In January, just before a get-acquainted meeting held with the CBC, Mr. Bush asked newly-elected Chairman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) what issues the Black leaders wanted to talk about. "I said, �we really want to speak about and dialogue about Africa,� " Rep. Johnson told The Final Call. "He said, �Africa?� And I said, �yes.�

 "Africa?" Mr. Bush asked again. "I said, �Yes, you know that�s our Motherland.� He said, �Oh!� " During the ensuing meeting which had already gone 20 minutes longer than it was scheduled, when Rep. Johnson conceded that they had covered all that there was time for that day, the President said, "No. We�re going to talk about Africa."

Black leaders were encouraged at that time that the President, whose Secretary of State is also of African ancestry, showed a keen interest in African affairs. But since the Sept. 11 attacks, and the subsequent national preoccupation with terrorism, security, and the U.S. military response, Mr. Bush has not met in person with even one leader from sub-Saharan Africa among the dozen or so leaders he�s received in the Oval Office, and phone calls from the CBC leadership are not being returned.

Rep. Johnson tried for two weeks, to no avail, to get through to Mr. Bush, she said in an interview Oct. 10. "They�re going to need people of color to help solve this thing. Bombs alone are not going to solve this. We need dialogue to solve this."

Without meeting with CBC leaders, Mr. Bush has already embraced some of their humanitarian principles, White House officials insist. "Obviously that�s a message the President agrees with," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters Oct. 12 in response to a question from The Final Call about CBC complaints concerning their lack of access.

"The President wants to work with the United Nations on a way to create a peaceful Afghanistan. So the President agrees with (the) message" espoused by CBC officials, Mr. Fleischer said, while ignoring repeated questions about when Mr. Bush would next meet with them.

Dialogue and diplomacy is what African heads of state that have their own profound experiences dealing with terrorism, with conflicts between Muslims and Christians, and with reconciliation and healing after violent racial clashes, have to offer.

Indeed, the question of whether or not African leaders and issues of importance to the continent have been downplayed since Sept. 11, "is one of the most frequently asked questions on a list we prepared for briefing Secretary Powell," a State Department source told The Final Call.

Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, a former Army General who was one of the first heads of state to call Mr. Bush after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, whose country�s Truth and Reconciliation Commission helped that country avoid a bloodbath of retaliation and racial revenge, have been kept at arm�s length, despite the expertise they may have to offer.

African leaders have a special expertise, according to former House Africa Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.). "They deal with terrorism. There are cells in Africa. The bombing of the embassies in Dar-Es-Salaam, and in Nairobi," makes them intimately acquainted with the problems the U.S. is facing, he said in an interview.

"(Mr.) Obasanjo called the President and he didn�t invite him to come," Mr. Payne complained. Nigeria, he pointed out, has a population of 120 million people, and they themselves are facing "acts of terrorism all around. It seems to me that he would have a lot to offer, but he has not been asked."

President Obasanjo could not come to Washington to meet Mr. Bush because of a scheduling conflict, not because of political insensitivity, the State Department source insisted.

A White House source contacted by The Final Call agrees. Mr. Bush has spoken by telephone on more than one occasion to Pres. Obasanjo, and to South African President Mbeki, as well as to Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, and to Kenya�s President Daniel arap Moi, the source said.

But the apparent snub of African leaders is inexcusable, and the White House�s decline of Mr. Obasanjo�s offer to come to Washington resulted in a great political embarrassment for the Nigerian leader, according to another administration official, who asked not to be identified.

"We�ve got to stay vigilant, we�ve got to stay vocal, in fact now, be even more vocal, because these issues otherwise may very well be drowned out," retired House Armed Service Committee Chairman, Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-Calif.) told The Final Call. "September 11 was an incredible moment, but there were issues on the table September 10, that were still on the table September 12, still on the table September 28. They�re not going away," he said.

"It�s one thing to deal with the symptoms. Terrorism, in my opinion, is a symptom. Yes, we deal with the security implications of the symptoms, but at the same time you�ve got to go beyond that and talk about, what are the issues that give rise to desperation?

"My fear is that if we don�t talk, if we don�t speak out, if we don�t keep these issues in the forefront, they will manage to fall off the table in this heightened period of security," Mr. Dellums continued.

Photo: Black leaders, including CBC Chairman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex), at podium, are having a hard time getting President Bush's attention.