Around Mother Africa Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #454)

the Lagos Conference which had constructive plans of uplifting human beings with those of the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and the Congress of Berlin in 1878 which were inspired by the imperialist aims of dividing the world into colonies of the Big Powers and of exploiting the wealth of those colonies. (Check resolutions). Our delegation met Mr. Tubman, President of Liberia and we arranged that I would visit his country in April the same year. We also had a discussion with the Prime Minister of Somaliland who also invited us to his country, as well as Justin Bomboko, Foreign Minister of the Congo, as Zaire was then known. But the man who seemed to have more than superficial knowledge of our country's politics was undoubtedly Jaja Wachuku, the Nigerian Foreign Minister. His private library was well stocked with standard works on South Africa and judging from his comments during our discussions he had used the material very well. He had created a stir in the 1961 session of the UN when he proposed that South Africa should be given ten years within which to change her policies. We were all indignant at this unilateral declaration and although we in the Congress movement well knew that white South Africa would defend its privileged position to the bitter end and were preparing for a long drawn out struggle his proposal shocked us because if it were accepted, it would have the effect of relaxing the international pressures on her for the abolition of racial discrimination, a breathing space which she desperately needed. Kenneth Kaunda summed up our reaction very well in his speech at the 1962 PAFMECSA Conference when he declared amid loud cheers that Africa