AFRICA, A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
#7: THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
Basil Davidson, narrator
(VC0897, vol.  4/a;  approx. 50 mins, not counting the dated material at the end on South Africa)

• The origins of African nationalism and development pressures:
  • World War II pledges of self-determination like the Atlantic Charter (Roosevelt & Churchill); "important and trusted enough to fight and die, but not to govern themselves"
  • WWII experience of fighting alongside Europeans.  "No man is a hero to his valet."
  • Rapid urban growth and acculturation of Africans into urban society (as opposed to village/tribal society):  mass audience
  • Education and acculturation producing pressure;  ideals of Locke and the Enlightenment were learned and taken seriously.
• The economic relations between Europe and Africa: the exchange of raw materials for manufactured goods; colonialism and (e.g., the British Commonwealth) neo-colonialism; "terms of trade" issues
• The rise of new political parties and forces demanding self-government.
• The latent conflict between the demand for national self-government (political development seen as national identity) and Kwame Nkrumah's call for "internationalism" / "Pan-Africanism" (political development seen as international cooperation)
• The distinct pattern of fierce conflict within "settler colonies": Kenya, Algeria, Mozambique, South Africa. The issues of land, freedom, and education.  Notice also how similar the conflicts here are to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians (and, earlier, the conflict between the French settlers in Vietnam and the Viet-cong forces).  One common pattern is the discounting of native lives by the colonizers, as in Kenya, where there was horror over the 50 white settlers killed and little mention of the 9,000 Black rebels (and civilians) killed.
• Issues of "neo-colonial" control by European powers after independence
• The Belgian Congo exemplifying Samuel Huntington's definition of political development as political stability
• The omnipresence of coups and other military intervention in politics
• The absence of any revenge upon the European settlers, officials, or others after independence
• The conflict between traditional leaders and the new, youth-led independence movements
• Aid by Soviet bloc, which provided equipment, diplomatic recognition, money, and even forces.

There are too many details to remember, but you need to remember the major themes, not the details: that African countries were colonies but are now independent; that they became independent with a lot of bloodshed sometimes; that these struggles affect their current politics; that the settler colonies were particularly resistant to independence; that the colonial powers exploited the colonies even after independence (in the system called "neocolonialism").

• The Gold Coast (now Ghana; capitol: Accra;  independent 1951, 1957): Kwame Nkrumah [d. 1972]; Jerry Rawlings
• Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe; capitol: Harare;  "UDI" [Unilateral Declaration of Independence"] from British Commonwealth by white settlers, 1965): Robert Mugabe; Ian Smith
• Kenya (capitol: Nairobi): Jomo Kenyatta [d. 1978]; "Mau-mau" rebellion ("Land and Freedom Party"); Kikuyu tribe [joined by the Meru & Emba tribes. These three tribes had been expelled from the fertile highlands north of Nairobi and, to preserve the settlers' monopoly, forbidden to grow cotton, coffee, or xx.⁽¹⁾ Permission to grow these crops was a political reward to friendly chiefs. Some indigenous Africans were allowed to farm on the settlers' lands as tenant farmers; the others were placed in "reserves" {reservations} (Schillington History of Africa, p.388). Note the use of Samburu tribesmen to hunt down the rebels, reflecting the standard "divide and conquer" tactic of colonial rule.]
• Tanzania (capitol: Dar es Salaam): Julius Nyerere
• Nigeria (capitol: originally Lagos, then moved to Abuja)
• Algeria (capitol: Algiers): Charles DeGaulle, President of France; DeGaulle's "betrayal" of the Algerian settlers⁽²⁾ was the background of the thriller, Day of the Jackal.
• Senegal (capitol: Dakar): Leopold Senghor
• Belgian Congo (now Congo; capitol: Kinshasa): Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba; President Kasavubu; Mobutu
• Organization of African Unity [OAU, founded 1963], located first in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then in Accra, Ghana.
• Guinea-Bissau (capitol: Bissau): Amilcar Cabral [d. 1973]; note Cabral's emphasis that his troops are "armed militants", not "military men"; George Washington would have said the same thing. Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea are the two poorest countries in Africa.
• Mozambique (capitol: Maputo): FRELIMO; Samora Machel [d. 1986] (note his Russian-style uniform); the Battle of Tete; the massacre of Wiriyamu [1972].
• South Africa (capitol: Pretoria): Nelson Mandela; Oliver Tambo; African National Congress [ANC]; massacres at Sharpeville, Laager, and Soweto; apartheid; Steven Biko. The material on South Africa is badly dated, of course, since much [!] has happened since 1984, when the video was made. In particular, Nelson Mandela went from his political imprisonment on Robbins Island to the Presidency.

WHY DECOLONIZE?

This video gives the history of how decolonization happened in Africa, but it doesn't say much about the pressures behind it.  Why were the colonies so eager to rid themselves of the colonial powers?  As I see it, there were two major causes:

• Exploitation:  The video shows a film clip from the [1940s? 50s?] claiming there was a happy partnership between the ruling power and the colony.  But the overall balance of trade was not equal:  the profits that were made remained largely with the colonizers.  The colonized peoples believed that with independence they would get more equal terms of trade.  (Whether they did is debatable;  frankly, I think that the improvement was minor, if any, because all that happened was a new system of "neocolonialism" replaced the old colonial relationship.)
• I should note that this exploitation was particularly brutal in Congo, which King Leopold basically owned as his private domain, enslaving [sic] the population to work it, and in South Africa, where the racism was particularly rabid, even if literal slavery was eliminated in 1830.  (For an excellent description of the long fight to liberate Congo, read King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild.)
• Another aspect of exploitation:  seizure of the best land & resources (naturally).
• Racism and its psychological oppression:  The classical liberal model holds that everyone is equal and can compete on an equal basis.  As that film clip said, the colonized peoples were supposed to share "a common citizenship" and to be "working with us, learning from us."  But the reality was quite different.  Not only did the colonizers take the best land and other resources;  they also universally and determinedly regarded the natives as permanently and inherently inferior.  As the people in India found, no matter how much they emulated the culture and habits of the British, they were never admitted to British clubs.  In Rhodesia, Ian Smith talked about "raising standards" of voting, contemptuously characterizing regular democratic voting (by the Black riff-raff) as "counting sheep".  It is easy to understand this racism, since it helped the colonizers justify and continue the economic exploitation, but in the end, no one can remain in a partnership where one is regarded as less than fully human by the other.

WHY DID THE COLONIAL POWERS LET GO?

Why were the colonial powers willing to let go of their colonies?

• First, they weren't!  Almost all colonies had to rebel forcefully before the colonial power let go.
• In addition, the colonial powers were in the end both morally and financially unwilling to do what it would take to suppress rebellion.  Assuming this was an option anyway.
• Finally, the colonial powers discovered that they could maintain their economic domination of the colonies even after independence.

OTHER, MISC. NOTES:

• There was still much fighting and many civil wars occurring that aren't talked about here; a continual line of inter-ethnic warfare
• Notice that the arbitrary borders imposed on Africa by the Europeans had unfortunate consequences after independence, when traditional enemies who had been forced by the colonial power to live in peace then had to govern themselves.
• Note the lowering of prices on raw materials and the rising of tariffs on finished goods from Third World countries. This prevents economic growth.
• Once one country turned over ruling power to the majority, other countries followed.
• After the fall of colonialism, the new leaders tried to live as extravagantly as the former leaders, but the money was not there.
• A lot of military control, presidents for life, coups and revolutions: constantly destabilizing government.
• The countries had raw materials but were unable to produce finished products due to high tariffs against them; they lack the funding to establish the industries.
• Tribal conflict in the manner of how the nation is structured.
• Corruption, where areas have bribery as almost a standard practice.
• Environment was a mess, with drought being caused by poor farming and grazing practices.
• "At least the Africans were doing something for themselves, rather than nothing. They may have been moving slowly, but they were moving."
• The corruption and the violence stood out.
• The lack of a middle class stood out.
• The size of the slums and the number of poor was surprising.
• The number of people with a good education was few.
• Drastic change from one form of government to another. Didn't seem like there was any peaceful transformation.
• Neocolonialism: economic domination by former colonial powers. The price of raw materials decreased while the price of the items they imported increased.
• Next time, tell students in advance what themes are most important; What are they supposed to get out of this?
• Just seeing other places, other faces. Hearing other names, other accents. Learning the desire for independence. Seeing the justification for colonialism.
• Churchill & FDR; The Atlantic Charter
• Growing pains --> mass audience and education --> pressure for independence
• Ethnocentrism in the story of the Mau-Mau rebellion: 50 Europeans killed as opposed to 9,000 Africans, but only European deaths are notices / acknowledged, and rebels were dehumanized, put in detention camps.
• Freedom / independence is only the FIRST half of development
• You should know that the Belgians ruled the Congo with oppression.
• Note the reliance of revolutionary forces on the peasants / populace / "popular base".

• Why did Europe colonize these areas in the first place?
• The film shows an early newsreel about the virtues of trade between Europe and Africa. Yet the leaders in the film said that the high cost of the goods they buy relative to the low price of the goods they sell is exploitation. Who's right here?
• What were the rebels trying to achieve? Just independence, or something more?
• Is independence always development? Is political development anything more than independence?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

• What did you learn of importance or interest that you didn't know before?

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2. DeGaulle secretly negotiated with the Algerian nationalists for Algerian independence, despite his public pronouncements that "Algeria is French".