GUM OF MECAlS LIBERATION STRUGGLE - KORA

I
Foreword
have known George Houser for a long time, and through him the
American Cornmi- on Africa. We first met in the rgsos, when I
went to the United Nations as a "Petitioner" seeking support for the
independence smuggle of my country, which wss then the United Nations
TflDSt Territory of Tvyika administered by the United Kingdom.
On my first visit to the United Nations the U.S. government gave me a
peculiar visa, wbicb was *of very short duration and limited me to a
specified radius from the United Nations Headquarters! It was George
Houser who induced me to people who supported the African anticolonial
struggle. Through him I learned that not all American people
acquiesced in deckions of the American government, which seemed to us
to be backing up Tanganyika's government at that time-that is, the
British colonial power. Indeed, through him and his colleagues in the
ACOA, I was able to rnake contact with many sympathetic Americans,
including politicians. I got a practical insight into American democracy at
work and its openness.
To George Housw and his colleagues I must in the 1950s have been just
one among many African leaders from the different colonial territories of
Africa. But each of us was received with friendship and respect- not
unimportant matter, especially in those days when racial discrimination
was a common expesience in the colonial countries. AU of us who came to
the United Nations or the United States during our campaigning for
independence received help and encouragement from the ACOA.
As far as I know, the committee had no money to give us nationalist
leaders, but that was not what we wanted, either for ourselves or our
parties. What it gave us was a knowledge that we were not alone in the
world, that on the contrary our demand for independencc bad sympathy
and support in a very powedid country. W1th ACOA members and friends
we could sometimes talk over political probfems arising; during the struggle
and gain a new pmptive on them. And from them we could rely
upon a continuing educational process within the United States itself-about
colonialism, about Africa, and about the independence movement.
They were a small group, without resources to break into the news media.
But they went quietly forward, and they did gather political support for
our CBUW.
This work has continued. Since the 1950s I have met George Houser
many times, usually in Africa. From my colleagues in other countriesthose
who are now leaders of their nations and many others who played an
honourable part in the independence struggIes+I know that George and