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After the Second World War,
colonialism in Africa was suddenly
put on the defensive, when a rising
tide of nationalist protest began to
challenge the legitimacy of alien
occupation, with the result that
“development” became the more
explicit goal of colonial power.
Movements developed against
colonialism, such as
Pan-
Africanism
, while a literary
movement, Négritude, came to the
fore in Francophone Africa, but
waned when it was seen to be
promoting racial stereotyping.
The decolonization of Africa
followed as colonized peoples
began to agitate for independence,
having come to the aid of their
masters in time of war against an
unknown enemy. Potential leaders
came from a Western-educated elite,
with men like Kenyatta in Kenya,
Nkrumah in Ghana, Senghor in
Senegal, and Houphouët-Boigny
in the Côte d’Ivoire. Many were
left-wing Marxist-Leninists and
anti-imperialist pro-land reformers.
Socialism was felt to be the
remedy for African problems,
allied against capitalism, but
the spread of international
capitalism and globalization was to
prove unstoppable.
Independence and Nationhood
74
BELOW:
Kwame Nkrumah Memorial
Park in Accra, Ghana, named after Dr.
Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father
and first President of Ghana.
OPPOSITE ABOVE:
Côte d'Ivoire
President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, his
wife Marie-Thérèse Houphouët-Boigny,
United States First Lady Jacqueline
Kennedy, and her husband US President
John F. Kennedy in 1962.
OPPOSITE BELOW:
Jomo Kenyatta
was the leader of Kenya from its
independence in 1963 to his death in
1978, serving first as prime minister
(1963–64) and then as president
(1964–78). He is considered the
founding father of the Kenyan nation.