THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

I have been reading news reports about the fact that people are starving in Zimbabwe. When I was there, that African country was called Rhodesia, and it was ruled by whites. It was one of those "white minority governments." Back then, the idea that people might starve in Zimbabwe would have been funny.

What I called "Rhodesia" was called Southern Rhodesia when it was a British colony. The area that was called Northern Rhodesia had become a black-ruled land called Zambia. Despite the fact that Zambia-based Communist guerillas attacked Rhodesia, Rhodesia let food supplies for those starving Zambians go across its territory on its railroads.

I said Rhodesia should cut them off. They said that wouldn't be nice. I said you had to be ruthless to survive. They said it wouldn't be nice.

There is no more Rhodesia. I am not sure what good they think being nice did them.

So the world finally forced black rule on Rhodesia, too. It became Zimbabwe, its third name in a few decades. Now blacks are starving there.

Under white rule it was a farming country which exported huge amounts of food. Certainly we would not want what the black Africans there ate. Their main food was grits, but they managed to make it inedible for me. It was called mealie-meal and it was smashed down into such tiny bits that it tasted like water.

So they didn't eat what I would want to eat, but they ate. So in order to spread hatred for the white man, it is necessary to forget how important and unusual the lack of starvation is in human history.