Page 159 - Afrika Must Unite

144 AFRICA MUST UNITE
the late King M ohammed V of Morocco, who was chairman,
and the then Crown Prince led the M oroccan delegation.
The central theme of the conference was the situation in the
Congo, and the failure of the United Nations to deal with it by
effectively enforcing its own resolutions. It was agreed that the
states should withdraw their troops from the Congo unless the
U.N. command acted immediately to support the central govern­
m ent; M obutu’s army should be disarmed; all Belgians and
others not under U.N. command should be expelled; and the
Congo Parliament reconvened.
Among other im portant decisions reached were those con­
cerned with Algeria, the French testing of atomic bombs in the
Sahara, and the whole question of apartheid. In general, the
conference reaffirmed, and undertook to implement, the
decisions taken at the Bandung, Accra, M onrovia and Addis
A baba conferences, when it was agreed to impose transport bans
and boycotts on South Africa.
But perhaps the most far-reaching result of the Casablanca
Conference was the publication of the ‘African Charter of
Casablanca’. This established a perm anent African Con­
sultative Assembly, and three perm anent functional com­
mittees: the first, political, comprising Heads of State; the
second, economic, comprising Ministers of Economic Affairs;
and the third, cultural, consisting of Ministers of Education. A
joint African High Command, composed of the Chiefs of Staff of
the independent African nations, was also provided for in the
Charter. They were to meet periodically ‘with a view to ensuring
the common defence of Africa in case of aggression against any
part of the continent, and with a view to safeguarding the in­
dependence of African states’.
The Charter ended:

W e, th e H eads o f A frican States, convened in C asablanca
from th e 3rd J a n u a ry to th e 7th Ja n u a ry , 1961, reaffirm o u r
faith in th e C onference o f In d ep e n d en t A frican States, held in
A ccra in 1958, an d in A ddis A b ab a in i960, an d appeal to all
In d ep e n d en t A frican States to associate them selves w ith o ur
com m on action for the consolidation o f liberty in A frica an d the
building u p o f its u nity an d security. W e solem nly reaffirm our
unshakeable adherence to the U n ited N ations C h arter an d to the