Rule for Freedom

Freedom is a magic word in Africa, where 17 new nations have obtained their freedom from colonial rule in 1960 alone. But unhappily, national freedom has not meant individual freedom under law. Individual Africans have often found that they have exchanged the old tyranny of their white rulers for a new tyranny imposed by their own native masters. In fact, some of the continent's shrillest crit ics of colonial oppression have become oppressors in their own right after achieving independence. Under the sponsorship of the International Commission of Jurists, a nucleus of African lawyers, jurists and teachers met in Nigeria's capital city of Lagos in a conference designed to impress native African leaders that true freedom can only be achieved by guaranteeing the individual his personal rights under a rule of law.

The problem is enormous and acute. In all Black Africa, there are only 1,500 native lawyers, and more than half of them are in Nigeria itself. The commission could not find a single native lawyer in the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. In many areas, even the concept of law has not penetrated--only a few months ago, Congolese tribesmen slaughtered nine Irish soldiers in a U.N. contingent, reportedly carved up their bodies to make magic potions. The Congolese delegation consisted of three young law students at the University of Lovanium, comprising the country's entire legal profession.

Shaped Trappings. But other new states have taken over the trappings of Western legal institutions and bent them to their own autocratic purposes. Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah has used a Preventive Detention Act to jail any opponent who gets too obstreperous. His docile legislature passed it; his cowed judiciary enforces it. Sekou Toure has forged Guinea's courts into an instrument of political power on the model of the Communists' people's courts, has jailed hundreds of Guineans whose only offense was to criticize him.

In Lagos, the assembled jurists reiterated a basic principle of democratic freedom under law: all states are or should be subject to the law, all governments worthy of the people's confidence should take as their premise the protection of the rights of the individual. "Fundamental human rights, especially the right to personal liberty, should be written into and entrenched in the constitutions of all countries."

The conference did not spare its criticism of such white offenders as South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, both of which have catchall laws under which any African can be packed off to jail on any handy pretext. But the conference's chief target was the new black rulers who are still shaping their young nations.

Something to Cite. Most of all, the conference had given the scattered African lawyers a new sense of solidarity and backing. Said one delegate: "I'd be crucified for speaking my mind back home by myself, but now I'm armed with a document to prove that there are others all over Africa who agree with me that the rule of law is a necessity to the truly free societies we deserve on this continent."

Added Charles S. Rhyne, former president of the American Bar Association and a longtime crusader for world law, who attended as an observer: "In a continent where illiterate populations are largely governed by unwritten tribal and customary law, enforced by illiterate chiefs and elders, there is more need for a rule of law than ever. It is vital to educate governments to the necessity of allowing opposition to exist as part of the rule of law. The conference statement of principles gives both lawyers and political opposition something to cite and something to work with."

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