AFRICA: Sunrise on the Gold Coast

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Great Hope. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of Cigarettes who turn to Moscow for answers to their perplexity. But in Africa, Communism is not yet a mobilized alternative, as it is in Malaya or Iran; there is still time. It is in the jubilant, blossoming Gold Coast, and in its hero Nkrumah, that some of Africa's awakening millions see the early light of freedom dawning over the continent. "In Africa today," said Nigerian Commerce Minister A. C. Nwapa in a BBC broadcast, "the sun is rising not in the East but in the West . . ." The Colonial Office agrees: "The Gold Coast is talked about with surprise in Johannesburg slums, among tribes outside Nairobi longing for more land, and in Uganda where men nurse secret grievances and suspect every . move we make. If it fails, a great hope will die in Africa. If it succeeds, then we may begin the addition of a new continent to the political world that can be our friend."

* The Stool, which Ashantis say was plucked from heaven by a priest, has the significance of the Crown in other monarchies. Gold Coast newspapers headlined the U.S. election: EISENHOWER

*Nkrumah's explanation: he carried the card because it admitted him to Communist meetings, which he attended "to learn their technique." He denies that he was ever a party member, and the British believe him. "He's always used Communist technique," says the Colonial Office, "but he's not a Communist in the way he thinks or talks."

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