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"NIXON DOCTRINE" AND AFRICA OBATALA African countries through these Institutes. One "student" agent from Compton, California, for example, was sent to Ghana from the University of Michigan; another from the Fletcher School of International Law was funneled into Nigeria through the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). American influence in Africa is also exerted through student and faculty exchange programs. Hundreds of American colleges and universities, large and small, have thus been incorporated into the destructive machinery of American cold war politics, while thousands of unsuspecting citizens find themselves serving the interest of U.S. imperialism in Africa. Among the American educational institutions who sent students and/or faculty to the University of Ghana during the 1969-70 school year—when I was there—were the University of California, Michigan State, Oberlin College, Pomona College, Yale and Vassar. The vast majority of these students and faculty members were whites of the liberal-to-conservative middle class suburban types, while the few blacks who came were mostly of the petit-bourgeois "cultural nationalist" types. Neither of these types would touch communism or scientific socialism with a ten-foot pole and are therefore—with few exceptions—merely status quo value carriers. Because of the fact that the African does not understand the workings of our installment-plan-credit-card economy—not to mention the prevalence and significance of middle-class moonlighting and relative poverty—the very presence of such large numbers of Americans with their Travellers Cheques, bell-bottomed pants, tape recorders and expensive cameras tends to affirm in the mind of the African the myth of universal affluence which he has inherited from USIS, and other purveyors of American propaganda in Africa. Aside from that, American students and faculty members in Africa tend to occupy precious space and fill scarce positions which could very well have been given to an African. In addition, Americans sent to Africa, are, in many instances, larger than the number of Africans permitted to enter this country; this was especially true in the case of the University of Ghana, a fact which the chancellor himself made note of in his welcome speech during the ceremonies, which marked the formal opening of UG's "Education Abroad Program." Among the American universities most active in Africa are Tufts, UCLA, and Michigan State, the last, reports have shown, is a stamping ground for the Central Intelligence Agency. It is interesting to note that, before the outbreak of the Civil War in Nigeria, Michigan State in particular had been extremely active in the East. It had de- 65
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-17 07:32:26
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Reopened for Editing 2024-02-17 11:07:03