GUM OF MECAlS LIBERATION STRUGGLE - KORA

The Gathering Rain Clouds
but there was an open drainage ditch, where much of the waste was only
too obvious to eye and nose.
Sambou also took me to the island of GoriSe, just a 13-minute launch
ride from the mainland. Originally settled by the Portuguese, it had a fort,
and it changed hands with each conquering European power-Dutch,
English, and finally French. As with many other forts along the west coast
of Africa during the slave trading era, slaves were imprisoned there before
being shipped across the ocean. The dungeons I saw were a bitter re-
minder of days gone by.
In Dakar I felt no vivid stirring of an Afrir#n nationalism. Sambou
thought of himself as a Frenchman and was in fact a atizen of France. I
talked with the African mayor of Dakar, Lamine Gueye, a Sodalist, who
was not unhappy with the idea of independence in a French union. I also
met Boissicr Palun, president of the Grand Council of French Wkt Africa,
who reficcted similar indeas. At Radio Dakar I met Doudou Gueye, who
had been active in the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA),
which was strongly nationalist. At the height of its popularity the RDA
had g out of 20 seats reserved for French Wkst Africa in the Paris
Assembly and 7 out of 40 in the Dakar Grand Cound. But by 1954 it was
in eclipse. Gueye had in fact served nine months in jail for his activities.
I gathered that the African people really wanted independence but
would not have objected to having it within the French Union. They
wanted compIete economic equality. They wanted to see African officials
in high positions. And they wanted these changes more rapidly than the
French would grant them. The people thought of themselves as black
Frenchmen to some extent. This lesson was drummed into them in school.
Still there was an African nationalism not satisfied. They saw the dif-
ference in economic standards and where the real power was.
LIBERIA
What a contrast Liberia was m Senegal! After leaving Dakar, I spent most
of a week in and around the capital, Monrovia. Instead of having a French
atmosphere, it was American. I had a momentarily embarrassing clrperience
when I changed money in a bank. When I handed the teller U.S.
m c y and asked for Libuian money, he gave me a blank stare and then
very kindly informed me that it was the same currency. I felt my face turn
d under my sunburn.
The Constitution of tiberia is patterned after the U.S. Constimaon.
English is the official language. The flag is similar to the American Bag
except that it has I star and 11 stripes, which stand for the r r signers of
their Declaration of Independence of 1847. The economy was dominated
by two U.S. companies, Firestone Rubber and Republic,- The capital
is named for the American President James Monroe.
The settlers who came to Liberia were ex-slaves sponsored by the