AFRICAN UNITY IS A NECESSITY

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

It is clear from these facts that the battle for the final destruction of colonialism or neo-colonialism, and for respect for the Negro peoples wherever they may be in the world, will be fought and won only in Africa. The third principle which I am urging, therefore, is that all the countries and peoples on the Continent owe it as a duty to Mother Africa to plan and work in concert until the aims and objects before-mentioned have been fully achieved.

I advocate the immediate setting up of an ORGANISATION FOR AFRICAN COMMUNITY. The membership of the Organisation should be confined to African Political Parties or Nationalist Movements. In other words, Governments as such would not be eligible for membership. The reasons for confirming membership to political parties or nationalist movements are simple. Governments are bound by international law and usage which nationalist movements are not obliged to observe. Some time ago, the All-Africa People’s Congress resolved to recruit Africans and send them as volunteers to fight on the side of the Algerian nationalists. If either the Casablanca Powers or the Monrovia Powers were to pass a similar resolution, it would be interpreted by France as declaration of war, or at all events as an unfriendly act. Furthermore, by confining membership, to political parties or national movements, it will be possible to admit into the Organisation:

a) the African Nationalist Movements in South Africa, Central African Federation, Kenya, and other dependent African territories;
b) all the political parties in a country with a two-party or multi-party system; and
c) the nationalist movements in Egypt – if they are separable from those in Syria.

Before any nationalist party or movement is admitted into the organization, it must avow its unshaken faith in every one of the aims which I have outlined above. Any party or movement which finds itself unable to adopt the aims, in their entirety, would not qualify for admission.

The Organisation should have a permanent secretariat which should be well-staffed; and it would draw its funds from the following sources: (a) subscriptions from member-movements; (b) donations from individual Africans and from well-wishers; and (c) grants or subventions from Governments which are members of the Organisation.

The aims of the Organisation would be those which I have before stated, and any additional ones which those who agree to launch the organization may consider necessary.

The functions of the Organisation would be primarily to devise ways and means of accomplishing these aims, and secondarily to tackle such problems as may from time to time affect the whole or any part of Africa. The Organisation would have its own media of mass communication and propaganda, and would control all such instruments as are essential for the attainment of its objects; but generally it would operate through its adherents in all parts of Africa, employing, for the effectuation of its purpose, any methods which the prevailing circumstances in any part of Africa dictate.

The political union of Africa is an ideal which is not only worth working for but also one which can be realized. The present trends in the world indicate that the larger the population, and the more extensive the territory, of a state, the greater the chances of its more effective and more rapid development. Africa with a population of 200 millions and an area of 11½ million square miles (the Sahara covers 3½ millions of the area), if united, would compare more than favourably with (i) Russia: Population – 200 millions: Area – 8,598,678 square miles; (ii) China: Population – 650 millions: Area – 3,876,956 square miles; (iii) U.S.A.: Population – 160 millions: Area – 2,974,725 square miles; and (iv) India: Population – 450 millions: Area – 1,709,500 square miles.

But the problem of uniting under one Government and under one leadership, a continent which lacks the racial, cultural and linguistic homogeneity of U.S.A., the centuries-old cultural and national unity of China and (to a great extent) of India, and the ideological orientation and cohesion of Russia, must not be underestimated. The distinguishing factors which I have just mentioned are complicated by the fact that Africa has internal stresses and strains, divisions and conflicts, inherent in its political, economic and cultural evolution. But the problem, I believe, could be minimized if the Continent is divided into Zones, and each Zone is organized on the lines of Nos. 8 and 9 of the aims already stated. In this connection, I must confess to my inability to venture concrete suggestions which will embrace the whole of Africa. But I have this much to say. The Sahara Desert is a natural line of demarcation between the Northern and Southern parts of Africa. It is my considered view that the countries of .North Africa (with a population of about 40 millions) should, as a first step, constitute a Zone. As for the other territories South of the Sahara, I do not hesitate to repeat what my party has been consistently advocating, namely that certain countries of West Africa (with a population of more than 90 millions) should constitute another Zone.

As to how many Zones into which the remaining parts of Africa should be divided – this is a matter which must be left for consideration and settlement by the O.A.C. (Organisation for African Community). In this regard, however, one important point must be emphasized. It is a grave error of judgement for anyone to imagine that there is a ready answer or an easy solution to the all-important problem of attaining the ideal of an All-African Political Union. There is no disagreement at all, among African nationalists, as to the soundness of this ideal. But as to the methods of attaining the ideal there will, until the ideal is realized, always be as many points of view as there are groups of people (African and non-African) who ever give careful and considered thought to the issues involved.

More explicitly, therefore, in order that it may achieve its aims and objects with a dispatch which the pressing needs and the deep yearnings and aspirations of Africa demand, the O.A.C. must first and last be a revolutionary body.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE