Reprinted from The Washington Times , 5am -- March 25, 1998
Clinton nears slavery apology
By Warren P. Strobel
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
MUKONO, Uganda
President Clinton all but apologized for U.S. slavery yesterday in Uganda, following by two days a statement by Uganda's president that such an apology was "rubbish."
"European-Americans received the fruits of the slave trade," Mr. Clinton said yesterday on a visit to the village of Mukono with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to promote education.
Two days ago, when President Museveni was asked about such an American apology, he had replied: "African chiefs were the ones waging war on each other and capturing their own people and selling them. If anyone should apologize it should be the African chiefs. We still have those traitors here even today."
Mr. Clinton's unexpected statement on his second day in Africa was apparently meant to be an assurance to Africa that he wants to forge a new relationship with its 48 sub-Saharan nations and 700 million people. Said the president: "Perhaps the worst sin America ever committed about Africa was the sin of neglect and ignorance."
He said "it is as well not to dwell too much on the past" but his remarks may stoke anew the debate over whether the U.S. government should formally apologize to American blacks for the institution of slavery, which ended nearly 133 years ago at the conclusion of the Civil War.
The White House has said that Mr. Clinton, who next week will visit Senegal's Goree Island, where slaves were shipped to the New World, does not plan to use that occasion to apologize for slavery. He thinks the issue is "extraneous" and would mar the focus of his attempt to improve race relations. Several black members of Mr. Clinton's delegation agree.
Susan Rice, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the slavery issue is "largely irrelevant to what we're about here." The Rev. Jesse Jackson, also traveling with the president, said slavery "is not the primary issue, it is not the issue." He said it is of little concern to the African leaders Mr. Clinton is meeting.
Mr. Clinton also spoke harshly of U.S. policy toward Africa during the Cold War. In Washington, he said, "very often we dealt with countries in Africa and in other parts of the world based more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own people's aspirations."
The president came to Mukono, about a half-hour's drive outside the capital, Kampala, to announce a new initiative for promoting education, an issue he emphasizes at home, meant to demonstrate his focus on the future.
The Museveni government has made education a priority, guaranteeing free primary education to up to four children per family.
The United States, Mr. Clinton said, will spend about $120 million in fiscal years 1998 and 1999 on education in Africa. One focus will be out-of-school youth, a chronic problem because the youngsters often are drafted into the continent's guerrilla wars.
Mr. Clinton's education "photo ops" were unlike anything he had seen in Washington or elsewhere in the United States. He and the first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were greeted at Kisowera School by dozens of schoolchildren, dressed in spotless pink and tan uniforms, lined on either side of a dirt drive. At the first sign of the American visitors, they broke into song, clapping their hands high above their heads and singing, "You are welcome!"
After a visit to a crowded classroom where a student pointed out the United States on a tattered map, young dancers entertained the Clintons under a vast blue African sky, against the throbbing of pounding drums. The women whooped and shook the palm fronds around their hips, as the men twirled their bodies, shaking musical instruments attached to their legs, evoking the sound of the maracas every time they moved. At the conclusion, the Clintons stood up and joined in an approximation of the dance.
The president portrayed the education initiative as one that will help Americans and Africans understand one another better. But there were a few cultural misunderstandings. Mr. Clinton was probably unaware, for instance, that one of the dances was part of the traditional circumcision rite for 14- to 16-year olds. And a U.S. military helicopter blew the roof off a nearby shack as it rehearsed for Mr. Clinton's arrival by air. No one was hurt in the incident.
Copyright 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
Reprinted with permission of
The Washington Times.
To subscribe to the Washington Times National Weekly Edition, click this icon or call 800-363-9118.
