(OA) Conflict and Change: Nationalism, Apartheid, & Pan-African Movement Lesson

Conflict and Change: Nationalism, Apartheid, & Pan-African Movement

Slowly the European powers began to liberate their African colonies. By 1960, there were 27 independent African countries. By 1975, over 47 were independent. Independence came at a high cost. A major problem created by European imperialism was the cultural makeup of the countries. When European countries established their African colonies, they paid little attention to the traditional loyalties and kinship groups of the people they were ruling. Boundaries between colonies were decided according to European nations with little regard to the people living within or divided by the boundaries. When the African colonies were liberated, the boundaries of the countries often followed the colonial boundaries. This left people who had traditionally been at war or practiced different religions to work together to form a new nation.

 

There were cruel and divisive policies enacted by European powers over their Sub-Saharan African colonies. Therefore, it should not be surprising that nationalist movements developed among indigenous Africans. Since there are over 1,000 different languages and an extensive number of ethnic groups within Sub-Saharan Africa, not all of the nationalist movements emerged at exactly the same time or with the same goals. In addition to language and ethnic differences, the experience of colonialism varied in accordance with the European nation that wielded colonial power. The seven European nations of Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Great Britain carved out 48 separate colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their policies ranged from the Portuguese policy of encouraging Portuguese settlers to intermarry with native Africans to the German policy of a genocide against a native African ethnic group in order to maintain control of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. Although both policies were designed to control the native people, the results and impact were vastly different.

So... if the European colonial powers were working so hard to maintain their rule over Africa, what happened to bring an end to the colonial era? Good question- complicated answer.

The first half of the Twentieth Century was a time of conflict for all seven European nations. During the four years of World War I, 1914-1918, six of those seven fought against Germany and her allies. Following World War I, a worldwide economic depression affected all seven of those nations. Then, in 1939, the seven nations began yet another World War. World War II pitted the Allies (with Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) against the Axis Powers (with Germany, Italy, and Japan). For a long time during World War II, Germany and Italy were very successful. They overran practically the entire continent of Europe (forcing the Belgian and French governments to go underground) and managed to overrun much of North Africa. For a couple of years, Italy was even able to control Ethiopia (the nation that formerly resisted Italy's attempts at colonization). The tide turned when Allied forces (now including the United States) were able to march from North Africa into Italy (using boats and planes to cross the Mediterranean) and from France and the Soviet Union (Russia) into Germany. When the Allies celebrated V-E Day (Victory over Europe) on May 8, 1945, Germany and Italy had lost.

Just because a nation wins a war does not mean that it hasn't lost something. The incredible battles that had occurred all over the continent of Europe had caused major devastation to its infrastructure. Even Great Britain had not been spared the destruction as German planes had hammered the island nation with bombs. Literally, when the dust settled at the end of World War II, the ruin was everywhere. Cities needed rebuilding, factories needed rebuilding, and houses needed rebuilding, schools needed rebuilding... the list went on and on. No matter if the European nation had won or lost World War II, they all found themselves in the same weakened condition. It was at this time that African nationalism peaked.

The wreckage wrought by World War II was somewhat contained to Europe and Asia. Naturally, some of the fightings had spilled over onto the African continent; but most of that had been contained to the North African nations. Only those countries located in the northeast corner of Sub-Saharan Africa, known as the African Horn, had endured any extensive battles during World War II. The rest of Sub-Saharan Africa had experienced a time of colonial neglect as the powers that ruled over them were busy at home. The time was ripe for nationalists to step up and lead, and the ideal of independence for Africa found supporters from within and without Africa's borders.

Outside of the African continent, a worldwide movement known as Pan-Africanism existed. Pan-Africanism was a campaign to unify people of African roots living around the globe. Their goal was to "unify and uplift" those people of African descent who had been scattered around the world during the African Diaspora caused by the slave trade and those people of Africa living under colonial rule. They hoped that by working together, Africans and those with African ancestors would be able to point out how they had suffered under governments that abused their rights and treated them as second-class citizens. The goal was to identify the problems of racism around the world in order to find a solution that would benefit everyone.

Pan-Africanism was a global movement, and while some of its aims were directed to the ending of the colonial era in Africa, it was not solely devoted to this aim. There were more local organizations in Africa prepared to take up the mantle for African independence. Supporters of African nationalism had started forming political organizations as early as the 1890s but had found it hard to do more than that. As the decades passed, new generations of Africans took over these political organizations. Many of these new leaders were educated in Europe or America and returned home with ideas on the ways colonialism had wounded their lands.

Depending on the location and what European power was in charge, the African nationalist movements eventually succeeded. Click on the sections in the pie chart below to learn when the various African colonies became African nations.

  

By 1968, most of the nations of Africa had achieved sovereignty from their colonial oppressors. Most of these had accomplished sovereignty in an orderly and peaceful transition, but not all. Despite the introduction of sovereignty, five nations of Africa were still ruled by the minority European settler communities- Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. In these five nations, all located in the southern Africa region, the white minority of the population set up oligarchic governments that prevented the black majority from voting. By disfranchising non-whites, the governments in these nations were able to pass laws that promoted the rights of the minority white population while refusing political rights to native Africans. Thus, these "settler governments" were able to maintain the power of European descendants over Africans past the formal end of colonialism.

As African nationalist political parties in these nations pushed for "one man, one vote," the governments of Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique passed laws that prohibited political protests. With no vote and no freedom of speech, the political parties that pushed for native African equality found only one avenue open to them and they began forming armed liberation movements. These liberation movements found it difficult to arm themselves well enough to push against the government armies of their nations. Nationalists sought support from European nations and the United States but found that their pleas for help to democratic societies were ignored. There were nations on the planet that did not turn a deaf ear. China, the Soviet Union, and other communist nations of Europe were willing to help the majority native African populations overthrow the oligarchic minority governments running Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. By 1994, with the end of apartheid in South Africa, all of the five settler-run regimes were converted to majority-rule governments.

Challenge

 

Take Away

The Pan-African movement began as a reaction to the terrible experiences of colonial rule and the desire for people of African descent, no matter where they lived in the world, to think of Africa as a homeland. The first people to support the idea of Pan-Africans were Africans who were living in other parts of the world. People who supported this movement felt that all Africans, no matter where they lived, shared a bond with each other. They also called for Africans all over the continent to think of themselves as one people and to work for the betterment of all. The Movement wanted to end European control of the continent and to make Africa a homeland for all people of African descent. Those in the movement also hoped that African countries would work together to improve each country’s economy. While the peaceful unification of Africa has never taken place, the Pan-African movement can take a lot of credit for sparking independence movements that left nearly all African nations free of colonial rule by the 1980s.

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