Which Leaders?
ACCORDING to one of the better-informed of ..the numerous :trailers' which the public has been shown of the Monckton Commission's findings, the Report is going to recommend that the Central African Federation should continue, but that the individual States should be granted the right to secede after a stated period. This is what was expected; and in theory it sounds reasonable. But the question now is whether events are moving too fast for federation—at least of the kind the- British Government has always wanted—to be possible. The situation in Northern Rhodesia—as Erskine Childers, who has just returned from a tour there, reports in an article this week—is critical. Kenneth Kaunda has promised his followers that there will be talks by October. If—as Mr. Macleod insists— there can be no talks until next year, the chances are that Mr. Kaunda's supporters will turn in- stead to the men who have argued that his policy of non-violence cannot succeed.
Mr. Macleod is in ‘a difficult position. He is tied, to some extent, by old commitments and loyalties for which he was not personally respon- sible. In its dealings with the Federation, the Government here was naturally tempted to put its faith in the individuals who appeared to offer the best hope of holding the centre and per- suading their countrymen gradually to accept a multi-racial society. But the old distinction be- tween Right and Centre has now virtually dis- appeared: in face of what appears to the Whites to be the threat of black domination, they are tending to cling helplessly to authority, and to refuse concessions, pointing to the Congo as the reason why. In any case, what the Whites want. or can be persuaded to accept, is no longer so important. The pace of African advance to power in the rest of the continent has been so rapid that nationalism cannot be contained in Northern Rhodesia simply by ignoring it. The nationalist leaders must be allowed to have some say in the design for their country's future: the only choice that remains is—which leaders?
Kenneth Kaunda is probably the most states- manlike figure, next to Julius Nyerere, that African nationalism has thrown up; and Mr. Macleod and his advisers should be grateful that they are dealing with him and not a Lumumba. If they consider, for a moment. they must sec that Kaunda has an unanswerable case. Accord- ing to the stock government propaganda in the Rhodesias over the past year, the Nyasalanders took a foolish and dangerous course last year, for which their party had to be repressed and its leaders gaoled. Yet here is Dr. Banda, out of gaol, leading a delegation to talks in London, and coming back with concessions.
The moral, in short, is that violence works. Kaunda, on the other hand, has always preached non-violence. But he has not been given talks in London; he is hardly even allowed to speak in Rhodesia. In short—non-violence does not work. There could hardly be a more obvious and direct invitation to the Africans in Northern Rhodesia to brush Kaunda aside. If they do. and violence erupts, it will not merely mean the end of federation; it will destroy the last hope of a multi-racial society in Central Africa.
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