Not Divided

Certain developments have occurred in Africa since the irresistible tide of independence swept over this continent which upon superficial examination, have been the cause of concern fro the future. We are told that Africa has been split into competing groups, thus inhibiting cooperation among the African States and severely retarding African progress. One hears of the Casablanca Group and the Monrovia Group, of the Conakry and Dakar Declarations, and we are warned that the views and policies ot these so-called groups are so antithetical as to make it impossible for them to work together as partners in an enterprise to which all are mutually devoted.

But do such hard and fast groupings really exist? And if certain nations sharing similar views have taken measures to co-ordinate their policies, does this mean that, between these nations and others, there is no possibility of free and mutually beneficial co-operation? Is Africa really fragmented, and has independence been achieved on this great continent only to see the African nations themselves transform differences into divisions? And are such divisions as already exist, imposed upon us by history and circumstance, to be widened and deepened by our own efforts?

Let Us say, first of all, that Ethiopia considers herself a member of one group only—that African group. We will join in any deliberations, we will consider any plan, we will debate any proposal anywhere, and at any time, provided that it contributes to the maintenance of world peace, the development of Africa’s human and material resources, and the protection of this continent’s legitimate interests. When we Africans have been misled into pigeon-holing one another, into attributing rigid and inflexible views to states which were present at one conference but not at another, then we shall, without reason or justification, have limited our own freedom of action and rendered immeasurably more difficult the task of joint efforts, in harmony and brotherhood, in the common cause of Africa. …

[…excerpt from HIM Haile Selassie’s speech to the Lagos Summit Meeting, 1962]