BLACK GROUPS STEP UP ‘ZULU’ ATTACKS

Black community groups protesting the local broadcast of the controversial “Shaka Zulu” miniseries stepped up their attacks Monday by announcing a viewer boycott intended to pressure KCOP Channel 13 into publicly apologizing for the program.

“Shaka’s” underlying message, said Ron Wilkins, chairman of the anti-aparthied group Unity In Action, is that “if it were not for white intrusion (into South Africa), the land would have stayed in savagery.”

They called on the public to stop watching KCOP until the station admits that it was morally wrong for presenting “Shaka Zulu” and agrees to provide air time for programming that would present what the coalition believes is a more accurate depiction of Africans.

Wilkins, representing four groups that have picketed KCOP’s Hollywood studios, argued that $2.5 million in South African government funding for the 10-hour miniseries about the famous 19th-Century Zulu king shows the series to be mere propaganda designed to counter the negative image that the white-majority government has earned for its policies of apartheid.

Station officials denied the coalition’s allegations.

“The truth of the matter is that it didn’t show blacks as incapable of ruling themselves, it showed one of their most brilliant leaders in history,” said Rick Feldman, KCOP’s station manager. “It showed blacks as they were 200 years ago. This has nothing to do with South Africa today.”

Feldman claimed that the $2.5 million paid by the South African government was merely a pre-payment it made to reserve the right to show the series at home. However, Frank Agrama, one of the miniseries’ producers, told The Times two weeks ago that the South African government did help finance the $24-million production.

Coalition members vowed to broaden their boycott by releasing the names of the companies that have sponsored the series, which ends Wednesday.