Education: Free Ride in Moscow

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Okonkwo was also dismayed to find himself exploited for propaganda. Last July he was boxing in a Moscow University gym when he was asked to pose for a photograph. In August he recognized himself in a full-page picture in a big-circulation magazine. On his wrists were broken chains, and near him cringed a white man with a whip.

"Apartheid U." Enough of a sour taste remains from these incidents for Africans in Moscow to call Friendship University "Apartheid U.," even though the government forehandedly registered 60 Russians to make it seem less segregated. Moreover, on the theory that some of the blame was due to getting the "wrong" kind of student. Friendship University has tried to pick its own students abroad (India balked at that condition; Burma, the Congo, Nepal and Ethiopia refused to let any students go). Friendship University seems to have plenty of money, room, and even its courses do not smack too much of party dogmatism. But Russia has a long way to go before it can compete equally with the U.S., Britain or France as first choice in the contest for the best young minds of the backward parts of the world.