Page 196 - Afrika Must Unite

NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA l 8 l
must be confessed, do not see the struggle of their brother
Africans as part of their struggle. Even if they did, they would
not be free to express their solidarity. The imperialists can thus
sit back and regard with sly satisfaction the rift between Africans.
The results can only be to retard the independence of countries
not yet free and to cause friction and disunion among the peoples
of Africa. Here is a phenomenon against which all African
freedom fighters must be on their guard and resist to the utmost.
In Africa today there are several apparently independent
states who, consciously or not, accept this pattern and serve the
interests of the new imperialism, which seeks to salvage some­
thing from the wreck of the old imperialism. The European
Common M arket is an outstanding example. The new threat
this organization offers to African unity is no less ominous for
being unobtrusive.
As far as Ghana is concerned, we do not oppose any arrange­
ment which the nations of Europe may wish to make among
themselves to seek greater freedom of trade within Europe; but
we are most decidedly and strongly opposed to any arrangem ent
which uses the unification of W estern Europe as a cloak for per­
petuating colonial privileges in Africa. We therefore naturally
protest against any economic or political grouping of European
powers which seeks to exert political and economic pressures
upon the newly emergent countries of Africa, or which discrimi­
nates against the trade of those countries which are not willing
to participate in these exclusive and unfair arrangements. The
operation of the European Economic Community, as at present
conceived, will not only discriminate against G hana and other
independent states of Africa economically, but what is more
im portant, it will perpetuate by economic means the many
artificial barriers which were imposed on Africa by the European
colonial powers.
Any form of economic union negotiated singly between the
fully industrialized states of Europe and the newly emergent
countries of Africa is bound to retard the industrialization, and
therefore, the prosperity and the general economic and cultural
development, of these countries. For it will m ean that those
African states which may be inveigled into joining this union
will continue to serve as protected overseas markets for the m anu-