Page 216 - Afrika Must Unite

AFRICA IN WORLD AFFAIRS 201
of all territories still under their rule. This declaration was
strongly supported at the Belgrade Conference, though it has yet
to be implemented.
United States spokesmen have often declared their con­
demnation of colonialism and latterly have affirmed their support
of African independence. We must hope this means that deter­
mined efforts will be made to halt the imperialist interventions of
the W estern bloc in Africa. The Soviet Union, by the very nature
of its state and constitution, is a supporter of independence. We
can count, also, on large numbers of well-wishers in Britain and
in other colonial countries. The days of colonialism in Africa are
numbered, despite the m ilitary reinforcements Portugal has
hurriedly packed into Angola, and the imperialist and cold-war
machinations in the Congo; despite the latest suppressions of the
nationalist movements in the Rhodesias, the gruelling enforce­
ment of apartheid in South Africa, and the frenzied manoeuvres
of neo-colonialism in Africa. Sooner or later, and I think it
will be much sooner than the world thinks, all these frantic
efforts to save imperialism in Africa will be swept into the debris
of history.
Along with them will go the fascist dictatorships in Europe
that are so finely balanced on the prolongation of colonialism,
which, in the case of Spain, provided the m ilitary means for the
seizure of pow er; with the concurrence of a democratic world
more concerned at the time with supporting reactionary ruling
cliques as a bastion against Communism than with the issue of
popular liberty. In the present, there is a positive revolutionary
connection between Captain Galvao’s exposure of Portuguese
atrocities in Angola after his plucky break for freedom and the
intensification of nationalist activities in the Portuguese colonies.
These, in turn, are undoubtedly having their reaction upon the
intellectual and working class revolt in progress against the
dictatorship in Portugal. The weakening of Portuguese fascism
simultaneously at the metropolitan centre and in the colonial
periphery can start off a chain of events which might successfully
engage Portuguese forces split between the metropolis and the
colonies, provided there is no interference from the neo­
colonialist and cold-war elements. There is the danger that
South Africa’s m ilitary forces may be brought into play to