Independence in Africa

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Independence in Africa

• SY26C

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Leaders in the struggle
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Why independence?

• Late 40s/early 50s, British and French
  considering independence
• Rising costs of administering colonies
• Independence movements in other regions (esp.
  Asia)
• Depression and WW2 economic crisis
• Pressure from UN
• Doubt within European countries
• Growth of African nationalism

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How independence?

• Europeans gave over control quickly
• In order to retain as much political and
  especially economic power as possible
• less conflict between rulers and nationalists
• Europeans able to determine inclusion/exclusion
  in negotiations
• Difficulty controlling rebellions

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African nationalism

• What the multitudes wantedwas not a flag for
  the people or an anthem for the people, nearly so
  much as they wanted bread for the people, and
  health and schools for the people...The jubilant
  crowds celebrating independence were not inspired
  by a national consciousness that demanded the
  nation (Basil Davidson)

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African nationalism

• Unlike European nationalism
• Not about shared ethnicity
• For end to colonial rule
• Against racism, racial arrogance
• Patriotism/nationality ? equality of status,
  independence, modernisation, economic development
  
• Maintained loyalty to ethnic group
• Desire to maintain European political structures

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Pre-cursors to African nationalism

• Resistance to conquest
• Religion
• Islam modern and removed from colonisers
• African Christian churches
• millenarian radical change imminent to improve
  lives
• Xhosa 1956 in Cape Colony after repeated defeats
  led to millenarian revelation led to starvation

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Pre-cursors to African nationalism

• W. Africa in old trading areas
• political participation municipal level,
  legislative councils
• French colonies had representative in French
  National Assembly
• combined with pressure groups
• e.g. Western-educated elite chiefs in Gold
  Coast ? Aborigines Rights Protection Society

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Pre-cursors to African nationalism

• Rebellions about specific grievances sometimes
  ? generalised rebellion
• e.g. Gbaya in C.A.R. 1927-30 against forced
  labour and crop production ? re-conquest of area
• e.g. Eastern Nigeria (Igbo) against expansion of
  head tax
• women led rebellion (55 women killed)

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Early nationalism

• Earliest right after WW2
• Dissatisfaction wartime shortages
• Western-educated militant elite returning
• Before this, elite attempts to reform system
• WW2 intensified ideas about nationalism
• questioning of white superiority
• war as resistance against racial superiority
• UN advocacy of political independence
• In context of greater expectations, colonisers
  trying to push through new rules and regulations
  ? discontent, push for complete independence

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Development of nationalism

• Post-WW2 Western-style political parties by
  Western-educated elite in alliance with petty
  bourgeoisie with mass participation
• Colonisers retreating - allowing small gains in
  self-government
• 1944-48 parties emerging with mass support
• e.g. National Council of Nigeria
• e.g. Rassemblement Démocratique Africaine (French
  W. Africa)

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Independence

• More peaceful than other regions
• Libya (1951) and Egypt (1952) first
• Ghana (Gold Coast) in 1957
• 1960 14 countries independent
• By 1966, only 6 countries not independent

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Independence on the continent
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Independence

• Britain
• W. Africa politicians pressing for independence
• 1951 Kwame Nkrumah released from jail (sedition)
• ? premier under new constitution that gave powers
  of self-government to elected legislature
• independence inevitable
• E. and C. Africa different white settlers
• Experiments with multi-racialism in 1950s
• African pressure for one-man-one-vote increased ?
  independence 1958

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Independence

• White settler societies
• Rhodesia
• legislature controlled by whites, already
  self-governing
• had to defend its borders
• British refused independence
• ? 1965 Rhodesia declared independence
• Guerrilla movements
• 1979 elections ? Zimbabwe
• South Africa
• 1994 ANC won first non-racial election

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Independence

• France
• 1946 colonial reforms ? increase in African
  representatives in National Assembly
• de Gaulle self-government not independence
• 1960 major French colonies moving towards
  independence
• Belgium
• Could not keep out nationalist influences
• Believed if allowed independence, could maintain
  economic and political interests
• Army mutiny
• Eventual ruler was dictator Mobutu Sese Seko

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Independence

• Portugal
• Guerrilla movements started in 1962 in Angola,
  1964 Mozambique
• After Portuguese dictatorship overthrown ?
  independence to mainland African colonies
• Mozambique, Angola 1975

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Post-independence

• The fifty or so states of the colonial
  partition, each formed and governed as though
  their peoples possessed no history of their own,
  became fifty or so nation-states formed and
  governed on European models, chiefly the models
  of Britain and France. (Basil Davidson)

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Post-independence

• Europeans left Africa weak, badly integrated,
  with distorted economies
• no attempt at making Africa self-sufficient
• Hasty independence thus little preparation for
  self-rule
• Democratic government models alien, hastily
  superimposed

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Post-independence

• Political legacy
• authoritarian structures of state
• power structure to control the population,
  exploit natural resources, and maintain
  government and fellow Europeans
• legislative councils dominated by an official
  majority
• trappings of authority
• legitimacy not conferred by popular acceptance or
  backing

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Post-independence

• Thus African leaders assumed idea that
  authoritarianism was appropriate mode of rule
• concentration of power in single political party
• personal rule by President
• no free and fair elections
• more reliance on administrative bureaucracies
• intolerance of dissent
• Thus the independent African state was
• unstable, susceptible to coups
• inefficient
• mismanaged
• corrupt

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Post-independence

• Internal conflict within nationalist movements
• ethnic, regional, ideological differences
• Fragile national unity
• Ethnic groups often pitted against each other
  during colonialism to maintain control
• Identification with ethnic group first
• Border partitioning hindered national
  consciousness
• e.g. French created Upper Volta in 1920,
  dismembered it in 1932, re-established it in 1947
• e.g. French broke up federations of W. Africa and
  Equatorial Africa right before independence,
  against wishes of the inhabitants

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Post-independence

• No national traditions, symbols, consciousness
• Economics
• underdeveloped industrial structure
• very little capital
• few natural resources
• economic dependence on Europe and West
• High expectations from the people
• Inexperienced government bureaucrats, leaders

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Post-independence

• Political insecurity
• demands on the state
• limited economic resources
• favouring of particular ethnic groups in power
  structure ? tribalism (ethnic politicisation)
• Tribalism ? main means of expressing dissent
• Insecurity ? centralisation of power

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Post-independence

• Power maintained through
• elimination/limitation of opposition
• expansion of bureaucratic agencies and security
  organisations
• maintenance and expansion of taxation systems of
  rural cash crop producers
• patronage

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Post-independence

• Patron-client relationships
• Building support, defusing opposition
• Co-opt key figures into government
• grant import-export licenses, government
  contracts, monopolies, etc
• Emerged from politics of anti-colonialism
• entered nationalist movements with promises of
  personal gain at independence

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Post-independence

• Justification of authoritarianism by African
  leaders
• national unity, economic development
• In accordance with donor agencies requirements
  for assistance programs
• ? most countries one-party states by late 1960s

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Military intervention

• Militarys importance in maintaining power ?
  powerful in its own right
• Military intervention justified by
• Unmet demands of the public
• Conspicuous spending by elite
• Military officers ambition
• Poor pay and conditions
• 1952 - 1984 70 successful coups in 30 countries
• Only Malawi hasnt had military coup
• Act like the previous regime

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African states in crisis

• Development inhibited by
• Direction of money to non-productive elite
• Corruption
• Mismanagement
• Inefficiency
• Decline in contributions to state (i.e. informal
  economy)
• Structural adjustment

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African states in crisis

• Structural adjustment
• Reordered the state
• Relations between rulers and ruled, and within
  ruling elite changed
• Food price increase
• Salary freeze
• Further impoverishment of rural poor and working
  class
• Resistance, revolts
• Repression
• Reluctant reform

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African states in crisis

• External economic developments
• drop in commodity prices
• increase in export prices
• high costs of petroleum
• rise in population
• end of Cold War ? less aid
• inability to meet budget
• infrastructure, education, health compromised
• variations across continent

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Other development issues

• Natural disasters
• Disease

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Optimism?

• 1990s remarkable political change
• multi-party system/allowance of opposition
• regimes fell (e.g. Namibia, Somalia, Ethiopia)
• But same social and economic context
• Uneven political reform
• Manipulation of electoral reform laws
• Monopoly of campaign resources, interfering with
  polls
• Structural adjustment, declining strategic
  importance, existence of other markets for their
  goods ? economic marginalisation
• Also, changes in international political arena
• declining external pressure to democratise