AFRICA TOGETHER AT THE " SUMMIT " THE NORMALLY SLEEPY ETHIOPIAN CAPITAL 
OF ADDIS ABABA WAS ASTIR WITH FEVERISH ACTIVITY LAST WEEK . 
CROWDS OF RAGGED CITIZENS STOOD GAPING AS WORKMEN RUSHED TO INSTALL 
HUGE PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT AFRICANS ACROSS FROM HAILE SELASSIE'S PALACE . 
FINISHING TOUCHES WERE BEING PUT ON A SPANKING NEW HOTEL . 
MILE AFTER MILE OF 8-FT.-HIGH CORRUGATED IRON FENCE WAS BEING PUT 
IN PLACE ALONG MAIN STREETS TO HIDE THE CITY'S SHABBY SLUMS 
. ALL THE EXCITEMENT WAS IN ANTICIPATION OF THIS WEEK'S PAN-AFRICAN 
" SUMMIT " CONFERENCE OF SOME 30 AFRICAN HEADS OF STATE 
. NEVER BEFORE HAD SO MANY LEADERS OF AFRICA SAT DOWN 
IN THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME, AND THEIR PROUD 
HOST, THE AGING (70) ETHIOPIAN EMPEROR, WAS OUT AT THE AIRPORT 
IN PERSON WITH HIS GREEN-ANDBLACK ROLLS-ROYCE TO GREET MANY OF HIS 
ILLUSTRIOUS GUESTS, INCLUDING LIBERIA'S PRESIDENT WILLIAM V . SHADRACH TUBMAN, WHO 
ARRIVED FIVE DAYS EARLY SO AS TO SQUEEZE IN A STATE 
VISIT . THE GUEST LIST WAS A WHO'S WHO OF AFRICA'S 
SUCCESSFUL REVOLUTIONARIES AND MODERATE NATION BUILDERS . GHANA'S EGOCENTRIC OSAGYEFO (REDEEMER), 
KWAME NKRUMAH, WAS DUE IN FROM ACCRA . FROM THE CONGO 
WOULD COME THE EMBATTLED PREMIER CYRILLE ADOULA . ALSO ON THE 
LIST : NIGERIA'S ABLE PRIME MINISTER SIR ABUBAKAR TAFAWA BALEWA ; 
SENEGAL'S SENGHOR ; GUINEA'S SEKOU TOURE ; AND DOZENS MORE, INCLUDING, 
OF COURSE, THAT AFFABLE FELLOW FROM UP NORTH, EGYPT'S GAMAL ABDEL 
NASSER, WHO WAS AN AFRICAN OF A KIND . PREDICTABLY, THERE 
WERE THOSE INTERESTED IN BENDING THE CONFERENCE TO THEIR OWN ENDS 
:. GHANA'S NKRUMAH SENT A 120-MEMBER DELEGATION PILING INTO ADDIS ABABA 
COMPLETE WITH A HIGH-LIFE DANCE BAND . OSAGYEFO WOULD BE PEDDLING 
HIS PET SCHEME FOR A BICAMERAL ALL-AFRICA PARLIAMENT AND OTHER SIMILAR 
QUICKIE APPROACHES TO A UNITED AFRICA . NO ONE WAS LIKELY 
TO BUY NKRUMAH'S SCHEMES, HOWEVER, FOR IT HAS LONG BEEN OBVIOUS 
TO ALL OF AFRICA THAT IT IS BASICALLY NKRUMAH THAT NKRUMAH 
WANTS TO PROMOTE . APART FROM THAT, REGIONAL DIFFERENCES MAKE IT 
CLEAR THAT THE MOST THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED IN THE FORESEEABLE 
FUTURE IS A LOOSE ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES PATTERNED AFTER THE 
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES, WITH A PERMANENT SECRETARIAT, COUNCIL AND PROGRAM 
FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION . SUCH A GROUPING MIGHT HELP HEAL THE 
RIFTS AMONG THE CONTINENT'S CURRENT RIVAL BLOCS CHIEF AMONG THEM THE 
LEFTLEANING CASABLANCA GROUP (GHANA, GUINEA, MALI, MOROCCO, ALGERIA, EGYPT), AND THE 
MORE MODERATE MONROVIA GROUP, NOW COMPOSED OF NIGERIA, LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE, 
ETHIOPIA, THE FORMER BELGIAN CONGO, AND MOST OF THE FORMER FRENCH 
DEPENDENCIES . 