BRITAIN IN AFRICA PROBLEMS OF THE THREE REMAINING TERRITORIES

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 12

BRITAIN IN AFRICA PROBLEMS OF THE THREE REMAINING TERRITORIES

(LLEWELLYN CHANTER of the "Doilf/ Telegraph." London, reports on risit to Sirariiand Bechuanaland and BasutoiandJ IReprinted from the "Daily Telegraph” by arrangement.! As one leaves South African Republican territory to enter Swaziland, a young African raises and lowers the barrier which rather poignantlv symbolises one’s translation from a world of acute racialism to a world of more compassionate values.

The same holds good for those other two territories, Bechuanaland and Basutoland, which live within the very entrails of the South African organism. The host is apparently harbouring three hostile bodies which it would assimilate if it could, but which it must foster until time and nature provide the correct moment.

The host country, South Africa, has within recent weeks veered more sharply than ever towards its distinctly nationalistic policy of apartheid, The recent elections have entrenched Dr. Verwoe rd even more firmly, with accompanying anxieties that the Republic is heading for complete white domination of an extreme kind, and the eventual elimination of any rational opposition which might apply the brakes to his ambitions. With this circumambient climate, it is hardly to be wondered at that the British Government has decided to take yet another look at the three remaining colonial territories on the African continent. There can be no doubt that they are going to present Britain with a big, difficult and costly problem for some years to come. Slow Awakening

The truth of the situation is inescapable to anyone who travels through the territories as I have done in the past few weeks. It is that only in very recent years has Britain slowly awakened to the fact that her duty to them lay beyond the original role of merely acting as a protecting Power.

That role was worthy enough when the inhabitants were the hapless victims of power politics nearly a century ago. Inextricably wedded to this form of paternalism, successive Governments were loth to go any further than to keep the peace between the territories and covetous marauders outside. The territories were “locked in the arms of the Queen” and all was well.

Ages were to roll by before the birth of the concept of colonial development, and before the path to self-gov-ernment and to independence was mapped out. The jagged scars of past neglect today score the images of all three territories, and some form of plastic surgery must be used to make the territories presentable.

AH three are now heading for independence, and within the next year or so South Africa will find herself in the anomalous position of having three African-gov-erned States, free to make their own decisions both internally and internationally, nestling within the Republic. It is very doubtful whether either Britain or South Africa have really studied the implications fully. It is true that

the British Government has just sent a Colonial Office mission bustling around the territories to discover the facts. These are plain enough: the deductions to be drawn from them may be a little more obscure and elusive. Under the South Africa Act of 1909, provision is made for the transfer of the territories to South Africa subject to agreement, and these same provisions are embodied in the South African Republican constitution of 1961. Clearly, then, South Africa expects at some future date to embody the territories within her own suzerainty. Recent successive British administrations, however, have ruled out transfer without the full consent of the inhabitants themselves. What, then, must be the guiding principle in regard to the future of the territories? Two months ago Bechuanaland elected its first Prime Minister, Seretse Khama, who, within the next year, can ask Britain to grant his country full independence. Political? Yes. Economic? No. Within the next few days Basutoland will elect its first pre-independence Government and may equally seek its independence within a year. Paradoxically, Swaziland, the richest and the most economically advanced of the three, is farthest behind in its political development. Shocking Illiteracy Let us take only a brief glance at the three territories. Seretse Khama’s Bechuanaland is largley desert and saltpan with a population of just over half a million. Communications are pror and industrial prospects yet doubtful. Hopes exist that one day Bechuanaland will “strike it rich” in minerals, but that day is not yet. At present it exists on cattle ranching, exporting its meat products through the Lobatsi abattoir to South Africa, the Congo, Rhodesia and Britain.

One can only experience feelings of deepest shame when faced by the abysmal degree of illiteracy and ignorance prevalent in all three territories, notablv in Bechuanaland and Swaziland. In the former, apart from some 6000 ineducable Kalahari Bushmen, 250 primary and secondary schools, all understaffed, are trying to cope with 63,000 children, while another 10,000 a year are clamouring to get in. This is hardly a basis for independence, and makes it demonstrably clear that the expatriate civil administrative

staff, numbering one in three and holding nearly all the high-level posts, must continue and be increased if the country is to progress at all. Basutoland is an island enclave in the South African Republic with formidable prospects. Like its fellow territories, it is a Mecca for antiapartheid refugees (blind alley though it is), and the focal point of both Peking and Moscow-type Communist activities. It is a handy little cell for the germination of dissidence even though it relies for its financial viability largely on exporting a good proportion of its manpower to the mines and factories of the Republic. Economically, the very look of Basutoland has a depressing effect. Lack of husbandry in past years has led to a condition of monumental erosion. It is true that the bravest efforts are being made to turn the tide of erosion but, to my inexpert eye, the task appears to be beyond human endeavour.

Optimists look to the development of the Ox-Bow hydro-electric project which would sell water and current to South Africa. Politics, however, are against the project because the Republic fears dependence on supplies from a “foreign” territory. A Lively Economy To enter Swaziland is to enter another world. Here, in comparison, is a lively potential economy well advanced in its exports (asbestos, iron ore) with a railway opening to Laurenco Marques which will make possible the exploitation of coal deposits. Its soil is fertile, its climate excellent, and water abundant. Politically, Swaziland hangs behind the other territories. It held a general election last June for the first time in 61 years of British rule, and the result, significantly, was the rout of the political parties and the enthronement of the “King’s Men.” Under the title of Imbokodvo (the Grindstone) they swept to victory in alliance with the United Swaziland Association, a group of white farmers, some of South African origin. King Sobhuza was, and remains the dominant figure in the political life of the country and the present “traditionalist" Government is of his making.

On any appraisal British financial aid to the territories is insufficient. For the year 1964-65 the three territories received aid from Commonwealth Development and Welfare sources amounting to just over £2 million, while grant in aid amounted to over £5 million. Future allocations have not yet been announced, but it is obvious that they must be considerably increased. This does not, of course, take account of the projects financed and fostered by the Commonwealth Development Corporation amounting to over £22 million, nor the very considerable part that private investment is playing. South African Embrace It may give satisfaction to the British Government and people that these last remaining colonial territories are moving forward to final independence. It would be sheer folly to believe that they can become economically so. All of them, to a greater or lesser degree, depend on South Africa for their very existence, for it is within the Republic’s Customs embrace that they live. Are they the real Bantustans of the future? This question must be asked and answered. The word is a dirty one in the territories. Britain is bequeathing to them its customary Westminster pattern of political development, but one would be blind to history to believe that this pattern will remain immutable. Co-operation with South Africa is the motto of today. Tomorrow it will be altered. African politics are pitiless and one can safely predicts that the “little Westminsters” of Southern Africa will fade into the routine mould set for the whole continent. There are those who look to the day when apartheid dissolves like a bad dream, and these real democratic Bantustans fit snugly into a multiracial democratic republic. Independence, however, will bring its own problems, and means must be found for ensuring that the territories (one of which is cheek by jowl with the Transkei) are not enclaves of incitement to more inflamed feelings than already exist in Africa.