Hopes & Realities

The dream of independence has many names. In Togo it is ablode, in Rwanda ubwigenge, in Swahili-speaking East Africa uhuru. But by any name the dream often becomes a horrible nightmare in the execution.

Of the 32 African nations that have achieved independence since the end of World War II (25 in 1960-63 alone), more than half have been racked by severe political and economic convulsions, ranging from the bloody civil wars of the Congo to virtual bankruptcy in Guinea to the assassination of a President in Togo. Under moderate leaders like Nigeria's Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Tanganyika's Julius Nyerere, independence has brought stability. Under Red-hot redeemers like Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, it has sometimes brought political repression and financial ruin.

Last week the world's headlines once again were filled with coups and chaos, border clashes and broader questions. Bands of murderous Somali shiftas prowled the wastelands of Ethiopia and Kenya, sniping at trucks and burning police outposts. The Ethiopians retaliated by sending three fighter planes to strafe Somali border posts. Before the latest border incident was over, 58 had died on both sides, and Somalia was no closer to achieving its aim of annexing its neighbors' grazing land.

To the south, in Rwanda, tribal tensions that had been building for decades erupted into murder. In Ghana, where he was entertaining Red China's Chou Enlai, Kwame Nkrumah worked relentlessly toward his goal of achieving a one-party dictatorship. In the Congo, the old bogy of secession once again threatened. And on the 34th day of independence for the clove-scented island of Zanzibar, revolt spilled hopes and blood into the azure Indian Ocean.

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