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NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA 177
not forwards. The forward solution is for the African states to
stand together politically, to have a united foreign policy, a
common defence plan, and a fully integrated economic pro­
gramme for the development of the whole continent. Only then
can the dangers of neo-colonialism and its handm aiden balkani­
zation be overcome. W hen that has been accomplished, our
relations with Europe can enter upon a new phase.
Although the end of European rule in Africa is in sight,
European economic interests are ascendant and its political and
cultural influences strong. In a num ber of territories, ‘m other
country’ ideology and cultural identity have strongly affected
certain political leaders. Paul-M arc Henry, designated French
‘official expert’ on African affairs, has argued that the story of
nationalism in French Africa is basically different from that in
British territories. He says:

African deputies and senators have learned their politics not
in the narrow confines of territorial problems, but in the strange
and stimulating world of the French parliament. . . . One could
argue that the world as seen from Paris is rather distorted.
French deputies themselves were not always aware of the real
factors in power politics. The continuous presence of friendly and
able African colleagues led them to believe that there was no
such thing as African nationalism in French areas, that the idea
was a foreign import and, in some cases, one of those notorious
plots against Franco-African community and its spiritual
achievements. On the other hand, there was no better school for
intellectual and political sophistication than that of the French
Parliament of the Fourth Republic.1

Henry’s remarks serve to underline the myopia which seems
to have become endemic to the French ruling class since the
days of the Bourbons. The transmission of the affliction to
Africans whose attitudes have been conditioned by sophisticated
flatteries away from an African orientation towards a ‘Franco-
African community’ can only be regarded as sinister and
inimical to African interests. Mesmerized by the ‘strange and
stimulating world of the French parliam ent’, issues as seen at

1 Paul-M arc Henry: Article entitled ‘Pan-Africanism - A Dream Come
T rue’ in Foreign Affairs, April 1959.