UN General Assembly
1979

4. What better evidence could be adduced that Africa is fast gaining its rightful place in the forefront of human affairs? In the span of less than a century since 1884—to which I have referred—Africa has made substantive advances from the throes of servitude to frontiers of significance; from the depths of exploitation into the councils of human uplift. This new emergence, however, is seen by Africans not so much as the attainment of an inheritance long denied but as a relished opportunity and challenge for a great continent, the cradle of human civilization and of human life itself, to rise from slumber and swiftly make its uniquely African contribution to international relations in a troubled world.