UN General Assembly
1976

287. Last year I expressed our joy at the acceleration of the process of decolonization. We have witnessed the marvelous emergence of new nations in Africa through the accelerating process of liberation which a century and a half ago caused upheavals in the American continent. One by one the peoples of Africa, formerly languishing in a desperate colonial situation, have arisen to demand the inherent right of all peoples to self-determination and freedom and have emerged as independent States which today confirm the universal vocation of our Organization. 288. However, the methods used to achieve freedom and to go from freedom to international co-operation and interdependence* differ greatly. In some States freedom was the offspring of bloody struggles in which arms asserted what the law denied. In those circumstances, the wounds will be slow to heal and the return to a reasonable mean from the extremist positions which inspired the struggle has to be slow and painful.