b201st Motorized Rifle Division. An eyewitness spoke of crowds
bshouting “Colonialists!” Tadzhik is one of several Muslim Asian
brepublics in the USSR where both religious and nationalist
bproblems persist. The others are Uzbek, Kazakh, Azerbaidzan,
bTurkmen, and Kirghiz.
bAt the jubilee session marking the fiftieth anniversary of the
bSoviet Union, President Brezhnev spoke of Soviet achievement in
b“completely solving the nationality problem in accordance with
bLenin’s principles.” Any hope the Soviets may have of evolving
b“one Soviet people” from all those whose nationality, language,
breligion, and culture differ is surely already understood to be a
bdelusion. Indeed, Brezhnev himself admitted as much in his
bKremlinesque jargon when he added: “Nationalistic prejudices,
bexaggerated or distorted national feelings, are extremely
btenacious, as they are deeply embedded in the psychology of
bpolitically immature people.” In far more honest words: There
bis a serious nationality problem in the Soviet Union. It, along
bwith any Chinese effort to retrieve the “lost Chinese territories”
bseized by the czars, could drive the Soviets to acts of desperation
bthat might lead to a world war.
bThere are many other examples of the drive for separatism
bbecause of “difference.” There is the tribalism of Africa and that
bof the New World, and the qualitative differences are less than
bthey would seem to be.
bIn Africa blacks clash violently with whites in southern
bAfrica and then turn on the Asians, who pose an economic
bthreat to them. It was not only mad Idi Amin who expelled his
b28,000 Asians. In 1976 the moderate State of Malawi began to
bexpel its 20,000 Asians. It was “statesman” Julius Nyerere of
bTanzania (and on his island of Zanzibar, Africans slaughtered
btheir Arab former oppressors). And in the wake of the Soweto
briots in South Africa, the Washington Post (June 27, 1976) quoted
ban Asian storekeeper who had been wiped out by rioting and
blooting: “We got caught in the middle. The blacks took out their
bfury on our property because we’re not black. The police didn’t
bprotect us because we’re not white. What can we do? It’s like
bthat for us all over Africa.” Differences. White, black, brown. Dif-
bferences and the need to be separate.
bAnd in Africa it is the tribalism of Nigeria, where a Muslim
b