Sense at the Summit

AFRICA Sense at the Summit

Recently, any gathering of African leaders has tended to be as harmonious as a meeting of magpies. At Addis Ababa last month, eight of the 36 delegations to the Organization of African Unity walked out huffily over the question of seating Ghana's new government. Even such a simple task as forging a united opposition to white-ruled Rhodesia has proved beyond African capability. Pride and pretentiousness are part of the trouble, but last week in Nairobi, where Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta and ten other African leaders sat down to discuss their problems, their goal was sensibly limited and their communique refreshingly modest.

Tense Frontiers. Greeting his guests at Nairobi's Embakasi Airport, Jomo looked jaunty with a yellow rose in his lapel, a fly whisk in one hand and a gold-tipped ebony walking stick in the other. But there was reason for concern: almost all of the guests had grievances with at least one of the others. Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie and Somalia's Premier Abdirazak Hussein were hardly on the best of terms now that raids and murder had resumed along the frontier they share. Burundi's Premier Leopold Biha kept well clear of the Rwanda delegation: Watutsi warriors are still massed on the Rwanda side of his border, threatening invasion. The Sudan's Mohammed Mahgoub has reason to resent Uganda's Milton Obote, who harbors Sudanese rebels. Congo Strongman Joseph Mobutu is no friend of Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, who helped funnel arms to the Simba rebels. Since Tanzania is currently a base for the enemies of Malawi's Premier Kamuzu Banda, the crotchety autocrat stayed away from the Nairobi summit, although he unbent enough to send his Commerce Minister. Of the lot, only Kenyatta and Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda were on good terms with all hands.

Need for Spontaneity. Kenyatta paid close attention to diplomatic detail: antagonists were seated well apart from one another; security guards were watchful but unobtrusive (two were stationed in the attic of Government House); detailed instructions were posted all the way down to the houseboy level. "It should be noted that guests from Ethiopia are partial to good strong coffee," read one notice. The leaders met in Kenyatta's library--the most soundproof room in the mansion. There was purposely no agenda, for, as Jomo said: "That would have deprived us of spontaneity."

Spontaneity there was, as well as some solid thinking for the future. With a total area of 4,000,000 sq. mi. and a population of 100 million, the eleven nations would do well to establish a regional economic federation. In their discussions, the leaders agreed to work toward an abolition of trade barriers between them but recognized that before federation could become a reality, each of their separate economies would have to be considerably strengthened. Simple as that may sound, it was the most sensible decision reached by African nations in many a wrangling month.

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