Liberating Southern Africa

...The Africans are quite serious about exclusion...

...There is no halfway...

...And by the time of its first meeting, it had actual contributions from three states totalling £120,000, and pledges from five others of over £ 150,000...

...Over the years, two major movements have emerged, the Uniao dos Populacoes de Angola (UPA) and the Movimento Popular paia Libertacao de Angola (MPLA...

...But some of the attending nations, led by Algeria's Ahmed Ben Bella, finally obtained a unanimous agreement to set up a Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, known as the Committee of Nine...

...Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda...

...The financial problem was dealt with quickly...

...They have, in fact, given military training to cadres of both groups...

...The difficult problem, of course, was that of whom to aid...

...But the Africans are convinced that the countries of southern Africa are, as John Foster Dulles once said about Indochina, like a set of dominoes— that once one falls the others will soon topple too...

...Both the Committee and the South African liberation movements are well aware that in the present government they have a very determined foe, and that the battle will be a long, difficult and bloody one...

...And Roberto's tactics have paid off well...

...For the moment at least, the Committee has decided to rest with this assurance...

...The Committee, whose members came to the problem with conflicting ideas on how one arrives at such fronts and which groups were most entitled to help, nevertheless adopted the policy of insisting that the various petitioners from any one region unite as a prerequisite to their receiving aid...

...Yet the problem presents itself in different forms for different countries, as was demonstrated at Dar when individual countries came under consideration...

...Clearly, step number one will be the effort to secure the exclusion of Portugal and South Africa from all international agencies...

...Here, though, the differences between the two are more ethnic and less tactical and ideological than in South Africa...

...Things have changed...

...Underlying the disagreement are a melange of tactical and ideological considerations which have a long history and which cannot be quickly put aside...

...The only remaining British colony whose progress remains uncertain is Southern Rhodesia, where the white settlers have had self-government, including their own army, since 1923...

...The Africans demand support from the West, and believe that it will be reluctantly but ultimately available...

...This may seem naive or remote to Washington and London...

...and that same week, from Paris, Youlou seemed to give his moral approval to possible forthcoming elections in Angola, a move ill-received by the Committee...

...Shortly thereafter, the Committee declared that it was sending a special Commission of Conciliation to Leopoldville to be composed of Algeria, Congo-Leopoldville...

...the MPLA among the assimilado intellectuals living in the Angolan capital of Luanda...

...The importance of this event lies in the fact that it marked the first time that virtually all the African heads of state met together and arrived at an accord...

...DAKAR MEETING TO DETERMINE AFRICA'S NEXT MOVES Liberating Southern Africa By Immanuel Wallerstein Lagos In the past, when colonies wished to become free they started revolutions and sought help where they could get it...

...With the passage of time, many considerations — ideological, religious (Catholic-Protestant), ethnic, racial (mulatto-black), and educational—have come to force the division between the two movements...

...The three political organizations were suspect for their ties with the Portuguese...

...In June, some 30-odd Algerian-trained officers of the MPLA army crossed over to his side...

...And indeed there is no room for compromise...

...ANGOLA, of course, was the center of interest at Dar, and for two reasons: Angola is already an arena of active warfare, and it has been the scene of the most severe internecine fighting among African nationalists...

...Not because they feel that it will make much difference in the current policies of Portugal and South Africa, but rather because they believe that in this manner, step by slow step, they can drag the Western world into more serious action—such as economic sanctions, rupture of diplomatic relations, and, conceivably, even more...

...The Committee estimated that it could raise £1-1.5 million from the independent African states...

...One is either for us or against us...

...The African nations have already succeeded in accomplishing this at the recent meetings of the International Labor Organization and the International Conference on Education...

...Kenya, Zanzibar, Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia, for example, are almost certain to receive their independence within a year at the most...

...Quite the contrary, frelimo has thus far not been able to launch a serious military movement inside its own country...

...it is simply a question of enough diplomatic pressure combined with some internal violence...

...In this question there can be no room for neutrality or non-alignment...

...In the opinion of many Africans, Britain would be happy to have the excuse of serious African pressure, even disorder, to permit a new constitutional conference which would begin the transfer of power away from the whites...

...There is only one important nationalist movement in Mozambique, the Freme de Libertacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO), which is under no illusions that the Portuguese, like the British in Southern Rhodesia, are looking for an excuse to get out...

...The battle there will be extended and unpleasant, but in Africa the outcome is seen as inevitable...

...For many of the remaining colonial territories have more than one serious nationalist movement, and the resolutions of Addis Ababa called for the creation of "common action fronts...

...But it is expecting soon the return to Tanganyika of officers now being trained in several African nations, and its leaders have formally asked the Tanganyikan government for the right to establish military bases adjoining Mozambique...

...He is spending the current summer traveling through Africa...

...Although they are aware that their inability to carry the Security Council makes a legal victory impossible for the moment, they still plan to continue this tactic at the United Nations...

...Their votes, combined with those of the Soviet bloc, India, Yugoslavia, Israel, and a number of Asian nations, were enough to carry the day, even though most Western nations abstained from voting...

...Roberto's influence continued to spread...

...Now that there is an atmosphere of unity, however, it seems unlikely that ZAPU will be split...

...The representatives of SANC and PAC, however, have assured the Committee that they intend to begin discussions about common action, although they insisted that such discussions be undertaken by those inside South Africa itself...

...Roberto has for years based his tactics on what he conceives to be the model of the Algerian revolution, despite that the fact that the Algerians themselves have maintained a stance of neutrality, or, if anything, even preference for the MPLA...

...At the same time, a long-existing quarrel culminated in a revolt of one faction from within the MPLA...

...More importantly, the Committee assigned itself the function of serving as the funnel through which all aid coming from Africa and states outside Africa will pass on the way to the various liberation movements...

...The arguments for internal unity among the South African groups should therefore be especially persuasive...

...But in a police state controlled by white settlers, who consider nationalism subversion, it is hard to apply such pressure...

...In its first meeting, held June 25-July 4 in Dar-esSalaam under the chairmanship of Tanganyika's Foreign Minister, Oscar Kambona, the Committee was faced with two major problems which had to be resolved before it could get on with its work: It had to decide whom it would aid, and where it would get the money with which to furnish the aid...

...The one movement represented at Dar also assured the Committee that unity discussions were in the process of being prepared...

...Even though Adoula's recognition was not joined by that of President Fulbert Youlou of CongoBrazzaville, as had been expected, the move worked splendidly for Roberto...

...Indeed, the organization plans to hold a congress this summer, out of which will probably emerge the same leadership and new, more militant tactics...

...Cyrille Adoula, is an old personal friend...

...The UPA has its origin among Angolans working in the Congo...

...At Addis Ababa, in May, these nations founded the Organization of African Unity (OAU...

...32 independent African nations have undertaken a coordinated campaign to liberate the southern half of their continent, and they have committed themselves to "use all means at [their] disposal to help the oppressed people to achieve speedy and effective independence...

...The first three already have internal self-government, and it has been promised to Northern Rhodesia after the country's next elections...

...Today...

...In part, it was over disagreement on the tactics to be followed in such a situation that the banned but still powerful Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) suffered its leadership crisis this summer...

...In Mozambique, the situation is much the same with some complications...

...The new front, designed to strengthen the MPLA'S position before the Committee, had the reverse effect...

...Similarly, Southwest Africa has two major liberation movements...

...The Dakar meeting will determine the African bloc's next moves...

...For the present, they are counting on their own resources to start things going...

...At the Dar meeting, he was able to announce the first recognition of his government by Congo-Leopoldville, whose Prime Minister...

...Later an MPLA faction—albeit a small one, and, ironically, the one that was reputed to be the most leftwing—also maintained that it is now ready to join him...

...South Africa presented still greater problems for the Committee...

...The members of the Committee are Algeria, Congo-Leopoldville, Ethiopia, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanganyika, Uganda and the United Arab Republic...

...But the demands continue, and their tone can be seen in the speech given in Dar to the Committee of Nine by VicePresident Rashidi Kawawa of Tanganyika, a man noted for his "moderate," even pro-Western views...

...Slowly but surely, the UPA gained in strength over its rival— partly because of outside help, partly because its strength in the Congo enabled it to have a base for military operations in northern Angola...

...Portugal and Southern Rhodesia should fall relatively easily...

...After declaring that the United States and the United Kingdom "are the greatest friends of our enemies," Kawawa stated: "We must warn here that in the coming struggle we are not going to compromise...

...Yet the fact is that the differences between the South African National Congress (SANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) will not be easy to overcome...

...The UPA, transformed by collaboration with another group into a larger front, the FLNA, has built an army and proclaimed a government-inexile, with Holden Roberto as provisional President...

...The MPLA responded to the Leopoldville recognition by announcing the creation in Brazzaville of a new front, the FDLA, in which it would be joined by three minor political organizations and a trade-union...

...We must all die a little," said Ben Bella while speaking for the resolution...

...This is the question they [the Western nations] must answer...

...It succeeded in forcing the hand of both the Committee of Nine and the MPLA...

...Then comes the giant, South Africa...

...Since both are clandestine movements, this will be quite difficult...

...Immanuel Wallerstein, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, is author of Africa: The Politics of Independence...

...Perhaps equally significant, this accord involved the dissolution of the Casablanca and the Monrovia groups, the two rival blocs in Africa which had evolved in the wake of the Congo crisis...

...Thus, faced with Roberto's strength, the Committee decided unanimously to recommend to the OAU Foreign Ministers, who meet this week in Dakar, that all 32 independent African nation's recognize his government-in-exile...

...How can one be neutral about human rights and human dignity...

...Had the meeting rested there, it might well still have been not much more than platitudinous...