Letter From Africa

The most important fact about Africa as it enters 1968 got no attention in the news roundups and New Year messages—it is a non-fact in today’s jargon. It is simply that the population has continued to grow faster than the food supplies. So in real terms Africa, instead of growing richer, has gone on getting poorer, the day of famine has drawn that much nearer and restiveness among the people, led to expect utopia-with-freedom and now clobbered by realities no politician can overcome, correspondingly deeper. This trend towards poverty has continued despite some very creditable economic progress by some nations, and despite an undiminished flow of Western aid. It is just that the flow of little Africans has been not merely undiminished, but accelerated, and like a flood overwhelmed much of the economic progress that has been made.

Elspeth Huxley

EH

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Elspeth Huxley

The most important fact about Africa as it enters 1968 got no attention in the news roundups and New Year messages—it is a non-fact in today’s jargon. It is simply that the population has continued to grow faster than the food supplies. So in real terms Africa, instead of growing richer, has gone on getting poorer, the day of famine has drawn that much nearer and restiveness among the people, led to expect utopia-with-freedom and now clobbered by realities no politician can overcome, correspondingly deeper. This trend towards poverty has continued despite some very creditable economic progress by some nations, and despite an undiminished flow of Western aid. It is just that the flow of little Africans has been not merely undiminished, but accelerated, and like a flood overwhelmed much of the economic progress that has been made.

Elspeth Huxley