Winds Of Change In Central Africa

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 3

Winds Of Change In Central Africa

[Reviewed by J.H.E.] Central African Emergency. By Clyde Sanger. Heinemann. 343 PPAnyone who may think that the political problems of the Central African Federation of the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland are easy either to understand or to solve will rapidly have to change his mind after reading this book, which provides a great deal of detailed information and definite opinion about a complicated situation of great topical interest at a time when the Constitutional Review Conference has begun. Mr Sanger is a journalist who has spent a considerable time in the Federation recently and has had personal contact with the African leaders; he has thus had a good opportunity of collecting his facts and his views are entitled to respect. In the foreword he quotes Mr Garfield Todd’s statement that Central Africa had such potential wealth that there was nothing to stop everyone enjoying a full and good life—nothing, that is, once the present suspicions had been wiped away. One of the declared purposes of the book is to ask how these suspicions and hatreds have arisen. The questions also arise whether the 1960 Conference will produce a programme for full independence, and make partnership between the races a reality. The alternatives are a looser form of economic association and the unhappy prospect of the dissolution of the Federation. In this is involved the all-important question of the attitude of the British Government as trustee for the Africans in the face of Sir Roy Welensky’s determination to achieve full Dominion status as soon as possible.

Mr Sanger begins by providing an historical background to the present situation, and outlines the considerable differences between the territories, including the fact that two-thirds of the white population live in Southern Rhodesia, where the black-white ratio is 12:1 as against 30:1 in Northern Rhodesia and 330:1 in Nyasaland, a lack of balance which has inevitably been a cause of friction. Other significant differences include the various traditional characteristics of the African tribes and those of legislation, such as the Land Apportionment Act in Southern Rhodesia, a law which has no counterpart in Northern Rhodesia. Mr Sanger goes on to discuss the idea of partnership, which he regards as the keyword to the concept of Federation, itself an empty idea if partnership has no meaning. Unfortunately it has been variously defined, and is suspect to the African. Mr Garfield Todd has admitted that the European has failed to implement it through fear of facing its implications.

An examination of the character of the white Rhodesian and his remoteness from other people, including his black neighbours— Welensky and Banda had apparently never met when this book was written—and also from the rest of the world leads on to a discussion of the colour bar in the Federation. much more marked in Southern Rhodesia than in the north, where Federation is blamed for its existence. Moreover the African in the north cannot be persuaded of the advantages of Federation on economic grounds. “We are not interested in economic benefits,” Dr. Banda has said. “We want freedom.” Of course “bondage with ease” and “strenuous liberty” have long been recognised as possible political alternatives, and many in other lands, preoccupied with the problems of material prosperity, will note with interest Dr. Banda’s approach. Mr Sanger claims that white Southern Rhodesia has gained most from Federation, and that Africans dislike the expenditure of so much money on European immigration and education. (He also has some reflections on the Kariba Dam, which he regards as an immense gamble.) Here and

elsewhere he discusses Nyasaland’s chances of surviving on her own; he concludes that the territory has not yet received enough economic benefit to convince her that Federation is good, and quotes arguments that independence might even bring her some economic advantage. What is the basis of hope for a brighter future? Not apparently the Capricorn Society and the other liberals, who have failed to make a united stand, or the African politician who has tried to take a middle position and has found himself either forced in the direction of black nationalism or regarded as a stooge, or the United Rhodesia Party of Garfield Todd, who suffered political defeat in his attempt to enfranchise more Africans. The only remaining hope is the traditional fairness of the British Government. This leads to an examination of the African Affairs Board and the Joint Agre< ment of 1957, which the Africans regarded as a prelude to the conquest of the north by the Southern Rhodesian whites, and which led to the appeal to Dr. Banda to return.

Mr Sanger has an interesting view of this remarkable man, whom he regards as neither antiwhite nor Communist, but rather as a man deeply loyal to Britain and at the same time passionately opposed to Federation. This leads to an examination of the emergencies of 1959, the part played in them by the Congress and the steps taken to deal with them. So to the Devlin Report, which the British Government refused to accept and thus, in Mr Sanger’s view, finally lost the Nyasas’ trust as their protector: he attributes the rejection partly to their adherence to the policy of Federation and partly to their loyalty to Mr Lennox Boyd, th> Colonial Secretary. It was followed by Welensky’s proposal to federalise the police; if this happens, says Mr Sanger, it will be regarded by the Africans in the north as a final betrayal of their interests Finally he deals with the future in Central Africa where, he claims, a new opportunity has been offered and the need for one has been clearly shown. There are, of course, dangers in allowing Nyasaland the right of secession, including that of Communism, which he thinks should provide a challenge to the reluctant Rhodesians to prove that government by consent is better, and he suggests that to give Federation a fiveyear probationary period, with a bold transfer of political power, might save it, provided that there were certain reforms, including an “urgent and drastic alteration” of the Land Apportionment Act.

Mr Sanger of course wrote his book before the publication in October of the report of the Monckton Commission, which he regarded as “a virtually certain fiasco.” Presumably he is now pleasantly surprised, as the Commission has said that the Central African Federation “cannot in our view be maintained in its present form,” that Southern Rhodesia must make further and drastic changes in its racial policy and that the powers of the Federal Government should be restricted to external* affairs, defence, and the regulation of 'the economy. While the commission strongly hopes that the Federation will survive, it recommends that any one of the territories should be allowed to secede after a stated time or at a particular stage of its constitutional development. This accords closely with Mr Sanger’s view that the only realistic attitude for the 1960 Constitutional Review Conference is to face the fact that there will soon be African Governments in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, that the links between the territories must be loosened so that they can progress in their own way and at their own pace, and that the balance of power mijjSt be shifted from the central

'to the territorial governments. He also thinks that the two Rhodesias are indissolubly linked and that, if the Federation did break up, South Africa would not welcome Southern Rhodesia as a political partner. He pleads for flexibility of thought and insists that valuable achievement depends on the restoration of racial goodwill. Those who know little or nothing of the issues in Central Africa, as well as those with views based on real knowledge, will find this book both interesting and stimulating. So much is involved for Africa and indeed the whole world in the future of these vast territories that we cannot afford to disregard their problems. We are now familiar with the idea of the winds of change, and we shall, be well advised to do all that we can to gauge their direction and their force. f