The Biggest Bloc

Four months ago, a significant new element entered African politics. Leaders of the moderate French-speaking nations, meeting in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott, formed the 14-member Organisation Commune Africaine et Malgache--the largest single bloc of nations in Africa. Built around the thriving Western-oriented economy of the Ivory Coast and Senegal's traditional cultural leadership of French Africa, the OCAM represents 36 million Africans spread over one-fifth of the continent. One of its purposes: to offset the radical foreign policies of such hotheads as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, create a new moderate center of gravity for the continent's politics.

New Member. It has gone about its task with energy. At Nouakchott, the 14 nations--which had worked together -in looser league since 1961--plotted action against Chinese Communist infiltration, accused "certain states, notably Ghana," of subversion and, for the first time, called for support of Congolese Premier Moise Tshombe in his battle against the Simbas. Last week a majority of the nations met again, in the Ivory Coast's capital of Abidjan, to carry on the job.

Their first step was to vote full membership to a new applicant: Moise Tshombe, who despite his success in the difficult job of restoring order to the Congo had long been shunned in the councils of Africa. And when Tshombe entered the conference hall, his newfound friends rose from their seats and cheered. Beaming, Tshombe replied: "After four years of anarchy, the Congo sees a future that promises peace and happiness, thanks to your aid. The rebellion is over. All I can see is the socalled insurgent chiefs living abroad in hotels and acting like kings."

That struck a responsive chord, and Africa's former French dependencies played it repeatedly, with particular focus on the futile firebrand of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. Charging that Nkrumah has bankrupted his nation for his own political ends, Upper Volta's President Maurice Yameogo drew cheers with his acid observation that "in Ghana you have to stand in line nowadays to buy a box of matches." Should Nkrumah lead a Pan-African government? Chortled Yameogo: "How can he expect to extend that to the rest of Africa when he has lost the allegiance of his own people?"

Passe. The sophisticates of OCAM voted to boycott the September meeting of African chiefs of state because it is to be held in Ghana. They will also stay away from this month's important Afro-Asian summit meeting in Algiers. "We consider Afro-Asianism a little passe," Senegal's respected President Leopold Senghor declared. Added President Philibert Tsiranana of the Malagasy Republic: "Especially if it means Chinese subversion in our countries."

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