human
Rex Donaldson, of Nassau, the Bahamas, in the service of Her Majesty's Government and the British Commonwealth. I have no team. Although our tasks are largely similar to those of the African Development Project, we field men of the African Department usually work as individuals. My native pseudonym is usually Dolo Anah.
gpt
I have no objection to such meetings as this. If nothing else, it gives chaps a bit of an opportunity to air grievances. I personally have several and may as well state them now. Among other things, it becomes increasingly clear that though some of the organizations represented here are supposedly of the Reunited Nations, actually they are dominated by Yankees. The Yankees are seeping in everywhere. He looked at Isobel.
human
Yes, such groups as your Africa for Africans Association has high flown slogans, but wherever you go, there go Yankee ideas, Yankee products, Yankee schools.
gpt
What is your solution? The fact is that the United States has a hundred or more times the educated Negroes than any other country.
human
The British Commonwealth has done more than any other element in bringing progress to Africa. She should be given the lead in developing the continent. A good first step would be to make the pound sterling legal tender throughout the continent. And, as things are now, there are some _seven hundred_ different languages, not counting dialects. I suggest that English be made the lingua franca of--
gpt
I introduce myself, Pierre Dupaine, operative of the African Affairs sector of the French Community.
human
Ha! Donaldson snorted.
gpt
Getting the French out of Africa was like pulling teeth. It took donkey's years. And now look. This chap wants to bring them back again.
human
Gentlemen, Gentlemen,
gpt
May I ask if we have a representative from the government of the United States?
human
Frederic Ostrander, C.I.A., he said.
gpt
I might as well tell you now, Crawford, and you other American citizens here, this meeting will not meet with the approval of the State Department.
human
How do you know?
gpt
We've already had reports that this conference was going to be held. I might as well inform you that a protest is being made to the Sahara Division of the African Development Project.
human
I suppose that is your privilege, sir. Now, in accord with the reason for this meeting, can you tell us why your organization is present in Africa and what it hopes to achieve?
gpt
Why not? There has been considerable infiltration of all of these African development organizations by subversive elements....
human
Oh, Brother,
gpt
Just what part of Africa would you really consider part of the Free World?
human
You know what I mean, he rapped.
gpt
And I might add, we are familiar with your record, Mr. Allen.
human
You've made a charge which is undoubtedly as unpalatable to many of those present as it is to me. Can you substantiate it? In my experience in the Sahara there is little, if any, following of the Soviet Complex.
gpt
Then who is subsidizing this El Hassan?
human
That was a matter I was going to bring up before this meeting.
gpt
What's so funny?
human
Please, everyone. Pardon the amusement of my teammates and myself. You see, there is no such person as El Hassan.
gpt
To the contrary!
human
No, please, Crawford said, grinning ruefully.
gpt
You see, my team _invented_ him, some time ago.
human
It came about like this. These people need a hero. It's in their nomad tradition. They need a leader to follow. Given a leader, as history has often demonstrated, and the nomad will perform miracles. We wished to spread the program of the African Development Project. Such items as the need to unite, to break down the old boundaries of clan and tribe and even nation, the freeing of the slave and serf, the upgrading of women's position, the dropping of the veil and haik, the need to educate the youth, the desirability of taking jobs on the projects and to take up land on the new oases. But since we usually go about disguised as Enaden itinerant smiths, a poorly thought of caste, our ideas weren't worth much. So we invented El Hassan and everything we said we ascribed to him, this mysterious hero who was going to lead all North Africa to Utopia.
gpt
I suppose that my team unknowingly added to this. We heard about this mysterious El Hassan and he seemed largely to be going in the same direction, and for the same reason--to give the rumors we were spreading weight--we ascribed the things we said to him.
human
So did I!
gpt
I'm sorry, sir. But there seems to be your mysterious subversive.
human
Then you admit that it was you, yourself, who have been spreading these subversive ideas?
gpt
Now, wait a minute, Crawford snapped in return.
human
I admit only to those slogans and ideas promulgated by the African Development Project. If any so-called subversive ideas have been ascribed to El Hassan, it has not been through my team. Frankly, I rather doubt that they have. These people aren't at any ethnic period where the program of the Soviet Complex would appeal. They're largely in a ritual-taboo tribal society and no one alleging any alliance whatsoever to Marx would contend that you can go from that primitive a culture to what the Soviets call communism.
gpt
I'll take this up with my department chief, Ostrander said angrily.
human
You haven't heard the last of it, Crawford.
gpt
Anybody else we haven't heard from?
human
Dr. Warren Harding Smythe, American Medical Relief. I assume that most of you have heard of us. An organization supported partially by government grant, partially by contributions by private citizens and institutions, as is that of Miss Isobel Cunningham's Africa for Africans Association. He added grimly,
gpt
But there the resemblance ends.
human
I am to be added to the number not in favor of this conference. In fact, I am opposed to the presence of most of you here in Africa.
gpt
You certainly have a right to your opinion, doctor. Will you elucidate?
human
I am not at all sure that the task most of you work at is a desirable one. As you know, my own organization is at work bringing medical care to Africa. We build hospitals, clinics, above all medical schools. Not a single one of our hospitals but is a school at the same time.
gpt
Everybody knows and values your work, Doc, but what's this bit about being opposed to ours?
human
You people are seeking to destroy the culture of these people, and, overnight thrust them into the pressures of Twentieth Century existence. As a medical doctor, I do not think them capable of assimilating such rapid change and I fear for their mental health.
gpt
What is the alternative to the problems I presented in my summation of the situation that confronts the world due to the backward conditions of such areas as Africa?
human
I don't know, it isn't my field.
gpt
It _is_ our field, Dr. Smythe.
human
I understand that the greater part of you are sociologists, political scientists and such. Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think of the social sciences as exact ones.
gpt
In view of the condition of the world, I do not have a great deal of respect for the product of your efforts.
human
We do what we must do, doctor. We do what we can.
gpt
Some years ago I was impressed by a paragraph by a British writer named Huxley. So impressed that I copied it and have carried it with me. I'll read it now.