Page 206 - Afrika Must Unite

NEO-COLONIALISM IN AFRICA
from the supervision of W hitehall, and to spread the intensive
racial practises of Southern Rhodesia to the other parts.
There is a strong financial and ideological connection between
South Africa and the Rhodesias which extends through Portu­
guese Angola and M ozambique. There is talk of a secret military
pact between Portugal and the Union of South Africa. The
military machine that is being built up by South Africa presents
a most threatening danger, not only to the struggle for independ­
ence in Central, East and South Africa, but to the safety of the
already independent African states. It is unfortunate that the
United Kingdom, even though South Africa has withdrawn
from the Commonwealth following the heavy censure of her
apartheid policy from the majority of the members, continues to
give support to the Union’s policy of military preparedness.
We cannot afford either to ignore the sinister chain of interests
which unites events in the Congo and Angola to East and South
Africa. These interests are also connected with the East-West
battle for world supremacy and the frenzied efforts being made
to drag the newly emerging countries of Africa into the orbit of
the cold war. The contest for ideological influence over the new
states of Africa is throwing into confusion and complicating even
more what is already a complex enough struggle for freedom
from imperialist political and economic dominance and the
unification of the continent. Any difference, any kind of fissure
among Africans is seized and turned to the imperialist and cold-
war interests. The Congo offers perhaps the most striking
example of how tribal dissensions and political careerism are
exploited in order to fragment united territories and exacerbate
divisions. The aim of the marionette control of local careerists
like Moise Tshombe, besides the maintenance of economic
power, is to cut across the African determination to secure
continental unity in full independence. It was unfortunate that
the United Nations was manoeuvred into a position where at one
time it appeared to be weighting its influence against the
legitimate Congolese Government on the side of those who were
responsible for throwing the country into upheaval and for the
m urder of Patrice Lum umba.
We must be forgiven, I think, if we also see some connection
between events in the Congo and Angola and N .A .T.O. The