Africa


 * Notes on P. __666 – 669__, ** **__723 – 727__, and** **__804 – 806__**

**__Beginnings of the Liberation Struggle in Africa __**

· Began with small pre-colonial western-educated groups. o Became very involved in WWI. · Discontent and conflicts postwar were caused by Africa witnessing Europe’s weakness. o Broken postwar promises for political organization added to the outrage. o On top of further discontent over the Great Depression. · Western-educated politicians didn’t seek out urban workers or peasants to bolster their standing as nationalists, even though many other peoples did elsewhere in the world (1940s). o Early African American nationalists, such as **Marcus Garvey** and **W.E.B. Du Bois** began establishing **pan-African** organizations in the 1920s and 1930s (anti-colonial sentiment). o **Pan-Africanism ** = A movement, founded around 1900, to secure equal rights, self- government, independence, and unity for African peoples. · Since the French were much more restrictive about political organization, nationalists were centralized in Paris during the mid-1920s. · British colonial nationalists were able to focus on their individual areas due to a more tolerant gov’t. o The **négritude** literary movement in France (**Léopold Sédar Senghor, Léon Damas** and **Aimé Césaire**) reversed racial stereotypes about African intellectual inferiority. o **National Congress of British West Africa **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> was established in British territories to allow African leaders ties with pan-colony associations. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In the 1920s, many of these organizations shrank into separate local groups concerned with individual colonies. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Strengthened when surprisingly tolerant British government allowed Western-educated Africans to be representatives in some colonies advisory councils.

**__<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Liberation of Non-settler Africa __**

· <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Africans became acquainted with European weapons due to the era’s conscriptions, confiscations, inflation, and increased racial discrimination. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">This allowed the natives to turn on their overlords effectively. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Wartime demands allowed previous limiting colonial economic policies to be lifted and allowed for swift, rural migration to aid the massive industrialization and urbanization. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Non-settler decolonization plans followed one of two plans. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Restiveness or, radicalism. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Negotiations and concessions, or gradualism. · **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Kwame Nkrumah **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">, was the Prime Minister of Ghana (1957) who’s radical leadership united nationalists throughout British and French colonies. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In the 1940s, when Nkrumah returned to Ghana, the area was experiencing widespread civil disobedience. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">By 1948, it developed into rioting, led by urban workers, farmers, and the western-educated elite. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Established the **Convention Peoples Party (CPP)** since he was sick of moderate African leader's reluctance to organize opposition groups. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The French made negotiations with leaders like Senghor and **Felix Houphouât-Boingy**, resulting in reforms, political advancement, and the domination of moderate African leaders throughout the independence movements. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">By mid 1960s, all French west African colonies were free. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Belgium fled from Congo in 1960 without any hope of regaining control. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Settler societies were essentially extinct by the mid-1960s.

**__<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Repression and Guerrilla War: The Struggle for the Settler Colonies __**

· <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">European elite groups in Africa (Boers or Afrikaners) blocked indigenous nationalism and concessions for settler colonies like Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">When peaceful protest and negotiations yielded no results, African leaders had no choice but to resort to violence: · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Kenya o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1950s – **Jomo Kenyatta** and the **Kenya Africa Union (KAU)** lead the **Land Freedom Army** guerrilla attacks against the British settlers and loyalists. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1954 – Failed coup gets Kenyatta and the KAU imprisoned by the British who viewed the "Mau Mau" as a dangerous insurgency. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1956 – Mau Mau suppressed, but British open up to negotiations. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Fortunately, Kenyatta is released and Kenya became independent with a one-party rule by 1963. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Algeria o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The French grudgingly held on to Algeria since they had already retreated from Vietnam. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The **National Liberation Front (FLN)** mobilized the Arabs and Berbers into a full-scale revolt. o **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">de Gaulle **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> came to power in 1958, coincidentally when the French began to negotiate independence with Algerians. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">His efforts were setback by violent skirmishes between settlers and natives. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The **Secret Army Organization (OAS)** attacked Arabs, Berbers, and their sympathizers while ending the Fourth Republic in a coup in 1958. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">They also tried to overthrow the Fifth Republic by killing de Gaulle. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Gained independence in 1962.

**__<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The Persistence of White Supremacy in South Africa __**

· <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Violent revolutions throughout the 1980s ended settler dominance in several colonies. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Angola (1975) o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mozambique (1975) o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (1980) · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Afrikaners born in this area considered themselves to have a distinct identity, separate from the Dutch and British overlords. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Afrikaners were an extremely racist group who, following the Boer War, awarded themselves political concessions for internal political control and control over the larger black population. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Centralized as the **Afrikaner National Party** in 1948 and gained South African independence in 1961. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The **Apartheid** system was an account of thousands of laws, similar to the American “Black Codes”.

**__<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The Apartheid State and its Demise __**

· <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Even in the 1970s, after most colonies had been abandoned/decolonized, South Africa was the largest, most populous, and prosperous part of Africa. (Still colony) · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The apartheid was used to affirm white minority rule, and monopolize political and economic influence for the British and Dutch. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">In order to discourage the black population, the state created **homelands.** o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Homelands were impoverished and overpopulated, making them ideal places to find cheap labor for mines, factories, and farms. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Favoritism was intentionally used to pit leaders and groups against each other, escalating internal conflict. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Well-equipped, well-trained police force was established to maintain the apartheid. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Heavily funded by the state. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Was extremely successful in suppressing protests, despite being ruthless. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Leaders like **Walter Smith** and **Nelson Mandela** were imprisoned in maximum-security prisons. o **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Steve Biko **<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> and others of the **Black Consciousness movement** were murdered in custody, and organizations like the **African National Congress** were outlawed altogether. · <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Guerilla warfare intensified from 1960 on. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Oppression continued and intensified up until the late 1980s. o <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">International boycotts, failed military expenditures, and the continued conflicts with guerillas convinced white Afrikaners to negotiate with leaders such as moderate **F. W. de Klerk** § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Released Nelson Mandela! § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mandela became the first black president of the country and the National Congress party gained power. § <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">de Klerk's party (supported primarily by whites) conceded power peacefully, finally implementing a pluralist democracy.

Now a Democracy || Began as peasant uprising over control of crops || Holden Alvaro Roberto || Indeed || (Owned by King Leopold) || Militant Corruption led to violence Scandal in 1908 exposed corruption || King Leopold Patrice Lamumba Zaire || Republic Civil wars Economy = oil || 1957 || England || Peaceful negotiations || Kwane Nkrumah || Indeed; Prosperous || First Marxist state in Africa (Soviet aid) || French || Peaceful transition to independence. Junta - military dictatorship || Samory Toure Presidential republic || Secret Mau Mau Society waged wars against the British settlers along with manyof their own peoples || Harry Thuku Tom Mboya Jomo Kenyatta Joseph A.Z. || Indeed But with little success. || (In our Googledoc) ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   || De-segregation 1994 || England || Militant || Shaka Zulu AlfredMilner
 * Nation || Date || Colonial Power || Nature of Movement || Key Leader(s) || Success? ||
 * Algeria || 1954 - 1962 || France || Militant || Mohammed Ahmed Ben Bella || Indeed
 * Angola || 1975 || Portugal || Miltant
 * Belgian Congo || 1960 || Belgium
 * Ghana || March 6th
 * Guinea || October 2, 1968
 * Economic aid - Russia || Indeed
 * Kenya || December 12, 1963 || England || Militant
 * Madagascar
 * South Africa || Independence 1910

Paul Krugger Nbeky || Successful in gaining independence, but not equality or prosperity || ** __ Summary of Africa __ ** African countries have only recently broke free from the clutches of European imperial rule, claiming independence. The African colonies were exploited by these European empires for economic gain and expansion. The colonies were a serious source of income through their extractable raw materials and natural resources. Many Africans were put to work (many through slavery), which consequently ushered them into the realm of global trading. The prosperity was enjoyed disproportionally, of course, leaving the masses with little to live off of. These conditions were tolerated at first, but the African colonies eventually began revolutions or negotiated their way towards independence. Nationalism was a common factor for most of these revolutions and had been spreading throughout Africa for years beforehand. In some cases the revolutions grew too troublesome for European nations to continue asserting control over their African colonial territory. In other cases the European nations understood that they could no longer feasibly retain control of their colonies and negotiated their independence. This was the case for Belgium in the Belgian Congo and France in Guinea, where they agreed that separation would be mutually beneficial. In Algeria, an important factor to their revolution’s success was their powerful leader, Ahmed Ben Bella – a veteran of WWII, who created then National Liberation Front (FLN). Algeria was freed after a war of independence and Ben Bella was made a president of the fledgling nation. Slowly, every single African nation was successful in gaining independence, but many were unable to create equality any better than when they were colonies, and some formed new corrupt governments (posing as democracies). These pseudo-democracies were more autocratic than free and the leaders ended up with most of the power.