Evening star., 1947-06-15

W0AAAs AeAyAA6 POASRSAAS Va eiAh
Madagascar, are in open rebellion.
has not been so much in the, headl
that all is peaceful there. French
chief trouble centers are in the
north.
Although, on political maps,
French Africa shows up as a solid
block, stretching from the Med
iterranean to below the Equator,
French North Africa is sharply
divided by nature from the south
ern portions. This Is due to the
immense barrier Of the Sahara
Desert, which stretches clear across
the Dark Continent from the At
lantic Ocean to the Red Sea. French
North Africa is practically identical
with the belt of mountain ranges
which rise from the Mediterranean
and parallel the Sahara until they
fade out and the desert reaches
the sea just eastward of TripolL
Empire Started in 1880
y Those mountain ranges bar out
the desert and modify the climate,
so that this northern band of ter
ritory is relatively well-watered and
fertile. Throughout history. it has
had little to do with the rest OF
Africa south of the Sahara, but, on
the contrary, has been closely associ-
ated with Europe and Asia. The
Romans expressed this geographical
reality when they called it Africa
Minor.
Today, this basic geographical
unity is slightly obscured by the
fact that small zone Of Morocco
near the Straits of Gibraltar IS
under Spanish control, while at the
other end Tripoli has formed part
of the Italian colonial empire. But,
with those minor exceptions, the
whole of Africa Minor is under the
French flag; either directly in Al
geria or as ''protectorates" in MoEoc-
co and Tunis.
The capture of the city of Algiers
in 1880 marked the beginning of
Frances modern colonial empire,
and French North Africa is in every
way its most vital portion. With
out North Africa, the French En-
pire would be thing of shreds and
patches. Yet it is precisely here
that French rule is being increas-
ingly challenged in what may be
the supreme test of Frances i'm
perial destiny. 1t is therefore i'm
portant to understand the nature
of that challenge by analyzing the
underlying realities of the situation.
Two Races Never Fused
First, there's the racial factor
Despite slow trickle of Negro blood
through the centuries, brought
across the desert mostly by slave
caravans, North Africa is racially
not Negroid. Everywhere west OF
Egypt the population is basically
Berber-a dark white" stock, SIM
liar to the brunette elements in
Spain, Italy and elsewhere on the
European shores of the Mediter-
ranean. The Berbers remind one
temperamentally of the Balkan AL
banians. They are extremely tena-
cious of their language and Gus
toms, and they have an innate sense
Of common kinship. But they are
lnveterate clansmen, having always
been split up into small tribes,
sometimes combining in loose con-
federacies, yet never developing a
true national consciousness.
Alongside the Berbers we find
everywhere a varying proportion OF
Arabs. The Arabs have colonized
North Africa ever since the Moslem
conquest IL centuries ago. They
converted the Berbers to Islam and
Arabic culture, but they never made
North Africa part and parcel OF
the Arabic world, as they did Syria
and Mesopotamia. and in somewhat
lesser degree Egypt. The two races
have never fully fused. Despite
more than a thousand years OF
Arab tutelage the Berbers' manner
of life remains distinct. They have
largely kept their language, and
there has been no general inter-
marriage. Pure blooded Arabs
abound, often in large tribal groups,
but they are still, in way, for
eigners.
Political Troubles
With such factors Of discord
North Africa's political life has al
ways been troubled. The most stable
region has been Morocco, though
even there the Sultan's authority
never really extended to the noun
tain tribes. AS for the so-called
"Barbary states" (Algiers, Tunis and
TripolD, they were little more than
port cities along the coast, the hin
terland enjoying practically COM
plete tribal independence.
Over this confused turmoil spread
the tide of French conquest, begin
ming with the capture of Algiers in
1880 and ending with the military
occupation Of Morocco, which was
completed a generation ago. France
brought peace, order and material
prosperity, but here, as In other
eastern lands, western tutelage
created q new sort OF unity among
o Is RumbHn0