Two Views of Emerging Africa:
HAHN, LORNA
Two Views of Emerging Africa Road to Ghana. By Alfred Hutchinson. John Day. 190 pp. $3.50. The Reluctant African. By Louis E. Lomax. Harper. 117 pp. $2.95. Reviewed by Lorna Hahn Author,...
...Reading between the lines, however, one may find some comfort in the fact that this highly intelligent newsman and former professor-who doubtless experienced racism before visiting Africa-writes primarily not as a Negro, but as an American...
...In independent countries they are torn between tribal loyalties and plans to submerge tribal differences in national or even supra-national units...
...yet this did not mean that he was accepted as a brother by most Africans...
...In the face of such ambivalences and contradictions, the educated African is led to ask himself some probing questions about his own identity as a non-white, as a citizen or potential citizen of a new country and as an inhabitant of a continent which has done little to create the problems of the 20th century but which must nonetheless come to terms with them...
...To the contrary, he describes how many of them berated American Negroes for attitudes of alleged superiority or indifference, or for their acquiescence in American foreign policies toward Africa...
...Reviewed by Lorna Hahn Author, "North Africa: Nationalism to Nationhood" Intelligent Africans, whatever their "national" or educational backgrounds, are usually an extremely troubled lot...
...Raised in an atmosphere where the reduction of racial differences is the accepted goal of most leaders, he was rudely awakened to the fact that most Africans do not share his outlook...
...Ironically, some grimmer impressions of contemporary Africa are presented by an American-the Negro journalist, Louis Lomax...
...While sympathetic to the plight of many Africans, Lomax is thoroughly objective in his broader political analyses...
...They fiercely desire independence, yet crave the modern goods and services which, in most cases, can he obtained only by dependence on, or "interdependence" with, economically developed countries...
...In still-dependent areas their confusion and frustration are compounded by laws, customs and even religious teachings which inform them that they are congenitally inferior, and by competing schemes which promise to ameliorate their status...
...His color was clearly an asset in enabling him to move in nationalist circles...
...Nevertheless, he managed to gather information which few white reporters could have obtained...
...not denial of civil rights, but that white people deny black people their civil rights...
...Alfred Hutchinson is an African, a teacher in strife-ridden South Africa...
...They denounce colonialism, yet do so most effectively in the language of their former colonizers...
...not social discrimination, but that the white power structure sets itself apart from black masses...
...He pulls no punches in describing the aggressiveness of Egypt's "Black Brotherhood" and "PanIslamic" movements, the realpolitik of several Ghanaian and Kenyan politicians and the bickerings among leaders with differing outlooks...
...Active in nationalist circles, he was arrested and tormented by the police-as much, it appears, for his romance with a sensitive white woman as for his "treasonous" activities...
...Lomax's conclusions, emphasizing the growing resentment of white domination and the possibility of armed clashes, are disturbing to say the least...
...Africans are proud of their dark skins and traditions, but are moved to express this pride mainly because of the slurs and rebuffs of white men...
...One is left with the feeling that there are indeed far stronger ties between people than those of "race," and with the hope that this lesson may be learned by Africans of every hue...
...No handful of individuals can pretend to supply answers to all these questions, but they can at least illuminate them so that the answers, if any, may be easier to find...
...What most Africans seek," he concludes, "is not integration with the whites, but the chance to be dominant themselves and, in some cases, turn the tables on their former masters...
...His sometimes vivid and often understated prose, particularly his dialogue, brings to life the boorishness of the South African authorities, the misery and despair of many Africans and the hopes and plans of those who will be Africa's leaders...
...For racism," he writes, "is the irritant on Africa's raw nerves-not colonialism, but that white people have colonized black people...
...not settler domination, but that white settlers have dominated indigenous black people...
...not economic exploitation, but that white people have exploited black people...
...Simply, and sometimes beautifully, he describes what happened to him as he tried to dodge various police forces, pulled strings for passports and visas, scrounged for meals and tried to understand other Africans...
...He decided to avoid imprisonment by escaping to Ghana, and his tortuous Odyssey through East and Central Africa provide the material for this moving chronicle...
...Two new books-by young men from different backgrounds and with different interests -take a step in this direction...
...Fortunately for those who are wearying of well-phrased cliches about colonialism and nationalism, Hutchinson is not a trained publicist...
Vol. 44 • February 1961 • No. 8
