Hilarious? Dignified?

Colonialism, as every African politician well knows, is the greatest evil in the modern world--and the most exploitable. It can be blamed for internal economic ills and incompetence, not to mention cold war and all other conflicts among nations. But colonialism--except in its Communist form--is fast dying out, and the African nationalists have been growing desperate in their search for a replacement. Last week, before the U.N. General Assembly, Ghana's Foreign Minister Ako Adjei found one: neocolonialism. "The colonial powers," said Adjei, "realize that the time has come for them to concede independence to the African people. However, they try to use every device to deprive the new African states of the real substance and meaning of their national independence." How? "By such devices as military pacts, economic and cultural agreements, and the granting of scientific and technical assistance."

As Adjei spoke. President Kwame Nkrumah was courting U.S. aid money to finance a pet project that should keep Ghana under the yoke of colonialism for years to come: a $196 million dam and power plant to be built on the Volta River. (According to an Administration official. President Kennedy intends to send a mission to Accra "to rivet some things down" before approving the project.) Meanwhile, a 19-man Ghana delegation was heading for Russia--where Nkrumah himself had just paid a call--to wrap up economic and cultural agreements. Ghana was also preparing to invite a Soviet military mission to train the country's small (6,000-man) army. Plainly Nkrumah was moving Ghana farther than ever from the Commonwealth, closer than ever to Moscow. He fired his British defense chief, Major General Henry Alexander (one of whose duties had been advising Nkrumah just how anti-British he could get without angering London). His replacement was General Stephen Otu, who considers Russian methods and weapons superior.

Also dismissed were the British chiefs of Ghana's small navy and air force and seven moderate government officials, including Health Minister K. A. Gbedemah, who helped Nkrumah found his Convention Peoples' Party and is probably the ablest man in the Cabinet.

Ghana's controlled press, meantime, stepped up its anti-British campaign. One paper accused Britain of fomenting labor unrest, another charged it had plotted the death of Dag Hammarskjold. The Accra Evening News, angry at the proposed November visit of Queen Elizabeth (''the head of a bloated kingdom"), called on the government to cancel the invitation. But Nkrumah is still unwilling to give up his position in the Commonwealth. In London. Ghana's Acting High Commissioner Kwesi Armah called a press conference to erase any thoughts that the Queen would be unwelcome. Said he: "A hilarious and dignified welcome awaits the Queen and Prince Philip."

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