Nationalist movements in Africa were inspired by ideals of self-determination and independence. They were led by figures like Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenyatta of Kenya, and Lumumba of the Congo who adopted philosophies like pan-Africanism and negritude. These leaders and their organizations worked to end colonial rule and promote African unity, though they also faced opposition from colonial powers and influence from the Cold War.

1. Lecture - Professor Chee
Nationalist Movements in Africa

2. Nationalist Movements in Africa
Questions to consider:
oWhat is nationalism?
oWhat inspired nationalist movements?
oWho were the nationalist leaders?
oWhat kind of political philosophies did they adapt?
oHow did they organize?
oHow did the cold war influence them?

3. Said on the Intersections of
Imperialism and Culture
"Neither imperialism nor colonialism
is a simple act of accumulation and
acquisition…
Out of imperialism, notions about
culture were classified, reinforced,
criticised or rejected."
Edward Said. Culture &
Imperialism. 1994

4. Pan-Africanism
A set of ideas and ideologies (the social, cultural, political, economic,
material, and spiritual aspects), uniting all Africans throughout the world.
Linked by a common experience of oppression and slavery, the movement
promotes negritude, or a sense of African pride, and worked towards self-
determination

5. Pan-Africanism
o Back to Africa/separatism (Liberia & Sierra
Leone)
o Black advancement and improvement (U.S.)
o African unity (Africa)

6. Back to Africa: African emigration to
Sierra Leone & Liberia
Late eighteenth century or the 1700s –
African Americans (like Paul Cuffe and Prince Hall
(and later Olaudah Equiano from the West
Indies/England)) advocated for African emigration
new settlements in the West African coast, Sierra Leone
and Liberia.

7. Back to Africa: Sierra Leone
o 1792 – Sierra Leone
Company – helped
British & American
Blacks settle
o 1808 - became a
British colony

8. Back to Africa: Liberia
o Settled by the
American
Colonization Society
o Freed African
American Slaves
from the early
nineteenth century
(1821-22)

9. African elite,
European in Culture?
o Christian
o European educated
o Economic, cultural, and social
benefits during colonial rule
Frantz Fanon. Black Skin, White
Mask. Peau noire, masques blancs.
1953
Psychologist from
Martinique, France &
later, Algeria
1925-61 Fanon

10. Sierra Leone: Horton Addresses Debate on
West African Self-Rule
o Igbo Slave freed by the British in Sierra
Leone
o British educated Medical Doctor in the
British military
o Horton addresses a debate in the British
Parliament in the 1860s, opportunity for
African self-rule
o discusses the complex ethnic and political
situation that exist in this region, i.e.
history, size of population, level of British
involvement
James “Africanus” Horton
1835-1882

11. African States
Before
Colonization

12. African States Before Colonization:
Example of Nigeria:
English Becomes the
Official Language
1.North – Hausa-Fulani
(Fulbe) Sokoto Caliphate
2.Igbo – Lower Niger
3.Yoruba (around Lagos)
city-states

13. African States
After
Colonization
o Europeanization of
the Economy
o Europeanization of
African culture
o Development of
African Elite
o Urbanization

14. Africans inspired by the World War I and Ideals
Broader consequences
• Dollar cost - African governments had to pay out heavy taxes. No exact figures
• Cost to African businesses –British/French traders to benefit during the war.
o colonies became natural
extensions of tensions among
European nations
o 1 million Africans conscripted –
British army alone, many killed
o Influenced by ideologies of
o collective security & shared
deterrence –
o preventing aggression &
rights to self-determination

15. Black Advancement & Improvement:
DuBois starts the NAACP
o an American Harvard Ph.D.
started the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP)
o promotes the advancement of
Blacks.
o also started pan-African
congresses or conferences
beginning around WWI.
o After the fifth pan-African
congress, Nkrumah from Ghana
takes over
WEB DuBois (1868-1963)

16. Black Advancement & Pan-African Unity:
Garvey starts UNIA
o a Jamaican
o Africa for the Africans
o called on people of African
heritage from around the
globe to return and establish
a pan-African state
o started UNIA – Universal
Negro Improvement
Association.
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

17. African Unity – Three Giants on Negritude:
Senghor, Césaire & Damas
Negritude – origins w
Francophone African (&
Caribbean) students in Paris in the
1930s
“Blackness” – celebrated African
culture based on emotion,
considered superior to European
empiricism and scientifically
driven society
Léopold Senghor
Senegal President
(1960-80)
Poet Aimé Césaire
from Martinique
Léon Gontran Damas
from Guiana,
First African selected to
the French Assembly
(1948-51)
their personal friendship also a symbolic
encounter between Africans & the
Diaspora

18. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Introduction
announces Negritude Officially
"Orphée Noir". Anthologie de la
nouvelle poésie nègre et
malgache. ed. Léopold Senghor.
Paris. Presses Universitaires de
France, 1948.

19. The French Assembly Elects First African, 1948:
Léon Damas from Guiana (South America)
Léon Gontran Damas
(1912–1978)
One of the French Parisian 1930s
philosophers who promoted
negritude

20. Ethiopia:
Where European Imperialism Failed
Modernization allowed it to
remain independent, other than
the brief period of Italian
occupation during World War II

21. Recall World War II (1931-1945)
o Asia - 1931, Japanese
invade Manchuria, & 1937,
Nanjing
o Africa - 1935 – Italians in
Ethiopia
o Europe - 1939 – Germany’s
annexation of Poland
60 million died in this war,
compared to 9 million in WWI
(only 11 countries were not
involved)
Italian soldiers on their way to Eritrea, 1935

22. Emperor Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari)
• May 1936, Haile
Selassie asked the
League of Nations to
take action to save
Ethiopia from Italian
aggression
• The League took no
action until after the
fall of France in 1940

23. WWII – 60-70 million killed
• 2 times California’s
population
• Which countries had
the most casualties?
Nagasaki

24. Death toll of 60-70 million
Majority civilians, not soldiers
• Soviet Union - 20+
• Chinese – 15
• European Jews – 6-10?
• Germany – 8
• Poland – 6
• Japan – 2

25. United Nations Charter in
September 1945

26. WWII & Consequences for Africa
1. Europe fatigued &
very poor
2. US & SU became
super powers (and
begins the cold war
conflict)
3. Colonized Asian
countries demanded
independence.
Africans were
inspired, finding
themselves on a
stronger moral
ground.

27. George Orwell served in the British Indian Police
in Burma (Myanmar) in the 1920s

28. Indentured Laborers
• From the 1820s
• 2.5 million between
1820 and 1914 from
Asia & the Pacific
islands
• Indian indentured
laborers exported to
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago,
Guyana, Curacao, South Africa,
Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius,
Seychelles

29. Southern
African
Languages
Zulu
Xhosa
Khoi/San
Dutch, English
Cape Malay (mix of
Indonesian & others)
Griqua
Tamil/Hindi

30. Gandhi in South Africa

31. Decolonization Worldwide

32. African
Urbanization

33. Decolonization
of Africa
1957 – Ghana
gains
independence first

34. Psalm 23, African Morning Post. Accra, Ghana
The European merchant is my shepherd
And I am in want
He maketh me to lie down in cocoa farms
He leadeth me beside the waters of great need
The general managers and profiteers frighten me
Thou preparedst a reduction in my salary
In the presence of my creditors
Thou anointest my income with taxes
My expense runs over my income
And I will dwell in a rented house forever!

35. 1957 – Ghana first African country to
gain independence, from England
“Seek ye first the political kingdom”
•1949 - Started the Convention People’s
Party (CPP)
•1957 - won independence for Ghana
(the former Gold Coast) from the British
in 1957.
•Ousted as Ghana President in 1966
•Promoted Negritude—a pride in
African traditions
•Led the Organization of African Unity
from 1961+ (which eventually becomes
the African Union.
Kwame Nkrumah
First President

36. Settler States
(Countries with Significant European Populations)
o Algeria – 1 million+
o Kenya – 60K
o Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) – 150K
o South Africa – millions+

37. Early Nationalists:
Kenya & Harry Thuku
o Started the East African Association in
1921, and the nationalist movement in
Kenya,
o not just as Kikuyu but as an East
African,
o motivated by Europeans displacing
Africans from their land from 1915-
1920
o Upset over the white settler state’s
attempt to control African labor with
the kipande or pass system
o arrested from 1922-1930
Harry Thuku (1895-1970)

38. Settler State of Kenya: British Settlers
Create a Plantation Economy
o 1940s – 60K white settlers
settle in the colony’s finest
agricultural region to
create tea & coffee
plantations
o Africans like the Kikuyu
evicted from their land,
becoming squatters/wage
workers,
o 1950s – Africans turned to
violence, as political
action attempts were
rebuffed

39. Kenya 1940s & 50s: “Mau Mau” or
“Land and People’s Party”
A Nationalist Movement?
or a Settler Perceived Terrorist Movement?
oMau Mau movement killed 30 white settlers,
o1000 African collaborators

40. What is Mau Mau?
A Nationalist Movement?
or a Settler Perceived Terrorist Movement?
16-year old Otieno talked of the
oath involved four sets of
purposes
1.fight for land stolen by white
settlers
2.take a gun, valuables or
money from white settlers or
black collaborators
3.kill anyone against the
movement, even if it’s family
4.complete secrecy

41. British Targeted Jomo Kenyatta &
The Kenya African Union
Easier to attack an organization
1952 - British declared state of
emergency 1952
Kenyatta & other nationalist
leaders arrested
1960 – British lifted the state of
emergency
1963 – Kenya gains independence
& Kenyatta became the first Prime
Minister
1964–1978 –Kenyatta became the
first President

42. Great Britain PM Harold Macmillan makes
his famous “Wind of Change” speech
February 3, 1960
Capetown
to an all-white
South African
parliament

43. Egyptian Victory over the British & French
with the 1956 nationalization of the Suez
Gamal Abdel Nasser

44. Organization of African Unity with
Egyptian President Nasser
Official by 1963, but organization
starts in 1958, with Nasser of Egypt
1958 – Nasser led the “Eight States
African Conference”:
Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Libya,
Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Republic

45. 1958 – Nasser led the “Eight States
African Conference”
Competing with the
oCasablanca Group
oUnited Arab Republic
oMonrovia Group
Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea,
Liberia, Libya, Morocco,
Tunisia, and the United Arab
Republic

46. African Unity:
Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana
o Promoted Negritude—a pride
in African traditions
o Led the Organization of
African Unity from 1961+
(which eventually becomes the
African Union.

47. African Unity: African Americans to Africa
o 1961 - W.E.B. Dubois renounces his
U.S. citizenship to Ghana
o 1964 – Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-
Shabazz) makes a pilgrimage to Africa
o Stokely Carmichael of “Black Power”
changes name to Kwame Toure
(Kwame Nkrumah & Sekou Toure)

48. An American in South Africa:
Robert F. Kennedy’s
“Ripple of Hope” Speech, 1966
University of Cape Town,
South Africa
June 6th, 1966

49. 1963 - Organization of African Unity

50. Julius Nyerere & African Democracy
Ujamaa or
self-reliance

51. Steve Biko & Black Consciousness -1970s
Black pride –
psychological,
social and political,
as the first step
toward revolution
I write what I like,
The Testimony of
Steve Biko
Steve Biko (1946-1977)
founder of the Black South African
Students’ Organization (SASO)

52. French West Africa?

53. 1940s – Era of Mass Party Creation
Felix Houphouet-Boigny,
Cote D’Ivoire
1946 – RDA - Rassemblement
Democratique Africain to unify
nationalists in French Africa
1947 – faced numerous
pressures by the French who
attempted to oust
“communists” including
Houphouet-Boigny.
French eased pressures after
Houphouet-Boigny agreed to
disassociate from the
Communist party.

54. French Government weakened
o Vietnam, 1954
o Suez Crisis of 1956
(Britain, US, & France’s war with Egypt over the
nationalization of the Suez),
o the Algerian War, 1958-62

55. French Loses Indochina & Vietnam Again in 1954
U.S. Involvement in Vietnam, 1954-1973o French occupation (1887-1940), &
o Japanese occupation (1940-45)
o 1945 - French reassert control after WW II
o 1954 - Ho (Vietnamese) defeat the French
o 1954 – Vietnam divided at 17th parallel
o 1954 – war begins between HO (North) &
the US & Diem (South)
Two pictures of the same leader
Ho, how are the two portrayed?

56. French Algerian War Begins in 1954:
Algeria Gains Independence by 1962
The Battle of Algiers 1958
oFrench lost ½ million troops
o1962 – French granted Algeria
independence

57. Egyptian Victory over the British & French
with the 1956 nationalization of the Suez
Gamal Abdel Nasser

58. Frantz Fanon on the psychological effects
of colonialism & revolution
o Psychologist from Martinique
(Caribbean),
o Educated in France,
o Appointed to a hospital in
Algiers, just as war was starting
o observed the psychological effects
& the relationship between former
colonizer and former colonized
Frantz Fanon. Peau noire, masques blancs
(Black Skin, White Masks). 1953
1925-61 Fanon

59. 1958: 12 French African colonies would vote
“Oui ou Non” on continuing French Rule
Guinea’s Sekou Toure said “non!”
“poverty in liberty to riches in
slavery”
Ahmed Sékou Touré
1958-84 First President Guinea

60. French Destroyed Guinean Infrastructure
as They Left the Country
o all government bureaucracies and
more importantly infrastructure,
o communications
o transport, including
o telephone
o railroad systems.
Guinea only survived because
of Soviet and Ghanaian aid.

61. 1960 – “The Year of Africa”
17 countries (mostly French) receive independence
1. Benin (Dahomey)
2. Burkino Faso
3. Cameroon
4. Central African Republic
5. Chad
6. Congo
7. Cote d’Ivoire
8. Democratic Republic of the Congo
9. Gabon
10. Madagascar
11. Mali
12. Mauritania
13. Niger
14. Nigeria
15. Senegal
16. Somalia
17. Togo

62. Patrice Lumumba & the Cold War
President Eisenhower ordered
Allen Dulles, director of the CIA,
to assassinate Patrice Lumumba,
first elected leader of the former
Belgian Congo
UN investigation concludes that Lumumba, Mpolo
and Okito were assassinated on January 17, 1961
Why? Lumumba viewed as:
oanti-Belgium
oPro-socialist
oPro-Communist or an enemy of the U.S.
oUncompromising regarding the Katangan secession
Patrice Lumumba (1925-61),
first elected former
Belgian Congo Prime Minister
1960-1961

63. Was the question over Communism? Or
Marx & Engel. Communist Manifesto. 1848

64. Or Maoism? in China?
o Peasants at the
center

65. Or the Role of Superpowers?
Power Politics & US & SU Alliances?

66. South Africa Gains Independence in 1910
for Afrikaners, or 1994 for Africans
Nelson Mandela
First President from 1994-99
“Inauguration Speech, 1994”

67. Nationalist Movements
Inspired by
othe Great War, World War II
o The Pan-African/Diaspora influence
o the success of Asian nationalist movements
o The appeal of socialism or communism
Led by an
o Emerging class of urban intellectuals, with European & Christian
educations
oNationalist Movements caught in the role of the Cold War as the U.S.
funded anti-communist regimes, S.U. funded nationalist movements in
opposition to the U.S.

68. Grace Chee
May 2015©
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