RED FOR DANGER IN AFRICA

WORLD reaction to Rhodesia in the Context of Africa, the booklet published by the Ministry of Information, was remarkable. Hundreds of thousands of copies were despatched and demanded from many different countries and it ranked as a best seller. It told in simple language the facts about Africa. It laid bare the chaos in infant African states. It showed the shallowness of their erstwhile "colonial masters". It pierced the thin veneer of "uhuru" and "freedom" and exposed the sordidness of such catchwords. It caused a stir by its simple and factual tracing of the unhappy history of these African states from their emancipation to early 1966.

The Congo fiasco is now so well known internationally that it needs little repetition. Given "freedom" on July 1, 1960, amidst the acclaim of the world, this unfortunate country was launched into an orbit of self-rule and democracy. The inevitable happened —tribalism, nepotism, and barbarism took over, and this once peaceful and prosperous land was soon convulsed in the toils of tribal and internecine warfare which led inevitably to economic collapse. Corruption, rapine and murder followed, and the country became a blood bath virtually overnight.

The United Nations embarked on an expensive peacekeeping programme, and the policy of the dreamers and ideologists was put into operation. There was to be no secession by Katanga Province from the Congo proper. The Katangese were to be forced to be free in an association not of their choosing and the United Nations, in its self-appointed role as a world government, tried to implement this policy.

The Congo has never recovered from the chaos which followed the intervention of the United Nations. Today there is no stable government there; banditry and faction fighting are rife and the high-flown object of the United Nations was never achieved. Its forces withdrew at the height of the debacle and left an ill-equipped and disillusioned people to clean up the shambles which the U.N. had been instrumental in creating.

This, then, was the "freedom" recipe proffered by the idealists of the conglomerate U.N. Today, more than seven years later, there is no sign that stability will ever be restored to the hapless Congo.

The story of Tanzania was clearly drawn in Rhodesia in the Context of Africa, and the self-styled democrat, Julius Nyerere, was shown to have duped the British and all those who regarded him as a moderate — an idealized figure of black reasonableness. His country, launched on the sea of freedom in 1962, was to serve as an example to its neighbours and the world outside. It certainly did — but not in the manner predicted! Soon, following closely the pattern in Zanzibar, communism took over, and the Chinese Reds were in.

Peking, not London, now directed the functions of this "neo-colony". Theft, corruption and bribery became the accepted order throughout the administration, while the Chinese — "the saviours of Tanzania" — brought in their own folk to help with agricultural development and diversification. Significantly, Chinese agricultural advisers soon had Tanzania growing, not their staple crops, but rice for the hungry mouths of a lusty, awakening, politically conscious Red China.

COMMUNIST ENCROACHMENT

The ramifications of the communist encroachment are spreading gradually towards Kenya, where today one is confronted with the spectacle of Oginga Odinga calling upon the Chinese communists for help in promoting a "people's revolution" throughout Africa. This, after the achievement of uhuru. The ageing President would seem, so far, to have resisted the infiltration, but a thoughtful observer may be excused for asking "How long his span, and then...?"

Uganda finds itself in much the same predicament, with this difference — the tribal antagonisms of the negroid and nilotic peoples are virtually insoluble. So deep-rooted are these differences that leading ethnologists claim there will never be peace in that country so long as the racial divisions last. Uganda therefore is doomed to a future of internal strife precluding any possibility of economic progress or stability. All the while the communists watch from the sidelines and await their opportunity.

Ethiopia runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds. Despot Emperor Haile Selassie, restored to his kingdom with the help of white Rhodesian and South African troops in World War II, sits uneasily on his throne while he panders to the Afro-Asians on the one hand and the communists on the other. Surely he must realize that the penalty for vacillation is extinction.

Nigeria, once considered the showplace of happy transition from colonial dependence, is at this moment split asunder by tribal differences, maladministration and bad government. When the present internecine conflict is over, who is to say that there will not be an atavistic reckoning of unparalleled barbarity resulting in the slaughter of innocent thousands? Indeed, it is likely to be taking place now. Meanwhile the communists, to the roar of jet fighters and the crump of Chinese-made missiles, have made their mark and ensured the spread of the conflagration and the maximum growth of chaos.

And Ghana? It is almost impossible to interpret the real trend of events there, but the same formula of confuse-and-conquer has been repeated in that country two or three times. And so, ad infinitum throughout the African continent, the machinations of communism grind their relentless way towards the fulfilment of the dreams of Lenin and Mao Tse Tung.

In the north, Morocco, Algeria and the United Arab Republic have all become subservient to communist ideology, despite the disparity between the teachings of Islam and the predatory ambitions of the Reds. Nasser now knows to his bitter disillusionment the cost of riding the tiger. The technological and military aid lavished on his country was not intended to improve the lot of the fellahin. It was an insurance payment to guarantee a communist endowment. Nasser in his vanity took the bait and the hook, and today is in thrall to the communists.

The Red modus operandi in Africa is therefore clear. The chaotic conditions created have provided the fertile soil in which communism thrives. Tanzania is secured; Kenya, already pink, may soon be a mature shade of red; Malawi, however, has stemmed the advance on its borders.

Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Rhodesia and South Africa are the only countries in Africa today completely committed to a policy of anti-communism, but there are signs that Lesotho and Swaziland refuse to be won over by the communists.

ZAMBIA THE NEXT OBJECTIVE

Zambia manifestly is singled out as the next objective, with Vice-President Kapwepwe a willing host, and Peking has not hesitated to use any form of bribery or corruption to win over the ingenuous Kaunda and his people. Visits to China on a luxury scale have been provided for Zambian leaders; Chou En Lai has offered to build railways, to provide loans, and to help with road making. Soon the Chinese will offer to teach the Zambians to grow rice! Zambia is being wooed into the heart of the communist machine, and whether by design or inadvertence, is doing nothing to avert the almost inevitable tragedy. She has become the base for terrorist activities directed at her neighbours — Angola, Malawi, Rhodesia and South Africa — in furtherance of the communist master plan.

In spite of all the protests, there exists proof conclusive that Zambia is being used by the communists as the spring-board for their many-pronged attack against free Southern Africa. While Zambian leaders tread the road to perdition by becoming more and more beholden to the Chinese, let her people reflect on their own destiny. Perhaps some day they will appreciate the vulnerable position which they occupy geographically in central Africa.

Leaders in North African states believe that they are embarked on a crusade to rescue from "white colonialist domination" those of their fellows who have not yet attained "independence". They are the fodder which is being thrown into the battle for Africa, and a dramatic battle it is, for if it is lost to communism, so too will be lost the very freedom which they desire so dearly. In reality such freedom as they now possess will be converted into freedom to submit to genocide. The wide open spaces and limitless resources of Africa are a tempting prize to the cynical, inscrutable Oriental.

A glance at the map illustrating the para-military incursions recently made in the centre of Africa will convince the reader of the falsity of the British pronouncement that Rhodesia's Declaration of Independence sparked off the terrorist attacks made upon her. Britain follows an enigmatic policy with regard to Cuba, Tanzania and Vietnam — for reasons that remain a mystery to her friends and allies. So far as Rhodesia is concerned, and the presence of Chinese-trained communists infiltrating Africa, Britain has sought to justify her inertia by alleging that terrorist incursions into Rhodesia are symptomatic of a desire by Rhodesian Africans to overthrow the white man. Similar incursions into Malawi are ignored by the British.

BRITAIN'S DOUBLE STANDARDS

Britain's designs in all this are not clear, but those of the communists are only too obvious. Having created chaos in the states which they have subverted, they are driving south with the intention of conquering the whole of Southern Africa.

Chinese communist designs in Vietnam are no different from their designs in Southern Africa. The terrorists who have recently been shot or captured in Rhodesia were all thoroughly indoctrinated with the communist ideology. They carried the literature of Mao Tse Tung—and more important, they were armed with modern automatic rifles and machine guns of communist manufacture as well as explosives, grenades and powerful bazookas. In fact, recent Australian visitors have been surprised to find that the weapons being used against Rhodesia are of the same pattern as those being used against Australians, New Zealanders and Americans in Vietnam.

Except in degree, the situation in Vietnam and in Africa is identical. It seems incredible that Britain refuses to accept this fact. Rather she makes spurious attempts to persuade her traditional allies, especially America, that no similarity exists between these two areas of conflict. The intensity of the conflicts in Africa and Vietnam are at a different stage of development in communistic planning, yet the pattern is clear.

The recent Middle East war has shown the strategic value of the African sub-continent. The northern ramparts formed by Rhodesia and the Portuguese overseas provinces are as vital to the western hemisphere as is the southern coast of Africa, for should Rhodesia, Mocambique and Angola succumb to communist domination, the southern coast of Africa would follow and the lifeline between the Western powers and the Far East would be cut.

Rhodesia, by defending the Zambezi River against the further advance of Chinese communism, has set an example to the Western world. It is worth pointing out to those who scrambled, with little dignity and almost indecent haste, from other parts of Africa that there is no intention of allowing Southern Africa to fall prey to Chinese communism. In the broader concept of world politics Western leaders must be aware of this basic principle.

So far as Africa is concerned "Red for Danger" is the watchword.

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