Africa and the West

Report Outline
New World Attention to African Area
Recent Political Changes in Colonial Africa
Economic Development and Western Defense
U.S. Aid Funds and Investment in Colonial Africa
Special Focus

New World Attention to African Area

The continent of Africa is the last large area of the world which remains predominantly under West European colonial control. Because of its strategic position and its stores of essential raw materials, Africa is assuming an increasingly prominent place in Western defense plans. At the same time, conditions exist in many parts of the continent which make for lack of understanding between the African peoples and the dominant Western powers.

Francis B. Sayre, former United States representative on the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, believes that the basic problem facing the West in Africa, no less than in Asia, is the conjunction of three “poison-breeding” factors—desperate human need, resentment over racial discrimination, and an “explosive, new-found nationalism”.

Communism has made little progress on the African continent to date, but indefinite continuance of this state of affairs can hardly be taken for granted. Soviet leaders are fully aware of the strategic and economic importance of Africa to the West. They can be expected to make the most of all opportunities to exploit unrest and promote disunity there.