The only reason for dealing with the role played by the Mulattoes in black history, for example, was to show how baffling and complex the problem is. For they were used not only to help disguise the most significant achievements of Blacks, but they were also effectively used to further enhance and perpetuate the already existing conflicts and divisions among them. Now they had just as much right to be classified as white as they did to be classified as black. But they found it expedient to operate in both worlds, exploiting the Blacks while serving the interests of the whites. There could never be any clear-cut judgment or defense against internal subversion along any color line, because in almost every black society it was possible to find many Mulattoes who were as loyal to the race as anyone could be, and, as well, pure Blacks who might be paid agents of the Arabs or Europeans. The state of Black Africa, then, was a state of perpetual fears, fears of being hunted down and attacked from without, fears of betrayals by unknown followers from within, fears of attacks by other migrating Blacks who were themselves fleeing from danger, fears of hunger, ever-mounting disease and of the alarming number of deaths. These fears of all kinds were a disease -- all producing an alarming source of mutual suspicions and distrust.
