Africa Post WWII
The Decline of the
Colonial Powers
Africa Produced Many NewlyIndependent Nations in a Very
Short Time
British Colonies Were Some of the
First to Seek Independence because
The were unhappy with colonial rule.
War left her weak and unable to afford
colonies.
A New African educated middle class began
to emerge in the cities to challenge
Colonialism
Self-determination
Pan-Africanism
• Is a movement that seeks to unify African
people or people living in Africa, into a "one
African community.
• Pan-Africanism – developed among
nationalists in the 1020’s.
Organization of African Unity
OAU
• Created in 1963 by Kwame Nkrumah
• To promote the unity and solidarity of the
African states
• The OAU was also dedicated to end of all
forms of colonialism and achieve
independence for all Africans.
• To achieve a better life for the people of
Africa.
Ghana: First African State
to Gain Independence
Kwame Nkrumah Led the
Former Gold Coast
to Independence
Educated abroad.
Schoolteacher.
Preached nonviolence.
Used boycotts and
strikes.
Ultimately successful
1957.
Ghana today still needs to
modernize
Market in Kumasi.
Sells shoes crafted from old automobile tires.
Sprawls across 25 dusty acres in ancient
Ashanti capital.
One of the largest marketplaces in West Africa.
Kenya
Kenyan Independence: 1963
London educated Jomo Kenyatta provided
strong nationalist leadership.
Mau Mau Rebellions made up of Kikuyu
farmers weaken British settlers opposition.
The Solitary Baobob Tree
The national symbol of Senegal, baobab
trees often mark burial sites and inspire the
poetry of de-colonization…
I heard a grave voice answer,
Rash son, this strong young tree
This splendid tree
Apart from the white and faded flowers
Is Africa, your Africa
Patiently stubbornly growing again
And its fruits are carefully learning
The sharp sweet taste of liberty.
David Diop 1956
Africa: 2000
Apartheid
South Africa
South Africa
Apartheid
• The official policy of racial segregation
formerly practiced in the Republic of South
Africa, involving political, legal, and economic
discrimination against nonwhites.
How it Worked
• Under apartheid, people were legally
classified into a racial group - the main
ones being White, Black, Indian and
Colored
• They were geographically, and forcibly,
separated from each other on the basis
of the legal classification.
• The Black majority, in particular, legally
became citizens of particular
"homelands“.
Homelands
• Homelands were independent states to which each African
was assigned by the government according to the record of
origin (which was frequently inaccurate).
• All political rights, including voting, held by an African were
restricted to the designated homeland.
• The idea was that they would be citizens of the homeland,
losing their citizenship in South Africa and any right of
involvement with the South African Parliament.
• Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter
South Africa: aliens in their own country.
Apartheid
• Starting in 1948, the Nationalist Government
in South Africa enacted laws to define and
enforce segregation. With the enactment of
apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination
was institutionalized. Apartheid "maintained
white power by denying political and
economic liberty to black South Africans."[
Apartheid Laws
• The Population Registration Act, 1950,
required that every South African be classified
into one of a number of racial "population
groups.
• The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act,
1953 allowed public premises, vehicles and
services to be segregated by race, even if
equal facilities were not made available to all
races.
Apartheid Laws
• The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949
forbade marriages between white people and
people of other races.
• The Natives Land Act, 1913 limited land
ownership by black people to 7% of the land area
of South Africa.
• The Group Areas Act, 1950 (re-enacted in 1957
and 1966) divided urban areas into "group areas"
in which ownership and residence was restricted
to certain population groups.
Who lives Where??
The Symbol of Apartheid
The Passbook
The Passbook
– A pass was issued only to a black person
with approved work. Spouses and children
had to be left behind in non-white areas.
Many white households employed blacks as
domestic workers, who were allowed to live
on the premises— often in small rooms
external to the family home.
– A pass was issued for one magisterial
district (usually one town) confining the
holder to that area only.
The Passbook
• Being without a valid pass made a person
subject to immediate arrest and
summary trial, often followed by
deportation to the person's homeland.
Police vans patrolled the "white" areas to
round up the "illegal" blacks.
Nelson Mandela jailed for 20 years
in his fight against Apartheid
Lived to vote in the first
racially democratic election
1994
Lived to vote in the first
racially democratic election
1994
And Become President of
South Africa
South African President Nelson Mandela, center, flanked by
his two deputy presidents, Thabo Mbeki, left and F.W. de
Klerk, right, celebrate the new constitution, May 8, 1996.
(AP/WWP Photo Leon Muller)
Nobel Peace Prize
• The Nobel Peace Prize 1993 was awarded
jointly to Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem
de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful
termination of the apartheid regime, and for
laying the foundations for a new democratic
South Africa"
Age-Group Differences
Less Developed Regions
Global Water Stress
Share of
World’s
GDP
Health Statistics
All across Africa
using ICTs for social and economic development
(Information and communication technologies)
Bits Per Capita: An
Information Revolution?
Health Statistics
Share of
World’s
GDP
65
66
67
68
69
70
The Baobab Tree is a symbol of the
strength of Africa.
• In June 1999 I received a message from a plant spirit to go and
make the essence of a beautiful white flower which I saw as a
vision in my mind during a meditation. It had large white
petals and a profusion of white stamens emerging from it. I
later found out the flower I had seen was that of the Baobab
Tree. I was asked to go in December 1999 to the north of
South Africa to make the remedy, and was told that it would
help to "heal the scars of South Africa" and bring black and
white people together. The struggle for freedom in South
Africa has become a symbol for the struggle more widely in
the world to end wars and inequality.
The Rwandan Genocide
1994
History of the Conflict
• In the fifteenth century the Tutsis were the rulers of
most of today's Rwanda
– Put in place by the Belgians to rule
• Tutsis were a minority of the population, mostly
herders
• Majority Hutus were mostly croppers
• When kings distributed the land, they gave it the to
Tutsis who charged Hutus to live and work on the
land
Evolution of Titles
• Originally an ethnic distinction
• Everyone who wasn’t Tutsi is labeled Hutu
• Became an economic status
– Gaining wealth meant losing “Hutuness”
• When the Belgians gained the land as part of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1918, they used the distinction
to “divide and rule”
– Issued passcards to Rwandans
– Gave preferential treatment to
Tutsis (“with the long nose”)
• Hutu’s had “blunt nose”
Beginning of a Social Revolution
• Hutus begin to form a a
nationalist party
(Parmahutu) to fight for
their rights in 1959
• Began killings of Tutsi
(20,000 the first year)
• 200,000 Tutsi refugees flee
border and from the
Rwanda Patriotic Front
• Rwanda gains its
independence from Belgium
in 1961
What we have so far…
• Tutsi minority is ruling
• Hutus have formed groups to fight against the
injustice
• Tutsi refugees have formed groups in other
countries
The Rwandan Civil War
• Conflict lasting from 1990-1993+
• Between the government of
President Habyarimana (Hutu)
and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic
Front (Tutsi group in other country)
Habyarimana
– Tutsis were trying to take back the power in Rwanda
– Peace agreements were signed, but Habyarimana (Hutu
President) doesn’t cede power to any other political party
The Action of…
• two extremist Hutu militias
– The Interahamwe
• "those who stand together" or "those who work
together" or "those who fight together”
• A Hutu paramilitary organization
• Backed by the Hutu Government
– Impuzamugambi
• "Those who have the same goal" or "Those who have a
single goal"
• Hutu militia
The Catalyst
• On April 6, 1994,the airplane carrying Rwandan
President Habyarimana and the Hutu president of
Burundi was shot down as it prepared to land in
Kigali
• Both presidents died when the plane crashed.
• Responsibility for the attack is disputed, with both
the RPF and Hutu extremists being blamed
• In spite of disagreements about the identities of its
perpetrators, the attack on the plane is to many
observers the catalyst for the genocide
The Beginnings of Genocide
• National radio urged people to stay in their homes
• the government-funded station RTLM
broadcast vitriolic attacks against
Tutsis and Hutu moderates
• Hundreds of roadblocks were set up by the militia
around the country
• Lieutenant-General Dallaire of the UN Peacekeeping
Force and UNAMIR, escorting Tutsis in Kigali, were
unable to do anything as Hutus kept escalating the
violence and even started targeting the
peacekeepers themselves
The Killings
• Killed in their villages or in towns, often by their neighbors
and fellow villagers
• Militia members typically murdered their victims by hacking
them with machetes, although some army units used rifles
• The victims were often hiding in churches and school
buildings, where Hutu gangs massacred them
• Ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and
government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbors and those
who refused to kill were often killed themselves
• Everyone killed so they weren’t killed themselves:
– Mayors
– Priests
– EVERYONE
Number Killed
• Unlike Nazis they didn’t keep record
• The RPF government has stated that 1,071,000 were
killed, 10% of which were Hutu (determined in
February 2008)
• Gourevitch agrees with an estimate of one million
• United Nations lists the toll as 800,000
• African Rights estimates the number as "around
750,000,"
• Human Rights Watch states that it was "at least
500,000
Issues Post-Genocide
• Approximately two million Hutu
refugees, most of whom were
participants in the genocide and with
anticipation of Tutsi retaliation, fled
from Rwanda, to Burundi, Tanzania,
Uganda, and Zaire (now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• Thousands of them died in epidemics
of diseases common to the squalor of
refugee camps, such as cholera and
dysentery
– These are the refugee camps that were
aided by the UN and the US
• The refugees have fueled wars in
Uganda, Burundi, and the DRC
Questions Still Exist
•
•
•
•
•
Why didn’t the US do anything?
Why didn’t the UN listen to Daillaire?
How could people kill their neighbors?
How many actually died?
How can we prevent this from happening
again?