The decolonization of Africa is just as important for the international community as the emancipation of blacks was for the United States, Herschelle S. Challenor, staff director of the House International Relations Committee subcommittee on Africa, said last night.

Challenor, the fourth lecturer in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture Series, spoke before 20 people. She said she believes "the United States still confuses nationalism with communism and sees its policy towards Communist countries."

"Americans will allow themselves to be on the wrong side of self-determination just because the other side is supported by the Soviet Union," she added.

Challenor discussed King's belief in non-violent methods, but said, "As we look at South Africa we may be facing a situation where non-violence may no longer be possible." She added, "Terrorism is the new method of charge, replacing non-violence."

She said the events of the next two weeks will determine future relations between the West and South Africa and added, "South Africa will be the litmus test of U.S. ability to face new international problems."

Challenor described the problem of the twentieth century as the coincidence of the color line with the poverty line and said, "Ultimately it is not the ideological struggle between capitalists and Communists that will cause problems but the struggle between the haves and have-nots, complicated by racial issues."