• All African countries, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, started out as colonies. And just as with the American War for Independence, some African colonies, such as Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, also gained their independence only after waging war against their colonial masters. While the majority of African countries gained independence without having to resort to a revolution, in every African country independence was won only after the people organized themselves in a struggle against colonialism.

The Fight for Independence

Civil Wars in Post-Colonial Africa• These wars brought additional hardships on the

population including the destruction of infrastructure, crops, education, healthcare, and increase the spread of disease and famine.

• The reasons for political violence, authoritarian governments, or corruption in some African countries, are complex and not a reflection of the inability of Africans to govern themselves.

• What is a Civil War?

• Why did Civil Wars break out in Africa?

– Colonial states were weak and lacked capacity to meet citizen needs.

– Colonial states were not democratic and had little respect for human rights.

– ·Ethnic conflict is a major political

problem in many African countries.

·What do you need for a stable government in Africa?

National unity is essential for the success of any country. For this goal to be met, citizens have to develop a stronger loyalty and identity to the nation than they do to an ethnic group.

Sovereignty- a fancy term for authority and power to insure security.

Basic human services: education, health-care, housing and adequate employment opportunities.

Which type governments did the new countries choose?

• At their independence, each Africa country had a constitution that, like the U.S. Constitution, established the "rules and regulations" of government. These constitutions often reflected the systems of government of the colonial power. Remember that Britain and France had the most colonies in Africa.

• Most were multi-party democracies. In this system, two or more political parties compete in regularly scheduled elections to control the government.

• A few chose a presidential system that where, like in the United States, the president and executive branch have considerable power. State power is shared by the national assembly, or legislative branch. French colonies, such as Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali inherited this system in which there is a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government.

• Others chose a parliamentary system. In a parliamentary system, the national assembly (what in the U.S. is the Congress) selects the executive cabinet from among the members of the national assembly. The head of government in this system is called a Prime Minister. African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone inherited a parliamentary system.

Military Governments• Almost every African country that gained

independence in the 1960s started out with multiparty systems. However by the end of the 1960s, only a handful of African countries maintained a multiparty system. Indeed by 1970, half of the independent countries in Africa had military governments. The process by which a group of military takes control of government is called a coup d'etat this is a French term that means an overthrow of the state.

• Some coup d'etats were quite violent. In the process of taking control, the soldiers involved killed members of the civilian government, including, at times, the president.

• The strains on the political system in the early years of independence provided an environment in which

corruption became widely practiced in some African countries.

A few government officials used their government position to benefit themselves and members of their family. Military leaders often used the pretext of widespread corruption to justify their taking power.

• In spite of popular opposition to military rule, between 1960 and 1985 there were 131 attempted coups in Africa, of which 60 were successful! And three countries have had six successful military coups ! Indeed, out of 54 independent African countries, only six countries have not experienced an attempted or successful coup since they became independent .

Kenya

• Officially-Republic of Kenya • Controlled by Arabs, Germany, and Britain.• Native Kenyans staged a military rebellion

but were quickly defeated.• Independence-Gained on December 12, 1963

Nigeria

Nigeria

• Nigeria remained a free country until Great Britain colonized the area in the 1800’s. Over time Nigerian (made up of over 250 separate ethnic groups!) begin to work toward quasi-independence while still apart of the British Empire.

• In 1960 an independent government was elected.• However by the beginning of the 1970’s Civil Wars

began and continued up to 1999.

Nigeria

• The unequaled power distribution and corruption led to several back-to-back military coups.

• During the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria joined OPEC and billions of dollars generated by production in the oil-rich Niger Delta flowed into the coffers of the Nigerian state. However, increasing corruption and graft at all levels of government squandered most of these earnings.

• Nigeria today is a Federal Republic modeled after the United States, with executive power exercised by the president .

South Africa• Officially known as the Republic of South Africa. (Democracy)

• Gained independence May 31, 1910 after four years of negotiation for freedom but continued to have close ties with the British.

• After four years of negotiating, the Union of South Africa was created. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by 'blacks', at that stage to a mere 7% of the country.

Sudan• Independence Day- January 1, 1956-Colonized by Great Britain. After

numerous attempts to gain independence from the British, they finally were successful in 1954 (treaty signed January 1, 1956).

• The continued British occupation of Sudan fueled an increasingly strident nationalist backlash in Egypt, with Egyptian nationalist leaders determined to force Britain to recognize a single independent union of Egypt and Sudan. With the formal end of Ottoman rule in 1914, Husayn Kamil was declared Sultan of Egypt and Sudan.

• In 1946 British colonial authorities merged southern and northern Sudan into a single administrative region. The inhabitants of southern Sudan primarily practice Christianity and Traditional African religions. Northern Sudan is inhabited by Arab Muslims. Merging the citizens in the previously separate regions led to the first Sudanese civil war and subsequent political and ethnic strife. Today Sudan is an autocratic military dictatorship.

• The Cold War also brought problems to the continent of Africa. The United States and the Soviet Union used the counties in Africa as pawns in a global chess game of domination, wealth, and power.

As economies deteriorated, social strains increased and civil wars and refugees became the faces of Africa. But, in the last decades of the century, South Africa achieved the miracle of majority rule under Nelson Mandela, while in Uganda Yoweri Museveni fought the first post-independence liberation war and became the symbol of a new political generation of leadership. In Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda - intellectuals who had been through the fire of liberation struggles and set out to build societies which could transcend both the heavy hand of outsiders, and the scourge of ethnic politics. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which a million Tutsis were killed by their erstwhile friends and neighbors from the majority Hutu population, acted as a terrible warning of what ethnic politics had in store if Africa's new leaders were to fail.

• So what does the future hold for Africa?

Pan-Africanism

• Pan-Africanism literally means 'all Africanism'. It is a

movement, which seeks to unify and uplift both native Africans and those of the African diaspora, as part of a "global African community".

• Pan-Africanism is usually seen as a product of the Atlantic slave trade, rather than as something arising from the continent of Africa itself. Enslaved Africans of diverse origins and their descendants found themselves embedded in a system of exploitation where their African origin became a sign of their servile status. Pan-Africanism set aside cultural differences, pointing to their shared experiences in order to foster solidarity and resistance to exploitation.

• Modern Pan-Africanism began around the beginning of the twentieth century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan African Association, was organized by Henry Sylvester-Williams around 1887, and their first conference was held in 1900

• Key figures• Muammar al-Gaddafi, president of

Libya, has in recent years been the most dominant/active organizer of African unity and has proposed the formation, based on Kwame Nkrumah's dream, of a United States of Africa.

• Marcus Garvey, was a Caribbean-born Pan-Africanist and stern advocate for the Back-to-Africamovement.

• Malcolm X planned to link the Organization of Afro-American Unity through Pan-Africanism to internationalize the human struggle of African people.

African Union

• The African Union (AU) is a supranational union consisting of fifty-three African states. Established in 2001, the AU was formed as a successor to the African Economic Community (AEC) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

Overview• Eventually, the AU aims to

have a single currency (the Afro) ,a single defense force, as well as other institutions of state, including a cabinet for the AU Head of State. The purpose of the union is to help secure Africa's democracy, human rights, and a sustainable economy, especially by bringing an end to intra-African conflict and creating an effective common market.

• The AU covers the entire continent except for Morocco, which opposes the membership of Western Sahara as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

• The AU's first military intervention in a member state was the May 2003 deployment of a peacekeeping force of soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to Burundi. AU troops are also deployed in Sudan for peacekeeping in the Darfur conflict.

History of the AU• The historical foundations of the African Union originated in the Union of African

States, an early confederation that was established by Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s, as well as subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which was established on May 25, 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. Critics argued that the OAU in particular did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it the "Dictators' Club".

• The African Union was launched in Durban on July 9, 2002, by its first president, South African Thabo Mbeki, at the first session of the Assembly of the African Union.

• Are there any other continents attempting to create a single government?

• African Studies Center, African Independence. October 27,2007.• http://www.jgcinema.org/pages/parolechiave.php?

parola=Violenza. November 6, 2007.• Exploring Africa,

http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7b/activity2.php, October 10,2007

• Gross, Scott. The 30th Anniversary of the Berlin Conference Its adverse affects on Africa. Retrieved from: http://sun.menloschool.org/~sportman/modernworld/chapter8/2004/fblock/sgross.html/ December 18, 2008

• Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nationalism/ December 18, 2008