The Collapse of
Imperialism in Africa
© Student Handouts, Inc.
www.studenthandouts.com
AFRICA’S NATURAL RESOURCES
Why were the colonial powers there?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Majority of world’s diamonds
Vast oil reserves
75% of world’s cobalt
25% of world’s copper
50% of world’s gold
33% of world’s manganese and uranium
AFRICAN NATIONALISM
• Movement took off following World War II
• Africa under imperial rule
– Harsh treatment of African peoples
– Artificial borders
• Divided cultural groups
• United long-standing enemies
African Nationalist Movements
• European colonization had a negative
effect on Africa.
• Colonial rule disrupted social systems and
governments, and robbed Africa of resources
• Many Africans objected, but they did not have
enough power to act.
• During the 1920s and 1930s colonial rulers
sent a few Africans to study in Europe and the
United States.
African Nationalist
Movements
• These educated young people started to
dream of independence and worked to
increase nationalism.
• Nationalist movements are movements that
seek independence for the people living in a
country that is controlled by another power.
Pan - Africanism
• Pan – Africanism movement which sought to
unify native Africans and
those of African heritage
into a "global African
community".
• Pan-African Congress - a
series of five meetings in
1919, 1921, 1923, 1927,
and 1945 that were
intended to address the
issues facing Africa due to
European colonization of
much of the continent.
INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS
• Imperialist nations diverted and weakened by
World War II
• Cold War – Soviet Union encouraged anticolonial settlement
• Growing literacy and education among
Africans combined with increased resentment
of being treated as second class citizens
• Africans had increased contacts with one
another and with non-African world
North Africa
• North African states led the way during
independence era.
• Libya achieved independence in 1951.
• Egypt became independent in 1922.
• Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan became independence
in 1956.[Atlas Mts. in Morocco above.]
FRENCH AFRICA
• In Algeria, warfare raged from 1954 through 1962 as the “Front de la
Liberation Nationale” (FLN). Algerian independence was proclaimed
in 1962. [Algerian Square above.]
• In 1958, Guinea became the first French colony to achieve
independence without violence.
• French President Charles de Gaulle granted independence to 14
French African colonies in 1960 as dissatisfaction with imperialism
grew.
British Africa
•Independence in British Africa was
more complex.
•Colonies were handled on an individual
basis, not as a unified group like French
Africa.
•Britain formed committee in 1947 to
deal with colonies.
•Recommended independence for
Africa, which they saw as inevitable.
•London opted to gradually grant
independence.
BRITISH EMPIRE IN AFRICA
Area/Country
Independence
•Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
1922
•British Cameroon → split between Nigeria & Republic of Cameroon
1961
•Egypt
1922
•Gambia
1965
•Gold Coast → Ghana
1957
•Kenya
1963
•Nigeria
1960
•Nyasaland → Malawi
1964
•Sierra Leone
1961
•Somaliland → joined Italian Somaliland as Republic of Somalia
1960
•Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) → independence under white
minority rule
1965
•Tanganyika → joined Zanzibar as Tanzania
1964
•Togoland → joined Ghana (independent in 1957)
1956
•Uganda
1962
Ghana and Nkrumah
• Kwame Nkrumah – the leader of Ghana
and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast,
from 1952 to 1966. (President/PM)
• Studied abroad for about 15 years (USA)
• Nkrumah organized a "People's Assembly” –proposing
government reforms which were rejected.
• Led campaign for change which included civil disobedience.
• Arrested, but released shortly afterwards and asked to form and
lead government of Ghana.
• Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its
independence in 1957.
• Military coup (with possible assistance from USA) overthrew
Nkrumah in 1966.
• Today is considered one of the most respected leaders in African
history
Nigeria
• Britain given control during Belgium
Conference
• Nigeria divided into two colonies – north
and south
• Britain treated ethnic groups differently.
• British spent more money on roads and
schools in south than in north.
• By 1940, Nigerians started fighting for
freedom by forming political parties.
• 1957, Nigerians were allowed to elect their
Prime Minister – the first head of the
government.
• Nigeria did not have to fight for its
independence from Britain.
• Abubakar was overthrown and murdered in
a military coup by primarily junior officers
of Igbo extraction on January 15, 1966.
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
(Ah-boo-bah-kahr Tah-fah-wahBhah-lay-wah)
1st Prime minister of Nigeria
Kenya
• Kenyans thought
the British had
taken land
unfairly.
• Mau Mau – secret
society that used
force to fight for
independence
from 1952 to
1960.
• Thousands of
people were
killed. (~100
Europeans)
Kikuyu Tribesmen (Mau Maus) 1950s
• Kenyans supported the Mau Mau
and their nationalist ideas.
• Convinced the British to help
Kenyans hold democratic elections.
• Jomo Kenyatta was elected President
in 1963.
Kenya and Kenyatta
• Jomo Kenyatta - considered the
founding father of the Kenyan nation.
• Lived and studied abroad for almost 15
years (England)
• Arrested in October 1952 and indicted
with five others on the charges of
"managing and being a member" of
the Mau Mau Society (violent
organization). The accused were
known as the "Kapenguria Six".
• Imprisoned for 9 years.
• Died in office in 1978.
FORMER BELGIAN
POSSESSIONS
• Belgium – 3 territories: Rwanda,
Burundi, Belgium Congo
• Granted independence in 1960.
• Belgium Congo – Civil war after
independence.
• United Nations intervened
• Murder of 1st prime minister, Patrice
Lumumba. Thousands died.
Patrice Lumumba
• Became the leader of the
Mouvement National
Congolais .
• Arrested for inciting anticolonial violence.
• Lumumba and the MNC
were elected in 1960.
• On June 23, 1960 34-yearold Lumumba became
Congo's first prime minister.
•Ten weeks later, Lumumba's
government was deposed in a
coup during the Congo Crisis.
He was subsequently
imprisoned and murdered in
circumstances suggesting the
support and complicity of the
governments of Belgium and
the United States
FORMER PORTUGUESE
POSSESSIONS
• Angola
– Independent in 1975
• Mozambique
– Independent in 1975
Leaders of the Movements-Known as the “Father of Pan-Africanism.”
Non-Africans
Edward Wilmot Blyden (3 August 1832
– 7 February 1912) was a Sierra
Leone Creole and Americo-Liberian
educator, writer, diplomat, and
politician in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
W. E. B. Du Bois was the most
prominent intellectual leader and
political activist on behalf of African
Americans in the first half of the
twentieth century.