229. Memorandum From Edward Hamilton of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow)1
SUBJECT
- The Positive Story in Africa
The 1960’s are the shake-down years for African independence. There are only four African nations with as much as a decade of experience as sovereign states. With a few exceptions, the colonial powers left no durable patterns of power and responsibility into which the new local leadership could fit. Moreover, the transition to independence occurred during a period of continent-wide awakening to the possibility of economic progress. Added to the ferment produced by jockeying for position in the slowly-congealing power structure of independent nations has been the urgent insistence of every populace that its government carry out an economic revolution as well.
Combined with the racial problems associated with independence and the disrupting influence of the East-West controversy, this is a prescription for turmoil. And considerable turmoil has occurred.
But there is a hopeful trend in Africa in the last three years—one which in part reflects our own efforts. Stated in crudest form, it is a shift in political values from flamboyance, ideology and international adventurousness to inward-looking preoccupation with the harshly practical problems each country faces in its own backyard. Perhaps inevitably, Africa had her fling with, the Nkrumahs and the glamour of the international stage. There will always be some temptation to forsake the knotty difficulties at home for the bright lights abroad.
Yet it is clear who is built for the long pull in Africa. It is the Nyereres, the Houphouet-Boignys, and the Senghors who are strong and getting stronger. The leader with a future is the leader who tackles the day-to-day problems of the common man—enough food for his family, decent housing, and the rudiments of medical care. It is a cold fact, for example, that the Ivory Coast’s 9% annual growth rate in GNP is more important and durable political phenomenon in Africa than the great inflow of Soviet arms into Somalia, just as the current efforts of Nkrumah’s successors to put Ghana’s economic house in order are much more lasting and important than any of Osegyefo’s political and economic extravagances. [Page 381] And it is not Americans or Europeans who are making these judgments. It is the people of Africa—the people who can enforce priorities with the discipline every politician understands and respects.
This trend also shows signs of extending to regional and sub-regional cooperation, particularly economic cooperation. For example:
- —the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed in 1963 and has sponsored fifteen Foreign Minister’s meetings and four summit meetings on the full range of African problems.
- —the Organization of African and Malagasy States (OCAM) was formed in 1965—within the OAU framework—to provide a forum for the Francophones.
- —earlier this year the three states of East Africa signed a treaty establishing an economic community, with room for expansion to include Zambia.
- —a customs union between five French-speaking nations was established in 1966, and the basis has been laid for a West African common market.
- —African nations joined together to form the African Development Bank in 1964, and the Bank began operations in 1966. All of the more than $200 million subscribed for the Bank’s ordinary capital comes from African countries. (This is the only regional bank in the world that does not depend primarily on money from outside.)
In addition, countries which share river basins are thinking in terms of joint development with their neighbors; surveys are underway for a transportation network covering Central Africa and a power grid for most of West Africa; the World Bank has undertaken to play a special role—welcomed by the African Bank—in promoting regional and subregional development of shared resources.
Obviously, none of these hopeful developments obscures the tragedy of Nigeria, the chronic chaos in the Congo, or the dark portents of racial discrimination in the southern sixth of the continent. These problems will always be better fodder for headline-writers. But if one is to understand Africa, he must keep up with—and encourage—the hopeful forces at work behind the scenes. In the long haul, they will be at least as important as the setbacks—and they have already borne impressive fruit.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, Walt W. Rostow, Vol. 41. No classification marking.↩