Page 215 - Afrika Must Unite

200 AFRICA MUST UNITE
non-committed area of the world, the better the chances of
hum an survival. By moral force, if not by material strength, the
non-aligned nations must exert their influence to save the world
from ultimate disaster. The unity of Africa and the strength it
would gather from continental integration of its economic and
industrial development, supported by a united policy of non­
alignment, could have a most powerful effect for world peace.
I do not believe it is possible for a state, in the world today, to
secure its safety by withdrawing from international affairs and
refusing to take a stand on issues which affect peace and war. This
would be to follow a policy of negative neutralism which is
tantam ount to a fatal belief that war between the great powers
would bring misery and destruction only to those who partici­
pated in it. Since war, if it comes, is likely to destroy most of us,
whether we are participants or not, whether or not we are the
cause of it, negative neutralism is no shield at all. It is completely
im potent and even dangerous.
The participants in the Belgrade Conference held this view.
They agreed it was ‘essential that the non-aligned countries
should participate in solving outstanding international issues
concerning peace and security in the world as none of them can
rem ain unaffected by, or indifferent to, these issues’.1 They
considered that the further extension of the non-committed area
of the world constituted the only possible alternative to the
policy of the total division of the world into blocs, and the
intensification of cold war policies.
A free and united Africa would contribute greatly to the
strength of the non-committed area. While the enormous
obstacles that still stand in the way of African freedom and unity
must not be under-estimated, account must be taken of the ever­
growing strength of our cause. For the opposition to colonialism,
both moral and material, is greater in the world today than it has
ever been, and it is becoming more powerful all the time.
It is significant that, at the fifteenth session of the General
Assembly of the United Nations, a ‘Declaration on the granting
of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples’ was
adopted. Not only was colonialism condemned, but colonial
powers were asked to begin preparations at once for the liberation
1 Declaration issued at the end of the Conference, in October 1961.