BETWEEN the Sahara and the Union of South Africa lies Tropical Africa, where a quarter of a million whites rule 150,000,000 blacks. Ethiopia and tiny Liberia are its only independent states; the rest (some 6,500,000 sq. mi.) is ruled by four European powers: Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal.

The Gold Coast (pop. 4,000,000), named by its Portuguese discoverers, is Britain's pet colony (see cover story).

Nigeria, larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined, is Britain's most populous (30 million) colony. It is driving hard for self-government (the British governor holds veto powers, but Nigerians, 95% of them illiterate, have elected their first "national" parliament). Population: a hodgepodge in which three tribes predominate. The Hausas in the north, who furnish the backbone of Britain's tough West African Rifles, are Moslems. The South is divided between the ex-cannibal Ibos and sturdy Yoruba farmers, whose ancient city, Ibadan (pop. 400,000), is the largest native city in Africa. Chief resources: tin, coal and palm oil. Since 1939 Nigeria's national income has multiplied six times.

Liberia, about the size of Mississippi, was founded in 1822 by the do-gooding American Colonization Society, which swapped a shipload of trinkets for 1,000 acres of jungle on which to relocate U.S. slaves. Liberia's capital, Monrovia, is named for President James Monroe; its constitution is based on that of the U.S. Population: 20,000 Christian descendants of the former slaves, who run the show; 1,500,000 jungle pagans, some of whom were not subdued until 1936. Resources: gold, iron ore, (Firestone) rubber.

French West Africa, ten times the size of California, fills the bulge of West Africa. Population: 16 million, including 62,000 "Europeans," and a colonial "elite," the product of the French policy of "assimilating" educated Africans into French culture. (French colonial officers may claim family allowances for their illegitimate half-caste offspring; some get allowances for 30 or more little half & halfs.) Resources: palm kernels, peanuts and Senegalese infantrymen.

French Equatorial Africa is nearly four times the size of Texas. Population: about 4,000,000 near-savages, including Pygmies and the women shown in the U.S. by Ringling Bros, who stretch their lower lips to the size of soup plates. A few black "elites" are French citizens.

Belgian Congo is a massive equatorial sponge the size of the U.S. east of the Mississippi. Population: 50,000 Belgians, 11 million Bantus and Pygmies. To Joseph Conrad, the Congo River was "an immense snake uncoiled" curving through "joyless sunshine to the heart of darkness." But Belgian bosses have made the Congo the West's greatest reservoir of strategic minerals: three-quarters of its cobalt, the bulk of its uranium. Administration: unashamed colonialism, with no nonsense about "natives' rights." The natives, under hard-working capitalism, have a living standard far above Central Africa's average.

Portuguese Africa consists chiefly of two massive areas of steamy plain and plateau (Angola and Mozambique) lying athwart tropical Africa's only east-west railroad. Mozambique lives off shipping to & from its landlocked neighbors, the Rhodesias, and South Africa's Transvaal.

Kenya, the "White Man's Shangri-La," is famed for its big game, its purple hills and russet downs. Thirty thousand whites grow much of Britain's coffee in its exclusive White Highlands, rule 5,500,000 blacks and 100,000 Indians with a strong hand, and now live with guns at their sides in fear of the terrorist Mau Mau secret society.

Uganda lies at the northern end of Lake Victoria. Population: 5,000,000--and "crocodiles beyond credence." A haunt of buffaloes, hippopotamuses and some 20,000 elephants, Uganda is a picturesque land of volcanos, glaciers, deserts and waterfalls. All-black population ruled by a handful of Kiplingesque Britons and by Mutesa II, the Oxford-educated Kabaka (king) of the Buganda nation. Chief crops: cotton for Lancashire's looms, bananas, coffee, sisal. Capital: Entebbe, a British jet air base three miles north of the equator.

Tanganyika, a British mandate eight times as big as the state of Kentucky, was taken from Germany in World War I. Mostly high equatorial plateau; a hunter's paradise but infested with tsetse flies. Population: 16,000 whites, half of them Germans; 23,000 Indian traders; 7,000,000 Bantus, scattered in some 100 tribes. Capital: Dar es Salaam. Resources: cotton, sisal, peanuts.

Southern Rhodesia is a settler's colony, poised on the threshold of industrialism. Population: 150,000 whites; 2,000,000 Bantus (mostly Matabeles and Mashonas). Last week the British government formally agreed to federate it with the copper-rich protectorate of Northern Rhodesia and neighboring Nyasaland.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.