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An Afi ican Views America- cc r : ^
relation to his political faith in Africa, then of course much has
been lost on both sides. But if. the informal roundtable discussions
by African students at Vcarious group gatherings have any substance
in them, then these things happen on a very wide scale indded.
But this is not all .The official policy of the USA on the situation in the Union of South Africa and Portuguese held territories
Is not one of indifference.  Tacit approval of the apartheid policy
is often discernible.—We shall leave this issue at the present for
future discussions.
Wewish to inouire into how the life and actions of the African
fails to be interpreted' *á promoting the suDreme American national
goals.  In this respect, the African td.ll be missing the point if
he takes the 1946 Employment Act as a guide to the American goal»
True depressions are dreaded in America.  But not as much as communism. \/hat exactly the American means by communism many people have
not yet been able to understand, but we may safely believe that if
Hungciry were the only communist country in the world America would
not care about communism. The system begins to assume frightening
dimensions when it is practiced by the country whose capability realistically challenges those of America. And those Africans who find
this association between Russia and communism difficult to comprehend
should RBLfconly remember that their own country-men find it difficult
to draw the dividing line between colonialism and, say, Britian or
France. For this association is so strongly rooted in the African
that he often also attributes motives of colonialism to America by
virtue of the alliances like NATO with the colonial powers.  So that
whereas the traditional anti-colonial feelings harbored by the
Americans have in scattered places encouraged the African in his
efforts to achieve political independence, the encouragement has
nevertheless been understood to be incidental.  A point which thus
obviously needs clarification today is whether the spirit which
characterized the Marshall Plan should also be held today as the
pivot on which the USA policy should turn. That spirit was that
all costs Western Europe must "survive"
Let me mention auite briefly here-the American press is the
greatest enemy of the African.  It proceeds either by omitting
African affairs altogether, or treating them with a biased slant.
The pre-occupation of the African with "politics7, is eoually irk
some to the American . By "politics" the African usually means
resistance to colonialism. But the American does not always under
stand him that way. He is bothered by the fact that the African
continues to talk of development, and yet does not appear to go into those forms of training which the American associates with deve lopmentÇe.g. engineering business).The whole pattern of"thinking
of the African is seen by the American as "intellectural". and
is not a complimentary naality in America. The problem here seems
to be that the term"politics" means different things to the
American and the African. No doubt bringing out the respective meanings would help matters, and we hope that efforts will be made
to do so .
The rapidly emerging national states ^re progressivly providing
the American with the opportunity to depart from the missionary and
superior attitude of the past and rssune a more realistic role fed
by the more humane traditional frontier spirit. The challenge is
one that is native to the American who no doubt has begun to feèl
the necessity to fill the void in his imagination by helping the
African realize those goals for which hehimself h^s long striven.