Evening star., 1948-02-22

leader of a rebellion among the tri
century ago which gave both Spain
and France q bad case Of filters
before it was crushed by overwhelm-
ing military force. This made him
heroic symbol throughout North AZ
rica, his exploits doing much to
further the rise of that anti-Euro-
pean Islamic nationalist movement
that has steadily gained ground dur
ing the intervening decades.
The weakening of Europe in gen.
eral and France in particular by
World War II, coinciding with the
successes of Moslem peoples In the
Near and Middle East, has intensi-
fed the ferment in North Africa and
brought nearer a crisis which ap-
pears inescapable. In view Of its
imminence, 1t would seem well to
try to understand what the trou-
BILE is and what 1t may signify.
Land of Disunity
In the first place, just what do we
mean when we say North Africa?
For practical purposes, it means the
big bulge OF the Dark Continent
that thrusts northward from the
Straits Of Gibraltar opposite Spain
10 the Mediterranean narrows oppo-
site the island of Sicily. This bulge
consists of a series of mountain
ranges running parallel with each
other west to east. Between them
lie fertile valleys, protected from the
sands and hot winds Of the vast
Sahara Desert to the southwark and
open to the rain-bearing winds from
the Atlantic Ocean at the western
end.
This relatively favored region is
doubly isolated from the rest of At
rica; first, by the Sahara, which was
almost untraversable before the
camel was introduced from Arabia q
millennium ago; secondly, by the
wide belt of arid coast eastward
clear to Egypt. geographically
the North African bulge is much
like an island, tending to lead its
own life and with certain basic
trend toward unity. Yet, curiously
enough, throughout its history,
North Africa has been united only
from without.
No Political Union
Carthage dominated it, and after
ward Rome. Then came the Arab
invasions which converted the
whole region to Mohammedanism
and Islamic civilization. But this
did not result in political union.
Not until modern times did France
extend its domination over all North
Africa with the exception OF small
coastal strip on the Mediterranean,
which came under Spanish control.
The reason for this lack OF in
ternal unification, primarily, is the
character of the native population.
The basic North African stock is
Berber-a "dark-white' strain SINH
lar to. the brunei element In Spain,
Italy and elsewhere on the Euro
pean shores of the Mediterranean.
The Berbers remind one tempera-
mentally of the Balkan Albanians.
They are extremely tenacious of
their language and customs, and
they have an innate sense of kin
ship, but they are inveterate clans
men, having been always split up
into many small tribes, sometimes
combining in loose confereracies yet
never developing true national
consciousness.
Alongside the Berbers We hnd
everywhere a varying proportion Of
Arabs. The Arabs have colonized
North Africa ever since the Moslem
conquest IL centuries ago, but they
never made 1t part Of the Arabic
world as they did Syria and Meso-
potamia and, in somewhat lesser
degree, Egypt. The two races have
never fully fused. Despite more
than q thousand years of Arab
tutelage, the Berber manner of life
remains distinct. They have largely
kept their language, and there has
been no general intermarriage.
Pure -blooded Arabs abound, often
in large tribal groups; but they are
still, in a way, foreigners.
Morocco Is Most Stable
With such factors Of disunion,
North Africa's political life has ira
ditionally been troubled. The most
stable region has been Morocco,
where fairly strong central gov
ernment known as a Sultanate has
existed for centuries. But even
there the Sultan's authority never
really extended over the mountain
tribes. AS for the so-called Bar
barry States" (Algiers, Tunis and
TripolD, they were little more than
port-city states along the coast, the
hinterland enjoying virtually COM
plete tribal independence.
over this confused turmoil spread
the tide OF French conquest, begin
ming with the capture of Algiers in
1880, continuing with protectorate
over Tunis in 1881, and eliminating
in the military occupation of most
of Morocco in 1912. France brought
peace, order and material prosperity;
but here, as in other eastern lands,
western tutelage created new sort
of unity among the natives through
their common dislike of the Euro
pean conqueror and common aspi-
ration toward independence.
Strong Islamic Trend
Accordingly, the past few decades
have witnessed the appearance Of
native nationalist movements in
Algeria, Tunis and Morocco alike
movements headed mainly by