Page 9 - Afrika Must Unite

INTRODUCTION xi

battled our way to independence shall not stand quiet until the
last stronghold of colonialism has been laid to the ground in
Africa.
For we have dedicated ourselves to the attainm ent of total
African freedom. Here is one bond of unity that allies free Africa
with unfree Africa, as well as all those independent states
dedicated to this cause. M y party, the Convention People’s
Party, fervently upholds, as an unquestionable right, the burning
aspirations of the still subjected peoples of our continent for
freedom. Since our inception, we have raised as a cardinal
policy, the total emancipation of Africa from colonialism in all
its forms. To this we have added the objective of the political
union of African states as the securest safeguard of our hard-won
freedom and the soundest foundation for our individual, no less
than our common, economic, social and cultural advancement.
In my Autobiography, and to some extent also in another book
of mine, I Speak of Freedom, I tried to show how, and why, the
struggle for independence developed and succeeded in the then
Gold Coast. M y purpose now is to trace briefly the African
background and the effects of centuries of colonialism on the
political, economic and social life of Africa as a whole; to place
developments in Ghana in the broader context of the African
revolution; and to explain my political philosophy based on my
conviction of the need for the freedom and unification of Africa
and its islands.1
1 The following are the islands of Africa: (i) Canary Islands G ran C anaria,
Tenerife, Las Palmas, Ferro, Fuerte-Ventura, Lanzarote, Spanish; (2) Cape
Verde Islands (Sto. Antao, Sao Tiago), Portuguese; (3) M adeira with
Selvagens, Portuguese; (4) Arquipelago dos Bijagos (Caravela, Roxa),
Portuguese', (5) Los Island, Guinea; (6) Fernando Po, Spanish; (7) Principe,
Portuguese; (8) Sao Tome, Portuguese; (9) Annohon,Spanish; (10) Ascension,
British; (11) St. Helena, British; (12) Tristan da Cunha with Gough, British;
(13) Prince Edward and M arion, South African; (14) Malagasy, Independent;
(15) Bassas da India, French; (16) Europa, French; (17) De la Reunion,
French; (18) Mauritius, British; (19) Rodriguez, British; (20) Archipel des
Comores (Grande Comore, Moheli, Anjouan, Mayotte, Banc du Geyses,
Glorieuses), French; (21) Seychelles (Bird, Denis, Silhouette, Praslin, M ahe,
Platte, Amirante, Desroches, Bijoutier, Alphonse, St. Francois, Coetivy,
Aldabra, Assumption, Cosmoledo, Astove, Providence, St. Pierre, Cerf,
Farquhar, Agalega), British; (22) Socotra, British; (23) Dahalach Chebir,
Ethiopian; (24) Zanzibar, British; (25) Pemba, British; (26) Mafia, British.