Ready or Not

(See Cover) It was the biggest African political rally in Nairobi's history. Under the hot sun, 20,000 blacks packed into African Stadium, sang and chanted as they waited for the returning hero, just back from London.

Then a mighty roar went up, and there came Tom Mboya on the shoulders of his excited supporters. Around his shoulders was a black skin cape. The sleepy eyes danced with pleasure, and a grin split the gleaming, satin-smooth black face.

With a wave of his fly switch, Tom brought the throng to sudden silence. "My brothers," he cried, "today is a great day for Kenya. When we left for London, the government was in the hands of the Europeans. Now it is we who can open or close the door. Kenya has become an African country!" With one voice, the crowd roared "Uhuru!" (Swahili for freedom).

"Whose Kenya is it?" shouted Tom. "Ours!" shrieked 20,000. Now the mob's chant was in throbbing rhythm. "Are you tired of asking for freedom?" asked Tom. "No!" came the resounding answer.

As he left the stadium, thousands followed, pressing around his open Land Rover, which led the way toward the African locations. Alarmed, the police read the Riot Act through a loudspeaker, hurled tear-gas bombs, and advanced in a baton charge, finally dispersing the crowd in a hail of stones. But all that night in the dark streets of the African sections, the familiar cry echoed: "Uhuru!"

Sleepers Awake. In Nigeria, the cry was "FreeDOM!" and the Congolese yelled " 'depenDANCE!" Whatever its label, the spirit of self-rule was sweeping at gale force across Africa, last of the continents to awaken from the sleep of centuries.

On Africa's broad western bulge facing the Atlantic, freedom is already established or imminent almost everywhere. There, independent Ghana, Guinea and Liberia will soon be joined by the rest of France's fragmenting African empire. At least seven new sovereign African states will come into existence in 1960. First on the timetable was Cameroon; soon to come: Togoland, the sprawling, wealthy Belgian Congo, the Mali Federation of Senegal and French Sudan, little Somalia, and Madagascar. On Oct. 1, the 35 million people of Nigeria, most populous of all, will get formal independence. By year's end, 180 million of the continent's 240 million people will be under black rule.

For Africa's 5,700,000 pioneering whites, it is a time of foreboding and doubts. "But are they ready for independence?" is the common question. A.D. 1960, the Africans have a quick and emphatic reply: Here we come, ready or not.