Page 43 - Afrika Must Unite

28 AFRICA MUST UNITE
social system of the African tribes against disintegrating in­
fluences of urban conditions.’1 And yet so many historians
regard the industrial revolution as one of the best things that ever
happened to Britain.
The view that the African must be spared the dangers of
industrialization and town life used to be very widely held. M any
a district officer under the colonial regime sincerely believed it,
and would have been genuinely hurt if it was suggested that his
belief sprang from an inner conviction that the Africans were an
inferior people, capable only of primitive village life. It is under­
standable that histories of Africa, until recently written almost
entirely by Europeans, should give the European viewpoint.
But it is time that some of the popular and most glaring mis­
conceptions about colonialism were cleared up. The system must
be examined in the light of the facts, and from the point of view
of those who suffered under it.
Not least among our worries in planning the economic
development of our country has been the whole question of
communications. Before we took office in 1951, there was no
direct railway between Accra and Takoradi, our capital city and
our main port. Passengers and freight had to travel by way of
Kumasi. This was because Kumasi was the centre of the cocoa,
tim ber and mining industries. We have now built a railway line
from Achiasi to Kotoku, thus linking Accra to Takoradi by a
direct route. Another line links Accra with the new harbour at
Tem a.
Similarly with roads; there were relatively few before 1951.
Farmers found it difficult to get their produce to market, because
of the lack of feeder roads from farm to main highways. Few of
our villages had any regular transport to a main road or station.
In the towns, one was lucky if one happened to live near a
‘mammy lorry9 route. For the most part our people walked from
place to place.
The colonial administration would, no doubt, have claimed
that they were working to a specific budget, a budget strictly
related to the revenue. But our revenue in no way reflected the
volume of the country’s production, its trade and commerce.

1 Home Study Books, 2nd edition, Methuen, 1959, p. 93.