Issues of Decolonization: View from the Colonies

[Case Studies of

Non-Settler Colonies]

Local Issues: non-settler colonies

Local African issues intersected with/responded to international situation [see Lecture Notes Feb.10, posted not delivered in class]

… but also shaped it

- these differed significantly between: - ‘non-settler’ colonies like West Africa’s Gold Coast and French Soudan [Lecture Feb.12]

- ‘settler’ colonies like Kenya,Mozambique and Belgian Congo

[Lecture Feb. 14]

West Africa : British

BRITISH

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Gold Coast:

- considered most ‘advanced’ of colonies (followed by Nigeria – both knew parallel political developments)

- investment in ‘economic development’ on one hand, coupled by continued restrictions on foreign trade on the other…

- coupled with frustrations with European merchants’ group dominating export trade [see again Davidson “Magnificent African Cake” 3:00-6:00]

Local Issues: Gold Coast

- exacerbated by policy on disease affecting main export crop, cocoa

- swollen root disease:

infected, surrounding

trees (even those with-

out symptoms)

destroyed

Local Issues: Gold Coast

“The virus had progressed unhampered due to the wartime neglect of cocoa farms in favor of strategic raw materials. … field surveys over the Eastern Region, Western and Ashanti Provinces, and Trans Volta Togoland revealed that the cocoa virus had a wider distribution than was hoped, and was spreading even faster than was feared. … A plant pathologist in the Department of Agriculture who observed a farm … in the Eastern Region, found that between 1939 and 1944, CSSV had killed 74% of the trees planted between 1904- I914. …

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Crop output on the farm had subsequently dropped from 30 tons in 1926-9, to a mere 6 tons in the 1943-44 seasons. Wartime neglect had enabled the CSSV to ravage Ghana's cocoa farms for years unchecked, to the extent that by 1945, "the position has become so menacing that the whole future of the industry has been jeopardized” …

But such was the pace and drastic nature of the cocoa virus control program that it generated mass rural discontent in the cocoa districts of Southern Ghana…

Local Issues: Gold Coast

…providing a political platform which nationalist politicians ruthlessly exploited to demand political autonomy for Ghana. Notwithstanding the formidable political friction it provoked in Ghana, particularly from 1947 to early 1951, harsh economic realities later compelled the nationalists to accept the unpopular scientific methods of CSSV control starting in I95I. [From Danquah, “Sustaining a West African Cocoa Economy”, Resources – ‘Gold Coast/Ghana’; see also short story “Khaya Tree”, Recommended Reading, Feb.3-7]

Local Issues: Gold Coast

February, 1948:

- rise in prices European goods: led to boycott

- successful, merchants lowered prices

- paved way for protest march (28 Feb.): several hundred ex-servicemen seeking over-due pension payments, long-promised jobs!!

- rallying point for discontent

Local Issues: Gold Coast

- march neared Governor’s Residence: army ordered to fire on marchers

- 29 killed, 237 injured

- led to riots throughout colony

Not Major Event in terms of Larger Picture BUT had significant and widespread implications …

Video:

Basil Davidson:

‘Africa: Rise of Nationalism’

[Readings: 4:50– 8:20min]

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Locally:

- showed younger generation that its elders had been co-opted into belief in moderation that was ineffective

- clearly UGCC could no longer speak for ‘the people’: a new voice was needed

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Neither Nkrumah nor youth league of UGCC (CYO) involved in ‘Riots’ – but profited: - 1949: Nkrumah created Convention People’s Party (rooted in youth group)

CPP Poster &Flag

Local Issues: Gold Coast

West Africa:

- spoke to servicemen everywhere

- accentuated in context of Dakar-Niger Railway Strike 1947-48[see Lecture/Readings Feb.3-7]

- revealed British weakness in resorting to violence

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Britain:

- challenged illusion of peaceful, prosperous Gold Coast, ‘model colony’

- violence did not play well to domestic crowd: popular support in Britain declining

- led to major, public investigation

Local Issues: Gold Coast

“…the investigation into the riots … proved most significant for the future of the [Gold Coast] territory.

From this eventually emerged the Henley Coussey Commission, led by a prominent African lawyer of that name, whose recommendations, which included a new constitution based on new democratic procedures and greater representation for Africans at all levels …”

Local Issues: Gold Coast

- Still it was clear “Britain desired to maintain strict control over the future of the Gold Coast” (and by extension, West Africa)

- [quotation from ‘Wind of Change’, 2006, Additional Readings]

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Consequences: - attempt to paint resistance as ‘Communist’, led by UGCC (hence Nkrumah): led to his imprisonment

- party not involved but Nkrumah and followers imprisoned: became ‘martyrs’

- inquiry led to more reforms [see Davidson, “Rise of Nationalism – Gold Coast”, Readings]

Local Issues: Gold Coast

Limited political participation encouraged:

- 1951 Constitution: local elections directed by Tribal Councils, assembly to work with British Governor General who oversaw self-governance of colony

- 1954: direct elections, role Tribal Councils eliminated- CPP won 71 of 104 seats

- military, foreign affairs, currency control: remained in British hands

West Africa: French

FRENCH

French Soudan

French Soudan

Local Issues: French Soudan

Colonial French Soudan: Education

- more hierarchical than British administration

- fewer ‘evoluees’ (educated elite) as middle-men between French authorities and ‘average’ Africans

- trained in few schools: Kayes, Bamako, Dakar

Local Issues: French Soudan

- 1905-47: only 836 Soudanese completed

secondary or vocational school

- 1930s, 1940s: joining war veterans as ‘francophone’ civil servants, union members, teachers

- but few teachers

Local Issues: French Soudan

- post WWII: built more schools, replaced mud-brick with concrete

- did not solve problem of shortage of teachers

- 1950: only 23,000 students in school out of school-age population more than 500,000

Local Issues: French Soudan

Colonial French Soudan: Labour

- widespread use forced labour (from 1912): work on roads, railroad, Office du Niger (canals, dams)

- 1930s (depression): migrant labour encouraged to Senegal (peanuts), Ivory Coast (cocoa)

Local Issues: French Soudan

Labourers ‘recruited’ for work, Senegal,

French West Africa

Local Issues: French Soudan

Forced Labour: Railway Building (Guinee,

French West Africa)

Local Issues: French Soudan

Other grievances: - military conscription

- taxation

- often lead to resistance, local and large scale (e.g. 1947-8 Workers’ Strike), continued 1950s

- source legal challenges post WWII (successful)

Local Issues: French Soudan

Economic investment:

- grew in 1950s (in part to stem labour, social unrest)

Bamako benefitted most of all:

- bridge over Niger River, sewage drinking water

- new hospital, government buildings

- regularly scheduled air connections to Dakar and Paris

Local Issues: French Soudan

Colonial French Soudan: Politics

- Post WWII ‘Fourth Republic’ (1946-58): encouraged African political parties

- Mahmadou Konate (teacher) led younger generation educated evoluees

- 1946 conference Bamako: all french colonies formed RDA (Rassemblement Democratique Africaine ) - united with Union Soudanaise (US-RDA)

Local Issues: French Soudan

- Konate died 1956, succeeded by another teacher Modibo Keita: received full support

Local Issues: French Soudan

Modibo Keita:

- typical West African ‘educated elite’: educated in Bamako, teacher training in Dakar

- back home: co-founded Union French West African Teachers

- member local Communist study group

Local Issues: French Soudan

- 1943 founded, published anti-colonial magazine (imprisoned briefly 1946)

- 1945: co-founded Union Soudanese (with Konate)

- supported merger with RDA, headed US- RDA (French Soudan affiliate) - 1945: elected to territorial assembly [see Lecture Notes Feb. 10]

Local Issues: French Soudan

1956 “Loi Cadre”:

- devolved government from Dakar and Brazzaville (centres of former federations) to each of 12 colonies.

- context important: imminent independence of British colonies Gold Coast, Nigeria

- crisis in Algeria

Local Issues: French Soudan

1958: dramatic changes in France

- fall of fourth republic, recall Charles de Gaulle, formation Fifth Republic with new Constitution

- related to crisis in Algeria [“Settler Colony”]

- ‘Union’ became ‘Community’: France to control finance (common currency), foreign policy, military affairs

Local Issues: French Soudan

- local parliamentary government, flag,

anthem devolved to ‘states’

- African colonies provided with Referendum: retain status or become ‘members of the Community’?

- all (except Guinea) chose latter: assured strong continuing influence of France even in decolonized Africa

The French Community (1958): successor to the French

Union (from 1946) [included French Guyana, South America]

Local Issues: French Soudan

Keita:

- 1956-58 Deputy in French National Assembly; first African Vice-Deputy

- also US-RDA president, Mayor of Bamako

Local Issues: French Soudan

Local Issues: French Soudan

Political Vision:

- party won elections 1957

- in French ‘referendum’ 1958: campaigned for ‘autonomy’ within French Community

- became Soudan Francais (French Sudan)

- in spirit of pan-Africanism: aimed for West African Federation former French colonies

- could only convince Leopold Senghor:

Local Issues: French Soudan

- 1960: formation of Mali Federation -- union French Soudan and Senegal

- short-lived: Senegal seceded nine months after union to be independent under Leopold Senghor [case study “Senegal”to continue story]

- Left independent Mali with Modibo Keita as first president