AFRICA

AFRICA

volume 1African History Before 1885

volume 2African Cultures and Societies

Before 1885

volume 3Colonial Africa, 1885–1939

volume 4The End of Colonial Rule:

Nationalism and Decolonization

volume 5Contemporary Africa

AFRICA

Volume 4

The End of Colonial Rule:Nationalism and Decolonization

Edited by

Toyin Falola

Carolina Academic Press

Durham, North Carolina

Copyright © 2002Toyin Falola

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Africa / edited by Toyin Falola.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-89089-768-9 (v. 1) — ISBN 0-89089-769-7 (v. 2) —ISBN 0-89089-770-0 (v. 3)— ISBN 0-89089-202-4 (v. 4)—1. Africa —History — To 1884. I. Falola, Toyin.

DT20 .A61785 2000960—dc21

00-035789

Carolina Academic Press700 Kent Street

Durham, North Carolina 27701Telephone (919) 489-7486

Fax (919) 493-5668E-mail: cap@cap-press.com

www.cap-press.com

Printed in the United States of America

For Dr. Kassahun Checole and the Africa World Press

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ixList of Illustrations and Maps xiNotes on the Authors xvIntroduction

Toyin Falola xxi

Part A Africa in the Years of Decolonization

Chapter 1 Trends and Patterns in African NationalismEhiedu E. G. Iweriebor 3

Chapter 2 Pan-AfricanismJ. I. Dibua 29

Chapter 3 Africa and World War IIKwabena O. Akurang-Parry 49

Chapter 4 Radical Nationalism and Wars of LiberationAdebayo Oyebade 63

Chapter 5 Women Under Colonial RuleBessie House Soremekun 89

Chapter 6 Women and Nationalist MovementsGloria I. Chuku 109

Chapter 7 African Economies in the Years of DecolonizationG. Ugo Nwokeji 131

Chapter 8 African BusinessAlusine Jalloh 153

Chapter 9 Educational Policies and ReformsApollos O. Nwauwa 167

Chapter 10 Social and Religious ChangesJulius O. Adekunle 185

Chapter 11 Chieftaincy Structures and State FormationOlufemi Vaughan 209

Chapter 12 Cities and Urban LifeSteven J. Salm 223

Chapter 13 Westernization of Health ServicesGeorge Ndege 249

vii

Chapter 14 African EnvironmentsChristian Jennings 263

Chapter 15 African Artdele jegede 279

Chapter 16 Trends in African LiteratureAdeleke Adeeko 303

Part B Case Studies

Chapter 17 North AfricaEdmund Abaka 321

Chapter 18 West AfricaAkanmu G. Adebayo 339

Chapter 19 East, Central, and Equatorial AfricaGeorge Ndege and Chima J. Korieh 361

Chapter 20 Portuguese AfricaEdmund Abaka 379

Chapter 21 Southern African States, 1939 to IndependenceFunso Afolayan 399

Chapter 22 South Africa: The Rise and Fall of ApartheidFunso Afolayan 427

Part C Reflections on Colonialism

Chapter 23 The Psychology of ColonialismEhiedu E. G. Iweriebor 465

Chapter 24 NeocolonialismSaheed A. Adejumobi 483

Chapter 25 Africa and Europe: Anatomy of a Colonial RelationshipEbere Nwaubani 495

Index 515

viii Contents

ix

Preface and Acknowledgments

This text is intended to introduce Africa to college students and the generalpublic. Volumes 3 and 4 both cover the entire period of colonial rule in Africaduring the twentieth century. These two interrelated volumes meet the require-ments of history and culture-related courses in most schools. Moreover, they ad-dress major issues of interest to the general public. The choice of topics is dictatedboth by relevance and the need to satisfy classroom requirements.

Volume 3 examines the colonial period from its initial foundation in the1880s up until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Among the issuesexamined in Volume 3 are those relating to the colonial imposition, the changesintroduced by Europeans, the reactions of Africans to these changes, and the mainhistorical events within each African region during this period.

Volume 4 continues with the discussion of the colonial period, focusing on thethemes of change and freedom. The volume presents, in a simplified manner, vari-ous aspects of African history and culture from the period of World War II to thetime that African countries became free of European rule. Important themes arei d e n t i fied in the first part, all revolving around issues of re f o rms and colonial dis-engagement. The aim in this section is to present the broad picture of Africa in thelast decades of colonial rule. As to be expected, the theme of nationalism is domi-nant. Four chapters are devoted to the analysis of nationalism, including the con-tributions by women, which have generally been ignored. These were also theyears of re f o rms, when Africa actually began to see significant changes. Va r i o u schapters are devoted to the re f o rms and other social aspects that received major at-tention at the time, notably health, business, and education. The authors pay atten-tion to the role of Africans in initiating some of these changes. In the second part ,the themes are analyzed chro n o l o g i c a l l y, focusing on each region in turn. The fin a lp a rt re flects on what colonialism meant for Africa, both during European rule pe-riod and since independence. The concluding chapters pre p a re the reader to under-stand contemporary Africa, which is covered in Volume 5, the last in the series.

The choice of the various authors was primarily based on their competence asteachers in the explanation of history to college students and beginners, as well astheir skill in synthesizing a large body of data and ideas. Among the notable ped-agogical features of this volume are chapter abstracts to orient readers to the ob-jectives and ideas of each chapter, ideas organized into various themes, reviewquestions to help students test their knowledge of the main ideas of the chapter,and suggestions for additional reading materials to facilitate advanced research.

x Preface and Acknowledgments

I am grateful to all the contributors, students, and readers who have helped invarious ways to make the book readable for a diverse audience. Dr. Ann O’Hearand Ms. Jennifer Spain made many suggestions regarding style and intelligibility.Sam Saverance prepared the final maps and illustrations. Friends, associates, andstudents gave me access to their photo albums to make selections that have im-proved the overall presentation of the book. Two artists, Professor Dele Jegedeand Chris Adejumo, as well as Jeff Rowe of Austin Prints and Tim Colton of Car-olina Academic Press, were helpful with comments on cover illustrations.

Toyin FalolaFrances Higginbothom Nalle Centennial Professor in History

The University of Texas at Austin

List of Illustrations and Maps

PageMap Africa, 1914 5Figure 1.1. Marcus Garvey. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-109627. 10Map African nations, with dates of independence. 17Figure 1.2. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Editor’s collection. 19Figure 1.3. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria. Editor’s collection. 20Figure 1.4. Dr. Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. Editor’s collection. 23Figure 2.1. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Editor’s collection. 34Figure 2.2 William Tubman of Liberia. Editor’s collection. 41Map Early pan-Africanist organizations up to the OAU. 42Figure 3.1. Wartime propaganda, Gold Coast, 1942. Author’s collection. 52Map Africa and World War II. 54Figure 3.2. Colonial police, British colonies. Editor’s collection. 56Map Campaigns in North Africa and Ethiopia. 56Map The war for independence in Algeria. 67Map The Mau-Mau in Kenya. 73Map Wars of liberation in Angola, Mozambique,

and Guinea-Bissau. 78Figure 5.1. Five women, one carrying a child on her back, picking

pyrethrum flowers, Kenya. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-092983. 91

Figure 5.2. Kenyan woman cutting vegetables as another watches.Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-092981. 94

Figure 5.3. Women cutting early rose potatoes for planting. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-105642. 95

Figure 5.4. Tanzanian woman with heavy load strapped to her back. Library of Congress, LC-W7-418 99

Figure 5.5 African woman in modern and traditional attire. Editor’s collection; gift from Weju and Cherno Njie of the Gambia. 101

Figure 5.6 A Muslim Woman. Editor’s collection. 104Figure 5.7 Elite Woman. Editor’s collection.Figure 5.7. An elite woman —Western education enabled women

to respond to new opportunities. Editor’s collection. 106

xi

Figure 6.1. Reflections through prayer. Muslim women praying about peace, social order, political stability and prosperity.Editor’s collection. 115

Figure 6.2. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria. Her son, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, became one of Africa’s most talented musicians and a revolutionary artist. Editor’s collection. 121

Map Post-World War II economies in Africa. 133Figure 7.1. Cattle market. Editor’s collection. 142Figure 7.2. Moving peanuts for export in Senegal. The economy

was based on production for export. Editor’s collection. 143Figure 7.3. Street-side petty trade. Editor’s collection. 147Figure 8.1. African traditional market. Editor’s collection. 154Figure 8.2. Abigu Jalloh. Alusine Jalloh’s collection. 159Figure 8.3. Alhaji Momodu Allie. Alusine Jalloh’s collection. 161Map Education in Africa, post-World War II. 175Figure 9.1. Main tower, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Editor’s collection. 176Figure 9.2. A woman graduating from an African university. The

vigorous attention on the education of women did not comeuntil after 1960. Ms. Lanre Olusola of Ilawe. Editor’s collection. 181

Map Crop production in West Africa. 186Figure 10.1. Priest of traditional religion. Editor’s collection. 198Figure 10.2. African masquerade festival. Editor’s collection. 198Figure 10.3. Church in Côte d’Ivoire. Ann Genova’s collection. 199Figure 10.4. Mosque in Côte d’Ivoire. Ann Genova’s collection. 199Map Religion in Africa, post-World War II. 200Figure 10.5. Wedding Ceremony in Progress. Editor’s collection. 201 Figure 10.6. An African modern family. Christianity and western

education promoted monogamous marriages. Editor’s collection; gift from Fola and Akin Ogunriande of Nigeria. 201

Figure 11.1. A West African king. Their traditional power began to decline after 1945, although they continue to retain their symbolic significance. Editor’s collection. 210

Figure 11.2. King Olufi of Gbongan, Nigeria. Editor’s collection. 216Figure 11.3. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa with Princess Alexandra

at the Nigerian Independence Ceremony, 1960. Editor’s collection. 221

Map Urbanization in Africa, 1954–1968. 226Figure 12.1. Downtown Nairobi. Editor’s collection. 227 Figure 12.2. Urban Protest in Lagos. Editor’s collection. 235Figure 12.3. Modern Lagos, Nigeria. Editor’s collection. 237Figure 12.4. A highlife musician in Lagos. Editor’s collection. 241Figure 12.5. View of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Ann Genova’s collection. 242Figure 13.1. Growing up in Africa. Editor’s collection. 251Figure 14.1. Gurara Falls, Nigeria. Editor’s collction. 264Figure 14.2. Farming communities in northern Tanzania. Colonial

officials doubted the ability of Africans to manage their own farms. Christian Jennings’ collection. 271

xii List of Illustrations and Maps

Figure 14.3. The Serengeti Plains. In the background, the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. Christian Jennings’ collection. 272

Figure 14.4. An elephant lunches in Ngorongoro Crater, where Maasai pastoralists often clash with conservationists. Christian Jennings’ collection 274

Figure 14.5. Maasai community, Kenya. Photograph by Andrew Deans. 276Figure 14.6. Roan antelopes in West Africa. Editor’s collection. 277Figure 15.1. Chokwe Mask, FDR Congo. Wood, fibers, wicker.

Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 85-15-20. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 280

Figure 15.2. Deangle Mask. Dan, Côte d’Ivoire. Wood, fiber. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 99-21-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 288

Figure 15.3. Mende Helmet Mask, Sierra Leone. Wood. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 98-4-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 289

Figure 15.4. Bamana Mask, Mali. Wood, attachments. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 73-7-56. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 293

Figure 15.5. Nkisi Nkondi, Kongo. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 91-22-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 295

Figure 15.6. Kota Reliquary Guardian Figure, Gabon. Wood, copper.Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 83-17-1. Photograph by Franko Khoury. 296

Figure 15.7. Two akua mma (sing. akua’ba) figures, Asante, Ghana. Wood, beaded strings, metal. Reproduced courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. 87-4-1. Photographs by Franko Khoury. 298

Figure 16.1. Leopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal. Editor’s collection. 305Figure 16.2. Wole Soyinka, renowned African dramatist. Editor’s

collection. 312Figure 18.1. Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire. Editor’s

collection. 345Figure 18.2. Tafawa Balewa and Kwame Nkrumah. Editor’s collection. 347Figure 18.3. Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria. Editor’s collection. 349Figure 18.4. Coastal site, West Africa. Editor’s collection. 352Figure 18.5. Marketplace in Côte d’Ivoire. Ann Genova’s collection. 356Figure 19.1. Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah, 1960. Editor’s

collection. 370Figure 19.2. Julius Nyerere and Tafawa Balewa. Editor’s collection. 371Figure 19.3. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia. Editor’s collection. 376Map South African colonialism in southern Africa. 420Figure 21.1 Sam Nujoma of Namibia. Editor’s collection. 423

List of Illustrations and Maps xiii

Figure 21.2. Cecil Rhodes. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-099208. 424Figure 21.3. Robert Mubabe of Zimbabwe. Editor’s collection. 425Map South African black homelands and resistance

to apartheid. 442Figure 21.1. Dr. James Moroka, ANC President. Editor’s collection. 447Figure 22.2. Nelson Mandela. Editor’s collection. 450Figure 24.1. Patrice Lumumba, right, under arrest in the Congo, 1961.

Lumumba was one of the earliest victims of neocolonialism. Editor’s collection. 488

Figure 25.1. Colonial architecture. Editor’s collection. 506Figure 25.2. House in a rural area. Editor’s collection. 506

xiv List of Illustrations and Maps

xv

Notes on the Authors

Edmund Abaka completed his Ph.D. in history in 1998 at York University,Toronto, Canada. He is currently an Assistant Professor of History at theUniversity of Miami, Florida. He is the author of a number of articles: “KolaNut” (Cambridge History of Food and Nutrition, 2000); “Eating Kola: ThePharmacological and Therapeutic Significance of Kola Nuts” (Ghana Studies,1998); with J. B. Gashugi, “Forced Migration from Rwanda: Myths and Re-alities” (Refuge, 1994); and with Samuel Woldu, “The International Contextof the Rwandan Crisis” (Refuge, 1994). He has completed a manuscript enti-tled “Kola in God’s Gift: The Asante and Gold Coast Kola Industry c.1815–1950,” as well as a number of entries for the forthcoming Encyclope-dia of African History.

G. Adebayo is a Professor of History at Kennesaw State University, Georgia. He isthe author of Embattled Federalism: A History of Revenue Allocation inNigeria (1993) and a co-author of History of West Africa (1983) and Culture,Politics and Money among the Yoruba (2000). He has contributed essays tovarious journals, including the Journal of African History, the InternationalJournal of African Historical Studies, History in Africa, the Journal of Mod-ern African Studies, and the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians.He is a member of the editorial boards of African Economic History andNigerian Journal of Economic History. He has taught in many institutions inAfrica, Europe, and Canada. He presently teaches African and world historyat Kennesaw State University, where he served as Assistant Director of Inter-national Programs and now helps organize the Georgia consortium of univer-sities involved in academic and other activities in West Africa.

Adeleke Adeeko is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Col-orado, Boulder. His Proverbs, Textuality, and Nativism in African Literaturewas published in 1998. He has published articles on African and AfricanAmerican literature. He is currently completing a book project, tentatively ti-tled “Black Thunder,” on slave rebellions and black literature in the Carib-bean, Africa, and the United States.

Saheed Adejumobi obtained his Ph.D. in African history at the University ofTexas at Austin, where he also taught in the Center for African and AfricanAmerican Studies as an assistant instructor. He specializes in African intellec-tual history, researching and writing on indigenous and transnational culturalforms, popular culture, and identity politics. He has degrees from the Univer-sity of Lagos, Nigeria, and the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Julius Adekunle holds a Ph.D. degree from Dalhousie University, Halifax, NovaScotia. He has taught at Tennessee State University, Nashville and at Dal-

xvi Notes on the Authors

housie and St. Mary’s Universities, Halifax. He is currently an Assistant Pro-fessor of African History and the Caribbean and the Director of the GraduateProgram at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey. His workon the precolonial history of Nigerian Borgu is being revised for publication.He has published articles in Anthropos, Ife: Annals of Cultural Studies, andAfrican Economic History. He has won many academic awards, including theJudith M. Stanley Fellowship for Improvement in Teaching at MonmouthUniversity.

Funso Afolayan holds a Ph.D. in African History from Obafemi Awolowo Uni-versity, Ile Ife, Nigeria. In addition to his research publications in Africa, Eu-rope, and the United States, he is a co-author of Yoruba Sacred Kingship: APower Like That of the Gods. Among the many books to which he has con-tributed are Yoruba Historiography; Warfare and Diplomacy in PrecolonialNigeria; Dilemmas of Democracy in Nigeria; The Historical Encyclopedia ofWorld Slavery; Culture and Society in Yorubaland; War and Peace in Yoruba-land; and African Democracy in the Era of Globalization. He has held re-search and teaching positions at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nige-ria; in the Department of Religions at Amherst College; and in theDepartment of History and African and Afro-American Studies Program atWashington University in St. Louis. He currently teaches African and worldhistory at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, where he is an Associ-ate Professor of African History and the African Diaspora.

Kwabena Akurang-Parry is an Assistant Professor of History at ShippensburgUniversity, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in African his-tory from York University, Toronto, Canada, in 1998. His research interestsinclude slavery and colonial rule in Ghana, the impact of abolition on genderand labor in colonial Ghana, the indigenous press in colonial West Africa,and colonial Ghana and the two World Wars. Apart from several publicationsin edited works, his articles have appeared or are forthcoming in Slavery andAbolition, Ghana Studies, Refuge, History in Africa, African Economic His-tory, and the International Journal of African History Studies. His poemshave appeared in Okike and Ufahamu.

Gloria Chuku, Ph.D., teaches African History and World Civilization from 1500at South Carolina State University, Orangeburg. She has taught in threeNigerian colleges: the Federal College of Education, Umunze; Abia State Uni-versity, Uturu; and Imo State University, Owerri. She has also taught at theUniversity of Memphis in the United States. Dr. Chuku specializes in Africanand African women’s history and gender studies. She is the recipient of manyacademic awards and distinctions. She was a Visiting Scholar in the James S.Coleman African Studies Center at the University of California at Los Angelesfrom 1999 to 2000 and a Research Scholar in the Council for the Develop-ment of Economic and Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) at theGender Institute, Dakar, Senegal, in 1995. Dr. Chuku’s articles have appearedin Women in World History, African Economic History, and UFAHAMU,and she has contributed several entries to the forthcoming Encyclopedia ofAfrican History. She is currently revising her Ph.D. dissertation for publica-tion, to be titled “Gender and the Changing Role of Women in Igbo Econ-omy, 1900–1970.”

J. I. Dibua holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Benin, Nigeria. He haspublished numerous articles in various international journals and contributedchapters to books. He has taught at the Edo State (now Ambrose Alli) Uni-

Notes on the Authors xvii

versity, Ekpoma, Nigeria; the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria; NorthCarolina State University, Raleigh, NC; and North Carolina Central Univer-sity, Durham, North Carolina. He is currently an Associate Professor ofAfrican and African Diaspora History at Morgan State University, Baltimore,Maryland.

Toyin Falola, Ph.D., editor of the series, is the Frances Higginbothom Nalle Cen-tennial Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the au-thor of numerous articles and books, most recently The Culture and Customsof Nigeria (2001) and Nationalism and African Intellectuals (2001). Ateacher at numerous institutions in various countries since the 1970s, he is therecipient of the 2000 Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.

E. G. Iweriebor is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He obtained hisPh.D. from Columbia University, New York. He specializes in colonial andcontemporary Nigerian and African intellectual history and the history ofcontemporary African political and economic development. He has publishedseveral articles and is a commentator on current affairs in Nigerian newspa-pers. His current research is in contemporary economic history, with specialreference to endogenous innovative responses to economic crisis, technologi-cal developments, and the growth of autocentric perspectives and actionsamong Nigerian entrepreneurs. His books include Radical Politics in Nigeria,1945–1950: The Significance of the Zikist Movement (1996); The Age ofNeo-Colonialism in Africa (1997); and, with Dr. Martin Uhmoibhi, UN Secu-rity Council: The Case for Nigeria’s Membership (1999). He taught at the De-partment of History at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and was the firstChair of the Department of African Studies at Manhattanville College, Pur-chase, New York. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department ofBlack and Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, New York.

Alusine Jalloh is an Associate Professor of History and the founding director ofthe Africa Program at the University of Texas at Arlington. His recent publi-cations include African Entrepreneurship: Muslim Fula Merchants in SierraLeone (1999); Islam and Trade in Sierra Leone (1997); and The African Dias-pora (1996).

dele jegede obtained his Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington. Currently aProfessor of Art History at Indiana State University, Terre Haute, he has pub-lished extensively on various aspects of the traditional, contemporary, andpopular arts of Africa. His recent publications include Five Windows intoAfrica (2000) and Contemporary African Art: Five Artists, Diverse Trends(2000). In 2000, he curated two major art shows, “Contemporary AfricanArt” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and “Women to Women: WeavingCultures, Shaping History” at Indiana State University. Artist, art critic, car-toonist, and art historian, dele jegede has held many solo exhibitions and par-ticipated in numerous group shows.

Christian Jennings, M.A., is a doctoral student at the University of Texas atAustin, specializing in East African and environmental history. In addition tothis textbook chapter, he has contributed several entries to the forthcomingEncyclopedia of African History.

Chima J. Korieh teaches African History at Central Michigan University. Heholds degrees from the University of Nigeria, the University of Helsinki, Fin-land and the University of Bergen, Norway. He is currently completing his

xviii Notes on the Authors

Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Toronto. He is the recipient of manyacademic awards and distinctions, including the Rockefeller African Disserta-tion Internship Award and the Australian Overseas Postgraduate ResearchAward. He was the Jacob Jimeson Teaching Fellow at Hartwick College inNew York, 2001–2002. He has published journal articles and book chapters.

George Ndege holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University. He is an AssistantProfessor in the Department of History at Saint Louis University. He is theauthor of many articles and essays in journals, books, and encyclopedias,most recently in the Journal of Asian and African Studies; the ScandinavianJournal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies; Economic History ofKenya; Ethnicity, Nationalism and Democracy in Africa; the Encyclopedia ofAfrican History; and the Worldmark Encyclopedia of National Economies.He has taught at Moi and Maseno Universities in Kenya. His monograph onthe medical history of Kenya in the twentieth century is being prepared forpublication.

Ugo Nwokeji holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is an AssistantProfessor in the History Department and in the Institute for African AmericanStudies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He is also a Research Associ-ate at the DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard Univer-sity, Cambridge. With David Eltis, he is creating a database of the nineteenth-century slave trade. Dr. Nwokeji has published many articles, including“African Conceptions of Gender and the Slave Traffic” in William and MaryQuarterly (2001); “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Population Density: A His-torical Demography of the Biafran Hinterland” in the Canadian Journal ofAfrican Studies (2000); “Slave Emancipation Problematic: Igbo Society andthe Colonial Equation” in Comparative Studies in Society and History(1998); and, with David Eltis, “Characteristics of Captives Leaving theCameroons for the Americas, 1822–1837” in the Journal of African History(forthcoming). He has recently been a Fellow at the Gilder Lehrman Centerfor the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University and aVisiting Scholar at the Center for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin.

Apollos O. Nwauwa is Assistant Professor of African History at Bowling GreenState University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Dr. Nwauwa has previously taught atEdo State University, Ekpoma, Nigeria, and at Rhode Island College andBrown University, both in Providence, Rhode Island. His scholarly works in-clude Imperialism, Academe, and Nationalism: Britain and University Educa-tion for Africans, 1860–1960 (1997). He has contributed many chapters tobooks and articles to journals such as Anthropos; Cahiers D’ÉtudesAfricaines; Africa Quarterly; Asian and African Studies; History in Africa; theCanadian Journal of African Historical Studies; the Ife Journal of History;and the International Journal of African Studies.

Chidiebere Nwaubani is with the History Department at the University of Col-orado at Boulder. He was previously a faculty member at Imo State Univer-sity, Okigwe, Nigeria. He holds degrees from the universities of Ilorin,Ibadan, and Toronto. A recipient of many academic awards and distinctions,he was a Visiting Fellow of the British Academy in the summer of 1997. Hehas published in several journals on subjects including the philosophy of his-tory, the history of the Igbo, British decolonization in Africa, and the politicaleconomy of contemporary Africa. His latest book, The United States and De-colonization in West Africa, 1950–1960, was published in 2001.

Notes on the Authors xix

Adebayo Oyebade obtained his Ph.D. in history from Temple University, Philadel-phia. He is currently an Associate Professor of History at Tennessee State Uni-versity. He co-edited Africa After the Cold War: The Changing Perspectiveson Security (1998) and is currently completing a book-length manuscript onthe United States’s strategic interests in West Africa during World War II. Hehas authored chapters on African history and published scholarly articles insuch journals as African Economic History and the Journal of Black Studies .He has also received scholarly awards including Fulbright and Ford Founda-tion research grants.

Steve Salm is completing his Ph.D. in history and is a William S. Livingston Fel-low at the University of Texas at Austin. He has performed fieldwork in sev-eral West African countries, focusing on twentieth century urban history andculture. He has received a number of awards and fellowships for his work, in-cluding the Jan Carleton Perry Prize for his M.A. thesis, a dissertation fellow-ship, and a University of Texas at Austin Thematic Fellowship on Urban Is-sues. He has given many guest lectures, presented research papers at variousconferences, and published chapters and articles on a wide range of topicssuch as gender, youth, music, literature, alcohol, and popular culture. Hiswritings have appeared in Africa Today, African Economic History, the Ency-clopedia of African History, and other publications. His book The Cultureand Customs of Ghana was published in 2002.

Bessie House Sore m e k u n is an Associate Professor in the Department of PoliticalScience and the Executive Director and Founder of the Minority Business Pro-gram at Kent State University. Her re s e a rch has focused primarily on economicand political development in Africa and the United States. She has publishedn u m e rous scholarly articles, book chapters, and book reviews. Her works havea p p e a red in Africa To d a y; African Urban and Rural Studies; Africa: RivistaTr i m e s t r a l e; t h e J o u rnal of the African Society of International and Compara-tive Law; the Ohio Journal of Economics and Politics; a n d t h e I n t e rn a t i o n a lJ o u rnal of African Historical Studies. She is the author of Class Developmentand Gender Inequality in Kenya, 1963–1990 ( 1990) and the co-editor ofAfrican Market Women and Economic Power: The Role of Women in AfricanEconomic Development ( 1995). Her book C o n f ronting the Odds: African-American Entre p reneurship in Cleveland, Ohio is fort h c o m i n g .

Olufemi Vaughan holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford andis currently an Associate Professor in both the Department of Africana Stud-ies and the Department of History at the State University of New York, StonyBrook. His publications in African studies have appeared in many edited vol-umes and in journals such as African Affairs; the Journal of Commonwealthand Comparative Politics; the Journal of Asian and African Studies; the Inter-national Journal of Politics; and Culture and Society. He is the author ofNigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power in Modern Politics, 1890s–1990s (2000)and a co-editor of Legitimacy and the State in Twentieth Century Africa(1993). Vaughan is a recipient of the State University of New York’s Presidentand Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

xxi

Introduction

Toyin Falola

This volume examines the last years of colonial rule in Africa from 1930 untilthe various African countries obtained their independence. A number of majordevelopments characterized this period. First, changes continued as before as thecolonial governments initiated a number of reforms after World War II. For in-stance, in the British colonies, the idea of economic planning was introduced inorder to improve education and social services. One notable outcome of this wasthe creation of the first set of universities in sub-Saharan Africa. In the Frenchcolonies, the use of forced labor was abolished in 1946 and there was an increasein opportunities to demand reforms. Africans, too, continued to be innovativeand to retain various aspects of their past that they found useful to their survival.Chapters 5 to 16 of this volume examine the leading issues and changes of thepost-1939 era.

The second development was decolonization—the transfer of power toAfricans. Colonialism crumbled as nationalism intensified. African elites foundthemselves acting as the re p resentatives of their people and holding meetings withE u ropean officers who had previously ignored them. Where the colonial powersindicated that they were not ready to leave Africa, the African freedom fig h t e r sused violence as a strategy. Whereas the anticolonial protests of the early years hadinvolved only a small number of Africans, after 1939, various social classes andsegments of the population became involved. Chapters 1 to 4 capture the phases ofdecolonization after 19 3 9 .

The regional chapters (17–22) provide details on the struggles to regain free-dom. Whereas many countries became free by the 1960s, the process was longand difficult in Namibia, South Africa, and the Portuguese-speaking countries ofMozambique and Angola. Apartheid crumbled in the 1990s, bringing the decolo-nization era to a close.

Background to 1939In volume three of this series, the major events of the colonial period were

discussed in detail. As shown in the previous volume, Euro-African relationschanged after 1885. In contrast to the long-established relations based on trade,Europe conquered Africa and used its people as labor to produce materials for ex-port. Within a period of twenty years, the continent was divided and shared by in-vading European powers. By 1901, a new map of Africa had been created, with

xxii Introduction

only Ethiopia and Liberia able to escape control by Europeans. Africa then en-tered a period of colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century. Thus, thehistory of Africa prior to 1939 was comprised of the following major issues:

The Partition A handful of European countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Portu-

gal, Spain, Italy, and Belgium, divided Africa among themselves. At the BerlinConference in 1884–1885, they made arrangements to determine “spheres of in-terests” and minimize conflicts in the process of taking over the continent. Withmodern rifles and machine guns, the aggressive European powers were able to de-feat many African nations.

Colonial Rule and Changes In the early part of the twentieth century, seven colonial empires and systems

were created. When Germany lost World War I, it lost its African colonies,thereby reducing the number of empires and systems to six. Some systems in-volved a direct form of government with European officials in power who wereaided by a large number of African subordinates. Where traditional kings andchiefs were co-opted, a system of “indirect rule” operated. Irrespective of the po-litical systems of the colonies, the objective was the same: Africa would serve theeconomic interests of Europe. Colonial rule was exploitative and racist.

This period witnessed a number of changes, both positive and negative.African nations were reduced to about fifty colonies with new boundaries that didnot necessarily respect the interests of Africans. Previous rulers lost their powers.European officers were able to finance the various colonial administrations withmoney from taxation and dues on trade. Western education, thanks to the mis-sionaries, spread in many areas. African land and labor were used to produce ex-port crops, minerals were exploited by foreign companies, big foreign firms con-trolled trade, and low prices were paid for African products. Everywhere, the goalwas to transfer wealth from Africa to Europe. Although Europe had passedthrough an industrial revolution, Africa did not see many gains in terms of thetransfer of technology or industries.

African ResponsesAfricans responded in various ways to the partition and colonial rule. They

did not want to be colonized by Europeans, and they struggled in vain to avoidthis. When conquest became a reality, early forms of cooperation or nationalismsought the means to humanize the colonial systems. A number of kings and chiefswho derived benefits from the colonial systems pursued a strategy of accommoda-tion with the colonial officers. For those, such as traders, who sought gains fromthe new export economy, creating retail stores was a way of making money.Those with education could serve in subordinate positions and make smallsalaries.

Revolt was the choice of those who had little to gain from the system or whowanted improved opportunities. The experience of colonial domination and ex-

Introduction xxiii

ploitation united many Africans, as many citizens of the same country began totalk as if they had a common destiny. Nationalism became a source of identity—to unite colonized peoples against colonial rule and to build a set of cultural andpolitical values to create a common future.

However, protest was not organized on any continental level. The Europeanshad already divided Africa into many colonies, and nationalist expression tendedto be confined to each country. Even within each country, as colonial policies di-vided the people, anticolonial nationalism was also expressed along ethnic lines.It acquired a racial divide as well: whites (European colonizers) against blacks(Africans). Thus, it was common for European officers to dismiss African free-dom fighters as anti-white or as representatives of ethnic, rather than national orcontinental, interests. This can be seen in the Europeans’ attitude toward the MauMau protesters in Kenya and the freedom fighters in Algeria.

The End of Colonial RuleThe events that brought European rule in Africa to an end are discussed in

this volume. By 1951, it was clear that European rule would soon be over. In the1960s, many African countries obtained their independence. However, a fewcountries where Africans endured long periods of struggles, deprivations, andwarfare had to wait for much longer. Namibia became independent only in 1990.The apartheid policy in South Africa did not end until the early 1990s. With theend of apartheid in South Africa, the struggles for independence came to an end.The leading issues in the decolonization process include the following:

Demands for ReformsThe expression of nationalism up to 1939 focused on various demands for re-

forms and changes to improve people’s lives, provide more social and educationalservices, and create jobs. In the 1940s, the elite and the masses began to come to-gether to create mass movements that took radical positions. Trade unions andpolitical parties became combative. Underlining the various demands was thestrong belief that colonial rule was oppressive and that Africans would nevermake progress as long as they were under European rule. In the nationalists’ view,colonial rule had brought disaster and ruin. They complained that Africans hadbeen humiliated, had lost their land, and were denied social amenities and eco-nomic opportunities.

Before 1939, anticolonial protests took the form of defending rights to land,seeking the inclusion of Africans in legislative councils, and creating a role for theAfrican educated elites who were excluded from local government. Christianity,too, became involved in nationalist struggles. Mission schools edified manyAfricans in the hope of converting them to Christianity. As Africans sought moreeducation, including higher education, their demand was expressed in nationalistterms. Educated Africans became the leaders of ethnic associations and politicalparties, mastered and used Western skills against the colonizers, and provided theleadership for social movements. As the Christian elites became acculturated to

xxiv Introduction

Western ways of life, they acquired ideas and values with which to criticize colo-nial regimes. The church also preached the doctrines of equality before God andthe need for social justice. Although the church fell far short of putting into thesedoctrines into practice, Africans were able to use the ideas and the language in an-ticolonial arguments. Africans even established their own separatist churches as aform of protest to assert African identity, gain leadership, and redefine Christian-ity to accept a number of traditional practices condemned by foreign missions.

Impact of World War IIAbout two million Africans were recruited as soldiers to fight on the Allied

side during World War II. These soldiers imbibed the anti-Hitlerian propagandaof the war years, especially as it stressed the need to fight for freedom, justice, andequality. In addition, the soldiers expected gratitude for their military duties. Dis-appointed by the colonial government’s failure to reward them, many turnedagainst the colonial governments. The experience of the war led African soldiersto reject ideas about white superiority and to question colonial domination. Thepolitical parties of the postwar years were able to recruit large numbers of ex-sol-diers.

The deteriorating economic conditions of the war years instigated rural-urbanmigrations and competition for scarce resources in the cities. Many young peoplelived in crowded areas and had no jobs. The peasants were called upon to pro-duce more materials to meet war needs. The worsening conditions fueled angerand anticolonial resentment.

World War II ended with Britain and France in weakened positions. TheUnited States became a superpower with an interest in expanding its influence inAfrica; it was, therefore, unwilling to see the continuation of European rule.Africans, too, formed radical opinions during the war. It became more and moredifficult for the European powers to use force to suppress radicalism.

Another outcome of the war was the establishment of the United Nations(UN) to replace the League of Nations. Although the UN was controlled by West-ern powers, African nationalists quoted some of its anticolonial statements andhoped to obtain support from the organization. Anticolonial statements weremade by UN representatives from countries such as the Soviet Union, which hadno colonies in Africa, and African leaders saw the UN as a forum in which to crit-icize the European powers. Articles 62 and 73 of the UN Charter appealed toAfrican leaders because they involved freedom and human rights. Article 62sought recommendations on how to promote fundamental freedom and humanrights, while Article 73 entreated member nations to support the development ofself-government in all parts of the world.

Pan-AfricanismHelp came from outside as well. Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and Henry

Sylvester-Williams were the leading names in the Pan-Africanist movement whichsought to unite all blacks in Africa and the African diaspora and to end colonialdomination and all forms of racial injustice. Sylvester-Williams convened the firstmeeting of Pan-Africanists in London in 1900 in order to free Africans from theencroaching power of Europe. W.E.B. DuBois took up the challenge thereafter

Introduction xxv

and was active in organizing Pan-Africanist meetings and calling attention to theplight of Africans under colonial rule. His message spread in the United States,Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He and others organized a series ofpolitical campaigns against colonial rule and wrote many essays and books tohighlight the achievements of Africans in their long history in order to build prideamong black people and show that Africans were capable of governing them-selves. Marcus Garvey, too, was famous, although he was more practically ori-ented in calling for the return of black people to Africa and the creation of condi-tions conducive to developing economic power. In 1936, when Italy invadedEthiopia, the event energized Pan-Africanists all over the world and intensifiedanticolonial sentiments.

In 1945, emerging African leaders and re p resentatives of trade unions, stu-dents’ associations, and youth leagues joined others at a Pan-Africanist congre s sin Manchester. This was the largest Pan-Africanist gathering in history. Membersdemanded independence for Africa and passed resolutions to fight for it. Va r i o u sstatements made during and after the meeting revealed the goals of Pan-African-i s m — to serve as an instrument of black unity and provide a platform to criticizeall forms of colonial and racial domination of black peoples. In 1963, short l yafter many African countries had become independent, the Organization ofAfrican Unity (OAU) was established to continue fighting for some of the goalsof Pan-Africanism.

Transfer of PowerThe transfer of power from Europeans to Africans began to occur mainly

after 1945. School teachers, market women, civil servants, students, and others,each with different interests but with the common goal of attaining independence,came together in various associations to fight for independence. Radical religiousorganizations, trade unions, and political parties became assertive in their callsfor an end to European rule. A new generation of leaders emerged with greaterdetermination to fight the colonial officers.

After 1945, in areas where they did not have large numbers of European set-tlers, France and Britain began a gradual process of withdrawal. Reforms weremade in various aspects of society, and a series of constitutional changes trans-ferred power to Africans. If the European powers thought that the reforms wouldserve as concessions to pacify Africans, they were mistaken. The nationalists keptasking for more and would be satisfied only by independence.

In countries such as Algeria, Kenya, South Africa, and others with large num-bers of white settlers, the struggle for independence took a violent turn. As whitesettlers refused to yield to the demands for independence, both Africans and set-tlers took to violence. In South Africa and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),power was actually given to the white settlers. In the Portuguese colonies, thestruggle was bitter, as the Portuguese simply refused to accept the right ofAfricans to govern themselves. Guerrilla wars became common, and the freedomfighters succeeded after bitter and prolonged encounters.

Independence was not won by all African countries at the same time. Before1950, Egypt, Liberia, and Ethiopia were already free. During the 1950s, Libya,Morocco, Tunisia, the Sudan, Morocco, Ghana, and Guinea attained their free-dom. In the 1960s, thirty-one countries gained their independence. In the 1970s,

xxvi Introduction

the five Portuguese-speaking colonies became free. Zimbabwe ended its strugglesin 1980 and Namibia became free in 1990.

Beyond Colonial RuleThe relationship between Africa and Europe did not end with the indepen-

dence of African nations. As power was being transferred to Africans, the Euro-pean powers were putting in place a series of policies to protect themselves and tosecure a transition from the exercise of power based on direct control to the indi-rect exercise of power known as neocolonialism. Colonial legacies became a fea-ture of the contemporary era. Independence enabled Africans to take partial con-trol of their countries, but the new leaders had to cope with the challenges ofunderdevelopment, political instability, and dependence on the former colonialmasters.

As Volume 5 shows, postcolonial Africa has witnessed profound changes andgreat calamities. A history of contradictions has begun to unfold: the colonialpowers left, but their legacies remain; Africans are now in power, but many lead-ers abuse their power; development occupies an important place in governmentpolicies, but the continent gets poorer; and while the state continues to function,political institutions decay. Until African countries solve their economic and polit-ical problems, many of their citizens will continue to regard the struggle for inde-pendence as incomplete.