Animal Farm

12 January 2004


Zambian Government May Deport Journalist for Mockery

African democracy and freedom of the press are very fragile things. While Zimbabwe's criminal regime has managed to get itself kicked out of the Commonwealth, Zambia's is about to commit a great folly that has stayed largely out of the limelight. It is threatening to ignore a court order and deport a white British journalist for comparing the country's leaders to animals. Such an action would warrant a comparison to brownshirts, the lowest form of animal.

Mr. Clarke is an old Africa hand, arriving in Zambia in 1962 after being kicked out of apartheid South Africa for living in the township of SOWETO without a permit (in that time and place, a white man could not live in a black township without permission, nor could a black man live in a white area without the same -- the fact that this needs explaining proves there is progress). In 1963, at Imperial College, London, he founded and serves as secretary for the Society for Racial Equality. Returning to Zambia, he spent close to a decade as a school teacher, and he lectured for years at the University of Zambia. He is a 40 year resident of the country, with children and grandchildren born there.

Mr. Clarke wrote a piece comparing the current cabinet of the country to animals. While there is an ugly feeling in one's stomach at a white journalist calling a black politician a "baboon," the entire piece clearly is not racial, but rather is a tribute to George Orwell's Animal Farm. Here is the article in full.

However, the government decided to deport Mr. Clarke for mere words, High Court Judge Philip Musonda stayed the deportation order, and home affairs minister Lt. Gen. Ronnie Shikapwasha said the stay would be ignored. (Ah yes, the military mind in charge of the civilian population -- not a baboon, rather a jackass).

The Kensington Review is pleased to offer two columns (Tuesday's and Wednesday's) from The Post's editorial board that make the finest defense of a free press imaginable. Zambia deserves the kind of government the newspaper clearly wants for its nation. In fact, it is the sort of government that North America and Europe are still trying to secure.

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