Decolonization in Africa and
the Cold War
1. The Suez Crisis of 1956
2. Ghana and Pan-Africanism
3. The Rise & Fall of the Apartheid
Regime in South Africa
Wedding Banquet for King Farouk (reigned 1936-1952)
and Queen Farida, Alexandria, 1938
The pan-Arabist Egyptian Major
Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970)
suffered defeat in Gaza in 1948 but
toppled the Egyptian monarchy in
1952 and nationalized the Suez
Canal in 1956
Sir Anthony Eden and Guy Mollet
reached a secret agreement with David ben-Gurion
in October 1956 to bring Nasser down
The French sought to cut off
support for Algerian rebels
EDEN WROTE EISENHOWER on September 6,
1956, to compare Nasser with Hitler and Stalin
“The seizure of the Suez Canal is, we are convinced, the
opening gambit in a planned campaign designed by
Nasser to expel all Western influence and interests from
Arab countries. He believes that if he can get away
with this his prestige in Arabia will be so great that he
will be able to mount revolutions of young officers in
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. (We know that he
is already preparing a revolution in Iraq.) These new
Governments will in effect be Egyptian satellites if not
Russian ones. They will have to place their united oil
resources under the control of a United Arabia led by
Egypt and under Russian influence.”
EISENHOWER replied on September 8 to urge a
“slower and less dramatic process then military force.”
“I think all Arabs would be forced to support Nasser [if
Great Britain attacked], even though some of the ruling
monarchs might very much like to see him toppled….
There are economic pressures which, if continued, will
cause distress in Egypt. There are Arab rivalries... which
can be exploited if we do not make Nasser an Arab hero.
There are alternatives to the present dependence upon
the Suez Canal. Nasser thrives on drama. If we let
some of the drama go out of the situation and
concentrate on the task of deflating him through slower
but sure processes such as I described, I believe the
desired results can more probably be obtained.”
In November
1956 France
and Britain
used the
excuse of
Israel’s invasion
of the Sinai to
demand the
right to
reoccupy the
Suez Canal
The British amphibious assault on Port Said, November 1956
After the bombing of Port Said, the Soviet ambassador to the
UN said the same fate could befall Paris and London.
Eisenhower’s comment: “I have just never seen great powers
make such a complete mess and botch of things.”
Canadian UNEF soldiers patrol the Israeli-Egyptian border, 1962
DECOLONIZATION IN AFRICA:
THE SETTLER VARIABLE….
The ratio between European settlers and indigenous
peoples was the most important variable governing the
outcome of decolonization….
1. Ghana, 1:10,000. Independent in 1956 following
nonviolent struggle led by Joshua Nkrumah.
2. Kenya, 1:100. The British defeat Mau Mau insurgency,
then grant independence to Jomo Kenyatta in 1963.
3. Algeria, 1:8. Independent in 1962 after 7 years of
horrific bloodshed (analyzed by Frantz Fanon).
4. South Africa, 1:4. Afrikaners establish apartheid
regime until 1994, when Nelson Mandela is elected
President.
The Partition of
Africa,
1878-1914:
The process was
driven forward by
politicians who
promised economic
benefits for Europe
that rarely
materialized….
Vegetation
Zones of Africa:
Only the
Mediterranean
coast, East
African
highlands, and
South African
grasslands ever
attracted
European
settlers.
Map of Ghana
and its ten
regions:
Over 250
languages and
dialects are
spoken, but
only nine have
official status
Elmina Castle, Accra, built by the Portuguese in 1483,
the oldest center of the transatlantic slave trade
The King of Ashanti presides over the Yam Festival, 1817
Kwame Nkrumah
(1909-1972):
Educated at Lincoln
University (PA) and
the London School of
Economics; returned
to the Gold Coast in
1947; pictured here
as Prime Minister in
1953: A
“nondenominational
Christian and Marxist
socialist”
Nkrumah waves to the crowd in Accra on
Independence Day, March 6, 1957
(where Vice President Nixon met Martin Luther King)
Nkrumah and his wife dance with traditional chiefs,
January 1963: He preached pan-Africanism, but even
within Ghana, regionalism remained dominant
Africa as of 1964,
decolonized except
for Angola,
Mozambique,
South Africa, and
Rhodesia
Southern Africa in 1885
General Robert leads 43,000 British troops
across the Zand River, 10 May 1900: The British crushed
Afrikaner resistance in the Boer War but appealed by
1910 for their collaboration in the Union of South Africa
Jan Smuts
(1870-1950),
liberal Afrikaner
Prime Minister
of South Africa,
1919-1924,
1939-1948
Daniel Malan,
architect of
apartheid,
Prime Minister
of South Africa,
1948—1954
Map of the
“homelands”
created by the
apartheid
regime
Langa Township,
outside Capetown,
founded in 1927, and
Soweto, outside
Johannesburg, which
became the largest
and poorest
RACIAL INEQUALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA,
ca. 1978
BLACKS
WHITES
Population
19 million
Land allocation
13%
Share of national income Under 20%
4.5 million
87%
75%
Ratio, per capita income
Doctors/ population
Infant morality rate
1
1/ 44,000
20% (urban)
40% (rural)
$45
14
1/ 400
2.7%
1/ 60
1/ 22
Annual spending on
education per pupil
Teacher/ pupil ratio
$696
“The Congress
of the People,”
Johannesburg,
1955
Nelson
Mandela
burns his
pass,
1959
The Sharpeville
Massacre,
21 March 1960:
72 killed,
178 wounded
The prison at Robben Island, where
Nelson Mandela sat from 1964 to 1990
Soweto high school students demonstrate in 1976
against the introduction of Afrikans as a required subject
Pik Botha, Henry Kissinger, and Magnus Malan in
Pretoria, 1970s
THE CHANGING RACIAL BALANCE
IN SOUTH AFRICA
YEAR:
White Colored Indian African
1911
21%
9%
3%
67%
1936
21%
8%
2%
69%
1960
19%
9%
3%
68%
1980
16%
9%
3%
72%
1993
13%
8%
3%
76%
F.W. de Klerk, who became
President in 1989, concluded
that majority rule was inevitable
Mass rally in Johannesburg,
shortly before the release of Mandela in 1990
Poster for ANC
march for
democracy,
March 1991
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the
“Inkatha Freedom Party,” marches with Zulu warriors
Terrified residents arm themselves against Inkatha Zulu
militants in Kagiso, West Rand, in the early 1990s
A member of the “Afrikaner
Resistance Movement”
attacks a black demonstrator,
1992
The ARM failed in
March 1994 to
prevent majority
rule in
Bophuthatswana
THE RESULTS OF MULTI-RACIAL ELECTIONS
1994
ANC
2004
62.7%
69.7%
Pan-Africanist Congress
1.2%
0.7%
Inkatha Freedom Party
10.5%
7.0%
Nationalist Party (in 2004
the Dem. Alliance)
20.4%
12.4%
Still in 2004, the DA posed a challenge to the ANC in the
West Cape, and Inkatha, in KwaZulu-Natal
The newly elected
President of South
Africa,
Nelson Mandela,
speaks from the
balcony of Town
Hall in Pretoria,
10 May 1994
TRENDS IN PER CAPITA GDP SINCE 1900:
THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR WIDENS
$45,000
$40,000
$35,000
$30,000
USA
France
$25,000
Japan
$20,000
South Africa
India
$15,000
Ghana
$10,000
China
$5,000
$0
1900
1950
1973
2004