AFRICAN PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 January 1939, Page 3

AFRICAN PROBLEMS

SOLUTION OF IMPORTANCE TO THE WORLD.

Three reasons why special attention should be given at the present stage to Africa’s problems were advanced by Lord Hailey, director of the African Research Survey, in a recent broadcast talk. “In the first place,” Lord Hailey said, “the claims of Germany for the return of her former colonies have brought Africa directly into' the forefront of European’ politics. In. the second place, Africa is no longer ‘the dark continent,’ cut oft from’ Europe and the rest of .the world. It has become a projection of Europe. There is no part of Africa, except Egypt and Liberia; in which development is not today controlled by one or another of the European peoples. Thirdly, Africa has reached a critical point in its development. It is possible to exaggerate the economic value of colonies to the European powers; but it is not easy to exaggerate the importance to the world of the experiments that will be made in the next 20 years in this great living laboratory. The work of governments no longer consists in putting down tribal warfare, or protecting Africans from exploitation by European employers, or opening up means of communication. What is of chief importance now is to know what kind of superstructure the different governments are creating. We want to know what their system of education aims at, and what type of social and political institutions they expect to establish. We want to know in short what kind of African is expected to emerge at the end of it. The need for special consideration at this stage lies in the fact that the policies adopted now will be decisive in the development of Africa for many generations to come.”