SOUTH AFRICA: The Soweto Uprising: A Soul-Cry of Rage

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Warning Signs. Outside Parliament, some South African leaders were even more emphatic. Said Alex Boraine, a Progressive-Reform M.P. and former president of the predominantly black Methodist Church of South Africa: "For years now the warning signs have been flashing for all to see. The tragedy is that they have been dismissed as the workings of a few agitators or political activists, or as rumblings that could easily be contained. I desire peace for South Africa, but there can be no peace without justice." Added Professor Erich Leistner, deputy director of Pretoria's Africa Institute, an African-affairs study organization: "Sharpeville marked the first major self-assertion of black nationalism against white supremacy in South Africa. Last week's tragic events will probably go down in history as the beginning of an era where whites no longer hold exclusive control over political power in our country."

Vorster did not seem to agree. In a special statement to Parliament, he argued that the outbreak of violence had "not been spontaneous" and had been planned "to bring about a polarization between black and white in South Africa." Once the country's tough "Top Cop," Vorster said that he had "instructed the police to take action, irrespective of persons, against anyone disrupting law and order." In his statement, which was taped and later broadcast nationwide on radio and television, the Prime Minister insisted that "there is definitely no reason for any panic. This government will not be intimidated."

The shadow of Soweto will clearly hang over the Prime Minister's talks with Kissinger−one of those awkward summits that West German officials, in retrospect, probably wish could have been held elsewhere. Responding to threats of embarrassingly massive protests against Vorster and his government's apartheid policies, the Bonn government last week shifted the proposed site of the meeting from Hamburg to southern Bavaria. Kissinger and his 100-member retinue will be ensconced at the Hotel Sonnenhof in the picturesque village of Grafenau (pop. 4,000), deep in the Bayerischer Wald and about 13 miles from the Czechoslovak border. Vorster's entourage will be provided rooms in another Hotel Sonnenhof, in the equally colorful village of Bodenmais, about 30 miles away. The Secretary and the Prime Minister will shuttle between the villages, either by car or helicopter.

The summit was an outgrowth of Kissinger's recent tour of Black Africa. He became convinced that the Vorster government was the key to any peaceful solution in the region, a point also made by several of the black leaders he talked with. Vorster, who recently met with Prime Minister Ian Smith, had planned to be a surrogate envoy for Rhodesia. He intended to warn Kissinger that as long as force and black terrorism are being used against the white-controlled regime, the Smith government will fight on to the bitter end.