The Kennedys (of Limerick & Wexford Descent) And Their Enduring Legacy In Africa

The Story Yet To Be Told In Ireland 

When it comes to talking about Africa, there are so many stories waiting to be heard. 

The challenge is: which ones are worth telling and hearing about here in Ireland? 

There is one story in particular which links Ireland with Africa (Kenya and South-East Africa) in one chapter, and South Africa in another chapter, through two brothers of the Kennedy Family of Boston, Massachusetts; a story also significant for the enduring legacy the brothers have left behind in Africa. 

Furthermore, Limerick (specifically, Bruff) and Wexford (New Ross) are two places in Ireland which have an important connection with this story; the brothers have maternal and paternal ancestry respectively with the Fitzgerald-Kennedy family 

Senator (and later, President) John F. Kennedy was instrumental in the Students Airlift to America scheme during which students from Kenya who have been granted scholarships to study in colleges and universities in the United States and Canada were seeking funding to cover the cost of the flights from Kenya. 

Through the intervention of (the then Senator) John F. Kennedy following meetings he had with the Kenyan Trade Union leader Tom Odhiambo Mboya, the 1960 flight received funding from the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr Foundation.

Students from Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now Tanzania), Uganda, Nyasaland (Malawi), Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), territories under British colonial administration (or ‘protectorates’, as they were also referred to) at the time, later became beneficiaries of the Airlift to (North) America scheme.

Being the authority in charge of those aforementioned territories following the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, also meant Britain had an obligation to provide for the training and education of those who are expected to be the leaders and administrators of the territories they controlled. Britain didn’t.

The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai, a scholarship recipient, and perhaps the most famous of the Students Airlift scheme, was among the September, 1960 contingent.

Though John F. Kennedy was not on the continent of Africa in person, either as a Senator or President, he became chairman of the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1959, after the State Department first established a Bureau of African Affairs a year earlier.

After becoming the 35th president of the United States, he invited and welcomed more than two-dozen of the leaders of the newly-independent countries to the White House and left an immense legacy as far as Africa is concerned.  

Senator Robert F Kennedy, on his part, was in South Africa in June 1966 at the invitation of the multi-racial National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) for their annual Day of Affirmation Address which he delivered at the University of Cape Town on 6 June. 

It is worth noting that Senator Robert Kennedy’s visit took place at a time when the system of Apartheid was at its height, and the South African government refused to provide any security for the senator during his visit - a significant risk given his brother’s assassination less than three years earlier. The government also denied entry to 40 print and television journalists who wanted to cover Kennedy’s trip.

NUSAS members protesting against the ban of its 

President Ian Robertson. 

Source: http://web.uct.ac.za/ Credit — Unrecorded

On his return to the United States, Senator Robert F. Kennedy wrote an article about his visit to South Africa which was published in Look magazine.

In terms of the enduring legacies, the Students Airlift was responsible for the higher education of the first generation of post-colonial leaders of the countries involved.

The South Africa visit where Senator Robert Kennedy delivered the Day of Affirmation address has given us the Ripple of Hope Award. which was established to honour those “who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to social change and worked to protect and advance equity, justice, and human rights.”

‘Ripple of Hope’ (Day of Affirmation) Speech: Teacher Resources 

On the education side, Senator Robert F Kennedy’s visit to South Africa and his Ripple of Hope Speech has been one programme the RFK Legacy Education Project has developed, as outlined below in the first paragraph of the overview: 

“Robert Kennedy’s renowned Day of Affirmation (Ripple of Hope) speech offers compelling views on racial injustice, the individual right to freedom and the capacity and responsibility of each one of us – and especially youth – to combat injustice in a quest for equality and peace. Kennedy’s message is as relevant and compelling today as it was almost fifty years ago [in 1966].” 

Here in Ireland, The Irish Diaspora 1840-1966, is Topic 4 of the Later Modern Ireland unit of the Leaving Certificate History course. The Impact of John F Kennedy is an element of study under the Culture and Religion perspective.

There is no doubt this story about the Kennedy family’s connection with Africa would be placed among the top five of stories which Africans from the countries mentioned earlier (and, indeed, other African countries) would like told to outsiders.

The different chapters of the story will be recounted in subsequent posts.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy in South Africa

 4 - 9 June 1966 

http://rfksa.org/contents/overview.php

Overview

In June 1966 Senator Robert Kennedy made an historic visit to South Africa. It remains the most important visit an American made to South Africa because it took place during the darkest years of Apartheid. The architect of Apartheid, Dr. Verwoerd, was Prime Minister, while Nelson Mandela, Chief Albert Luthuli and other opposition leaders were in prison on Robben Island or in exile. With rare exception, all opposition across the spectrum of black and white South Africa- political parties, the universities, the churches, the arts and the media- were living under the tight control of the National Party and its military, bureaucratic and ideological machinery.       Surprisingly, very few Americans know of this dramatic and important visit by Robert Kennedy, then the Junior Senator from New York, to South Africa from June 4th to the 9th, 1966. He was invited by NUSAS, the anti-Apartheid National Union of South African Students, to deliver its Annual Day of Affirmation Speech to be held that year at the University of Cape Town. He was accompanied by his wife, Ethel Kennedy, and a small number of close aides.  FILE - In this June 5, 1966, file photo Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, back right, and his wife, Ethel, back left, arrive at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Pretoria, South Africa, during a visit to the country.

     The value of the visit needs to be understood within the context of America's special relationship with South Africa. For many Americans the pictures and news reports coming out of South Africa in the 1960's seemed hauntingly similar to the pictures emanating from the American South during the Civil Rights Movement. The visit emphasized the connections between the fight against racism in the United States and South Africa.
     In the late fifties and early sixties, South Africa did not register on the agenda of American foreign policy. In an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times in 1994, at the time of South Africa's historic first democratic election, Anthony Lewis wrote of Senator Kennedy's visit: "In a trip to South Africa in 1966 he challenged the tyranny and fear that then had the country in its grip. At a time when few diplomats visited black townships or entertained black leaders, Senator Kennedy identified with the black majority and with all the victims of repression... he gave many South Africans, black and white, courage to fight injustice- and reason to believe that some in the outside world would care." ¹ 
     The first American political leader who showed real interest in South Africa was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. By the time of Senator Kennedy's visit in 1966, Dr. King had publicly linked the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the battle against Apartheid in South Africa. (See 1965 speech.)  By the early 1960's Dr. King and Chief Albert Luthuli, the banned president of the ANC, had long established contacts and in 1962 they issued a Joint Statement on Apartheid . (Senator Kennedy made an important special trip to meet with Chief Luthuli which is discussed later.) Dr. King had been invited by NUSAS in 1965, but had been denied a visa by the South African Government. 
     Senator Kennedy and his party had a very busy schedule while in South Africa. They arrived just before midnight (film clip)  on Saturday night, June 4th at Jan Smuts airport, outside Johannesburg, to an enthusiastic welcome by a crowd of predominantly white English speaking students.
     Readers should consult the detailed itinerary  of the visit. There were, however, some notable events that were organized at the last moment and are not reflected in the official itinerary. Two of the most important of these were the visit with the banned President of the ANC, Chief Albert Luthuli (discussed later), and the visit with NUSAS president, Ian Robertson in Cape Town. 

     Robertson, with the strong support of the NUSAS leadership, was instrumental in inviting Senator Kennedy. A month before the visit, he was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act , which, among other things, meant that he could not attend Senator Kennedy's speech at the University of Cape Town. However, en route to his hotel from the airport, Senator Kennedy stopped to visit Robertson at his student apartment. Legend has it, that on entering the apartment, Senator Kennedy asked if the apartment was bugged. When told that it probably was, he began to stomp his foot on the floorboards. Asked to explain, Kennedy answered that the vibrations would disrupt the bugging mechanisms. How do you know that ?" he was asked. "I used to be Attorney General" he replied.
     (This story was retold 24 years later by Nelson Mandela  (film clip) at a luncheon in his honor at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, during his first visit to the United States in 1990 following his release after 27 years of imprisonment.)
     One of the legacies of Senator Kennedy's South African visit are the five memorable speeches he delivered. 
     The speech he gave at the University of Cape Town on June 6th, 1966, is by far the best known of Senator Kennedy's South African speeches. This speech is generally considered by most historians and biographers of Robert Kennedy to be the greatest speech of his life. One paragraph in particular- the "Ripple of Hope" paragraph - remains one of the most quoted paragraphs in American politics. 

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." ² audio

(Click here for text and audio of the full speech.) 

     The speech he gave at the University of the Witwatersrand on the last night of the visit, however, although it is almost unknown- except to those in attendance that night - is perhaps the most political speech Senator Kennedy made in South Africa. By the end of his trip he and his party had learnt a lot more about South Africa and they had had an opportunity to interact with an enormous range of South Africans. He was free to speak- and to speak for others who could not - in a way that he could not in the earlier part of the visit. 
     The Wits speech was delivered in the evening after a dramatic visit to Soweto and meetings and appearances in various locations in downtown Johannesburg. By this time, the visit had begun to have a political impact in South Africa beyond just the white liberal universities, and Senator and Ethel Kennedy's appearances were drawing a more diverse audience of South Africans than just a few days earlier. 
     He gave three other important speeches in addition to a number of short impromptu speeches that went unrecorded. These other recorded speeches occurred at the Afrikaans University of Stellenbosch, at the University of Natal in Durban, and to the Johannesburg Bar Council. (These speeches can be read the Speeches section.)
     The visit had an enormous impact on black South Africans at a very bleak time in the struggle for human rights in South Africa. It gave them a feeling of hope that they were not alone, and that someone important in the outside world knew and cared about what was going on in South Africa. As a black journalist wrote in the Sowetan newspaper, the Golden City Post, under a headline THE DAY WE WILL NEVER EVER FORGET: "He made us feel, more than ever, that it was still worthwhile, despite our great difficulties, for us to fight for the things that we believed in; that justice, freedom and equality for all men are things we should strive for so that our children should have a better life." ³ 
     No white people had ever received the kind of exuberant reception the Kennedys received in Soweto. Thousands of people cheered them as they traveled the unpaved roads - much of the time on the roof of their car- and visited schools, The Regina Mundi Church and a spontaneous visit to the modest Soweto home of Mrs. Zondi. 
     A particularly important moment in the trip- in terms of both black South Africa and anti-Apartheid circles in general- was the visit to Chief Luthuli who was banned by the Government under the "Suppression of Communism Act" and forced to live in internal exile in Groutville. Chief Luthuli, Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1960, and Senator Kennedy walked through the fields surrounding Chief Luthuli's house in order to talk freely beyond the ears of the South African police who were present. Chief Luthuli and Senator and Mrs. Kennedy also listened to a recording of President John F. Kennedy's June 1963 speech on Civil Rights on a record player that Senator Kennedy had carried with him on the helicopter. In subsequent statements, and in an article in Look Magazine published shortly after the visit, Senator Kennedy described Chief Luthuli as "one of the most impressive men I have ever met." ⁴
     Senator Kennedy told Soweto residents of his talk with Chief Luthuli that same morning- the first news that most people had heard about their leader in over five years. Under his banning order Chief Luthuli could not be quoted or photographed. Senator Kennedy understood that he, as an American Senator, could talk about Chief Luthuli in a way that would be very dangerous for a South African. The very publication, in some English language newspapers, of a photograph of them together was a major challenge to the government’s restrictions. ⁵
     In his interpersonal contacts with black South Africans, Senator Kennedy also conveyed an attitude that was in sharp contrast to the way they were treated by most white South Africans. At every opportunity- in airports, in downtown areas and in the white suburbs, and certainly during the visits to Groutville and Soweto- he sought out average black South Africans to shake their hands and talk to them. His actions and interest indicated that they were people worth knowing and befriending and not just faceless, replaceable natives or "kaffirs." ⁶
     The visit was also very important and heartening to anti-apartheid whites. As an editorial in the liberal English newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail said "Senator Robert Kennedy's visit is the best thing that has happened to South Africa for years. It is as if a window has been flung open and a gust of fresh air has swept into a room in which the atmosphere had become stale and foetid. Suddenly it is possible to breath again without feeling choked." ⁷
     The government and its supporters were always telling white liberals, such as lone Progressive Party M.P. Helen Suzman and Alan Paton, author of Cry the Beloved Country, (who both met with Senator Kennedy) , that they were a tiny minority that no one listened to. ⁸ The visit challenged the feelings of isolation and futility of anti-apartheid white South Africans and renewed their belief that they were in accord with the majority in the world, and it was, in fact, the government and its supporters that were an anachronistic minority. John Daniel, the NUSAS Vice President, in his vote of thanks to Senator Kennedy after his Cape Town speech, spoke for many white opponents of Apartheid when he said: 

" …Your talk has served as a reminder to us that the free world associates with us and our stand for liberty and non-discrimination. Your message shows clearly that the world has forever turned its back on racial discrimination, and that the South African Government's blind worship of race theories is a pathetic and tragic defiance of the realities of the Twentieth Century. You sir, have given us a hope for the future, you have renewed our determination not to relax until liberty is restored not only to our universities, but to our land."

     Or in the words of Alan Paton, "...The Kennedy visit can only be described as a phenomenon. It was exhilarating to hear again that totalitarianism cannot be fought by totalitarianism, that independence of thought is not a curse, that security and self preservation are not the supreme goals of life, that to work for change is not a species of treachery... It was to feel part of the world again." ⁹
      What also made Robert Kennedy's visit to South Africa particularly significant was that although the South African Government refused to meet with him (and provided no security), he tried to not just berate Afrikaners as a bunch of incorrigible racists, but to engage them in a dialogue. While in the Cape he went to Stellenbosch, one of the premier Afrikaans universities, where he had an interesting interchange with students. He was invited to speak by the student's of the Simonsberg Men's Residence. This invitation was strongly criticized by the pro-government university administration but the meeting was allowed to proceed. ¹⁰
      To engage Afrikaners, he spoke of his grandfather, Congressman Joseph Fitzgerald, who in 1901 submitted a Resolution to the US House of Representatives to allow refugees from the Boer War to be given asylum in the United States.
      Indeed, his approach to talking to Afrikaners, and South Africans in general, was the discourse of America's own difficult history and struggle for racial justice. He spoke of discrimination in Boston against his Irish-American grandfather and father. Throughout the visit he spoke quite openly of America's racist past and ongoing racial problems, but in the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement - and the legislative victories in Congress it had helped bring about by 1966- he communicated the feeling that America in the 1960's was finally really doing something about its racial problems and that South Africa could, and should, do the same.
      With hindsight, many of his comments about what could happen in a post-Apartheid South Africa, and the leadership role it could play in African political and economic development, are quite foretelling in terms of the negotiated revolution that occurred in South Africa between 1990 and 1994 and what has transpired during South Africa's first decade as a constitutional democracy.
      What is evident in Senator Kennedy's speeches, the question and answer sessions he held at three of the universities, and accounts of his informal discussions, was the manner in which he subtly challenged and undermined some of the pillars of apartheid ideology and mythology.
      First was the image of the 'primitive and violent African' which the South African Government used to try to reinforce the notion that blacks were not ready for freedom and democracy. He reminded his audience that the greatest savagery in the 20th century had been committed by whites like Hitler and Stalin. In response to some of his questioner's efforts to use biblical text to legitimize white supremacy- quite common in pro-Apartheid Dutch Reform churches in South Africa -he asked "Suppose God is Black ?" ¹¹
      He also challenged the government's ongoing efforts to wrap itself in the cloak of anti-Communism as an excuse to crush its opposition (no matter how liberal or anti-Communist), and to fend off Western criticism. "Reform is not Communism," he reminded them, and the means to fight Communism were not repression and blacklisting but the promotion of democracy and equal economic opportunity.
      On a number of occasions Senator Kennedy spoke of the common histories that bind South Africa and the United States. These similar experiences were well captured in the opening paragraph of his Cape Town speech:

"I came here because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America." (film clip)

      He also reminded his South African audiences that the United States and South Africa had been allies in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. He knew, of course, that the South African military that had fought in World War II against Fascism was quite different to the South African military now defending Apartheid, but by recalling these alliances, he underlined the point that American criticism of South Africa was not directed at the country and its people but at its policies. Senator Kennedy made clear his belief that as an "ally" with a special relationship to South Africa, the United States -one of the world's leading democracies- also had special responsibilities vis-à-vis South Africa. 
      On his return to the United States, Senator Kennedy tried to shine more of a spotlight on South Africa. He spoke about his visit in public forums and in the Congress. In August 1966, soon after the visit, he published an article on his visit in LOOK Magazine. In it he was able to say some of the things he might not have been able to say while in South Africa. It was also the first publication in the United States by a national politician- in a mainstream and widely distributed magazine- on the realities of Apartheid South Africa.
      Soon after his return, Senator Kennedy wrote to the CEO's of 50 major American corporations with operations in South Africa, seeking their ideas on how they could use their influence to challenge Apartheid in the workplace. This initiative had many of the elements of what later became known as the "Sullivan Principles." ¹²
      It is also worth noting, as a harbinger of contentious American policy debates in the 1980's about what to do about South Africa, that Senator Kennedy never called for economic sanctions against South Africa but in private conversations he hinted that later circumstances might require a different approach.
      Senator Kennedy's visit to South Africa, together with Dr. King's activities on South Africa, were noted internationally and they had an influence on the growing United Nations commitment to confront Apartheid.
      Like many other questions cut short by Senator Kennedy's assassination in California on June 5th, 1968, we can only speculate on what US policy towards South Africa might have been if he had been elected President in 1968. But it is most likely that South Africa would have moved higher up on the American agenda much sooner than it did.
      The end of Apartheid and Nelson Mandela's historic 1994 election victory, and the first ten years of post-Apartheid South Africa, have made it possible to reflect on America's contribution to these changes, both positive and negative, in a way that was not possible before. Robert Kennedy's visit to South Africa is a useful doorway to these difficult but important times.
      Within the context of the United States' activities in Africa in the 1960's, historians will probably judge Robert Kennedy's South African trip as one of America's better moments in Africa.
      Together with the activities of various other American individuals and organizations working to mobilize American opinion about the situation in South Africa in the Sixties, Senator Kennedy's visit helped to plant seeds -for what was to take another two and a half long decades to bare fruit. This story is worth telling not just to record a small but significant piece of a larger history, but because the visit touches on important questions with which the United States still grapples- how to promote human rights and democratic change in the world while engaging in an honest discourse on America's own historical problems and successes. 

Footnotes

1.	Anthony Lewis, New York Times, May 6th, 1994.
2.	This paragraph is quoted at Senator Kennedy's grave site at Arlington National Cemetery.
3.	Juby Mayet, Golden City Post, Johannesburg, June 9th, 1966.
4.	Robert Kennedy, "Suppose God is Black?" LOOK Magazine, August 23rd, 1966.
5.	An interesting controversy connected to Chief Luthuli, which is illustrative of how threatened and repressive apartheid South Africa was in the 1960’s, was the painting “The Black Christ” by Ronald Harrison. It depicted Luthuli on the cross and Prime Minister, Dr. Verwoerd, and Minister of Justice, John Vorster- as Roman centurions. It was banned almost immediately after its exhibition and smuggled out of the country.
6.	Kaffir was a derogatory name that many white people used to refer to black South Africans.
7.	Rand Daily Mail. Johannesburg, June 9th, 1966.
8.	When Senator Kennedy was criticized in the government- controlled media for daring to comment on South Africa’s problems when he had only been in the country a short time, Paton responded with a parable where he compared South Africa to “a room full of people with all the doors and windows closed, and all the people smoking and drinking and talking. And a stranger from outside opens the door and exclaims- Phew What a fug in here ! And they shout at him: How do you know ? You only just came in.” (In: Peter Alexander. Alan Paton: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 343.)
9.	Alan Paton, Contact, quoted in William van den Heuvel & Milton Gwirtzman, On His Own: RFK 1964-68, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1970, p. 160.
10.	Some commentators have suggested that this visit helped plant some of the seeds for the later emergence of the Verligte ("Enlightened") Movement at Stellenbosch.
11.	"Suppose God is Black? " LOOK Magazine, August 23rd, 1966.
12.	The Sullivan Principles, named after Rev. Leon Sullivan, were investment policies supported by most American companies who remained in South Africa in the 1980's.
	_______________________

True Size of Continents and Countries

Ever Wondered How Big Or Small Places Represented On Maps Are In Reality?

Well, one person who set our to address this, in what he calls Immappancy (meaning insufficient geographical knowledge), is software and graphical user interface designer, Kai Krause.

In his contribution, climate data scientist Neil R Kaye, designed a gif of the map below; this link takes us to where further information can be found 

The two maps below are static images of the Mercator and the proportional / actual size projections of the map of the world 

“Visually speaking, Canada and Russia appear to take up approximately 25% of the Earth’s landmass, when in reality they occupy a mere 5%. When Antarctica is excluded (as it often is), Canada and Russia’s visual share of landmass jumps to about 40%.

Canada is the second largest country in the world, but not by much. Here is an “at scale” look at Canada, the United States, and Mexico.” Nick Routley

Finally, for now, below is how Neil Kaye further demonstrated what we can describe as ‘map projection anomaly’ by digitally swapping Mexico with Greenland in the Mercator projection 

Senator Robert F. Kennedy's Address to University of Stellenbosch Student Group in Simonsberg Men's Residence

June 7th, 1966 

Sen. Robert F Kennedy, surrounded by Stellenbosch University students, on his long-remembered visit to the university's Simonsberg 'Withuis' residence on June 7, 1966

(AP Photo/Dennis Lee Royle, File)

  We have, you and I, many differences of view and opinion. I have a great respect for the fact that you invited me here despite these differences. And I take comfort and encouragement from it as well.

         For the essential difference between free men and the subjects of totalitarianism is that free men can give voice and expression to their beliefs; they can engage in the great dialogue on which the Western tradition has been built. So I am glad to be here at Stellenbosch - at this town and university which have played such a great role in South African history.
         Here Adam Tas began the fight against the exploitation of the East India Company, and earned a new middle name. From here the fathers of the Voortrekkers took the first steps on their long and lonely road: to leave this green and pleasant place must have been hardship in itself – and a measure of the sacrifice that men will make to achieve their independence and a future for their posterity.
         It was in the name of freedom that our forefathers —yours and mine —struck off the chains of Europe and sailed uncharted oceans three centuries ago. It was in this name that three times we together poured forth our blood and treasure —twice in the world our fathers left, and once on the frontiers to the East. And so we will stand again, as our children will stand in their turn; for, as Goethe tells us:"He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew."
         If we — all of us — are to conquer anew the freedom for which our forebears gave so much, we must begin with a dialogue both full and free."
         In the world of 1966 no nation is an island unto itself. Global systems of transportation and communications and economics have transformed our sense of geography, and outmoded all the old concepts of self-sufficiency. Whether we wish it or not, a pattern of unity is woven into every aspect of the society of man.
         We all owe our very existence to the knowledge and talent and effort of those who have gone before us. We have a solemn obligation to repay that debt in the coin in which it was given — to work to meet our responsibilities to that greater part of mankind which needs our assistance — to the deprived and the downtrodden, the insulted and injured.
         Those men who gave us so much did not ask whether we, their heirs, would be American or South African, white or black. And we must in the same way meet our obligations to all those who need our help, whatever their nationality or the colour of their skin.
         And if we live in the shared blessings of knowledge and progress, we live also in the shared dangers of a hazardous globe. Worldwide contest of ideology, along with awesome developments in the speed, the range and the impact of modern weaponry, have made the very idea of isolationism obsolete.
         No longer can a spectator be certain that the blood and mud of the arena will not some day engulf him as well. No longer can any people be oblivious to the fate and future of any other. And no longer can any nation — no matter how wealthy or well-armed— be as free as it once might have been to ignore a far-off war or warning, to shrug off another nation's crisis or criticism.
         Communist nations or others may build a wall of stone or a curtain of bamboo. But they cannot build a modern society without exposing their citizens to the ideas and ideologies of other systems. No nation is more opposed to communism than the United States. We reject its theory that human beings exist for the benefit of the state, that the state is more important than the individual or the family. We reject totally its restrictions on freedom of the Press, of protest, of speech, of movement, of exercise of the political process. But the United States is not afraid to hear the voices and viewpoints of communism. We do not jam their broadcasts or exclude their scholars or repress their books.
         At times in our history, we have reacted too hastily and harshly to the fear of threats from within and without. But any times of suppression have been times of fear and stagnation, the years when the locust has eaten. We do not intend to repeat those years— even now, in the midst of a war in Vietnam. For we will not abolish the substance of freedom in order to save its shadow.
         No nation would have so little confidence in the wisdom of its policies and its citizens that they dare not be tested in the free market place of ideas. Societies concerned with the importation of ideas are those which fear what Jefferson called "the disease of liberty."
         I am here in South Africa to listen as well as talk, less to lecture than to learn. Whatever our disagreements, neither your country nor mine is under any illusion that there is only one side to any issue, or that either of us can coerce or quickly convert the other to share our point of view. But asserting disagreement without debate is as meaningless as asserting unanimity without discussion. Let us find out where we disagree — and why we disagree — and on what we can agree.
         If history is a guide, a future Prime Minister of this nation may now be sitting in this room. But all of you, whether Prime Minister or not, will have a major role to play as educated people in the twentieth century.
         What kind of world is it, waiting there for you?
         It is a world of change— unparalleled, unsettling, dizzying change. The certainties of yesterday are the doubts of today, and the folly and mockery of tomorrow. Every problem we solve only reveals a dozen more of increasing complexity.
         Your country and mine have created wealth unmatched in the history of man; but we have not yet learnt to turn that wealth to the service of all our people.
         Your country and mine gained freedom from colonial domination, and set an example for 70 nations around the world, but we have not yet learnt how to help those new nations to achieve the economic, social and political progress which their people demand and deserve.
         Your country and mine, and dozens of others, have achieved a terrible capacity to destroy our enemies, and five nations have found the secret weapons that can destroy the world; but we have not yet learnt to prevent these weapons from destroying the very societies they were designed to protect.
         In your country and mine, we fought for and achieved freedom for some of our people; but we have not yet learnt, as Thomas Paine said, that "no man or country can be really free unless all men and all countries are free."
         And in every continent — from Jaipur to Johannesburg, from Point Barrow to Cape Horn — men and women are claiming their right to share in the bounty which modern knowledge can bring, in the justice which men have sought from biblical times onward. They look to us for help and hope! And the real question before you — as before the young people of any country is whether we will help give them that future.
         We must begin with the light of reason — with fact and logic and careful thought, unblinkered by the shades of prejudice and myth. In this fantastic and dangerous world, we will not find answers in old dogmas, repeating outworn slogans, fighting on ancient battlegrounds against fading enemies long after the real struggle has moved on. We must change to master change.
         Yet the very education which equips you for service to mankind also prepares you for a place in society far removed from the problems for whose solution you are so desperately needed.
         As the skilled and professional people of South Africa and the world, you will be largely removed from contact with the hungry and the deprived, those without ease in the present or hope in the future.
         It will require a constant effort of will to keep contact, to remind ourselves everyday that we who diet have a never ceasing obligation to those who starve – and to work to meet that obligation.
         It would be simpler to follow the easy and familiar path of personal ambition and private gain. It would be more comfortable to sit content in the easy approval of friends and neighbors instead of risking the friction and controversy that comes with public affairs. It would be easier to fall in step with the slogans of others than to march to the beat of an internal drummer – to make and stand on judgements of your own.
         But Goethe told us that Faust lost the liberty of his soul when he said to the passing moment, "Stay, Thou art so fair" There would be no surer way for us to lose our freedom and the true meaning of our heritage than to make that same mistake.

Image Credit: Liam Voorma / SMF News

Forty-four Years of Watching the FIFA World Cup

On RTÉ Television 

On Sunday, 13 June 1982, I watched my first FIFA World Cup match on Irish television. 

Another memorable thing about that day was that I walked with a friend for ten kilometres to get to the nearest pub to see the match. 

Hosted by Spain, this island was represented by the cousins from the North. 

THAT memorable Gerry Armstrong strike, backed by the heroics of goalkeeper Pat Jennings, delivered a shock to the host nation in their match played in Valencia. 

FIFA1982 in Spain was contested by twenty-four teams. 

Africa had its representatives doubled from the single CAF allocation it had up until then; and the two places went to Algeria and Cameroon. 

The finalists had each faced the African teams in their respective group stage matches: Cameroon drew with eventual winners Italy and also exited the competition undefeated. 

Algeria defeated West Germany in their match but did not progress out of the group despite having the same points as Austria and West Germany. 

This was due to that controversial match subsequently described by football commentators and analysts as the Disgrace of Gijón. 

More significantly, the condemnations came from West Germany and Austria as well. Even some of their own fans were very unhappy with what they had just seen played out. 

Four years later at FIFA1986 in Mexico, Morocco gave CAF its third group stage win following those of Tunisia (FIFA1978 in Argentina) and Algeria FIFA1982 in Spain) against Mexico (3-1) and West Germany (2-1) respectively. 

It was also at FIFA1986 in Mexico that Morocco gave CAF its first group stage winner; a 3-1 win against Portugal followed draws with England and Poland. 

FIFA1990 in Italy, however, marked a significant point for CAF representatives: contrary to pre-match commentary and analysis, Cameroon defeated Argentina, the defending champions in the opening match. 

When FIFA1994 in the USA came around, Nigeria became the second CAF team to win its group. 

The next edition, FIFA1998 in France saw CAF’s representation increased to five after the tournament was increased from twenty-four to thirty-two teams. 

Now on my twelve edition, I have seen a CAF team top its group on five occasions: twice by Morocco in 1986 and 2022, twice by Nigeria in 1994 and 1998, and once by Cameroon in 1990. 

Wins against the defending World Champions have been achieved on two occasions when European commentors have dismissed their chances prior to a ball being kicked. 

Cameroon and Senegal in 1990 and 2002 against Argentina and France respectively. Senegal’s match against France was significant for another reason: Senegal being a former colony of France. 

For the 1994 FIFA World Cup hosted by the USA, RTÉ introduced a studio audience format; I was among the fortunate few to be invited for the Argentina versus Nigeria match. 

Nigeria had announced its arrival on the world football stage with a match against Bulgaria, which it won 3-0. 

Four years later in France, the team faced Spain in the opening match which was described as ’the great comeback’. 

When RTÉ brought on Joseph N'Do to be part of the panel for FIFA2022, most people thought the viewers were, at last, going to get an informed analysis of African teams. 

Joseph N'Do, an ex-Cameroon international, featured in matches at the FIFA World Cup in 1998, as well as being a two-time AFCON winner in 2000 and 2002. 

Apart from Shamrock Rovers’ Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes who is plating for Cape Verde, St. Patrick Athletic is also represented by goalkeeper Joseph Tetteh Anang in the Ghana squad. 

Incidentally, Ghana, under its pre-independence name of the Gold Coast, played an FAI Amateur XI in a match which took place in Dalymount Park on Wednesday, 22nd August 1951.