NATIONALISM AND DECOLONIZATION IN AFRICA

African continent was for more than fifty years subjected to foreign control by the imperialist powers.The European big powers had scrambled for, partitioned and dominated the continent since the last quarter of 19thcentury. The loss of independence to foreigners and the introduction of foreign systems of government caused feelings of resistance among rulers and peoples of Africa. Africans resisted colonial rule from the outset, trying to hold on to their land, but were not strong enough to defend themselves against European conquest. As a result, most of Africa was colonized by 1900. Only Ethiopia and Liberia remained free. After a certain period of colonial domination, that was associated with extreme exploitation of African human and natural resources, the desire developed among the Africans to have their self-rule. Thus, anti-colonial movements resumed after the world war two, when Africans now at this stage, organized themselves into the nationwide embarked into the peaceful and violent measures to uproot colonial rule with all forms of exploitation. This is what is referred to as African Nationalism and Decolonization movements.
African nationalism?The tern nationalism can be defined as the patriotic feelings or consciousness of people who regards themselves as oneness and single nation. It is the feeling of people of a particular geographical area that they belong together as brothers and sisters of a single nation and therefore demand to rule themselves.

Thus, African Nationalism can be defined as the desire of Africans to unite themselves as a single nation and demand to liberate themselves from foreign rule. In other words, it was the political will of Africans to end all forms of foreign control and influence so as to be able to take charge of their political, social and economic affairs. Nationalism in African context has been used to signify the struggle for independence or self-determination. Without the partition and subsequent colonial rule of tropical Africa by the powers of Europe, there might have been no African nationalism

FACTORS FOR THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
The factors that gave birth to African nationalism are always put in two categories. These are internal factors and external factors. Internal factors were forces took place within African continent, that generated nationalist idea among the Africans. On the other side, there are some events and circumstances took place outside African continent but promoted nationalism in Africa. These are called external factors.

Internal factors
Colonial education. One of the internal factors stimulated African nationalism was the role of colonial education.As a result of colonial education a group of African elite with anti-colonial sentiments emerged. Few Africans who received colonial education became aware of their rights, thus became leaders of nationalist movements. Among others were kwame Nkrumah(Ghana), Julius Nyerere(Tanganyika), NamdiAzikiwe( Nigeria) Sam Nujoma(Namibia) Patrice Emery Lumumba(Republic of Congo) Nelson Mandela( South Africa) Jomo Kenyatta( Kenya) Keneth Kaunda(Zambia) and many others.All of these were products of colonial education and played a decisive role in the mobilization of their people for political independence. They organized their people to unite into mass nationalist movement to fight for their rights.

Colonial exploitation. It is obvious that the primary objective of colonialism was economic gain from colonies. Therefore, Africans were badly exploited in terms of Natural and human resources. Low wages, Long working hours, Low prices for peasant cash crops, Poor working conditions for workers, Forced labour, taxation, Forced cash crops cultivation and Land alienation were very common during colonial era. The exploitation was more intensified colonies after the Second World War. Colonies were to share the cost of rehabilitating the ruined capitalist economies. Colonialists therefore launched various colonial development plans and schemes in all Africa colonies to facilitate the recovery of economically damaged Europe. The intensified exploitation sparked on high spread resistance in all colonies as Africans could no longer tolerate the situation.

The influence of mass media. Mass media especially newspaper played a big role in spreading awareness among the population in both rural and urban areas. Especially after the world war two, there emerged a big number of educated elites who founded a number of mass media especially newspapers. The elites used these newspapers to expose colonial exploitation and mobilize their fellow Africans for nationalist struggle. The nationalist movements would had been limited in urban areas had it not been the contribution of these medias which spread the message of Uhuru. Such newspaper included Sautiya TANU in Tanganyika, the Voice of Africa in Ghana, The pilot and the comet in Nigeria.

The influence of Ghana independence. Ghanaian became the first to win their struggles agaist foreign rule early in 1957. This became the stimulant and a good example for other African states in their struggle for independence, for they saw that it was possible for them to get independence. Kwame Nkurumahspreaded up the ideas of nationalism to the whole African continent.Other nationalists like Mwalimu Julius KambarageNyerere copied the ideas of nationalism as it was applied by Kwame Nkurumah to achieve independence.

The influence of Ethiopia. The presence of independent states in Africa such as Liberia and Ethiopia which had from the very beginning triumphed against colonial conquest influenced much the growth of nationalism in Africa. This shown other Africans that t was possible for Africans to rule their own countries, hence influenced the rise of nationalism in Africa.

External factors

It was not only that the rise of Nationalism in Africa was due to internal factors but also it was due to various external factors outside the continent. Some of the external factors for the rise of African Nationalism were as follows:

(i) The effects of the Second World War.

(ii) The influence of Pan-Africanism-1945

(iii) The influence of independence of some Asian countries

(iv) The role of Union Soviet of Socialist Republics (USSR)

(v) The role played by United Nations Organisation (UNO)

(vi) The influence of Bandung conference-1955

Influence of the Second World Warto the rise of African nationalism
From September 1939-1945 the great European powers divided between the allied democratic and axis dictatorial powers entered into the second global armed confrontation.The Second World War was a global conflict that not only covered Europe but also spread to nearly every continent, as the Europeans were colonizing the world. In Africa, Allied powers like Britain and France called on their imperial subjects to step up and fight for the mother country.

Thus people were taken from the colonies to support their masters in Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Undoubtedly, this was the most destructive war in all of history, costing the lives of more than 50 million people and destroying very wealthy properties in Europe.The war left many European countries economically crippled. Because by the time European powers were colonizing the world, Africa and other parts which affiliated with European capitalist system was in one way or the other affected. Nationalism among the Africans did not come about until the beginning of World War II. In reality, the nationalism that was present at the time was not nationalism at all, it was anti-colonialism directed on the fights for economic well-beings of the colonized.

· The return of ex-soldiers. Many soldiers were recruited from the colonies to serve their colonial masters during the war. These veterans had expected that their dedication to colonial governments would be recognized and they would be rewarded accordingly as they were promised by the colonial governments. This was not to be, and these soldiers returned home to conditions worsened by a weak global economy. As they had acquired skills, experience and became aware of the ignorance, weakness and inferiority of European, the African soldiers quickly concluded that if they do not unite and use the skills they had then they will have more suffering and pain in the future with no freedom. This led to the rise of nationalist attitude.Some of these were DedanKimathi in Kenya,IddAbdallahPengo in Tanganyika NdabaningiSithole(Zimbabwe) etc.

· Formation of the United Nations Organisation. As an outcome of the second world war, the United Nations Organisation (UNO) was formed to replace the league of nations that had proved weak. The role of UNO cannot be underestimated in the attainment of independence of many african states. UN charter stipulated human right and the right of the colonized to self determination. Trustee territories like Tanganyika, Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi and Cameroon were much supported by UN in their struggle for independence. The formation of UNO favored African states to continue with nationalist struggles. UNO put pressure over the colonial powers to grant their colonies independence. For examples it pressurized Britain to grant independence to Tanganyika, Uganda and finally Kenya.

· Decline of European economy. At the end of the war, millions of people were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, and much of the European industrial infrastructure had been destroyed.As the war caused much economic hardship to Europeans, they turned to their African colonies as the only altenative to revamp their economies, thus they intensified exploitation.More taxation, more land alienation, more forced labour and decline of prices for cash crops produced. This then accelerated demands for African self-rule.

· Emergence of the superpowers. When the war ended in 1945, the United States (USA) and the Union Soviet (USSR) emerged as world super powers. USA was the leading capitalist superpower, while USSR became the leading socialist superpower. The two super powers had very different against colonialism, and took different measures to support nationalistic struggles in Africa.



The influence of Pan-Africanism
This was a movement organized by black people to opposed whites oppression in the world. Pan Africanism can be said to have its origins in the struggles of the African-American people against enslavement and colonization around 18th century. Thus was founded by thepeople of African heritage living outside of the Continent and its primary objective was to oppose whites’ discriminations and oppressions over Africans. It was however in the twentieth century that Pan Africanism emerged as a distinct political movement with the intention to promote unity among the Africans both in Africa and diaspora as they realized that they were all suffering from the chains of the same enemies, the whites.

 The movement was pioneered by the black American intellectuals, among of whom were Marcus MoziahGurvey, William Du Bois, and Henry Sylvester Williams. The first Pan african conference was called by Sylvester William and took place in Westminster Hall, London in 1900. Perhaps among others, whatis widely considered to have been the most important was the fifth Pan-African Congress that was held in Manchester, United Kingdom in October 1945.

 At this time Africans made up over a quarter of the delegates at the conference. These included many scholars, intellectuals and political activists who would later go on to become influential leaders in various African independence movements. Among others were KenyanJomo Kenyatta, South Africa Peter Abraham, Malawi's Hastings Banda, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, ObafemiAwolowo and JajaWachuku from Nigeria. The movements had following contribution to African nationalism;

· The movement planted patriotic spirit to Africans. They argued that African was for the Africans and encouraged people to struggle for self-rule. The Africans learnt that it was possible for Africans to fight for their self-rule as it was possible in America.

· It strengthened unity among Africans. The main theme of the movement was strengthening not only the unity of Continental Africa but also the unity between Africa and the Diaspora.Africans were taught to become one as they were all in struggles agaist the common enemy, whites.

· The movement prepared nationalist figures. Pan-African movement have influenced the preparation of political figures who became nationalists in their countries. People like Peter Abraham (South Africa), Jommo Kenyatta (Kenya) and Nkrumah learnt more from the conference.

· Formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). No doubt that the OAU was outgrowth of the Pan African movements. The idea of having organization of African states was proposed by the attendants in the conference of Manchester led by Kwame Nkrumah. The OAU had great contribution to the independence of many African countries.