1. May I, at the outset, convey to the General Assembly the friendly greetings of the people and Government of the Republic of Guinea, and to Mr. Belaúnde, on behalf of the Guinean delegation, our warmest congratulations on his election to the important post of President of the fourteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly. The unanimous vote he received is sufficient evidence of the esteem and admiration of the international community for his experience and for the distinguished role he has constantly played in promoting the achievement of the fundamental objectives of the United Nations. To us it is indeed a comforting thought that, under, his eminent leadership, the business of the fourteenth session of the United Nations General Assembly will be so conducted as to give complete satisfaction for all who have placed their faith in our international Organization and, in particular, to the smaller countries and to the oppressed peoples who are fighting for their independence.
2. I am happy to include in these congratulations Mr. Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for the efficient and distinguished manner in which he is discharging the duties of his high office, and also the executive officers of the Assembly and Mr. Charles Malik, the President's distinguished predecessor, whose presidency during the thirteenth session was marked, it will be recalled, by events of capital importance to the African continent as a whole and, in particular, to my own country which, on 12 December 1958, became the eighty-second Member of the United Nations.
3. When Mr. Malik declared the session closed last March [794th meeting], he said that it had been primarily an African session. That is indeed true, for the General Assembly, at its thirteenth session, decided to grant independence to several African Trust Territories, namely Togoland, the Cameroons and Somaliland. It set up the Economic Commission for Africa, which met for the first time at Addis Ababa in December 1958 and January 1959. It discussed at length the horrible war which has plunged the Algerian people into mourning for nearly five years, and a very large majority voted in favour of a draft resolution [A/4075] calling upon France to enter into negotiations with the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic with a view to finding a negotiated, peaceful, democratic and just solution in accordance with the right of the Algerian people to self-determination, It also had to concern itself with disorders provoked by various colonial regimes which continue to perpetrate their misdeeds throughout the African continent and to shock the conscience of the world by their unending violation of the right of peoples to self-determination. After a recess, the Assembly then devoted nearly two months, namely, February and March 1959, to considering the future of the Cameroons under British and French administration. While the result of its deliberations sorely disappointed millions of Africans and is thus partly responsible for the continuing martyrdom of the Cameroonian people, we very much appreciated the willingness of the United Nations to give its special attention to a part of that continent which today remains the only victim of uninterrupted aggression by the colonial Powers. I say this because — and I shall return to the point later — we consider, and shall ask the United Nations to consider, that colonialism in any form constitutes deliberate aggression and a constant threat to international peace and security.
4. This brief summary has covered only a few of the aspects of the considerable work done on behalf of Africa at the thirteenth session of the General Assembly. It is our hope that the fourteenth session will endorse the positive achievements of the thirteenth session in favour of the oppressed peoples of Africa and that it will seek to bring about the application in practice, in Africa as in other parts of the world, of the United Nations Charter, particularly the principle of self-determination.
5. It is already obvious that the opportunity to do so will not be lacking. Indeed, our agenda includes a number of items directly and vitally related to the evolution and emancipation of the African continent. Thousands of anxious eyes are turned towards the United Nations which, in our opinion, represents their last hope. From Algeria to the Cameroons, from Kenya to South West Africa, from Nyasaland to the Congo and Angola fervent hopes are being placed in the United Nations. May this distinguished institution end its current session by fully meeting the wishes of those who ask for no more than freedom, dignity and justice.
6. The delegation of the Republic of Guinea is taking part in the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly for the first time, and it is with a sense of deep feeling that I take the floor to restate publicly the attachment of my country, its people and Government to the principles of the United Nations Charter and to state our views with respect to the important items included in our agenda.
7. A year ago this very day, our people, preferring "freedom in poverty to wealth in slavery", decided, in the name of Africa, in favour of national independence and proclaimed the independent and sovereign Republic of Guinea. That historic choice has had, still has and will continue to have a decisive impact on the henceforth ineluctable and irreversible evolution of an Africa determined, from North to South and from East to West, to regain its freedom. By choosing the path of independence and honour on 28 September 1958, the Guinean people, under the enlightened leadership of its great Democratic Party and its Chief of State, President Sekou Touré, was fully conscious of its duties and responsibilities towards Africa and the international community. It made its historic choice in order to put an end to humiliation, exploitation and domination. It proposes henceforth to be at all times a conscious, dynamic instrument in the cause of African independence and unity and the restoration of its early culture, in other words, of its total rehabilitation.
8. The Republic of Guinea has made great strides during the past year.
9. As far as domestic affairs are concerned, the Democratic Party of Guinea and the Government have undertaken the immense task of completely removing from colonial influence the various structures inherited from the colonial regime with a view to a drastic reshuffling of Guinea's administrative, economic, social and political machinery in conformity with the actual conditions in the country and the profound aspirations of its people. Henceforth, everything will be conceived and achieved by the people. A ruthless war against the vestiges of the colonial regime has been waged at all levels of the national life. In our view, this reforging of institutions, practices, customs and mental processes is essential to the rehabilitation of Africa. In every branch of activity, the Guinean people are replacing colonial structures by new ones adapted to the requirements of our evolution. The basic feature of the new, people's régime of Guinea is the unanimous awakening of the people at every social level and, in consequence, the elimination of the contradictions inspired and exploited by the colonial regime when it pitted region against region, tribe against tribe and clan against clan. The new demands made upon the people of Guinea and the privilege of responsibility have brought about a rapid and complete national reconciliation. It is today unanimously recognized that our people offer striking proof that independence is the only genuine solution to the problems of dominated peoples. Enthusiastically and with faith in the future, the entire population of Guinea is striving to overcome the enormous backwardness in all fields of endeavour that was imposed upon them by decades of foreign domination. Our people, to whom freedom is so dear, are actuated by a firm belief in work, peace and progress. To us, independence has not been an end in itself but a means, a powerful instrument in the cause of African liberation and advancement. By volunteering their labour, by investing man-power, our people have been able, in a few months, to achieve veritable miracles: 8,000 kilometres of roads, over 500 class-rooms, over 1,000 bridges, 3,500 community plantations and fields, 2,500 metres of canals and 8,000 metres of dikes for rice cultivation, 150 dispensaries and as many dwellings, 300 community stores, administrative buildings, markets, playing fields and ferries. These facts speak for themselves. As President Sekou Touré himself said a few days ago at the recent congress of the Democratic Party of Guinea, held at Conakry: "The results achieved in this regard by the people of Guinea are evidence of their firm, complete and conscious determination to assume the entire burden of their historic responsibilities and to use every means and resource as a sovereign people in order to improve their position. By contributing their labour, our fellow-countrymen have realized that they are worth more than money since without it they have been able to achieve a good deal of their social and cultural development programme."
10. The first three-year economic development plan will be put into operation on 1 January 1960. Its main feature will be a sweeping change in agricultural methods designed to increase production. A major task of our revolution is to better the living and working conditions of the peasant classes. Tractors, ploughs, harrows and small plants for the processing of raw materials will materially alter the lot of the Guinean peasant and will help to correct as quickly as possible the chronic imbalance between our needs and the level of national production. The establishment of co-operatives at every level has already replaced commercial trading practices and will henceforth enable the peasant fully to enjoy the fruits of his labour. The establishment of a Guinean foreign trade board will help to adapt our trade to the real interests of the Republic of Guinea. Drastic changes are being made in the major activities of the State such as education, the judiciary and general administration in-order methodically to remove the influences of colonialism. Lastly, an essential objective of the Guinean revolution is the training and organization of youth and the liberation of women from the servile status in which the colonial régime made every effort to keep them.
11. As regards external relations, Guinea had declared, ever since attaining its independence, that it considers itself essentially a part of Africa, intimately bound to it for better or for worse. As a conscious and dynamic element of the Africa whose liberation it hopes to hasten, the State of Guinea has in its Constitution solemnly proclaimed its Willingness to do the utmost to achieve African unity on a basis of independence. That is why article 34 of our Constitution envisages partial or even total abandonment of sovereignty by the Republic of Guinea in the interest of African unity. The people of Guinea are aware that their independence is fragile and incomplete so long as other parts of our continent continue under foreign domination. That is why we have openly declared that our chief objective — and that of all independent African States and all African peoples — is the complete liberation of our continent. It is in the context of our concern for reconstructing Africa over and above all the obstacles Imposed from outside that we are resolved to campaign unremittingly to achieve the only community viable on our continent: a community of independent African States. We believe that a Ghana-Guinea-Liberia Union is an essential contribution to the establishment of such a community. Since the Bandung Conference, whose spirit has inspired our attitude and our struggle for liberation, all the recent African conferences — at Cairo, at Accra in April and December 1958, at Conakry in April 1959, at Sanokole in July 1959 and at Monrovia last August — have clearly propounded the need and urgency for the total liberation of the African continent. hi this connexion, the Government of the Republic of Guinea, in concert with all African Governments and with all African peoples still under foreign, domination, firmly declares from the rostrum of this Assembly that Africa is not and cannot be the extension of any other continent or of any Power, State or ideological system. It intends to be itself. Africa has known successive stages of colonization: first, a brutal and overbearing colonization which used and misused force; then, a colonization which clothed itself in a garment of moral, humanitarian and cultural justification; and, today, a colonialism or neo-colonialism that assumes various forms which are even more dangerous, because they are more subtle. As a matter of principle, we do not make any basic distinction between the various forms of colonization. We strongly reaffirm that we consider colonization per se to be a criminal practice, and, as such, contrary to the United Nations Charted, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the sacred principle of the right of peoples to self-determination. It is, then, Africa, and the oppression it suffers, the ideal which inspires it, and its profound aspiration to independence and unity, which are of central concern to the Republic of Guinea.
12. The historic All-African Peoples' Conference, held at Accra in December 1958, propounded the principle of total liberation for Africa in 1963, and we are firmly convinced that by that time Africa will belong solely to the Africans and will be responsible for its own destiny. We ask all non-African countries to take a stand, to choose. It is time for Africa to know which Powers favour its independence, and which favour colonialism. As President Sekou Touré has declared, "In this matter, Africa has an obligation to itself to refuse henceforth any expression of ambiguity or compromise capable of maintaining confusion for, in the final analysis, it is the African peoples who alone must suffer the consequences of such a stand".
13. An awakened Africa is determined to cease being the pawn of foreign whims, appetites, wishes and interests. Guinea understands, of course, that Africa must not be isolated from the rest of the world, since we want to make up rapidly for our technical and economic backwardness and shoulder our part of the responsibility in the conduct of international affairs. The Republic of Guinea does not choose any one country above another as its partner, or any bloc or ideology over other blocs and ideologies. It seeks the friendship and co-operation of all Governments and all peoples of the world on the sole condition that they respect its sovereignty. Its clear-cut programme of African emancipation is proposed to all, and its attitude towards non-African countries will depend essentially on their manifest attitude towards African aspirations to independence and unity. In order that the success of the campaign for African independence may not be jeopardized, our country’s foreign policy is based on a rigorous attitude of non-alignment and positive neutralism with respect to the antagonistic blocs whose influence at present dominates the world. Let me say very clearly that there is no feeling of hate or xenophobia in this struggle for the reconquest of Africa; there are no other claims except that its people should have the right to live, to repossess the soil and to exercise full control over property, and the right to free and unhampered self-determination.
14. We appeal to the understanding and the support of all peoples and all countries for the rapid achievement of these objectives, and we place the highest hope in the United Nations.
15. The delegation of the Republic of Guinea is happy to note the encouraging signs under which the work of the fourteenth session of the General Assembly has begun. The meetings and important conversations between the President of the United States and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union have been the first indication of a real relaxation of international tensions, and this has been heartily welcomed by all the smaller countries and peoples who wish to see the spectre of war disappear for ever, since they are always the first to pay its cost.
16. We hope that this relaxing of tensions will enable the great Powers and the international community as a whole to tackle the real problems of our time — such as under-development, technological backwardness, poverty, fear and ignorance — in order to build a better and friendlier world. We earnestly desire the coming of a time when the military expenditure of the large and small nations of the world will be used exclusively for works of peace, and we believe that the United Nations provides the most appropriate framework for the fulfilment of this great hope.
17. It is our hope, then, that the United Nations will do its utmost at the present session to accelerate this trend towards a relaxation of tensions. The best way to do this would seem to be to approach the discussion of the grave questions on the agenda in a spirit of understanding and tolerance so that the United Nations may serve more and more not only as a forum where the points of view of the various States are reconciled, but, above all, as the high place where equitable and just decisions of far-reaching importance are worked out.
18. It is this spirit, together with the constant concern to maintain and strengthen the great confidence of all nations in this international Organization, which will inspire the delegation of the Republic of Guinea throughout the present session.
19. Speaking more generally, we warmly hail and support any initiative or effort destined to reduce international tension. We are anxious that the fundamental problem of disarmament, which has an important bearing on the happiness of nations and on economic co-operation, should be effectively resolved at the earliest possible date. We shall fully support any measure which aims to achieve prompt and effective disarmament.
20. Without neglecting any of the problems submitted for our consideration, we should like, in defining our position, to give principal emphasis to those which concern the evolution of the African continent. Whether it is a question of Algeria, French nuclear tests in the Sahara, the future of the Trust Territory of the Cameroons, the question of South West Africa, or the policy of racial discrimination in South Africa, our position will be invariable. On all these questions, we shall support the resolutions arrived at by common agreement among all- independent and unanimous African States. True to the spirit of Bandung, Cairo, Accra and Monrovia, we shall unequivocally repudiate any unilateral solution or dictation, or any attempt to impose a solution by force on any part of Africa. At Sanokole, the Chiefs of State of Liberia and Guinea and the Prime Minister of Ghana, and at Monrovia, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Africa clearly outlined the positions on these problems which we must uphold from this rostrum.
21. With regard to the Algerian problem, it is our view that only direct negotiations between the French Government and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic can bring about a solution to the tragedy which has now been raging for almost five years. The United Nations should take it upon itself to put an end to the atrocious and merciless slaughter of a people whose only crime is that of wanting to live in freedom and independence and who, in any event, will achieve that aim regardless of the cost. It is incomprehensible that the former Chief of the Provisional Government of France, then in exile from the European continent, should today reject the inevitable dialogue with the Algerian Government, in other words, refuse to others now that which he himself claimed so firmly in the past and which was granted to him without bargaining.
22. We must denounce publicly and in advance any policy which would balkanise Algeria in the same way as the former West African federations, which today are divided into eleven embryonic States.
23. This intolerable colonial slaughter cannot be stopped by any unilaterally imposed measure and that is why we, together with all the independent States of Africa, ask the French Government to enter into negotiations with the Algerian Government, the authentic representative of those who struggle, and to put an end to the conflict. We appeal to all the friends of France, its allies and, in particular, the members of NATO, to use the full weight of their influence with France to this end. The present session should, as regards this matter, devote its efforts to facilitating the contacts and negotiations which are indispensable if the war is to be stopped.
24. The nuclear tests planned by France in the Sahara, which have aroused considerable feeling throughout Africa, continue to be one of our greatest causes of anguish. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the untimeliness of such an undertaking at the very moment when the nuclear Powers have deliberately suspended their experiments and seem to be on the verge of reaching a general agreement on the final cessation of all nuclear tests. Africa, which, since the beginning of the colonial era, has so often served as a testing ground for all kinds of human follies, demands that it be spared this cruel ordeal that is completely unjustified. All political, trade-union and youth organizations, all the living forces of Africa, including the African leaders of the French Community who are aware of their responsibilities, have clearly expressed their complete disapproval to France. In almost all parts of Africa, vigilance committees have been formed to alert world opinion to the crime which is being planned. Faced with despair, they will not hesitate, in self-defence, to take any measures which their security requires. Just recently, the independent States of Africa unanimously and solemnly appealed to France to give up its nuclear projects in Africa. France’s only answer was to confirm its intention of going, ahead with the projects as planned. Having thus exhausted every possible means of conciliation, we now lay this problem before the United Nations and urgently appeal to all the countries of the world to remove this nuclear threat to the very existence of the African continent.
25. The Assembly is once again called upon to take a decision on the future of the Cameroons under British administration. It is to discuss the future of the Southern Cameroons and to examine the results of the consultation already held in the North. In both cases, the principal question is whether there will be unification with Nigeria or with the Cameroons under French administration. The African position on this question must also be very clear — it is that true African unity, worked out by Africa in its own interests, will be possible only after independence. In our eyes, any regroupings which are instigated, encouraged or inspired by the colonial Powers are by that very fact suspect. We feel that any people is capable at any moment of taking its destiny into its own hands. Therefore, we hope that our brothers in the Cameroons will very soon achieve their independence so that, in the light of their interests and their desires, they can freely determine the type of association they wish to establish with other African States.
26. We know that economic and other difficulties likely to arise from the attainment of independence are not unsurmountable, but it will be the duty of all friendly countries and especially of the United Nations to afford the Cameroons all the assistance that may prove necessary.
27. We feel compelled to draw the attention of the General Assembly to the tense state of affairs now existing in the Cameroons under French administration. Since the last session devoted to the future of this Territory, a new and particularly serious situation has developed which we feel in duty bound to denounce from this rostrum. Solemn undertakings made in this very Assembly by the representatives of the Administering Authority and of the Cameroons Government have not been honoured with regard either to the amnesty or to public liberties. On the contrary, emergency legislation providing for special criminal courts with excessive powers and for the suppression of free speech has been imposed on the Cameroonian people. The ensuing bloodshed which, for some months, has thrown the people into mourning has, we are sorry to say, been connected with decisions taken in this very Assembly by those who refused to listen to our warnings or to our views on the true aspirations of the Cameroonian people, who are determined to reject at all costs an independence granted and permanently directed by the representatives of foreign interests.
28. In our view, the decision taken by the United Nations on the Cameroonian problem at the last session was ill-advised and fraught with the gravest consequences, and it is a decision which has saddened and which continues to disturb all the peoples of Africa. Suffice it to recall that all the vital forces in Africa opposed, to the colonial system unanimously appealed to the United Nations to defend the Cameroonian people in their rightful claim to independence. The All-African Peoples’ Conference held at Accra last April, the Heads of State of Guinea and Liberia and the Head of the Government of Ghana, and the Conference of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Africa have all agreed on the necessity of holding democratic elections under United Nations supervision in the Cameroons under French administration, before it is given independence. We have felt and still feel that a consultation of the people, provided it is fairly conducted, is the most effective and democratic method of dealing with the present serious crisis in the Cameroons. We appeal once again to all Governments and to the United Nations, which is responsible for the Cameroons until 1 January 1960, to put an end to the explosive crisis which is plunging the Cameroons into civil war. The United Nations must ensure the transition of that country from trusteeship to Independence in peaceful conditions which can only be assured through a complete national reconciliation, and this in turn, in the view of all the African peoples, can best be achieved by an honest consultation of the Cameroonian people before the date fixed for its independence. In making this appeal we know that we are voicing the true feelings, anxieties and hopes of the Cameroonian people whose fate is our only concern.
29. I shall at the appropriate time give a detailed statement of my delegation’s position on the situation in South West Africa and the policy of racial discrimination in South Africa.
30. With regard to the first point, I must say at the outset that we regard South West Africa as a United Nations Trust Territory which should be treated as such. We shall therefore support any effort that will enable the United Nations to fulfil its moral and legal obligations to the people of South West Africa, who have suffered and are still suffering from the most inhuman treatment imaginable. The United Nations should decide once and for all to fix a date for the independence of that Territory, whose plight represents one of the most shocking examples of defiance ever hurled at the United Nations.
31. As for the policy of "apartheid”, which is a disgrace to present-day civilization, international opinion has been unanimously against it for a long time. Since, however, those who have been guilty of this continuous violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter and have flouted the solemn injunctions of those instruments still take their places in this Assembly, and even offer their co-operation to all the African Governments, it is our duty to point out to them they should be more concerned with observing some semblance of respect for the human being, for human rights and for the obligations incumbent on Members of the United Nations. We venture to express the hope, shared by the entire body of international as well as African opinion, that the United Nations will most energetically condemn the shameful and intolerable practices of racial discrimination wherever they occur, and particularly in the African continent. Such a course is imperative if we wish to save our own honour and that of the United Nations and to uphold the immense faith placed in the Organization.
32. The report of the Trusteeship Council [A/4100] and the information supplied by the Powers responsible for Non-Self-Governing Territories will give us some idea of the state of affairs in the different parts of Africa still under foreign domination. There will be, first of all, the succession of embryonic States of the so-called Franco-African Community, concerning which France has just announced that she will supply no further information; after that, the Territories vegetating under Portuguese administration and deprived of freedom by a reactionary system which does not even attempt to cloak its all-embracing colonialism; and, lastly, the tragedies being enacted in Kenya, Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Angola and the disturbances in the so-called Belgian Congo.
33. We shall not have to study the record long to discover the depressing results of colonial activity: repression in the so-called Belgian Congo and in Nyasaland, war in Algeria and in the Cameroons under French administration, ignorance and repression in the Portuguese territories, confusion and disturbances in the States of the so-called Franco-African Community, pursuance of a degrading racial policy in Rhodesia and Kenya, and hysterical exasperation among the partisans of "apartheid" in South Africa. We feel it our duty to draw the attention of the United Nations in a particular way to all these troubled areas where the will of the African peoples for freedom is in conflict with the colonial Powers.
34. As we bow our heads in remembrance of the thousands of victims fallen in battle for the just cause of African liberty, we hail with satisfaction in this Assembly what is in part the outcome of their struggle, namely, the future independence and the entry into the United Nations of the four African States of Nigeria, Togoland, the Cameroons and Somaliland, which will soon be joined by the Mali Federation, whose people and government are completing arrangements for total liberation.
35. We said earlier that we consider colonization in all its forms to be a criminal practice and a violation of the United Nations Charter, a practice, moreover, which constitutes a permanent threat to international peace and security.
36. We would add that, in our view, colonialism is no longer a matter which exclusively concerns the peoples of the colonies and the colonial Powers, but an international question which must be settled on the international level. Since only justice can ward off vengeance, we ask the United Nations to take up the problem and find the necessary solution with all possible speed. We believe that the only true solution is independence. Indeed, we venture to affirm that the question is no longer whether Africa will achieve independence or not, but whether it will achieve it peacefully or by the sword. The question is with the aid of whom, or possibly against whom, Africa will liberate itself, for there is no power on earth which can halt the forward march of the African peoples now that they are resolved to take their fate into their own hands and to organize themselves so as to be able to make their special contribution to the common effort of the nations.
37. That is the message which I have had the duty and honour to convey to you on behalf of the people and the Government of the Republic of Guinea whose one great ambition is to remain faithful at all costs to the cause of total emancipation of our African fatherland for the greater good of the entire international community.