White Presence and Power in Africa

Extract

The articles in this special issue are revised versions of papers delivered in September 1978 at the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom conference on ‘Whites in Africa – Past, Present and Future’. The choice of conference topic aroused some controversy. Addressing himself to the ‘Pink ASAUK’, one correspondent enclosed a cutting from West Africa in which news of the forthcoming conference was ominously included on the same page as a report on ‘Freetown's Rubbish Plan’. The writer made two points: ‘Human beings are citizens, not colours or numbers as your hollow minds suggest’; ‘Now that Africa is nearly free from imperialism and exploitation…dishonest intellectuals from British universities are conspiring to draw a new map of Africa.’