Conspicuous among Premier Guy Mollet's new Cabinet members was a short, stocky, black-skinned man from French West Africa. Félix Houphouet-Boigny is the first Negro ever to hold Cabinet rank in France. His job: to rewrite the clause in France's 1946 constitution establishing the French Union. His purpose: to save "Black Africa" for France.
Houphouet-Boigny is an avowed enemy turned avowed friend. Ten years ago he had denounced the new postwar constitution as a "betrayal" of De Gaulle's wartime promise of full equality for Black Africa, and launched the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain with the slogan, "Battle to death against the European exploiters!" Formally...
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