Decolonization in Africa
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 15, Lesson 5
A discussion of decolonization in Africa, highlighting the Mau Mau Rebellion, the Rhodesian Bush War, the Algerian War for Independence, and the Libyan Revolution. These events illustrate the complex and often violent transition from European colonial rule to independent African nations.
During the Second World War, Allied Powers such as Great Britain and the United States enjoyed tremendous support from their colonies and overseas territories. Indian Gurkhas, Australian and New Zealand “diggers,” and Filipino “hunters” all contributed to the Allied war effort with the hope of independence for their homelands when the war was over. The one recurrent theme that ran through the Atlantic Charter, Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam Declarations, and the Charter of the United Nations was that of national self-determination for all peoples including the developing world. From the 1940s to the 1970s, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands were forced to grant independence to most, if not all, of their overseas empires. To be sure, many imperialists fought the loss of their overseas territories tooth and nail. As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill quipped in November 1942, “I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.” However, not even a figure as formidable as Churchill could turn back the forces of decolonization in the developing world.
Mau Mau Rebellion and the Rhodesian Bush War
From the 1880s to the 1910s, many European nations competed in the “scramble for Africa.” By the eve of World War II, virtually the entire continent lay under the control of one European power or another. During World War II, 1.3 million Ghanese, Kenyan, South African, Botswanan, Malawian and Zambian troops served in the British forces and returned home with a sense of group solidarity and confidence. In 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) gave a speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, in which he recognized “the wind of change blowing through the continent.” Although Britain’s leaders granted independence to many African colonies, they fought to keep Kenya and Rhodesia (current day Zimbabwe) in the empire.
From 1952-1960, British troops ruthlessly suppressed the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. The Mau Mau revolt began when poor Kikuyu people, having been forced off their traditional land, made war against British officials and upper-class, “Anglicized” members of their communities. Many Mau Mau adopted British Scout uniforms and merit badges to fool British soldiers into believing they were loyal Kenyans. Over time, the Mau Mau began to wear scout uniforms as symbols of resistance and pride.
Kikuyu men and women who trained to become Mau Mau warriors often believed their initiation rituals would make them invincible to British bullets. As such, they fought ferociously in battle. British officials killed over 20,000 Mau Mau during the conflict and placed another 20,000 Kikuyu and other minorities into brutal “labor camps” that bore more than a passing resemblance to German concentration camps. Although British colonial forces defeated the largest Mau Mau army in 1956, they could not stop international pressure and local resistance. At the First Lancaster House Conference, held in 1960, British and Kenyan delegates worked out a roadmap for a transition government that provided complete independence for Kenya in 1963.
Kenya’s experience provided a blueprint for other British colonies in Africa to seek their independence. In 1965, the governing white minority population of Rhodesia declared the region’s independence from the British Empire. This led to the Rhodesian Bush War (1964-1979), in which the white-dominated Rhodesian government fought against several African revolutionary groups. Placed in the position of peacemaker, the British government helped negotiate a cease-fire at the Second Lancaster House Conference in 1979. Under the terms of this agreement, white settlers agreed to share power with indigenous Africans in a new nation called Zimbabwe, which became fully independent in 1980.
Algerian War for Independence
During the Second World War, most of France’s overseas territories were occupied by Japanese, British, or American forces. This made France’s resumption of power in such areas tenuous at best. Nevertheless, under Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970), a former general and hero of two World Wars, the French government attempted to reconstitute its prewar empire.
In 1830, French forces invaded and occupied Algeria. For the next century, thousands of French colonists, known as “pieds-noirs” (black feet), created enclaves throughout the region and introduced French technology, language and culture to the native Algerians. Following World War II, Messali Hadj’s (1898-1974) Movement for the Triumph of Liberal Democracies (MTDL) launched an independence movement against French rule.
While the MTDL publicly campaigned for a peaceful end to French imperialism, a group of Algerian militants known as the Special Organization (SO) used ambushes, assassinations and bombings to take the fight directly to French soldiers and colonial administrators. Both groups joined together to form the National Liberation Front, which carried on the struggle for independence. After a decade of fighting and losing 36,000 soldiers and civilians, De Gaulle’s government finally agreed on a transition plan that resulted in Algerian independence in 1963.
Spotlight On | WOMEN IN THE ALGERIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT
Women such as Djmila Bouhired (b. 1935) played leading roles in the Algerian liberation movement. Born into a middle-class family in colonial Algeria, Bouhired ran into discipline problems in primary school for shouting “Algeria is our Mother” instead of the customary “France is our mother” at morning assemblies. Becoming an active demonstrator against French imperialism, the dedicated and determined Bouhired once endured 17 hours of torture at the hand of colonial officials without revealing any useful information. In July 1957, French authorities arrested Bouhired on charges of bombing a café that killed 11 people. French attorney Jacques Verges agreed to represent Bouhired at trial. In a sensational courtroom event that garnered international attention, Verges accused French colonial officials of carrying out the bombing. When a jury found Bouhired guilty and sentenced her to death by guillotine, protest groups campaigned on her behalf. Due to the personal intervention of Moroccan Princess Laila Ayesha, French President René Coty commuted Bouhired’s punishment to life imprisonment. After serving five years in a prison in Reims, she was released in 1962 as part of a general amnesty policy.
Libyan Revolution adapted from Statewide Dual Credit World History | CC By-SA
On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent, and on December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya—a constitutional and hereditary monarchy—led by King Idris, Libya’s only monarch.
The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled Libya, one of the world’s historically poorest nations, to establish an extremely wealthy state. Although oil drastically improved the Libyan government’s finances, resentment among some factions began to build over the increased concentration of the nation’s wealth in the hands of King Idris. This discontent mounted with the rise of Arab nationalism throughout North Africa and the Middle East, so while the continued presence of Americans, Italians, and British in Libya aided in the increased levels of wealth and tourism following WWII, it was seen by some as a threat.
On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by 27-year-old army officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a coup d’état against King Idris, launching the successful Libyan Revolution. On the birthday of Muhammad in 1973, Gaddafi delivered a “Five-Point Address.” He announced the suspension of all existing laws and the implementation of Sharia. He said that the country would be purged of the “politically sick”; a “people’s militia” would “protect the revolution”; and there would be an administrative revolution and a cultural revolution. Gaddafi set up an extensive surveillance system: 10 to 20 percent of Libyans worked in surveillance for the Revolutionary committees, which monitored place in government, factories, and the education sector. Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and the executions were often rebroadcast on state television channels. Additionally, he employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of critical refugees around the world.
In 1977, Libya officially became the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.” Gaddafi officially passed power to the General People’s Committees and, henceforth, claimed to be no more than a symbolic figurehead, but domestic and international critics claimed the reforms gave him virtually unlimited power. Dissidents against the new system were not tolerated, with punitive actions including capital punishment authorized by Gaddafi himself. The new government he established was officially referred to as a form of direct democracy, though the government refused to publish election results. Gaddafi was ruler of Libya until the 2011 Libyan Civil War, when he was deposed with the backing of NATO. Since then, Libya has experienced instability.