history post-colonailism
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week7.rarweek7/Activities Checklist - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Activities Checklist 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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To meet the learning objectives for this topic, you will complete these activities. Print this page and use it as a checklist.
Review the Introduction and Objectives page. Read pages 368385 in your textbook. Read the lesson, PanAfricanist Thought. Read the lesson, The First, but Not the Last. Read the lesson, Left to Their Own Demise. Read the lesson, Ah, the French. Complete all activities on the Learning Activities page. Read the Spotlight: Rwanda page. Participate in Discussion: PostColonialism. Post any questions about the course or assignments to the Help! Discussion.
week7/Ah, the French - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Ah, the French 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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On All Saints Day 1954, the National Liberation Front (NLA) launched attacks across Algeria against police, military installations, warehouses, public utilities, and communication facilities. From Cairo, Egypt the FLN broadcast a call for Muslims in Algeria to join in a national struggle for the "restoration of the Algerian state, sovereign, democratic, and social, within the framework of the principles of Islam."
From the French, the response was one of nonnegotiation, which shaped the French policy in Algeria for years. French Premier Pierre MendèsFrance declared, "One does not compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation, the unity and integrity of the Republic. The Algerian departments are part of the French Republic. They have been French for a long time, and they are irrevocably French... Between them and metropolitan France there can be no conceivable secession."
Now, to be fair France had her hands full at this point and had been publicly humiliated. The French Republic had fallen quickly during World War II and Dien Bien Phu (Indochina/Vietnam) had produced a quagmire that France could not control. Remember it was France s inability to maintain its power in Dien Bien Phu that brought the U.S. to their aid and the U.S. neverending conflict in Vietnam. So, from a French perspective their colonial empire was crumbling, and they like much of Europe equated that with their power, or lack thereof.
The FLN massive campaign across Algeria, left many European farmers to sell their estates and seek refuge in Algiers, where they demanded stronger countermeasures. Counterinsurgency groups were organized, with little or no resistance from the police, to carry out Arabkillings. These groups demanded the proclamation of a state of emergency, the proscription of all groups advocating separation from France, and the imposition of capital punishment for politically motivated crimes (Source: Algerian Independence (19541962), 2003).
The attack at Philippeville in August 1955, turned scrimmages into all out war. The FLN saw a need to escalate their techniques by turning their attacks to civilians. One hundred twentythree (123) people were killed by the FLN at Philippeville. Jacques Soustelle, the French governor general, immediately called for a more aggressive approach against the freedom fighter. While the French government claimed 1,273 rebels were killed in retaliation, the FLN claimed 12,000 Muslims died in an orgy of bloodletting (Source: Algerian Independence (19541962), 2003). France had committed more than 400,000 troops to Algeria in addition to an air force and naval units.
War is ugly, and what happened in Algeria was no exception. The National Liberation Army (ALN), the military arm of the FLN, successfully applied hitandrun tactics following the tenets of guerrilla warfare. Using ambushes and night raids to avoid direct contact with French firepower, the NLA targeted everything that represented French colonial rule. Kidnapping was commonplace, as were the ritual murder and mutilation of captured French military and those suspected collaborators and traitors. At first, the revolutionary forces targeted only Muslim officials of the colonial regime; later, they coerced or killed even those civilians who simply refused to support them (Source: Algerian Independence (19541962), 2003).
Late in 1957, the commander of the French army in Algeria, divided the country into sectors, each permanently patrolled and protected by troops responsible for suppressing rebel operations. Barriers were also constructed to reduce supporters of the FLN from migrating from Morocco and Tunisia. The principle of collective responsibility was applied to
2017628 Ah, the French 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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villages suspected of sheltering, supplying, or in any way cooperating with the guerrillas. Villages that could not be reached by mobile units were subject to aerial bombardment. The French also initiated a program of concentrating large segments of the rural population, including whole villages, in camps under military supervision to prevent them from aiding the rebels (Source: Algerian Independence (19541962), 2003).
Almost simultaneously, patience in France grew thin and the French military gained control of Algeria. Opposition to the conflict in Algeria had grown in France and the international community exerted pressure for France to grant Algeria independence. Charles de Gaulle returned to power and provided the leadership to bring the end to the conflict. In September 1959, de Gaulle dramatically reversed his stand on Algeria and uttered the words selfdetermination in a speech. The colonist felt betrayed, and with the backing of segments of the French army, they staged insurrections in January, 1960 and April, 1961. De Gaulle unlike previous leadership of France, was prepared to writeoff the colonist (Source: Algerian Independence (19541962), 2003).
The Evian Accords allowed the colonist equal legal protection with Algerians over a three year period. These rights included respect for property, participation in public affairs, and a full range of civil and cultural rights. At the end of that period, however, Europeans would be obliged to become Algerian citizens or be classified as aliens with the attendant loss of rights.
On July 1, 1962, nearly 6 million of the 6.5 eligible electorate, approved a referendum on independence. A few days later on the 132nd anniversary of the French initial entry into Algeria, national independence was proclaimed.
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week7/Introduction and Objectives - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Introduction and Objectives 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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Introduction
PostWorld War II, Europe was in shambles. Devastated by total war, Europe was economically broken, its infrastructure had crumbled, and its conscience had been challenged by the ideas of Nazism and Fascism. The United Nations was, inpart, intended to ensure widescale recognition of the rights of the people. States that had fought "to make the world safe for democracy" and to guarantee the atrocities of World War II "never happened again" were given the opportunity to make good on their ideological rantings.
And, then Africa entered. PanAfricanism challenged the United Nations and challenged the States who made such noble pledges to "do the right thing." Thus beginning after World War II, there are growing movements emanating from descendants of the Diaspora and reverberating within the Continent to return the continent of Africa to Africans. The methodology was diverse, the consequences diverse, but during the later half of the 20th century, Africans worked to return Africa to its days of grandeur.
Objectives
After completing the learning activities for this topic, you will be able to:
Discuss PanAfricanism and understand the consequences of PanAfricanist thought on modern Africa. Describe the diverse methods use to decolonize Africa. Articulate the consequences of decolonization on various regions of the continent. Analyze the economic and political impact of decolonization.
week7/Learning Activities - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Learning Activities 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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Explore Resources
Kwame Nkrumah I Speak of Freedom
week7/Left to Their Own Demise - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Left to Their Own Demise 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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In the early 1950s, a couple of nationalistic movements emerged in the Congo one advocating a united Congo the other advocating independent regions based on ethnic heritage. As with other regions of Africa, Belgium fell under increasing pressure domestically and internationally, to institute selfgovernance within the Congo, in compliance with the United Nations Charter. Though the government s official posture was rejection, a Belgian professor published a work in 1955 that swayed power elements of the Belgian community. In the Thirty Year Plan for Political Emancipation of Belgium, Antoine van Bilsen proposed a plan to gradually transfer power to an educated elite within the Congo. Later, A group of Catholic activists published a kind of manifesto called Conscience Africaine, which took the same basic posture as van Bilsen.
Belgium had traditionally looked upon its relationship with the Congo from a posture of paternalism. Abusive from the start, there was no effort to incorporate Africans into the administration of the Congo. The only real role some tribal leaders had in the Congo was that of tax collector and enforcer of Belgian will. With little preparation, Belgians abruptly withdrew from the Congo in 1960. Almost immediately, the Congo erupted into factional fighting. The Katanga, where the copper mines existed, attempted separation. The Belgian mining company Union Minière and Belgian troops supported Katanga s independence and Maurice Tshombe.
Difficulty for the state developed when the duly elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, took opposition to Katanga s quest. Lumumba was an independent thinker. He called for selfdetermination and Congolese control of the resources, not Western control. During the Cold War Era, he was politically on the wrong side of the fence. Lumumba sought support from the United Nations and other African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah. Frustrated by the United Nations slow response and the United States refusal to provide assistance, Lumumba accepted the assistance offered from the Soviet Union. An action offensive to the U.S. Remember the Cold War posture by both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. was that countries could not remain neutral an either you are with us or against us mentality. Therefore, when Lumumba accepted Soviet intervention, the U.S. immediately became incensed.
A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) communiqué to Washington labeled Lumumba as a commie playing the commie game. JosephDesire Mobutu, the Congolese commander and an acquaintance of CIA chief Lawrence Devlin, was encouraged to seek an alternative solution to the growing tensions in the Congo. In a U.S. backed coupe. Lumumba was taken prisoner by Mobuto's forces, beaten, and murdered. Across Africa antiAmerican riots erupted.
In 1965 General Mobutu formed the Popular Revolutionary Movement (MPR), the only party available to citizens, and was elected President. Like King Leopold, Mobuto ruled as an absolute dictator. He renamed the country Zaire, and ran the economy for personal gain. Like Belgians before him, Mobuto had little concern for the masses of people (Source: Jezer, 2001). He brutally suppressed tribal conflicts while he amassed a huge personal fortune through economic exploitation and corruption. His rule has often been referred to a
kleptocracy.
During Mobutu's reign inflation was uncontrolled and the State accumulated a large international debt. By 1991 economic deterioration and unrest forced him to share power with opposition leaders, though his control of the military quashed real change until 1997. Ironically, Mobutu lost power the same way gained power, by force. Laurent Kabila expelled Mobutu from Zaire, introduced a multiparty rule and changed the name of the State to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mobutu died an exile in Morocco the same year.
week7/Pan-Africanist Thought - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 PanAfricanist Thought 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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Attempts to place a precise definition on the phrase Pan Africanism would be futile. The concept is neither clearly political or philosophical, but tends to encompass elements of both, largely depending upon the Era in question.
PanAfricanist thought spans back to at least the 19th century and grew out of the struggles of Africans and African descendants of the Diaspora to overcome common obstacles most notably racism and inequality.
Embraced within the ideology is a realization that Africans, no matter where their home, share a common history, a common culture, and common experiences. And, through the realization of the connectedness of African peoples, strength could be found to advance the community. Now, please do not mistake the sense of connectedness and a sense of sameness as one they are not.
The term first appeared in 1890. P.O. Esedebe contended that the Chicago Congress on Africa (1893) signified the transition of PanAfricanism from an idea to a movement, and thus the first use of the terminology. Others mark the defining moment with the convening of the First PanAfricanist Conference (London) by Henry Sylvester Williams. Though scholars disagree on the issue of when the movement started, most credit one man, William Burghardt DuBois, with articulating the issues and concerns of the Movement (Source: PanAfricanism Panafricanism After World War II And Postcolonialism, 2009).
In 1903 DuBois, a prolific writer, published Souls of Black Folk in which he declared:
. . .the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line, the question as to how far differences of race. . . are going to be made, hereafter, the basis of denying to over half the world the rights of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilization (Source: Soul of Black Folk, 1903).
World War I brought validation and consciousness to Pan Africanism. Africans of the Diaspora came into contact with one another on a large scale. These men and women were struck by the harsh reality of the War and the contradiction that they were being asked to fight to make the world safe for democracy while the world refused to recognize them as equals. Then when the League of Nations charter members rejected a denunciation of racial discrimination, African descendants were not only offended, but motivated.
It was during the years between World War I and World War II when black internationalism and black unity really found it voice. The 1945 PanAfrican Congress demonstrated the new direction of black international activity. The conference was organized by Pan Africanist from Britain and for the first time had a significant and vocal African presence.
For the first two decades after World War II, PanAfricanism changed dramatically. For the first time it became a broadbased mass movement in Africa devoted to the liberation of African people. At the AllAfrican People's Conference (1957) under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, the basic tenets of the new direction of PanAfricanism were formalized. The attainment of political independence, assistance to national liberation movements, diplomatic unity between African states at the United Nations, and nonalignment (Source: PanAfricanism Pan africanism After World War II And Postcolonialism, 2009).
It was largely due to the efforts of leaders like Nkumah (Ghana) and Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) that the Organization of African Union was founded around the ideas that a union of African states will project more effectively the African personality (Source: Nkumah, 1961). Independence was achieved across most of Africa, sometimes given willingly by European colonial states, sometimes through warfare, over
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the next 20 years. The challenge became for African sovereign states to rise above their colonial roots. Realistically, most of the African states remained tied to colonial powers (economic neocolonialism) after independence. The optimism of postcolonial rule was quickly squashed as a number of the newly independent states disintegrated into warfare largely over border issues inherited from colonialism (Source: PanAfricanism Panafricanism After World War II And Postcolonialism, 2009).
week7/question.docx
Please answer the following question. Your answer should be thorough and demonstrate your understanding of the material.
As stated in your text, Africa's experience with colonial rule was, in some way, fairly brief. . . As a result, it is often argued that it is important not to "privilege" (credit) colonialism as having too much of an impact on African history (p. 341). So, do you buy that argument? Or do you take the other side, that colonialism emerged in the midst of global (Western) powers jocking for supremacy, and therefore was so coimplete (economically, socially, politically) and the impact/damage thus destroyed the framwork of Africanism that had existed across millenia?
Make sure you support your answer with evidence from the readings.
week7/Spotlight_ Algeria - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 Spotlight: Algeria 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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The Algerian quest for independence, though at times hushed, never died.
Nation's Modern Day Significance to the World
Algeria is an integral part of the human trafficking network It is both a source country and destination for women and men who are subjected to forced labor. Criminal networks extending both northward into Europe and southward into subSaharan Africa in part collaborate in providing an involuntary workforce for prostitution, domestic service and begging.
week7/The First, But Not the Last - 17.SU.HIS.2215.pdf
2017628 The First, But Not the Last 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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Kwame Nkrumah led the Gold Coast as the first to gain its independence from the British. An educated man, Nkrumah, earned his bachelor's degree from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), where he pledged Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and received an STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) in 1942.
Nkrumah went on to earn a Master of Science in education and later philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. While at Lincoln, he became president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada. It was in the United States that he embraced the ideas of Marcus Garvey and adopted a PanAfricanist approach to his view of Africa and Africans of the Diaspora.
Nkrumah returned to Africa after World War II when he was asked to serve as General Secretary to the United Gold Coast Convention, which was exploring routes to independence from the British. Nkrumah and others from the UGCC were arrested in 1948, after a series of riots broke out across the Gold Coast protesting the high cost of living. Though they quickly realized their error and soon released Nkrumah, his imprisonment by colonial powers increased his power and prestige among Africans discontent with the British statusquo. Nkrumah embarked on a campaign across the Gold Coast to rally the masses behind the quest for independent. His demand was selfgovernment now!
To appease the growing movement, the British assembled a group of middleclass Africans to draft a constitution that would give more power to native Africans. Under the constitution, only those with sufficient assets, property and wages, could vote a proposal unacceptable to Nkrumah. The People Assembly was organized and demanded universal suffrage and selfgovernance a proposal unacceptable to the colonial administration.
In 1950, Nkrumah's response was to organize the Positive Action campaign which included civil disobedience, noncooperation, boycotts, and strikes. Nkrumah and many of his supporters were arrested and sentenced to prison. The British, who now faced international ridicule and continued resistance, withdrew from the Gold Coast. The first general election was held in 1951, with 34 of the 38 elected seats going to Convention People s Party representative. Progress toward independence moved quickly after the first general election. Nkrumah was released from jail and asked by the British Governor Charles ArdenClark to form a government.
In 1952, the constitution was amended to provide for a Prime Minister and Nkrumah was overwhelmingly elected to the office. He presented his Motion of Destiny to the Assembly, which requested/demanded independence within the British Commonwealth.
As the first leader to leader of this governmental body, Nkrumah faced major challenges. He, his administration and the people of the Gold Coast had to learn to govern, again. Second, the nation of Ghana had to be melded into one cohesive body from four territories. Third, he had to gain complete independence from Britain. Within six years of his release from prison, Nkrumah had successfully achieved all three goals he was the leader of an independent nation.
The Gold Coast became Ghana in 1957. Nkrumah, who had rejected extreme tenets of capitalism and believed the malignant effects of capitalism would plague Africa for generations. In his 1967 essay entitled African Socialism Revisited he wrote:
We know that the traditional African society was founded on principles of egalitarianism. In its actual workings, however, it had various shortcomings. Its humanist impulse, nevertheless, is something that continues to urge us towards our allAfrican socialist reconstruction. We postulate each man to be an end in himself, not merely a means; and we accept the necessity of guaranteeing each man equal opportunities for his development. The implications of this for sociopolitical practice have
2017628 The First, But Not the Last 17.SU.HIS.2215.500 SURVEY OF AFRICAN HISTORY
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to be worked out scientifically, and the necessary social and economic policies pursued with resolution. Any meaningful humanism must begin from egalitarianism and must lead to objectively chosen policies for safeguarding and sustaining egalitarianism. Hence, socialism. Hence, also, scientific socialism.
To benefit the masses, a welfare system was created, community programs adopted, and schools were established to educate the youth of Ghana. Advancement of public health was a major goal of Nkrumah who opened medical access in villages. To improve both trade and communication, roads and bridges were constructed across the State.
Espousing the ideas of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, Nkrumah promoted PanAfricanism. He went on to encourage the philosophy across Africa and having laid a successful blueprint, his greatest success in the area of PanAfricanism was the founding the Organization of African Unity which encouraged the indigenous population to recognize its collective struggle and support one another in the eradication of colonial rule across the Continent.
