(The author, a junior from Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., is presently in Mwea-Tebere, Kenya working on a "rice scheme." He is in Africa under the auspices of the Phillips Brooks House program of Volunteer Teachers for Africa. Duggan was initially bound for Malawi, but is now teaching in Kenya. The Malawi project was cancelled.)

"This is all-out war, not cricket. Chisiza and his gangsters must be captured dead or alive." --President Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi.

One month ago a band of forty rebels set out for the city of Blantyre in Malawi to assassinate President Banda. What has happened to them is, perhaps, of less importance than the growing movement of which they were part--a movement which could land the tiny country of Malawi in serious trouble.

Dwarfed by racist neighbors on one side and nationalistic independent states on the other, Malawi lies in the extreme Southern end of the Great Rift Valley which stretches North and South almost the entire length of the continent. As a land-locked nation, it must depend on its good relations with surrounding states to insure overland trans-shipment to the sea. There-in lies Malawi's greatest problem, and President Banda's response to such dependence has embroiled a formerly little-known country in a major struggle.

Unfortunate Timing

Malawi has announced that it plans to open diplomatic relations with South Africa. A more ill-timed disclosure would be hard to imagine, as it coincided with the opening of the Organization of African Unity Conference in Kinshasa, Congo.

Banda's actions might well have resulted in the usual speeches and counter-attacks in the press, and little more, for recently Malawi has been quietly pursuing a course of cooperation with Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and Mozambique, all of whom have avowedly racist governments. And, in fact, the announcement itself was greeted with surprisingly little reaction publicly. But it did not go unnoticed. Other African states may have been reluctant to criticize openly a former freedom fighter in his own right, who without bloodshed brought his country to independence. But privately they seem to have written off Malawi as a candidate for membership in the East African community of free states, and anything they have to say about President Banda will probably be said on the battlefield from now on. The controversy is now at the boiling point.

This is due in part to a surprising turn of events: The Conference in Kinshasa was moderately successful. At the time of its convening, most observers would have shared Banda's scorn. Many felt that the previous 1966 Addis Ababa meeting represented a ludicrous ending to the futile history of the Organization of African Unity. It showed itself to be utterly disorganized and incapable of coming to grips with any of the major issues, which by October, 1967, had become major crises. President Julius Nyerere remarked simply "Africa is a mess."

When the Conference opened, Nigria was in civil war, the Federal Government contending with two breakaway states. The Congo was struggling with a handful of white mercenaries and their rebel Katangese troops, who had managed to keep the Federal forces numbering 15,000 at bay for three months. Rumors of a plot to overthrow President Nyerere of Tanzania were circulating from ex-Vice President Kambona, in London for "health reasons." Serious Shifta terrorism occupied the Kenya army in the Northeastern Province along the border, while the ruling KANU party was denying that elections would be advanced from 1970 to '68 for their sake.

Against this background, nobody expected much unity to result from the Organization of African Unity, especially under the dubious leadership of General Mobutu, who had enough troubles of his own trying to persuade Algeria to release Moise Tshombe so he could execute the former President.

But in another of his characteristically frank remarks, Nyerere said "It's time Africa grew up." By the time the Conference was over, encouraging signs of maturity and progress had been made, and it was clear that Malawi, which did not even attend the Conference, had been left out of the bargain.

Since the Conference terminated, the participating heads of State have gone all out to prove that more than words would result from their proclamations, and the score sheet so far shows that they meant what they said. Ironically, the more successful their drive for unity becomes, the less bright the future of Malawi begins to look.

First of all, on settling their own differences: President Kuanda of Zambia took the lead in announcing that he would mediate for negotiations between Kenya and Somalia on the Shifta terrorism, as well as providing safe conduct out of the Congo for the mercenaries--whom he described as "human vermin"--and their one thousand rebel Katanga troops. Cynical observers doubted that much would come of either proposal: Kenya and Somalia had been at war for two years and no diplomatic relations existed between them. As for the Congo, the practical side of extracting the mercenaries from the city of Bukavu seemed overwhelming.

Yet barely two weeks after the Conference ministers returned to their capitals, Kenya and Somalia announced resumption of trade before the formal talks had even begun. Somalia had been experiencing difficulties finding outlets for its beef, and when the American packing firm, "Ward Foods," agreed to act as agents for the Somalia Government's cattle transactions with Kenya, the 16-month-old trade boycott came to an end. News of the resumed trade was released by Bruce Mckenzie, Kenya's minister for Agriculture, who said in Nairobi that the decision was in the spirit of Harambee (pulling together, a Kenyan national slogan) and ". . . [it] results directly from the Kinshasa agreement . . . to find ways to end the border dispute."

Shortly after a delegation of the International Red Cross left from Switzerland to help in arranging for the evacuation of mercenaries from the Congo, and President Kuanda stated that he was finalizing transport. Since then, however, things have not worked out so well. Serious fighting has resumed, and it turns out that Zambia was offering only one plane for the entire operation, leaving the Katangese troops to fend for themselves. Not increasing the prospects for a truce is the American decision to provide transport planes for Mobutu's troops. However, there is still a possibility that a settlement may be worked out, though the future of Kuanda's plans formulated at the OAU Conference remains a question mark.