CONFERENCES: Pledging a Tithe That Binds

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the host, grandly declared it a “full success.” Well, not exactly. But by the standards of Third World conferences the first summit meeting of Arab and black African leaders was something of a hit —and a notable triumph for Sadat. There was a lot of predictable rhetoric attacking Zionism, apartheid, colonialism and imperialism. There was also an unexpectedly large concession to the Africans from the Arab oil states: a pledge of $1.45 billion in development aid.

Many African leaders had been irritated that their wholehearted support of the Arab cause against Israel gained them little in either preferential oil prices or cash aid. Earlier, Arab diplomats had flatly dismissed a proposal by Tanzania for $2 billion in Arab aid for black Africa to offset the rising price of Middle East oil. (Only Nigeria and Gabon are major oil producers, and most of their crude is sold to the U.S. and Europe for much-needed hard currency.)

Soon after the Cairo conference got under way, however, Saudi Arabia’s debonair Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, rose to announce that his country was pledging $1 billion in aid to black Africa. Suddenly, other oil-rich Arabs chimed in—Kuwait with $240 million, the United Arab Emirates with $136 million and Qatar with $76 million. Rather like poor relatives embarrassed by the contributions of wealthier family members, even Jordan and Egypt —which is currently negotiating a $450 million loan from the International Monetary Fund—pledged $1 million apiece to help guerrilla organizations in southern Africa.

Israeli officials caustically observed that the Saudis had only itemized how 15% of the $1 billion would actually be spent; it would be a cold day in Ouagadougou, they suggested, before the Africans would see the rest of the Saudis’ money. Perhaps so. But black African leaders enthusiastically accepted the offers at face value and in turn pledged their renewed commitment to the Arabs’ diplomatic campaign against Israel. The conference also enhanced the sense of identity between the two regions. Said Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda: “We are the product of the same struggle against domination and exploitation by foreign interests … In division, we cannot face the industrialized nations on equal terms.”

Cairo Declaration. In the final document, to be known as the Cairo declaration, delegates defined both the Palestinian guerrilla movement and black liberation groups in southern Africa as “joint Afro-Arab causes.” They called for total support of both the Arab “front line” states around Israel and the African “front line” states around Rhodesia, called Zimbabwe by blacks.

On the side, the conference also provided an opportunity for Jordan’s King Hussein and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Yasser Arafat to mend fences. After a ceremonial embrace, the two held their first private conversation in seven years, discussing the need for an eventual link between Jordan and a proposed Palestinian state in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip (see box).

Only seven weeks earlier, Cairo had been shaken by two days of rioting over rising food prices. Last week’s summit, however, took place without a hitch in security. The Kings, Sheiks, Emirs, Presidents and other chieftains (or their stand-ins) from 59 nations, plus leaders of the P.L.O. and several African liberation groups, were quartered in the city’s main hotels. From the Nile Hilton, they could walk across a huge red carpet to the Arab Socialist Union auditorium next door. Battalions of black-bereted Egyptian police lined the roads, ringed the official buildings, and even guarded the Hilton’s roof and stairways. In short, the delegates were protected from everything, suggested a local wit, except the hotel’s mayonnaise.

Big Daddy’s Revenge. Arab and African leaders alike were embarrassed by the conspicuous presence of Uganda’s Field Marshal and President for Life Idi Amin Dada, who at times appeared in full-dress uniform with row upon row of decorations covering his awesome chest. Throughout the conference he was ignored as much as possible, but Big Daddy got his revenge. Just as Syria’s President Hafez Assad was taking the rostrum to speak, Amin temporarily stole the show by speeding off, amid motorcycle sirens, to give a rambling and often incoherent press conference at which he declared, in case anybody was wondering, that he was not on the CIA payroll.

The delegates agreed to set up the nucleus of a permanent Afro-Arab organization and to hold a summit conference again in 1980. Both Uganda and Sudan offered their capitals as the site. Amin’s Kampala is not quite what the Afro-Arabs had in mind. But, as one Arab League official put it, “a lot can happen in three years.”