Afro-Europe: The Future:

...By means of numerous Afro-European contacts at the parliamentary level, trips, specialized commissions, conferences and congresses, the movement proposes to inform parliamentary opinion in the separate nations of the urgency of the situation, to promote understanding of each other's problems and to study measures to further intercontinental cooperation...

...The problems of African development are so huge and complex that they can best be solved by one major, coordinated free world effort...

...and finally Finance Minister Assale of Cameroon, then still under French trusteeship...

...French and English are the linguae francae which Africans must use to overcome tribal linguistic barriers...

...By assuring full and equal representation to the African nations, the movement is trying to stress the concept of cooperation between equals...

...Eventually the Europe-Africa pact could be extended to such other spheres as technical assistance...

...Most African nations need investment, educational aid and a corp of managers, technicians and skilled workers...

...Each continent would have a secretariat linking the national associations...

...Some assistance has been forthcoming from the former European colonial powers...

...The Assembly of the Council has also recognized the reluctance of the Council of Ministers to take any specific steps in this matter by considerably limiting the scope of the proposed effort of cooperation, but has clearly shown the importance it attaches to the question...

...It must overcome the reluctance of the non-colonialist nations to assume part of the burden of the former "imperialists...

...In order to insure it against regionalism, the movement must win a wide audience among the African "blocs"—Egypt, the Maghreb, Federalists and Confederalists in the French Community, etc...

...The parliamentarians of the NATO conference, meeting in late November in Washington, upon the urging of Paul Henri Spaak decided to have a group of economists from both continents assess African needs and the means which industrial nations could use to meet these needs...

...With no apparent coordination, plans are already afoot for harnessing Central and West Africa's vast hydroelectric and mineral potentials: Ghana's Volta Dam for the development of bauxite mines lies not far from the aluminum refinery in Cameroon designed to handle 45,000 tons a year, which draws its power from the Edea Dam (with a billion kilowatt-hour per year potential...

...Plans are now afoot for parliamentary trips to Africa to encourage development of a counterpart there and to further focus European attention on the need for action...

...Such planning would also help to create complementary economies and reduce the danger of rivalries growing out of a disorganized industrial development...

...The non-colonials must also have full assurance that the proposed association will not simply promote neocolonialism by strengthening the former colonial powers in their "spheres of influence...

...At present, most of the burden falls on the former colonial powers, and more recently on the U.S...

...AFRO-EUROPE: THE FUTURE As colonialism dies, Europe must work to establishing new, strong bonds with Africa By George B. Boswell THE NEXT FEW years will see the end of European colonialism in Africa...

...By basing itself on the parliaments, it can act most effectively on both public opinion and government...

...Most African leaders today are determined to achieve national independence immediately and to seek foreign aid in developing their countries afterward...

...By obtaining the participation of prosperous countries presently not committed to aiding the underdeveloped nations, the program would mobilize new and important sources of economic and technical support...

...The conference did go a long way toward establishing the concept that equality among all partners must be a cardinal principle...

...Such an Afro-European effort, backed by an intelligent information campaign, could muster public support in the non-colonial nations...

...The interparliamentary association Europe-Afrique, created a year ago in France, has actively been pushed by the indefatigable efforts of its initiator, French Deputy Remy Montagne, a newcomer in French politics...

...Yet the movement cannot remain within the limits of EEC without the risk of spreading Europe's economic division between the "Inner Six" and the "Outer Seven" to Africa and so end by promoting rival blocs there...

...Europe-Afrique is confronted with many extremely difficult tasks...

...But the U.S...

...Razafimbahiny clearly warned that the Rome Treaty would have to be amended to make room for African representation...

...This specialized conference is to be organized by OEEC for NATO...

...While the movement may initially have to be focused on the EEC and its affiliated African nations, plus such others as Tunisia and Morocco, Montagne fully recognizes that the problem is one that Africa, Europe and the U.S...

...the engaging Mayor of Dakar, Lamine Gueye...

...Furthermore, in a Afro-Europe program, African nations could protect themselves from the hazards of neocolonialism which might arise from bilateralism...

...In supporting a liberal policy of bold cooperation between freely associated and equal partners, the West can reinforce the strong bonds between Europe and Africa established during the colonial epoch...

...The very provisions of the Rome Treaty that open the overseas territories to the tariff provisions of the European Economic Community help to establish a common interest, as does the half-billion dollar EEC fund created for economic development of associated African territories...

...They stressed African willingness to cooperate with Europe but only on a basis of complete equality...

...Farsighted African and European statesmen already realize the urgent necessity of establishing a new relationship between Europe and Africa based on complete equality and designed to promote the healthy growth of Africa within the free world...

...must meet in common, and that Europe-Afrique must work toward promoting that goal...

...The same day—November 24—in the same city, a Belgian representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Six called for creation of a "Marshall Plan" by the six EEC nations in favor of Africa which would also aim for gradual unification of the African nations...

...It will certainly be difficult to encourage active participation by peripheral nations, such as those of Scandinavia, or to press Britain into an initiative that might be interpreted as compromising its Commonwealth relations...

...Yet politically and psychologically it would prove difficult for countries like Germany, long a foreign aid recipient, to pass suddenly to a "donor" status...

...more is on the way from the United States, the World Bank, the African Development Fund (set up by the European Economic Community [EEC]) and, probably in the near future, the International Development Association...

...Most African leaders have been educated in Europe and are strongly marked by the experience...

...He urged Europe to achieve a unity solid enough to enable it to shoulder an African development which would permit Africa to seek its own path, shielded by Europe from the threat of Communism...

...Europe retains a strong position in Africa that could be used to the mutual advantage of both continents...

...Yet its very multinationalism will quiet African fears of neo-colonial-ism...

...It reversed the usual order, turning the Europeans into students and calling upon the Africans to give the talks...

...The complete freedom enjoyed by the speakers in expressing their problems, needs and hopes served to reassure both African and non-colonial delegates of Europe-Afrique's true long-range aims...

...Thus the speakers from the Mali Federation (Senegal and Soudan) defended their demands for complete independence while emphasizing their desire to remain within the French Community...

...Concern is becoming evident in Europe as well as in Africa, and as the concern is translated into more concrete and broader terms, Europe and Africa will benefit from it...

...But many statesmen foresee difficulties in dealing with the huge task ahead because of the free world's continued reliance on a multiplicity of instruments...

...French aid through Fonds d'Inveslisse-meat de Developpement Economique et Social (FIDES) reached a new high of $100 million in 1958, and this is exclusive of administrative and military expenditures...

...The Council of Ministers' unwillingness to act on the limited recommendations of the Assembly illustrates the fact that the European nations as a whole have to date refused to take a serious, long-range view of the urgency of the African situation, and have shown themselves unwilling to sacrifice immediate national interests by initiating a common effort...

...Neither can the movement seem to promote the breakdown of all ties between former colonies and the "tutor" nations, in effect subverting the French Community or the British Commonwealth...

...They would deal on a parity basis with a multinational body to which they belonged, and that body would eliminate competitive bidding in Western capitals and reduce friction among the Western nations presently squabbling over policies toward such nations as Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, etc...

...The bilateral negotiation of aid programs has many disadvantages, some of which are suggested below...

...The Community delegates were distinguished by the quality of their speakers: the brilliant Senegalese statesman, Leopold Senghor...

...On the African side, nationalist aspirations for quick economic development already show signs of leading to wasteful industrial competition...

...2) establishment of a Guarantee Fund for non-commercial risks —e.g., expropriation, nationalization, etc.—which might be coupled with a fund for financial assistance to cover interest charges on major investments, with both funds working toward a coordination of investment and economic policies...

...were it do so, it would promptly compromise the winning of wide support in these two key nations...

...While the first Europe-Afrique conference was limited in scope, it did launch the movement on a European plane...

...This latter aspect has been stressed by the Council's Special Economic Committee, which has confined itself to exploring various methods of cooperation without drawing up either specific systems or tentative conventions...

...The very task of working out the components of an overall plan would tend to develop a sense of African unity disrupted by the arbitrary divisions imposed by 19th century colonial partitions...

...France between 1947-57 put half a billion dollars in investments and agricultural research into French West Africa alone...

...Senghor, opening the conference, set the tone by stressing the links between the two continents—economic, spiritual, cultural...

...The French Congo is thinking of the Kouilou hydroelectric project with a potential of six billion kwh per year, on a site not far from the even more gigantic Inga project in the Belgian Congo...

...They pointed to the paternalism still prevalent in European thinking whereby the Africans had no representatives in the organizations that affect their immediate interests: the French Fund for Aid and Cooperation (FAC), the European Developmental Fund set up by the Rome Treaty or any of the EEC organizations...

...All the speakers were unanimous in warning the Europeans against treating Africans as second-rate, either personally or nationally...

...The problem seems too remote in time and place to arouse public interest and only very recently has a "Europe-Afrique" effort been launched to alert European public opinion and bring pressure to bear on both European and African authorities to take action...

...The movement, itself multinational, will have to overcome African emphasis on national sovereignty...

...The initial conference would seek to implement two basic subjects studied by the Special Economic Committee: (1) establishment of a statute to standardize conditions under which private investment may be launched by foreign concerns, thus promoting the flow of foreign capital to Africa through legal reassurance...

...It has urged the Council of Ministers in 1958 and again, more insistently, in 1959 to call a conference, to which all the countries of Africa would be invited, under the auspices of the Council, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa South of the Sahara...

...In Africa, the movement will run into difficulty in encouraging African leaders to create a counterpart...

...An overall program would also tend to reduce the ability of a given industrial nation to grant, for political reasons, such favored conditions to one country as to induce a flow of private capital to the detriment of others—as is presently happening with the Constantine Plan for Algeria, which is attracting private French capital at the expense of other French African territories...

...EUROPE-AFRIQUE'S first major conference was held in Cannes in October 1959 with the purpose of crystallizing European parliamentary interest in the movement...

...These bonds run deeper than mere commercial and financial ties, for Europe has left a strong imprint on African civilization...

...has already stated that by itself it can no longer meet the ever-increasing costs of aid to the underdeveloped countries...

...A few days later the Foreign Ministers of the EEC nations, meeting in Strasbourg and acting upon the recommendations of Belgian Foreign Minister Pierre Wigny, created a special study group to explore the problems of aid to Africa from the point of view of the Inner Six...

...On the European side, the economic recovery of most of the Continent is now so complete that it can assume overseas economic responsibilities...

...nor is the plight of the underdeveloped countries so evidently acute that the European public would willingly shoulder the burden, as the American people did in 1947 with respect to Europe...

...Europe-Afrique seeks to create associations of parliamentarians representative of all democratic parties in Europe and Africa...

...The Europeans were initiated into African problems by African leaders who came from the French Community, from the Belgian Congo and the Belgian trusteeship of Ruanda-Urundi, and from (British) Nigeria...

...A coordinated multinational program of Western assistance to all African nations would overcome many disadvantages of present practice...

...By thus refusing to outline specific proposals, the Committee has postponed all policy decisions or statutes for the day when the African nations could participate in their establishment...

...Unfortunately, the British elections kept all the English guests at home in their constituencies, thereby making it impossible to evaluate their attitudes...

...Working with the European Movement, it must help further the sense of Western community in order to prepare European nations not directly involved in Africa to participate in an African program...

...Europe-Afrique may already have contributed in part to recent reappraisals of the problem inside both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Councils...

...Diversified industries such as these in the emerging nations should be encouraged, but such vast developmental schemes call for close coordination to prevent waste and duplication...

...Administered by an Afro-European commission, this program would enable European countries with no direct African responsibilities to participate without either becoming directly involved in intra-African affairs or running the risk of arousing fresh European antagonisms...

...It will have to break through rivalries among African leaders and obtain support from all to protect each from denunciation by political opponents as a "collaborator" of the old colonial oppressors...

...at the same time nearby Guinea is planning a dam on the Konkoure and an annual production of 150,000 tons of aluminum...

...Such a program would also help insure the most effective and fair use of available funds by properly orienting the separate economies and by promoting those elements most likely to raise the general standard of living...

...It was attended by about 100 parliamentarians, mostly from the EEC...

...an intercontinental secretariat would link parliamentarians of the two continents...

...Three themes recurred throughout...

...By insisting on organizing itself around all political parties which reflect Western civilization, the movement seeks to raise itself above party positions...

...THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE has concerned itself with the problem of African development since 1949, first in terms of European-based programs and more recently in terms of equal participation between African and European states...

...the outstanding Malagasy labor leader, Jules Razafimbahiny...