Page 193 - Afrika Must Unite

178 AFRICA MUST UNITE

Abidjan can be quite as distorted for African politicians as they
can for French deputies in Paris.
Viewed thus, it is small wonder that General de Gaulle’s
referendum of 28 September 1958, on the constitution of the
French Community, should have trium phed with the single dis­
sentient vote of Guinea. The weight of the General’s promise of
largess for those who remembered the intertwined destiny and
common cultural heritage of the Community and the threat of
excommunication for those who rejected this destiny, and for­
swore their noble inheritance, was irresistible. While the long­
standing politicians of the rest of French Africa were dismayed
at the prospect of a future severed from the embracing arms of
France, Sekou Toure rallied his countrymen round him for a
‘No’ vote, and Guinea was rudely ejected from the Community.
The French Community was evolved by General de Gaulle
to replace the French Union, devised by the statesmen of the
Fourth Republic within la loi cadre, the outline law. The French
Union was an attem pt to contain the rising tide of African con­
sciousness by the cover of a spurious autonomy in certain de­
partm ents of administration. Events in Ghana and our steady
progress to full independence revealed the counterfeit character
of the French Union, and with the near civil war precipitated
by the attem pted military seizure of power in Algeria, General
de Gaulle, ensconced in power in Paris, formulated the French
Community to replace the sham pretensions of the Union. W hen
promulgated, the provisions of the constitution of the Com­
m unity in respect of the powers they allotted to the African terri­
tories were seen to fall short of those regarded as too constricted
under the Union. The breaking down into separate entities
before the referendum of the Federation of West Africa and that
of Equatorial Africa was the key to the new political policy of
France. It was balkanization in practice. It reinforced the am­
bitions of political personalities and deepened schisms which
were on the way to being closed. A new rift was opened in African
politics between Republicans and Federalists, that is, between
those who felt they would advance their careers within the strict
limits of autonomy and those who, responding to popular
clamour, sought association with other units. This popular
pressure in the African lands has achieved several modifications