End of the Road
From HARRY FRANKLIN LUSAKA
rankers in the civil service and other vocations. aware of it and will, one hopes, avoid it.
ment. adopted before.
Robbins Eggs
that well within. African parties here yet, be- cause political parties are comparatively new things dealing with new ideas and are not yet properly organised. But UNIP's organisation is becoming pretty good and is still improving.
African nationalists come into power from a national movement rather than from a political party. The national movement thus naturally finishes up with a one-party government. Since the leaders have used every card in the pack to get it and the colonial government has used a good many cards to foil them, they inherit some useful repressive legislation ready made to apply against the strong-arm men, unruly youth move- ments and other elements which, once useful but now discarded, may become the kernel of a very nasty opposition. The revolutionary, reformed by success, knows how to deal with minority revolutions. Although methods have changed, the people know how to deal with dictators, as they did with bad chiefs.
Given a stable government and an able civil service, there can be no doubt of Northen Rho- desia's economic prosperity. The future of copper is assured for many years ahead. Many countries in Africa would be delighted to possess Northern Rhodesia's so-called 'mono-economy,' which, in- cidentally, is growing less 'mono' every year. This process will speed up when Federation ends and Northern Rhodesia can keep its own copper revenues to develop other industries, both pri- mary and secondary, but principally primary ----agriculture and the mining of various known mineral deposits not yet exploited.
Socially, now that all colour bars are gone, there is not likely to be rapid change. Once people have the right to go where'they like, they don't want to go where they don't like. There will gradually be more natural mixing between the upper classes of both races, but in general Africans will be happier with Africans and Euro- peons with Europeans. The white population will at first decrease as white employees, replaced by cheaper African labour, leave. It will then make up the loss as more rapid development requires more people with high qualifications and experi- ence which local Africans cannot supply for a generation.
There is always sadness in these rapid changes of scene in Africa. The overseas civil servants and some good white settlers as opposed to mere fortune-seekers have done much to help the African people on their way up. Now that the African is top dog, instead of feeling ela- tion over the triumph of justice, those of the whites--thc percentage was not perhaps v,ery great- who fought for the cause of justice feel only the depressing sense of having come to the end of a road. The construction ahead will be done by others, whose gratitude for having been helped along so far is not noticeable. As the man to whom you lent a fiver (knowing ■ mid never get it back and. not minding) crosses the road to avoid you, feeling not friendship but only annoyance that he is obliged to you, so the African leaders turn away from those w ho carried the burden for them until they NN ere strong enough to shoulder it themselves. It is the task of these leaders to show the more dedicated civil servants that their fears are unnecessary. In Northern Rhodesia they may well do so. for the lesson of the Congo is very close and has been heeded.
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