|
|
Harold Macmillan
"Wind of Change" Speech
Made to the
South African Parliament
3rd February,
1960
It is, as I have said, a special privilege for me to be here in 1960 when
you are celebrating what I might call the golden wedding of the Union. At
such a time it is natural and right that you should pause to take stock of
your position, to look back at what you have achieved, to look forward to
what lies ahead. In the fifty years of their nationhood the people of South
Africa have built a strong economy founded upon a healthy agriculture and
thriving and resilient industries.
No one could fail to be impressed with the immense material progress which
has been achieved. That all this has been accomplished in so short a time is
a striking testimony to the skill, energy and initiative of your people. We
in Britain are proud of the contribution we have made to this remarkable
achievement. Much of it has been financed by British capital.
As I've travelled around the Union I have found everywhere, as I expected, a
deep preoccupation with what is happening in the rest of the African
continent. I understand and sympathise with your interests in these events
and your anxiety about them.
Ever since the break up of the Roman empire one of the constant facts of
political life in Europe has been the emergence of independent nations. They
have come into existence over the centuries in different forms, different
kinds of government, but all have been inspired by a deep, keen feeling of
nationalism, which has grown as the nations have grown.
In the twentieth century, and especially since the end of the war, the
processes which gave birth to the nation states of Europe have been repeated
all over the world. We have seen the awakening of national consciousness in
peoples who have for centuries lived in dependence upon some other power.
Fifteen years ago this movement spread through Asia. Many countries there,
of different races and civilisations, pressed their claim to an independent
national life.
Today the same thing is happening in Africa, and the most striking of all
the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the
strength of this African national consciousness. In different places it
takes different forms, but it is happening everywhere.
The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it
or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must
all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.
Well you understand this better than anyone, you are sprung from Europe, the
home of nationalism, here in Africa you have yourselves created a free
nation. A new nation. Indeed in the history of our times yours will be
recorded as the first of the African nationalists. This tide of national
consciousness which is now rising in Africa, is a fact, for which both you
and we, and the other nations of the western world are ultimately
responsible.
For its causes are to be found in the achievements of western civilisation,
in the pushing forwards of the frontiers of knowledge, the applying of
science to the service of human needs, in the expanding of food production,
in the speeding and multiplying of the means of communication, and perhaps
above all and more than anything else in the spread of education.
As I have said, the growth of national consciousness in Africa is a
political fact, and we must accept it as such. That means, I would judge,
that we've got to come to terms with it. I sincerely believe that if we
cannot do so we may imperil the precarious balance between the East and West
on which the peace of the world depends.
The world today is divided into three main groups. First there are what we
call the Western Powers. You in South Africa and we in Britain belong to
this group, together with our friends and allies in other parts of the
Commonwealth. In the United States of America and in Europe we call it the
Free World. Secondly there are the Communists – Russia and her satellites in
Europe and China whose population will rise by the end of the next ten years
to the staggering total of 800 million. Thirdly, there are those parts of
the world whose people are at present uncommitted either to Communism or to
our Western ideas. In this context we think first of Asia and then of
Africa. As I see it the great issue in this second half of the twentieth
century is whether the uncommitted peoples of Asia and Africa will swing to
the East or to the West. Will they be drawn into the Communist camp? Or will
the great experiments in self-government that are now being made in Asia and
Africa, especially within the Commonwealth, prove so successful, and by
their example so compelling, that the balance will come down in favour of
freedom and order and justice? The struggle is joined, and it is a struggle
for the minds of men. What is now on trial is much more than our military
strength or our diplomatic and administrative skill. It is our way of life.
The uncommitted nations want to see before they choose.
JACANA HOME PAGE
|
CLASSIC VIDEO CLIPS
|
JACANA ASTRONOMY SITE
JACANA PHOTO LIBRARY |
OLD MAUN PHOTO GALLERY |
MAUN PHONE DIRECTORY
FREE FONTS |
PIC OF THE DAY
|
GENERAL LIBRARY |
MAP LIBRARY |
TECHNICAL LIBRARY
HOUSE PLANS LIBRARY
|
MAUN E-MAIL, WEBSITE & SKYPE LIST
|
BOTSWANA GPS CO-ORDINATES
MAUN SAFARI WEB LINKS |
FREE SOFTWARE |
JACANA WEATHER PAGE
JACANA CROSSWORD LIBRARY |
JACANA CARTOON PAGE |
DEMOTIVATIONAL POSTERS
  |
|