Page 199 - Afrika Must Unite

184 AFRICA MUST UNITE

There is no need to underscore the intention it so blatantly
exposes in ‘playing the game5 o f ‘buying time5. It should be an
object lesson for all those African statesmen who think that
associations with non-African powers will foster their true
interests and give them the opportunity to prosper their nations
within continuing independence of action. This objective can
only be achieved by close economic association between the
African states themselves, which in turn presupposes close
political co-operation between them. It is on account of its
retrograde consequences for the cause of African unity and
economic independence that the government of Ghana is so
completely opposed to the European Community in its present
form.
T hat many of the leaders of the new African states find them­
selves in a perplexing position, there is no doubt. They are
strongly dependent on foreign contributions simply to maintain
the machinery of their governments. M any of them have
deliberately been made so weak economically, by being carved
up into m any separate countries, that they are not able to sustain
out of their own resources the machinery of independent govern­
ment, the cost of which cannot be reduced beyond a certain
minimum. I recognize the impossible position in which they
were placed when the transfer of power took place. Their
frontiers were not of their own choosing, and they were left
with an economic, administrative and educational system which,
each in its own way, was designed to perpetuate the colonial
relationship.
G hana’s case was no different, but we are making decisive
efforts to change the pattern and are determined to retain our
independence of policy and action. I regard as culpable the
insidious reluctance of these states to formulate an independent
policy even though it may involve the loss of the contributions
which were offered in exchange for continued conformity to the
policies of the colonial powers. Equally reprehensible is the
refusal to give recognition to the nature of the new imperialism
that is using them as pawns in keeping Africa divided, as a means
of aborting total independence and m aintaining neo-colonial
hegemony. Worse still are the deceits in the pretended willing­
ness of some leaders to co-operate on certain levels of African