St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1961-10-06
AFRICAN
NOTE
BOOK
By Enoc P. Waters


eyes seated next to me on the
plane coming here who could speak
no English land I speak nc
French) turned out to be Ruff
Tsiranana, daughter of the presi-
dent of the Malagasy Republic
Philibert Tsiranana. She is %
years old and was returning from
Paris and Tel Aviv where she had
been studying.
Hotels here all have French
names except one. It's called
Smokey Joe hotel. I couldn't find
out why.
The Americ n Ambassador
Frederic Bartlett, was addressing
Christmas cards to the States
while I was here (Sept. 40. He
said if he got them off right away
they might reach the States by
the Yule season.
With an American salary one
could live in luxury here. Got a
haircut and it cost 100 francs (244
francs equal 81
Saw more stone and brick
houses in rural areas here than
elsewhere in Africa Reason: Be-
ing mountainous country, stone is
available and the reddish earth is
conducive to briclmalxing. Besides
it gets quite cold here (about sc
degrees) and more substantial
shelter is needed for warmth.
In the African restaurants an6
bars in Nairobi, kept seeing the
Swahili slogan ''Hakuna Deni" and
wondered what it meant. Asked
Luke Obek, an African journalist
He answered mo Credit.
Failed to mention that while ir
Mogadishu, Somalia, met Louis
Sparkman, the only American Ne
gro living here. A native of Bos,
ton, he was graduated from West
Virginia State college in 1885, and
lived in Liberia and Ethiopia be.
fore making his home in Mega,
dishu where he has a SomaI wife
and two children.
In Adds Ababa, a cynical young
student told me he has a solution
to the country's economic problem
"AlI we need" he said, ''is enough
money for one long range bomber
and one bomb. We fly it to Amer
lea and drop the bomb over some
isolated area and us. will declare
war on us. They'll win, Of course
but then the us. will build up oul
economy like they did for japan
and Germany and Italy after de-
feating them. Friends Of Amer
ica," he said, don't get the helI
that enemies do after they are
conquered by the States"
| John Abuoga, the Kenya African
journalist who visited the United
States last year as guest Of the
government, Is off to Oxford Univ
ersity, London, October Is, on 6
full years scholarship provided by
the Catholics.
In Nairobi, I met Constance Of
New York who is making a study
of elite African urban family life
for Institute of International Edu'
cation. A graduate Of Hunter Col
lege, Columbia and oxford Univer'
stiles, she has been here since
November, 1860, and hopes to com
plete her research by July. A busy
young woman, she has helped or
ganize the Kenya Sociological as
ISOLATION; is editor Of the Kenya
Journal OF sociology and is pre-
pairing to teach an extension course
for Makerere college in flanagan
yika on the African family.
Also ran into Ed X. Welsh an6
his wife in Nairobi from Kampala
Uganda, for conference. He's with
the International Confederation OF
Free Trade Unions.
Six of the African girls who
left Nairobi recently to study
nursing in the United States took
their babies with them.
Engineers are scratching their
heads and trying to figure out a
way of complying with a request
of Julius Nyerere to ignite a light
of freedom" on the highest peak
Of Mount Kilimanjaro at midnight
December 8, when Tanganyika be-
come Independent. The first task
is. to get the light up there, 1904
feet. Second is how to ignite it by
having either Nyerere or Prince
Philip press a button in Das es
salaam, 2S9 miles away when there
is no electric line between the two
points. It has been suggested that
a magnesium flare be used, but