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AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE. MOVEMENTS. African nationalism emerged as a serious force in the 1920s but was not successful in attaining its goals until after 1945. Western nations also had second thoughts about imperialism.
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AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS
African nationalism emerged as a serious force in the 1920s but was not successful in attaining its goals until after 1945. • Western nations also had second thoughts about imperialism. • The charter of the United Nations included the principle of self-government. • Great Britain's Labor Party government strongly favored gradual independence for Britain's colonies. • While not quite endorsing independence for its African possessions, France felt that the time had come to reform the economic and social systems there.
The new African leaders, however, wanted immediate independence. • Unable to invest much energy in hanging on to their colonies, postwar France and Britain gave in to the African leaders. • By 1964, almost all of western, eastern, and central Africa had peacefully won independence. • With independence, internal conflicts arose. • The African leaders built their states within the boundaries set by the former European rulers. • Because these boundaries broke up ethnic groups and tribes, tribal chiefs often objected. • Sometimes, these objections led to civil wars.
Reasons for Independence • African nationalism. • Independence movements grew out of African nationalism. • This nationalism was mostly directed against colonial rule. • However, it also included a determination to build societies with strong economies based on modern technology and a high level of education. • African leaders, some of whom had been educated in Europe and the United States, admired the democratic institutions of the West. • But they deeply resented western colonial rule, which denied Africans the right to self-government and treated them as second-class citizens. • They organized political parties to work for independence.
Reasons for Independence • International support. • As World War II ended, movements to end colonial rule multi-plied around the world. • International conditions favored independence movements. • Many Europeans questioned the benefits of overseas empires. • Administering colonies was expensive, and the economies of European nations had been drained by the war. • Also, most Europeans did not want to fight long, costly wars to hold on to overseas colonies. • The two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, called for an end to European imperialism in Africa and elsewhere. • Both supported anti-colonial movements but for different reasons. • The United States hoped independent African nations would become capitalist democracies, while the Soviet Union encouraged socialism in Africa. • Both nations wanted access to the vast natural resources of Africa and to its potential markets for consumer goods.
Reasons for Independence • European Responses • At first, European nations were reluctant to give up their African colonies. • Under pressure, Britain and France made a few concessions to African demands. • Britain, for example, was forced to give the people of the Gold Coast a constitution, allowing them the right to elect a legislature. • France introduced reforms that permitted its colonies to elect more representatives to the French National Assembly. • But Africans wanted independence, not limited self-government. • When they stepped up the pressure for independence, Britain and France realized that they must give up their colonies. • As the tide of African nationalism rose, Africans in some areas used violence to win freedom. • - Yet most nations achieved independence through peaceful means.
Ghana • Ghana led the other African colonies in winning independence. • - In 1948, Britain responded to the demands of Ghanaians for freedom by proposing a gradual transition to self-rule. • - A new African leader, Kwame Nkrumah rejected their proposal. • - His Convention People's Party incited Ghanaians to riot and strike against their British rulers. • - Although jailed by the British, Nkrumah won the national elections of 1951. • - In the free elections that followed the departure of Britain, he defeated his more moderate African rivals as well as the tribal chiefs.
East and Southern Africa . • In other states, such as Kenya and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Africans did not win their in-dependence easily. • Eastern Africa and southern Africa had attracted many white settlers. • British settlers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, and Rhodesia looked on these countries as their homes. • They feared independence because it would give black Africans control of the governments. • Black leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya organized opposition to colonial rule.
East and Southern Africa • Tanganyika, later renamed Tanzania (TAN zuh NEE uh), won its independence in 1961. • In the next three years, other East African nations achieved independence, including Uganda in 1962 and Kenya in 1963. • In southern Africa, Portugal fought to hold on to its colonies, Angola and Mozambique. • Nationalist groups fought long and costly guerrilla wars against Portugal. • In 1975, Portugal agreed to recognize Angola and Mozambique as independent nations.
Rhodesia • This states had a large population of white settlers, who enjoyed privileged positions. • They were more determined than British government officials to keep their country under British control. • Nonetheless, the white settlers in Kenya and Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia) were too few to postpone decolonization permanently. • Southern Rhodesia, however, had a high percentage of white settlers. • In 1965, they defied both the African nationalists and Britain by setting up an independent government. • White settlers in Rhodesia, present-day Zimbabwe (zihm BAH bweh), declared their independence from Britain in 1965 in order to prevent black Africans from gaining a role in government.
Zimbabwe • Britain refused to recognize the new white-ruled nation, and many members of the United Nations boycotted Rhodesia. • In a long guerrilla war, blacks struggled to oust the white minority government. • Independence finally came in 1980 after a compromise was negotiated. • The agreement called for black majority rule in Zimbabwe and protection of the rights of the white minority. • In 1980, after a long guerrilla war, black African nationalists named the new country Zimbabwe
Tribalism v. Nationalism in Nigeria • Trouble between tribal chiefs and nationalist leaders plagued African independence movements from the start. • In building their new states, nationalist leaders wanted to keep the boundaries set by the colonizing powers. • The tribal chiefs wanted new ones based on ethnic and tribal loyalties. • Because it was most convenient to use the existing boundaries, the nationalist leaders got their way. • Nonetheless, tribal conflicts continued to play an important and destructive role in African politics.
Rwanda • Strife between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda began when Rwanda was still a Belgian colony. • Although a minority, the Tutsis controlled Rwanda. • The Hutus made up the majority of the population. • When the Tutsis pressed Belgium for independence, the Belgians tried to curb their power by aiding the Hutus in a rebellion. • The Hutu revolt developed into a wholesale slaughter, or genocide, of the Tutsis. • To escape being massacred, the Tutsis took refuge in neighboring countries, such as Zaire. • After Rwanda gained independence in 1962, Tutsi refugees formed a guerrilla army called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). • The RPF eventually took over small areas of Rwanda and forced the Rwandan government to sign a cease-fire in 1993. • With the arrival of peacekeeping troops sent by the United Nations, calm seemed to be restored.
Rwanda • Ethnic Warfare. • Unfortunately, when the president was killed in a plane crash in 1994, • Rwanda again became a scene of violence and chaos. • At any rate, the act plunged the nation back into civil war. • Hutu extremists once more began to kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus. • The Tutsis and moderate Hutus seeking safety in the refugee camps of Zaire and other neighboring countries died of cholera and other diseases. • Those remaining in Rwanda were frequently hunted down and slaughtered. • Meanwhile, the Tutsi guerrilla army, the RPF, seized Rwanda's capital, Kigali, and set up a new government. • Although the government was a coalition of Tutsis and Hutus, fighting between the two groups continued. • The Rwandan government sought out individuals suspected of genocide and had them tried by a UN-sponsored tribunal. • During this period of uneasy peace, both Hutu and Tutsi refugees returned
Pan-Africanism • a movement to unify African nations under one common theme. • As more and more African countries achieved independence, a number of African leaders recognized the necessity of promoting unity among the new nations. • In May 1963, 32 African countries established the Organization of African Unity (OAU). • Through the OAU, they hoped to coordinate cultural, scientific, political, and economic policies, to end colonialism in Africa, and to promote a common defense of its members' independence. • Today the organization has 53 members. • It meets annually in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
