23.4: Africa

In the late 19th Century, Africa had been the main target of European imperialism. The Scramble for Africa was astonishingly quick (c. 1880-1900). With the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, the entire continent had been taken over by European states. In the postwar era, almost every African country secured independence just as quickly. In some places, this process was peaceful; while in others, it was extremely violent.

Ghana

In West Africa, under the charismatic leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana became independent in 1957. In addition, he founded the Pan-Africanism movement, which hoped for a “United States of Africa” that would achieve parity with the other great powers of the world, as well as the betterment of Africans everywhere. His vision was of a united African league, possibly even a single nation, whose collective power, wealth, and influence would ensure that outside powers would never again dominate Africans. While that vision did not come to pass, the concept of pan-Africanism was still vitally important as an inspiration for other African independence movements.

Kenya

In Kenya, many white colonists were not interested in independence from Britain. As a result, by 1952, a complex web of nationalist rebels, impoverished villagers and farmers, and counter-insurgent fighters plunged the country into a civil war. The British and native white Kenyans reacted to the uprising by creating concentration camps, imprisoning rebels and slowly starving them to death in the hills. Disparagingly referred to as “Mau Maus” (meaning something like "hill savages"), the rebels attacked white civilians. Finally, after 11 years of war, Kenya was granted its independence and elected a former Mau Mau leader as its first president. Ironically, while British forces were in a dominant position militarily, the British state was financially over-extended. Thus, Britain granted Kenyan independence in 1963.

South Africa

For the first time since the Scramble For Africa, many black Africans had achieved political power, and many former colonies adopted official policies of racial equality. However, there was one striking exception: South Africa. An unusual British colony, 21% of its population was white, divided between the descendants of British settlers and the older Dutch colony of Afrikaners who had been conquered and incorporated at the end of the nineteenth century. The Afrikaners, in particular, were virulently racist and intransigent, unwilling to share power with the black majority. As early as 1950, white South Africans (British and Afrikaner alike) emphatically insisted on the continuation of a policy known as Apartheid: the legal separation of whites and blacks and the complete subordination of the latter to the former.

In 1961, South Africa became independent from Britain. Yet, Apartheid remained as the backbone of the South African legal system, systematically repressing and oppressing the majority black population. Even as overtly racist laws were repealed elsewhere - including the United States as a result of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s - Apartheid remained resolutely intact until 1991, when the system finally collapsed and the long-imprisoned anti-Apartheid activist leader Nelson Mandela was released, soon becoming South Africa’s first black president.

Algeria

Beginning in 1952, one of the most violent struggles for independence occurred in the French territory of Algeria. Hundreds of thousands of Algerians died, along with tens of thousands of French and pieds-noires ("black feet," the white residents of Algeria). At the center was the concept of French identity: some French citizens felt that France’s remaining colonies were vital to its status as an important geopolitical power, especially the political right. At the same time, many people living in France were ashamed of the French defeat and occupation in World War II, and simply refused to give up France’s empire without a struggle. This sentiment was felt particularly acutely by the French officer corps, who had experienced the losing side of wars, specifically World War II and Indochina. Thus, they were determined to hold on to Algeria at all costs.

On the other hand, many French citizens realized the values of the Fourth French Republic– liberty, equality, and fraternity - were precisely what had been denied the native people of Algeria since the early nineteenth century. In fact, “native” Algerians were divided legally along racial and religious lines. Muslim Arabs and Berber Algerians were denied access to political power and usually worked in lower-paying jobs. Meanwhile, white, Catholic Algerians (descendants of both French and Italian settlers) were fully enfranchised French citizens. In 1954, a National Liberation Front (FLN) composed of Arab and Berber Algerians demanded independence from France and launched a campaign of attacks on both French officials and, soon, pieds-noires civilians.

The French response was brutal with complete disregard for human rights. Infamously, the army resorted almost immediately to a systematic campaign of torture against captured rebels and those suspected of having information that could aid the French. Algerian civilians were often caught in the middle of the fighting, with the French army targeting the civilian populace when it saw fit. While the torture campaign was kept out of the press, rumors of its prevalence soon spread to continental France, inspiring an enormous debate as to the necessity and value of holding on to Algeria. As the conflict grew in Algeria, France was increasingly torn apart.

Within a few years, soldiers in Algeria, France, and French territories grew disgusted with what they regarded as the weak-kneed vacillation on the part of republican politicians. As a result, they created ultra-rightist terrorist groups, launching attacks on prominent intellectuals who spoke out against the war. In 1958, troops launched an attempted coup in Algeria, and briefly succeeded in seizing control of the French-held island of Corsica too.

With the government of the Fourth Republic paralyzed and the prospect of a new right-wing military dictatorship, Charles de Gaulle volunteered to “rescue” France from its predicament, with the support of the army. When it became clear he intended to pull France out of Algeria, a paramilitary terrorist group tried to assassinate him twice. As a result, Gaulle forced through a new constitution that vested considerable new powers in the office of the president. Negotiations were opened with the FLN in 1960, leading to the ratification of Algerian independence in 1962 by a large majority of French voters. Despite being an ardent believer in the French need for “greatness,” De Gaulle was perceptive enough to know that the battle for Algeria was lost.

In the aftermath of the Algerian War, millions of white Algerians moved to France, becoming the core of a new French political far-right, openly racist and opposed to immigration from France's former colonies. Many members coalesced in the first openly French fascistic party since the end of World War II: the Front National. Racist, anti-Semitic, and obsessed with a notion of French identity embedded in the culture of the Vichy Regime (i.e. the French fascist puppet state under Nazi occupation), the National Front remains a powerful force in French politics to this day.

Map: Countries of Africa W/Dates of Independence

Source: SAS Blog