14GjTHE NEW AFRICAN/SEPTEMBER 1965
The Editors gratefully acknowledge tIle following messages sent
to The New African:
.
From the Prime Mi11ister of India
WISH YOU ALL SUCCESS IN YOUR CAMP~4IGN
, AGAINST RACIAL INEQUALITY
Lal Bahadur Shastri
From the Minister for Ext~rnal Affairs, Kelzya
Conditions in South Africa are deteriorating fr01n day to day
and it is for this reason that The New African has had to be
published in London. The contents and lay-out of this jour11al
are magnificent. Please carry on your good work to acquaint the
peoples of the world of the dreadful conditions in South Africa.
My c011gratulations to you all for the ~ple11did effort.
Joseph Murumbi
Commonwealth Progress
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152
153
156
157
160
163
164
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167
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171
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146
A TIM~E TO DECIDE: Suzanne Cronje
NIGERIA-THE POLITICS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC
BANKRUPTCY: Reginald Herbold Green
COMMONWEALTH ARTS FESTIVAL 1965
SUPPLEMENT OF AFRICAN WRITING
Editorial note
INKALAMU'S PLACE: Nadine Gordimer
THE FIRST NOVEL-A REVIE\V: 'Gerald Moore
NEW ROLES FOR THE DANCE: Peggy Harper
THE NATURAL AND THE SURREAL: Dennis
Duerden
LES GRANDES DAMES: Lewis Nkosi
THE COM,MONWEALTH ARTS FESTIVAL: Rex
CoIlings
GLIMPSES OF HOME: Ezekiel Mphahlele
BLACK DICE: Breyten Breytenbach
WHITE WOMEN KISSING BLACK i\lEN: Arthur
Maimane
A MATTER OF HONOUR: Alex la Gun1a
NOTES ON TWO NIGERIAN PLAYWRIGHTS:
Barry Reckord
THE COLONIAL AND THE METROPOLITAN: Dan
Jacobson and Lewis Nkosi
DIVINITY-A RADIO PLAY PART II: Obi B.
Egbuna
Leader; 176 Review
Chinua Achebe
The short story by Chinua Achebe, announced in
August, has' had to be held over. Though offered
for the Commonwealth Arts Festival issue, this was
conditional on its prior appearance i; another
periodical, which has itself delayed publication of it.
EDITORS: Randolph Vigne and Neville Rubin
LITERARY EDITOR, and editor of Common\vealth
Arts Festival supplement: Lewis Nkosi
.
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THE COMMON\VEALTH SEEMS to have made a little progress, from an
atmosphere of stagnant artificiality in 1962-3 (its imminent break-up \vas being
predicted) to 1965's hardheaded preparedness to give it another try.
The June meeting of heads of state in London, despite negative COmlTIUniques and tensions, was by happy chance timed to show it in a better light
than its own deliberations afforded it. First there \vas the lobbying of some
delegates to try and get them to the Afro-Asian Conference despite political
uncertainty in Algeria after Ben Bella's overthrow. Then the Comnlon\vealth
Peace Mission, though it had its farcical moments, finally had some glory
rubbed off on it when one of its members, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, was
invited to Hanoi in the cause of peace,' albeit in his personal capacity. The
seriousness of the Rhodesian crisis at this time again lent reality to the
llleeting. President Nyerere's refusal to accept the Rhodesia communique
showed the conference to be more than an annual exercise in political cant,
not taken seriously either by the heads of state or their nations.
IT IS NOT ENOUGH to feel its pulse and pronounce it still living, yet signs
of positive value are hard to find. The artificiality of its existence as a group
of equals when it consists of colonisers, colonists and some whose land they
colonised \vas more obvious than usual in 1965 \\rhen by all accounts Mr
Wilson ran the Ineeting more as a commanding officer than as a chairman.
Aside from purely selfish, material advantages, its only value - at any rate
for its African members - is that it cuts across both racial and east-\vest
alignments, and that it places some sort of obstacle in the vvay of the advancing
threat of worId race Viar.
Certainly British policy on imrnigration and on its relations with South
Africa seems to Inake this obstacle flimsier than before. British preoccupation
with international issues closer at hand than race war causes the country
to look at its defence arrangements with South Africa without n1uch regard .
to uncommitted Afro-Asian opinion. Yet an article in the current Contemporary RevievJ may herald a change in British thinking. It puts the view
that " there is a Inaj or struggle for influence developing in Africa and whoever
seeks to engage in it as an ally of Dr 'l er\voerd, even to the slightest extent,
is almost bound to lose it. In these circumstances to accept some of the
pressures of the African states may well have to be the realistic choice of
any Western country interested in maintaining its influence towards stability
on the continent." The point is well taken, as far as it goes. We would hope
that British preparedness to sacrifice her friendly relations with South Africa
might indicate also a respect for Con1mon\vealth vie'fNs, though this article,
\vhich appears characteristic of much" establishment" thinking, scarcely refers
to the COll10n\vealth at all.
for a heightened appreciation of the Common,vealth's value
in the cause of peace, despite the present tragedy across the Kashmir ceasefire line. From Britain a greater regard for her partners than the \\Thite Paper
on Common\vealth Immigration vouchsafes. From the "old" Commonwealth
countries a more apparent realisation of the value of their newer partners as
a counter to world racialism. On the Afro-Asian partners the strain of nlembership does not yet tell, though South Africa's preseiice until 1961 produced
a foretaste and Britain's treatment of Rhodesia repeats it. 1965 has given a
glimpse of a future Commonwealth meaning. May it be for this and not the
Kashmir horror that we remember .. 1965.
\VE MUST HOPE
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