L. RON HUBBARD IN SOUTH AFRICA

L. Ron Hubbard in Africa, overlooking a township.

Although L. Ron Hubbard had long kept an eye on a burgeoning Scientology in South Africa it was not until spring 1960 that he made his first journey to the continent. The catalyst was a report from South African friend and Scientologist Peggy Conway, regarding the alleged per capita insanity rates among Blacks and their eventual treatment at the hands of psychiatrists. As an initial observation, Ron wrote: “My records show (and will have to do until I can make a closer survey myself) that the number of insane and neurotic persons runs much higher than amongst comparable populations.” He further expressed his concern regarding the larger sociopolitical fate of these people... Which is to say, the native African is “already overwhelmed by bad food and disease without adding insanity amongst its familial units.”

He arrived in April to take a house on Linksfield Ridge. Initial days were spent lecturing at a then newly established Scientology centre in Joubert Park, while evenings were very significantly devoted to broader national concerns.

What was finally to come from these evenings was a then fairly remarkable document: an L. Ron Hubbard constitution calling for universal African suffrage. His point, and even conservative circles could hardly dispute it: if South Africa was to enjoy foreign investment, she must end her repression of the Black.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Salisbury home in 1966.

His recommended constitution for the then southern African nation of Rhodesia (where he landed in March 1966 to establish a Scientology centre and research base near Salisbury) contained the same argument. Quite apart from inherent inequity of apartheid, he maintained, no nation can hope for a stable economic/political climate when the majority of citizens are not afforded fundamental human rights. Hence, his repeated appeal for what he described as “One Man—One Vote,” regardless of race, color or creed.