Page 26 - Afrika Must Unite

THE COLONIAL IMPRINT II
wages. They erected barriers of race to enforce segregation on
grounds of the inferior social development of the indigenous
people, and made this a reason for enforcing their right to rule.
There is no logic except the right of might that can accept the
undemocratic rule of a majority by a minority. The predom inant
racial group must, and will, provide the government of a
country. The race that is in the majority is the possessor of the
land it occupies, irrespective of the annexations made by a
minority of settlers. It is obvious that unhappiness, friction and
fear must prevail when a minority settler group tries to take
possession of a land, or to dictate to a majority, as in the cases of
South Africa, Algeria, Kenya, or the Central African Federation.
The first step towards testing the right of rule in communities
of mixed races and creeds is to give every adult, irrespective of
race and creed, the right to vote. W hen each citizen thereby
enjoys equality of status with all others, barriers of race and
colour will disappear, and the people will mix freely together
and will work for the common good.
Portugal, like France, has also pursued a colonial policy of
assimilation in its African territories, though of a rather different
kind. M ozambique and Angola are regarded as integral parts
of Portugal, administered by the Ministerio do U ltram ar in
Lisbon. The press is censored, and all national movements sup­
pressed. M ozambique, where the Portuguese have been for over
450 years, has a Governor-General’s Council, with equal
numbers of official and non-official members, and sends two
deputies to Lisbon. But the Portuguese have never intended to
allow any development towards self-government. Likewise in
Angola, everything is run from Lisbon.
Portugal is at home an old-fashioned despotic oligarchy estab­
lished and maintained in the interests of a small group of ex­
tremely wealthy families. It is at the same time one of the poorest
of European countries. There is, therefore, a potentially revolu­
tionary situation in Portugal itself. All those who are afraid of
social change in Europe thus become the allies of Portuguese
colonialism, since its maintenance appears to be the only method
by which Portugal itself can be saved from revolution.
Although there is no official colour bar in the Portuguese
colonies, conditions both in M ozambique and Angola are