African Spleen

Harmony still eludes the OAU

The African leaders who converged on the steaming tropical capital of Monrovia, Liberia, for the 16th annual summit of the Organization for African Unity boasted, as usual, about the continent's "maturity." After four days of stormy confrontations, however, they could hardly brag about harmony.

Only a common hostility toward the white-dominated regimes of Southern Africa appeared capable of bringing agreement. The internal settlement in Zimbabwe Rhodesia was attacked by speaker after speaker. There was wide support for the Patriotic Front insurgency of Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, but none at all for Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Nonetheless, a majority of black states managed to head off proposals by Libya, Algeria and Ethiopia to recognize the Patriotic Front as a "government in exile."

The Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty provoked an open breach between the Arab states and the moderate black African countries. As President Anwar Sadat delivered an impassioned defense of the treaty as a "long, long path toward peace we have only started," six radical delegations led by Libya and Algeria ostentatiously stormed out of the waterfront conference hall. Once again, the moderates outmaneuvered the radicals: the conference attacked Israel and reaffirmed support for the Palestinians, but did not explicitly condemn Egypt.

Further dispute erupted over Tanzania's invasion of neighboring Uganda, which overthrew the notorious regime of Dictator Idi Amin Dada. Sudan's President, Gaafar Nimeiri, led a prolonged attack against Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, accusing him of setting a dangerous precedent by "taking to the sword" to overthrow Amin. Uganda's new President, Godfrey Binaisa, won some sympathy and a few laughs with his assurances that Tanzanian troops had been warmly welcomed when they "liberated" Kampala. "Our girls made love to them," he said. "What further evidence of solidarity do you want?" But Binaisa followed Nyerere in walking out of the conference when influential Nigeria joined in condemning Tanzania's "treachery."

In the welter of recriminations, sadly enough, a crucial OAU report warning of "impending disaster" for Africa's deteriorating economies was given short shrift. The perfunctory debate over the study, which recommended the creation of a Common Market for the continent, tended to justify a sad remark by Liberian President William Tolbert. Most issues, concluded the OAU host and conference chairman, had been "decisively unaddressed."

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