Annual Report of the Executive Director

Contents: The Year in Retrospect • Activities of the American Committee on Africa • 1. South Africa • 2. Nkrumah Dinner • 3. All African People's Conference • 4. Kenya African Elected Members Defense Effort • 5. Portuguese colonies • 6. Status of South West Africa • 7. Recognition of the Republic of Guinea • 8. Meetings • 9. Speakers • 10. Speaking Dates • 11. Literature • 12. Students • 13. Tax Exemption • 14. Mailing List and Mailings • 15. Finances • 16. Organizational Subcommittees • 17. An Appraisal of the Year • In 1958, African nationalism grew, paving the way for new countries to become independent in 1960. In April, the first Conference of African Independent States met in Ghana. In French Africa important conferences were held in Bamako and Cotonou, where the hope to establish a federation was expressed. Non-governmental representatives from Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, Nyasaland, and Zanzibar met in Tanganyika; the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa was set up. The report mentions the referendum on the De Gaulle constitution, the Economic Commission for Africa, deteriorating relations of Africans and Europeans in the Central African Federation, Sir Roy Welensky, Rhodesia, Nyasaland, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Information Agency, position of the African-Asian countries at the United Nations on the Algerian question, apartheid, Dean Erwin N. Griswold (Harvard Law School) attended the treason trial, Sidney Hillman Foundation, Mary-Louise Hooper (representative of the Defense Fund on the West Coast) raising funds for the Treason Trial Defence Fund, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah dinner (cosponsored by ACOA, National Urban League, and NAACP), four ACOA delegates to All Africa People's Conference (Frank Montero, William X. Scheinman, Homer Jack, and George Houser), Richard Sklar (a Ford Fellow), State Department officials, members of Congress, organized labor, Tom Mboya, Legislative Council in Kenya, ACOA document arguing that Portugal violated the U.N. Charter by failing to report on its non-self-governing territories, Professor Marvin Harris (Columbia University) paper on labor and education in Mozambique, ACOA delegation meeting with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs Walter N. Walmsley before his participation in a U.N. Mission to South Africa to discuss South West Africa and keeping it under the trusteeship system (also represented in this meeting were the International League for the Rights of Man, Episcopal Churchmen for South Africa (ECSA), American Association for the United Nations, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, United Auto Workers (UAW), Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), and Friends Committee on National Legislation), President Sékou Touré, President Eisenhower, Secretary of State Dulles, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs J. C. Satterthwaite, Professor Julius Lewin (University of Witwatersrand), Archbishop Joost de Blank of Cape Town, meeting at the Community Church of New York about South Africa, reception for Prime Minister of French Togoland Sylvanus Olympio, meeting at Carnegie Endowment International Center (with Michael James (New York Times), M'hammed Yazid (Algerian National Liberation Front- (FLN), and Hans Kohn (City College)), ACOA arranged for two South Africans who had multiple speaking engagements - Violaine Junod (University of Natal) and Ronald Segal (Africa South), W.M. Chirwa, Africa Today, Lorna Hahn (Temple University), Africa-UN Bulletin, Elizabeth Landis, Africa Bureau of London, South African Institute of Race Relations, African students studying in the U.S., Dale Harrison, appeal of tax exemption denial with assistance of William Landis and Mudge, Stern, Baldwin and Todd.