SOUTH AFRICA: Mountain Sitdown

Ever since Boer President "Oom Paul" Kruger first set them up on the slopes of the Wolkberg in 1883, the Mamatola tribesmen of the northeastern Transvaal have cultivated their sunny and windswept land in peace and contentment. Last week a convoy of 23 trucks dispatched by South Africa's Native Affairs Minister Hendrik Verwoerd rumbled up the mountain to carry the 1,200-odd Mamatola off to a new home, Metz, in a dank and inhospitable valley 30 miles to the east. The stated reason: the Mamatola's outmoded farming methods were ruining the land.

Even in racist South Africa, a whole tribe cannot...

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