WHAP - Mr. Duez Unit 8 - DECOLONIZATION - Africa & Indian Independence: Compared
Why was Africa’s experience with political democracy
so different from that of India?
Why was Africa’s experience with political democracy so different from that of India?
CHANGE OVER TIME:
Struggle for independence in India had been a far more prolonged affair, thus providing time for an Indian political leadership to sort itself out.
Britain began to hand over power in India in a gradual way well before complete independence was granted.
EDUCATION:
Far larger number of Indians had useful administrative or technical skills than was the case in Africa.
Why was Africa’s experience with political democracy so different from that of India?
POLITICAL POWER/CONTROL:
Unlike most African countries, the nationalist movement in India was embodied in a single national party, the INC, whose leadership was committed to democratic practice.
CULTURAL IDENTITIES & CONFLICT:
Partition of India at independence eliminated a major source of discord.
Indian statehood could be built on cultural & political traditions that were far more deeply rooted than in most African states.
Colonial Rule = Highly authoritarian & bureaucratic with little interest in African participation.
1950s: British, French, & Belgium attempted, rather belatedly, to transplant democratic institutions to their colonies.
Europeans established legislatures, permitted elections, allowed political parties to operate, & in general anticipated the development of constitutional, parliamentary, multiparty democracies similar to their own.
It was with such institutions that most African states greeted independence.
European Turnover of Power to Africa
By the early 1970s, however, few such democratic regimes were left among the new states of Africa.
Many of the apparently popular political parties that had led the struggle for independence lost mass support & were swept away by military coups.
European Turnover of Power to Africa
Army took power in Ghana in 1966:
No one lifted a finger to defend the party that had led the country to independence only 9 years earlier.
Often, it led to violence. Ethnically based civil war in Nigeria during late 1960s cost millions of lives, while in the mid-1990s ethnic hatred led Rwanda into the realm of genocide.
By early 1980s, the military had intervened in at least 30 of Africa’s 46 independent states & actively governed more than half of them.
European Turnover of power to africa
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy in postcolonial Africa?
Kwame Nkrumah:
Leader of Ghana & predecessor the Gold Coast, 1951-1966
Nkrumah: Became Ghana’s 1st Prime Minister
After Ghana became a republic, 1960: Nkrumah became President
Feb. 1966: While Nkrumah was on a state visit to North Vietnam & China, his government was overthrown in a military coup led by Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka & the National Liberation Council.
President Nkrumah himself alluded to a possible American complicity in his 1969 published work entitled ‘Dark Days in Ghana’, though he mainly based this conclusion from falsified documents which were shown to him by the KGB.
1978 John Stockwell, former Chief of the CIA's Angola Task Force, wrote that agents at the CIA's Accra station "maintained intimate contact with the plotters as a coup was hatched."
Kwame Nkrumah’s
Mixed Legacy
Afterward, "inside CIA headquarters the Accra station was given full, if unofficial credit for the eventual coup... None of this was adequately reflected in the agency's written records."
Later that same year, Seymour Hersh of NY Times, citing "first hand intelligence sources," defended Stockwell's account, claiming that "many CIA operatives in Africa considered the agency's role in the overthrow of Mr. Nkrumah to have been pivotal."
Claims have never been verified… But, declassified documents indicate that a source within British spy agency known as "Swift" had managed to infiltrate inner circles of Nkrumah government.
Kwame Nkrumah’s
Mixed Legacy
Some argued that Africans lacked some crucial ingredient for democratic politics:
Others have suggested that Africa’s traditional culture, based on communal rather than individualistic values & concerned to achieve consensus rather than majority rule, was not compatible with the competitiveness of party politics.
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy
in postcolonial Africa?
Patrice Lumumba: Congolese independence leader & 1st democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. However, less than 20 Congolese held a college diploma in 1960 when they achieved independence.
Belgium & US influenced in their negative stance towards Lumumba by the Cold War & keeping Soviets out of Africa.
US: 1st country from which Lumumba requested help.
Lumumba, for his part, not only denied being a Communist, but said he found colonialism & communism to be equally deplorable, & professed his personal preference for neutrality between the East & West.
Lumumba was imprisoned by state authorities under Mobutu & executed by firing squad.
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy in postcolonial Africa?
Mobutu Sese Seko: Former President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Installed & supported in office primarily by Belgium & the U.S.
Formed an authoritarian regime, amassed vast personal wealth, &
attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence while enjoying considerable support from the U.S. due to his anti-communist stance.
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy in postcolonial Africa?
Mobutu Sese Seko with the Dutch Prince, 1973.
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy in postcolonial Africa?
The immense problems that inevitably accompany the early stages of economic development may be compounded by heavy demands of a political system based on universal suffrage.
Widespread economic disappointment weakened the popular support of many post-independence governments in Africa & discredited their initial democracies.
What accounts for the ups & downs of political democracy in postcolonial Africa?
YouTube: Idi Amin Faces of Africa
Adam Hochschild: author of “King Leopold’s Ghost:
A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa”
Video:
Crisis in The Congo: Uncovering the Truth
Explores role that US allies, Rwanda & Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century.
Millions of people have died in the Congo, yet the International Community have done nothing, except help to perpetuate it or ignore it.
Since The Holocaust, we’ve said: “Never Again!”
Yet, again & again the systematically destruction of a group of people has continued to occur. It rings hollow.
The U.N. knew. The U.S. government knew.
They chose to do nothing.
Some believe that “genocide guilt” from nearby Rwanda, allowed the leaders of the United States & United Nations to look the other way while the new Rwandan government (Tutsi) took out revenge against former Rwandan (Hutus) people who created the Rwandan genocide.
This was also promoted by economic & political resources that had been given over a long period of time to Congolese dictator Mobutu.
The U.S. has tried to “maintain the current order” in their foreign policy decisions towards Africa. Supporting strongmen and dictators to be able to gain access to the resources needed for our economy.
“Africa doesn’t need strong men. They need strong institutions.”
President Barack Obama stated this during his visit to Africa that the West to support democracy, but it is up to Africans to demand this as well. We’ll see what the future holds.