South Africa: Trouble in The Homelands

Buoyed by the whiff of freedom in the South African air, the country's blacks strained to break one of apartheid's shackles last week by rising up against the Pretoria-installed leaders of two tribal homelands. In coastal Ciskei, army officers overthrew the government of "President for Life" Lennox Sebe. In Bophuthatswana, in north-central South Africa, troops and police rushed in to quell a popular revolt against President Lucas Mangope. Security forces also braced for trouble in Venda, in the country's northern tip.

Although the Ciskei putsch was bloodless, 27 people died in ensuing riots. Eleven people were killed in Bophuthatswana. Among the demands of the rebellious blacks: reintegration of their homelands into South Africa. Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda are among ten territories made nominally independent or self-governing since 1972. By relegating blacks to these impoverished areas, Pretoria hoped to leave the rest of South Africa to the whites.

The spreading unrest has clouded prospects for talks between Pretoria and the antiapartheid African National Congress. Before formal negotiations begin, the A.N.C. wants President F.W. de Klerk to lift the state of emergency imposed in 1986. De Klerk said last week that he would not do so while "anarchy" prevailed.