Happy Impulse, Second Thoughts

In an age when Foreign Offices employ batteries of experts, trade specialists, speechwriters and paper sorters who glory in their settled ways, nations rarely act any more on carefree impulse. Thus, international surprise was the first reaction to last week's merger of Ghana (formerly a British colony on the Gold Coast) with Guinea, which until two months ago was a French colony. The second reaction last week in London and Paris was shock.

Lord Beaverbrook's London Daily Express accused Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana of trying "to sneak Guinea into the Commonwealth by the back door," while the Paris press darkly hinted that perhaps the whole idea was a British plot to break up the French community in Africa. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan confessed that the whole thing came as a "complete surprise," and many Britons wondered why Nkrumah had not consulted his Commonwealth partners in advance. Nevertheless, the voice of pan-Africanism had spoken, and its echoes could be heard all through the week.

On to Freedom. Guinea was the only French African territory to vote no in September to De Gaulle's constitution. The French territories that voted yes are one by one declaring themselves republics, inside the French community. Following Madagascar, which made its choice in October, the French Sudan and Senegal led last week's parade. Next came a proclamation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in the land of the great Berber warriors who established the medieval Almoravide empire and built the fabled city of Marrakesh. Then to the east there followed tropical Gabon, the mineral-rich Republic of Congo, and big (496,000 sq. mi.), semi-arid Chad. Though France had expected its territories to act as they did, there seemed little doubt that the announcement from Accra had brought on the sudden burst of speed.

Returning home from Ghana, Guinea's Marxist-trained Premier Sekou Toure told cheering crowds in his capital of Conakry that the union was merely the beginning of "the dream of all African democrats--that of a United States of Africa." The enthusiasm was not unanimous. Premier Sylvanus Olympic of Togoland, a French U.N. trusteeship slated for independence in 1960; would like to join "an eventual federation," but was careful to add that this "will certainly not be easy." Poor Togoland could all too easily end up as a Ghana province, and some of its politicians do not like the sounds of Nkrumah's roughshod rule next door.

Who'll Call the Tune? On the way to visit Nkrumah, Toure had paid a call on Liberia's three-term President William V. S. Tubman, hoping to get Liberia's support. But that old pol was not eager to join such vigorous upstarts. He called federation "unrealistic and Utopian." The leaders of the British colony of Nigeria, one of the richest and largest (pop. 35 million) territories on the Guinea coast, make no secret of their irritation at Nkrumah's ambitions. "Nkrumah." Federal Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said recently, "cannot expect the rest of Africa to dance around him."

Though beset by opposition in his own party, the powerful African boss of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, was also against any federation. The continents of Europe, Asia and the Americas have never achieved unity, he said--"Why do you think that Africa can?"

Who Will Eat Whom? All these factors would work against a United States of Africa. Even the hasty union of Guinea and Ghana had the look of momentary opportunism about it. Since Guinea rejected De Gaulle's referendum, 4,000 French have pulled out. Obviously, ambitious Sekou Toure had turned to Ghana because he needed help quickly. The French themselves, even though piqued, do not want to lose all influence in Guinea. But they feel compelled to reward the territories that declared their loyalty to France over the only nation that voted no. Nkrumah had promised Guinea a $28 million loan as dowry. In Ghana, Opposition Leader K. A. Busia denounced the hasty merger, and said that the money could have been put to good use in Ghana. "Why," said Busia, "should a few Ghanaian babies die in the hope of saving a few Guinea babies?" Observed a Paris specialist: "I know both Nkrumah and Toure well, and it is out of the question that they can coexist. In the Middle East we have one Nasser. In Africa we now have two. The only question is: Which will eat the other up?"

Last week Nkrumah sent off a delegation to Guinea "to lay the economic foundation of our union." With one nation in the franc area and the other in the sterling bloc, the delegation had its work cut out for it. As for those in London who were hurt by not being told in advance about the merger, Nkrumah's Foreign Minister guilelessly confessed: "At the moment our plans are so vague that consultation would be a waste of time." And Toure's polished young (33) envoy to London, Diallo Telli, said reassuringly that the union of Guinea and Ghana was really just "an engagement. It was entered into with the expectation of marriage. But an engagement does not always lead to marriage."

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