A Bet on the Future

A crucial question for Africa: Will its nationalist explosions frighten away foreign investment capital? U.S. firms that cannot wait for all the returns to come in are answering the question with cautious optimism. In December, New York's First National City Bank, the nation's third largest, established its second branch south of the Sahara, in Johannesburg. The huge Chase Manhattan Bank has followed suit. Vice Chairman David Rockefeller, 43, just back from a five-week African tour, expects to open up other branches in South Africa. "After that, we will be thinking about moving into the Rhodesias," he said, last week.

"The nationalist movement is the most important single fact in Africa today," says Rockefeller. "But whether a government is managed from the outside or is a local government is not the determining factor in an enterprise's success. Its stability and its attitude toward private enterprise is the important thing." Rockefeller concedes that his firm is taking a risk, "just as there is a risk anywhere you go." It is a risk the Rockefeller family is prepared to take. The Rockefellers, on their own, are putting $250,000 into several pilot projects in new African nations, have set up offices in Nigeria and Ghana to supervise the job.

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