Download Version 3 Shorter Version – An Independent Africa

An Independent Africa
By Uzor Chinukwue
My Thanks to Balham and Wandsworth Libraries
1
Introduction
•
There are too many characters in the African story and we don’t
have enough time to cover all of them or do the ones we do cover
any true justice in the level of detail we can give them. What we
will do, however, is look at some of them and explore how the
start of their administrations would ultimately start a culture across
the continent, one of bad and selfish leadership where power
means everything and true democracy (i.e. people power) means
very little, which would then eventually set the stage for the
proliferation of despotism around the continent. The purpose of
this exploration into the why is not to make excuses for the
countries, the peoples, or their leaders but instead to observe and
note mistakes with the hope that by doing so we may recognise
when these mistakes are made in contemporary politics, and that
we may avoid repeating history.
2
GHANA
 Ghana was the pride of British African colonial rule. Called the
Gold Coast it had a wealth of resources the most prominent of
which was cocoa. It had an elite made up of intelligentsia and
rich farmers.
 As the most promising of all her colonies in Africa the British
were going to use Ghana’s steady progress toward
independence as a blueprint for their other African colonies.
The intelligentsia at the time – lawyers and businessmen
were pressing for more political power and by 1947 had
formed their own political party, the United Gold Coast
Convention.
 They chose as their slogan, “Self-Government in the shortest
possible time” and Dr Joseph Danquah as their leader.
3
Dr Joseph Danquah
 Danquah had also
been responsible to
coming up with the
idea to change the
country’s name
from its colonial
name, the Gold
Coast, to Ghana –
a West African
empire that had
flourished during
the 14th century.
4
 Danquah was admired by the British and seen to be the logical
step toward a head for government.
 The party needed a full-time organiser and Kwame Nkrumah
was mentioned as a possible candidate.
5
Kwame Nkrumah
 The lawyers of the United Gold
Coast Convention knew virtually
nothing of this man who, at the
time, was barely making ends
meet as a student in London.
He was penniless most of the
time, but increasingly got more
and more involved in left-wing
politics. He soon abandoned
his law studies and took to
politicking full time – engaging
with leading British communists
and often participating in anticolonial protests.
6
 When the opportunity for a full time job from the United Gold
Coast Convention was brought to him he jumped at it, but his
left-wing views soon brought him into opposition with Danquah
and the other members of the party. He left to start his own
party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and while the
slogan for United may have been “Self-Government in the
shortest possible time” Nkrumah’s CPP often cited “SelfGovernment Now” as a sort of panacea (cure-all) for all
colonial troubles in the Gold Coast.
7
 He led rallies with zeal and his charisma won him a lot of
supporters. He set up anti-colonial newspapers and was adept
at creating anti-colonial slogans.
 Growing ever bolder, he denounced the British program for
constitutional reform as “bogus and fraudulent,” and led protests
strikes, and boycotts. Soon all of this anti-colonial propaganda
led to violence and the colonial governor Arden-Clarke
declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew.
 Nkrumah was duly arrested and imprisoned with other CPP
party members who were found guilty of incitement and sedition.
Later he would be sentenced to 3 years.
8
 After the trial Danquah
wrote: “the wolf [has] been
driven away.”
 Arden-Clarke also wrote at
the time in a private family
letter: “Sorry I have been
so bad about writing but I
have been rather
preoccupied in dealing
with our local Hitler and
his putsch.”
Dr Joseph Danquah
Arden-Clarke
9
 In prison, Nkrumah found a loophole that would allow him stand
as a candidate in the elections, even though he was a convict.
 His participation in the election raised expectations and
suddenly enthusiasm for the race spread far and wide. Of
23,122 votes he would win 20,780, and of 38 popularly
contested seats, Nkrumah’s CPP won 34, with Dr Danquah’s
United Gold Coast Convention only managing 3.
 Arden-Clarke was thus faced with a dilemma: Nkrumah was
as dangerous in prison as outside. Releasing a convicted
criminal to take office had no precedence, but not doing so
would surely lead to riots and Nkrumah had already promised
recriminations if his victory was not recognised, but then
releasing him also meant freeing him to pursue his “SelfGovernment Now” promise to the people.
10
 In the end Arden-Clarke released Nkrumah to take up the premiership.
 Nkrumah, insisted on a faster road of transition to full selfdetermination, ignoring the misgivings expressed by the British. The
constitution, which he’d been obliged to accept, had left key parts of
power to Arden-Clarke (like the police, judiciary, finance and
defence), but Nkrumah had grown impatient with this partial power and
moved for fuller controls without delay and declaring, “We prefer selfgovernment with danger to servitude in tranquillity.”
 In the end Ghana would finally be granted her independence on 6
March 1957 and Nkrumah’s popularity would sour in all of Africa, as his
and Ghana’s success now meant a surer way to independence for the
whole region. Nationalism would sweep through all of Africa and by
1958 he would invite the best of African opposition: trade unions,
political parties and student unions, for a conference, with the aim of
coordinating “the African non-violent revolution.” There were
notable attendees who would eventually help their own countries to
independence: Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Banda, Julius Nyerere, and
Patrice Lumumba.
 The Kenyan and conference chairman Tom Mboya noted the
belligerent mood of the conference and noted, “The colonial powers
should now reverse the Scramble for Africa.” He declared, “your
time is past. Africa must be free. Scram from Africa.”
11
GHANAIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY
12
Independence Day Invitation to Mr & Mrs
Martin Luther King
13
NKRUMAH’S RESIDENCE, CHRISTIANSBORG CASTLE
14
 In the end Nkrumah would alienate his own political base with
the cocoa farmers when he refused to grant them the subsidies
they’d enjoyed under the British. He would also squander the
huge foreign reserves Ghana had by embarking on industrial
projects such as the Akosombo Dam.
 His policies were becoming increasingly dictatorial: after the
gold miner’s strike of 1955 he would make strikes illegal,
forgetting that he had once used the same to achieve his
political ambitions. He would then go on to introduce the
Prevention Detention Act, which would allow him arrest
anyone accused of treason without trial or recourse to the
judicial system.
 In what is now known to be a CIA sponsored act, Nkrumah was
ousted from office by a military coup while on a state visit
abroad. He went into exile in Guinea as a guest of President
Sékou Touré.
 He left Ghana with massive debts from his dam project and from
modernising the Ghanaian military.
15
•
From Left to
Right –the
Pan-African
Conference
attendees
Kenneth
Kaunda,
Hastings
Banda,
Patrice
Lumumba,
Julius
Nyerere, and
Tom Mboya
16
Egypt
King Farouk I, tenth ruler from the
Mohammed Ali Dynasty
 King Farouk was the obese
and arrogant nominal ruler of
Egypt. He was wealthy and
self indulgent, owning
several palaces, yachts, and
a huge pornographic art
collection, while his people
suffered from hunger and
unemployment.
17
•
From Left to
Right: King
Farouk I and
his wife
Queen
Farida,
Farouk with
Franklin D
Roosevelt,
and finally,
the older,
obese
Farouk in
exile
18
 Founded in 1948 in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli war, where
Egypt was defeated, the opposition (the Society of Free
Officers Dhobat el-Ahrar) was led by 34-year-old Colonel
Gamal Abdel Nasser.
 Nasser was handsome, taciturn, and a natural strategist, and
blamed Farouk’s not equipping the army adequately for Egypt’s
humiliating defeat to Israel.
 The Free Officers chose as their nominal head and the face of
their organisation, General Mohammed Neguib, a 54-year-old
respected war veteran.
19
•
From Left to
Right: the Society
of Free Officers –
Abdel Latif
Boghdadi,
Nasser, Salah
Salem, Abdel
Hakim Amer,
General Neguib,
Hussein el-Shafei
(who would later
be vice-president
under Nasser),
and finally Nasser
20
 At the time there were only 3 recognised independent states in
Africa – Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa. And while Farouk
was himself part of the latest dynasty to find itself in power –
started by his great-great-grandfather Mohammed Ali 140
years earlier – the truth was he wasn’t interested in the nation’s
problems and it was the British who ran things.
 For them to experience a truly free Egypt the Free Officers
would need to get rid of not only Farouk but also the British.
 The King heard of the plan to oust him and got his generals to
make plans to deal with the Free Officers. But Nasser learnt of
the meeting place of the generals and decided to attack them
there. There was only nominal resistance before the generals
gave up.
 Next Nasser and his men got control of the telegraph office,
the radio station, and several police stations and
government buildings. They also set up roadblocks in case
the British tried to step in to help Farouk.
21
 Now they had the king all that was left to do was determine what
to do with him. After having had a bad experience with a
previous assassination plan Nasser now argued for sparing the
King’s life and urged his co-conspirators to concentrate instead
on setting up a new government.
 Farouk’s life was consequently spared and the now deposed
king hastily packed some trunks filled with money and gold and
departed for Europe, settling first in Monaco then in Rome.
Farouk had a number of affairs, was known for enjoying the high
life and fine cuisine, and was described once, in his later obese
years, as being a stomach with a face. He died at diner, while
having a characteristically heavy meal. It has never been proven
whether or not he was poisoned by Egyptian Intelligence.
22
 At the start the Free Officers really had no great plans for what
was to follow Farouk’s dismissal. They eventually started a
comprehensive land reform that would redistribute land from
the rich who owned over half of the nation’s cultivatable land.
 6 months afterward though and they found that they had to
consolidate their power. They duly got rid of all opposition, from
student and trade unions to communists and organisations like
the Muslim Brotherhood. Thousands were arrested and
Nasser more and more would rely on the services of his ruthless
secret police. In 1954, after inner conflict in the Free Officers
who had now changed their name to the Revolutionary
Command Council (RCC), Nasser emerged as the sole leader,
ousting the General Neguib. He thus set up himself to become
president, giving himself massive powers.
 After taking on the Presidency Nasser began to emerge as an
influential leader in the region, and took seriously opposing the
influence of the West in the Arab world. He would do this by first
seeking independence for Sudan and then pushing for a British
withdrawal from Egypt’s Canal Zone.
23
From Left to Right: Neguib, Neguib with
Nasser in 1952, and finally Neguib in his
Later days of isolation by Nasser. He was
Released in 1972 by President Anwar El Sadat,
A senior member of the Free Officers, after
Nasser’s death in 1970.
24
 As for the problem with Sudan, Egypt considered her a part of
their country – Mohammed Ali (Farouk’s great-great-grandfather)
had conquered them in 1819 and its capital, Khartoum, had
originally been an Egyptian army outpost. Technically Egypt was
supposed to rule Sudan alongside the British, but in practise only
the British ruled. Nasser and the Free Officers wanted to unite the
2 countries, and he fought for their independence from colonial
rule, believing privately that when the time came the Sudanese
would chose to unite into one country. He even proclaimed himself
“King of Sudan” in propaganda.
 Britain could not deny that there was a growing tide of resentment
in both Egypt and Sudan, whose nationalism parties were pushing
more and more for self-determination. In the end, to try to still
have some influence in the region, Britain agreed to give Sudan
her independence.
 Sudanese independence, thus, wasn’t based on the country’s
readiness for self-determination but on the interests of 2 rival
powers. Both sides had neglected to see the warning signs
already showing themselves when you considered the differences
between the Northern and Southern parts of the country.
25
 The northern part of Sudan, dry and hot, comprised a
homogenous Arab-speaking populace (who’d made slaves
(abid) of southerners in the past) while the south, with much
fertile land, was made up of disparate black tribes with different
languages and different traditional religions, with a Christian
minority who had been educated in mission schools. The south
of Sudan was underdeveloped and unready for independence.
They were anxious, sensing that after the country gained
autonomy they would be overrun quickly by the more
sophisticated north.
 With the success of having negotiated Sudanese independence,
Nasser and the RCC moved for Britain to pull out of the Canal
Zone. For Britain the Suez Canal was one of the most important
parts of their empire and was a hub for Middle Eastern,
European and African trade. A previous 1936 treaty should have
limited the number of men in the British garrison to 10,000 men,
but there were more like 80,000 on ground: with 50,000 troops
being needed to protect the 30,000 who ran the base.
26
The Canal Zone
27
Aerial picture of Suez Canal Zone before
1956
28
 By the early 50’s Britain’s presence in the Canal Zone became
untenable with continued opposition and Nasser finally got them to
leave by 18 June 1956, withdrawing all troops and leaving only a few
technicians and administrators to run the place and manage British
ordnance for 7 years after, and with a clause in the treaty that would
leave the door open for Britain to come back in case of trouble in the
region involving the Soviet Union or some other “outside power”.
 Nasser’s star status only rose after he’d successfully managed to
secure the treaty and, just like with Nkrumah, a sort of personality cult
soon developed around him, with radio stations continually singing his
praises to the far reaches of the Arab world.
 His next project, the Aswan Dam, was to be one of the biggest
engineering projects in the world. He turned early on to the Americans
and British for support in getting it built, but his continued anti-Western
rhetoric wasn’t winning him any friends in Washington, and matters
were made even more complex with the dismissal of British advisor to
the Jordanian royal family, Sir John Glubb. The British PM, Anthony
Eden, blamed King Hussein’s sudden dismissal of Glubb on Nasser’s
influence in the region and this put further strain on British-Egypt
relations. It has been documented that Eden at this point was strongly
considering Nasser’s assassination.
29
• From Left to
Right:
Anthony
Eden, British
PM, Sir John
Glubb in
military ware
in service to
Jordan, Sir
John Glubb
in civilian
ware
30
 Then Israel attacked 3 Egyptian army posts in the Gaza Strip in
1955 blowing up their army headquarters there, just after Britain had
cut aid to the Egyptian military in response to Nasser’s anti-Western
propaganda. Nasser saw the attack as part of a Western plot and when
he would get no military assistance from the west he called on the
Soviets. This, at the height of the Cold War era, sent shockwaves
around Western governments.
 Another event would nearly lead the West to war and it was when
Nasser announced plans to nationalise the Suez Canal Company an
Egyptian registered private company with both British and French
shareholders who had run the company since completion of the canal
in 1866. This move was a response to Nasser not getting support for
his High Dam from the west. The canal was also the world’s most
important waterway with 12,000 ships from 45 countries and the main
route for British oil at the time, carrying more than 20 million tons of oil
a year for Britain. Nasser intended that revenue from the canal
would go straight to his High Dam project, but Eden had finally had
enough. He was eager for war, and so was Guy Mollet, the PM of
France. But Washington did not agree with Eden and Mollet, thinking
that the only reason for going to war would be if traffic on the canal
slowed down due to its nationalisation. But traffic and business had
actually increased since the company’s nationalisation.
31
 Desperate to retake control of the area Britain and France then arranged
secretly for Israel to stage an attack on the canal. Britain and France then
issued an ultimatum under pretext to separate the combatants, but Nasser
refused to meet the ultimatum and instead destroyed some ships to block
the canal. Upon hearing of the whole conspiracy the Americans insisted on
Britain’s full withdrawal; Saudi Arabia stopped trading oil; and the Soviets
threatened a missile strike. Nasser was vindicated and the incident only
allowed him to reduce Western influence in Egyptian commercial,
academic and social life, sequestering all foreign banks and companies
and passing laws that required all companies operating in the area to be
Egyptian registered with majority Egyptian ownership and management.
 For Britain the Suez Canal crisis effectively ended their imperial
stranglehold in the Middle East as both their power and influence became
undermined. But this would also be the case in the rest of Africa who now
saw that independence from British rule was possible.
 Nasser would go on to lead Egypt until when he died in 1970 after
suffering a heart attack. He was succeeded by Anwar El Sadat, another
member of the Free Officers, and Egypt continued on in its succession of
military dictatorships. There were 5 million mourners at his funeral
32
 Left to Right:
Aswan High Dam
taken from
space.
Khrushchevat
called it the 8th
wonder of the
world, Aswan
High Dam,
Nasser with
Soviet leader
Khrushchevat,
Nasser with
Algerian
President Ben
Bella
33
 (Left Top):
Anthony
Eden, British
PM
 (Left Bottom):
Guy Mollet,
French PM
 (Right)
Nasser with a
young
Gaddafi
34
• Nasser hailed by his
supporters after announcing
privatisation of Suez Canal
Company
• Nasser giving a destitute
man a job 1959
35
36
BELGIAN CONGO
 On 30 June 1960 – after
a hastily planned
journey toward
independence for a
country unprepared and
ill-equipped, with
virtually no qualified
personnel or stable
political infrastructure –
King Baudouin, the
great uncle of King
Leopold II stood up to
deliver his speech.
King Leopold II of Belgium
37
King Baudouin of Belgium
President Joseph Kasa-Vubu
 The speech was patronising
and praised great uncle
Leopold for his genius. The
speech was badly received
by the Congolese present –
the new president, Joseph
Kasa-Vubu, a former priest,
educated by the Catholic
Church, had wanted to
include a final passage in
his speech complimenting
the king but left it out after
being angered by the king’s
speech. The new Prime
Minister, Patrice
Lumumba, was not so
tactful and in his speech
proceeded to berate the
Belgian contingent with a
vitriol that was well received
by the local Congolese.
38
 The Belgians, enraged by Lumumba’s speech, debated leaving
immediately and flying out for Belgium or boycotting the official
lunch to be held afterwards. In the end they would stay to a cold
and disorganised lunch. The Belgian press would afterwards
label Lumumba a dangerous extremist.
 While King Baudouin had heaped praise on his great uncle the
reality of the man was very much different:
 Leopold II is recognised as an avaricious, ambitious and
devious monarch whose lust for power was widely responsible
for the Scramble for Africa
 He contracted the explorer Henry Morton Stanley who’d just
come back from an impressive journey in the continent. Stanley
journeyed along the Congo River and got over 400 African
chiefs to sign over their territories to him, giving up their
sovereignty to Leopold.
39
 What then followed was a gluttonous raping of the lands
resources. Leopold started first with ivory, even resorting to
kidnapping and then mutilation of hostages if villages didn’t
meet their quota. The symbol for his power came to be the
chicotte – “a whip of raw sun-dried hippopotamus hide, cut into
long, sharp-edged strips and used to flay victims, sometimes to
death.”
 Next came rubber and in only a few years the region upped its
exportation so that it became the world’s largest exporter for a
growing motor industry that needed rubber for car tyres.
 But his excesses finally came to a head and he was forced to
relinquish his “gateau,” as he called it (magnifique gateau
africain), to a new colonial regime that represented an alliance
between the government, the Catholic Church and the big
business and mining corporations. In essence the government
would provide administration, the Church moral and guidance
and education and the business would provide the money
needed for the whole enterprise.
40
• (Above)
Villagers
• (Below)
Victims of
mutilation by
Leopold’s
agents
41
 But the new regime went to great lengths to stifle any
emergence of a black elite, which would have been politically
savvy enough to demand more from them in future. So they
went to great lengths to keep the people barely educated. There
was primary school education, and a few secondary schools,
but no tertiary institutions. In fact the only way to get any formal
education above secondary school level was by becoming a
priest and receiving more education in a Catholic seminary.
 Congolese were encouraged to be clerks, mechanics and
medical assistants, but couldn’t be lawyers, doctors or
architects. The Belgians fully expected that with effective
leadership, and given enough material benefits, the African
population would accept Belgian rule for the rest of their lives.
42
 Nevertheless, a black elite did emerge, but were only concerned
with “being Belgian” – getting more rights for themselves and
ending discrimination against them.
 Patrice Lumumba, a gifted orator, though prone to mercurial
twists of temperament, joined a group of young educated
Congolese and formed a party, the Mouvement National
Congolais (MNC) with an aim to form a popular mass party.
 He only had 4 years at primary school and 1 year technical
training at a school for postal clerks.
 In 1956 he was convicted of embezzlement and spent a year in
prison where he wrote a book.
 In 1957 political activity was beginning to stir, with Joseph KasaVubu (who had once trained as a priest) leading the Abako – a
tribal organisation set up at first to promote the use of the
Kikongo language, but which had grown to demand more
political change. The Abako soon established a strong base in
Leopoldville and the Lower Congo region
43
 Meanwhile, in December 1958 Lumumba, now out of prison and leading
the MNC, was allowed to travel with 2 other companions to Accra for
Nkrumah’s All-African People’s Conference. He left Ghana determined
to make the MNC into a mass party movement that would challenge the
Belgians for independence
 7 days later and intense riots broke out in January 1959. The apparent
cause of the violence was the authorities not granting permission for a
meeting of Abako members to take place, but an official investigation
showed the cause to be rooted in unemployment, overcrowding and
discrimination.
 The Belgians announcing plans for political reform, with some vague
promise on independence, but now that the cat was out of the bag they
could no longer go back to the way things were. The people pressed for
self-determination. By November 1959 there were 53 registered parties,
most created along tribal lines.
 Amongst all of this tribal rivalry only Lumumba’s MNC could claim to
promote Congolese nationalism. Lumumba travelled around the country
giving impassioned speeches, and in a bid to keep the MNC ahead of rival
parties his demands grew ever more extreme. Moderates within his own
party tried to oust him and when that didn’t work they left to form a party of
their own.
44
 Violence broke out in October 1959 after a speech he gave, and
Lumumba was arrested and imprisoned for 6 months for inciting
violence.
 Key areas of the Congo then descended into violence, which the
Belgian authorities found impossible to suppress – there were tribal
conflicts in some areas, in others the people there refused to pay taxes
and live by the law. Fearing an Algerian type war in a situation that was
rapidly deteriorating, the Belgians for the first time would consult the
Congolese for their opinion, and would invite such key figures as
Tshombe, Kasa-Vubu, and Lumumba.
 Excited by the prospect of acquiring power they demanded immediate
elections by 1 June, which would then lead to independence from
Belgium. The most any of them were willing to concede was an extra
30 days of Belgian rule. Fearing the alternative would mean a colonial
war the Belgians acquiesced and agreed to the independence of
Congo on 30 June.
45
 The risks involved were great: the Congo wasn’t like Nigeria or Congo
who had leaders that had participated in politics years before
independence. For the Congolese politics was a new thing. They had
no experience of administration and no personnel to fill key posts in
government. The Belgians had then gambled on a hope that while the
new Congolese politicians would be distracted by the trappings of new
power they would in effect still be running the country. For this plan to
work they would need a pro-Belgian government.
 But pro-Belgian parties fared very badly in the elections. There was no
clear winner – there were just too many parties. Lumumba’s MNC took
the lead with 33 seats out of 137.
 But the MNC had failed to take the key strongholds of Leopoldville and
southern Katanga, and the Belgians were reluctant for Lumumba to
form a government, and they looked instead to Joseph Kasa-Vubu.
However, when Lumumba was able to gain majority support in the
Chambers of Deputies, with 74 out of 137 seats, the Belgians were
obliged to call on him. 5 days before independence then a shaky
coalition of bitter rivals was formed, naming Joseph Kasa-Vubu as nonexecutive president, and Lumumba, at just 35 years and ill-prepared for
office, as new prime minister. At his speech on Independence Day
Lumumba would declare to King Baudouin, “We are no longer your
monkeys.”
46
 However, problems started to emerge after only a few days of
independence. The Congolese army started to voice discontent after
seeing the new wealth displayed by new politicians, people who just
weeks ago had been clerks and salesmen.
 At this point after independence the Congolese army was made up of
25,000 Congolese none of whom were officers. The officers were
Belgians who had remained after transfer of power and still ran things
in the army. The leader of the 1,100-strong Belgian officer corps was
General Emile Janssens – extremely right-wing in his politics he had
made quite clear that he was against any speedup in Africanisation of
the army.
 Riots broke out in the army with soldiers demanding Janssens’
resignation.
 Lumumba responded by firing all Belgian officers in the Congo and
replacing Janssens with a Congolese sergeant, Victor Lundula, who
had last served in WW2. Lumumba also appointed Joseph Mobutu as
his chief of staff.
 Mobutu had served as a clerk in the army, rising to the rank of
sergeant-major, the highest rank that could be afforded to a Congolese
in the army before independence. He was known for informing to the
Belgian authorities on his fellow Congolese. Afterwards, he would make
a lot of money informing for and colluding with the CIA.
47
 In spite of the changes to the army the mutiny spread – whites were
attacked and nuns and priests were singled out for humiliations. In terror
the white populace fled, and the Belgian government finally stepped in. At
first they tried to convince Lumumba to allow them send in troops to
restore the peace and when he refused they sent troops in anyway,
capturing key installations like Leopoldville airport. Lumumba saw this as
the Belgians trying to reimpose their rule and duly announced that as far
as he was concerned the Congo was now at war with Belgium.
 Belgium encouraged Tshombe in his plans to secede from the country. In
11 July, just 11 days after independence, Tshombe announced the
independence of Katanga with Elisabethville as its capital.
 Former officers in the Belgium officer corps now started training a new
Katanga army, though Brussels was actually in support of a unified
Congo. Their intention was to set up a shadow government in Katanga,
and then usher in a Pro-Belgian government in Leopoldville.
 The announcement threw the administration in Leopoldville in disarray –
with the exodus of whites from the army and administration the
government was bereft of expertise.
 Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for help. Showing remarkable
speed they sent in foreign troops, made up mainly of African soldiers, to
restore law and order.
 But Lumumba wanted more than just the restoration of order in his
capital. He also wanted the Belgian troops expelled from the Congo and
Katanga recaptured.
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 After a meeting with Lumumba in Leopoldville, the leader of the UN
operation, Ralph Bunche, an African American who had also won the
Nobel Peace Prize for his UN work, commented on Lumumba,
“Lumumba was crazy and he reacted like a child.”
 The next day Lumumba issued an ultimatum, if Belgian troops were not
expelled by midnight 19 July he would invite the Soviet Union in to
help. This was at the height of the Cold War, with America anxious over
the threat of Cuba. US officials faced the possibility of “another Cuba.”
This time the threat was a communist takeover in Africa. At this point
the United States government started to look at the possibility of an
assassination.
 Lumumba was making no friends, and in a state visit to the US he
further alienated himself from everyone. In one incident he even asked
the State Department’s Congo desk officer for a female blond
companion to spend the night with.
 His erratic behaviour was beginning to be looked at as a threat to the
nation, and even within his own administration deep rifts were
emerging.
 Eventually the Belgian troops were removed, but Lumumba was again
threatening the UN. This time he wanted help with forcefully reclaiming
Katanga. The UN officials explained that their mandate was to restore
law and order, as well as provide a civilian force for administration,
which they’d done, and not to interfere with the Congo’s internal affairs.
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 Lumumba reacted angrily and on 15 August, facing yet another
secession, this time from the diamond rich Kasai, he finally requested
military assistance from the soviets.
 At this point the CIA began considering plans to kill him.
 The campaign into Kasai eventually led to what an observer described
as, “having the characteristics of the crime of genocide.”
 As moves were being made by both the Americans and Belgians to
terminate Lumumba they were also increasingly looking toward
President Kasa-Vubu for a way out.
 Kasa-Vubu was only interested in his new found status as president,
and was described by the US ambassador as, “not very bright and lazy,
content to appear occasionally in his new general’s uniform,” but after
a push from Congolese supporters, Belgians, and the Americans, he
finally stirred himself up and on 5 September he announced that he
was “revoking” Lumumba’s appointment as PM and appointing
Joseph Ileo in his place. Afterwards, he went to bed.
 Lumumba, upon hearing the announcement, rushed to the radio station
where he accused Kasa-Vubu of treason and dismissed him as
president.
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 Factions had now been set up within and without the Leopoldville
administration, and the UN warned of the “imminent possibility of a
complete disintegration of authority.”
 By 14 September, with the connivance of CIA and UN officials, Colonel
Joseph Mobutu, the 29 year-old army chief of staff took control,
suspending the activities of all politicians for a year, and ejecting all
Russian and Czech personnel from the country.
 Mobutu’s coup only caused more divisions within government as he
retained Kasa-Vubu as president but removed all Lumumba supporters.
 For his part Lumumba retreated to his prime minister’s residence, with
an outer ring of UN soldiers guarding him.
 He continued to remain erratic, and finally with the US heavily pushing
the UN, the UN officially recognised Kasa-Vubu’s presidency.
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 Lumumba decided to leave his residence, where he enjoyed UN
protection, and head for Stanleyville, where his main base of political
support was, in order to set up a new rival regime there.
 But for his insistence on stopping to harangue villagers on every turn
he would have probably made it to Stanleyville, but he was captured on
1 December, and sent back to Leopoldville.
 Mobutu and Kasa-Vubu continued to be perplexed with the charisma
and authority this man had even from jail where they saw how effective
he was at causing rancour amongst the soldiers guarding him, and
after plotting they sent him to President Tshombe’s Elisabethville in
Katanga, knowing this was effectively a death sentence.
 He was beaten very badly by soldiers (both Belgian and Congolese)
and the president himself – his butler would later claim Tshombe was
covered in blood when he got back – and then finally driven out to a
deserted spot and shot. In a cover up attempt by the Belgians that
lasted up to the year 2000 before the plot was uncovered by Dutch
journalist Ludo de Witte, the Belgians and their Congolese
conspirators were increasingly worried about the discovery of their
complicity in his murder and dug up his body from where they’d buried
it. They hacked his body to pieces, and dumped the pieces into drums
of sulphuric acid, and then ground his skull, bones and teeth and
spread the ashes on the road on their return journey.
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 (Top Left)
President
Kasa-Vubu in
military attire
 (Top Right)
Joseph Mobutu
 (Bottom) Moise
Tshombe
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L’AFRIQUE NOIRE
 Although the French had trouble in the Maghreb (Algeria,
Tunisia, and Morocco) they considered the 14 countries in their
L’Afrique Noire to be secure.
 They had successfully created a black elite on the terms
that these people abandon their heritage and affiliations to
traditional religions, so that they were for all intents and
purposes Frenchmen.
 In the end this black elite were not seeking independence from
their European colonial rulers as their other counterparts around
Africa were. Instead political aspiration centred around them
trying to get the same kinds of rights that they enjoyed to
the rest of their people.
 2 persons of note in L’Afrique Noire were Léopold Senghor of
Senegal and Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire.
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• (Top) Leopold Senghor, poet
and academic
• (Bottom) Houphouët-Boigny,
who was from a rich
aristocratic family with much
means
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 Both were strong supporters of France and its “civilising mission” in
Africa, and both would eventually become ministers in the French
government. In addition Senghor would also gain fame as both a poet
and intellectual, formulating a black consciousness philosophy termed
negritude that would be a precursor for L’Afrique Noire nationalism.
 But while both men agreed on the need to keep African French colonies
close to France, as the colonies gained in massive investment from
with as much as 70% of public investment coming from France, they
differed in the direction they thought their countries should go.
 Senghor believed the future lay in, “large groupings of states working
together in cooperation with European powers. What was needed was
the mobilisation of European resources to help Africa combat poverty,
disease, and ignorance,” (Martin Meredith’s The State of Africa) and he
was against the break up of the 2 federations in black Africa – the AOF
(Afrique Occidentale Française) made up of 8 West African territories
including Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, and Afrique Equitoriale
Française, which was made up of a group of 4 territories in equatorial
Africa. He condemned Kwame Nkrumah’s views as being too radical,
and advised the Tunisians not to sever ties with France. He also voted
for Senegalese fighters to join in the war against the FLN in Algeria.
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 As for Houphouët-Boigny, while Nkrumah made political reform his
main target for Ghana, Houphouët-Boigny would make economic
development his main focus. For him it would be a disadvantage for
Africa to break away from France considering all the economic
advantages (through trade deals and quota guarantees, as well as
government subsidies) there were to be gained in alignment.
 The economy of Cote d’Ivoire increased and became stronger as
cocoa and coffee production increased. By 1945 the country would be
the largest of exporters in all French West African territories, accounting
for 45% of the total, with Senegal making 35% in mostly peanuts.
 His disagreement with Senghor was over the breaking up of the
federations. While Senghor argued that the union of African states with
a collective population of 20 million people would be more formidable
than individual states with populations of 3 million, Houphouët-Boigny
was instead more concerned with the monetary contributions the Ivory
Cost was making to the union, calculating that the money could be
used instead to cut taxes. For him Cote d’Ivoire was strong enough to
stand on its own.
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 Houphouët-Boigny succeeded in breaking up the federations in the end,
after he’d won a full cabinet seat in France with greater influence.
Senghor was opposed to the break up of the union between the AOF
and Afrique Equitoriale Française and accused France of trying to
“balkanise” Africa by dividing up the stronger unions formed in favour
of smaller and weaker states. In truth this was exactly what lawmakers
in France wanted to do, who wanted to stop powerful politicians like
Houphouët-Boigny, with his powerful RDA, from having a say in French
metropolitan politics.
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 After the crash of the Fourth Republic Charles de Gaulle, agreed L’Afrique Noire
was in need of constitutional reform and made clear to her territories that they
could have independence as long as it was understood that France would
remove every form of aid they enjoyed under Union Française.
 Even though Senghor and Houphouët-Boigny were in bitter opposition when it
came to the union between French African territories they were in agreement
that it would not benefit them to secede from France. The French territories were
vastly reliant on France for investment, even Senghor’s Senegal, and only Cote
d’Ivoire at the time was seen to be economically viable.
 Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, brought up in trade union politics, did not
agree with his counterparts. Sékou Touré was not an intellectual like Senghor or
from a wealthy family like Houphouët-Boigny and tended to side more with the
revolutionary-type politics of Kwame Nkrumah.
 Touré had built up his Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG) until it became a
powerful mass movement. In the 1957 election his PDG won 56 out of 60 seats
and Touré at 35 years old became prime minister. On a visit by Gaulle he
attacked France’s colonial record stating of self-determination, “We prefer
poverty in freedom to riches in slavery.”
 Insulted, Gaulle called for a referendum for self-determination. In 28
September 1958 Guinea voted for independence (11 territories had voted
overwhelmingly to remain a part of de Gaulle’s Franco-African Community.)
Four days later and Guinea was proclaimed an independent republic on 2
October 1958.
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Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea
• Sékou Touré
(Top Right and
Left)
• Sékou Touré
and wife on
EBONY
magazine
cover (Bottom
Left)
• Sékou Touré
with Fidel
Castro
(Bottom Right)
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 In a show of petulant anger the French removed everything and
anything that wasn’t nailed down or that couldn’t be removed
was damaged – windows were broken and furniture striped
bare. When Sékou Touré moved into the former governor’s
house he found windows smashed, and pictures and crockery
removed.
 The French also moved out skilled labour en masse out of
Guinea – military doctors who also looked after the civilian
population and the civil service all left the country – but for 150
French made up mostly of volunteers.
 Sékou Touré turned the communists for assistance and was
hailed a hero by critics of colonialism. Kwame Nkrumah offered
to provide a huge loan and Western mining companies sought
to get at the country’s vast mineral resources.
 Far from being daunted by the position he found himself in
Sékou Touré encouraged the other nations in the Franco-African
Community to push for full autonomy.
 A wave of change thus swept through the remaining members of
the Community and one by one they baulked to demands.
Houphouët-Boigny was the last to come around to the idea of
Independence.
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 In 1960 all remaining 11 members of the Community, along with the 2
territories entrusted to France by the United Nations: Cameron and
Togo, were given independence.
 This steady journey toward independence of L’Afrique Noire territories
had seen the dissolving of unions between member states (the AOF
and Afrique Equitoriale Française and afterwards the Franco-African
Community) so that after independence there was very little cooperation among the individual countries and each just became weak
rivals. All of them had been hugely dependent on French investment
and only Cote d’Ivoire was seen as economically viable.
 In reality after independence not much changed because the people in
leadership had been accustomed to collaborating with the former
French administration. Now, after independence, they continued to rule
but were now mostly preoccupied with gaining and consolidating power
than developing their newborn nations.
 Houphouët-Boigny, meanwhile, after serving in 6 consecutive French
governments, returned home to Cote d’Ivoire to take up the mantle of
leadership. He obtained French aid to build his presidential palace – the
final bill costing well over $3 million.
 At this stage France had lost all of its territories in Africa except Algeria,
whose 12 départements were still a part of France under the 1958
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constitution.
CONCLUSION
A few years ago TIME reported Kenya had one of the world’s fastest growing
economies, but soon afterwards we had political disruption in the region. South Africa
recently hosted the World Cup, but only months afterwards were dealing with a miners’
strike that has cast the country in a bad light, because of their police’s ruthless
handling of it. Africa will have just as many setbacks as developed countries, but the
fact is that her political institutions are still relatively young and will always leave
investors worried any time they are challenged. No one thought the London riots last
year would plunge the country into civil war, but in unstable regions in the world
investors are more likely to pull their money out. In truth every society must go through
a kind of evolution where class systems will be invariably created and a ruling class
secured. This evolution was interrupted in African societies by the Scramble for Africa
by European colonial powers. It meant already established classes and cultures were
destroyed and new, artificial ones created in order to support the new colonial
administrations. It also meant that different ethnic groups, some of whom were
historically enemies, were forced together in order to form countries for easier
dispensation of colonial administration. By the 50’s, after WW2, there was too much
change in the world, especially with the emerging of a new power in the east, the
Soviet Union. Europe had to cut its loses and run rather than risk entering into colonial
wars or risk forcing their colonies to seek Russian help. New countries thus emerged
from this climate, many of whom were ill-prepared, and even for those few who were
prepared there had been too much festering antagonism for the new countries to
survive long. For Nigeria it was the British policy of “Divide and Rule” that would
eventually set the major ethnicities against each other after independence and would
lead to civil war.
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In the aftermath of all these wars the continent is badly underdeveloped with
aging infrastructure, and a political structure that still continues to be shaky at
best.
But the story of Africa is relevant to us all in a contemporary context, and
not just to history buffs or sympathisers to the African problem. Yesterday men
played with an entire continent. Today they play with companies. Energy prices
are hiked up even though oil prices have come down. Banks cheat their
customers and invest their money in schemes that appear more casino-like than
like pragmatic options for the fiscally astute. Companies choose profits first over
their workforce and lay them off without much thought given to their rights. Even
shareholders, who have traditionally been the ones to gain in decisions being
made on their behalf, even shareholders are being lied to. The system seems
rigged, and the media is part of the game, constantly feeding us distractions
(with a stable diet of reality shows, celebrities, and pseudo-important issues like
who made a racist comment recently to whom) while the real issues are being
neglected – has anyone noticed how the Murdock issue seems to have fizzled
out, and we still aren’t the wiser just how much contact he had with the PM? For
Africa also there are real issues amongst all the distractions: like addressing
gender inequality, infant mortality, attracting foreign investors and making sure
the regions are stable enough to ensure the protection of their investment, and
granting African farmers help to ensure they aren’t being outbid by their stronger
European and American counterparts. There is hope for Africa, but it will all
depend on all of us.
64
THE MIND THAT FATHER MADE & THE
AFRICAN MIST
Available to buy on amazon.co.uk
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