r traveled b -
tween Detroit, Milwaukee, and
Wa hington, D.C., ge ring up for
an early pring '92 offen ive
against the alcohol industry. Hi
activi rn, however, ha n't come
ea y. He's now faced with a
100,000 law uit, brought against
him by G teway Outdoor Adverti -
ing (or, it allege, damage it uf­
fered because of Pfleger's actions.
"What they're really saying is back
off or el e," Pfleger uggested. "On
th urface th y'rc trying to ay I've
encouraged people to deface their
billboard ."
Pfleger aid the ind try t r-
geted him for a mear campaign.
"They're not only probing round
Ice Cub
in my bac ground, they are inve -
tigating my on, hoping to di -
cover drug use."
W, TIl FO U i on
Kalamazoo. S1. Ide ha arrived.
Will St. Ide be run out of town
before it can target Black and
Hy panic youth for ruin? Its di -
tributor, Imperial Beverage,
doe n't think o. An Imperial
Bever ze repre entative named
Jody aid S1. Ide is elling well in
all parts of Kalamazoo. However.
some individual merchan on the
southside of town felt like a cashier
at How rd' on Portage Ro d who
1 beled St. Ide ale "mediocre."
The North Pole, on the comer of
orth and We tnedge Streets, w
used by Jody to justify S1. Ide ex­
i tence: "It' doing really well
there," she aid.
•
CHORAL GROUP - The e youn ten and an.adult �re members of the Reggie McKenzie Foundation' .
Choral Sin ers who delighted Highland Parkers with chorallng durin the hoUday ason. (photo b� N. Scott)
REPORT:
Military intelligence funded Inkatha hit quad
BY BARRY RENFREW
ASSOCIA TED PRESS WRITER
Tbe n:�latiom badlydarnaged 1nkath8' c1airm k> be a major
iOOepeOOent JX>litical foR:e.
Today's report came ore week beron: � Dec. 20 tart of
major talks involving the �m, � ANC, Inkatha aoo .
other political gro� on drafti� a new comtiUion k> end'
apartheid.
It did oot specify when the activitit's took place or if they were
continuing. t of the i� �moned in the report took
place in the lme 1900s.
De Klerlc Onittcd in AuglS that 200 Inkatha �mbels ,
receM:d trainiJll, but he . it only k> be bodyguards Cor
pany Ieade . He 'd 00Yert �cXlnIcathl had been �kX1.
TIlE WEEKLY MAIL reported k>day that � 200 men .
were given paramili1ary � It said hit sq allegedly
involved in at t two ki� wen: formed from the gro� aoo
an: based in � KwaZulu 00mcland, wtich' run by Inkatha. ,
It also claimed the Inkatha men wen: trained in Nanubia in:
l'El while it was till umer South African control.
A war between lnkatha ard the ANC claimed lnOlasanOS
of li� in rtUnt ytaIS arxi \I'ldcnnincd � COUI1IJy' 'ty.
� two gro� � apartheid but an: divided by ideological
am mba! differeoces.
JOHANNPSBURG, soorn AfRICA (AI') - A newspaper
repored kXlay that military intelligence secretl y trained ina­
tion squads and provided huge sums of money for � Inkatha
Freedom Party, a eorservative Black ann-apartreid groie.
Tbe WeekI Y Mail said it had evidence that military intelli nee
used two front oompanies to chanrel rrore than S25 million to
train, run aOO pay Inkatha hit squads ani nul a secret for at
least thn:e yems. TIl: anti-go�nt newspaper id i infor­
mation� from a lOp Inkathaofficial itdid rot name, affadavi
« nanbelS wID �ved hit sqwd training and other
evidence.
1bete was 00 irnmedia eomrrent from Inkatha or �
government.
Weekly Mail reports July revealed poll
furxIed Inkatha rallies k> try to build tqJ the party
rival, the left-I� African Nati nal
MaOOe
TIlE ULTIN scandal damaged President F.W. de
K1er1c'sgmmment, which had claimed it did not vorany Black
political party. � �mment aoo lnkatha. 100 by �uthu
B�C'2i, agree on JUllllCro� . and th llY! ANC
their main rival.