Around Mother Africa Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #452)

Kano in Nrothern Nigeria and a bearded gentleman with a stern face joined Joe and I at the table and in perfect Xhosa: "Camagu" (Good morning). That common expression was electric when said by an unknown person in a far off land. The man who greeted us was Mzwayi Pilisco who had left the country a few years before to study pharmacy in England and who was now an active member of the ANC and our representative in Cairo. Within a few hours we were at Lagos airport where we were met by Oliver. I had last seen him 22 months before, then with a clean shaven and well groomed face. Nut now he had also grown a beard and had little time to attend to his hair. As head of our foreign mission he had a tight programme travelling in Africa, Europe and visiting America, meeting heads of states and other important government officials, explaining our policy and needs, addressing conferences of all kinds. He had already established ANC offices in Ghana, England, Cairo and Tanganyika and had made valuable contacts for us even in countries where we had no actual offices. Attempts have been made by the sponsors of the Lagos Conference of Independent States to unite all African states including the Casablanca group consisting of Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia (?). Prior to the Conference Sir Balawa, premier of Nigeria, travelled to Conakry to discuss matters with Sekou Toure. The bone of contention was whether or not the Provisional Government of Algeria should be invited to the conference, a point on which the Casablanca group insisted while the Monrovia group approached the matter purely formally and held that Algeria was not an independent state in the classical sense of the term and opposed its invitation. As a result of this deadlock the Casablanca group boycotted the conference