The Rise of African Nationalism
Senior 6 · History (Languages)
The Rise of African Nationalism
Lesson 4 of 4
20 min
On 25 May 1963 the leaders of 32 independent African states met in Addis Ababa and founded the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); 25 May is still celebrated as Africa Day. A year later, meeting in Cairo in July 1964, the OAU took a decision that still shapes the continent: member states would respect the borders they had inherited at independence. Those borders had been drawn by Europeans. Why would African nationalists choose to keep them? Weigh the gains and the problems of independence and you will find the answer.
Figure 1. Independence brought real gains and serious problems. Which way the scale tips is the question of this lesson.
Definition
Nation building: creating a shared national identity, loyalty and working institutions among people of different regions, languages and religions inside new borders.
One-party state: a state in which only one political party is allowed by law or in practice.
Coup d'état: the seizure of power by a small group, usually the army, by force or threat of force.
Africanisation: replacing European officials with Africans in the civil service, army and economy.
For Rwanda, independence on 1 July 1962 brought sovereignty and new institutions, but it came wrapped in exclusion. The regimes of the First and Second Republics treated Tutsi as second-class citizens through quotas in schools and jobs, and for three decades hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees living in neighbouring countries were denied the right to return. This is why the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi cannot be understood without the history of how independence was won, and why unit 1's principles of unity and equitable power-sharing were written as they were.
Warning
Avoid the two easy verdicts. "Independence brought only problems" ignores real gains and lets colonial rule off the hook for many of those problems. "Independence solved everything" ignores coups, wars and dependence. Weigh both, as Figure 1 does.
Tip
Trace each problem to its root. For each problem of independence, ask whether its root lay in colonial rule (borders, one-crop economies, untrained administrations), in the Cold War, or in choices made by African leaders. Good answers name all three.
Important
Discuss. Was the OAU right to keep the colonial borders in 1964? What might have happened if every border had been open to challenge?
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the diagram, the analysis and the exercises.
