Was Decolonization good for Africa?
Decolonization means the process of a nations which trying to establish and have autonomy to make their own political and economic decisions without interference from external pressure (Cooper, 1996). In this case, decolonization of Africa refers to the period where African nations fought for their independence so as to be free from European rule mostly in the 1950s.
Decolonization among most African nations basically occurred between 1950s and 1980s except for a few nations like Mozambique and South Africa that became independent in the early 1990s. Essentially, it’s not a easy job because it involved violence and formation of political movements and associations. In addition, there were impacts felt in violence that exploded between Africans and the colonial military in different African nations. Such impacts of violence included massive deaths, enslavement, forced labor, rape cases to the Africans which would provoked resentments from the African communities and change swiftly to safe independence. African nationalism would also the pinnacle for decolonization as various leaders from different nations united to discuss on the ways that could lead to self-governance by ending all forms of foreign rule. African leaders such as Julius Nyerere from Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta from Kenya, Robert Sobukwe from South Africa and Kwame Nkrumah from Gold Coast currently Ghana. The main purpose of Pan-African movement was to establish independence for African nations though consolidating efforts and uniting all black throughout Africa (Francis, 2006). The efforts to decolonize Africa makes them autonomous was a step to the right direction, and many African leaders believed that they were going to succeed an...
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...ries still lag behind in terms of development because they lack technical know-how and other necessary facilities to enhance development (Mentan, 2010). Lastly, even after decolonization, Africa still experience poor leadership which is has led to civil wars and instability in different nations such as Somalia and Southern Sudan.
In conclusion, decolonization refers to the process where nations try to establish and have autonomy to make their own political and economic decisions without interference from external pressure. Decolonization among most African nations basically occurred between 1950s and 1980s and was caused by different factors such as need for self-governance and need to end brutality. Additionally decolonization brought about both positive and negative impacts such as freedom among Africans and poor economy and delayed industrialization respectively.
In Todd Shepard’s work Voices of Decolonization, the featured documents provide keen insight into the geopolitical environment of the era of decolonization (1945-1965) and the external and internal pressures on the relationships between colonial nations and the territories that they held dominion over (Shepard 10). Decolonization is the result of a combination of national self-determination and the establishment of functional international institutions composed of independent sovereign nations united towards common goals. As decolonization progressed, it intersected with points of significant sociopolitical tension between colonies and the nations that colonized them. Some of these moments of tension came in the form of progressive ideals held by international agencies which colonial nations were allied with, the revolt of colonized populations against their standing government in favor of independence, and in moral and political conflicts that arose when decolonization takes a form unexpected or undesired by the primary agents of progressive international institutions.
The one interesting aspect that I was surprised with my three authors was the little detail given on nationalism in the decolonization process. Before reading these three books, I thought that nationalism played a key factor in decolonization. However, my assumption was incorrect. The author, John Darwin, brought nationalism into question, but ultimately Darwin felt that WWII had weakened the British, which subsequently lead to a problematic post-war economic situation. All the authors discussed nationalism and its part in decolonization, but all came to a conclusion that nationalism may have played a part, but it was insignificant in the entire process of decolonization. Most colonies had a wide variety of communities that had very little in common. Therefore, mass nationalistic movements that would be strong enough to throw out British colonial rulers was much more difficult than one might think. Ultimately, all of the authors and their books I used for the essay-review focused on the aftermath of Britain in WWII to describe the reasoning for decolonization.
The Pan African Movement started in the nineteenth century, yet was fortified by a few meetings held in London in the vicinity of 1900 and 1923. The movement brought forth Organization of African Union in 1963 which later changed its name to the African Union (Walters, 1997: 97).
The majestic and beautiful continent of Africa has a disappearing past and culture because of European Imperialism. All of the countries in Europe, except Switzerland, divvied up countries of Africa for their own benefit in 1884 and 1885. People like King Leopold of Belgium used natives in Africa for labor after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was outlawed. The culture that was spread during this time of imperialism, the national pride gained by taking over another’s land, and most importantly, the resources gained during this period, are the most influential reasons that Europe decided that this was a good decision. Cultural spread occurred which is a reason for this European imperialism.
"The wind of change is blowing through this [African] continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it" (Macmillan). This speech, made by the prime minister of England in 1960, highlights the vast changes occurring in Africa at the time. Changes came quickly. Over the next several years, forty-seven African countries attained independence from colonial rule. Many circumstances and events had and were occurring that led to the changes to which he was referring. The decolonization of Africa occurred over time, for a variety of complex reasons, but can be broken down into two major contributing factors: vast changes brought about in the world because of World War II and a growing sense of African nationalism.
In the second half of the twentieth century, started a process of decolonization, first in Asia and then in Africa. In 1949, India was one of the first country to gain its independence, followed by Burma, Malaysia, and Ceylon. In Africa the decolonization started a few years later, first in Libya and Egypt, and in the rest of the continent afterwards. The main colonists were the Great Britain and France. The history has shown that Great Britain succeeded to decolonize generally in peace while France had much more problems to give up its colonies, which led to numerous conflicts opposing the colonists and the colonized. It has been the case especially in Algeria where a murderous war lasted almost eight years. The philosopher Frantz Fanon has studied the outbreak of this conflict as he was working in Algeria and he spent some time working on the question of colonialism, drawing the conclusion that violence was the only way to get rid of colonists. This essay will analyse who was Fanon and why he came to such a conclusion along with the reasons why it could be said that he is right ,and finally, the arguments against his statement. Finally, it will aim to prove that even though Fanon had valid points, diplomacy could have been for efficient and less tragic rather than his support to violence.
Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people of the tribes that existed there.
The Cold War was the clash of cultures between the United States and the Soviet Union that coloured many major geopolitical events in the latter half of the twentieth century. This included decolonization and neocolonialism, especially in African states. Kwame Nkrumah noted that neocolonialism is when an imperialist power claims to give independence, but still influences the new state to meet its own goals. Both the U.S. and the USSR were neocolonialist powers, and a prime example of their desires to mold other states was the Congo Crisis, which acted to make decolonization unappealing to states outside Africa. Congo achieved independence on June 30, 1960 under Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu, but was wracked by civil war as soldiers protested the remaining Europeans in the army and other positions. Both outside states played a role in the conflict. The Cold War and the ideological battle between the US and USSR played a large role in facilitated the Congo Crisis, which hindered other African states’ move to decolonization.
European imperialism in Africa caused Africans to lose their independence and culture. After a long time, “the wave of Independence across Africa in the 1950s and 1960s brought to the end around 75
Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a nation. This really hurt Africa economically. If they would have been able to come together as a nation they could have pulled all of their assets together and exploit them in order to make money. By not doing this it allowed the government to exploit the people. This is why there are starving people in Africa on television. The states of Africa were created in order to make money by exporting all the various resources, whether it was slaves, minerals, or agriculture. There was much to gain by owning a chunk of land in Africa. This reason being because Africa is so rich in their resources for trade. After the race was over it left Africa severely divided.
... Although the imperialization of Africa started out as a beneficial deal to both Africa and Europe, it quickly took a turn for the worse as Europe started to take complete control of African colonies. The Europeans wanted African colonies for many reasons. They wanted new land and the natural resources that can only be found in Africa, they wanted the new market opportunities that having colonies in Africa would open up to them, and they wanted to stay in competition with other European countries. The motives of the Europeans quickly deteriorated as they started exploiting the native Africans and abusing the slave trade that they had promised to abolish with the three C’s.
In the Western world European colonialism is hailed as an accomplishment. It is the time where Europeans flourished economically after finding and taking control of the lands of the New World. Because of European colonialism and the need for free labor, millions of Africans were forced from their homeland and were forced into slavery. Years later the Europeans came back to colonize and take the rich resources of Africa without any regard to the native people who lived there. Though colonialism ended in the United Stated in the 1700’s and other parts of the Americas in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many of its racial and injustices are still an ingrained in society today There have been many instances where groups of people within African
The process of decolonization in Africa during the 1950’s through the 1970’s was a very smart yet risky idea. For some places independence was easily gained yet in other areas it was a battle. During the time periods where colonization existed, Africa was peaceful and kept things in order. People had control over their specific locations and there were no questions to be asked. Once it was decided to remove these rights, things got out of hand rather quickly. Violence was a main occurrence during the decolonization timeframe because rules, rights, leaderships, etc. got altered and drastically changed. Sometimes nonviolence was used but it usually wasn’t as effective. A major example of using nonviolence actions to gain independence is when Gandhi protested in India. African leaders have tried very hard to lessen the influence of Western powers and the broader international community but they’ve never been completely successful because they continuously needed support in state building, economic development, and public health initiatives.
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.
It is said that colonialism is the occupation and control of one nation by another. In this case it was the continent of Europe occupying Africa during the late 19th and 20th century. There were many justifications for this rule over Africa. Some of the justifications were that they would bring higher civilization, increase trade and economic prosperity for Africans, Christianity and the end of paganism, human rights and the end of slavery, women’s rights and the end of polygamy, the introduction of freedom and liberty, the benefits of modern medicine, better agriculture, and modernity.