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AFRICAN UNITY IS A NECESSITY

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2 years ago

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

The first alternative does not merit any consideration. All African nationalists are determined that Africa shall be free Incomplete or diminished sovereignty is more insidious than open subjection. In the one case the imperialist continues to perpetrate his mischief behind the scenes, using the indigenous rulers as catspaws and thereby escaping the just condemnation of the world. In the other, because he is directly responsible for the consequences of his doings and misdoings. he is more circumspect in his actions in order to avoid the odium of adverse world opinion. The second alternative is out of the question. Africa has been too late in the race for progress. It cannot afford to behave like the mythical Phoenix in the confident belief that by burning and destroying itself a more glorious Africa would arise from the ashes of the dead.

The only choice open to us is the third alternative. It is in respect of this that I have some definite proposals to make.

Before I make these proposals, it will, I think, be helpful, if I first of all adumbrate the aims which, in my considered view, we must set out to achieve, as well as the principles or considerations by which our thoughts and actions must be guided in the pursuit of our declared objectives.

The aims and objects of all sincere African nationalists should be:

To win without delay complete freedom and sovereignty for all those African States which are at present only nominally independent (a) by the abrogation of any military or defence pact or ties as well as of all rights and privileges appurtenant to such pact or ties and (b) by the elimination of undue economic or technical dependence on any single alien country.
To set a target date or dates in the very near future for the complete liberation of all colonial territories wherever they may be on the Continent of Africa.
The immediate termination of the existence of any military base in any part of Africa and the evacuation of all occupation troops on the Continent whether they are attached to specific military bases or not.
The immediate extermination of apartheid in South Africa.
The outlawry of any form of discrimination or segregation against the black peoples in particular and Africans in general, in Africa and in other parts of the world.
To uphold and defend the dignity of the African (particularly black African), and the sovereignty of any independent African State against derogation or violation from any quarter whatsoever.
To promote and establish a community of interests among all the people of Africa, and to this end to work assiduously for the realization of the ideal of a political union or a confederacy (whichever is practicable in the prevailing circumstances) among all African States.
As a first practical step towards the emergence of an All-African political union, to take immediate steps to divide the Continent into zones.
To influence the immediate introduction in each Zone of a customs and monetary union as well as economic, technical, cultural and other forms of essential cooperation, and to foster an early emergence of a political union among the independent countries situate within each Zone.
Non-involvement of all African countries in the present East- West power politics and struggles as well as non-partisanship in the Arab-Israeli dispute and conflict.

Having set out the aims and objects, what then are the principles by which we ought to be guided in pursuing these aims and objects?

In certain parts of the world today and in spite of their vaunted civilization, the colour of the skin still counts for very much – far more than a man’s personality, his character and the calibre of his brain. The fairer the skin, the greater the respect and the better the treatment he receives and can evoke. The colour of his skin, in spite of his intellectual equality with his white-skinned fellow-Americans, has militated against the Negroes’ holding any top post in the public life of the United States today. In Egypt the darker-skinned Egyptians, contemptuously called the Felahin, are a depressed majority in that ancient land. They do not enjoy social and political equality with their fairer-skinned fellow Egyptians. The Mullatoes, in certain parts of the world, assume an air of superiority over their darker-skinned brothers and sisters, and are in any case placed on a higher pedestal by their white progenitors. Even in South Africa, Kenya, Central African Federation and in some other parts of the world, the fairer-skinned Asians and Arabs enjoy far better and more humane treatment than the black people. The first principle which I, therefore, advocate is that, in the present context of the world, the Blackman qua the colour of his skin is confronted with certain knotty and intractable problems which are peculiar to him.

No nation or group of people in the world today can Successfully solve their more important problems in isolation. ‘Two heads are better than one,’ says an old adage. But for the two heads to be better than one, they must be sympathetically attuned and harmoniously united in tackling the problems which confront one or both of them. The second principle, therefore, is that the best interests of Africa lie only in cooperation between any African nation or group of African nations on the one hand, with any other nation of the world on the other hand, which is genuinely in sympathy with the aspirations of Africa as summed up in the aims and objects already stated above.

There are six continents in the world – Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Africa. Of these, the most despised, through the ages, is Africa. It is only on our continent that naked colonialism or neo-colonialism in various guises is still firmly in the saddle. There are probably some 200 million Negroes in the World. Of these about 170 million are on the Continent of Africa.

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