Page 153 - Afrika Must Unite

138 AFRICA MUST UNITE
consultation with other independent African states, to consider
the situation in Algeria and in South Africa, and also to discuss
and plan future action to prevent Africa being used as a testing
ground for nuclear weapons. Equally im portant matters to be
considered were the total liberation of Africa, and the necessity
to guard against neo-colonialism and balkanization, both of
which would impede unity.
In m id-1960 a further conference of Independent African
states, twelve in num ber, was held in Addis Ababa, and yet
another all-African conference met in Accra. The latter, a con­
ference of African women to discuss common problems, opened
on 18 July. The delegates spoke of freedom and unity, and of the
urgent need for social and economic progress.
While their conference was taking place, events in the newly-
independent Congo were causing one international crisis after
another. The province of K atanga was attem pting to secede
from the Republic of Congo, and Patrice Lumumba, the
Congolese Prime Minister, had asked for United Nations aid.
Some of the dangers of neo-colonialism and balkanization,
which we had foreseen, now became realities. Foreign business
interests, as well as policies connected with the cold war, began
to dominate the Congo political scene and prevented early action
by the United Nations which, if it had been used to effect the
purpose for which it had been called in, could well have been
decisive in m aintaining the sovereignty of Lum um ba’s govern­
ment.
If at that time, July 1960, the independent states of Africa had
been united, or had at least a joint military high command and a
common foreign policy, an African solution might have been
found for the Congo; and the Congo might have been able to
work out its own destiny, unhindered by any non-African
interference.
As it was, the position in the Congo steadily worsened, and all
the unrest and dangers of disunity became fully apparent. The
only people to score from the situation were the neo-colonialists
and their allies in South Africa and the Rhodesias, who used
the struggle in the Congo as an argument to demonstrate the
inability of Africans to manage their own affairs.
In a last minute attem pt to save the situation, and to show