Download Decolonization

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What were the main factors of decolonization after the WWII in Africa?
What was the Belgian approach to decolonization in Africa?
What was the Portugal approach to decolonization in Africa?
Why had been Namibia decolonized not before 1990?
DECOLONIZATION
Events inside and outside Africa interacted to produce the surge towards independence after 1945. The Second World War itself
provided the immediate context. The war greatly weakened the colonial powers, and brought to the fore the USA, which
opposed European colonial control of Africa. African troops were enrolled to fight in Asia and the Mediterranean, returning with
a deep resentment at post-war conditions and the continuing colonial subordination. The victory over fascism and the
enunciation of the Atlantic Charter also encouraged thoughts of liberation within the continent. Economic change intensified as
both the war and its aftermath stimulated demand, and there was a surge of African migration to the towns. Economic and
social grievances multiplied, especially in relation to the inadequacy of urban facilities and lack of educational opportunities.
Among peasant farmers, prices, marketing arrangements and new levels of bureaucratic interference aroused intense
resentment. Owing to labour migration, links between town and country were close and provided opportunities for newly
militant nationalist parties in the more developed colonies, such as the Gold Coast and Côte d’Ivoire, to put pressure on the
colonial authorities. For the democratic European powers the increasing African discontent raised both the moral and material
costs of maintaining colonial rule. In any case, with the exception of Portugal, political control was no longer regarded as
essential to the safeguarding of economic interests, particularly as capitalism was becoming increasingly internationalized and
the concept of possessing colonies was beginning to appear outmoded.
In French Africa the Second World War helped directly to set in train events that were ultimately to lead to independence.
Following the German defeat of France in 1940, AEF repudiated the Vichy Government and declared its support for the ‘Free
French’ under Gen. Charles de Gaulle. The Brazzaville Conference convened by de Gaulle in 1944 spoke in general terms of a
new deal for Africans, while the new French Constitution adopted in 1946 provided for direct African elections to the French
Assemblée nationale. Political parties established themselves throughout francophone Africa, although their demands were for
fuller rights of citizenship within the French state rather than for independence. Attempts by the French Government to thwart
African political progress altogether were unsuccessful. The 1956 loi cadre (enabling law) introduced universal adult suffrage,
but, to the dismay of many nationalist politicians, the franchise was applied individually to the separate states of the two
federations, so that the structures of AOF and AEF were allowed to wither away. In 1958 de Gaulle, still attempting to salvage
something of the greater France concept, organized a referendum in which only Guinea voted for full independence. By 1960,
however, the remaining AOF and AEF territories, as well as Madagascar, had insisted upon receiving de jure independence, even
if, despite outward appearances, they remained tied economically and militarily to France.
The events that ended the French empire in sub-Saharan Africa were hastened by concurrent developments in neighbouring
British colonies, especially the Gold Coast. With no settler communities to placate, decolonization in British West Africa
proceeded relatively smoothly, although much more rapidly than had been contemplated. Popular grievances gave a new edge
to the political demands of the now sizeable educated middle classes, and the United Kingdom’s cautious post-war moves
towards granting internal self-government were soon perceived as inadequate even by the British themselves. When police fired
on an ex-serviceman’s peaceful demonstration in Accra (Gold Coast) in 1948, the resulting unrest, strikes and rural agitation led
to major policy changes. Sensing the new mood, the militant nationalist Kwame Nkrumah formed the Convention People’s Party
(CPP) in 1949 with the slogan 'self-government now’. Its populist appeal enabled it, in 1951, to overcome the more moderate
United Gold Coast Convention party (of which Nkrumah had earlier been General Secretary) in an election based on a new and
more democratic Constitution. Although in jail for sedition, Nkrumah was released and invited to become head of an
independent Government. This dramatic development, followed by the granting of independence in 1957 as Ghana (whose
boundaries also took in the former mandated territory of British Togoland), had repercussions throughout black Africa. (In fact,
the Sudan had achieved independence in the previous year, when the Anglo-Egyptian condominium was brought to an end, but
this had attracted little outside attention.) Nkrumah sought, with some success, to intensify African revolutionary sentiment still
further by organizing an African Peoples’ Conference in Accra in 1958. Nigeria's progress towards independence, meanwhile,
was complicated by its enormous size and colonially imposed regional structure. Rival regional and ethnic nationalisms
competed, and no one party could achieve the degree of overall dominance enjoyed by the CPP in the Gold Coast. None the less,
a federal Nigeria became independent in 1960, followed by Sierra Leone (1961) and The Gambia (1965).
Belgium initially remained aloof from the movement towards decolonization. It appeared to believe that its relatively advanced
provision for social welfare and the rapid postwar economic growth in the Belgian Congo would enable it to avoid making
political concessions and to maintain the authoritarian style of government that had characterized its administration of the
territory since it took over from the Belgian King. The Belgian Congo, however, could not be insulated — any more than any
other part of Africa — from the anti-colonial influences at work throughout the continent. From 1955 onwards nationalist
feeling spread rapidly, despite the difficulties in building effective national parties in such a huge country. Urban riots in 1959 led
to a precipitate reversal in Belgian policy: at the Brussels Round Table Conference in January 1960 it was abruptly decided that
independence was to follow in only six months. Not surprisingly, the disintegration of political unity and order in the country
speedily followed the termination of Belgian administration. Belgian rule in the mandated territory of Ruanda-Urundi ended in
1962, and was followed by its division into the separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi.
Meanwhile, in eastern and southern Africa, the United Kingdom was also encountering difficulties in implementing
decolonization. In Uganda, where its authority rested to a large extent on an alliance with the kingdom of Buganda, British
policies had tended to stratify existing ethnic divisions. The deeply ingrained internal problems that preceded independence in
1962 continued to beset Uganda for the next 25 years. In contrast, however, the nationalist movement led by Julius Nyerere in
Tanganyika was exceptionally united, and there was little friction prior to independence in 1961. Three years later Tanganyika
united with Zanzibar (which obtained independence in 1963) as Tanzania. In Kenya, as in other colonies with significant settler
minorities, the process of decolonization was troubled. In the post-war period the settlers of Kenya sought political domination
and worked to suppress emergent African nationalism. African frustrations, particularly about access to land among the Kikuyu,
and growing unrest among the urban poor, led in 1952 to the declaration of a state of emergency and the violent revolt the
British knew as ‘Mau Mau'. This was fiercely suppressed, but only with the help of troops from the United Kingdom, a factor that
helped finally to destroy the settlers' political credibility. Kenya eventually achieved independence in 1963 under the leadership
of the veteran nationalist Jomo Kenyatta. Vilified by the settlers in the 1950s as a personification of evil, Kenyatta, firstly as
Prime Minister and subsequently as President, in fact strove to protect the economic role of the settler population and to
maintain good relations with the United Kingdom.
Settler interests were more obstructive further to the south. The whites of Southern Rhodesia had obtained internal selfgovernment as early as 1923, but in 1953 the colony was allowed by the United Kingdom to become the dominant partner in a
federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasa-land. Conflict followed with African nationalists in the two northern territories,
and the federation eventually collapsed in 1963, when the United Kingdom had to concede that its policy of decolonization
could only effectively apply to the two northern territories whose Governments it still controlled. In 1964 Nyasaland became
independent as Malawi and Northern Rhodesia as Zambia. When the United Kingdom then refused white-minority rule
independence to Southern Rhodesia, its settler-dominated Government, led by Ian Smith, unilaterally declared independence
(1965). This was resisted by the United Kingdom and condemned by the UN, but an ineffectual campaign of economic sanctions
was defeated by support for the Smith regime from neighbouring South Africa and Portugal. African nationalists eventually
succeeded in organizing the guerrilla war that, in the 1970s, paved the way for a negotiated settlement. With Robert Mugabe as
its leader, the country became independent as Zimbabwe (1980), a development that owed much to the collapse of Portuguese
rule in Africa after 1974.
During the lengthy dictatorship of Dr Antonio de Oliveira Salazar Portugal regarded its African colonial possessions as
inalienable, and in 1951 they were declared to be overseas provinces. However, intense political repression failed to prevent the
emergence of armed resistance movements in Angola (1961), Guinea-Bissau (1963) and Mozambique (1964). Most successfully
in Guinea-Bissau, under the leadership of Amilcar Cabral, these guerrilla movements succeeded in mobilizing rural support.
Eventually, in 1974, following the military overthrow of the Portuguese regime, progress towards internal democratization was
accompanied by a determination to implement an accelerated policy of decolonization. In Angola, where the divided nationalist
movement provided opportunities for external intervention on opposite sides by South African and Cuban forces, independence
proved difficult to consolidate. Mozambique also suffered greatly from South Africa’s policy of destabilizing its newly
independent neighbours.
During this period South Africa was itself conducting a colonial war in Namibia, which it continued to occupy in defiance of the
UN after it had terminated the mandate in 1966. The war against the South West African People’s Organisation of Namibia
continued until a negotiated settlement finally led to independence in 1990, effectively concluding the colonial era in Africa.
DATES OF INDEPENDENCE OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES
In Chronological Order of Independence
Ethiopia
Liberia
Egypt
Libya
Sudan
Morocco
Tunisia
Ghana
Guinea
Cameroon
Togo
Mali
Senegal
Madagascar
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
(as the Congo)
Somalia
Benin (as Dahomey)
Niger
Burkina Faso (as Upper Volta)
Cote d’Ivoire
Chad
The Central African Republic
The Republic of the Congo (CongoBrazaville)
Gabon
Nigeria
Mauritania
Sierra Leone
AD 100 (Aksum)
26 July 1847
28 Feb. 1922
24 Dec. 1951
1 Jan. 1956
2 March 1956
20 March 1956
6 March 1957
2 Oct. 1958
1 Jan. 1960
27 April 1960
20 June 1960
20 June 1960
26 June 1960
Tanzania (as Tanganyika)
Rwanda
Burundi
Algeria
Uganda
Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania)
Kenya
Malawi
Zambia
The Gambia
Botswana
Lesotho
Mauritius
Swaziland
9 Dec. 1961
1 July 1962
1 July 1962
3 July 1962
9 Oct. 1962
10 Dec. 1963
12 Dec. 1963
6 July 1964
24 Oct. 1964
18 Feb. 1965
30 Sept. 1966
4 Oct. 1966
12 March 1968
6 Sept. 1968
30 June 1960
Equatorial Guinea
12 Oct. 1968
1 July 1960
1 Aug. 1960
3 Aug. 1960
5 Aug. 1960
7 Aug. 1960
11 Aug. 1960
13 Aug. 1960
Guinea-Bissau
Mozambique
Cape Verde
The Comoros
Sáo Tomé and Príncipe
Angola
Seychelles
10 Sept. 1974
25 June 1975
5 July 1975
6 July 1975s
12 July 1975
11 Nov. 1975
29 June 1976
15 Aug. 1960
Djibouti
27 June 1977
17 Aug. 1960
1 Oct. 1960
28 Nov. 1960
27 April 1961
Zimbabwe
Namibia
Eritrea
South Sudan
18 April 1980
21 March 1990
24 May 1993
9 July 2011