African%20Political%20Systems%20in%20a%20Global%20Context

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African Political Systems in a Global Context

• February 23

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Atlantic Slave Trade and the Triangular Trade

• From the mid-15th century to the late 19th
  century.
• Manufactured and trade goods (cloth, metal goods,
  guns) from Europe to Africa. Slaves from Africa
  to the Americas. Produce from the slave-labour
  plantations (cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses,
  rum) to Europe.

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Scramble for Africa

• Before 1880, European colonization of Africa was
  quite limited (though South Africa was one
  exception).
• At the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, the European
  powers agreed to some ground rules for to
  colonization and partition of Africa.
• By 1914, the entire continent of Africa was
  partitioned and colonized by Europeans, except
  for Ethiopia and Liberia.

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Independence

• Decolonization took place rapidly for much of the
  continent.
• Ghana, 1957
• Thirty-two independent African countries emerged
  in the decade after 1957.

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Chris Allen, Understanding African Politics

• Decolonization and Clientelist Politics
• Clientelist Crisis
• Crisis Resolved Centralized-Bureaucratic
  Politics
• The Centralized-Bureaucratic State Challenged
  Democratic Renewal
• Crisis Unresolved Spoils Politics
• Post-Spoils Reconstruction Populist Revolt
• Terminal Spoils State Collapse and Endemic
  Violence

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South Africa Colonization

• Dutch colonization, 1650s
• British annexation, 1806
• Discovery of diamonds in 1871 and gold in 1886
• Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902
• Act of Union, 1910 created a self-governing
  Dominion within the British Empire.

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South Africa Makings of Apartheid

• Legal foundation of racial discrimination and
  segregation
• Mines and Work Act, 1911
• Land Act, 1913
• Native Urban Areas Act, 1923
• National Party elected and Apartheid introduced,
  1948

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The Apartheid Regime

• The Population Registration Act, 1950 classified
  every citizen into one of four racial categories
  African, coloured, Indian or white.
• Strict segregation of public facilities and
  residence through homelands, townships
• Travel controlled through pass laws and influx
  controls
• An extremely segmented labour market, with huge
  wage gaps and opportunities limited and tightly
  controlled for Africans
• Sharpeville massacre, 1960
• Banning of African National Congress and
  Pan-Africanist Congress, 1960
• Nelson Mandela imprisoned 1962 (released in 1990)
• Soweto uprising, 1976

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Next Week

• The struggle against apartheid
• The release from prison of Nelson Mandela, 1990
• The transition to democracy and the election of
  the African National Congress, 1994
• Assessing post-apartheid South Africa