HISTORY

INDEPENDENT AFRICA
(1st seven pages = background knowledge)

ideas influencing
IDEAS INFLUENCING INDEPENDENT STATES
 20th century saw new nationalism in Africa, presented increasingly by mass movements & new

independent
political parties
 Served to unite Africans against colonial rule.
 WW1 & 2: colonies from England, soldiers pulled from Africa.
 America pushes ideas that all colonies have the right to choose their government.

reasons
REASONS FORfor
FREEDOM
 WW2: signing of Atlantic Charter (Britain empire collapsed); returning soldiers (fought in white
mans war for freedom, came home to oppression)
 Philosophical: Pan-Africanism; black power; nationalism.

factors accelerating
FACTORS ACCELERATING MOVE TO INDEPENDANCE

Promoting African Culture:

 Independence encouraged by cultural revival of African music, art, literature.
 African history, archaeology became serious subject of study @ universities worldwide
 Partly linked to 1959 discovery of evidence @ Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) that suggested Africa
was birthplace of humankind.

Promoting Pan-Africanism:

 African leaders determined to control own continent & its future.

 Pan-Africanism was an attempt to create sense of brotherhood & collaboration among all
people of African descent regardless of if they lived in or out of Africa. (realising they not British
– identity & culture important)

Rise of African nationalism

 Force aimed at organising all Africans to fight colonialism

 Travel & education raised issue of replacing imperial rule w/ independent African nation states.
HISTORY
 African nationalism played down ethnic differences.

New nationalist leaders – new political parties emerged in 1950s

Economic changes in Africa:

 Led to urbanisation & growth of African working class receptive to new political ideas

Worldwide nationalist movements:

 African nationalists inspired by movements occurring elsewhere (e.g. India; Indo-China;

Indonesia)

Indonesian conference of 1955

 Proposed formation of 3rd world, non-aligned bloc & condemned colonialism

The cold war:

 Africa was new space for cold war – neither USA nor USSR had foothold in Russia (didn’t
colonise – Russia gave money to ANC; USA gave money to apartheid government)
 Both supplied aid to nationalist movements/parties to speed up decolonising process.

World war 2:

 This had largest impact – introduced African soldiers to concepts of freedom/self-determination

 Soldiers placed on equal footing w/ colonial counterparts
 World wars drained European economies, didn’t have economic/political power to retain
control of colonies. (Eurocentric interpretation – frames decolonisation as something that only
happened because European powers initiated it.)
 Africanist view – blacks fought for power and won/earned their freedom
 Revisionist view – both

2 ways to achieving
2 WAYS TO ACHIEVING INDEPENDANCE
 Constitutional process:
- Negotiation between all concerned parties (colonial powers & colony representatives)

independence
- Most African states gained independence this way
 Ways of liberation
HISTORY
- African colonies w/ large white population. Occurred in Portuguese colonies, & others
(Kenya, Algeria, Zimbabwe)

independence
INDEPENDENCE OF BRITISHof
COLONIES
 1957 – Ghana was 1st colony in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence, inspiring others

british colonies
 Largely due to forceful actions of Kwame Nkrumah’s convention people’s party (socialist)
 Nigeria became independent as federal state (1960) – Coalition Muslim & Igbo government
come to power, Yoruba as leading opposition (Nigeria had 3 tribal groups – animists had oil
reserves, Muslims invaded them. Tribal groups attacking each other)
 Military coups happening by all groups one after the other
 In quick, peaceful succession, other British colonies join as independent nations & members of
commonwealth:
- West – Sierra Leone, 1961 & Gambia, 1965
- East – Tanganyika, 1961 & Zanzibar, 1963 (form Tanzania), Uganda, 1962 & Kenya, 1963
- Central – Zambia, 1964 & Malawi, 1964
- Southern – Lesotho, 1966 & Botswana, 1966 & Swaziland, 1968
 British colonies that found independence hard were those w/ large settler populations:

Kenya (important to Britain: produced coffee/tea)

- White settlers determined to resist demands for independence & majority rule
- Owned most of valuable land in Eastern Highlands (had belonged to Kikuyu)
- Resistance led to armed Kikuyu uprising – Mau-Mau Uprising
- 3 years & 13 000 deaths, Britain accepted Kenyan independence under black majority
gvmnt, 1963 – leader of Kenyan African Union (KANU), Jomo Kenyatta, 1st president of
independent

Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

- White majority held political power & most of best land

- 1961 – government issued Unilateral Declaration of independence (UDI), declaring Rhodesia
to be independent state, free of British control.
- Done w/out British approval, to prevent Britain from granting independence to black
majority government
HISTORY
- Black majority opposed UDI leading to 15-year civil war – atrocities on both sides before
white gvmnt forced to make settlement.
- 1980 elections, Zimbabwean National Union won decisive victory, Robert Mugabe 1 st prime
minister
- ZANU guerilla fighters had been operating socialist Mozambique in struggle for liberation
- Western Powers concerned Mugabe would implement socialist/communist system
- Independence agreement made w/ Britain, Muagbe not allowed to change constitution/
confiscate property for 1st 7 years of independence, otherwise British/USA aid would stop.
- 1987 – Mugabe changed constitution, giving himself power as dictator & confiscated white
farmers land, gave to supporters.
- 2000 – opposition party created to try brin about change in gvmnt (Movement for
Democratic Change)

- independence
INDEPENDENCE OF FRENCH COLONIES
 1958 – France offered West African & Equatorial African colonies choices:

of french
- Become independent countries=s within French community – economic aid + French
citizenship
- Full independence (only Guinea chose this)
 In French community, states would run internal affairs, but would send representatives to
central council in Paris, which controlled foreign policy & defence
 French community didn’t work – African states wanted same kind of independence British West
African states were granted
 1960 – French had to give full independence to all West Africa & Equatorial African colonies
 North Africa – nationalist movements pressured France to grant independence to Tunisia &
Morocco (1954), France determined to retain Algeria (large settler pop + 2 mil colons)
 8-year war against National Liberation Front (FLN – French), 20 000 French/1 mil Algerian
casualties, French attempts to stop uprising unsuccessful
 France forced to ignore demands of settlers & agree to independence (1962), in 3 years most of
colons (white settlers), returned to France.

- independence
INDEPENDENCE OF BELGIAN COLONIES
HISTORY
 Transfer of power happened more suddenly in Belgian Congo than anywhere else; Belgium
initially wanted 30-year period to prepare colony for independence
 After violent protests, independence granted immediately (1960) (Belgium up & left – nobody
trained to govern/run country so civil war)
 Newly independent Congo faced problems after army was mutinied & civil war broke out
 Order restored when Congolese government requested UN intervention.
 Rwanda & Burundi – Belgian rule = civil war + genocide after independence:
- Belgians ruled through minority Tutsi (claimed they were sons of ham – lighter, Eurocentric,
taller) to control majority Hutu (darker, shorter, stockier)
- After independence, strained relationship between groups worsened, led to genocide

- independence of
INDEPENDENCE OF PORTUGESE COLONIES
 In contrast to other colonial powers, Portugal decided to retain colonies (Guinea-Bissau,
Mozambique, Angola) – even encouraged settler immigration to strengthen control. Colonies
declared overseas provinces of Portugal
 Result – conflict between Portuguese troops + national liberation movements (wars would cost
half of Portuguese National Budget)
 1974, army overthrew Portuguese dictator + quickly granted independence to colonies
 Samora Machal (leader of Front for the Liberation of Mozambique – FRELIMO) became 1 st
president
 In Angola, transition to independence complicated because: existence of 3 rival resistance
groups; superpower backing of groups (proxy cold war); involvement of SA + Cuba

 DIFF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

diff
 One of 1st priorities of newly independent states was to promote economic development,
particularly industrialisation.
 Most African economies were backwards bc of colonial practices (extracting resources), of
encouraging colonies to produce cheap cash crops, selling them expensive manufactured goods
 Very few secondary industries in African Countries.
 Newly independent states adopted 1 of 2 economic approaches: capitalism/African socialism

Capitalism: (e.g. Kenya & Botswana)

HISTORY
 Capitalists felt implementing capitalist system would encourage rapid economic growth
 Supporters called ‘capitalist roaders’ by socialists, many sates rejected capitalism bc of
connection to colonialism
 Capitalism in African countries relied on foreign investments + links to Western countries
 Foreign investments stimulated African enterprises + helped achieve industrialisation, but:
created wealthy elite classes & focused development on urban areas, rural areas detriment

African socialism:

 Adopted bc it was argued that traditional African societies already possessed elements to
approach: classless societal structures, communal land ownership, collective decision-making
 Some leaders also argued that centralised control of economy (gvmnt control), would speed up
economic development post colonialism
 Collective ownership is also state ownership
 Many variations in application of African socialism: collectivisation (Tanzania), extreme
overspending on public projects (Ghana), Marxism (Angola)

diff political ideologies

DIFF POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES ABOUT FORMS OF GVMNT
Monarchy: (Initially Ethiopia & Burundi)

 Lesotho has ceremonial monarch & Swaziland has king who appoints/dismisses ministers

Multi-party democracy (e.g. SA – EFF, ANC, voting)

 Initially, nearly all newly independent states were democracies, by 1980s, very few survived
 Possible reasons for decline: 1 party having overwhelming support & leaders abandoning
system bc they felt it was too divisive.
 Democracy concept only introduced shortly before independence – no history/tradition.
 For democracy to work efficiently, requires certain level of education, but at independence,
Africa had large illiteracy rates. (most South Africans still vote tribally/historically)

One-party state:

 Majority of nations became 1 party state, argued this would prevent divisions along ethnic
lines, would be cheaper & revert back to concept of power in hands of chief – traditional
HISTORY
 Also suggested colonialism didn’t allow democratic tradition to develop & colonial powers
retained control through force & not tolerating opposition.
 States varied in how much choice citizens had: Tanzania – allowed voting to elect party
members to governmental positions; Ghana – Nkrumah openly dominated party.
 Some states implemented dictatorships (through military coups), where leaders created cults of
personality (Stalin) & used intimidation:
- Idi Amin (Uganda) & Bokassa (Central African Republic) (terrorised ppl, army brutal)
- Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire), his regime called ‘kleptocracy’ (stealing), state wealth redirected
to fund his & other ministers’ power/lifestyle

 tanz
TANZANIA
 End of WW1 – Britain acquired German colony of Tanganyika, 1961 – granted independence,
1964 – united w/ Zanzibar (British Protectorate) to form Tanzania under Julius ++
 Initially, few colonial policies were changed, many civil servants retained positions.
 Emphasis placed on education & indigenous entrepreneurship; country still relied on foreign
investment
 Tanzania employed socialist policy aimed at equitable share for all people across the country.
 New African Socialism different to traditional economic practices in many ways: Nyerere spent
government revenue on public projects (created jobs), also accrued large foreign debt (loans for
projects)
HISTORY
 After 5 years low economic growth persisted, foreign investment moving wealth from Africa to
industrialised West. Tanzania’s relationship with West deteriorated (didn’t like socialism), lives
of rural poor not improving, private greed among politicians + officials created classes
 These problems prompted Nyerere to implement full policy of African Socialism (full control)

arusha
ARUSHA DECLERATION
 Dec 1967, embodied Nyerere’s idea of socialism
 Tanzania to be self-sufficient:
- They were to rely on own resources, rather than foreign investment
- Aid could be accepted so long as it didn’t mean foreign control.
- State-controlled production. Land, large companies, financial institutions nationalised,
former owners paid reasonable compensation
- Only small companies were privately owned, but they were controlled by state corporations
- Civil servants & party official banned from capitalist activities
 Creation of ujamaa villages:
- Communally owned, didn’t involve wage labour (weren’t paid in money)
- Ujamaa based on 3 essentials: freedom, equality, unity (part of traditional social order)
- Resources were shared & leaders elected
- Hope – these would facilitate provision of roads + other services, as they’d be centralised at
these villages
- Programme of compulsory villagisation used to force individual farmers to join Ujamaa bc
there was opposition to collectivisation
- In 5 years, 11 mil ppl placed in 8 000 new villages – by 1979, 90% of peasants moved with
reports of the use of force.
 Leadership code: didn’t stick to this – wadenzi (corrupt leaders spend money the country
doesn’t have)
- Prevented corruption amongst government employees & party officials & use of position to
gain wealth
- Couldn’t own company shares, houses to rent, hold private directorship, receive < 1 salary
 Tanganyika African National Union
- TANU was democratic, elections for candidates within party.
HISTORY
 Policy reduced wage difference between rural & urban areas (trying to level out to create
classless society), but all wages down by 1974
 Health services improved, illiteracy declined from 90% to 20% (focus on education, more
educated = higher GDP)
 Villagisation led to decline in agricultural production – farms were on land that was not arable,
droughts. Resulted in food shortages, opened way for foreign loans & food aids
 Some problems were result of mismanagement
 Increased overstaffing + inefficiency in state corporations in urban areas, resulted in huge loss
 Income levels dropped throughout 1970s, by 1980, civil servants earning less than half of what
they earned in 1970
 International oil prices caused economic crisis in 1980s, as did the fall in cash crop prices on
international markets
 Tanzania wasn’t self-reliant, as exports only covered 28,6% of imports by mid-1980s, was forced
to request financial aid from IMF (international monetary fund – controlled by USA)
 However, Nyerere claimed that despite failures, education improved, no creation of wealthy
elite as with capitalist societies

 political
POLITICAL CHALLENGES
 Some historians claim African leaders saw democracy as dividing force, as concept of diff
political parties facilitated regional & ethnic differences
 If no rival parties, there was less conflict & more stability
 Tanzania provides good example of stability & effective government in 1 party state
 Shortcoming of system – no legal way to remove unpopular leader from power, so violence is
necessary to facilitate change
 Tanzania experienced unity under TANU, while they aimed to make Tanzania independent &
implement African Socialism, problems with implementation led to it being adapted in 1980s
 Political policies of leaders:
- Nyerere regarded as 1 of Africa’s best leaders: maintained unity, opposed corruption,
advocated return to simple & traditional values & Swahili language
- Also committed to Pan-Africanism (trying to make them proud – national identity)
- Despite intelligence & attempts to promote education/relieve poverty, he was authoritarian
& imposed 1 party state on country
HISTORY
- Despite moral integrity, policies not successful, tendency to looks to East for aid caused
deterioration of relationships with West
 Colonial legacies:
- In Tanganyika, Britain laid groundwork for independence,
- Native authorities among chiefs formed (1920s) to do administration (e.g. tax collection)
- Post-1945: some African representatives appointed to legislative council, by early 1950s –
local government structures replaced native authorities.
- New bodies included Africans educated in West
- All under colonial government didn’t satisfy TANU, but did create positive administration
experience among Africans in Tanzania
- When state became independent (1961) under TANU, seeds of good governance planted
- Nyerere banned tribalism (because of 1 party state, everyone must agree), despite 120
different ethnic groups, his work to transcend these divisions was successful
 Types of government:
- Tanzania – multi-party elections (1960+1962) showed overwhelming support for TANU
- Commission appointed by Nyerere (1964) suggested formation of 1 party state after 1966
elections (you can still vote, but only for who is the leader of 1 party, not for another party)
 Political stability & instability:
- One party system worked bc based on support of people & bought stability
- Nyerere faced no opposition from separatist groups
- Elections held between 1966-1980 to appoint/remove members of parliament – reinforced
notion of political accountability
- Tanzania can be described as example of adapted democracy within African tradition

-
ECONOMIC economic
CHALLENGES
 Initially Tanganyika grew Sisal (to make ropes), but price dropped in 1930s, no longer profitable,
replaced by groundnuts post WW2
 Unsuitable soils/farmer inability to produce to make profits resulted in food shortages
 @ independence – was little annual average income, very little manufacturing
 Despite Nyerere’s collectivised Ujamaa farm & industrial nationalism, Tanzania still dependant
on world markets
 Eventually entered debt crisis, but Nyerere ignored IMFs request to abandon socialism
HISTORY
 Similar to other countries, resistance to collectivisation as ppl didn’t want to be relocated.
 Implementation of Ujamaa system was flawed – lack of understanding
 Farmers sold crops at low prices to parastatals (part private/government owned), who resold
them at profit to multinational companies
 Economic situation worsened by international fuel price crisis of 1970s
 Political independence in Tanzania didn’t automatically mean attained economic independence

Education:
social
SOCIAL ISSUES
 Nyerere stressed equal access to basic education for all, feeling colonial schooling prioritised
urban areas – set about reforming rural education system & basic illiteracy
 Valued higher education, advocated sharing those skills w/ people in rural areas
 Introduced programme – “Education for Self-reliance”, encouraged development of critical
thinking skills
 1981 – 97% of children received free primary education & adult literacy programmes reduced
illiteracy by 60% over 20-year period
 But less money spent on secondary/tertiary education, & severe teacher shortage
 After 1980 – standard of education drops as state gave priority to provisions of basic services
(e.g. health care)

Africanisation: (replacing of white colonial identity with African identity)

 In Tanzania, involved: Africans in government & civil services; Swahili as official language;
community values fostered in ujamaa villages
 Culturally, Africa benefitted from independence w/ growth in mass media & film industries
 Also, international recognition of African musicians & writers (e.g. Chinua Achebe)
 African history & archaeology become studied subjects at international universities. Especially
after 1959 discovery at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania that suggested theory of Africa as cradle of
humankind