NET./S—— LIKO
V
After realising v/hat a pile of information and interesting new material Ec1
sent Bince he left the United States  in raid«Ii*y,   I thought  it might be useful to e
out a second newsletter before the rest  of the Mondlane family leaves for Africa in
July© So whet follows  lo part summary and part direct quotation**  I hope $rou!ll on.
the inside story«~and pardon the homespun errors of a homespun wife J
Eduardo glided through ^urope and North .Africa before he attended the conference
in Addis Ababa in the last port of May* In retroppect he said,  tt**pthe Conference
the Heads  of State was auperbj    The most important agreement reached was the pledge
to support  our efforts for independence* They set up a nine nation committee which will
be headquartered in Dar to coordinate the efforts of all African states in aiding
our cause© Some countries ouch as Guinea, Algeria,  Uganda, Tanganyika,  etc*, have
pledged one per cent of their annual budget to the Cause*a••The accompanying social
twirl which v/as going en at the same time, the politicking which was going on in the
passage ways of the conference building, the dinners, the atate dinner, the friendly
ohctB,  etc* etc0 etc„*  I will also toll y.u about the activities of such characters
as Paul Gumane, 3avid liabunda,  (two people who broke with FRELIMO) v;ho were present
under UDENAMOfS revised membership and doing everything to undermine my personal
influence^  but failing miserably,  and in fact,  managing only to expose their own
immaturity and inconpetance«»*aMabunda is more honestly opposed to me,  even though
hoB too,  lacks sufficient guts to challenge me openly* They both concentrated on
innuendos and whisperings about my supposed being an agent  of American imperialism^
which by the end of the conference,  after seeing how the llaosere, Ben Delas and
Rkrumahs were very warm to me personally,  I wao beginning to be labelled a stooge of
the comnunuitts****It8s alot of news which I cannot put  in this miserable little
airletter*  I then returned to Dar in the presidential plane, with Nyerere and Cbote0fl
if if >;* >•; if if if if if if if; % if.
In Addis "*0*I stayed with my friend Aboolom Vilakazi, while the rest of the pec
were housed in hotels* Addis was able to provide hotel rooms for more than 2^500
people* They must have built at least four new hotels this year**#.The conference
began on Larch 22 in the morning* It was opened with pomp and pagentry* The Emperor
gave the opening opeechp which wao superb* He presented a well—reasoned argument for
a pragmatic approach to African unity which captured the imagination of moot people*
He insisted that if Africa is going to bo united it has to be approached from a
realistic assessment of all the elements of power now extant, and from there a sci
be developed which will gradually lead us into the United States of Africa* His appr
was fitting both as a representative of the oldest empire in Africa as well as the
oldest member of the heads of state* The highlights of this phase of the conference
were certainly the e::pororfo speech, which represented the moet hopeful line of acti
Mr* Balewa*o, which represented the moat conservative approach ever; Mr* Kwame I
which represented the most forward-looking and moot intellectually consistent and
challenging viewpoint, albeit moat unlikely to be acceptable to most statesmen pre
ijr* Leopold Senghor*a, represented the most poetic^ mrast boatrtiful expression of the
problem of unity in Africa; Mr0 Sekou Touro*ss a compromise between a French approach
and Anglo-Saxon pragmatism; finally, i.r* Nyerere's, which was the most pragmatic v
evero The rc3t of the statesmen hit somewhere between Balewafs conservative point of
view and Mr* Nkruuah's very progressive approach to the question of African unity©
Right in the middle of these two extremes was Nyerere9a* He insisted that it would be
unrealistic to expect that a United States of Africa be formed right here and now,
and that on the other hand, the conference must not close without some for     ly
being established which would encompass those elements of African life about which tl
wao common agreement* Consequently*, he insisted that an agreement be signed to
establish 10 an organisation which would be responsible for the collection of funds,
weapons, and equipment for strengthening the effornt of the freedom fighters for the
speedy elimination of colonialism in southern Africa j 2) a committee to ctudy economic
cooperation amongst African states; 5) "the first University of Africa, supported by
fi-nds collected from African states, and a pledge to refrain from interfering in the
internal affaire of other independent African States* Th Lly
accepted, and the agreement signed folloed these same general line