Chapter 18
1. According to Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, ‘After months of studying Gandhi’s policy and watching the effect it had, I began to see that when backed by a strong political organisation, it could be the solution to the colonial problems’.
2. In the words of Ali A. Mazrui, ‘Men in distant lands who study the origins of Afro-Asianism will remember the naked fakir Mahatma Gandhi who helped to shape the doctrine of passive resistance as a strategy of liberation in colonial days; and the Brahmin aristocrat Jawaharlal Nehru who helped to shape the doctrine of non-alignment as a strategy of liberation after colonial rule.’
3. India’s specific objectives in Congo were (1) to secure withdrawal of Belgians from the Congo, (2) to control the armed forces led by Colonel Mobutu and (3) to restore the Congolese parliament.
4. Based on theory of class conflict, the Chinese believed that the armed struggle was integral part of any nationalist movement and that ruling class never abandoned power voluntarily.
5. Such joint ventures were to provide a market for India’s capital goods abroad, earn foreign exchange in the form of dividends and royalties, and create goodwill and mutual cooperation more quickly between India and the countries where investments being made. The government of India between 1964 to 1972 processed and approved nearly 34 joint ventures.
6. The Indian government, setting aside legal niceties, did not waste time in granting recognition to government-in-exile set up by nationalists of Guinea Bissau and also MPLA, Government in Luanda and Angola.
7. During the 1960s, agricultural output and food production increased at the annual rate of 3 and 2 percent respectively. During 1970s corresponding agricultural and food growth rates were placed at 1.8 and 1.5 percent.
8. It has been estimated that about 4 million hectares of African forests are disappearing every year, threatening the resource base on which food production and animal life depend.
9. Africa produces 53 per cent of the world’s cocoa, and 20 per cent ofits groundnuts and coffee, in addition to cotton, sugar, tobacco, most of which are exported. It produces 46, 28, 49, 85, 6 and 22 per cent of world production of diamond, gold, platinum, bauxite, iron ore, manganese, coal and uranium respectively.
10. Nearly 20 African states have total external debt of more than 100 per cent as a percentage of GNP/GDP.
11. The five one-party states are Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Uganda and Swaziland.
12. The transition to democratic rule was disrupted in Nigeria, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Congo Brazzaville, The Gambia, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa).
13. Twenty-eight African states of the total of 53 states consist of numerous minorities, namely Senegal, Gambia, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Benin, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Niger, Togo, South Africa, Malawi, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Guinea, Tanzania, Congo (Kinshasa), Nigeria, Uganda and Eritrea. Fifteen African states are ethnically compact countries with one group constituting more than 50 per cent of total population. These are Botswana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Cape Verde, Sao Tome, Mauritania, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles, Libya, Sudan and Sierra Leone.