Page 211 - Afrika Must Unite

AFRICA MUST UNITE
structure which we consider necessary if it is to function as a more
objectively serviceable organ of world peace.
The United Nations, in its present form, does not reflect true
conditions in the world at this time. Today, more and more
countries are assuming the dignity of sovereign states out of a
colonial status which previously made them nothing but
appendages or vassals of imperialism. It has not, however,
eliminated the view that the powerful nations (and some who
regard themselves as still powerful even though events have
proved their brittle vulnerability) have a right to set the pattern
for the budding nations and even to interfere nakedly in the
internal affairs of these struggling states.
In the past might meant right. The idea that right presides in
might still persists. Indeed, it has achieved its fateful acme in the
contest between the two colossi, who seek to draw the rest of the
world into their opposing camps. However, the very fact of a
progressively enlarging world, which is altering not only in the
num ber of independent nations but in kind, is having its impact
in creating a fringe bloc of states which, though individually
unim portant, collectively are able to exert an influence on the
international scene which is unprecedented.
Their common concern with the anti-colonial struggle and
the continuing liberation of subjected territories is forcing the
U nited Nations to abandon its temporizing methods for more
positive measures in connection with arbitrary rule in Africa, as
well as the extension of aid to the less developed parts of the
world. The constant whittling at South Africa’s resistance
resulted in the visit in M ay 1962 of a United Nations special
mission to the trust territory of South-West Africa to investigate
allegations of slavery and m altreatm ent. Another delegation
from the U nited Nations special committee on colonization
visited East Africa to enquire into conditions in M ozambique
from freedom fighters who had been forced into exile in
Tanganyika and elsewhere. A seventeen-nation sub-committee
which sent a mission to Central Africa to examine the tenability
of Central African Federation, recommended its breaking up, as
it imposed ‘no freedom’ measures on the majority population. It
found that the proposed new constitution for Northern Rhodesia
was ‘basically undemocratic and discriminatory’. The principle