A REPORT ON THE PAN-AFRICAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Author(s): NATHAN HARE

Source: The Black Scholar , November 1969, Vol. 1, No. 1, THE CULTURE OF
REVOLUTION (November 1969), pp. 2-10
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/41163402

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 Aloi ers
1969

A REPORT ON

THE PAN-AFRICAN
CULTURAL FESTIVAL

by NATHAN HARE

Nathan Hare was the first coordinator of a black

studies program in the country. He is on the Ad-
visory Council of the National Conference on Black
Power, where most recently he was Chairman of
the Education Committee. Hare has written some
sixty articles and The Black Anglo Saxons ( to enter
its second printing in December). He received the
Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago
and is an active member of the New York Academy
of Sciences. He is publisher of The Black
Scholar.

PAGE 2 THE BLACK SCHOLAR NOVEMBER 1969

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 WAS A BATTLE IN ALGIERS in late were: the serious and quietly charismatic
July, with lighter skirmishes bothyoung
old poet, Don L. Lee; Carmichael lieu-
and new, and emerging signs of struggle
tenants, Courtland Cox and Charlie Cobb;
which now lurk ready to boomerang Panther Chief of Staff, David Hilliard,
who had to return to the United States be-
around the world in the years (and months)
fore the festival was over to take care of a
to come. The troops came together, African
generals and footsoldiers in the war of with Chicago police; and the com-
crisis
words and politics that splashed against passionate black Parisian poet, Ted Joans.
the calm waters of the Mediterranean Sea There were many young black Americans
- in the First Pan African Cultural Festival who had not been invited, but who had
-from everywhere in greater numbers thancared enough to piece together their own
ever before; from San Francisco to Senegal, fare; including Oakland's Harriet Smith,
from Dakar to the District of Columbia. who, as of this writing, is still in Africa
The conflict was over which course a traveling and lecturing.
potentially unified Africa could take to- Hoyt Fuller of Negro Digest was there.
ward national and continental liberation, He had been also in attendance at the
Dakar Festival of 1966 and seemed par-
particularly the role of culture in the strug-
gle for liberation and in social and eco- ticularly struck by the contrast in the type
nomic development. Which, in the context of black Americans at the two festivals.
of things, revolves in some presently in- had collected the most well-known
Dakar
transigent way around the relationship ofartists and entertainers, the Duke Elling-
black and white revolutionaries. Though tons and the like; Algiers had attracted the
antagonists centered their fire on the ques-
new breed young militant whether those of
tion of culture, the battle was recognizedfame, those on the rise, or those yet to
all around as "98 per cent political," and
begin the making of their names. Students,
of course, also came, notably from San
clearly hinged at last in long and passion-
ate debate, private and public, over the Francisco State College, and others around
future direction of the struggle for libera-
the world (including Stokely 's chief aide
tion on the continent and, indeed, the en-
now studying sociology in Europe whose
tire world. name oddly slips me at the moment though
I got to know and like him well enough
Hundreds of delegates came from thirty- before I left to give him my favorite da-
one independent African countries and shiki) and ex-patriated young Americans
representatives from six movements for from Paris, some of whose names I never
African liberation, from Palestine to An-knew. Like their African counterparts, they
gola-Mozambique and the Congo-Brazza- had journeyed in search of new hopes for
ville. And there were Black Panthers and freedom to a most appropriate place, Al-
"black cubs" and old lions from the Ameri- giers, Algeria- most famous in recent times
can contingent. Secretly exiled Eldridge for the revolutionary overthrow of a major
Cleaver chose this occasion to reveal his
oppressive power.
whereabouts, and expatriated Stokely Car-
michael came with his South African-exiled Algiers, the adopted home of the late
wife, Miriam Makeba. Kathleen had her black Martinique psychiatrist, Frantz Fan-
baby during the Festival, and there was on, stands mysteriously like a quaint and
Panther Minister of Culture, Emory Doug- complex ant hill - almost inhuman in its
lass, international jazz artists, such as Nina architectural and natural beauty - over-
Sirnone and Archie Shepp, and Julia Her- looking the Mediterranean at the apex of
vre (the late Richard Wright's daughter the continent of Africa, the "cradle of civil-
now living in Paris ) . ization." On the first night of the Festival,
Leroi Jones (whose passport had been its streets were filled with multi-colored
held up) could not get over, but there balloons floating against the background of
THE BLACK SCHOLAR NOVEMBER 1969 PAGE 3

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a gaily illuminated sky, as twenty African intellectuals who are likewise so fascinated,
countries came through in a parade. Guinea who fail to visualize a certain solution for
was the most applauded, but there was fel- the present, and hold on to the "reaction-
lowship and entertainment for all, from ary theory of negritude and the excessive
Guiñean ballet to restrained dancing in the cult of a revolutionary past. If Africans
streets. must lean on their past, this is not to regret
The next day saw a somewhat differenta lost paradise but to recover it in order to
Algiers, and what has been achieved sinceassert it fully today."2
the revolution, not all of it yet so good. This was conspicuously a view shared by
The air of celebration continued, but day-Libyans and other Arabic and "white Afri-
can" nations.3 Even the most universal-
light revealed, in at least one major sec-
tion, project housing tenements as dilapi-minded black leaders and intellectuals
dated as any in the United States. Essoseemed much less afraid of any dire effects
service stations appeared, and Shell, and of black African nationalism, though a de-
Hertz, and Pepsi Cola (and company);bate raged throughout the symposium and
the Festival between the more revolution-
and the French colonialists slipping back
in predatory droves. ary black Africans and the proponents of
Some say that the weakening of cultural "Negritude"- more about that later.
resistance has increased Algerian suscepti- The revolutionary leader from Angola-
bility to the re-entry of the French and Mozambique, for example, was unequivo-
American imperialists. And so, there are cal. He spoke in a calm but emotional
signs of Algerian resistance again on the voice, without benefit of any notes, saying
that
ready: revolutionary graffiti in large peo- the liberal colonizer always comes
over, at just the moment when oppressed
ple's scrawl on buildings, walls and fences,
black nations are achieving a takeoff in
and, particularly, the old pre-revolutionary
symbol of resistance, the haik (or veil)revolutionary consciousness, to introduce
worn by so many of the women. Most ofthe duality of white-black collaboration,4
the men, by contrast, dress in European at-thus prolonging the debate and dividing
tire, but they also are infused with revolu-
the forces of the oppressed.5
tionary fervor. Besides, The representative from Mozambique
went on to concede that these endeavors
In the colonialist program it was the
woman who was given the historic mission on the part of the liberal colonizer are all
of shaking up the Algerian man. Converting all right on the surface, in theory, but that
the woman, winning her over to the foreign
a revolutionary needs a singularity of pur-
values, wrenching her free from her status,
was at the same time achieving a real power pose and has not enough time to wrestle
over the man and attaining a practical, effec- with the problems of assimilating his strug-
tive means of des tincturing Algerian culture.1 gle. However, he also emphasized that cul-
With the onslaught of resistance, the ture must be built around struggle. He was
woman returns to her traditional values, re-
1. Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, tr. by Haakon
treating into the irrevocable sanctuary of Chevalier, New York: Grove Press, 1967, p. 39.
her old society's values, reversing her role 2. "Quand tous les africains se donnent la main," Algerie
Actualité, semaine du 20 au 26 juillet 1969, p. 22.
in the colonialist program.
3. Fanon has written of the latent revival of racial feelings
between black and white Africa. "Africa is divided into
Black and White, and the names that are substituted -
Africa South of the Sahara, Africa North of the Sahara
And yet, Algerian leaders today seem - do not manage to hide this latent racism." See The
Wretched of the Earth, New York: Grove Press, Ever-
rather more concerned with the pitfalls of green Edition (tr. by Constnce Farrington), p. 161.
cultural attachment on the part of op- 4. In this regard, he corroborates the observation of a
Marxist Tunisian, Albert Memmi, "The Colonizer who
pressed peoples. They lambasted the ultra- Refused," The Colonizer and the Colonized, New York:
Orion Press, 1965.
devotion of many black intellectuals to jazz
music and black art and other forms of 5. Stokely Carmichael also has written recently on the way
liberal oppressors tend to "represent the liaison between
... the oppressed and the oppressor." See the pamphlet
"folkloric prestige," and denounced Africanon The Pitfalls of Liberalism, undated but current.

PAGE 4 THE BLACK SCHOLAR NOVEMBER 1969

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one of the most applauded speakers in the entrapped by cultural nationalism, also rec-
conference, though he was not alone. From ognized progressive uses of culture as an
the Vice President of the Revolutionary instrument for liberation instead of a
Council of Congo-Brazzaville also came the crutch - and more about that later. For
view that the moment, Libya, which spends 2735 of
African culture is a culture of combat, a its budget on education (the highest in the
culture which is forged in affronting the same world) has, since independence, set up
problems, in having the same cares. It is many cultural centers, about sixty centers
necessary for us to to surpass that which is
congealed. We believe in and want to march
now (libraries, theaters, several theatrical
forward toward modernism. troupes and institutes for music, including
folk troupes and folk studies toward devel-
But the most persistent assertion that
oping national folk art). The purpose of
revolution is technical and economic, and
such cultural centers, in the words of the
must encompass and connect, itself very
Libyan delegate, is "to raise national con-
closely with scientific rationality and eco- sciousness."
nomic and scientific discoveries, came from
the Algerian delegation, echoed once or
Кд ONFLICTS over culture similarly gripped
twice by a Russian delegation which was,
black Americans and was ostensibly at the
of course, not an official participant in the
heart of the Stokely-Eldridge split, which
symposium. The Algerian leaders went so troubled them so much more. Some had
far as to say that technique opposes culture
and that whole civilizations have been ster- come to the Festival in part to help resolve
or at least to understand that cleavage first
ilized by their failure to appreciate that
hand. Only two or three of them, out of the
one simple fact. While struggling for libera-
dozens there, regularly attended the sym-
tion, a people must "not give up self but
it must listen to the world."
posium at the Palace of Nations - for one
thing the taxi fare was eight dollars round
Yet black delegates such as the one from
trip - unless you had unlikely access to a
Dahomey spiritedly offered a similar ap-
car. However, the Panthers, who had a car,
preciation of the ideal of progress, fearing
did not attend the symposia, concentrating
that there otherwise might result a "freez-
instead on a back-to-the-people campaign
ing of action and ideology."6 The most ap-
with the Algerian populace through "Afro-
plauded speaker of the entire symposium,
he held on the one hand that "there can be
American Cultural Center" programs and
the press while Stokely courted the African
no people without a culture," but in the
selfsame breath also insisted that "there is revolutionaries and Festival delegates.
I got the impression that both succeeded
no society which does not change."
rather well in what they were trying to do,
that they were trying to attain funda-
On the propellor of progress, Africa is mentally the same objectives - the libera-
priming itself for change, some cultural, tion for our people - but along routes
some scientific and otherwise. One hun- that were worlds apart. They appeared,
dred «and twenty delegates representing therefore, to have divided up and made a
more than twenty-five countries met one pact at least on their turf. I never saw
day and held a symposium to study peace- Stokely at the Afro-American Center and I
never saw Eldridge at the Palace of Na-
ful uses of atomic energy for the economic
tions. Even at the registration center, I
development of their countries, particularly
in the area of agriculture. They further
planned a ceremony for laying the first
6. See A Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Free Press of
Glencoe, 1964, p. 544-45, for a discussion of the rela-
tionship between the growth of belief in the idea of
stone of a "regional nuclear center."7 progress and revolutionary advances in scientific inquiry.
Swinging the pendulum, white (or Arab) See also Frantz Fanon, The Algerian War and Man's
Liberation, in Toward the African Revolution, tr. by
Africans, while expressing apprehensions Haakon Chevalier, New York: Grove Press, 1967, pp.
144-49.
that revolutionary black Africans might 7.get
El moudjahid, 29 juillet, 1969, p. 1.

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noted that the Panthers and most of their siderably less optimistic. But I, too, had
aides were housed in the Hotel Alletti some missing links to connect and was
while what Panthers call the "cultural na- pleased to have, in any case, an essential
tionalists" ( a term now too loaded to havefirsthand communication. Though revolu-
clear meaning) were in the Hotel St. tionaries not accustomed to the search for
George. a middle ground, most black Americans
Within hours after my arrival, I was seemed totally caught off guard and, when
seated at an outdoor dining table when their repeated efforts merely to get the
Eldridge appeared and greeted me. Though two together for a subsequent talk con-
I knew Kathleen, I had never actually met tinued to fall through, became quite natur-
Eldridge before. He told of the Afro- Ameri- ally dismayed. They expressed strong fears
can Cultural Center and invited me to drop of a coming "blood bath" within the move-
by. I would of course be pleased to do so. ment. Some soon discovered and comp-
Eldridge then left my table; and, when I lained that there is "no middle ground
finally got up to go, I saw him and Stokely anymore."
sitting in a very private and serious huddle.
They appeared as old friends - or better Ahe search for ground (or "land") is
yet, as estranged spouses - in a deliber- just what separates Eldridge, a "Marxist-
ately subdued quarrel. I said hello to Leninist" who stresses class above color,
Stokely as I passed by, having known him from Stokely, who believes the matter one
as a student at Howard University in the of "both class and^ color" and hopes to ob-
days of the passive resistance movement, tain a land base for black Americans by
and soon fell into conversation with some helping to get Nkrumah back to Ghana.
other black Americans. Some while later This land-base would then have the same
Stokely came up and invited me to the
relationship to black Americans as Israel
table where Makeba and a portion of their
now has to American Jews. In contrast to
entourage were seated. I asked him what
Eldridge, Stokely chooses the Palestine
he was up to these days and he respondedliberation movement over Israel, Africa
in a way that most black Americans over over the Third World, and Peking over
Moscow. It is not easy to subsume such
there found convincing, especially as they
grew alienated from the Panthers, largely
far-reaching matters under the umbrella of
because of the prominence and arrogance culture alone.
of the whites in the Panther operations.And so, it was inevitable that all fac-
This included the Afro-American Cultural tions of the black American contingent, like
Center, which some black Americans even-the African delegation, would relate to cul-
tually came to call "the Panther Lair." The ture in an ambivalent way. One instance
other black Americans complained of Pan- took place at a panel discussion put on by
ther hostility and distance, and the Pan-the Panthers at the Afro- American Cultural
thers complained that the black AmericansCenter. I was to have been a participant
did not frequent the Center, usually over- but was away from the hotel all day at-
flowing with Algerian enthusiasts from the tending the Festival symposium and missed
street. The relationship of black Americans the message left there for me. Later I did
and the Panthers was changing for the obtain a complete tape of the panel dis-
better in the last days of the Festival, but cussion, which was kicked off by Emory
it had started too late to do much good. Douglass, Minister of Culture for the Black
Like most black Americans, I, too, had Panther Party. Emory early asserted that
come with some hope of unifying thosethe only culture worth keeping is a revolu-
two forces within our struggle, though be- tionary culture and denounced "cultural
ing more familiar than most with the deep nationalism" as a bourgeois concept. The
and far-reaching sources of the split, somePanthers were popular with the young Al-
of which will be explored later, I was con- gerians who seemed considerably to ad-
PAGE 6 THE BLACK SCHOLAR NOVEMBER 1969

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mire black Americans in general. We soon
learned to say "pouvoir noir" (black power)
to taxi-drivers, who could tell, from our
skin color and French, that we were black
Americans. Thus we could avoid otherwise
frequent overcharging, or even obtain a
long free ride.
published but should in actual fact be pub-
lished - he replied, Tve been on this con-
tinent now for three or four months and it
is the first time that I have no longer used a
very narrow terminology of black nationalism/
And that is why we today of the Black Panther
Party who wish to be spiritual heirs to Mal-
colm X, no longer use the narrow term 'black
nationalism/

Anyway, Eldridge Cleaver spoke, and The Algerian spokesman then ended the
the dialogue began. He began by telling ofexchange by saying that his group supports
a call that morning from Black Pantherthe struggle of the black people in the
Chairman Bobby Seale about harassmentUnited States, of all people there "strug-
and persecution of fellow Panthers back
gling against the capitalist system," com-
home, invited dialogue and sat down. mended the courage of the Black Panthers
Then a young Algerian stood and en-against police oppression, and explained
gaged Eldridge in a long debate. He wasagain that the questions had only been
careful to point out that he had not comeraised to "clarify what the real situation
to denigrate the Black Panthers but in that country is and the programs of the
wanted to raise, for clarification, "some black organizations represented" on the
questions of principles/' It was his view round-table panel.
that the Panthers should shun participa- The questions he raised and the panel-
tion in "the world of publicity" and the ists' commentary reflected the current
"cult of personality." He further was dis- groping among revolutionaries and other
turbed by Panther program item #6 - oppressed persons in America and around
which reads : "We want all black men to be the world for a solution to their plight. And
exempt from military service" - on grounds it was also apparent that there exists no
that it excluded other persons in the United ideological clarity on anybody's part.
States who may oppose the war. Cleaver
defended on grounds that, though they Had it not been for the strictly formal-
knew that persons and categories other ized structure and policies of the symposia
than blacks are oppressed in the Unitedheld by the Organization of African Unity,
States, the Panther program was being ad- which was sponsoring the Festival, the ex-
dressed specifically to blacks, that "we not changes in the Palace of Nations most
only have to attack and fight against capi- surely would have been more spirited and,
talism but also against the specific policy frequently I am afraid, considerably less
of racism they used against us." The young friendly. There the roots of conflict stretch
Algerian then cautioned against falling into farther back through the years and, to some
"the trap thaťs been set for us" by the op- extent, had generational overtones, or at
pressors. Then the interpreter, Julia Hervre, least reflected the anachronisms of at least
daughter of the late Richard Wright, spoke two eras, fired by further division between
"just for once" on her own. conformist and revolutionist.
The crucial debate in the Palace of Na-
I want to talk to you about Malcolm X,
about a trip he made to Ghana and about an tions was that of the future, if any, of
interview he gave to the Algerian ambassador Negritude.8 In Algeria the debate was
to Ghana, who asked him to explain the situa- kicked off by leading Negritude theoreti-
tion in the United States, which he did. The
Ambassador then asked him this question: cian, Leopold Senghor, who, rising above
'You see, Malcolm, I suffered; you see, Mal- the confines of Negritude itself, as well as
colm, I struggled; and I was hurt. But after its fellow traveler, Arabity, contended that
having struggled and waged the battle, you
still looked at me as a white man. Where,
8. For a discussion of the conflict over Negritude in the
Malcolm, do I stand in your theory of black early years of the Organization of African Unity, see
revolution?' [applause] 'You see, Ambassador/ B. Bourtros-Ghali, "La personalitě africaine," L'Organi-
zation de V Unité Africaine, Paris: Librairie Armand
Malcolm replied - and this has never been Colin, 1969, pp. 28-64.

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"Africanity" is the thing which "cuts across early work that a "true culture" of op-
the Festival . . . the perennial dialogue be- pressed peoples "could not come to life"
tween Arabo-Berber and Negro-Africans, under oppressed conditions, that the fetters
it is the symbiosis of two complementary would have to be withdrawn before the
ethnicities." He supported his view with true attainments of a culture could be
laudatory accounts of how ancient Africa known.12
gave birth to the first human beings, its Those critical of Negritude looked to
high civilizations, and harked back to the culture as an ideological weapon, pointing
classical monuments of ancient Egypt. to the failure of Negritude up to now in
He was not long in coming under attack. the seizure of African consciousness. The
Sekou Touré, who believes that the class concept, in their view, amounted to a col-
war has been weakened by some efforts laboration with colonialism, leaving the
to set forth the idea of cultural pluralism, matter of oppression and liberation in the
warned fellow African leaders of whatever realm of mystification, hostile therefore to
rank, who would lead their people to a even the cultural development of Africa.
just combat, never to permit the "false From Tanzania came the view that it is
concepts of Negritude" to guide them.9 The "impossible to develop an African culture
pitfalls of Negritude were once analyzed without freedom."13
at length by the late Frantz Fanon, and he A Haitian poet now living in Cuba also
was much alive in the debate in Algiers, took up the cry against Negritude, praising
where he is highly revered indeed, with a the delegates from the Congo-Brazzaville,
college, a street and other entities now Guinea, Algeria and the various revolution-
bearing his name. Cab drivers and waiters ary movements for taking similar stands.
can quote and cling to his words. There He summarized the search for identity in
was a long feature story on him and a the formula: "We make the revolution,
photo in the daily paper during the festival. therefore we exist." And he pointed to his
Fanon, recognizing stages in the devel- fatherland, Haiti, as well as a number of
opment of the revolutionary intellectual, African countries, for examples of Negri-
placed Negritude in the second stage, as a tude-oriented dictators who themselves
reaction against the first stage of revolu- were enemies of liberation. "Negritude also
tion, and which typically hampered the will be revolutionary," he concluded, "or
revolutionary's leap into the third, the stage it will not be."14
of actual combat. Negritude, on the con- There was conflict, however, in the minds
trary, permitted an escape into excessive of some revolutionary African leaders who
glorification of the past and the traditional, wished not to discard the glories of their
both in terms of values and in costumes people's troubled past yet longed to move
worn and general way of life; so that oneahead into a new generation of black men
found difficulty in incorporating the tech- on the rise. The solution for them, as in the
niques of the present and the future or incase of the vice-president of the Revolu-
turning them effectively against the op- tionary Council of the Congo-Brazzaville,
was "to take the best" from both their own
pressor. At that point in the confrontation,
Negritude contrarily becomes a literature
of mysticism. Fanon's point of view was9. El moudjahid, 23 juillet 1969, p. 2.
echoed by many black African delegates to
10. See "On National Culture," The Wretched of the
Earth, tr. by Constance Farrington, New York: Grove
the Algerian Festival.10 Press, Evergreen Edition, 1968, pp. 206-248.
Stanislas Adotevi, the delegate from11. El moudjahid, 27-28 Juillet 1969, p. 7.
Dahomey, established a "theory of melan-12. Black Skin, White Mask, tr. by Charles Lam Mark-
mann, New York: Grove Press, 1967, p. 187.
ism" on grounds that there is no culture
13. Cf Fanon, Ibid.
separated from life, that the battle for сцД-
14. El moudjahid, 29 juillet 1969, p. 3. See Mohamed
ture is the battle for political life.11 Fanon Aziz Lahbabi, Liberté ou liberation?, Paris: Aubier,
1956, for an analysis of the frequent conflicts between
too, for his part, had pointed out in his liberty and liberation.

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past and the modern world and "leave the in the same state, under the emblem of law
rest behind." and peace. But they want, as the white minor-
ity in Africa, to establish a purely racist
After all was said and done by the regime to our detriment.
younger critics of Negritude, the Minister
of Education and Culture of Senegal an- This kindled the revolutionary senti-
grily rebutted the attacks. He freely ad- ments among the African delegates as they
returned to cultural considerations. A num-
mitted his fears that the "cultural" sym-
posium might run the risk of becoming a
ber of them had already endorsed the
"political forum." He admitted as well that necessity for armed struggle; and the dele-
"we Africans must move beyond the stage gate from Tanzania was only one of those
where we go on stating that our culture to win applause when he remarked that
does exist" and observed that "some as- "freedom will only be won by the gun and
the bullet."
pects of the culture under question will
change as objective conditions change."
But he was adamant no less in his tenacious JLhe flames of revolution were hotter
still in the hearts of the Pan African Move-
allegation that there is indeed a "geography
of Negritude" in that ". . . Negroes are dis- ment for Youth. Early in the Festival, the
tinguished by certain particularities and youth had been rather suspicious of their
values by which they live wherever they revolutionary elders and took pains at once
are found." He was applauded when he to see "that solutions [coming out of the
offered support for Palestine and said that Festival] conform to the aspirations of the
Negritude does not prevent Libyans, Al- youth." They watched impatiently the too-
gerians, and others from participating in ready acceptance of neo-colonialist domi-
African Unity. nation and imperialist aggression on
Africa's immense land and riches. And they
spoke of a new resistance on the rise to
An exception was made for a representa-
"parry and thrust" against colonial con-
tive of the Palestinian Movement (AI Faťh)
spiracies "on the military, political and
who, though not a member of the Organi-
economic plane rather more than on the
zation of African Unity, was allowed to cultural."
speak. He was greeted by heavy applause In the end their Executive Committee
when he came to the stand. He held that
held a press conference and "condemned
there are only two worlds - colonialism
the attempt at secession in Africa and con-
and tyranny as against the forces of free-
dom. To him Africa is more than a conti- gratulated those governments working for
national unity and socio-economic promo-
nent; in fact, it is on the same political map
tion of their people."16 They also saluted
with Palestine. He charged that Britain and
armed struggle for national liberation
Zionist forces have united against his peo-
wherever it is occurring, denounced aid
ple exactly as the imperialists have done
in Rhodesia and South Africa. On another given by NATO and other imperialist
powers to preserve the status quo, and
occasion he had suggested that Russia too,
urged moral pressure from African states
because of the white alliance, is in concert
and progressive peoples around the world
with and happy over the state of Israel.
against imperialists powers to force them
Britain, in his analysis, is protecting Ian
to halt imperialistic aid to oppressive gov-
Smith just as the United States is protect-ernments.
ing Israel, because economic relationships
with South Africa and Israel led to close Support was reiterated for the peoples of
Angola, Guinee-Bissao and Isles of Cape
relationships in all aspects.15

African brothers, our story, Palestine, is
your story in Africa. They came to our coun-
try as the white racists came to yours; and we
tried, as you have tried, to live with them
15. The issue of Zionist aggression was raised in O.A.U.
affairs (by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Conference of
Casablanca) as early as 1961. Bourtros-Ghali, op. cit.,
pp. 83, 84.
16. El Moudjahid, 31 juillet 1969, p. 1.

THE BLACK SCHOLAR NOVEMBER 1969 PAGE 9

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Verde, Mozambique, Naibie, South Africa,
Zimbabwe and the United Arab Republic. As of this writing, however, the unfor-
They saluted the revolutionary and liberal tunate fact remains that all of that has not
movements in the Sudan and bestowed
been quite enough.
condemnation on attempts to overthrow
The first Pan-African Cultural Festival
progressive regimes in Africa, notably showed
in Africa on the verge of finding at
the Sudan and in Guinea. The youth also
last whatever else is needed. The people
supported the Latin American struggles
there began, in the ten days of the Festival,
and showed solidarity with the popular
to tackle the problems they face, but they
resistance to interference in the internal af-
failed to find a common solution as the
fairs of their states by imperialist powers.
symposium committees broke down in
In the Middle East: they reiterated soli-
heated discussions far into the night.
darity and support to the Palestine Revo-
For one thing, the African people, on the
lution, Al-Faťh, and urged the withdrawal
continent and in America, are still suffer-
of "Zionist occupying troops." And they ap-
ing from the influence and intervention of
plauded, of course, the revolutionary pro-
western liberals and thus have only
visional government of South Vietnam,
feebly begun the clarification of the uses
which they recognized as a new phase in
and misuses of culture in the struggle for
the struggle against "neo-colonialist U.S.
liberation. Before there is clarity, before
aggression." Finally, the Executive Com-
there is a true and effective ideology, there
mittee affirmed the necessity for intensify-
has to be extensive and serious debate.
ing its action, in the immediate formation
But there also cannot be any fundamental
of young African cadres and formed a
discussion of culture - it was clear from
commission to develop and build a con-
the Festval - unless economic, social,
crete program toward that vital end.
political and other topics also have become
It was left only to Algerian President
clear. When once this is done, Africa may
Boumedienne to say that:
no longer stand darkly honored as simply
The world has discovered that despite thethe "cradle of civilization," but the cradle
tragedies of slavery, exile, transportation or
depersonalization, Africa succeeded in pre-of freedom, perhaps - and brotherhood
serving its dignity, its spirit, its sensitivity . . and
. peace - as well.

The African ¡n every territory of this vast continent has been awakened and
the struggle for freedom will go on. It is our duty as the vanguard force to offer
what assistance we can to those now engaged in the battle that we ourselves
have fought and won. Our task is not done and our own safety is not assured
until the last vestiges of colonialism have been swept from Africa.
KWAME NKRUMAH,
from "Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah"

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