Book Review: Africa: The Organisation of African Unity and its Charter, the Organization of African Unity and the Congo Crisis 1964–1965
| Author | Robert O. Matthews |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070207002500330 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
661
Only
occasionally
does
Scott
seem
to
be
aware
of
the
frame
of
refer.
ence
within
which
the
United
Nations
had
to
operate.
At
one
point
he
says:
"I
strongly
believed
that
the
finding
of
a
political
compromise
between
the
centralists
and
the
federalists
was
essentially
a Congolese
problem."
This
was
precisely
Hammarskjold's
position.
It
was
why
he
believed
that
the
Belgian
element
had
to
be
eliminated
-particularly
in
Katanga
where,
with the
great
Union Mini~re
complex,
they
dominated
the
army,
the
police,
the
government, and
the
economy.
It
is
why
he
opposed
the
activity
of
the
Western
great
powers
to
ensure
that
their
men,
Mobutu
and
Kasavubu,
would
gain and
retain
power in
Leopold-
ville
so
that
the
possibility
of
a
left-oriented
regime
under
Lumumba
-
Scott
does
not
consider
Lumumba
to
have
been
a
communist
-
be
avoided
at
all
costs.
And
it
is
why
the
United
Nations
played
an
impor-
tant
role
in
the
re-assembling
of
the
parliament
at
Lovanium
in
July
1961
which
restored
Congolese
democracy
under
Adoula
and
why Robert
Gardiner
worked
tirelessly
in the
negotiations
between
Tshombe
and
Adoula to
implement
Tshombe's
pledge
at
Kitonah
to
end
the
Katanga
secession.
In
a
final
chapter,
Scott
has
some
second
thoughts.
He
has
been
highly
critical
of
United
Nations
policy
and
personnel.
Now
"it
was
necessary
to
put
this
great
operation
in
perspective, to
give
some
ac-
count
of
what
it
achieved
despite
its method
of
going
about
things."
The
military
presence
"had a
continuously
dampening
effect
on
outbreaks
of
violence
throughout
the
Congo,
and
helped
the
country
to
get
its
breath
again."
The United
Nations
technical
assistance,
he
acknowledges, did
valuable
work in
matters
of
financial
and
monetary
control,
in
the
main-
tenance
of
health
services,
in
airport
operations,
in
port
rehabilitation,
in
famine
relief
in
Kasai,
in
agricultural
training,
and
in
providing
training
for
several
thousand
Congolese
abroad.
And
in
a
final
paragraph:
"Per-
haps
the
true
explanation
of
the
U.N.'s
inadequacy
in
that
first
year-
despite
all
that
it
achieved
-
is
that
various Security
Council
Resolutions
embodied
conflicting ideas,
because
of
conflicting
pressures
in
New
York,
of
what
the
U.N.
was
to
do
in
the
Congo."
Perhaps
we'll
leave
it
there.
Carleton
University
J.
KING
GORDON
The
Organisation
of
African
Unity
and
its
Charter.
By
ZDRNEK
CER-
VENKA.
New
York:
Praeger
[Toronto:
Burns
and
MacEachern].
1969.
xii, 253pp.
$7.00.
The
Organization
of
African
Unity
and the
Congo
Crisis
1964-1965.
By
CATHERINE
HoSKYNs.
Dar
es
Salaam
and
Toronto:
Oxford
Univer-
sity
Press.
1969.
xx,
75pp.
$2.75.
On
26
May
1963
in
the capital
city
of
Ethiopia,
thirty-one
African
leaders
attached
their
signatures
to
the
Charter
of
the
Organization
of
African
Unity
(oAu).
Previous
political
divisions
were
swept aside
in
an
effort
to
mount a
united
front
against
the
common
enemies
of
colonial-
ism
and
apartheid.
In
exchange
for
their
acceptance
of
the
Monrovia
confederal
structure
that
emphasized
socio-economic
co-operation,
the
To continue reading
Request your trial