Tuesday, August 13, 2013

What are the main events and components to know regarding what happened after colonialism in Africa?

There are many sites that can give you information about what happened after colonialism in Africa. You can do an internet search for “African decolonization” or related terms.  I have included links to three resources below.

The main events to know about this topic would be the various dates of independence for the various countries of Africa. In most histories, the independence of Ghana is seen as the start of decolonization in Africa. This leaves out the independence of colonies in Northern Africa, however.  I would argue that the last major event in African decolonization was the coming of democracy to South Africa when apartheid fell in 1994.


Other events to know about are important because they helped to bring decolonization about and to shape it.  These events are WWII and the Cold War. WWII was important because it badly weakened France and England economically and politically. These two countries were the major colonial powers in Africa.  As they lost their power, it was harder for them to hold their colonies and they had to grant them independence.  This was also caused partly by the growth in the power of the United States, which was generally anti-colonial.


The Cold War was important because it brought about competition between the US and the Soviet Union in Africa.  It helped cause decolonization as the US did not want the West to look bad because it was colonizing and oppressing African and other countries. It also shaped decolonization as the US and the Soviet Union competed.  This helped bring about civil wars such as the one in Angola.


As far as “components” to know, I would say that you need to know about the problems that face independent African countries and their possible links to colonialism.  The major problems are poverty, ethnic tensions within countries, and corrupt and inefficient governments.  We can argue that all of these were caused at least in part by colonialism.


Colonialism can be blamed for poverty because colonial officials were not interested in creating domestic economies for the colonies. They were more concerned with extracting wealth from the colonies for the benefit of the colonial powers. When they left, the newly independent countries did not have strong economies set up and they are still trying to recover from this.


Ethnic tensions can be blamed on colonialism because colonial powers created multi-ethnic countries whose people had little feeling of solidarity with one another.  The colonial powers simply drew lines on maps for their own convenience. By doing so, they created countries made up of many different rival ethnic groups.  In other instances, they split ethnic groups up with populations in different countries.


Corrupt and inefficient governments can also be blamed on colonialism because the colonial powers did not educate or train the natives for self-government.  For the most part, the colonial powers just wanted the natives to be good workers who could help to enrich the Europeans.  They did not feel it was important to give natives the kind of education and training that would be needed in order for them to run modern governments.


These are, in my mind, the events and components that you need to know about to discuss Africa after colonialism.

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