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FREEDOMWAYS
FIRST QUARTER 1972 

ments in Asia and other parts of the world offer only a partial explanation. In the first place, the United States is among the leading purchasers of African raw materials. Among the raw materials imported from Africa, some of the most important are gold, bauxite (from which aluminum is made), copper, phosphate, iron ore, tungsten, crude oil, diamonds, tin, cocoa, lumber and rubber. Uranium, platinum and other militarily strategic materials are also imported. In addition, while certain of these ores and minerals-such as iron and bauxitecan be found in great abundance elsewhere, it is the prevalence of another valuable commodity in Africa which makes the latter vitally important as a source for these materials: that being cheap labor. Americans who work in the candy factories of Hershey and Co., for example, make more in one hour than the African peasants, who gather the cocoa pods from which it is made, earn in a week. In fact, if African laborers were paid more, American workers would necessarily be paid less; either that or Hershey's profits would diminish, development which is very unlikely, to say the least.
  The United States is also among the leading marketers of finished products, consumer goods in particular, in Africa. Even some American service industries are now operating in Africa. Thus a simple tourist's notebook on American exports to Africa would read as follows: of the six leading gasolines sold in West Africa-Agip, Shell, Standard, Texaco, Gulf and Mobil-four are American (Agip is Italian while Shell is owned jointly by English and Dutch interest). With the Fanta line, as well as Coca Cola and (recently) Simba, the Coca Cola Bottling Company enjoys a near monopoly of the African soft drink market. Time and Newsweek are hawked on the street like peanuts and popcorn by African youth, even in some of the smaller towns of the interior. Listerine is among the leading mouth washes, while Pepsodent and Colgate are the leading tooth pastes. Jeeps, Fords, Mustangs, Chevrolets, International Harvester's machines, Ford Jubilees, and McCormick's machines can be seen in practically every town and village in Africa though U.S. auto, truck and tractor makers have not yet surpassed their European competitors. At the same time, Pan- American Airways is in the process of acquiring Air Congo and Pan- Am's 707 carriers provide service at least twice a week from South Africa in the South to Senegal in the Northwest. Similarly, Greyhound Lines, suffering from the effects of airline competition at home, is now operating in Nigeria where it provides air-conditioned "luxury liner" service (on roads that are hardly fit for bicycles). An American Express or Bank of America Traveler's Cheque is almost as good (and
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