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An Independent Africa

By Uzor Chinukwue

My Thanks to Balham and Wandsworth Libraries

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Introduction

• There are too many characters in the African story and we don’t have enough time to cover all of them or do the ones we do cover any true justice in the level of detail we can give them. What we will do, however, is look at some of them and explore how the start of their administrations would ultimately start a culture across the continent, one of bad and selfish leadership where power means everything and true democracy (i.e. people power) means very little, which would then eventually set the stage for the proliferation of despotism around the continent. The purpose of this exploration into the why is not to make excuses for the countries, the peoples, or their leaders but instead to observe and note mistakes with the hope that by doing so we may recognise when these mistakes are made in contemporary politics, and that we may avoid repeating history.

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GHANA Ghana was the pride of British African colonial rule. Called the

Gold Coast it had a wealth of resources the most prominent of which was cocoa. It had an elite made up of intelligentsia and rich farmers.

As the most promising of all her colonies in Africa the British were going to use Ghana’s steady progress toward independence as a blueprint for their other African colonies. The intelligentsia at the time – lawyers and businessmen were pressing for more political power and by 1947 had formed their own political party, the United Gold Coast Convention.

They chose as their slogan, “Self-Government in the shortest possible time” and Dr Joseph Danquah as their leader.

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Dr Joseph Danquah

Danquah had also been responsible to coming up with the idea to change the country’s name from its colonial name, the Gold Coast, to Ghana – a West African empire that had flourished during the 14th century.

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Danquah was admired by the British and seen to be the logical step toward a head for government.

The party needed a full-time organiser and Kwame Nkrumah was mentioned as a possible candidate.

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Kwame Nkrumah

The lawyers of the United Gold Coast Convention knew virtually nothing of this man who, at the time, was barely making ends meet as a student in London. He was penniless most of the time, but increasingly got more and more involved in left-wing politics. He soon abandoned his law studies and took to politicking full time – engaging with leading British communists and often participating in anti-colonial protests.

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When the opportunity for a full time job from the United Gold Coast Convention was brought to him he jumped at it, but his left-wing views soon brought him into opposition with Danquah and the other members of the party. He left to start his own party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and while the slogan for United may have been “Self-Government in the shortest possible time” Nkrumah’s CPP often cited “Self-Government Now” as a sort of panacea (cure-all) for all colonial troubles in the Gold Coast.

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He led rallies with zeal and his charisma won him a lot of supporters. He set up anti-colonial newspapers and was adept at creating anti-colonial slogans.

Growing ever bolder, he denounced the British program for constitutional reform as “bogus and fraudulent,” and led protests strikes, and boycotts. Soon all of this anti-colonial propaganda led to violence and the colonial governor Arden-Clarke declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew.

Nkrumah was duly arrested and imprisoned with other CPP party members who were found guilty of incitement and sedition. Later he would be sentenced to 3 years.

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After the trial Danquah wrote: “the wolf [has] been driven away.”

Arden-Clarke also wrote at the time in a private family letter: “Sorry I have been so bad about writing but I have been rather preoccupied in dealing with our local Hitler and his putsch.”

Dr Joseph Danquah

Arden-Clarke

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In prison, Nkrumah found a loophole that would allow him stand as a candidate in the elections, even though he was a convict.

His participation in the election raised expectations and suddenly enthusiasm for the race spread far and wide. Of 23,122 votes he would win 20,780, and of 38 popularly contested seats, Nkrumah’s CPP won 34, with Dr Danquah’s United Gold Coast Convention only managing 3.

Arden-Clarke was thus faced with a dilemma: Nkrumah was as dangerous in prison as outside. Releasing a convicted criminal to take office had no precedence, but not doing so would surely lead to riots and Nkrumah had already promised recriminations if his victory was not recognised, but then releasing him also meant freeing him to pursue his “Self-Government Now” promise to the people.

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In the end Arden-Clarke released Nkrumah to take up the premiership. Nkrumah, insisted on a faster road of transition to full self-determination, ignoring the

misgivings expressed by the British. The constitution, which he’d been obliged to accept, had left key parts of power to Arden-Clarke (like the police, judiciary, finance and defence), but Nkrumah had grown impatient with this partial power and moved for fuller controls without delay and declaring, “We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquillity.”

In the end Ghana would finally be granted her independence on 6 March 1957 and Nkrumah’s popularity would sour in all of Africa, as his and Ghana’s success now meant a surer way to independence for the whole region. Nationalism would sweep through all of Africa and by 1958 he would invite the best of African opposition: trade unions, political parties and student unions, for a conference, with the aim of coordinating “the African non-violent revolution.” There were notable attendees who would eventually help their own countries to independence: Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Banda, Julius Nyerere, and Patrice Lumumba.

The Kenyan and conference chairman Tom Mboya noted the belligerent mood of the conference and noted, “The colonial powers should now reverse the Scramble for Africa.” He declared, “your time is past. Africa must be free. Scram from Africa.”

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GHANAIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

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Independence Day Invitation to Mr & Mrs Martin Luther King

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NKRUMAH’S RESIDENCE, CHRISTIANSBORG CASTLE

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In the end Nkrumah would alienate his own political base with the cocoa farmers when he refused to grant them the subsidies they’d enjoyed under the British. He would also squander the huge foreign reserves Ghana had by embarking on industrial projects such as the Akosombo Dam.

His policies were becoming increasingly dictatorial: after the gold miner’s strike of 1955 he would make strikes illegal, forgetting that he had once used the same to achieve his political ambitions. He would then go on to introduce the Prevention Detention Act, which would allow him arrest anyone accused of treason without trial or recourse to the judicial system.

In what is now known to be a CIA sponsored act, Nkrumah was ousted from office by a military coup while on a state visit abroad. He went into exile in Guinea as a guest of President Sékou Touré.

He left Ghana with massive debts from his dam project and from modernising the Ghanaian military.

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• From Left to Right –the Pan-African Conference attendees Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Banda, Patrice Lumumba, Julius Nyerere, and Tom Mboya

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Egypt

King Farouk was the obese and arrogant nominal ruler of Egypt. He was wealthy and self indulgent, owning several palaces, yachts, and a huge pornographic art collection, while his people suffered from hunger and unemployment.

King Farouk I, tenth ruler from the Mohammed Ali Dynasty

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• From Left to Right: King Farouk I and his wife Queen Farida, Farouk with Franklin D Roosevelt, and finally, the older, obese Farouk in exile

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Founded in 1948 in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli war, where Egypt was defeated, the opposition (the Society of Free Officers Dhobat el-Ahrar) was led by 34-year-old Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nasser was handsome, taciturn, and a natural strategist, and blamed Farouk’s not equipping the army adequately for Egypt’s humiliating defeat to Israel.

The Free Officers chose as their nominal head and the face of their organisation, General Mohammed Neguib, a 54-year-old

respected war veteran.

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• From Left to Right: the Society of Free Officers – Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Nasser, Salah Salem, Abdel Hakim Amer, General Neguib, Hussein el-Shafei (who would later be vice-president under Nasser), and finally Nasser

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At the time there were only 3 recognised independent states in Africa – Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa. And while Farouk was himself part of the latest dynasty to find itself in power – started by his great-great-grandfather Mohammed Ali 140 years earlier – the truth was he wasn’t interested in the nation’s problems and it was the British who ran things.

For them to experience a truly free Egypt the Free Officers would need to get rid of not only Farouk but also the British.

The King heard of the plan to oust him and got his generals to make plans to deal with the Free Officers. But Nasser learnt of the meeting place of the generals and decided to attack them there. There was only nominal resistance before the generals gave up.

Next Nasser and his men got control of the telegraph office, the radio station, and several police stations and government buildings. They also set up roadblocks in case the British tried to step in to help Farouk.

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Now they had the king all that was left to do was determine what to do with him. After having had a bad experience with a previous assassination plan Nasser now argued for sparing the King’s life and urged his co-conspirators to concentrate instead on setting up a new government.

Farouk’s life was consequently spared and the now deposed king hastily packed some trunks filled with money and gold and departed for Europe, settling first in Monaco then in Rome. Farouk had a number of affairs, was known for enjoying the high life and fine cuisine, and was described once, in his later obese years, as being a stomach with a face. He died at diner, while having a characteristically heavy meal. It has never been proven whether or not he was poisoned by Egyptian Intelligence.

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At the start the Free Officers really had no great plans for what was to follow Farouk’s dismissal. They eventually started a comprehensive land reform that would redistribute land from the rich who owned over half of the nation’s cultivatable land.

6 months afterward though and they found that they had to consolidate their power. They duly got rid of all opposition, from student and trade unions to communists and organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood. Thousands were arrested and Nasser more and more would rely on the services of his ruthless secret police. In 1954, after inner conflict in the Free Officers who had now changed their name to the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Nasser emerged as the sole leader, ousting the General Neguib. He thus set up himself to become president, giving himself massive powers.

After taking on the Presidency Nasser began to emerge as an influential leader in the region, and took seriously opposing the influence of the West in the Arab world. He would do this by first seeking independence for Sudan and then pushing for a British withdrawal from Egypt’s Canal Zone.

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From Left to Right: Neguib, Neguib withNasser in 1952, and finally Neguib in hisLater days of isolation by Nasser. He wasReleased in 1972 by President Anwar El Sadat,A senior member of the Free Officers, after Nasser’s death in 1970.

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As for the problem with Sudan, Egypt considered her a part of their country – Mohammed Ali (Farouk’s great-great-grandfather) had conquered them in 1819 and its capital, Khartoum, had originally been an Egyptian army outpost. Technically Egypt was supposed to rule Sudan alongside the British, but in practise only the British ruled. Nasser and the Free Officers wanted to unite the 2 countries, and he fought for their independence from colonial rule, believing privately that when the time came the Sudanese would chose to unite into one country. He even proclaimed himself “King of Sudan” in propaganda.

Britain could not deny that there was a growing tide of resentment in both Egypt and Sudan, whose nationalism parties were pushing more and more for self-determination. In the end, to try to still have some influence in the region, Britain agreed to give Sudan her independence.

Sudanese independence, thus, wasn’t based on the country’s readiness for self-determination but on the interests of 2 rival powers. Both sides had neglected to see the warning signs already showing themselves when you considered the differences between the Northern and Southern parts of the country.

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The northern part of Sudan, dry and hot, comprised a homogenous Arab-speaking populace (who’d made slaves (abid) of southerners in the past) while the south, with much fertile land, was made up of disparate black tribes with different languages and different traditional religions, with a Christian minority who had been educated in mission schools. The south of Sudan was underdeveloped and unready for independence. They were anxious, sensing that after the country gained autonomy they would be overrun quickly by the more sophisticated north.

With the success of having negotiated Sudanese independence, Nasser and the RCC moved for Britain to pull out of the Canal Zone. For Britain the Suez Canal was one of the most important parts of their empire and was a hub for Middle Eastern, European and African trade. A previous 1936 treaty should have limited the number of men in the British garrison to 10,000 men, but there were more like 80,000 on ground: with 50,000 troops being needed to protect the 30,000 who ran the base.

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The Canal Zone

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Aerial picture of Suez Canal Zone before 1956

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By the early 50’s Britain’s presence in the Canal Zone became untenable with continued opposition and Nasser finally got them to leave by 18 June 1956, withdrawing all troops and leaving only a few technicians and administrators to run the place and manage British ordnance for 7 years after, and with a clause in the treaty that would leave the door open for Britain to come back in case of trouble in the region involving the Soviet Union or some other “outside power”.

Nasser’s star status only rose after he’d successfully managed to secure the treaty and, just like with Nkrumah, a sort of personality cult soon developed around him, with radio stations continually singing his praises to the far reaches of the Arab world.

His next project, the Aswan Dam, was to be one of the biggest engineering projects in the world. He turned early on to the Americans and British for support in getting it built, but his continued anti-Western rhetoric wasn’t winning him any friends in Washington, and matters were made even more complex with the dismissal of British advisor to the Jordanian royal family, Sir John Glubb. The British PM, Anthony Eden, blamed King Hussein’s sudden dismissal of Glubb on Nasser’s influence in the region and this put further strain on British-Egypt relations. It has been documented that Eden at this point was strongly considering Nasser’s assassination.

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• From Left to Right: Anthony Eden, British PM, Sir John Glubb in military ware in service to Jordan, Sir John Glubb in civilian ware

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Then Israel attacked 3 Egyptian army posts in the Gaza Strip in 1955 blowing up their army headquarters there, just after Britain had cut aid to the Egyptian military in response to Nasser’s anti-Western propaganda. Nasser saw the attack as part of a Western plot and when he would get no military assistance from the west he called on the Soviets. This, at the height of the Cold War era, sent shockwaves around Western governments.

Another event would nearly lead the West to war and it was when Nasser announced plans to nationalise the Suez Canal Company an Egyptian registered private company with both British and French shareholders who had run the company since completion of the canal in 1866. This move was a response to Nasser not getting support for his High Dam from the west. The canal was also the world’s most important waterway with 12,000 ships from 45 countries and the main route for British oil at the time, carrying more than 20 million tons of oil a year for Britain. Nasser intended that revenue from the canal would go straight to his High Dam project, but Eden had finally had enough. He was eager for war, and so was Guy Mollet, the PM of France. But Washington did not agree with Eden and Mollet, thinking that the only reason for going to war would be if traffic on the canal slowed down due to its nationalisation. But traffic and business had actually increased since the company’s nationalisation.

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Desperate to retake control of the area Britain and France then arranged secretly for Israel to stage an attack on the canal. Britain and France then issued an ultimatum under pretext to separate the combatants, but Nasser refused to meet the ultimatum and instead destroyed some ships to block the canal. Upon hearing of the whole conspiracy the Americans insisted on Britain’s full withdrawal; Saudi Arabia stopped trading oil; and the Soviets threatened a missile strike. Nasser was vindicated and the incident only allowed him to reduce Western influence in Egyptian commercial, academic and social life, sequestering all foreign banks and companies and passing laws that required all companies operating in the area to be Egyptian registered with majority Egyptian ownership and management.

For Britain the Suez Canal crisis effectively ended their imperial stranglehold in the Middle East as both their power and influence became undermined. But this would also be the case in the rest of Africa who now saw that independence from British rule was possible.

Nasser would go on to lead Egypt until when he died in 1970 after suffering a heart attack. He was succeeded by Anwar El Sadat, another member of the Free Officers, and Egypt continued on in its succession of military dictatorships. There were 5 million mourners at his funeral

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Left to Right: Aswan High Dam taken from space. Khrushchevat called it the 8th wonder of the world, Aswan High Dam, Nasser with Soviet leader Khrushchevat, Nasser with Algerian President Ben Bella

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(Left Top): Anthony Eden, British PM

(Left Bottom): Guy Mollet, French PM

(Right) Nasser with a young Gaddafi

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• Nasser hailed by his supporters after announcing privatisation of Suez Canal Company

• Nasser giving a destitute man a job 1959

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BELGIAN CONGO

On 30 June 1960 – after a hastily planned journey toward independence for a country unprepared and ill-equipped, with virtually no qualified personnel or stable political infrastructure – King Baudouin, the great uncle of King Leopold II stood up to deliver his speech.

King Leopold II of Belgium

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The speech was patronising and praised great uncle Leopold for his genius. The speech was badly received by the Congolese present – the new president, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, a former priest, educated by the Catholic Church, had wanted to include a final passage in his speech complimenting the king but left it out after being angered by the king’s speech. The new Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was not so tactful and in his speech proceeded to berate the Belgian contingent with a vitriol that was well received by the local Congolese.

King Baudouin of Belgium

President Joseph Kasa-Vubu

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The Belgians, enraged by Lumumba’s speech, debated leaving immediately and flying out for Belgium or boycotting the official lunch to be held afterwards. In the end they would stay to a cold and disorganised lunch. The Belgian press would afterwards label Lumumba a dangerous extremist.

While King Baudouin had heaped praise on his great uncle the reality of the man was very much different:

Leopold II is recognised as an avaricious, ambitious and devious monarch whose lust for power was widely responsible for the Scramble for Africa

He contracted the explorer Henry Morton Stanley who’d just come back from an impressive journey in the continent. Stanley journeyed along the Congo River and got over 400 African chiefs to sign over their territories to him, giving up their sovereignty to Leopold.

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What then followed was a gluttonous raping of the lands resources. Leopold started first with ivory, even resorting to kidnapping and then mutilation of hostages if villages didn’t meet their quota. The symbol for his power came to be the chicotte – “a whip of raw sun-dried hippopotamus hide, cut into long, sharp-edged strips and used to flay victims, sometimes to death.”

Next came rubber and in only a few years the region upped its exportation so that it became the world’s largest exporter for a growing motor industry that needed rubber for car tyres.

But his excesses finally came to a head and he was forced to relinquish his “gateau,” as he called it (magnifique gateau africain), to a new colonial regime that represented an alliance between the government, the Catholic Church and the big business and mining corporations. In essence the government would provide administration, the Church moral and guidance and education and the business would provide the money needed for the whole enterprise.

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• (Above) Villagers

• (Below) Victims of mutilation by Leopold’s agents

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But the new regime went to great lengths to stifle any emergence of a black elite, which would have been politically savvy enough to demand more from them in future. So they went to great lengths to keep the people barely educated. There was primary school education, and a few secondary schools, but no tertiary institutions. In fact the only way to get any formal education above secondary school level was by becoming a priest and receiving more education in a Catholic seminary.

Congolese were encouraged to be clerks, mechanics and medical assistants, but couldn’t be lawyers, doctors or architects. The Belgians fully expected that with effective leadership, and given enough material benefits, the African population would accept Belgian rule for the rest of their lives.

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Nevertheless, a black elite did emerge, but were only concerned with “being Belgian” – getting more rights for themselves and ending discrimination against them.

Patrice Lumumba, a gifted orator, though prone to mercurial twists of temperament, joined a group of young educated Congolese and formed a party, the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) with an aim to form a popular mass party.

He only had 4 years at primary school and 1 year technical training at a school for postal clerks.

In 1956 he was convicted of embezzlement and spent a year in prison where he wrote a book.

In 1957 political activity was beginning to stir, with Joseph Kasa-Vubu (who had once trained as a priest) leading the Abako – a tribal organisation set up at first to promote the use of the Kikongo language, but which had grown to demand more political change. The Abako soon established a strong base in Leopoldville and the Lower Congo region

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Meanwhile, in December 1958 Lumumba, now out of prison and leading the MNC, was allowed to travel with 2 other companions to Accra for Nkrumah’s All-African People’s Conference. He left Ghana determined to make the MNC into a mass party movement that would challenge the Belgians for independence

7 days later and intense riots broke out in January 1959. The apparent cause of the violence was the authorities not granting permission for a meeting of Abako members to take place, but an official investigation showed the cause to be rooted in unemployment, overcrowding and discrimination.

The Belgians announcing plans for political reform, with some vague promise on independence, but now that the cat was out of the bag they could no longer go back to the way things were. The people pressed for self-determination. By November 1959 there were 53 registered parties, most created along tribal lines.

Amongst all of this tribal rivalry only Lumumba’s MNC could claim to promote Congolese nationalism. Lumumba travelled around the country giving impassioned speeches, and in a bid to keep the MNC ahead of rival parties his demands grew ever more extreme. Moderates within his own party tried to oust him and when that didn’t work they left to form a party of their own.

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Violence broke out in October 1959 after a speech he gave, and Lumumba was arrested and imprisoned for 6 months for inciting violence.

Key areas of the Congo then descended into violence, which the Belgian authorities found impossible to suppress – there were tribal conflicts in some areas, in others the people there refused to pay taxes and live by the law. Fearing an Algerian type war in a situation that was rapidly deteriorating, the Belgians for the first time would consult the Congolese for their opinion, and would invite such key figures as Tshombe, Kasa-Vubu, and Lumumba.

Excited by the prospect of acquiring power they demanded immediate elections by 1 June, which would then lead to independence from Belgium. The most any of them were willing to concede was an extra 30 days of Belgian rule. Fearing the alternative would mean a colonial war the Belgians acquiesced and agreed to the independence of Congo on 30 June.

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The risks involved were great: the Congo wasn’t like Nigeria or Congo who had leaders that had participated in politics years before independence. For the Congolese politics was a new thing. They had no experience of administration and no personnel to fill key posts in government. The Belgians had then gambled on a hope that while the new Congolese politicians would be distracted by the trappings of new power they would in effect still be running the country. For this plan to work they would need a pro-Belgian government.

But pro-Belgian parties fared very badly in the elections. There was no clear winner – there were just too many parties. Lumumba’s MNC took the lead with 33 seats out of 137.

But the MNC had failed to take the key strongholds of Leopoldville and southern Katanga, and the Belgians were reluctant for Lumumba to form a government, and they looked instead to Joseph Kasa-Vubu. However, when Lumumba was able to gain majority support in the Chambers of Deputies, with 74 out of 137 seats, the Belgians were obliged to call on him. 5 days before independence then a shaky coalition of bitter rivals was formed, naming Joseph Kasa-Vubu as non-executive president, and Lumumba, at just 35 years and ill-prepared for office, as new prime minister. At his speech on Independence Day Lumumba would declare to King Baudouin, “We are no longer your monkeys.”

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However, problems started to emerge after only a few days of independence. The Congolese army started to voice discontent after seeing the new wealth displayed by new politicians, people who just weeks ago had been clerks and salesmen.

At this point after independence the Congolese army was made up of 25,000 Congolese none of whom were officers. The officers were Belgians who had remained after transfer of power and still ran things in the army. The leader of the 1,100-strong Belgian officer corps was General Emile Janssens – extremely right-wing in his politics he had made quite clear that he was against any speedup in Africanisation of the army.

Riots broke out in the army with soldiers demanding Janssens’ resignation.

Lumumba responded by firing all Belgian officers in the Congo and replacing Janssens with a Congolese sergeant, Victor Lundula, who had last served in WW2. Lumumba also appointed Joseph Mobutu as his chief of staff.

Mobutu had served as a clerk in the army, rising to the rank of sergeant-major, the highest rank that could be afforded to a Congolese in the army before independence. He was known for informing to the Belgian authorities on his fellow Congolese. Afterwards, he would make a lot of money informing for and colluding with the CIA.

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In spite of the changes to the army the mutiny spread – whites were attacked and nuns and priests were singled out for humiliations. In terror the white populace fled, and the Belgian government finally stepped in. At first they tried to convince Lumumba to allow them send in troops to restore the peace and when he refused they sent troops in anyway, capturing key installations like Leopoldville airport. Lumumba saw this as the Belgians trying to reimpose their rule and duly announced that as far as he was concerned the Congo was now at war with Belgium.

Belgium encouraged Tshombe in his plans to secede from the country. In 11 July, just 11 days after independence, Tshombe announced the independence of Katanga with Elisabethville as its capital.

Former officers in the Belgium officer corps now started training a new Katanga army, though Brussels was actually in support of a unified Congo. Their intention was to set up a shadow government in Katanga, and then usher in a Pro-Belgian government in Leopoldville.

The announcement threw the administration in Leopoldville in disarray – with the exodus of whites from the army and administration the government was bereft of expertise.

Lumumba appealed to the United Nations for help. Showing remarkable speed they sent in foreign troops, made up mainly of African soldiers, to restore law and order.

But Lumumba wanted more than just the restoration of order in his capital. He also wanted the Belgian troops expelled from the Congo and Katanga recaptured.

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After a meeting with Lumumba in Leopoldville, the leader of the UN operation, Ralph Bunche, an African American who had also won the Nobel Peace Prize for his UN work, commented on Lumumba, “Lumumba was crazy and he reacted like a child.”

The next day Lumumba issued an ultimatum, if Belgian troops were not expelled by midnight 19 July he would invite the Soviet Union in to help. This was at the height of the Cold War, with America anxious over the threat of Cuba. US officials faced the possibility of “another Cuba.” This time the threat was a communist takeover in Africa. At this point the United States government started to look at the possibility of an assassination.

Lumumba was making no friends, and in a state visit to the US he further alienated himself from everyone. In one incident he even asked the State Department’s Congo desk officer for a female blond companion to spend the night with.

His erratic behaviour was beginning to be looked at as a threat to the nation, and even within his own administration deep rifts were emerging.

Eventually the Belgian troops were removed, but Lumumba was again threatening the UN. This time he wanted help with forcefully reclaiming Katanga. The UN officials explained that their mandate was to restore law and order, as well as provide a civilian force for administration, which they’d done, and not to interfere with the Congo’s internal affairs.

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Lumumba reacted angrily and on 15 August, facing yet another secession, this time from the diamond rich Kasai, he finally requested military assistance from the soviets.

At this point the CIA began considering plans to kill him. The campaign into Kasai eventually led to what an observer described

as, “having the characteristics of the crime of genocide.” As moves were being made by both the Americans and Belgians to

terminate Lumumba they were also increasingly looking toward President Kasa-Vubu for a way out.

Kasa-Vubu was only interested in his new found status as president, and was described by the US ambassador as, “not very bright and lazy, content to appear occasionally in his new general’s uniform,” but after a push from Congolese supporters, Belgians, and the Americans, he finally stirred himself up and on 5 September he announced that he was “revoking” Lumumba’s appointment as PM and appointing Joseph Ileo in his place. Afterwards, he went to bed.

Lumumba, upon hearing the announcement, rushed to the radio station where he accused Kasa-Vubu of treason and dismissed him as president.

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Factions had now been set up within and without the Leopoldville administration, and the UN warned of the “imminent possibility of a complete disintegration of authority.”

By 14 September, with the connivance of CIA and UN officials, Colonel Joseph Mobutu, the 29 year-old army chief of staff took control, suspending the activities of all politicians for a year, and ejecting all Russian and Czech personnel from the country.

Mobutu’s coup only caused more divisions within government as he retained Kasa-Vubu as president but removed all Lumumba supporters.

For his part Lumumba retreated to his prime minister’s residence, with an outer ring of UN soldiers guarding him.

He continued to remain erratic, and finally with the US heavily pushing the UN, the UN officially recognised Kasa-Vubu’s presidency.

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Lumumba decided to leave his residence, where he enjoyed UN protection, and head for Stanleyville, where his main base of political support was, in order to set up a new rival regime there.

But for his insistence on stopping to harangue villagers on every turn he would have probably made it to Stanleyville, but he was captured on 1 December, and sent back to Leopoldville.

Mobutu and Kasa-Vubu continued to be perplexed with the charisma and authority this man had even from jail where they saw how effective he was at causing rancour amongst the soldiers guarding him, and after plotting they sent him to President Tshombe’s Elisabethville in Katanga, knowing this was effectively a death sentence.

He was beaten very badly by soldiers (both Belgian and Congolese) and the president himself – his butler would later claim Tshombe was covered in blood when he got back – and then finally driven out to a deserted spot and shot. In a cover up attempt by the Belgians that lasted up to the year 2000 before the plot was uncovered by Dutch journalist Ludo de Witte, the Belgians and their Congolese conspirators were increasingly worried about the discovery of their complicity in his murder and dug up his body from where they’d buried it. They hacked his body to pieces, and dumped the pieces into drums of sulphuric acid, and then ground his skull, bones and teeth and spread the ashes on the road on their return journey.

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(Top Left) President Kasa-Vubu in military attire

(Top Right) Joseph Mobutu

(Bottom) Moise Tshombe

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L’AFRIQUE NOIRE

Although the French had trouble in the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) they considered the 14 countries in their L’Afrique Noire to be secure.

They had successfully created a black elite on the terms that these people abandon their heritage and affiliations to traditional religions, so that they were for all intents and purposes Frenchmen.

In the end this black elite were not seeking independence from their European colonial rulers as their other counterparts around Africa were. Instead political aspiration centred around them trying to get the same kinds of rights that they enjoyed to the rest of their people.

2 persons of note in L’Afrique Noire were Léopold Senghor of Senegal and Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire.

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• (Top) Leopold Senghor, poet and academic

• (Bottom) Houphouët-Boigny, who was from a rich aristocratic family with much means

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Both were strong supporters of France and its “civilising mission” in Africa, and both would eventually become ministers in the French government. In addition Senghor would also gain fame as both a poet and intellectual, formulating a black consciousness philosophy termed negritude that would be a precursor for L’Afrique Noire nationalism.

But while both men agreed on the need to keep African French colonies close to France, as the colonies gained in massive investment from with as much as 70% of public investment coming from France, they differed in the direction they thought their countries should go.

Senghor believed the future lay in, “large groupings of states working together in cooperation with European powers. What was needed was the mobilisation of European resources to help Africa combat poverty, disease, and ignorance,” (Martin Meredith’s The State of Africa) and he was against the break up of the 2 federations in black Africa – the AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française) made up of 8 West African territories including Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, and Afrique Equitoriale Française, which was made up of a group of 4 territories in equatorial Africa. He condemned Kwame Nkrumah’s views as being too radical, and advised the Tunisians not to sever ties with France. He also voted for Senegalese fighters to join in the war against the FLN in Algeria.

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As for Houphouët-Boigny, while Nkrumah made political reform his main target for Ghana, Houphouët-Boigny would make economic development his main focus. For him it would be a disadvantage for Africa to break away from France considering all the economic advantages (through trade deals and quota guarantees, as well as government subsidies) there were to be gained in alignment.

The economy of Cote d’Ivoire increased and became stronger as cocoa and coffee production increased. By 1945 the country would be the largest of exporters in all French West African territories, accounting for 45% of the total, with Senegal making 35% in mostly peanuts.

His disagreement with Senghor was over the breaking up of the federations. While Senghor argued that the union of African states with a collective population of 20 million people would be more formidable than individual states with populations of 3 million, Houphouët-Boigny was instead more concerned with the monetary contributions the Ivory Cost was making to the union, calculating that the money could be used instead to cut taxes. For him Cote d’Ivoire was strong enough to stand on its own.

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Houphouët-Boigny succeeded in breaking up the federations in the end, after he’d won a full cabinet seat in France with greater influence. Senghor was opposed to the break up of the union between the AOF and Afrique Equitoriale Française and accused France of trying to “balkanise” Africa by dividing up the stronger unions formed in favour of smaller and weaker states. In truth this was exactly what lawmakers in France wanted to do, who wanted to stop powerful politicians like Houphouët-Boigny, with his powerful RDA, from having a say in French metropolitan politics.

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After the crash of the Fourth Republic Charles de Gaulle, agreed L’Afrique Noire was in need of constitutional reform and made clear to her territories that they could have independence as long as it was understood that France would remove every form of aid they enjoyed under Union Française.

Even though Senghor and Houphouët-Boigny were in bitter opposition when it came to the union between French African territories they were in agreement that it would not benefit them to secede from France. The French territories were vastly reliant on France for investment, even Senghor’s Senegal, and only Cote d’Ivoire at the time was seen to be economically viable.

Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, brought up in trade union politics, did not agree with his counterparts. Sékou Touré was not an intellectual like Senghor or from a wealthy family like Houphouët-Boigny and tended to side more with the revolutionary-type politics of Kwame Nkrumah.

Touré had built up his Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG) until it became a powerful mass movement. In the 1957 election his PDG won 56 out of 60 seats and Touré at 35 years old became prime minister. On a visit by Gaulle he attacked France’s colonial record stating of self-determination, “We prefer poverty in freedom to riches in slavery.”

Insulted, Gaulle called for a referendum for self-determination. In 28 September 1958 Guinea voted for independence (11 territories had voted overwhelmingly to remain a part of de Gaulle’s Franco-African Community.) Four days later and Guinea was proclaimed an independent republic on 2 October 1958.

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Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea

• Sékou Touré (Top Right and Left)

• Sékou Touré and wife on EBONY magazine cover (Bottom Left)

• Sékou Touré with Fidel Castro (Bottom Right)

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In a show of petulant anger the French removed everything and anything that wasn’t nailed down or that couldn’t be removed was damaged – windows were broken and furniture striped bare. When Sékou Touré moved into the former governor’s house he found windows smashed, and pictures and crockery removed.

The French also moved out skilled labour en masse out of Guinea – military doctors who also looked after the civilian population and the civil service all left the country – but for 150 French made up mostly of volunteers.

Sékou Touré turned the communists for assistance and was hailed a hero by critics of colonialism. Kwame Nkrumah offered to provide a huge loan and Western mining companies sought to get at the country’s vast mineral resources.

Far from being daunted by the position he found himself in Sékou Touré encouraged the other nations in the Franco-African Community to push for full autonomy.

A wave of change thus swept through the remaining members of the Community and one by one they baulked to demands. Houphouët-Boigny was the last to come around to the idea of Independence.

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In 1960 all remaining 11 members of the Community, along with the 2 territories entrusted to France by the United Nations: Cameron and Togo, were given independence.

This steady journey toward independence of L’Afrique Noire territories had seen the dissolving of unions between member states (the AOF and Afrique Equitoriale Française and afterwards the Franco-African Community) so that after independence there was very little co-operation among the individual countries and each just became weak rivals. All of them had been hugely dependent on French investment and only Cote d’Ivoire was seen as economically viable.

In reality after independence not much changed because the people in leadership had been accustomed to collaborating with the former French administration. Now, after independence, they continued to rule but were now mostly preoccupied with gaining and consolidating power than developing their newborn nations.

Houphouët-Boigny, meanwhile, after serving in 6 consecutive French governments, returned home to Cote d’Ivoire to take up the mantle of leadership. He obtained French aid to build his presidential palace – the final bill costing well over $3 million.

At this stage France had lost all of its territories in Africa except Algeria, whose 12 départements were still a part of France under the 1958 constitution.

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CONCLUSION A few years ago TIME reported Kenya had one of the world’s fastest growing

economies, but soon afterwards we had political disruption in the region. South Africa recently hosted the World Cup, but only months afterwards were dealing with a miners’ strike that has cast the country in a bad light, because of their police’s ruthless handling of it. Africa will have just as many setbacks as developed countries, but the fact is that her political institutions are still relatively young and will always leave investors worried any time they are challenged. No one thought the London riots last year would plunge the country into civil war, but in unstable regions in the world investors are more likely to pull their money out. In truth every society must go through a kind of evolution where class systems will be invariably created and a ruling class secured. This evolution was interrupted in African societies by the Scramble for Africa by European colonial powers. It meant already established classes and cultures were destroyed and new, artificial ones created in order to support the new colonial administrations. It also meant that different ethnic groups, some of whom were historically enemies, were forced together in order to form countries for easier dispensation of colonial administration. By the 50’s, after WW2, there was too much change in the world, especially with the emerging of a new power in the east, the Soviet Union. Europe had to cut its loses and run rather than risk entering into colonial wars or risk forcing their colonies to seek Russian help. New countries thus emerged from this climate, many of whom were ill-prepared, and even for those few who were prepared there had been too much festering antagonism for the new countries to survive long. For Nigeria it was the British policy of “Divide and Rule” that would eventually set the major ethnicities against each other after independence and would lead to civil war.

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In the aftermath of all these wars the continent is badly underdeveloped with aging infrastructure, and a political structure that still continues to be shaky at best.

But the story of Africa is relevant to us all in a contemporary context, and not just to history buffs or sympathisers to the African problem. Yesterday men played with an entire continent. Today they play with companies. Energy prices are hiked up even though oil prices have come down. Banks cheat their customers and invest their money in schemes that appear more casino-like than like pragmatic options for the fiscally astute. Companies choose profits first over their workforce and lay them off without much thought given to their rights. Even shareholders, who have traditionally been the ones to gain in decisions being made on their behalf, even shareholders are being lied to. The system seems rigged, and the media is part of the game, constantly feeding us distractions (with a stable diet of reality shows, celebrities, and pseudo-important issues like who made a racist comment recently to whom) while the real issues are being neglected – has anyone noticed how the Murdock issue seems to have fizzled out, and we still aren’t the wiser just how much contact he had with the PM? For Africa also there are real issues amongst all the distractions: like addressing gender inequality, infant mortality, attracting foreign investors and making sure the regions are stable enough to ensure the protection of their investment, and granting African farmers help to ensure they aren’t being outbid by their stronger European and American counterparts. There is hope for Africa, but it will all depend on all of us.

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THE MIND THAT FATHER MADE & THE AFRICAN MIST

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