Decolonization in Africa

We explain what the decolonization process in Africa was. In addition, its causes and consequences.

What was decolonization in Africa?

The decolonization in Africa was a process that led to the independence of the old European colonies in the African continent. The majority of emancipations occurred after World War II, between the late 1940s and the 1950s and 1960s. However, a few territories reached independence before (such as Egypt) and others later (such as Angola).

The decolonizing process In North Africa, of Arab and Berber population, it had its critical point in the Maghreb (The northwestern region of the continent). Libya became independent in 1951, while Tunisia and Morocco reached independence in 1956, through alternate negotiations with armed struggles. For his part, France accepted the independence of Algeria only in 1962, after a bloody war.

The emancipation of sub -Saharan Africa found less resistance from European metropolisalthough he also witnessed episodes of violence. Since the end of the 1950s, the vast majority of nations in this region were independent, but this process resulted in the birth of countries that are still crossed by political instability and economic difficulties.

A particular case was that of South Africa, independent since 1931 (as domain of the Commonwealth or British joint), where the dominant white minority established in 1948 a racial segregation system, called Apartheidwhich endured until the nineties.

See also: decolonization in the twentieth century

Causes of decolonization in Africa

Among the causes of decolonization in Africa are:

• The Western education received by some African leaders During the first half of the twentieth century, which headed nationalist movements based on ideas of freedom and independence.
• The development of infrastructure and media works that allowed the dissemination of new political ideas among some sectors of the population.
• The humiliation suffered by the great colonial empires in World War II, as well as the contribution made by the contingents of African soldiers at the service of the allies in the fight against the Nazis, which legitimized the independence claims.
• The economic difficulties crossed by European countries After World War II, following which they had to concentrate their efforts on their internal problems.
• The example of Independence processes in Asia (like India) for African nationalist leaders and movements.
• He Rejection of the United States, the Soviet Union and the UN (United Nations Organization) to the European colonial systemand the occasional support of one of the two superpowers to ideologically related movements in the framework of the Cold War.

Independence in the Maghreb region

The Maghreb is the westernmost region in the Arab world, and occupies northwestern Africa: Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia make it up, although Libya is also usually included. These territories were French colonies, with the exception of the North Strip of Morocco (which was protectorate Spanish) and Libya (which was Italian colony).

Libya became independent in 1951 after the Italian defeat in World War II, and after a brief period of AngloFrancesa administration between 1947 and 1951. The decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia was negotiated and relatively peacefulalthough the violent episodes were not lacking. In Algeria a war was unleashed of independence that extended until 1962.

The independence of Tunisia and Morocco

In Tunisia, Habib Burguiba, one of the main figures of Arab nationalism and leader of the Neo-Destur party (New Constitution), began negotiations with the French government after World War II to achieve independence.

However, these negotiations were interrupted by France in 1951 and, after an armed struggle broke out, The Burguiba movement got France to recognize Tunisian independence in 1956.

In Morocco, the Istiqlal party (Independence Party) He tried from the end of World War II to get independence Under the sovereignty of Sultan Mohamed Ben Youssef, who ruled under the French administration. The tension between the independence and the French government broke out with serious disturbances and repression in Casablanca in 1952.

The French response was to deport Sultan to Madagascar, which caused a general insurrection (1954-1955). Finally, the French had to give in: the Sultan, who soon became King Mohamed V, triumphantly returned in November 1955 and The Kingdom of Morocco reached independence on March 2, 1956.

The Government of Spain did not put any impediment to the recognition of the independence of the northern part of Moroccowhich was a Spanish protectorate, and yielded to the new Moroccan authorities the control of the territory as a whole.

On the other hand, In 1975 the Spanish government precipitously gave the West Sahara to Morocco and Mauritaniaa process that did not have the approval of the Saharawi population. In 1979, Mauritania resigned from his territorial claims and, since then, Morocco occupies most of the Western Sahara.

Who was Habib Burguiba?

Habib Burguiba (1903-2000) was a Tunisian nationalist leader who ruled Tunisia for more than thirty years. He studied Law and Political Science in Paris and, upon returning to Tunisia in 1927, intervened in the political struggle for independence. Headed the group that replaced the Occupy party (Constitution), which he considered very conservative, and In 1934 he created the Neo-Destur party, with nationalist and anticolonialist tendencies more radical.

He suffered the prison several times and lived for a long time in exile. In 1952 he returned to Tunisia and encouraged a new agitation campaign that led him again to jail. Finally, The French government delivered the speech of Carthage in 1954 in which it admitted the internal autonomy of Tunisia and opened the way to Independencewhich was recognized in March 1956.

Burguiba became prime minister in 1956 and, with the abolition of the monarchy in 1957, He was appointed President of the Republic of Tunisia. As leader of the country he carried out an agrarian reform and encouraged tourism. In addition, he recognized a series of rights that made Tunisian women have the most free legal situation in the entire Arab.

Although He opposed Islamic integrism and maintained a moderate position with respect to the state of IsraeL, supported the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), to the point that Tunisia was the headquarters of the Palestinian movement after its expulsion from Lebanon in 1982, and positioned itself against Egypt and the Camp David agreements at the end of the seventies, so Tunisia became the headquarters of the Arab League.

Burguiba’s equilibrium policy was based on the alliance with the United States government and the maintenance of good relations with the rest of the Arab world. In 1987 he was withdrawn from the Presidency of the Republic for its senility. He died in 2000 at the age of 96.

The independence of Algeria

The independence process in Algeria constituted one of the bloodiest episodes of the decolonizing process. The presence of a strong European minority led to the government of France to refuse to accept nationalist demands.

The War of Algeria (1954-1962) was a traumatic episode for both the metropolis and the colony. The confrontation between the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) and the French army caused the death of almost half a million Muslim Algerians and twenty -five thousand French soldiers.

The severity of The situation led France to the edge of a civil war. The return to the power of Charles de Gaulle in 1958, who promoted a new Constitution that founded the fifth Republic, prevented the conflict from exploding.

De Gaulle came to power as a flag bearer of the “French Algeria” defense, but he had to give up and initiate negotiations with FLN. The “Evian Agreements” (as a result of the negotiations) opened the way to the withdrawal of the French of Algeria and the proclamation of independencewhich took place in July 1962.

Emancipation in sub -Saharan Africa

In sub -Saharan Africathat until World War II was almost all under the domain of European empires, The metropolis accepted without big problems granting independence to their coloniesprocess that began to be completed in the late 1950s.

The scarce European population settled in these countries and the new international situation marked by the independence triumphs in Asia explain to a large extent that The decolonization process has been rapid In these regions, although there were also some episodes of violence and confrontation.

The decolonization of Anglophone Africa

In British Africa, although Sudan became independent of the Anglo-Egipcio condominium in 1956, The pioneer figure was Kwane Nkrumah, who led Ghana’s emancipation process (formerly British gold coast) and led to independence in 1957.

The other British colonies became independent in the 1960s, in general peacefully But, in some cases, after crossing periods of violence, such as the revolt of Mau Mau in Kenya against the settlers and the British administration, which began in 1952 and was defeated in 1960 (Kenya’s independence was finally recognized in 1963).

A particular case was that of South Rodesiaa territory rich in minerals, in which the colonists of European descent unilaterally declared independence in 1965 (although it was not recognized by any state) and established a regime of Apartheidcomparable to the racial segregation regime that was in force in South Africa. In 1979 they were stripped of British power and crown recovered their control to drive A process of legitimate independence that took place in 1980 and It gave rise to the Republic of Zimbabue.

The decolonization of Francophone Africa

In French Africa, the figure of Sedar Senghor, Senegalese nationalist leader that promoted the movement that led to the independence of Senegal in 1960. In those years, the French government had constituted the French community (1958-1960), an attempt to group the French colonies that had had Guinea’s rejection (which became independent in 1958).

The colonies that made up the French community followed Senegal’s example and they became independent one after another in 1960, so the community stopped working (although legally continued to exist until 1995).

In it Belgian Congo Decolonization was more traumatic. Once achieved independence in 1960 by the initiative of the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumbahe assumed as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the rich Minera province of Katanga proclaimed its independence, directed by the businessman and politician Congolese Moise Tshombe and with the support of Belgian settlers.

During the conflict, known as “Congo Crisis”, acts of violence and Lumumba were imprisoned by its own Commander in Chief of the Army, General Mobutu. Lumumba was killed in 1961 and Mobutu assumed the presidency in 1965 of the country, which between 1971 and 1997 was called Republic of Zaire. With the help of the UN “Blue Helmets” managed to reintegrate the province of Katanga to the country.

The decolonization of Spanish and Portuguese Africa

The Spanish Guinea obtained its independence from Spain in 1968 after a referendum supervised by the UN and the OU (organization for the African unit) that gave rise to the Current Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

The last stage of decolonization in Africa corresponded to Portuguese colonies, such as Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. The independence of these colonies occurred Between 1974 and 1975after more than ten years of armed struggle, and was precipitated by the fall of the dictatorship in Portugal after the 1974 carnation revolution.

He Apartheid In South Africa

South Africa is a particular case in the European colonization of Africa. In the seventeenth century, Dutch of deep Calvinist convictions settled around the Cape City. This population became known as Afrikáner and their Dutch language resulted in the Afrikáans language. From the 18th century, despite the resistance of Afrikáners, South Africa was falling under British dominance.

In 1931, South Africa reached independence as a domain of the Commonwealth (British Commonwealth), and In 1948 the National Party won the elections, which represented a radicalized sector of the Afrikáner minority and proposed racial segregation. Eager to maintain “white” control and concerned with the increase in the “black” population, the leaders of the National Party implemented the regime of the Apartheid (“Separation” in Afrikáans).

With the Apartheid The population was divided according to their ancestry and skin colorinter -ethnic marriages were prohibited, facilities were established (schools, sinks, beaches, buses, hospitals) segregated by “race”, the exercise of political rights to the black majority was prohibited and an economic difference between a privileged sector of society (white population) and an impoverished sector (black population) was consolidated.

The resistance against the Apartheid It was organized around the African National Congress, with Nelson Mandela as charismatic figure. After spending twenty -eight years in jail, Mandela was released in 1990. Apartheid It was abolished between 1990 and 1992, and a negotiated transition began which led to the first free and universal elections (without racial discrimination) in the country in 1994. Due to the triumph of the African National Congress, Mandela assumed as president of the Republic of South Africa.

Consequences of decolonization in Africa

Among the main consequences of decolonization in Africa are:

• The political emancipation of African states Regarding the old colonial metropolis. In some cases, however, they remained linked to European countries or with the powers arising in the cold war through cooperation or economic subordination (phenomenon called neocolonialism).
• The political instability. The impact of the Cold War, together with frequent incompatibility between the national borders inherited from colonial empires and identities (ethnic, tribal or religious) of the population deepened the political crisis. In addition, the weakness of democratic institutions and the intervention of foreign economic interests (for example, multinational companies interested in the extraction of natural resources) led to true civil wars (such as the one that Nigeria lived between 1967 and 1970), secessions or annexations of territory, bloody dictatorships (such as the IDI AMIN in Uganda) and even great massacres (such as the genocide in Rwanda in 1994).
• Economic difficulties. The growing globalization reduced most of the states of the continent to the category of dependent or “underdeveloped” countries, while the local population increased and poverty grew. This, added to political and military conflicts, as well as to the exploitation of resources by multinational companies, caused important humanitarian crises.
• The formation of organizations for the defense of the interests of the new states. The movement of non -aligned countries was an organism promoted by figures such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and other leaders of the so -called Third World, which sought to counteract the hegemony of the two superpowers of the Cold War (United States and the Soviet Union). The Organization for the African Unit (OUA), on the other hand, was formed in 1963 with the intention of encouraging political and economic cooperation among African nations, as well as avoiding border and secessionist conflicts that caused civil wars, although in practice its effectiveness was very limited.

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References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Apartheid Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Cooper, F. (2021). History of Africa since 1940. Rialp
• Getz, T. (SF). Political decolonizationC.1945-1997. Khan Academy. https://www.khanacademy.org/
• Springhall, J. (2001). Decolonization Since 1945. The Collapse of European Overseas Empires. Network Globe Press.