ABSTRACT

By the end of 1973 Arabs and Africans appeared to have found the commonality that had so long eluded them. Arab and African analysts of the Afro-Arab rapprochement have tended to see it as result of a combination of factors, all of which point to what amounted to successful conversion of each side to the other's most urgent causes and preoccupations. The Israelis undoubtedly contributed, albeit unwillingly, to the Arab-African rapprochement. The Israeli presence in Africa, motivated in part by an effort to seek allies in its quest for a negotiated settlement of its dispute with the Arabs, eventually became counterproductive. Even more significant than the Israeli predicament were the Arabs' diplomatic initiatives in Africa itself. Ali Mazrui disparages the contention that the African states broke with Israel "for the sake of cheaper oil from the Arabs." By the time Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries dramatically raised the price of oil most African states had already sided with the Arabs.