Little Africas
THE outlook for the meeting of the African Heads of State at Addis Ababa is not bright. Though there will be much talk, and theoretical agreement, about President Nkrumah's ideal of a pan-African parliament, and unanimity about pushing African nationalism south of the Zam- besi, the tally of local difficulties and internal dis- sensions is mounting steadily. It is becoming clear that unity against colonialism is not enough to produce a comity of nations. In East and West Africa at least, it looks as if the main problem is turning into one of conflicting little nationalisms. Local disputes are inevitably leading to appeals to independent African States, the divisive tenden- cies of which are obvious.
The Northern Frontier District dispute between Kenya and Somalia is a case in point. Even more pressing perhaps is the Togo situation, where the commission to inquire into the circumstances of President Olympio's assassination in January seems quietly to have gone out of business. The new regime has been recognised by Ghana and Senegal, but, pointedly, not by Nigeria. The murder coincided with a number of assassination attempts in other West African States, none of them successful. In Togo, Ghana was immedi- ately suspected of complicity, though there is so far a conspicuous lack of evidence.
There is, however, something in the situation to suggest that this kind of action may become a pattern. The natural result of a State refusing to countenance an official opposition is to drive opposition to use illegal methods from a base somewhere just over the border. This in turn is to invite interference in the internal matters of other States and to lead to steadily worsening relations between neighbours.
But the Togo case has a further interest. Presi- dent Olympio's policies were courageously inde- pendent and notably out of line both with those of his more Francophile neighbours and with the declared pan-Africanism of President Nkrumah. Even his deflationary trade policies of low prices and open doors to East and West were causing offence. He seemed to be producing a stable, inde- pendent and economically viable State, yet he was overthrown with ease by a group of unemployed army veterans, possibly with outside support. How likely is it in these circurnstances that any African State is going to be allowed to develop freely on its own without outside interference?
Yet these are not the only tendencies to divi- sion. Apart from tribal disputes and illogically drawn frontiers there is the increasingly serious problem of the inequality of aid and in many countries the tensions arising from a dual colonial heritage. This is largely the occasion of the pre- sent visit to this country of President Ahidjo of the Cameroon. British aid to the former British part of the territory is substantially less than the French are giving to their part, thereby doing little to bring the two sides of the Federation closer together. The inequality is likely to increase further as French West African States continue to benefit from association with the Common Market while others have no comparable advant- age. This at least is something the British Govern- ment can attempt to rectify. We are still not giving enough aid to Africa. Still less are we doing enough to explore means of bilateral, and pre- ferably multilateral aid.
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