St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1962-02-23

Conference on the day before it
opened.
Well! The Lagos Summit Con-
ference sat for six days and then
closed. Nineteen Heads of States
attended or were represented. AS
was expected, it dealt mainly with
the Monrovia Resolutions and the
Dakar Recommendations. Owing to
the INCORPORATION Of the Cas-
ablanca States, it was, to all in
tents and purposes, merely a big
ger and grander Monrovia Confer
ence.
All the resolutions and recon-
mendations - for inter-African CO.
operation in the political, economic,
educational, social and cultural
field are, as yet, the expression of
so many good intentions. The ques-
ton is: will they be realised within
the next decade or so?
The French speaking Brazza-
vile Group and the uncommitted
English speaking states are now
united, but the Casablanca Group
resolutely keeps out, although it
speaks the same theological lang
uage and when it meets, passes al
most identical resolutions. The
Conakry Recommendations do not
differ to any extent from the Oak
ar Recommendations.
Why do the Casablanca States
keep out? Morocco and the United
Arab Republic are on cordial terms
with Nigeria, although they follow
the Casablanca line. The United
Arab Republic has offered scholar
ships to Nigerian students and Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa has been
invited to visit Morocco by King
Hassan himself.
1t is Ghana that divides Cas-
ablanca from the rest of Africa.
Nkrumah is not the only dictator
in free Africa; that is to say free
so far as our late Colonial Masters
are concerned. But he is the only
dictator in the ex-British colonies.
We can't say English-speaking, be-
cause Liberia is English-speaking.
Don't mention the Sudan. 1t was
not a British Colony in the strict
sense Of that term and, of course,
it is Arab-speaking.
The British West African colon
les regarded each other as neigh
bours, in spite Of the relatively un.
known intervening French colonies,
and the intellectuals of each colony
knew each other and, not infre-
quently, visited each other.
We Nigerians and Sierra Leon
cans know what goes on in Ghana
and don't like it. Nkrumah resents
their criticism and feels it hard to
cooperate with them. He was not
going to risk, in coming to Lagos,
having to sit and hear the petition
of the Ghana Opposition, relating
the tyrannies they suffer in Ghana
and asking the Conference to do
something about it.
Besides, there Is a certain spirit
of rivalry between Ghana and Nj
geria. The latter is bigger and has
a better international reputation.
Like all dictators, Nkrumah must
be the great II Am" And where
he is put in the shadow, he is mis-
cradle.
Will these petty considerations
defeat the great ideals of African
unity?
They will certainly delay them.
But Nxrumah himself burns with
the ideals of African unity.
My guess is that the larger
group of Brazzaville and the I'M
committed states on the one hand
and the Casablanca states on the
other will sooner or later, manage
to come to some accommodation,
under the pressure of African pub
lie opinion-but they will not sit
down together.
Africa's system of inter-com-
munications will improve, enabling
one to travel from African state
to African state, without going by
way of London, Paris or Rome.
Africans will know one another
better. Their universities will ex-
change students. There may even
come into existence an African
Common Market and an Inter
African Secretariat to facilitate
these things. But, there will never
be an All-African Military High
Command, nor an All-African AS
sembly.
That Is to say, Africans may
eventually get as far, or a little
farther, than Europe has already
reached with her European Com
mon Market and the European
Community.
After ell, Africans are as human
as the Europeans are.