Word: congos
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...that independence is a relative thing. It will not be easy for Africa to be completely itself, for no other continent has been so swept by foreign influence. Islam stretches not only across its top, but deep into the south-as far as the lower reaches of the Belgian Congo. Northern Nigeria is as rigidly Moslem as Saudi Arabia, and political meetings in Guinea come to a halt at sundown, when everyone troops out, shucks shoes, and bows to Mecca. Throughout most of Africa the ubiquitous East Indian minority, tirelessly busy at trade and commerce, has also left its mark...
Whites in Salisbury were distressed by the recent bloody riots in the Belgian Congo; last week they found troubles closer to home in Nyasaland. There, when police in the capital city of Zomba tried to break up an illegal parade in honor of the ubiquitous Dr. Banda, a riot broke out in which cars, shops and offices were stoned. In Salisbury, something sprang up called the European National Congress, dedicated to "the unity of the white race in all Africa in the face of the rising tide of black nationalism...
...radio. Later, 4,200 miles away in Léopoldville, blacks and whites heard the same words blaring over the loudspeakers of sound trucks. Lean, spectacled King Baudouin had taken it upon himself to explain in person his government's long-awaited program to give independence to the Congo, that vast land 80 times the size of Belgium, that was once his great granduncle's personal fief. Only a week before, nationalists had been demanding independence in the bloodiest riots Léopoldville had ever known...
...blacks and whites any political voice was over. By the end of the year, the government promised, there would be "freely elected" town and rural councils in addition to those already existing in the big cities. By the end of 1960 new councils would be set up for the Congo's six provinces. Eventually, there would be a house of representatives and a senate to take over the duties now performed by the appointive Governor's Council in Léopoldville and the Colonial Council in Brussels. The government spoke earnestly of wanting to end racial discrimination, reforming...
...initial calm and generally welcoming acceptance of the King's speech in the Congo, many Belgiums feared that their government may have waited too long to make its offer. In Léopoldville Belgian paratroopers still patrolled the streets, hundreds of whites are keeping revolvers handy, and as long as the city's three top burgomasters (all black) remained in jail, disorder might strike at any time. Warned the Gazet van Antwerpen: "With oppressed hearts we wonder whether the people who yesterday stood against each other as enemies will be able to collaborate...