RIDING THE CHANGING WINDS

Three remarkable Africans who symbolize to their peoples independence promised or prospective:

Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, K.B.E., 47, is Prime Minister of Nigeria, Africa's most populous (35 million) nation, which will get its independence next Oct. 1. His name comes from the little village of Tafawa Balewa in the Northern Region, the huge Moslem half of the country, which dominates Nigerian politics by sheer weight of numbers (19 million). In a region ruled by the emir aristocracy, Abubakar's rise was especially noteworthy, for he was a talakawa, child of a poor commoner. Uncommonly bright, he closed the gap with education, luckily gaining entry to the area's only college and later to the University of London's teacher-training institute.

When talk of independence began to spread, he entered politics, but with the purpose of fighting against self-rule for Nigeria, not for it. He insisted that the north, lacking educated leaders, was not ready, and even threatened a jihad (holy war) against the more advanced Ibo and Yoruba tribesmen of the south if the British walked out and left Nigerians to rule themselves. But a visit to the U.S. in 1955 as Nigeria's Minister of Works convinced him that widely differing nationalities could live together in peace. "Until then, I assure you that I did not believe in anything like a Nigerian nation," he says.

In the small harem of his official residence in Lagos, three of the four apartments remain vacant. He has nine children by the wife he married in 1934, has never taken the other three wives allowed by Moslem law.

Julius Nyerere, 38, a small, mustached onetime schoolteacher who was one of 26 children, will soon be in charge of Britain's Tanganyika trust territory (German before World War I), an East African land as large as France and Germany combined. By common consent, he is the ablest of the rising new crop of African leaders.

When the missionary principal at his school asked him to give up politics five years ago, Nyerere, a devoted Roman Catholic, followed his conscience and resigned his teaching job instead, taking over fulltime leadership of his young TANU Party in the drive for African rule. At first a fiery radical, Edinburgh University-trained Nyerere (pronounced Nyuh-ray-ree) grew more moderate when the British authorities agreed to a multiracial government. "Violence is unnecessary and costly. Peace is the only way," he preached from his modest bungalow in Dar es Salaam. But his goal never changed: "The African must and will rule. Our unity is our weapon." Relieved to find a leader with such common sense, the British in December agreed to "responsible" government with an African legislative majority in Tanganyika for a four-year transition period, after which the Africans will almost certainly take over entirely. "Now," says Nyerere, slated to be the first Prime Minister, "our task really begins. We have changed our cry from 'Uhuru' to 'Uhnru Na Kazi'--freedom and work."

Dr. Hastings Banda, 55. who today sits, pajama-clad, writing his memoirs in a comfortable Southern Rhodesian prison, spent most of his adult life in Britain, where he was a prosperous London physician with a large white practice. Yet, when he returned to his native Nyasaland (pop. 2.800,000, almost all black) in 1958 after 40 years of self-exile, thousands of Africans met his plane and cheered hysterically when he shouted the one Chinyanja word he still remembered: "Kwaca! [dawn]," the slogan of all Nyasaland nationalists who demand self-rule and separation from the Central African Federation.

Banda's name was a household word in Nyasaland, for from faraway London he had produced a torrent of fiery pamphlets, messages and speeches in the cause of Nyasa independence. Last year, when nationalist riots spread through the colony, the government brought in troops and declared a state of emergency, accusing Banda of being the cause of it all. Banda denies he counseled violence, but he shouts: "We mean to get out of their damned federation. One cannot exclude violence. Africa is on the move. You cannot stop us!" Britain's Colonial Office wants Banda released, but Nyasaland's local authorities have stalled for fear the freeing of Nyasaland's martyr might touch off an orgy of exultant nationalism.

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