sometimes
split not only one way but two or three. It was chaotic to the old
tribal system. Of course, when the white man left various efforts were
made from the very start to join that which had been torn apart a
century earlier. Right here in this area, Senegal and what was then
French Sudan merged to form the short-lived Mali Federation. Ghana and
French Guinea formed a shaky alliance. More successful was the
federation of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzibar, which of course,
has since grown.

"But there were fantastic difficulties. Many of the old tribal
institutions had been torn down, but new political institutions had been
introduced only in a half-baked way. African politicians, supposedly
'democratically' elected, had no intention of facing the possibility of
giving up their individual powers by uniting with their neighbors. Not
only had the Africans been divided tribally but now politically as well.
But obviously, so long as they continued to be Balkanized the chances of
rapid progress were minimized.

"Other difficulties were manifold. So far as socio-economics were
concerned, African society ran the scale from bottom to top. The Bushmen
of the Ermelo district of the Transvaal and the Kalahari are stone age
people still--savages. Throughout the continent we find tribes at an
ethnic level which American Anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan called
barbarism. In some places we find socio-economic systems based on
chattle slavery, elsewhere feudalism. In comparatively few areas,
Casablanca, Algiers, Dakar, Cairo and possibly the Union we find a
rapidly expanding capitalism.

"Needless to say, if Africa was to progress, to increase rapidly her per
capita income, to depart the ranks of the have-nots and become have
nations, these obstacles had to be overcome. That is why we are here."

"Speak for yourself, Mr. Crawford," the white haired objector of ten
minutes earlier, bit out.

* * * * *

Homer Crawford nodded. "You are correct, sir. I should have said that is
the reason the teams of the Reunited Nations African Development Project
are here. I note among us various members of this project besides those
belonging to my own team, by the way. However, most of you are under
other auspices. We of the Reunited Nations teams are here because as
Africans racially but not nationally, we have no affiliation with clan,
tribe or African nation. We are free to work for Africa's progress