Page 203 - Afrika Must Unite

AFRICA MUST UNITE
and distrust in order to keep a wedge between us. Besides the
open methods of division, the impact of rising nationalism
and independence has encouraged the more subtle velvet-glove
weapon of flattery of our national egos. Play is made upon our
vanities, the importance of each of us is magnified at the expense
of others. We are subjected to the insidious suggestion that a
certain African state is anxious to exalt itself to the place of the
retired colonial power; that some African states have a large
mouth, open and ready to swallow their neighbours. Appeal is
directed to our personal ambitions and we are reminded that in
a union of African states there will be room for only one Prime
Minister, a single cabinet and a sole representation at the United
Nations. Hints are spread around that some states, on account
of their size and m agnitude of population, are more qualified
than others to play the role of leadership in Africa and to be its
mouthpiece. There is a tendency to divide Africa into fictitious
zones north and south of the Sahara which emphasizes racial,
religious and cultural differences.
The basic fallacy of these persuasions, dangerous to the in­
dependence of Africa in their shrewd exploitation of our pride
and vanities, is the deliberate distortion of our vision of African
Union. We do not intend a relationship of unequal partners. We
envisage the African Union as a free merging together of peoples
with a common history and a common destiny. As with other
existing unions, the size and resources of countries joining the
African Union will be irrelevant to the choice of union leader­
ship. In America, the President is not chosen from the largest
of the states. Both President Eisenhower and President Trum an
came from among the smaller states.
In the early nineteenth century Simon Bolivar, the great
liberator of the South American colonies from Spain, had a
vision of a Union of South American States as the precursor to
the economic development of the South American continent.
Unfortunately for the subsequent history of these lands, he was
not able to bring his farsighted idea to trium ph over the personal
ambitions and jealousies of contending individuals and forces.
We have seen the unhappy results of this failure in the dissidence
and sloth in which the South American countries were sunk for
so many decades. It is only today, against the pressures of popular