Ripple of Hope

Kennedy, Come Back

    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 breathe again without feeling choked.
    Judged by any standards his whirlwind four-day tour has been a remarkable performance. From the time of his arrival at midnight last Saturday until his departure this morning it has been almost a nonstop affair — meeting innumerable groups of people, engaging in incessant, earnest discussion, asking and answering never-ending questions, making scores of impromptu speeches, delivering one of the most stirring and memorable addresses the country has ever heard, giving two other major addresses to huge audiences, climbing in and out of aeroplanes, dashing off in cars and helicopters, fitting in a few hours of sleep here and there. And all of it accomplished with immense grace, eloquence, sincerity and humour. It was a virtuoso achievement in which Mrs. Kennedy, with her engaging friendliness, shared.
    The impact of it all has been immense — far beyond anything that its enterprising Nusas sponsors had dreamed of. This younger Kennedy, so like his illustrious brother in so many ways, has taken the youth of the country by storm, or a substantial part of it. He has done it not so much through the youthful zest of his own personality, although there is an immediate rapport between him and young people, nor even through the sheer professionalism of his handling of people and audiences. What is really important is that he has done it through his message of confident, unashamed idealism.
    This is what so many of the young people of South Africa have been yearning for some sort of clear and unequivocal endorsement that the hopes and ideals that all decent youngsters feel are indeed part and parcel of the great traditions of the contemporary Western world and not, as they are being told so often, something alien, or worse.
    How much of this sort of inspiration do they get? Precious little. This is a patriarchal society and young people are expected to be seen and not heard. Even at the English-language universities most of the principals and faculty members have become cagey and cautious where they are not actually hostile to student activities. A campaign of denigration and intimidation has been directed at Nusas for years. The wonder of it is that there are so many young people who still feel the way they do. With a sure instinct Senator Kennedy drew them out and they responded whole heartedly.
    On the older generation too, Senator Kennedy's emphasis on the enduring values of human freedom and personal dignity struck home. So did his often repeated point that reform is not communism and that communism can best be fought not by adopting other forms of authoritarianism but by extending the frontiers of individual liberty.
    Think, also, what his visit has meant to the non-Whites of South Africa—his acceptance of them as people who count as much as anyone else, as people to be greeted and sought out and talked to as friends. In this sense his meeting with Ex-chief Albert Luthuli was not merely a valuable personal contact but a symbol of recognition of the African people as part of our community.
    Even among those who support the Government and its policies one sensed a restless desire for communication with him. Did he not seek opportunities to meet Nationalist leaders and listen to their viewpoint? All who were willing to meet him he gladly met and spoke with — not arrogantly or coldly but with the warmth of someone anxious to have South Africa on friendly terms with the world again. Why else was he cheered by the students he met at Stellenbosch? There might not have been agreement but there was dialogue and they appreciated the value of this. Does the government not look sour and surly even in the eyes of its own supporters because of its un–South African refusal to show courtesy to a distinguished visitor?
    The effects of Senator Kennedy's visit will be felt for a long lime to come. He has stirred up ideas long in disuse. He has stirred up new, livelier controversies among us and about us. And so, as he and Mrs. Kennedy fly off today, we say to them: Thank you a thousand times for what you have done for us. Come back again, you have a place in our hearts.