The United Nations and Colonialism in Africa

Abstract

Colonialism was actively encouraged up to the Second World War: it brought enlightenment as well as ex ploitation. But, in recent years, self-government has all too often been granted to people insufficiently prepared to exer cise it responsibly, and whether the former colonial people are better off under their new rulers is certainly open to question. Economic progress has failed to keep pace with political power, and African "socialism" is paving the way for dictatorship and communism. In Zanzibar, Africa already has her own Cuba. Yet the "double-standards" mantle which today cloaks United Nations affairs enables a blind eye to be turned to the massacre of Africans by Africans in Ruanda, while United Nations forces were used to impose a political solution on peaceful Katanga and to crush her pro-Western leader, Moise Tshombe. Be hind this inconsistency lies the disproportionate voting strength of the Afro-Asian bloc in the United Nations General Assem bly, with its dangerous implications for major powers like the United States and Britain, whose votes count for no more than those of the smallest and most backward countries in Africa. This is the background against which the impact of the United Nations on Africa and Africa on the United Nations must be viewed.