HONOURS MODERN
HISTORY
Post-Colonial Africa
*In
1885, the great powers of Europe (as well as the United States) met in
the Berlin Conference to divide Africa among them.
*The borders drawn at the Berlin conference (with the exception of some
in North Africa) were mostly created without regard for the existing
cultural, tribal, ethnic, or historical homelands of the African
peoples in the new colonies, so that today, many of the nations of
Africa have serious problems with ethnic tensions, and also with
irredentism (the desire of related people in different countries to be
in one united country, which often has diplomatic complications).
*By the start of World War I, Africa belonged to Europe, which was
rapidly created an extractive colonial economy there even more
pernicious than the old mercantile colonial economies of the
Americas. Africa existed primarily as a source of raw materials
to be shipped back to Europe, so most of Africa’s industries were based
on getting the most out of Africa’s mineral wealth, forests, and wild
game. Most roads and railroads were designed to run to major
seaports, not to link major settlements in the interior.
*Although Europe remained powerful during this period, many Africans
began to feel an increased sense of nationalism, a desire to run their
own affairs, especially since in most places they were treated like
second or third-class citizens, with severe restrictions on their
rights and freedoms.
*In many cases this nationalism was possible because colonial
modernisation had allowed some native Africans to prosper, forming a
small middle class, with the time to study history, philosophy, and
politics, and to consider its place in society. As is so often
the case, slowly improving circumstances allowed both the freedom and
the desire for more rapid improvement or revolution.
*Both the restrictions on African rights and the growth of an African
middle class were particularly visible in the Union of South
Africa. Mostly independent from Great Britain in 1910 (although
still recognising the King of Great Britain as their head of state),
three of the four provinces of the Union forbade blacks to vote, mostly
on the insistence of the Afrikaners.
*In order to maintain their dominance, the white minority rulers of
South Africa, especially the Afrikaners, had always had segregation
laws, but slowly made them more strict and wide-ranging in the 20th
century. After WWII, beginning in 1948, this segregation was
codified as the system of Apartheid (apart-ness), which segregated
every aspect of life, even in residential and business zoning—blacks
needed passbooks to travel anywhere, even around town. The white
parts of South Africa prospered, while the Black and Coloured
(mixed-race) peoples were forced into slums called townships or onto
reservations called ‘homelands’ or ‘Bantustans’ where they were not
even regarded as South African citizens.
*In the rest of Africa, World War II changed things in the other
direction. As Europe relied more on its African colonies than its
Asian ones (which it had temporarily lost to Japan), Africans saw how
much they were contributing to the war effort, while also seeing how
little they were getting in return.
*After the war, many Africans (and also many Americans) felt that
Europe, which had supposedly been fighting for democracy, ought to live
up to its professed ideals, and allow self-government in Africa.
Unfortunately, Europeans had typically had so little regard for their
colonial subjects in Africa that few democratic institutions or
traditions had been created (as they had been in 13 colonies that
became the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand), so Africa
was not truly ready to govern itself.
*After WWII, Europe was also much poorer than it had been, and while
the colonies potentially had a lot of wealth, it also cost a lot of
money to maintain and exploit those colonies. In the 1950s and
1960s, economic pressures at home and growing demands in the colonies
for independence (including some outright revolutions) led Britain and
France to begin releasing its colonies, while Portugal released theirs
after the Carnation Revolution.
*As soon as Angola and Mozambique gained their independence in 1975,
they fell into civil war between Soviet-backed communist groups
(assisted, particularly in Angola, by the Cuban army) and local
non-communist groups supported by the United States and South
Africa.
*In Mozambique, the communists ruled absolutely until the early
1990s. Free elections were held in 1994 and, although the main
communist party still has a slight majority in the government,
Mozambique is considered a reasonably stable and moderate country by
modern African standards.
*The civil war in Angola was one of the worst of the Cold War
conflicts. Ultimately the communists won, and have dominated the
country ever since (although Cabinda is fighting for its independence
from Angola).
*In 1975, Francisco Franco was dying, and his government reached an
agreement with Morocco and Mauritania to allow them to take over
Western Sahara, which they did shortly after Spain withdrew from the
country where it had been fighting against an independence movement for
two years. Mauritania eventually withdrew, too, and Morocco ended
up in control of about 2/3 of the area (although nationalists do
control some parts of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic). Most
countries do not recognise Morocco's right to rule over Western Sahara,
but not many recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, either.
*Since 1930, the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, was seen as a
unifying figure for all Africans, and Ethiopia was considered one of
the more advanced African nations. However, economic problems,
famine, and a war with Eritrea over its possible independence turned
local opinion against him in 1973, and in 1974, he was overthrown by
Communist forces supported by the USSR. Hundreds of thousands of
Ethiopians were killed by the Communists, while at least a million more
starved during a severe famine that struck a large part of Africa in
the 1970s and 1980s (but was made worse in Ethiopia in the 1980s by the
Communist government and civil warfare).
*While the Soviet government supported Ethiopia's Communist leaders
throughout the 1970s and 1980s, by 1991 it was about to collapse
itself, and did nothing to stop the overthrow of Ethiopia's Communists,
and Ethiopia has had democratic elections since 1995.
*In 1993, the coastal region of Eritrea in Ethiopia declared itself
independent following a referendum, but between 1998 and 2000, Ethiopia
and Eritrea engaged in a lengthy war over their border (partly because
Ethiopia resents being landlocked). Even today, the precise
border remains in dispute.
*By the 1980s, only South Africa (and its mandatory colony of Namibia)
remained under white dominance. The United Nations had already
declared Apartheid illegal, and many nations had placed embargoes
against South Africa (although Japan got along with them:
Japanese in South Africa were legally regarded as ‘honourary
Europeans).’ Still, South Africa maintained and tried to
strengthen the Apartheid regime through military force and police
violence.
*Eventually international and domestic pressure became too great, and
in a 1992 referendum, in the last all-white vote in South Africa, the
people of South Africa gave the government the authority to negotiate
with the leading African nationalist groups, notably the ANC (African
National Congress) a major Black political group (although some
criticise it for being mostly Xhosa).
*In 1994, the first election open to all races was held, and the ANC
won about 63% of the vote and made Nelson Mandela (who had spent 27
years in prison for opposing Apartheid). The National Party (the
white opposition party, which collapsed in 2005) and the Inkatha
Freedom Party (mostly Zulu) also won significant followings, although
the ANC has remained in charge ever since. For the most part,
white South Africans have remained in their country, although there has
been some emigration.
*Since 1990, Africa has seen major civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Congo, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, and elsewhere, as well as border wards
between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In most cases, the outside world
(especially the former colonial powers) has tried to prevent
this: the UK sent troops to Sierra Leone, France sent men to Cote
d’Ivoire, the African Union has policed the Congo, and the US even sent
some troops to Liberia.
*Many of these wars have been especially inhumane, notable for their
use of child soldiers (especially the kidnappers of the Lord’s
Resistance Army in Uganda), rape, torture, and, in some cases,
cannibalism (particularly in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Congo).
Many of these wars have been funded, in part, by the sale of Africa’s
natural resources, most famously ‘conflict diamonds’ or ‘blood
diamonds,’ although the UN and several major diamond brokerages have
attempted to outlaw or prevent the sale of diamonds from areas where
the money may be used to fund war.
*Most of these wars were based on ethnic divisions that were often made
worse during the colonial period, as ethnic groups were split up or
forced together by colonial boundaries, and as some colonial powers
tried to classify their subjects by race or tribe.
*Rwanda and Burundi, for example, had a long period of ethnic cleansing
in the 1990s, as the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, two groups that had been
relatively peaceful before the colonial period but which had grown
apart under Belgian rule (when Tutsi were given more prestige), made
war upon one another, killing at least 800,000 people (mostly Tutsis
and some Hutus who opposed the murder) in 1994 in the Rwandan Genocide.
*Besides suffering from colonialism, famine, and political instability,
Africa also has a lot of difficult terrain, which impedes trade, a
multiplicity of languages which makes doing business difficult
(although English, French, and Swahili serve as lingua franca for some
regions, despite not being the first language of many Africans), and
the problems created by widespread disease and warfare. Political
instability and warfare have led many companies to stop investing in
Africa, and many of Africa’s best and brightest to head elsewhere,
causing a ‘brain drain’.
*Some economists have speculated that Africa would benefit from Import
Substitution Industrialisation—cutting itself off from the rest of the
world, and becoming more self-sufficient.
*Others have blamed agricultural subsidies in the USA, Europe, and Asia
(especially Japan), which prevent African farmers from exporting food
to those countries at competitive prices, despite the cheap cost to
produce and ship African fruits and other foods (since 60% of Africans
are engaged in agriculture—60% of them (one third of all Africans) are
at the subsistence level).
*On the other hand, there are some signs that things may improve.
Mobile phones, laptop computers, and other portable and relatively
affordable pieces of technology are opening up the future to average
Africans. With a mobile phone, anyone can be a businessman,
calling other villages to know where the best prices to buy and sell
are, and keeping up with the larger world.
*The rest of the world is also increasingly sympathetic to
Africa. Foreign aid offers money to developing countries,
although often comes with many strings attached.
*Debt relief is an increasingly popular topic in world politics,
although not much has actually been done. This is the notion of
simply forgiving debts owed by poor countries to rich ones, or to
international lending institutions like the World Bank or the
International Monetary Fund.
*Most of the countries of Africa call themselves republics or federal
republics or Islamic Republics, although many of them have had the same
dictators or strongmen for decades, or have had numerous periods of
civil war.
*Swaziland is an absolute monarchy (ruled by the King and the Great
She-Elephant (the queen mother), Morocco is officially a constitutional
monarchy (although many powers remain in the hands of the king), and
Lesotho is a true constitutional monarchy (in which the king is a
ceremonial figure only and the Prime Minister rules on his behalf).
*Libya calls itself a Jamahiriya (approximately translated as state of
the masses), ruled absolutely by Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi.
*Today, many African nations belong to the Commonwealth of Nations, a
group consisting of the UK and many former British Colonies (and, as a
special case, Mozambique). Many of these nations still recognise
Queen Elizabeth as head of state, and they have common cultural and
economic ties from their time as part of the British Empire. Of
course, many former colonies are not part of the Commonwealth. At
one time, the Commonwealth was an important economic bloc, and much of
it was a free trade area. Today it is more of a diplomatic club,
whose members mainly benefit from a chance to engage in diplomacy
together, and its power is declining.
*All of Africa except Morocco (but including Western Sahara) is part of
the African Union. This is meant to be an African version of the
EU, but it works more like an African UN. It can set diplomatic
policies, and has recently sent military forces into areas suffering
from civil war, and it aims to promote democracy, human rights,
development, and pan-Africanism (in which it is led by Colonel Muammar
al-Qaddafi, who has been frustrated by the slow pace of pan-Arabism,
and whose nation is relatively wealthy and stable by African standards).
*Today the AU is not yet particularly powerful, but it seems to be
growing in importance and in its desire to bring peace and democracy to
Africa. Overall, Africa seems slightly more stable than it did
five or ten years ago, but this may be an illusion, and it remains one
of the least successful and developed parts of the world.