Ah, Foreign Aid

The Communists have poured out their millions too, trying to win the hearts and minds of Africa. Sometimes, Moscow must wonder whether it is worth all the effort.

>In Bulgaria, 200 African university students on Communist scholarships marched down Sofia's Lenin Boulevard toward the office of Premier Todor Zhivkov to protest government restrictions. Instead of sympathy, they were met by 600 Bulgarian militiamen, who flailed the Africans with clubs and hauled them off to jail. All the students had asked for was permission to maintain an all-Africa Student Union.

Like other Africans in Eastern Europe, the 350 African students in Bulgaria found more segregation than brotherhood, more indoctrination than education. After the riot, Ghana's ambassador lodged a strong protest with the Bulgarian government, and just about all of the Africans in Sofia decided to pack up and seek education elsewhere. "We have been insulted in every possible way," said Ghanaian Agricultural Student Robert Kotey as he arrived in Vienna. "We were molested in the streets, called 'black monkeys' and 'jungle people,' and people used to spit out before us on buses and trains." Concluded Ghanaian Economics Student Kofi Buckle: "We soon realized that to study in a Communist country is a bloody waste of time."

>In Guinea, once regarded as a foothold of Soviet penetration of Africa, Russia's stock fell to a new low with L'affaire Svetlana. It had to do with a blonde Russian exchange teacher named Svetlana Ushakova. Against embassy instructions, she persisted in making friends with the natives, and ignored orders that she return to Russia. Fortnight ago, she was hustled to a Moscow-bound plane, only to be rescued by the Guineans themselves. On a second vain attempt to get Svetlana to Moscow, Russia's Ambassador to Guinea himself tried to pass her off as the aircraft's stewardess. Then a few days later, the Russian cultural attache and two aides snatched Svetlana from a Conakry restaurant and sped off toward the airport. That was too much. The Guineans tossed all three into jail for the night, reinstalled Svetlana in her school, and began to wonder where foreign aid stops and foreign interference begins.

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