Page 218 - Afrika Must Unite

AFRICA IN WORLD AFFAIRS 203
kind of m ilitary pacts or alliances with outside powers would be
unnecessary. O ur united strength would be sufficient to deter
any would-be aggressor, since an attack on any African country
would be regarded as an attack on the Union.
The maintenance of military forces imposes a heavy financial
burden on even the most wealthy African states. We all need
every penny we can get for development, and it is suicidal for
each of us, individually, to assume such a heavy burden when the
weight could be lightened by sharing it among ourselves. I do
not imagine that France would have dared to attack Bizerta if
we had been united. Nor would she explode atomic bombs in the
Sahara in spite of urgent and repeated African objections.
W orld peace today needs Africa’s total independence, needs
Africa’s unity, as positive contributions to an elimination of the
elements engaged in creating the conditions for war. Some of
these elements are connected with the supply of materials for and
promotion of the m anufacture of the most lethal weapons of
destruction yet devised. To ensure the continuance of this supply,
Africa is being drawn into the danger zone of war. In Angola, the
Rhodesias, in South Africa, a menacing military machine is
being built up, aimed at destroying African independence and
m aintaining the servitude of millions of Africans to white
supremacy, in conditions of slavery.
W orld peace is not possible without the complete liquidation
of colonialism and the total liberation of peoples everywhere.
The indivisibility of peace is staked upon the indivisibility of
freedom. And this indivisibility extends to minorities within
independent states who are segregated from the body politic.
Wherever there is the possibility of conflict arising out of dis­
criminations and the refusal of hum an rights, the peace of the
world is threatened.
Hence it follows that, if the true interest of all peoples is
pursued, there must come an end to all forms of exploitation and
oppression of man by man, of nation by nation; there must come
an end to war. There must result peaceful co-existence and the
prosperity and happiness of all mankind.
The balance of forces in the world today has reached such a
stage that the only avenue open to m ankind is peaceful co­
existence. The alternative to this is chaos, destruction and