Decolonization and Nation-Building in Africa

Djibouti

Djibouti on the Horn of Africa; photo credit: Jonathan Reiss

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At the end of the Second World War, there were four independent countries in Africa: Liberia (1847), South Africa (1910), Egypt (1922) and Ethiopia (1941). As of 2020, there are now at least fifty-four countries on the African continent. At the end of the Second World War, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain and Portugal all had colonial territories in Africa. Those are all gone now. The African decolonization process was lengthy, not always smooth and varied much from territory to territory.

Since there is so much that can be covered, and since there is so much information already available for students, I'd just like to focus on just a few points that I've found important.

The decolonization process of each European country was different.

For example, the British territories, for the most part, avoided mass violence and achieved independence relatively peacefully. The Gold Coast, later renamed Ghana, became the first British colony to become independent in 1957. Others followed soon after, especially after the so-called "Wind of Change" speech (1960) given by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. The prime minister indicated that the United Kingdom very much wanted to avoid being drawn into a protracted guerrilla war such as that involving France in Algeria. By 1968, with the exception of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) which became independent after a lengthy civil war in 1980, British colonies had all become independent.

Generally speaking, the formal British withdrawal from the continent appeared to go smoothly, and it seemed that the British had prepared well their former colonies for independence, but the events of Nigerian Civil War would prove that most colonies were not well-prepared for independence.

The French decolonization experience was also relatively peaceful except for two very important exceptions (Vietnam and Algeria), and those were unbelievably important. The French colonial empire began to fall apart during the Second World War, when various parts of it were occupied, initially by Germany and Japan. After the war, when the French re-established control, they were immediately met by demands for self-determination and then independence. The guerrilla war, marked by atrocities on all sides, that broke out in Algeria in 1954 tore France apart and was a major problem because of the large number of French settlers in Algeria and the close ties between colony and metropolis. The French fourth republic collapsed in 1958, and Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) became president of France in the new fifth republic. Algeria eventually achieved its independence in 1962. Almost all the French colonies then became independent; the last, I believe, was French Somaliland (Djibouti) in 1977.

Belgium left a disaster behind when it exited the Belgian Congo which achieved independence in June 1960 as the Republic of the Congo (later Zaire and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Opposition to Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba's (1925-1961) Mouvement National Congolais began almost immediately as violence between whites and blacks broke out; the regions of Katanga and South Kasai seceded, and the United Nations deployed peace-makers. Lumumba asked for assistance from the Soviet Union, which promptly sent advisors and other weapons. Chaos resulted as the government fell, and civil war broke out. Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN General secretary died in a suspicious plane crash in 1961 in an attempt to mediate the conflict. Four years later, a coup d'état by general Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-1997) set up his one-party dictatorship with the support of the United States and western powers. Wikipedia notes that "Mobutu was the subject of one of the most pervasive personality cults of the 20th century."

Why the violence? Simple, the Congo is blessed with extensive, and valuable, mineral reserves.

Caught Up in the Cold War

As African countries became independent, they were often pressured to take sides in the Cold War. And when civil unrest or war broke out in a country (a good example was Angola), the warring parties often aligned along pro-United States or pro-Soviet Union lines. Weapons and advisers were provided based on that alliance.

The Soviet Union intervened in a number of instances on the African continent. Having studied most of these "third-world interventions" by the USSR, I've never really been sure what Russia hoped to gain other than to disrupt the world and Africa. This goes back to the old "domino theory" of foreign relations during the Cold War, our gain is their loss. A great example is Ethiopia in the 1970s. There was really nothing the state under the control of Haile Mengistu Mariam (1937-) had to offer the Soviet Union, other than maybe the establishment of a "presence" on the horn of Africa. In this and other cases in Africa, Soviet advisors and weapons flowed to rebels (sometimes those weapons came from the communist bloc in Eastern Europe), and in more desperate circumstances, Cuban mercenaries aided Soviet-backed rebels.

The United States and other western countries also intervened wherever and whenever possible. Often that was to confront the specter of Soviet influence (after all many of the African revolutionary movements were avowedly socialist) or to guard access to important markets or natural resources, such as oil in Nigeria or Uranium in the Belgian Congo.

The confrontation between western-backed forces and Soviet-supported forces was particularly vicious in Angola. Portugal had refused to end its colonial empire in the 1960s, and armed resistance erupted in Angola after the continuing Portuguese refusal to allow self-determination of the colony. Three revolutionary groups emerged, differing on territorial basis, ethnic composition and ideology: the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Throughout the resistance to the Portuguese, the rival movements were unable to unite and so continued to compete for influence both within Angola and also on the international stage.

On 25 April 1974 a military coup in Portugal, which became known as the Carnation Revolution, brought down the conservative regime and initiated the dismantling of the colonial empire. The three revolutionary groups cooperated long enough for Angola to become independent in November 1975 as the People's Republic of Angola, a semi-Marxist state supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba. A brutal and lengthy civil war ensued between the MPLA (Soviet Union and Cuba) and UNITA (United States and South Africa).

Why the violence? Simple, large oil reserves in Angola.

Military dictatorship in Africa

Dictatorship, often by military officers, has been rather common in Africa. Why? Why did many former revolutionaries, once established as prime ministers or presidents, turn their states into one-part regimes that eventually became dictatorships? And why was the military often responsible for the dictatorship? One factor was under-estimating, or over-estimating, the difficulties of running a country. One common false assumption was that the new country had been united in its opposition to colonialism and with the colonial power now gone, the people were all a single people. That proved to be completely false. Most of the new African countries had serious ethnic, religious, socio-economic divisions that clearly impeded any notions of national unity. When those divisions came to light, with no immediate, clear solution, then the easy way out was to say that everyone in the country belonged to one party, "we are united." That created the illusion of a unity that was not the case. To maintain that facade of unity required methods that were not democratic but that were often violent and/or corrupt. Once the reality of a single party state had been established, it was just an easy step for the military to assume that it should run the country based on the assertion that the military was the one universal force in the country capable of managing all the divisions of the country since all those factions were represented in the military.

One can look at the lists of military dictators to appreciate just how common that they have been in Africa. Here are some websites to view.

Some African Revolutionaries

Here are some of the key figures in the anti-colonial movements in Africa. Many of them also adhered to socialist beliefs, and many were committed to a sort of pan-African movement. I find many of them to be very controversial figures. On one hand they opposed colonialism, often bravely putting their own lives at risk; on the other hand, many struggled once placed in power and supervised the disintegration of democratic mechanisms in their countries. They did, though, continue to express the "potent power of African nationalism" which often manifested itself in the form of pan-Africanism ideas.

Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was one of the foremost advocates of pan-Africanism and one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity. He became Ghana's first prime minister and president. In 1964, he was elected president for life, and political parties were prohibited except for the ruling Convention People's Party. Nkrumah was deposed in 1966.

Jomo Kenyata (1897-1978) was the first prime minister/president of Kenya in 1963. He had gained fame (and imprisonment) for his anti-colonial activities in the 1950s, including some role in the Mau Mau Rebellion. While an African nationalist, he was an extremely conservative politician, and within a year of independence, Kenya was a one-party country.

Ahmed Sékou Touré (1922-1984), formerly a trade union activist and perhaps a Marxist, was the first President of Guinea in 1958 and served until his death in 1984. Within two years of the country's independence, he declared the Parti démocratique de Guinée the only legal party in the state and ruled as a brutal dictator for the next twenty-four years.

Modibo Keïta (1915-1977) was the first president of Mali and a socialist politician in 1960. He also established a one-party state and in 1967 suspended the constitution. He was overthrown and imprisoned the following year.

Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) was another major force behind the Organization of African Unity. He became the first prime minister of Tanganyika and then president of the renamed Tanzania until 1985. An avowed socialist, Nyerere criticized two-party democracy and instituted a one-party state headed by the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). His political philosophy was known as ujamaa.

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was a black, nationalist, revolutionary opponent of the apartheid regime in South Africa and the first black president of South Africa in 1994.

1960

I already mentioned above the famous "Wind of Change" speech given by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) in the South African parliament on 3 February.

"The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact."

The speech was a clear indication that the British government, controlled by the Conservative party at the time, was no longer going to block the independence of British colonies.

By my count, sixteen African countries became independent in 1960.

African genocidal disasters

Biafra

Rwanda

Congo

South Sudan

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Some recommended online resources