NO LONGER PROSELYTIZER'S PARADISE - Independence in Africa has left the missionary far behind. While there are more missionaries in Africa now than ever before, they have less influence, power and privilege than ever before. Their great day is over. When missionaries first came to Africa in the 19th century, hacking their way through the brush in tse-tse fly and malaria country, the continent seemed to them a proselytizer's paradise - millions of black heathens wallowing in darkness, awaiting the light of western Christianity. Missionaries rushed in with light. In doing so, they often became the vanguard of imperialism. Missionary demands and needs were influential in persuading European powers to grab chunks of land in the scramble for Africa at the turn of the century. In later colonial days, missionaries dispensed the magic that enabled some Africans to adjust to the ways of the Europeans...

Bank Nationalization Political Rather Than Economic Measure, Nyerere Admits - President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania said he believes the U.S. government understands Tanzania's new march toward socialism - even though it includes nationalization of the banks. In an interview with The Times Friday, he said: "I don't know about the American people. But I know the U.S. government understands what is going on here. And all I ask from the big powers is understanding. Whatever else they give me is surplus." Asked why it matters that the United States understand him, Nyerere laughed and replied: "It matters because we are a little country and the United States is a powerful country. If the United States decided we were going over to the Chinese Communists, it could put a stop to what we are doing here. I know that." Nyerere revealed that he is receiving more than understanding from the United States...

The furore in Kenya over former American Ambassador William Attwood's book on Africa is less important than the forces that fanned it. Since Attwood's "The Reds and the Blacks," was published in the United States, the book has been denounced by the vice president of Kenya, the attorney general, the minister of agriculture, the country's ruling party, the opposition party, the new American ambassador and the editors of Nairobi's two main English-language newspapers. The chief complaint, in the words of Vice President Daniel Arap Moi, is that the book "outrages every code of personal and diplomatic good faith." Kenya officials are angry because Attwood repeats private conversations they had with him when he was ambassador to Kenya from 1964 to 1966. Attwood's successor, Ambassador Glenn W. Ferguson, believes this has made his job extremely difficult; Kenyans won't trust an American ambassador any more...

Attwood Accused of Violation of Ethics and Error in Judgment That May Hurt U.S. - In a rare moment of diplomatic family feuding in public, the American ambassador to Kenya Tuesday accused his predecessor, William Attwood, of a violation of ethics and an error of judgment for writing a book on Africa that may hurt the United States. The accusation by Ambassador Glenn W. Ferguson reflected the bitterness both in the Kenya government and in the U.S. Embassy here over the speed of Attwood in publishing his book, "The Reds and the Blacks," less than a year after he left the foreign service to become editor-in-chief of Cowles Communications, the publishers of Look magazine. On Sunday, for example, Kenya Attorney General Charles Njonjo said Attwood was guilty of "a of faith and confidence" for reporting his private conversations with Njonjo in the book. Njonjo said he would now be suspicious of diplomats. That suspicion, Njonjo said, would make the work of Attwood's successor, Ferguson, more difficult...

African Nation Believes Attention Can Block Somali Republic Aid to Guerrillas - Unlike most African countries, which like to pooh-pooh internal troubles, the government of Kenya is trying to end a guerrilla insurrection in the north by telling the world about it. Kenya believes that the guerrilla movement would disintegrate without help from the neighboring Somali Republic. Through an intense publicity and diplomatic campaign, Kenya hopes to pressure the Somali Republic into withdrawing its support from the guerrillas. That is why Kenya issued a white paper last week detailing four years of bloodshed in the northern frontier district, a desert wasteland that makes up one-fourth of the country but has only 200,000 people. At the same time, Kenya notified the United Nations that it may have to use its "inherent right of self defense" to halt what it called Somali aggression. More than half the people who live in the northern frontier district are nomads of Somali descent. For this reason, the Somali Republic looks on the Kenya district as a lost territory...

Charges Aggression on Northeast Border in White Paper Issued to U.N. Members - The Kenya government threatened war Tuesday if that is the only way to stop what it called aggression by the Somali Republic on the northeast border of Kenya. The threat came in a white paper issued by the Kenya government and distributed to every member of the United Nations. In the paper, Kenya said it was giving preliminary notice, under the United Nations charter, of its "inherent right of self defense" against aggression. With the threat, the long and bitter battling in Kenya's northern frontier district took a new turn. Until recently, Kenya has treated the fighting as a police action against what it called Shifta bandits. These were described as Somali inhabitants of northern Kenya in rebellion against the government...

But Outsiders Give Three-Man Panel of Presidents Little Chance to Succeed - Three African presidents will try this week to salvage the East African Common Market, once a proud symbol of African unity, now a harsh case study of the pitfalls and problems of economic union. Although official statements have brimmed with optimism lately, most outsiders here believe the presidents of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have only a slight chance to succeed. At the most, the presidents are expected to sign a treaty cooperation that will proclaim continuation of the market while loading on enough restrictions to make it unwieldy or even unworkable. However, the presidents are expected to continue the East African Common Services Organization. Under this organization, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda share railways, postal services, an airline, research institutions, harbor management and other services...

African military rulers envision themselves as selfless soldiers working crisply and cleanly to lift their countries out of the morass of dirty politics. Unlike politicians, who must cater to petty interests in petty places, the soldiers believe they serve a higher code, a military code that puts honor and nation above self. The keynote for this was set by Lt. Gen. J.A. Ankrah, military ruler of Ghana, in early January when he welcomed the young officers who run Nigeria's federal government and four regional governments to a mediation conference in Aburi, Ghana. "We are soldiers," Ankrah told them, "and soldiers are always statesmen, not politicians." This is a myth, a foolish, fanciful, frivolous myth, and nowhere is it better demonstrated than here in Nigeria, a country ruled by soldiers now for 15 months. The soldiers are younger, more honest, more idealistic and more inexperienced than the politicians who came before, but they are pushed and shackled and inspired by the same political needs and demands, and they react in much the same way...

Hope for Return to a Strong Central Government Dim Due to Lack of Trust - It is a drab, thin strip of poster with four faces drawn on it and a few printed words, yet it tells all there is to know about the torment and tragedy of today's Nigeria. The poster presses against the window of most stores and offices in Enugu, the capital of Eastern Nigeria. Distributed by the Eastern government, the poster shows the faces of three men from the Ibo tribe, dominant tribe of the East. Just a few inches away is a fourth face, obviously a Hausa man from the Northern region. "This is your region," the poster says. "Report any strange face to the police." Tribal identity and tribal hatred overwhelm Nigeria. Nigerians no longer see each other as individuals, but as poster-drawn stereotypes of one tribe or another. The feelings are similar to those in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, or in Israel after World War II or in the Deep South after the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation. Hatred and distrust are racial and communal...

Petroleum Companies Put in Middle of Possible Economic Blockade or Civil War - Lt. Col. C. O. Ojukwu, the military governor of eastern Nigeria, a young man with a boyish face and a grizzly beard, smiled mischievously as he answered a question about oil and the Nigerian crisis, "The oil companies... poor chaps," he told his news conference in Enigu this week, "I feel very sorry for them because they are very likely be used as a Ping-Pong ball." The governor speaks of oil with authority. His father, the late Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu, was on the board of directors of the Shell-B.P. Petroleum Development Co., which produces 85% of Nigeria's oil. Nigeria is the fastest growing oil producer in the world with enormous potential both in quantity and, because of low sulphur content, quality...

Natives Are Confident, Ask No Outside Advice in Africa's Most Populous Nation - Nigerians may be at civil war soon. But does that matter? In an era when the news from Africa seems full of endless coups and rebellions and tribal massacres, why fret about another crisis? The answer is that everything about Nigeria matters. A case for the significance of Nigeria can be made on size, geography and resources. With 56 million people, it is the most populous country in Africa. The third largest country in size, its two ports of Lagos and Port Harcourt can command the Gulf of Guinea and its coast is the outlet for the 2,600-mile Niger River that flows through Guinea, Mali and Niger. Furthermore, it has suddenly become the 10th biggest oil producer in the world. But I am not talking about any of these cold facts when I say that Nigeria matters. Nigeria matters because Africa matters greatly in international affairs, and the ability - or inability - of Nigeria to reconcile its feuding tribal people will weigh heavily in the way Africa goes eventually...

Barricaded Ibo People Fearful, Angry; Prepared for Secession or Civil War - Logic may prove that civil war is impossible and unthinkable here, but logic means very little in Nigeria these days. Emotion reigns. Fear and bitter pride count for almost everything. The great cause of the present crisis is not political nor economic but psychological. The Ibo people were struck a shattering, murderous blow last year when thousands of them were massacred in the northern region of Nigeria. Most Ibos have fled home to Ibo land in the eastern region and barricaded themselves against the rest of Nigeria, So fearful and angry that they seem truculent, the Ibos distrust the federal government and want near-autonomy for their region. They are prepared, psychologically, for secession or even civil war...

The angry young men of Nigeria seem tired and subdued these days and not so young anymore. Five years ago, when I visited Lagos, they rushed from nightclub to nightclub, dancing the highlife and drinking and complaining, shouting abuse at politicians, accusing them of corruption, greed, nepotism, ignorance, inefficiency, sloth, lethargy. Their anger had excitement. One young man would pace back and forth and flap his arms in anguish over the sickness in his government. Their frustration was dramatic. "I am an angry young man," one told me, slamming his fist into his palm, "but I do not know what to do." When their frustration mounted, they would grow quiet and bitter, and talk vaguely about plots. Some day, they whispered, the army would put an end to all this...

Governor Says He's Pessimistic About Settlement - Maintaining "the grip around our throat is almost complete," the military governor of eastern Nigeria warned that his region is very close to secession from the Federation of Nigeria. The governor, Lt. Col. C.O. Ojukwu, spoke in soft and measured tones that rang now and then with sarcasm as he told newsmen he is pessimistic about any chances for a peaceful settlement of the Nigerian crisis. He said the federal government has rejected his suggestion for a mediation conference before four African heads of state - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, President William Tubman of Liberia, Lt. Gen. J.A. Ankrah of Ghana and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. He said such a conference was the last hope for a settlement. "If it is impossible," Col. Ojukwu said, "Then I think my worst fears will be realized. I believe it has the only chance of getting us together. If that chance is lost, then the whole business is finished, and a split is inevitable..."

While visiting remote villages of Senegal, I have rarely seen a photograph of Leopold Senghor. Almost no one mentions his name. I doubt if more than a handful know who he is. He happens to be president of Senegal, president of their nation. But what does that word "nation" mean? Almost nothing to a remote villager in Senegal. He's loyal to his tribe. He knows there's some kind of strange government far off in a big city. But, as long as the government leaves him alone, he can take it or leave it. He never salutes its flag or sings its anthem or tacks up a picture of its president. This phenomenon in Senegal is a familiar one in Africa. Almost all African nations are nations in name only. Their people lack a sense of nationalism, a sense of loyalty to the central government, a sense of kinship with all other people who live in the country. This is a sore problem for African leaders trying to weld united countries out of tribes, religions and regions...

Economic Moves Mark Dangerous Rivalry of Federal Officials, Eastern Leaders - The contending forces in Nigeria are averting a civil war these the days by playing a "chess game" of economic move and countermove instead of propaganda stab and counterstab. As long as the "chess game" continues, there is hope for peace in Nigeria. The danger is that one side, may misjudge the mood of the other and overplay, upsetting the game and peace. But most observers here believe that neither the federal government nor the region of Eastern Nigeria wants war. And, at least in Lagos, the news is full of hints of attempts at bringing the divided parties together. On Wednesday, for example, the chief of staff of the army said the federal government of Lt. Col. Yakuba Gowon would not use force to end the crisis. And he added that efforts were being made "behind closed doors" to solve it...

Heavy-Handedness of French, Controlled Election, Nationalism Seeds of Violence - It's easy to blame the French for bloodshed in Djibouti, but harder to figure out a way to avoid it. French pride and heavy-handedness played a big role in the events that led to Monday's rioting and shooting. The day ended with French troops killing at least 12 Africans in tiny French Somaliland, last French colony in Africa. The city was quiet Tuesday and Wednesday, as French troops patrolled the streets. But even without French pride and heavy-handedness, there might have been killing, if not in Djibouti, then elsewhere in this eastern tip of Africa. There is little room to maneuver among the fierce currents of tribalism and nationalism here. The French set up a sham election for independence and then put down the protests with brute force. There were three main reasons for this...

Sources Assert Armed Troops Not in Uniform Cross Border After Bloody Riots - Informed sources reported Tuesday that small bands of Somali Republic soldiers have crossed the border into French Somaliland. According to the reports, the soldiers entered this French colony Monday night, hours after French troops fired into crowds of rioting Africans, killing at least 11. The reports said the soldiers, in bands of 15, were without uniforms but armed. There was no estimate of the total number. French troops at the border were reportedly trying to capture the Somali infiltrators. There was no report, however, on their success. French troops were also busy Tuesday rounding up Somalis and trucking them to a detention camp on the outskirts of Djibouti...

French troops Monday fired into crowds of Africans rioting against the results of a referendum on independence in this last French colony in Africa. At least 11 Africans were killed, and 30 were reported wounded. The violence burst the tense calm of the city soon after the government announced that the voters of French Somaliland had rejected independence Sunday in favor of continued French colonial status. The troops, particularly marines and foreign legionnaires, quickly restored the city to quiet after the bloodshed. The Somali quarter of the city, cordoned by barbed wire and patrolled by troops, took on the air of a desolate concentration camp, silent except for the braying of donkeys, motionless except for frightened Africans rushing homeward. But the violence foreshadowed trouble for France. Despite the referendum returns, it is clear that most of the 125,000 people who live in the territory want independence from France...

Referendum Could Reflect Minority Wish Since Many Residents Aren't Citizens - The voters of French Somaliland, the last French colony in Africa, are expected to reject independence today in favor of continued rule by France. The results of the referendum, however, may not reflect the desires of the majority of the people who live in French Somaliland. The electoral procedures work in a way that benefits the Danakils, a minority tribe that fears independence and wants the protection of France. But, whether fair or not, a vote for continued French rule could ease tensions in this eastern tip of Africa, at least for a while. It is hard to believe that an independent French Somaliland would stay independent very long, for it is a little piece of hot desert land on the Red Sea with nothing productive but the busy port of Djibouti. Its two large neighbors, Ethiopia and the Somali Republic, claim it as their own and are ready to go to war over it...

Internal Trouble Weakening Empire Just as It Faces Crisis With Somali Republic - Guerrilla insurrections are growing more intense in Ethiopia, weakening the empire just as it faces a crisis that could lead to war with the Somali Republic. The internal trouble, in fact, may help avert war by making Ethiopia more cautious in its dealings with the Somali Republic. The crisis centers on Sunday's referendum in French Somaliland, a nub of coastal land between Ethiopia and the Somalia Republic. The tiny territory will decide whether it wants independence or continued French control. If the French withdraw, the territory of 82,000 people may find itself too weak economically to stay independent very long. But the Somali Republic, which claims the territory as its own, says it will never tolerate Ethiopian control. And Ethiopia, which depends heavily on the territory's port of Djibouti, says it will never tolerate Somali control...

Coping With Help Becomes Big Economic Problem; Little Shown for Millions Spent - This nation receives more foreign aid per person than any other underdeveloped country in Africa and shows almost nothing for it. The country is about as poor as it was when all the aid started. In fact, coping with aid has become a major economic problem. "Our problem is how to make use of the aid we have now," said Prime Minister Abdirazak Haji Hussein in an interview, "not get more of it." "It's easy to receive aid," he continued, "but it's not equally easy to make use of it." Abdirazak said foreign aid had created burdens for the country because Somalis - almost 90% illiterate - often lack the managerial skills and the capital to use and run plants, equipment, and other gifts. In addition, loans make up 42% of the foreign aid, and this country has difficulty repaying them...

Vote Could Bring War Between Somali, Ethiopia - The forces of Somali nationalism, Ethiopian economics and French imperialism are colliding here in the Horn of Africa. It could mean war. The catalyst may be a referendum next Sunday in tiny French Somaliland. The voters will decide whether they want independence or continued French control. French withdrawal would leave a vacuum, drawing in Ethiopia and the Somali Republic - two bitter and pugnacious neighbors. There are reports that troops of both countries have already moved toward the French Somaliland border. War could embarrass and involve both the United States and the Soviet Union. U.S. military aid props up the 40,000-man Ethiopian army, while Russian aid does the same for the Somali army of 8,500 to 10,000. In the Somali Republic, in fact, feelings against the United States are intense and strident, particularly in the north...

French Somaliland Could Become Theater of War if Citizens Vote for Independence - The prime minister of Somalia disclosed Monday that he has moved troops toward French Somaliland, countering what he called a huge massing of Ethiopian troops near there. Prime Minister Abdirazak Haji Hussein described his troops as "few - just a symbolic presence," but he also said Somalia will not hesitate to intervene if Ethiopian troops march into French Somaliland. The remarks of Abdirazak, made in an interview, raised the possibility of war in the eastern tip of Africa. However, most observers here believe the possibility is slim. Trouble is likeliest if French Somaliland votes itself independent of France in the plebiscite March 19, and even Abdirazak - who supports independence in French Somaliland - doubts that the French dependency will vote a clean break...

FIRST 10 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE WERE DISAPPOINTING - The first decade of African independence comes to a close tomorrow. The ten years began in heady, high anticipation. Now there's sober disappointment almost everywhere. Elitism, poor agricultural development, tribalism, weak political institutions, and disunity have marred the early promise. The disappointment is deepened because the early promise was overblown. People expected too much of Africa. They didn't understand it. They didn't realize the depth of its problems. Viewed against Africa's enormous poverty, its harsh land, its debilitating climate, its hardened ways, you can discern some success during the last 10 years. Africa has inched forward. That's a substantial achievement. The decade began on March 6, 1957, when Kwame Nkrumah led the British Gold Coast to independence. The new country, called Ghana, was the first British colony to win independence in tropical Africa...

Romantic Air Solidifies Smith Regime and Encourages Single-Minded Position - White Rhodesians like to evoke a romantic air these days, linking themselves to heroic times of the past. "This is our Dunkirk," they will say, or "our 1776," or even "our Battle of Thermopylae." War is their favorite image. A prim, dour financier tells you proudly: "There's been no bloodshed but this is war." His tone brings back the days when men associated war with valor and glory, not slaughter and terror. This air of romance works to solidify the white government of Prime Minister Ian Smith in its defiance of Britain and the United Nations. The atmosphere encourages extreme positions and single-mindedness. People who believe they are fighting for a heroic cause are determined to have their way - and their way now is independence under white control, no matter what the cost, no matter how much sanctions may hurt some day. Rhodesians seem to relish their extreme positions...

New Draft Constitution by Smith Regime Expected to Perpetuate White Domination. The rebellion of 250,000 white Rhodesians against Britain is so dramatic it is easy to forget that 4 million Africans also live in Rhodesia. It is especially easy to forget in Salisbury, a modern city of 315,000 that looks like a city in the western United States, with new office buildings, crowded shops and wide streets. The Africans, who make up more than half the city's population, work at little-noticed jobs during the day and disappear into their townships on the rim of the city at night. The Negro presence in Salisbury is never obtrusive. Yet Rhodesia and Salisbury are part of Africa - a fact that may be decisive as far as Rhodesia's future is concerned...

But Sanctions, Inflationary Threat Not Enough to Topple Smith Regime at Present - Sanctions are beginning to depress the economy of Rhodesia but not enough to bring the government down or change its policies in the foreseeable future. Now, two months after the United Nations joined Britain in imposing sanctions on Rhodesian exports, the strains on the economy still cause no real hardship to the average white Rhodesian. Some businessmen and financiers are uneasy about the future - they see the potential of runaway inflation - but only when they look several years ahead. This means that, for some time to come, the government of Prime Minister Ian D. Smith can continue to defy Britain and the United Nations with almost the solid backing of white Rhodesians. Beyond that, nothing is clear...

Resettlement in White Highlands Going Well; Agricultural Income Increased - Black African settlers are proving they can farm successfully here in the old White Highlands of Kenya, once a bastion and symbol of white supremacy in Africa. Total agricultural income here has increased over the past five years - the more remarkable when it is considered that more than one sixth of the land formerly worked as large plantations by white settlers has been given to black settlers. Some 30,000 African farmers have been resettled on 1,000 European farms totaling more than 1 million acres in the highlands. Their difficulties have been enormous. Inexperience, incompetence, corruption and politics have hampered the program - but the black farmers, on the whole, have made a go of it. This constitutes one of the most promising and hopeful recent developments in all of Africa. Their success here is dramatic, for the White Highlands were once closed to African freeholders...

Countries Often Waste Money, Equipment Through Lack of Organizational Ability - Foreign aid often fails in Africa because everyone thinks big when they should think small. Now there are faint signs of a change. Most important, the United States has decided to revamp its African aid policy. There may be smaller visions in the new look. In the past, U.S. officials, acting as if they were back home, have sometimes blinded themselves to the frailties and limitations of African governments. In West Cameroon, for example, the Agency for International Development (AID) gave the Ministry of Community Development six pieces of road-building equipment a few years ago. The gift was a meager one by American standards worth several thousand dollars but it overwhelmed the ministry and almost destroyed it...

The United States is changing its old ways of giving aid to Africa. Money will now flow to a few favored countries. For the rest, in the main, it will be slowly cut off. No official announcement has been made of the new policy. But bits and snatches have been revealed by State Department and Agency for International Development (AID) officials in private conversation and public speeches. The President's recent budget message to Congress had a passing reference to the new policy. The details can now be pieced together. Besides concentrating on a few countries, the United States will try to put some of its aid into regional economic projects that could help unify areas of the splintered continent. There also will be an attempt to channel some American aid through international organizations like the African Development Bank. To implement the new policy, the United States will spend less money than before...

President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania is trying to have his economic cake and eat it, too. He ended a week-long nationalization takeover Monday with an appeal for more private investment. His appeal appeared in a special article for the East African Standard, the English language daily read by most Western businessmen in Nairobi. Nyerere maintained that his nationalization of banks and other businesses in the last week had cleared the air. Investors now knew they could invest in everything else with confidence, he wrote. Nyerere also said that his country now had nothing to fear from private investment because the important things had been nationalized. "The key positions of the economy have been secured for the nation in the same way, as during a war, an army occupies the sites which dominate the countryside," Nyerere said. "We can now welcome the enterprise of private investors without reservations, because we no longer have any cause to fear the effect of their activities on our social purpose." Nyerere's appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears...

African governments like to document their march to development with dramatic statistics on education, but the truth is education often hurts Africa more than it helps. African school systems, grafted on to Africa from Britain and France, produce too many parrot-like rote learners who refuse to dirty their hands. They are of little use to developing economies that need creative men with initiative and the will to work hard. Moreover, in some countries, the supply of educated young men exceeds the number of jobs. Cities like Lagos, Nigeria, have thousands of schooled young men who can't get a white collar job but refuse to take any other. Despite this, African governments continue to expand their education systems and spout statistics...

New Kenya Immigration Bill Will Define Aliens' Rights, and Is Aimed at Indians - There are 358,000 Indians and Pakistanis in East Africa who face an uncertain and possibly tragic future. African jealousy of Indian success in business and the Asians' own past attitude of superiority toward the Africans has shaken the lives of the Pakistani and Indian traders since independence came to Africa. Two personal incidents underline their predicament. Five years ago, before independence, I cashed a check in a Nairobi bank and waited while an African apprentice clerk labored over the transaction. His Asian supervisor stood behind, impatient, scowling, sneering, shrugging - his every gesture telling me, "These Africans will never learn." Then I recently accompanied a young African into a duka, as rural Asian shops are called. The African sipped his soda and suddenly bust into a tirade. "Where is your money hidden?" he shouted at the Asian shopkeeper...

President Julius Nyerere ordered his government to take over all banks in Tanzania Monday, proving again that he's one African leader who follows up his flowery words with deeds no matter what the cost. The cost this time will be difficult to measure. But the action demonstrates that Nyerere meant exactly what he said Sunday when he announced Tanzania's new march toward socialism. According to Nyerere, Tanzania will follow its nationalization of banks by taking over all land, forests, mines, water property, oil refineries, electric power plants, communications, transport, insurance firms and other big industries in the country. Nyerere said he had nationalized the banks first because "money was more important than other things.' He announced no timetable for taking over the rest...

Stanley Meisler, former Peace Corps deputy director for evaluation and research and Associated Press correspondent in Washington, D.C., Monday, was named chief of the Los Angeles Times news bureau in sub-Sahara Africa, now located in Nairobi, Kenya. Meisler, 33, succeeds Don Shannon, who has been transferred to The Times' Tokyo bureau following two years in Leopoldville, The Congo. The Leopoldville office has been closed. Meisler began his newspaper career with the Middletown (Ohio) Journal in 1953. He moved to the AP bureau in New Orleans a year later and to the Washington bureau in 1958. Meisler covered the House of Representatives prior to his appointment as a Peace Corps official in 1964. Awarded Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1961, Meisler spent a year traveling in Africa, followed by graduate studies in African affairs at UC Berkeley. He has written articles on Africa for Atlantic Monthly, the Reporter, the Nation and other magazines. A native of New York City, Meisler was graduated from City College of New York in 1952.

One night in steaming, gamboling Lagos, a young Nigerian poet leaned forward and whispered, "Nigeria is made up of a caste of corruption on the top and a caste of grumblers on the bottom." A friend joined in. "The grumblers are angry." "No," the poet disagreed. "They are not angry yet. They still have too much." These words caught the mood of a generation in Africa. Almost every new nation in Africa has a strident class of educated men in their twenties and thirties muttering about corruption in high places, impatient with the pace of government, incensed at the lingering trappings of colonialism, embittered, frustrated, ready to claw at their government. Yet, for the most part, while they mutter and curse they never do more. For one thing, they are strapped by a paradox...