Independence & Nation-Building

Julius Kambarage Nyerere celebratesTanzania’s independence. Keystone/Getty Images

The post-colonial experience in Africa varied throughout the continent according to the different ways colonialism was administered and the divergent strategies for colonized territories to achieve independence. This led to a diverse arrangement of post-colonial conditions that continue to shape the African experience today. This lesson will address independence and nation-building in Africa.

Lesson Objectives
  • recognize the circumstances that led to the decolonization of Africa
  • describe the different ways independence was achieved by different countries
  • identify the role of the Cold War in post-colonial struggle to nationhood
  • present the colonial struggle for independence by your selected African country
Decolonization of Africa

A wide variety of circumstances related to the second World War helped contribute to the end of European colonial power:

  • The financial cost of war made it difficult for many colonial powers to meet the costly budget of maintaining infrastructure in colonial territories as they needed to invest in rebuilding and reconstruction of war-devastated areas,
  • The atrocities committed by the Nazi regime seriously called to question colonial policies and practices in light of racial pseudo- science and new ideas about universal rights, and
  • Many colonized people volunteered or were forced to participate as soldiers on behalf of the colonial power, and the war experience ultimately exposed the weaknesses and shortcomings of their imperial oppressor.

During the first and second European ‘World Wars,’ black Africans in European colonies were conscripted to fight on behalf of their colonial government.  World Wars I and II were very probably the most destructive conflicts in African history. In terms of the human costs—the numbers of people mobilized, the scale of violence and destruction experienced–as well as their enduring political and social impact, no other previous conflicts are comparable, particularly over such short periods as four and ten years, respectively. All told, about 4,500,000 African soldiers and military laborers were mobilized during these wars and about 2,000,000 likely died.

Mobilization on this scale among African peasant societies was only sustainable because they were linked to the industrial economies of a handful of West Central European nation states at the core of the global commercial infrastructure, which invariably subordinated African interests to European imperial imperatives. Militarily, these were expressed in two ways: by the use of African soldiers and supporting military laborers to conquer or defend colonies on the continent, or by the export of African combat troops and laborers overseas—in numbers far exceeding comparable decades during the 18th-century peak of the transatlantic slave trade—to Europe and Asia to augment Allied armies there. These conflicts contributed to an ever-growing assertiveness of African human rights in the face of European claims to racial supremacy that led after 1945 to the restoration of African sovereignty throughout most of the continent. On a personal level, however, most Africans received very little for their wartime sacrifices. Far more often, surviving veterans returned to their homes with an enhanced knowledge of the wider world.

Participation in each European war provided African soldiers the opportunity to witness Europeans outside the advantages of a colonial structure that secured European superiority. British, French, Italian, German and Spanish armies lost battles in the presence of African soldiers, and witnessing European military failures and learning about European ideas such as liberty, rights and justice, spawned an African nationalist movement when soldiers returned to Africa after the war.

African nations in order of independence

In the aftermath of war, most European powers were bankrupt and no longer able to afford the resources needed to maintain control of their African colonies. This allowed for African nationalists to negotiate decolonisation and for self-governance. The United States urged allies, such as Britain, to emancipate occupied territories. On February 12, 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill established the Atlantic Charter proclaiming the autonomy of imperial colonies. The charter stipulated that both England and the U.S. would, “respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.” Although the charter was never ratified and was eventually contested by British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, after world War II, the agreement became a stepping stone toward independence as nationalism grew throughout Africa.

In just a few years, a wave of struggles for independence swept across Africa. In some colonies, independence came relatively peacefully. Some territories, however, saw great death tolls as a result of their fight for independence. Between March 1957, when Ghana declared independence from Great Britain, and July 1962, when Algeria wrested independence from France after a bloody war, 24 African nations freed themselves from their former colonial masters. Yet many colonies fought for independence through armed resistance through organized revolts in both northern and sub-Saharan colonies including the Algerian War in French Algeria, the Angolan War of Independence in Portuguese Angola, the Congo Crisis in the Belgian Congo, and the Mau Mau Uprising in British Kenya. By 1977, 54 African countries had seceded from European colonial rulers.

Post-colonial Nation-building

The transition from colonial government to independence did not always lead to peace. Internal conflicts within the newly independent countries and the continued resistance of the colonial powers in places such as southern Africa often forced large numbers of innocent people to flee sudden and radical regime changes on the continent as colonial governments made the transition to independent states.

Although each post-colony is characterized by its own unique social and historical circumstances, political anthropologists organize post-colonies into three general categories: settler countries, non-settler countries, and mixed countries (Kottak 2012). Settler countries consist of large numbers of European descendants remaining in the post-colony and maintaining control. The U.S., Canada and Australia are examples, as well as South Africa and Botswana. Non-settler countries are comprised of large indigenous populations and relatively few European descendants remaining and having limited control such as Jamaica, India and Nigeria. Mixed countries consist of a population of indigenous people and European descendants such as Zimbabwe and Algeria.

National boundaries often reflected the former colonial borders that intersected linguistic, religious and cultural social groups. In addition, many indigenous groups continued to identify themselves according to the hegemonic ethnic groupings created by the ‘divide and conquer’ policies of the former colonial regime. Ethnic differences and colonial policies that privileged some groups and pitted groups against each other contributed to civil unrest and conflict in the post colonial era. This is the case of the Rwandan genocide by the Hutu against the Tutsi in 1994 (click here for BBC report) as well as the religious conflicts in Chad, Sudan and Nigeria. In some cases, tyrannical dictators received economic and military support from former colonial rulers while implementing harsh policies and practices such as the case of the Ugandan military officer, Idi Amin Dada Oumee, who served as the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979 and became known as the ‘Butcher of Uganda’ and one of the most brutal despots in world history.

Many post-colonial governments carried on the policies and practices of the former colonial regime. New governmental structures and institutions reflected colonial organizational structures with the former colonizers intricately involved in political decision-making. New political leaders maintained economic practices of providing raw materials and resources demanded by European trading partners on the global market. In some cases, new governments were controlled by the European descendants who maintained power and control through a legal system of inequality. In South Africa, for example, apartheid was an institutional framework that relied on ‘Inhumane acts of a character … committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime’ (Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – 2002).

To learn more about the struggle for independence, watch the film The scramble for Africa – Africa… States of Independence – Al Jazeera English.

Post-colonial Studies
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Post-colonialism refers to the interactions between European nations and former colonies and the outcomes of the colonial experience, and several disciplines in the social sciences and humanities include post-colonial studies within the curriculum. A central concern in post-colonial studies is the way that euro-centric hegemonies continue to operate within the social, economic, political and cultural mechanisms within contemporary post-colonial societies. This was apparent in the ‘Fair & Lovely’ commercial’ we viewed in the previous lesson.  Although the colonial occupation ended, colonial policies, practices, and ideologies remained intact. This is a key factor in the upcoming lesson when address Africa in the Modern World System and the Global Economy.

Questions to Consider
  1. What significant historical event and associated circumstances contributed to rapid decolonization of Africa in the mid-twentieth century?
  2. How was independence achieved differently by different African countries?
  3. In what ways did the Cold War affect the post-colonial struggles of newly independent African countries?
  4. What is the post-colonial condition of your selected African country, and how does it compare to those of your classmates?
References and Readings
For Extra Credit in Canvas

Watch the documentary, States of Independence, above to review the information presented in the Recent Histories module. Relate specific information in the film to the circumstances experienced by your selected country’s independence. Describe any notable resistance movements and/or people who were instrumental in achieving independence in your selected country. Does the current government maintain political or economic ties with the former colonizer? If so, describe how and why.

When you complete the discussion, move on to the Development lesson.