Page 181 - Afrika Must Unite

AFRICA MUST UNITE
conditions created by the aftermath of revolution and civil war,
including the destruction of such industrial plant as had existed
under the Czarist empire or its alienation to the states that had
seceded. There was a population scattered unevenly over a sixth
of the earth’s surface, in varying stages of development, from
nomadic tribes on the steppes and wastelands to a cultured in­
telligentsia in Leningrad and Moscow and a relatively small
proletariat working in the main cities and towns. The inter­
necine strife and hatreds among these people was proverbial, and
the multiplicity of languages and religions not much less than in
present-day Africa. Over and above all this, the Soviet Union
had to make its way in a state of isolation forced upon her by her
exclusion from the world comity of nations on account of the
social ideology she had adopted as her guide. Furthermore, she
was surrounded by a cordon sanitaire of satellite states, which were
used as the threatening outposts of the great powers.
Against all the disadvantages, the open enmity and contri­
vance aimed at her success, and the appalling devastation and
material and hum an losses resulting from the Second W orld
W ar, the Soviet Union, in a little over thirty years, has built up
an industrial machine so strong and advanced as to be able to
launch the Sputnik and follow it up by being the first to send a
m an into space. There must be something to be said for a system
of continental organization allied to clearly defined socialized
objectives that made this remarkable achievement, and I pose
it as an example of what an integrated economic programme
could do for Africa. I am aware of the deep social disturbances
that were created and the harshness of the repressive machinery
used against critics, dissenters and others in the course of attain­
ment. In recognizing the achievement I can only regret the
excesses, though I may, out of our own experience, understand
some of the causes that produced them.
Nor would I suggest that we in Africa should slavishly pattern
our course on the Soviet model. I merely present it as an example
of what can be done through planning an integrated economic
course on a united continental plane. I have frequently said that
there is no universal pattern of development that is applicable to
African conditions, environment and particular economic cir­
cumstances. The economic theories that have emanated from