Vestiges of Greatness
SOKOLSKY, WALLACE
Vestiges of Greatness North Africa: Nationalism to Nationhood. By Lorna Hahn. Public Affairs. 264 pp. $6.00. Reviewed by Wallace Sokolsky Instructor of History, New York University RECENT...
...The once grande nation and many times arbiter of Europe had suddenly been reduced to a second-rate power, with no time to adjust gracefully to the change...
...Most intellectuals are Francophiles, myself included, but must our sentiments blind us to Mrs...
...The recent sojourn of Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas to China gives point to the implications of the unresolved Algerian question for American foreign policy...
...We disappointed them during the struggle for independence by not supporting them...
...The bland assumption that the European powers of their own volition have "given" independence to all the Africans is belied by two facts: Some countries still do not have independence, and when it has been "given," pressure was invariably exerted beforehand...
...Hahn's aptly put observation...
...First, the owners of the mines were all French, and the profits remained in French pockets...
...Friction in Algeria continues, and, as the author says, even if a solution to the conflict were to be found, relations between the Moslems and colons would be embittered for years...
...The economic picture, then, added up to one of exploitation as far as the Tunisians were concerned...
...The simultaneity of their rebellions, the outbreak in Algeria and the fighting in Indo-China aided their progress toward control of their own destinies...
...Observers have commented on the contrasts in Africa so often that it is worth reaffirming the constancy that runs through the continent: the desire for self-rule...
...Hahn's sympathy for its aspirations toward self-rule is frank and apparent, but she does seem overly hopeful concerning de Gaulle's offer of September 1959 to permit the Algerians to choose their future...
...Hahn points to the moderate but determined leadership of Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba and the strong influence of the Sultan of Morocco...
...As one of the very few works on the subject, the book is most useful...
...Surprisingly, nothing is mentioned of one facet of the three options de Gaulle gave: the provision for Algerian partition...
...France's policies were thus to be marked by a desperate, at times pathetic, attempt to hang on to the vestiges of her past greatness—which North Africa, above all, symbolized...
...changes this year have come with such bewildering rapidity that few can pretend expertise concerning this continent of contrasts...
...Nonetheless, most leaders still look to us as a great nation which has not fat least not deliberately) harmed them, and which, if not out of altruism, then out of enlightened self-interest, will come to their aid...
...Although there are feelings of kinship among the three North African nations, there are also divisive forces that complicate the future...
...policy, falling between two stools, has led to dissatisfaction in both quarters...
...Hahn writes: "The future of North Africa, its leaders feel—and its geographical position affirms—lies with the West...
...U.S...
...The most important vestige of colonialism in North Africa, Algeria, still cries for solution...
...Nevertheless, to use those as rationalizations for continued French control, or a return to it, would be to forget too soon the evils of French domination: "These enterprises did little to help the Tunisians...
...Lorna Hahn's book is designed to provide historical background for recent developments in North Africa through 1959...
...Independence, obviously, is no panacea...
...How were the Tunisians and Moroccans able to secure self-rule...
...Reviewed by Wallace Sokolsky Instructor of History, New York University RECENT EVENTS in Africa have had the aura of drama come alive...
...And the West, for all practical purposes, means the United States...
...Like a vain, fading beauty who finds that her charms are quickly fleeting, she found it impossible to admit to herself that her days of glory were ended, and that modes and manners which had been suitable for her in her prime were now passe...
...Besides, these ores were simply mined in Tunisia and then immediately shipped to France for refinement...
...They can give us the chance to take our foreign policy beyond the limits of simply containing communism, and into the realm of actually developing democracy...
Vol. 44 • October 1960 • No. 41
