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The Rhodesia Herald, 25 August 1977
THE world should keep its “dirty hands” out of Southern Africa and let the white, black and coloured people of Rhodesia solve their own problems, says Mr Ralph Moss, a black American political campaigner for Rhodesia.

In an interview in Cape Town yesterday, Mr Moss said he thought it was wrong for the United States and Britain to dictate to Rhodesia.

President Jimmy Carter should concern himself with solving problems of the black ghettos, the Indians and the poor whites in America, and Dr David Owen should turn his attention to the race riots in his own country, he said.

Mr Moss is a freelance journalist stationed in New York. He was convinced the Americans were misinformed about Rhodesia and he wanted to clear misconceptions that Rhodesia was an apartheid and racially riddled country and that the war was a black-white one.

The terror war had much broader implications and involved Marxist expansionist designs, he said.

“The Americans just don’t understand that all the blacks are not the same and that there’s real tribal considerations in Rhodesia,” Mr Moss said.

Rhodesia has its problems and traces of racialism still existed, but these were being removed slowly.

Changes could not come overnight and Mr Ian Smith had already scrapped laws dealing with land tenure and segregated amenities.

“The Americans should ask themselves how long it took for the blacks to win their civil rights in their country before pointing the finger at others.

“It should also be remembered that the land tenure laws have protected the blacks because they have prevented the whites doing business in their areas,” he said.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

Readers must be surprised that even during UDI, there were some in the international community who told the West to allow Zimbabweans to resolve their differences without external interference.

The script has not changed much. The United States, Britain and the European Union while going to great lengths to tarnish Zimbabwe’s image, forget that they also have a myriad of socio-economic and political challenges in their backyards that also require good governance. Police brutality and electoral challenges in the United States are some of the problems.

Their divide and rule tactics just because they want to benefit from Zimbabwe’s rich mineral resources also qualify us to tell them to keep their “dirty hands” off Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans fought a bitter liberation struggle and gained its Independence. It was not fake freedom. Sanctions and sponsoring regime change agendas are as good as declaring themselves terrorist groups against Zimbabwe.

Every member state is equal before the United Nations. Being permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with veto power does not give Western nations an upper hand over other nations.

If the United States does not want external interference in their internal affairs, they should also respect that every independent country should not be their proxy. Their needless interference has stalled Zimbabwe’s development.