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318 PROPHETIC SPEECHES achieved world-fame in our profession or have blazed new trails through the stars all will not have been lost if we can say: “I have adventured with people, I have lived.” “The Speech that Says it All—in Silence” The Second Feetham Lecture Many times governments feared Todd’s eloquence and prophetic voice and so on many occasions he was denied opportunities to speak in the 1960s and 1970s. Todd received his second invitation to deliver a Feetham lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johann m nesburg, South Africa, in 1980. When the South African government read the advance copy of the lecture, they refused to give him a visa. Unlike many other times the ban on Todd was circumvented by other means. The students placed an empty chair on the stage at the Univ m versity and had his speech published in the Daily Rand Mail of July 7, 1980. The speech became known by the title “The Speech that Says it All—in Silence.” The speech impressively narrates a history that white South Africa feared and allowed Todd to hope, “We can fulfill the Christian ideal of being one in Christ.” It is 16 years since I last stood in the Great Hall to deliver the Richard Feetham Lecture. I can’t say that it seems like yesterday: in some ways it seems more than 50 years ago. In that period of 16 years our country has been turned upside down. It has been a traumatic experience for all of us in Zimbabwe. Nevertheless there is this satisfaction, for most of our seven million people the country is at last right side up. Where there should have been understanding between people, a recognit m tion of the need for change in the clear light of history and of the circums m stances of our time, there came confrontation. Confrontation led to civil war and a recital of the obvious cost, 27,000 people killed and an unknown numb m ber wounded and maimed, 250,000 refugees living in destitution in camps in Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia, a million people uprooted from their demolished villages and fleeing for refuge to the cities: that is just the tip of the iceberg. Casey.Rhetoric.indd 332 1/9/07 11:12:59 AM A closer examination reveals a deeper hurt. Schools were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of children have lost their normal chance of getting an education. In most cases this will not be made up to them. Clinics and hospitals were closed and at the end of the war only four mission doctors remained at their posts. Prophylactic routines had to be discontinued so that malaria, measles and other diseases which had been reasonably under control before the war broke out again. Many people died and others will suffer all their lives as a result. Hundreds of white farms were abandoned and farmers who had hoped to make a good life in Zimbabwe were made bankrupt. Within the security fences around their homes intolerable tensions and fears made life miserable and many families emigrated. The breakdown of veterinary services in the African areas made it impossible to control foot and mouth disease and anthrax. As a result one million cattle died. “Operation Turkey” was the cynical name for the official policy of limiting food supplies to the people. Only small amounts of the staple food mealie meal could be purchased at stores in towns, and all rural stores were closed. All grinding mills in the rural areas were removed by the security forces. The aim was to starve out the guerrillas. If the fighters had been 40% or even 20% of the population the policy might have been successful but as they were less than 2%, they were never seriously inconvenienced. It was dangerous for any village to store meal but if a group of guerrillas came through an area their organisation amongst the people very quickly gathe m ered small amounts of food from each of many villages, and their needs were met. However, the presence of armies in the rural areas put an almost intolera m able strain on village life and on food supplies. In some areas even the chickens and the goats were eventually used up and following upon “Operation Turkey” we now have widespread undernourishment and disease, especially amongst children. I am quite sure that this travail was neither foreseen nor desired by Mr. Ian Smith or his...

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