Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1956-11-24
Well Shod Negroes
Typify New Congo

Elizabethville, Belgion Congo,
Nov. 19.-There is one thing abou,
Elizabethville strikingly different
from many other towns beyont
the Belgian Congo. All it's Afri-
cans wear shoes.
The variation is wide-from the
heavy military boots of the Force
Publique to the colorful but com
Portable basketball boots favored
by many African women. But
nevertheless, while bare-footed At
ricans are common outside the
Congo, not single one is to be
found without shoes in downtown
Elizabethville.
Boots, Of course, are no more
than symbol of what is happen
ing in the Congo today. They are
not necessarily the criterion of ma
terial well-being-particularly to
Africans who got along without
them quite happily for centuries.
Nor must it be overlooked tina
millions of Congolese outside the
towns still scuff along barefooted.
Neve rtheless, Elizabethville's
well-shod workers are symbolic of
the higher living standards being
brought to at least the Industrial
lied African community by the
Belgians in their Congo welfare
state.
In its welfare and social work.
the Congo appears we'll ahead OF
many other African territories.
From the children's clinics, there
is a complete follCw-through till
school age with special diets, milk
issues, and so on.
In the big companies like the
state-controlled Union Miniere du
Haut-Katanga, each member in a
workers family-no matter how
many children he may have-gets
free ration of food from a CEN
trail distribution point.
Although there is gradual
change-over to payment of wages
in cash, rather than in food, hous-
ing, and so on, the companies favor
issue of food direct to the families
to ensure that they are adequately
fed and that cash wages are not
suuandered on drink or other un-
necessary items.
Outside the sphere of allegedly
"private" enterprise, the state
comes into more direct contact with
the African woman, upon which
it believes African evolution large
ly depends, through the Foyer So
cial," a type of social center for
women.
These centers, well-equipped and
set up at considerable expense with
trained white welfare workers en-
ployed by the government, attempt
to elevate the standards of the AT
rican woman in her own home.
White supervisors teach cooking,
baby-bathing, hygiene, curtain
making, gardening, ironing, sewing,
and SO on.
All this is highly impressive
development and there seems little
doubt that Africans in the Congo
are much happier than many of
their fellows elsewhere on the con-
tinent. Evidence of this IS the
steady flow of Africans into the
Congo from neighboring territories.
Nevertheless, it does not mean
as many Belgians would have you
believe-that there is no color
bar in the Congo, for it is quite
apparent that one is still very
much existent in the social sphere
at any rate. The point is that
while Africans are encouraged to
develop as far as they can in in
dustry, there is little social contact
between white and nonwhite.
What ever the law may say, Al
ricans are just not to be found IN
the glittering hotels frequented by
whites, or in the cinemas or street
cafes. Recently, when the Congo
administration introduced regula-
tons permitting Africans to drink
aperitifs and light wines for the
first time, Elisabethville's hotels
proclaimed themselves private
"clubs" and restricted their MEM
borcbip m whites