Page 123 - Afrika Must Unite

io 8 AFRICA MUST UNITE
links with other countries. Its natural resources are developed
only in so far as they serve the interests of the colonial power.
However, once political independence has been achieved, the
country’s full potentialities can, and must, be explored. The
domestic economy must be planned to promote the interests of
its own nationals; and new and wider economic links must be
created with other countries. Otherwise, the newly-independent
country may fall victim to the highly dangerous forces of
economic imperialism, and find that it has merely substituted
one kind of colonialism for another.
In the past, all G hana’s economic links were with the West,
mainly the U nited Kingdom. Since independence, we have
forged new links with countries such as Russia, China, Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The Report of the United Kingdom
Trade and Industrial Mission to Ghana, published in 1959, showed
that 85 per cent of all G hana’s import trade was in the hands of
European firms (mainly British), 10 per cent in the hands of
Asians (Indians, Syrians and Lebanese), and only 5 per cent in
Ghanaian hands. Now, many Ghanaians are participating fully
in the import and export business of the country. This was at one
time the privilege of the few, because the market was limited to
the sterling area only, and m any of the popular brands of
merchandise were monopolized by the few principal firms with
foreign capital. In i960, Ghana bought goods to the value of
£ G i2 9 ,617,497 from the outside world and sold goods worth
£6115,982,854.
In planning national development, the constant, funda­
mental guide is the need for economic independence. This
involves a stock-taking of the national resources, both actual and
potential, hum an as well as material, and the need to develop
them by means of careful priorities and skilful integration so as to
produce a strong, healthy and balanced economy. An im­
portant essential is to reduce our colonial-produced economic
vulnerability by lessening the dependence on mono-crop
farming.
Although cocoa still remains our main export, we have
succeeded to some extent in diversifying our agriculture. We
plan to relate our agricultural production primarily to the needs
of the domestic market and to provide raw materials for