1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,390 Third world nationalism. These kinds of images were inspirations for movements 2 00:00:06,390 --> 00:00:12,535 around the rest of the world, calling for human rights for colonial peoples, 3 00:00:12,535 --> 00:00:19,090 democracy and self rule for people who'd been living in empires for a long time, 4 00:00:19,090 --> 00:00:26,351 including in many of the settlement colonies of the rest of the world. Where 5 00:00:26,351 --> 00:00:33,790 we see a conflict emerge between European settlers who've been living, sometimes for 6 00:00:33,790 --> 00:00:43,235 generations in the colonies. And an indigenous or native peoples. Where we see 7 00:00:43,235 --> 00:00:51,277 struggles between a, often native majority population and a settler minority 8 00:00:51,277 --> 00:00:59,387 population. This is, of course, what had exploded in Algeria in the 1950s. And it 9 00:00:59,387 --> 00:01:06,107 was a harbinger of things to come. One of the sites for a struggle such as this one 10 00:01:06,107 --> 00:01:12,572 would, in fact, be to take us back to a case that we've been touching on over the 11 00:01:12,572 --> 00:01:18,477 course of these lectures. South Africa, where Dutch and then, later, British 12 00:01:18,477 --> 00:01:24,824 settlers had moved from, particularly eighteenth century. So they've been there 13 00:01:24,824 --> 00:01:31,749 for a very long time and established very deep roots, but had never of course become 14 00:01:31,749 --> 00:01:38,180 the majority population. What had happened, of course after the Second World 15 00:01:38,180 --> 00:01:44,775 War, is that this minority population had declared what was called the apartheid 16 00:01:44,775 --> 00:01:52,142 state. This was a regime that contained Africans, Black Africans. And to some 17 00:01:52,142 --> 00:02:01,007 extent even the Indian migrants who'd come from India to South Africa and constrained 18 00:02:01,007 --> 00:02:10,271 their rights. They did not enjoy then home rule within a within South Africa. The key 19 00:02:10,271 --> 00:02:18,797 organization leading the struggle then to resist both in some senses, European rule 20 00:02:18,797 --> 00:02:29,677 and white rule within South Africa was the African National Congress, created in 21 00:02:29,677 --> 00:02:36,996 1923. notice, in fact, that the title itself borrows already the model of the, a 22 00:02:36,996 --> 00:02:43,408 notion of a congress party which the Indians had rolled out in the 1880's. The 23 00:02:43,408 --> 00:02:49,737 African National Congress, or the ANC, which remains, which is in power now in 24 00:02:49,737 --> 00:02:56,650 South Africa. was born out of trade union activists. communist party militants, 25 00:02:57,144 --> 00:03:05,493 modeled on the Indian notion of a pan. In this case would be pan, let's call it 26 00:03:05,493 --> 00:03:12,430 tribal identities, to create a natio n out of the plurality of religions, tribes, and 27 00:03:12,430 --> 00:03:19,686 regions of South Africa. And in 1955, the ANC would issue what they called their 28 00:03:19,686 --> 00:03:25,923 freedom charter. This was an announcement, then, and you can imagine, 1955, this, 29 00:03:25,923 --> 00:03:31,907 this is the same year as the Bandung Conference, then, outlining the demands 30 00:03:31,907 --> 00:03:37,968 for what a free South Africa would look like. In this case it would be not just 31 00:03:37,968 --> 00:03:44,106 free from any European rule, because that was no longer the issue, but free meant 32 00:03:44,106 --> 00:03:50,401 that everybody in South Africa could enjoy the same political rights. This was then 33 00:03:50,401 --> 00:03:55,477 followed by a series of strikes, particularly a mass strike by women, by 34 00:03:55,477 --> 00:04:02,097 African women against the apartheid authorities. Agitation in the shanty towns 35 00:04:02,097 --> 00:04:09,020 against the ways in which Africans had been hemmed in to these very poor areas 36 00:04:09,020 --> 00:04:15,768 and deprived of basic needs, and of course, shootings by the police and the 37 00:04:15,768 --> 00:04:22,867 military to contain the agitation that threatened to spill into an insurgency in 38 00:04:22,867 --> 00:04:29,863 South Africa. In fact, funerals in South Africa in the 1950s became the site for 39 00:04:29,863 --> 00:04:36,902 the clashes between organized activists, who'd come out to mourn the dead in the 40 00:04:36,902 --> 00:04:42,605 funeral processions and the police themselves. Because among other things, 41 00:04:42,605 --> 00:04:48,230 the funerals were the only legal gatherings. So repressive had apartheid 42 00:04:48,230 --> 00:04:54,559 state become. India was in negotiated withdrawal, but it was not violent in the 43 00:04:54,559 --> 00:05:00,653 sense that the violence was directed at the empires. The violence became civic 44 00:05:00,653 --> 00:05:07,065 violence between denominational groups. South Africa was so hard because it pit, 45 00:05:07,065 --> 00:05:13,249 it became a civil struggle. A civil war brewing in South Africa between settler 46 00:05:13,249 --> 00:05:19,276 populations and native populations who all felt they belonged at home. So the 47 00:05:19,276 --> 00:05:25,460 process, what I'm trying to convey to you is that the process of decolonization, 48 00:05:25,460 --> 00:05:32,114 when you had incumbent settler populations who could not simply go home. There was no 49 00:05:32,114 --> 00:05:37,944 home to go to, for the descendants of the Boers, for instance. For them South Africa 50 00:05:37,944 --> 00:05:47,670 was home, too. But the fact was, South Africa, was only one of a set of many 51 00:05:47,670 --> 00:05:55,555 sites across Africa, what would become a continental struggle, for freedom. In most 52 00:05:55,555 --> 00:06:04,326 cas es, the bellicosity of the struggle wa-, was much more pronounced than it had 53 00:06:04,326 --> 00:06:12,668 been in India, and in some senses, one might say that many places of Africa are 54 00:06:12,668 --> 00:06:20,369 still grappling with the consequences of empire and the consequences of 55 00:06:20,369 --> 00:06:28,347 decolonization. How to become nation states in internally heterogeneous 56 00:06:28,347 --> 00:06:36,235 political communities, where languages and faiths and tribal identities, regional 57 00:06:36,235 --> 00:06:43,662 identities, are not amalgamated together into some carapace, or umbrella of the 58 00:06:43,662 --> 00:06:51,314 nation state. Much of the struggle because they were so complicated on the ground can 59 00:06:51,314 --> 00:06:57,482 be simplified. And I may be doing some injustice to the complexity of local 60 00:06:57,482 --> 00:07:03,732 processes. But, we can simplify it into three fundamental barrier, three 61 00:07:03,732 --> 00:07:10,965 fundamental variables. One was, how strong the local European settler colony was. In 62 00:07:10,965 --> 00:07:18,388 general, the stronger the local settler colony would be, the more resistance there 63 00:07:18,388 --> 00:07:25,537 would be to European withdrawal. Secondly, how much resistance did the European 64 00:07:25,537 --> 00:07:32,868 metropole put up, depending on its own dependency in the colony, where the colony 65 00:07:32,868 --> 00:07:38,633 was more strategic. Alright, and therefore, the metropole more dependent on 66 00:07:38,633 --> 00:07:44,359 the colony. Very often, we see more resistance. And finally, a third variable 67 00:07:44,359 --> 00:07:50,163 is, how strong, how unified were the anti-colonial forces? This is one way in 68 00:07:50,163 --> 00:07:55,931 which the Hindu movement of Indian nationalists was very powerful. Alright. 69 00:07:55,931 --> 00:08:02,215 And really could negotiate with the British from a strong, relatively strong 70 00:08:02,215 --> 00:08:07,672 bargaining position. So, in the decolonization of Africa, and I'm going to 71 00:08:08,168 --> 00:08:15,819 pull up a map here. Lance, maybe we could have people get a sense of this. as you're 72 00:08:15,819 --> 00:08:21,897 looking at this map, this is of course why I can't go case by case. There are just so 73 00:08:21,897 --> 00:08:27,535 many instances. A couple of things to note. One, as you read further, and I hope 74 00:08:27,535 --> 00:08:33,525 you do read further. Think about those three variables. The second, is that it 75 00:08:33,525 --> 00:08:40,649 takes a very long time. In a sense, it begins in Egypt in the early 1950's, and 76 00:08:40,649 --> 00:08:50,548 in Egypt a treaty would be signed between the nationalist Nasser and British 77 00:08:50,548 --> 00:08:58,319 authorities that would allow Egyptian autonomy and independence. And s pread to 78 00:08:58,319 --> 00:09:05,638 sub-Saharan Africa, in Ghana in 1957. The leader or the broker of this transition 79 00:09:05,638 --> 00:09:12,708 would be Kwame Nkrumah. Okay I'm going to put somebody on the hot spot here. Maybe 80 00:09:12,708 --> 00:09:19,297 Lance. Who's the guy on the right-hand side here? Judging by that title I'm gonna 81 00:09:19,297 --> 00:09:24,410 say Martin Luther King Junior. Oh, oh, of course, there you go. I sort of gave it 82 00:09:24,410 --> 00:09:29,395 away. This is the problem, you see, when I'm lecturing to you all and, and to you 83 00:09:29,395 --> 00:09:34,253 all, I can't necessarily see what I brought up on the screen. Yes it's Martin 84 00:09:34,253 --> 00:09:40,431 Luther King. I'm going to come back to King in a minute. But Nkruma was the 85 00:09:40,431 --> 00:09:47,130 broker of Ghanan independence, and this idea of Ghanan independence had become 86 00:09:47,130 --> 00:09:54,384 iconic for the rest of Africa, and in fact for African-Americans themselves. But the 87 00:09:54,592 --> 00:09:59,930 these were relatively pacted models of transition, not unlike the Indian case. 88 00:09:59,930 --> 00:10:04,991 But especially as we move to central Africa, the process of in, or winning 89 00:10:04,991 --> 00:10:10,184 independence would become increasingly violent. And in the Congo region 90 00:10:10,184 --> 00:10:16,469 particularly, became the site of one of the most brutal proxy wars of the Cold 91 00:10:16,469 --> 00:10:22,191 War, in which Belgian and Portuguese colonies trying to secede from the 92 00:10:22,191 --> 00:10:28,879 metropoles had to the nationals had to pick up arms. And in so doing, had, were 93 00:10:28,879 --> 00:10:35,326 supported on the one hand by communist and, and, and, and Soviet, and eventually 94 00:10:35,326 --> 00:10:41,941 Chinese support, which then drew in other proxy allies, like South Africa. Cubans 95 00:10:41,941 --> 00:10:48,836 would send tens of thousands of troops to fight in Central Africa. And so these war 96 00:10:48,836 --> 00:10:55,928 became especially brutal, because the struggle for independence became highly 97 00:10:55,928 --> 00:11:02,398 militarized and weaponized. Proxy wars, and within them, civil wars between 98 00:11:02,398 --> 00:11:09,401 tribes, regions, linguistic groups. So the wave of decolonization that began more, 99 00:11:09,401 --> 00:11:16,693 let's say, civic and, and, and pacted in the earlier phase become more violent over 100 00:11:16,693 --> 00:11:23,153 time, when the pacting process doesn't work. And these sites become struggle, 101 00:11:23,153 --> 00:11:29,870 proxy struggles for contests between Washington and Moscow. So, I'd like you to 102 00:11:29,870 --> 00:11:36,416 think, then, about how these different patterns of anti-colonial struggles in 103 00:11:36,416 --> 00:11:39,000 Africa, in particular, play out.