Page 32 - Afrika Must Unite

THE COLONIAL IMPRINT 17
nated to the Kenya Legislative Council; the following year three
were appointed in U ganda; and in 1946, two in Tanganyika.
Progress was faster in West Africa. The first African member of
the Legislative Council in the Gold Coast was nom inated in
1861.
The power of the Legco varied in different countries accord­
ing to the ratio between official, unofficial (i.e. appointed), and
elected members. W here the elected members were out­
numbered by the official and unofficial members, the assembly
was controlled, in fact, by the Governor. But, in any case, the
Legco could not cause the government to resign, even if it out­
voted it on some Bill. The Governor had certain ‘reserved
powers’ by which he could invalidate legislation; and he could,
in time of extreme emergency, suspend the constitution and rule
by decree. This was actually done not long ago in British
Guiana.
There have, of course, in recent decades been progressive
revisions of the constitutions of almost all United Kingdom
dependencies, and those which are not already independent
have advanced constitutions which place responsibility for their
own affairs largely in the hands of the local people. The evolu­
tion towards parliam entary government on the Westminster
model has been marked by an obstinate refusal to grant, par­
ticularly in areas of white settlement, universal adult suffrage,
the keystone, after all, of true democracy.
In spite of the moralizings of British colonialists who argue
that political reform is granted as and when the colony is ready
for it, change has, in fact, come mostly as a result of pressure
from below. In the case of Ghana, a vigorous campaign waged
by my party, its slogan ‘Self-Government Now’, was needed
before independence could be achieved. As I said in the National
Assembly on 10 July 1953, when presenting the historic motion
for independence:

There comes a time in the history of colonial peoples when
they must, because of their will to throw off the hampering
shackles of colonialism, boldly assert their God-given right to
be free of a foreign ruler. . . . If there is to be a criterion of a
people’s preparedness for self-government, then I say it is their