Topic 3: The Era of Independence

One of the major features of the first years (or the first two decades) of independence of Africa was Pan-Africanism.

Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism, which once hailed Ethiopia as a symbol of African purity and independence, failed to create a unified and homogenous continent which was rather an illusion from its very beginning. Despite this, Pan-Africanism played a remarkable role in the decolonization period and had a great impact on nationalist movements in Africa although the ideology of Pan-Africanism was in sharp contrast with nationalist movements in African colonies seeking for independence and not any kind of federation with other former colonies. That is why so many federal projects failed (e.g. Mali and Senegal, or Ghana and Guinea) because they were unable to overcome the historical, linguistic and territorial heritage of European colonialism. Moreover, the Cold War context prevented these projects from fruitful implementation. The case of Guinea, surrounded by hostile environment in the early days of its independence when it faced troubles not only from the West, but also from other former members of French West Africa closely tied to Paris, speaks for itself.

In the era of decolonization, Africa witnessed a genuine and new-born, in a certain sense virgin waves of nationalist movements which were characterized by the efforts of colonized nations to proclaim independence or at least to gain greater autonomy. It was the World War II that served as accelerator of emancipation and independence thought and ambitions. Nationalism in Africa after the World War II can be divided in several groups dependent on the political and social environment in which it was rooted. The main nationalist sources were Pan-Africanism, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Islamism, and Ethno-nationalism. These were not necessarily in opposition but could be compatible, at least in some cases. On the other hand, it is clear that, for instance, Pan-Arabism did not coincide very well with Pan-Africanism and both ideologies had quite divergent trajectories of political goals and ambitions. The oldest nationalist movements of these are Pan-Africanism and Pan-Islamism whose first rise to political and social significance took place already at the beginning of the 20^th century.

With no surprise, many of the African states ended up very soon in some form of authoritarian rule ranging from those who were supported by former colonial power to those more radical in terms of dealing with historical/colonial heritage. Due to the lack of contact and understanding between states and societies we have to distinguish an official nationalism (state nationalism) from other types of nationalism (ethno-nationalism) which were created as the result of failed hopes and dreams of early generations of intellectual elites. Not surprisingly either, socialist and Marxist tendencies became popular among African (including Ethiopian) intelligentsia and students as well as trade unions and workers because of its alternative against European capitalism which was necessarily associated with colonialism.

Pan-Arabism, together with Pan-Africanism, served as the most important accelerator of nationalism in North Africa shortly after the end of the World War II. In 1952, Egypt proclaimed independence, only a year after Libya. But Egypt’s case was more important because of its historical significance, and because Egypt has traditionally been a center of Arab and Islamic world. Moreover, its geographical position connected African, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean environments. Pan-Islamism as a powerful means of social mobilization played a significant role since the beginning of the 20^th century, and especially Egypt served as a center of reformist Islamic thinking. But due to more or less secular character of African nationalism before and after the World War II, the importance of Pan-Islamism gained momentum mainly in the era of independence when secular states in North Africa witnessed first serious socio-political crisis. Iranian revolution in 1979 was a heyday for most of the Islamic movements in North, West, and East Africa, and since that period we can see the rise of various movements inspired by the events in Iran. Moreover, as a reaction to the rise of Shi’a Islam, Wahhabist Saudi Arabia strengthened its efforts to export its ideology and to stop the influence of Iran in Africa.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, ethno-nationalism was a major challenge to Pan-Africanism, because, unlike Pan-Africanism, ethno-nationalism was aimed to serve various nationalities to proclaim independent states, and thus fragment already existing states into smaller territories. From the very beginning of the formation of political parties in many of the African states, ethno-nationalism served as major means of social mobilization and people were instructed to vote for their ethnic parties and representatives. In countries like Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, or Kenya, there was a lack of national identity feeling and political parties had very serious ethnic and regional attachments thus making it impossible to reach a national consensus. With no surprise, Nigeria and Congo ended up in years of conflicts which up to date have been uneasy to completely overcome.

Fragmentation of Nigeria and Congo, two very important states in Africa, was the biggest obstacle for Pan-Africanist dreams of African unity, common African government, parliament, and currency. If these countries were unable to reach consensus, how then all more than fifty states were supposed to reach the goal of unity? Disunity did not reach only these ethnically diverse states but was a case of much smaller and relatively homogeneous countries like Rwanda or Burundi. From the very beginning of the decolonization process, it was clear that both countries could not reach any national unity.

After new independent states were created, the international community including the Organization of African Unity (OAU) did everything it could to maintain the integrity of African states. It was clear that any disintegration in one part of Africa could inspire other emancipation, or separatist movements in other parts of the continent.

As a result of decolonization which accelerated after the Bandung conference in 1955, yet in the 1950s a number of African states gained independence on their former colonial masters. These were Libya (1951), Egypt (1952), Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia (1956), Ghana (1957), and Guinea (1958). The end of 1950s brought an extremely evident pressure on decolonization and independence of African nations which gained its momentum in 1960, since then claimed as a “year of Africa” when 17 states in Africa gained independence. Most of them were Francophone states but generally it was a great success for the continent as whole. This was a result of late colonial project of “developmental” colonial state that was supposed to make the Empire richer and more legitimate.

Photo: Jan Záhořík (Abuja, Nigeria)