Africa [individual assignment]
Africa
Decolonization began in Africa during the 1950s and 1960s. The Islamic states of North Africa became free during the 1950s: Egypt and Sudan from Britain, Libya from Italy, and Morocco and Tunisia from France. Especially violent was the Algerian war of independence from France (1954–1962). The latter treated Algeria as its own extension. In contrast to the sub-Saharan Africa, the North Africa states were more homogenous in terms of religion, ethnicity, and language and also had industrial and infrastructural assets left by the colonizers.
In the sub-Saharan Africa some states were decolonized peacefully (e.g. Mali, Niger, and Senegal from France between 1945 and 1960), while some suffered brutal wars. In Kenia fighting against the British Mau Mau movement killed almost 2,000 people during the 1950s. Angola and Mozambique fought bitter wars of independence from Portugal and both of these struggles (1961-1975 and 1969-1975, respectively) gave way to lengthy civil wars between communist and non-communist forces.
Violence or the potential for violence also arose between ethnic groups after the colonists withdrew. By the time Belgium pulled out of Rwanda in 1962, its divide-and-conquer tactics had artificially exacerbated hatred between two tribes, the Hutu and Tutsi, and the potential for bloodshed between them simmered. Muslims and Arabs in North Africa suppressed minorities like the desert Berbers and the Darfurians of southern Sudan.
White-black tensions persisted longest in South Africa. The most industrialized, and most technologically advanced country in Africa—and one of the world’s richest sources of gold and diamonds—South Africa was also the continent’s most deeply racist. In 1948, as an autonomous dominion within the British Commonwealth, South Africa adopted its notorious apartheid policy, segregating blacks and “coloureds” (other non-whites, including a sizable Indian minority) and depriving them of the vote. A broad anti-apartheid movement—including the Zulu Confederation, the African National Congress (ANC, leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned), and other groups—arose in the 1950s and called for an end to discrimination in the 1955 Freedom Charter.
In 1961, South African whites voted to withdraw from the British Commonwealth and proclaimed the Republic of South Africa, largely in response to British criticism of their racial policies. Finally, during the 1980s, internal unrest, combined with worldwide revulsion and the threat of economic sanctions and divestment, convinced the white government that apartheid could not be maintained. ANC’s leader Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, and the government prepared for free elections—which, in 1994, resulted in ANC victory and Mandela’s election as president.
To generalize about postwar Africa is difficult, but it can be said that dictatorship and corruption, lack of cultural and ethnolinguistic unity, ethnic violence and constant armed conflicts, and health-related problems are commonplace.
Questions for experts
1. What were the most significant events in the region? Why have you chosen them?
2. What factors influenced on the development of the given region?
3. What is common and different between the region and other regions and countries considered in this topic? (Before answering read about other region in the topic 12-2).