Waiting for an Explosion

Kenneth Kaunda, 61, who has been President of Zambia since his country's independence in 1964, is one of black Africa's elder statesmen. Though not a Marxist, he is a firmly committed nationalist who supported the independence struggles in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Kaunda is, however, also a devout Christian who believes that "when the good Lord said 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' he didn't mention color." He has met with South African leaders in an effort to bring about an end to apartheid. TIME Diplomatic Correspondent William Stewart recently visited the Zambian capital of Lusaka to talk with Kaunda in his study at the State House, the elegant mansion that once housed the governors of Northern Rhodesia. During the interview Kaunda applauded the growing opposition to apartheid in the U.S. and made an impassioned plea for international action to save South Africa from what he believes will be a bloody revolution. Excerpts:

Twelve and a half years ago, a South African journalist asked me when a possible explosion might take place in his country. I said in 15 years. He said, "That long?" And I replied, "Of course." We are left with 2 1/2 years of my prediction, and I am not sure we have even that long.

We can be black dictators, or brown, yellow or white. The people will reject us. When we defy God's law that we are made in his image, we are in trouble. We are dealing here with a situation in which one human being says to another, "You are inferior because God made you black." There is no exception to God's law on human rights. The dignity of man is there, always. Power must be given to all the people of South Africa, all of them. The 5 million whites are as African as I am, and so are the 24 million blacks. So are the coloreds (people of mixed race) and the Indians. They have to sit together to discuss their future. If they do not, the explosion we have been fearing will take place. When it happens--not if, but when--it will make the French Revolution look like a Sunday school picnic. Black and white will perish, not by the thousands as in Zimbabwe, but by the hundreds of thousands. We have to move at breakneck speed, with only a possibility of averting it.

The thin thread by which all this hangs is the immediate and unconditional release of (imprisoned African National Congress Leader) Nelson Mandela. State President P.W. Botha has got to release Mandela unconditionally if he wants to save the situation. I believe President Botha is a sincere man, despite what has happened. It is a good quality, but in this situation it is not enough. I don't think he has the courage to see his sincerity through.

The outside world must also participate by imposing economic sanctions. (If they are imposed), the 24 million black Africans will see that the outside world is assisting them (and) will say, "The world has not forgotten us. Let's wait and see." This is the thin hope. We have been told several times that it is we (black Africans) who will suffer most if sanctions are imposed. Nobody knows that better than I do, nobody. I've gone through it, my people and I, as a result of the British-proposed sanctions at the United Nations (against Rhodesia in the 1960s). But an explosion is about to take place in South Africa, and when it does, it will destroy everything in its wake. So whether there is an explosion or whether there are sanctions, we are involved. As a matter of both principle and self-interest, we want to do everything possible to avert that explosion. Final arrangements can only be determined by the South Africans themselves. But we might give a hint: It's always dangerous giving too little too late. I told Mr. Botha in my (Botswana) border meeting with him in 1982, "You and the moderate whites in commerce, the moderate blacks in commerce form a very substantial middle group. You should together form a new structure for the country, politically, economically and socially. Once you do that, South Africa will be home free. Fail, and disaster." How to do this is their concern, but speed is of the essence.