France Woos Darkest Africa

...This is also why independence remains for the republics of the Community an ideally desirable goal, but one that is likely to be indefinitely postponed...

...Such divergences of background and interest easily lead to political conflicts, expressed through clashes of ideologies and personalities...

...The second is that the evolution of the French Community is complicated by its internal, structural difficulties, its ethnic, linguistic and religious differences, the varying degrees of evolution in its member states and the existence or lack of indigenous leadership...

...From the French point of view, it is also a testing ground of French political and cultural ingenuity in creating an authentically new form of coexistence between nations and races—neither the satellite system nor the Commonwealth system, and without the extremes of total independence or apartheid...

...Under the impact of a personality such as de Gaulle, however, the Community may overcome the internal contradictions which exist between its past and future, its present leadership and the new generation...

...But sober, non-ideological business circles have, for a number of years, also been THOMAS MOLNAR teaches French literature at Brooklyn College and is a frequent contributor to Commonweal, Modern Age and other periodicals...

...The Constitution allows for changes of status within the Community, meaning closer or more distant relations with it and with France, as well as the establishment of federations within the Community, such as the Republic of Mali, formed by Sudan and Senegal...

...In the last 11 years, credits invested by France in the areas covered by the Community have totaled $3 billion...

...These republics are autonomous states with the following structural ties between them: A high commissioner represents the President of the Community in each...

...De Gaulle Government seeks to solve French Community's political-economic problems France Woos Darkest Africa By Thomas Molnar AT HIS NOVEMBER 10 press conference, President Charles de Gaulle made two important remarks concerning the future orientation of French policy toward the member states of the French Community...

...This sharp difference between the outlook and programs of the older and younger generations raises the question of future leadership and, more generally, the question of elites...

...The issues are, naturally, local, and derive their present bitterness, at least on the surface, from the diverse positions that the politicians adopt vis-a-vis the French...

...Their generally Marxist outlook and impatience with French apron strings strongly influence the orientation of their elders, the politicians presently in power who, despite their long struggle against colonialism, have remained culturally and sentimentally attached to France...

...The first is that our own Negro problem resembles in many respects the problems of colonial liquidation by France, England, Belgium, et al., and we can hardly expect these ex colonial powers to proceed at a faster pace than we do in the South, or to do so unanimously, without domestic misgivings and criticism...

...A Senate of 300 seats the delegates of each state (elected by the local parliaments), and a Court of Arbitration, consisting of judges and professors of law, settles disputes arising between them...

...The Community, however, is more than a business association...

...The possibility is, of course, kept alive and the debate around it is emotionally surcharged: No leader except the firm and highly skilful Houphouet-Boigny would dare openly oppose the ideal of independence, since it represents an ideological driving force that can be harnessed toward great material, organizational and moral objectives, and it may be successfully used to oppose Communism...

...suggesting the desirability of pulling out of Black Africa, which, financially speaking, is more a liability than an asset...

...The labor unions and student organizations contribute in no small measure to the ideological ferment...

...The American looks at this nationalism and desire for independence with a sympathetic eye...

...But he tends to forget two things...

...This is its essential difference from the British Commonwealth: While the latter has slowly developed into its present loose form of organization, following in its evolution the British pattern of local autonomy, the French Community is a difficult and delicate compromise between the French tradition of political centralization and the explosive self-affirmation of the African peoples which compensates their lack of a political tradition by a fierce nationalism...

...Beyond this problem, however, the real contest is for the future supreme leadership of the large territories of West and Central Africa and their as yet politically unformed populations...

...Not counting Madagascar, the African Republics have a total population of 30 million, divided into some 50 ethnic groups which speak 120 different languages and dialects...

...These credits have been utilized to create the essential social, economic and scientific foundations for future development, and they are likely to be increased in the future...

...Since the events of May-June 1958, Army officers from captain to general, from old colonial hands to psychological warfare personnel, have elaborated a policy of their own that—as events have shown—de Gaulle alone is able to integrate with Government policy...

...Foreign policy, defense, finances and the policy affecting strategic raw materials are considered common matters and are in the hands of the respective French ministries...

...The imperious necessity of selling each year's crop —and of attracting foreign investment and technical assistance—explains the friendly gestures of a Sekou Toure toward the Soviet bloc and the Western world at the same time...

...With the exception of the Ivory Coast and Niger, their balance of trade is unfavorable...

...This means that no selection is possible yet, and also that two or more imported ideologies, absorbed in foreign lands, will soon confront each other within the narrow confines of each new nation...

...Above all, it would be disastrous if Africa were left in turmoil and an international power vacuum...

...This is the reason that many Negro leaders favor the federation of, for example, all of West Africa: They hope thereby to pool resources in raw material and manpower, and, at the same time, by offering work in parts distant from a native's village community, to dismantle the authority of tribal chiefs...

...They make no secret of their paternalistic attitude, and maintain that the "cultural presence" that the Left likes to emphasize is meaningless and precarious without France's political and military presence...

...The situation is further complicated by the economic hardships the African nations face in their fight for survival...

...Thus, France's presence would appear to be indispensable in the formative period of the African nations, because its assistance cushions the inevitable initial hardships...

...An Executive Council, meeting four times a year (last time in Madagascar), groups these ministers in charge of overall matters and the prime ministers of each member state...

...This was the case when the Sudanese and Senegalese founders of Mali wanted to include Mauritania, Upper Volta and the Ivory Coast in a West African federation...

...Yet it is natural that they would not relish being passive observers of a development which, in their judgment, might yet transform the Community into a much looser confederation, and would thus endanger the strategic positions (Dakar, Brazzaville) they are supposed to hold and defend...

...The needs of the Community, in turn, encourage France to modernize more speedily some neglected sectors of its own industry and to develop new techniques of industrial research and engineering...

...In fact, the crisis of officials, administrators, teachers, engineers, etc., is such that practically all of their young people who are now studying at some Western (or Eastern) university have a guaranteed job or position waiting for them at home...

...On the other hand, there are some French officers who, encouraged by the success of their Algerian counterparts, would like to exert an influence on local politics whenever the trend seems to them anti-French or tainted with Marxism...

...De Gaulle is not the kind of man who throws out ideas at random...

...They are aware, for example, that American industrial development firms possess the experience and the personnel required to deal with vast areas like the Community, and that if France wants to compete with them, the high quality of French basic research must now be combined with new methods of application...

...The Army has its own views on the evolution of the Community, and keeps a watchdog's eye on those sheep that may want to stray from the herd...

...He acknowledged that the "passion for self-determination . . . is an elementary psychological factor . . . which moves these peoples...

...Such federations, however, face the obstacle of racial and religious diversity, as well as the reluctance of the more prosperous coastal Republics to tie themselves to the poorer inland nations...

...And he recognized that the "basis of the contract made a year ago between the French Republic and the 12 African States is . . . our respect for their free disposal of themselves...

...The most desirable alternative is that the Community should work out its destiny in association with France, thereby strengthening its members and the entire Afro-European political geographical complex...

...To achieve this, the cooperation of the other European nations—primarily those of the Common Market—will, of course, be essential, for the day is still far off when Africa, with its own industries and scientific know-how, may join as an equal partner in its own development...

...The whole structure is the fruit of a bold idea, born from sudden developments and historically tied to the quasi-revolution of May 13, 1958...

...However, the problems that the Community faces in these early years of its existence do not depend on the debates and decisions of Paris alone...

...Right-wingers reproach de Gaulle and Premier Michel Debre's Government for (1) being overindulgent to the secessionist African leaders at the cost of alienating France's real friends in Africa, and (2) allowing some of the new Republics to profit by French financial and technical aid while they openly flirt with complete independence and initiate an eventual anti-French orientation...

...On the other hand, if the policies of Modibo Keita, head of the Mali federation, tend toward independence, this is less a matter of free choice than a necessity on his part not to be outflanked by the agitation of his own cousin, Minister of the Interior Madeira Keita, a fellow-traveling leader of the Party of African Federation (PFA) and a political ally of Guinea's President Sekou Toure...

...What is, then, the role of France within the framework of the Community, and how is it evolving in this second year of the partnership...

...This is, to a large extent, a French heritage: It is amazing to see how the customary factors of French political life—hero worship, ideological commitment, fierce party struggle, the leftist orientation of labor unions—reproduce themselves on African soil and in the behavior of Negro leaders and masses...

...In order to evaluate these problems, it is useful to examine the Community's present condition...

...The French realize today that in order to keep Black Africa attached to themselves and to Europe, France must provide, in quality and quantity, the kind of technical and organizational assistance that both the Communist bloc and the United States would be happy to supply...

...As their only resources consist of raw materials—cotton, coffee, lumber, tobacco, etc.—their long range plans for industrialization and modernization depend on the fluctuation of world prices, a very unstable basis...

...But these leaders are no less realistic than many other statesmen the world over, who insist that no absolute independence exists in the second half of the 20th century...

...The Community is composed of the following republics, in addition to the French Republic itself (which includes the Algerian and Saharan Departments, the Overseas Departments and the Overseas Territories): Central Africa, the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Gabon, Upper Volta, Malagasy (Madagascar), Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan and Chad...

...Those who argue this way point to West German prosperity, which is due, in part, to non-involvement in African or other colonial affairs and which, in turn, allows German businessmen to maintain intense trade relations without the shadow of political pressure...

...Each of them in turn declined, the first two because their populations adhere to Islam and Christianity respectively and refuse union with pagan (animist) neighbors, the third because of its favorable economic position...

...According to the Community's Constitution, such interference is clearly outside their competence...

...It is to these critics that de Gaulle addressed himself when he reasserted that, regardless of whether France could find better use at home for its resources and capacities, it will continue providing assistance to these new nations...

...for another, it saves them the expenses of a national army, which, in addition, as things go today in Africa (and Asia), might give rise one day to a military caste that could be a dangerous political rival for the civilian leaders...

...The leaders of Mali, and perhaps others in the future, favor a looser type of confederation of independent states which would take into their own hands what are now matters of collective decision for the entire Community...

...Thus, the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, supports those forces inside Mali which oppose secession, because an independent Mali would be a strong pole of attraction for the smaller states...

...In one sense, the new nations, in spite of their pride and eagerness for signs of independence, benefit by the presence of the French Army on their territory: For one tiling, the Army provides them with technical and organizational assistance...

...It follows from all this that France is, for the time being at least, an indispensable senior partner of the new republics, although its relationship with them is not likely to remain for long what the September 1958 referendum established...

...his words are carefully calculated, and if he expressed himself so unambiguously on the subject, he meant to reemphasize—in the face of Rightwing criticism of his Algerian and African policy—the new, contractual relationship that ties France to darkest Africa...

...The French are convinced that their "civilizing mission" can adapt itself to new situations and can invent original solutions...

...This, the President said, is France's "human mission, conforming to her native genius...

...independence then may be used as a face-saving device for populations whose national pride is legitimate and should be respected...

...It is preferable, they argue, to remain attached to a larger complex and under the safe guarantees of social and economic progress...

...This does not mean that hard-headed realists, particularly on the Right, would agree with looser forms of association than the present one between France and the other states of the Community...

...This extreme sparsity of the population, its religious-ethnic fragmentation and the tribal structure of society are enormous handicaps to further development and slow down large scale works that must be carried out over hardly inhabited territories...

...But the responsible leaders know that their countries' poverty and backwardness, on the one hand, and their ties today with France and tomorrow with the Common Market, on the other, forbid them to nourish dreams about a spectacular and independent "leap forward" on the Chinese pattern, or to use coercive methods for stepped up modernization...

...In this respect, the Army's attitude is most interesting...

...It is evident that these new nations lack a sufficient number of adequately trained cadres...

...Thus, the cold fact of the matter is that on several basic issues Africanization contradicts—or, at least, is incompatible with—the long-range interests of France as an African power...