African independence

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 12

African independence

Sir,—After reading T. S. Monks on “African Independence” shall we all sit back with typical smug European self-satisfaction and say, “Thank goodness we are not black?” He says, with perhaps unconscious bias, that “politics in,black Africa are ferocious,” and “Guinea is, too, a cause for shuddering”; but he makes no comparison with Europe, Asia, or America. Those of us with a built-in racial bias must try to remember the evils perpetuated by Europeans. The massacres of the Jews, Socialists, and even Rohm’s Brown Shirts by the S.S. on Hitler’s orders, plus Mussolini’s and Stalin’s efforts on similar lines, make anything the Africans are doing almost child’s play. All human beings are capable of being ruthless and cruel during economic adversity, blitzkrieg war, and political revolution. Before we accept outright condemnation of black Africans in any form, we in fairness should objectively consider from a humanitarian angle the present as well as the past activities of the light-skinned races.—Yours, PATRICK NEARY. February 6, 1971.