33 water still running very deep, as they say, too deep in fact. So what preparations have we made to confront these changes? How can we help ourselves take the reins of our existence and overcome the obstacles standing in our way? Our meeting today, my brothers, has to be a positive addition to the growing contributions of previous ages in this field. There is little doubt that our meeting would fulfil its aims if, through studies, research and discussions, it could formulate new alternatives in the field of Arab-African cooperation and if it could offer visions of the future rather than ideas of the past. It is also significant, my dear friends, that this meeting should take place in the ninth decade of this century, almost a hundred years after the Berlin Conference that was held in 1884-5 to divide theAfrican continent among colonial states. It was at that time that imperialism tightened its grip on the Arab world through the occupation of Egypt, Tunisia and Aden. This hundred-year period was filled with battles and sacrifices, with ebbs and flows, with victories and setbacks, leading us to the situation we find ourselves in today in the Arab andAfrican world. A close study of those years confirms the view that the methods used by Arabs and Africans to achieve victory in the past will be the same to lead them to surmount present difficulties, confront challenges and build the future. Battles may be different in their nature and methods. But the source of victory remains the same: the national will, the unity of all national forces and the presence of free patriotic
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