Pan-Africanist Conference Discusses Neo-Colonialism

Panelists at a symposium on neocolonialism and Pan-Africanism held last Saturday agreed the predominance of western economic institutions in Africa presents the greatest challenge to African unification.

The economic institutions, such as foreign corporations, established by colonialism, tie the African nations' economies to the West in a relationship of dependency, Randy Matory, moderator for the event, said.

"If we unify Africa, we will have the greatest country on earth," Saidu Sowa, a member of the All-African Peoples' Revolutionary Party, told the audience of 50 in the Science Center.

Integration

"Pan-Africanism is the economic and political-cultural integration of all African people the world over," Matory, also an organizer of the panel, said.

Amato Lumumba, daughter of the slain Prime Minister of the Republic of Zaire, Patrice Lumumba, said Zaire is "a paradise for multi-national corporations. Large foreign companies don't have to pay taxes in order to import materials."

While the buying power of the average Zairian citizen is 70 per cent less today than in 1960, President Mobotu Sese Seko, who "serves the interests of the multinational corporations," is one of the richest men in the world, she said.

Lumumba referred to a book by Phillip Agee, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, who disclosed that the CIA recruited Mobotu in the early '60s. Four hundred CIA agents presently work in Zaire, she added.

Siaka Massaquoi, a member of the Sierra Leone Students Association, said Pan-Africanism "is not a new or impossible idea." Massaquoi said unification occurred in the old African empires, adding that when they fell, colonialism began.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association (BSA) and the W.E.B. DuBois Institute co-sponsored the symposium. BSA has raised more than $200 for the Zairean Revolutionary Fund, Eugene J. Green '80, president of BSA, said yesterday, adding he expects additional contributions.

"Pan-Africanism is just beginning on the Harvard campus," Matory said.

"I think this movement will do a lot in eliminating racism. Pan-Africanism aims not at polarization of races, but at unifying people on the basis of an awareness of common historical and cultural heritage and common political circumstance," Matory said.

Belai Tewolde, a member of the Association of Eritrean Students, also discussed neo-colonialism and Pan-Africanism in the Eritrean struggle with Ethiopia