Africa´s Independence Day
> "It has been five years since every year this day of April 15, was decreed to be celebrated as Africa's Independence Day. This day is celebrated throughout Africa. It reminds Us of the struggles for independence during the last twelve months and of our African brothers that are still engaged in the fight for freedom.
> For several years in the past, as must be remembered, a large part of the African continent was under colonial rule. In the course of that time, colonialists have stripped the Africans of their freedom and natural rights, and used their resources for the benefit and prosperity of their own country. Even today, colonial masters speak ill of Africans by exaggerating their poverty in the press. Africans are also blamed for the aid they receive. This aid cannot fill the needs of their peoples overnight. From under such humiliation, Africans rose up to safeguard their right and started to struggle to obtain their independence. This struggle began to bear fruit after World War II.
> The first African Independent States Conference was held in Africa in 1958. The independent states at that time were only eight. Nevertheless, the freedom fight in Africa continued with more vigour and fervour and today the number of independent states has reached thirty two. This is four times the size of those independent countries which participated in the Accra Conference. Last year alone Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Algeria achieved their independence and became members of the Independent African States. Although it had been duly extended at the appropriate time, we will again venture to express our congratulations to these friendly countries.
> In our neighbour country, Kenya, a new political trend is taking shape and elections are expected to be held soon. It is our earnest wish that Kenya achieves independence immediately after the conclusion of a successful election. That Kenya obtains her independence without the dismemberment of her regions is the policy that Ethiopia strongly supports. Ethiopia opposes all those who try to dismember Kenya under the claim of tribalism.
> Congo has been in turmoil after independence. It has been gratifying to Us to see Katanga reintegrated last year into the central government to form a united Congo Republic. We are especially pleased, because Ethiopia has sent her troops to Congo in the name of the United Nations and made substantial contribution to the unity of that country.
> In Central Africa too, political movement is quite encouraging. Under the eminent leadership of Dr. Kamuza Banda, Nyasaland achieved local government under its nationals and the day of her independence is anxiously being awaited in the very near future. It has also been made clear in a recent London Conference that Northern Rhodesia has secured its right of secession from the colonialist-run Federation, and it is fast marching towards independence.
> Meanwhile, the fate of Africans in Southern Rhodesia is in a precarious situation. Many Africans and their leaders are found arbitrarily imprisoned and consequently, the country is in chaos, We will not hesitate to remind the British Government to make use of its responsibility to hand over authority to the African majority so that Southern Rhodesia will also be independent. Until now the British Government has shown wisdom and sound judgment in providing independence for Africans, in a manner constructive and objective.
> The South African racial government apartheid policy has deteriorated instead of effecting leniency and improvement. A large number of Africans, fighting for their freedom, are from day-to-day hauled into jails without due process of law, and are made to suffer under severe conditions. Defying world opinion, breaking international laws and disrespecting the United Nations Charter, the South African government continues practicing its atrocious and odious policy. Nevertheless, Ethiopia will not deny assistance to our brother Africans who live in that unfortunate country.
> We shall not pass without expressing our regret to the Portuguese Government, that the fate of Africans in its colonies has not been up to now improved so as to have prepared them for independence. What We would again remind the Portuguese Government, is to prepare Africans in its colonial territories for self-government in order to curtail heavy blood-shed. Ethiopia will not refrain from endeavouring to assist in finding solutions by which Africans under Portuguese colonies will obtain independence.
> In general, We extend our good will greetings to all our African brethren who are still under the yoke of foreign rule, and wish that their struggle for freedom will bear fruit so that they would be masters of their own fate. Our help will also reach them.
> Finally, We would like to speak about the May Conference of African Heads of State to be held here in Addis Ababa. All the thirty two heads of state in the entire continent have accepted our invitation and expressed their willingness to participate in the Conference. We are specially pleased by the response and co-operation shown by our neighbour sister, Somalia, for her reconsideration to take part in the conference following our recommendation and advice.
> The purpose of this conference is to strengthen African Unity. Since Ethiopia's hospitality is historically known, it is the voluntary duty of every individual Ethiopian to extend the usual courtesies to our distinguished guests who will come for the conference. We entrust, therefore, to you all that each one of you extend the best reception to our honourable guests.
Let Almighty God help us in the fulfillment of our wishes.
> We welcome to Ethiopia in Our name and in the name of the Ethiopian Government and people, the Heads of State and Government of Independent African Nations who are today assembled in solemn conclave in Ethiopia's capital city. This conference without parallel in history, is an impressive testimonial to the devotion and dedication of which we all partake in the cause of our mother continent and that of her sons and daughters. This is indeed a momentous and historic day for Africa and for all Africans.
> We stand today on the stage of world affairs, before the audience of world opinion. We have come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty to the great continent whose two hundred and fifty million people we lead. Africa is today at mid-course, in transition from the Africa of yesterday to the Africa of tomorrow. Even as we stand here we move from the past into the future. The task on which we have embarked, the making of Africa will not wait. We must act, to shape and mould the future and leave our imprint on events as they pass into history.
> We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is essential to the establishment of our personality and our identity as Africans.
> This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Thousands of years ago, civilisations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent. Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous.
> The obscurity which enshrouds the centuries which elapsed between those earliest days and the rediscovery of Africa are being gradually dispersed. What is certain is that during those long years Africans were born, lived and died. Men on other parts of this earth occupied themselves with their own concerns and, in their conceit, proclaimed that the world began and ended at their horizons. All unknown to them, Africa developed in its own pattern, growing in its own life and, in the Nineteenth Century, finally re-emerged into the world's consciousness.
> The events of the past hundred and fifty years require no extended recitation from Us. The period of colonialism into which we were plunged culminated with our continent fettered and bound, with our once proud and free peoples reduced to humiliation and slavery; with Africa's terrain cross-batched and checker-boarded by artificial and arbitrary boundaries. Many of us, during those bitter years, were overwhelmed in battle, and those who escaped conquest did so at the cost of desperate resistance and bloodshed. Others were sold into bondage as the price extracted by the colonialists for the "protection" which they extended and the possession of which they disposed. Africa was a physical resource to be exploited an Africans were chattels to be purchased bodily or, at best, peoples to be reduced to vassalage and lackeyhood. Africa was the market for the produce of other nations and the source of the raw materials with which their factories were fed.
Today, Africa has emerged from this dark passage. Our
Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free
continent and Africans have been reborn as free men. The blood
that was shed and the sufferings that were endured are today Africa's
advocates for freedom and unity. Those men who refused to accept the
judgment passed upon them by the colonies, who held unswervingly through
the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from
political, economic and spiritual domination, will be remembered and
revered wherever Africans meet. Many of them never set foot on
this continent. Others were born and died here. What we may utter today
can add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example,
have shown us how precious are freedom and human dignity and of how
little value is life without them. Their deeds are written in history.
> As we renew our vow that all of Africa shall be free, let us also resolve that old wounds shall be healed and past scars forgotten. It was thus that Ethiopia treated the invader nearly twenty-five years ago, and Ethiopians found peace with honour in this course. Memories of past injustice should not divert us from the more pressing business at hand. We must live in peace with our former colonisers, shunning recrimination and bitterness and forswearing the luxury of vengeance and retaliation, lest the acid of hatred erode our souls and poison our hearts. Let us act as befits the dignity which we claim for ourselves as Africans, proud of our special qualities, distinctions and abilities. Our efforts as free men must be to establish new relationships, devoid of any resentment and hostility, restored to our belief and faith in ourselves as individuals, dealing on a basis of equality with other equally free peoples.
> Today, We look to the future calmly, confidently and courageously. We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free but united. In facing this new challenge, we can take comfort and encouragement form the lessons of the past. We know that there are differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacles to the coming together of peoples. History teaches us that unity is strength and cautions us to submerge and overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive with all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood and unity.
> There are those who claim that African Unity is impossible, that the forces that pull us, some in this direction, others in that, are too strong to be overcome. Around us there is no lack of doubt and pessimism, no absence of critics and criticism. These speak of Africa, of Africa's future and of her position in the Twentieth Century in sepulchral tones. They predict dissention and disintegration among Africans and internecine strife and chaos on our continent. Let us confound these and, by our deeds, disperse them in confusion. There are others whose hopes for Africa are bright, who stand with faces upturned in wonder and awe at the creation of a new and happier life, who have dedicated themselves to its realisation and are spurred on by the example of their brothers to whom they owe the achievements of Africa's past. Let us reward their trust and merit their approval.
The road of African
is already lined with landmarks. The last years are crowded with
meetings, with conferences, with declarations and pronouncements.
Regional organisations have been established. Local groupings based on
common interests, backgrounds and traditions have been created."
> Above all, we must avoid the pitfalls of tribalism. If we are divided among ourselves on tribal lines, we open our doors to foreign intervention and its potentially harmful consequences. The Congo is clear proof of what We say. We should not be led to complacency because of the present ameliorated situation in that country. The Congolese people have suffered untold misery, and the economic growth of the country has been retarded because of tribal strife.
> But while we agree that the ultimate destiny of this continent lies in political union, we must at the same time recognise that the obstacles to be overcome in its achievement are at once numerous and formidable. Africa's people did not emerge into liberty under uniform conditions. Africans maintain different political systems; our economies are diverse; our social orders are rooted in differing cultures and traditions. Further no clear consensus exists on the "how" and the "what" of this union. Is it to be, in form, federal, confederal or unitary? Is the sovereignty of individual states to be reduced, and if so, by how much, and in what areas? On these and other questions there is no agreement, and if we wait for agreed answers generations hence, matters will be little advanced, while the debate still rages.
> We should, therefore, not be concerned that complete union is not attained from one day to the next. The union which we seek can only come gradually, as the day-to-day progress which we achieve carries us slowly but inexorably along this course. We have before us the examples of the USA and the USSR. We must remember how long these nations required to achieve their union. When a solid foundation is laid, if the mason is able and his materials good, a strong house can be built.
Thus, a period of transition is inevitable. Old relations and
arrangements may, for a time linger. Regional organizations may fulfill
legitimate functions and needs which cannot yet be otherwise satisfied.
But the difference is in this: that we recognise these circumstances for
what they are -- temporary expedients designed to serve only until we
have established the conditions which will bring total African unity
within our reach.
What we still lack, despite the efforts of past years, is the mechanism
which will enable us to speak with one voice when we wish to do so and
take and implement decisions on African problems when we are so minded.
The commentators of 1963 speak, in discussing Africa, of
the Monrovia States, the Brazzaville Group, the
Casablanca Powers, of these and many more. Let us put an end to
these terms. What we require is a single African
through which Africa's single voice may be heard, within which
Africa's problems may be studied and resolved. We need and organization
which will facilitate acceptable solutions to dispute among Africans
and promote the study and adoption of measures for common defence and
programmes for co-operation in the economic and social fields. Let us,
at this Conference, create a single institution to which we will
all belong, based on principles to which we all subscribe, confident
that in its councils our voices will carry their proper weight, secure
in the knowledge that the decisions there will be dictated by
Africans and only by Africans and that they will take full
account of all vital African consideration."
> The nations of Africa, as is true of every continent of the world, had from time to time dispute among themselves. These quarrels must be confined to this continent and quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference. Permanent arrangements must be agreed upon to assist in the peaceful settlement of these disagreements which, however few they may be, cannot be left to languish and fester. Procedures must be established for the peaceful settlement of disputes, in order that the threat or use of force may no longer endanger the peace of our continent.
Steps must be taken to establish an African defence system. Military
planning for the security of this continent must be undertaken in common
within a collective framework. The responsibility for protecting this
continent from armed attacks from abroad is the primary concern of
Africans themselves. Provision must be made for the extension of
speedy and effective assistance when any African State is
threatened with military aggression. We cannot rely solely on
international morality. Africa's control over her own affairs is
dependent on the existence of appropriate military arrangements to
assure this continent's protection against such threats. While guarding
our own independence, we must at the same time determine to live
peacefully with all nations of the world."