Urgent Warnings
pp. 37-40 · Read in the full issue
For South Pacific
In East Africa
Despatch from R. W. Robson, in Aden.
There is nothing hearten ing for the British South Pacific territories pri marily, Fiji in the record of the British Colonial Office in Mauritius, Zanzibar and
Kenya.
I HAVE had just a quick look at each administrative area, including three days in unhappy Kenya. Pre sent conditions and future planning are—to put it mildly—dismal.
The three areas—two Crown Colonies and one Protectorate —have two common denominators with Fiji.
They all are under the British Colonial Office; and each supports an Indian community so large that the Indians represent a political factor of im portance.
Mauritius, Zanzibar and Kenya are all in process of receiving self rule at the hands of a British Govern ment that seems most stubbornly set on getting rid of the remnants of the British Colonial Empire in the shortest possible time, and irrespective of whether the people chiefly con cerned are yet fit for self-government.
The non-whites, naturally, are bubbling with political excitement, and bristling with a growing impor tance. The whites—whose established interests in these territories are, for the most part, being sacrificed by the British politicians and the Whitehall bureaucrats—are either “giving the country away”, and getting out; or optimistically hanging on, in the hope that the new non-white governments will graciously allow them to stay.
Why Britain's Frantic Hurry?
In my opinion, after talking with dozens of vociferous people, there is little future in these countries for the Europeans, and probably, in the long run, not much for the Indians.
I would say that, in Zanzibar and Konya, the Africans and the Euro peans could have teamed up, to take charge of the future, if the Colonial Office had planned the necessary con stitutional framework—which it has not done. But in those two countries the Africans do seem to be irrevocably
opposed to any political future in close association with the Asians.
In Mauritius, where there is no dug-in indigenous race, the 400,000 Indians seem now to be taking political power, with probably a de veloping challenge against them from 20.000 Chinese and a large mixed community which came originally from French settlers and African labourers.
Conditions in these three East African countries are of fascinating interest for all students of colonial sociology, particularly in view of the extraordinary rapidity of today’s de velopments.
They are of special significance to Fiji, which is about to receive its new constitutional blue-print from a British Colonial Office that already has given, or is giving, self government to its African, Asian and West Indies Colonies with a pre cipitancy that savours of panic. One quick look at these East African places shows what Fiji can expect from Whitehall.
And there is a strong similarity in the thinking (or lack of it!) of White hall, and that of the Australian De partment of Territories, which is showing the same degree of frantic hurry in planning the political future of New Guinea.
Mauritius:
When last I saw Mauritius, in 1955, it seemed a sleepy, contented place, prospering solidly on its annual output of a half-million tons of sugar, its one industry.
Its phenomenally rich lands are owned mostly by some 70 or 80 French families and a mixture of other Europeans, Indians, Chinese and mixed-race.
The industry is worked mainly by Indians (brought in for that purpose after 1834, when Britain freed all the slaves) and by Africans and mixed race. Most Europeans and many Indian and Chinese traders are rich, and the remainder of the Colony’s 600.000 people are very poor. An Indian plantation labourer gets two rupees (about 3/-) per day. The climate is equable, and the island grows an abundance of foodstuffs.
In the last five years, the non- Europeans have become politically organised, and have put pressure upon the sensitive Colonial Office.
The latter responded in 1958 with a new Constitution, under which portion of the Legislative Council (its membership varies according to the number of ex officio and nominated
members appointed) is elected on adult suffrage. Imagine it adult suffrage in a community like this, where two-thirds of the voters are 1 ■!' ui .
Inevitably the usual type of political leader bobbed up to direct the mass of voters; and inevitably Legco became dominated by Socialist members, called Labour Party”, and the happy hunting-ground for the party leaders The great majority ot the Council are Indians, but the Indians are divided between Socialists and Muslims, sharply antagonistic.
There is only a handful of Inde pendents, representing Europeans, Chmese and mixed-race.
Ever since 1958, this “Labour Party”-dominated Legco has kept the pressure on the Colonial Office; and in July the latter agreed to a series of constitutional and administrative changes, which mean that by the next general election (1963) the Colony will be run by a team of Ministers selected for the Governor mainly by the “Parliament” or House of Assembly; and, by the following elections (1968), the Governor will have surrendered most, if not all, of his reserve powers, and Mauritius will be entirely self-governing.
There is much talk about safe guards for property-owners, which
will be insisted upon by the retr Colonial Office administratior my opinion, such things will e worth the paper upon which th< elaborately printed.
This Mauritius population creasing very fast. It now has n< to live upon, except sugar. 1 British influence, Mauritius g liberal sugar quota. Without B Mauritius will have a tough trying to sell half a million toi annum in the world’s over-su market.
To discourage increasing production, and encourage ne dustries, Britain has put an expo of 5 per cent, on sugar; but th; achieved nothing, except an howling against the Governmen That fact, plus the further that Indian communities always into bitterly antagonistic factions sees it in many of these cou around the Indian Ocean), may the natural inclinations of the ebullient “Labour Party” that i: ing charge of Mauritius.
Zanzibar:
Zanzibar is, in many respect entirely different proposition.
Here, the 300,000 population extraordinary hotchpotch of ra Africans, who stepped over froi mainland; Arabs, who seized islands (Zanzibar and Pemba) ago, and held them for centuri colonies and Sultanates; Europe especially Portuguese, who can here around 1500 AD and chaff the Arab rulers; Indians, who d across in their thousands; and f more Europeans, when the B and Germans started colonising part of East Africa.
The territory finally settled about 1890 as an Arab Suit under British protection; an seemed to go along well en under careful British direction, the Colonial Office became domi by the anti-colonial fanaticism c ’Fifties.
Then the old Sultan was persi to allow a small number of el members into his Legislative Coi and in 1959-60 the Colonial ( managed to introduce “refc which brought many more non-oi members into the Legco on an suffrage basis, and gave the I much extended powers in go ment.
That meant general elections trouble developed immediately.
Three political parties begai shape themselves on racial lii Arabs (mostly privileged
property-owners) calling themselves Nationalists; Shirazi, who are Negroes introduced from Persia many centuries ago, and adhering sternly to the Mos lem faith; and Africans, who repre sent the more recent immigrations from the mainland.
These parties could see political power coming to them through the reformed Legco, and they went after it with all they had. A group of Leftists began to yell for immediate self-government.
The Government was rushed into a general election in January last. The Shirazi and the Africans joined forces in the Afro-Shirazi Party. Realign ments of party men after the elections produced a deadlock in the new Legco.
The Nationalists (Arabs) worked for another election, and got it on June 1.
"Racial Hatreds"
There was trickery afoot, and the Africans sensed it; and on June 1 the ancient, ineradicable racial hatreds between Arabs and Africans blazed nit in a series of bloody riots which :ontinued for several days, and were suppressed only when police and soldiery were brought hurriedly across rom Kenya and Tanganyika.
The Arabs won the election and lot nominal charge of the Govern ment; but the Africans murdered at east 100 and wounded 400 of them, ill over the two islands.
I motored around Zanzibar Island, !n a day’s call, and saw no evidence the rioting, except soldiers guard ng some camps of Africans, and a Jozen, wooden-faced young Africans awaiting trial in a city criminal court.
But the old residents are sure that /er y ugly and irreconcilable forces are waiting just below the surface.
Europeans and Indians have not been •ouched in any way; but the Africans surely will attack the Arabs again, ‘specially now that the old Sultan s dead, the new Sultan is sourly anti "es|, and pro-Nasser Arab politicians ue in virtual charge of this so-called JOvernment.
(enya:
* or political maelstrom al *ed Kenya, it is difficult to convey in Y tru e picture in this brief sum nary.
Q<v? e . region was pioneered around m by the British East India Comn Y> and Europeans were actively couraged to settle on the high, cool,
indus"rfes a, oraU a krnd S s‘ abliSh Primary moustnes ot all lands.
British enterprise and money have built a network of roads and railways, the great, deepwater port of Mombasa and—m the last two or three decades—the very beautiful modern city of Nairobi. The mountainous section of Kenya, although right on the Equator, is 5,000 feet up, and a pleasant country for white men; and m J he aSt A° yea ™ have tberp wpS e ™ h n 0 nA e u7 at las * stll P ates there were 30 ’ Jhere. Also, there are in Kenya 100,000 Indians, 24,000 Arabs and over 5 million native A iT Ca i nS ' d u L , • • Under British help and tuition, tens of thousands of Africans have settled in as reasonably efficient peasant farmers.
There was no suggestion of political
UnreS ‘ irl the f C ° ,ony until after the suppression of the Mau Mau terrorist organisation in the early ’Fifties By then, the anti-colonial Leftist agitators of the Western world were making their influence felt throughout thf Dark Continent, and an Africa-for the-Africans movement began in Kenya. S The British Colonial Office has shown here, as elsewhere, the same P a rucky haste to hand self-government to natives who still are at least two or three generations away from the self-governing stage. The promise of self-government based on adult suf frag.e has created here, as elsewhere, African political parties led by the usual types of self-seeking agitators; and the future is heavily clouded over with uncertainty.
It looks as if, in the immediate
future, there will be a generally African Administration, directed by the British; but in the longer view there is no place here for any of the immigrant communities, which in clude Indians and Arabs as well as Europeans.
I noticed that, in Kenya, an Indian political organisation was trying to climb on the African band-wagon.
But Africans generally are not friendly to the Indians. If they push out the Europeans they surely will trample on the Asians.
It is the measure of Colonial obfuscation that, in recent weeks, the British have been encouraging the
African political parties to go and interview the murderous and treacherous Mau Mau leader, Jomo Kenyatta, at Maralal, the place where he was put in exile for seven years, instead of being summarily hanged for his unmentionable crimes.
In Nairobi, a few days ago, British officialdom was whooping with joy, because Mr. Kenyatta had advised the squabbling Africans —they are at each other’s throat half the time— to cease quarrelling, and await events. Quite a section of the people—including Europeans—expect that Mr. Kenyatta will take political leadership (and presently will become president of a
new African republic here ir Africa) when his banishment very shortly.
A couple of days ago Si Welensky—who has been the i ate and highly respected British in East Africa for a long tirr who lately has been officially oi the Iain McLeod school of tho publicly stated that “Kenya stii * ❖ ♦ Wherever I go among people, I hear the most bitte demnation of British gove policies in relation to o matters, and especially of the 1 indecent haste with which Br liquidating her once vast c empire.
Why the panic? they all ask is no need for it.
Now, there is increasing in the Commonwealth; and ( critics) it has all boiled up am shape “since Suez”—that is, si United States prevented BriL France from defending their mental rights at the Eu African-Asian crossroads in 19 forced Anthony Eden out of leadership. They could be rig