Roland Oliver-Africa Since 1800
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This page intentionally left blank P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 AFRICA SINCE 1800 This history of modern Africa takes as its starting point the year 1800, because, although by that time the greater part of the interior of Africa had become known to the outside world, most of the initiatives for po- litical and economic change still remained in the hands of African rulers and their peoples. The book falls into three parts. The first describes the precolonial his- tory of Africa, while the middle section deals thematically with partition and colonial rule. The third part details the emergence of the modern nation states of Africa and their history. Throughout the 200 years cov- ered by the book, Africa, and not its invaders, is at the centre of the story. The authors are as concerned with the continuity of African history as with the changes that have taken place during this period. The new edition covers events up to the middle of 2003, and takes account of the fresh perspectives brought about by the end of the Cold War and the new global situation following the events of 11 September 2001. It is also concerned with the demographic trends that are at the heart of so many African problems today, with the ravages of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria and with the conflicts waged by warlords fighting for control of scarce resources. i P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 ii P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 Africa Since 1800 ROLAND OLIVER ANTHONY ATMORE Fifth Edition iii Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge ,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridg e.org /9780521836159 © Cambridge University Press 1967, 1972, 1981, 1994 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2005 - ---- eBook (EBL) - --- eBook (EBL) - ---- hardback - --- hardback - ---- paperback - --- paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 Contents List of Maps page vii ONE. AFRICA NORTH OF THE EQUATOR 1 TWO. AFRICA SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR 18 THREE. THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (1) FROM THE NORTH-EAST 35 FOUR. THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (2) FROM THE MAGHRIB 52 FIVE. WEST AFRICA BEFORE THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1800–1875 63 SIX. WESTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1880 78 SEVEN. EASTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1884 90 EIGHT. SOUTHERN AFRICA, 1800–1885 103 NINE. THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON PAPER, 1879–1891 118 TEN. THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON THE GROUND, 1891–1901 130 ELEVEN. COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (1) POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS, 1885–1914 146 v P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 vi Contents TWELVE. COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (2) SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS 160 THIRTEEN. THE INTER-WAR PERIOD, 1918–1938 170 FOURTEEN. NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA, 1900–1939 183 FIFTEEN. SOUTH AFRICA, 1902–1939 200 SIXTEEN. THE LAST YEARS OF COLONIAL RULE 211 SEVENTEEN. THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (1) NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA 226 EIGHTEEN. THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (2) AFRICA FROM THE SAHARA TO THE ZAMBEZI 244 NINETEEN. THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (3) CENTRAL AFRICA 267 TWENTY. THE LONG ROAD TO DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 283 TWENTY ONE. THE POLITICS OF INDEPENDENT AFRICA 303 TWENTY TWO. ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY IN INDEPENDENT AFRICA 323 TWENTY THREE. INTO THE THIRD MILLENNIUM 339 EPILOGUE 369 Suggestions for Further Reading 383 Index 389 P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 Maps 1 Northern Africa: geographical features and vegetation. page 2 2 Northern Africa in 1800. 9 3 Africa south of the equator: geographical features and vegetation. 19 4 Africa south of the equator in 1800. 22 5 North-East Africa: Egyptian expansion. 38 6 North-East Africa: Ethiopian expansion and the Mahdiyya. 48 7 North-West Africa, 1800–1881. 54 8 West Africa, 1800–1875. 70 9 Western Central Africa, 1800–1880: trade routes. 79 10 Western Central Africa, 1800–1880: tribal areas and migrations. 84 11 Eastern Central Africa, 1800–1884. 93 12 Early nineteenth-century migrations in South and East Africa. 108 13 Southern Africa, 1800–1885: African migrations. 109 14 Southern Africa, 1800–1885: Boer migrations. 113 15 Europe at the time of the partition of Africa. 121 16 Africa on the eve of partition: African states and European settlements. 124 17 European partition: Western Africa. 132 18 European partition: East Africa. 139 vii P1: JPJ/FFX P2: FCH/FFX QC: FCH/FFX T1: FCH CB692-FM CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 17:33 viii Maps 19 Southern Africa: the European partition – Britain, France, and Germany. 141 20 Southern Africa: the European partition – Leopold and Portugal. 142 21 Africa: the final stage of partition, 1914. 144 22 Africa: colonial economies and administrations. 152 23 Africa and the First World War. 172 24 The Maghrib: economic development during the colonial period. 185 25 North-East Africa under colonial rule: economic and political development. 186 26 The independence of Africa. 227 27 South Africa and the Bantustans. 292 28 Nigeria: four decades of independence. 309 29 Africa and the Cold War. 316 30 The new South Africa. 321 31 Conflicts in the Horn of Africa. 341 32 Crises in Rwanda and Congo (Zaire). 344 33 Warlords in West Africa. 350 34 Sudan: North vs. South. 357 35 Oil in Africa. 379 P1: JYD/... P2: FCH/FFX QC: JMT/AMIT T1: FCH 0521419468c01 CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 8:54 ONE. Africa North of the Equator The Sahara and Islam: The Bonds Unifying Northern Africa The geography of the northern half of Africa is dominated by the Sa- hara desert. Throughout its vast area, 2,800 km (1,700 miles) from north to south and nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from east to west, rainfall is less than 13 cm (5 inches) a year. Except around a few oases where underground supplies of water reach the surface, agri- culture is impossible, and the desert’s only inhabitants have been nomadic herdsmen, breeding camels and moving their animals sea- sonally from one light grazing ground to another. To the north of the desert lies the temperate Mediterranean coastland – its rainfall concentrated between January and March, with wheat and barley as its main cereal crops and sheep, the main stock of its highland pastures. Southward are the tropics, the land of the summer rains, favouring a different set of food crops from those grown around the Mediterranean. In the desert and northward live Berbers and Arabs, fair-skinned peoples speaking languages of the Afroasiatic family. South of the desert begins the ‘land of the blacks’ – to the Greeks; ‘Ethiopia’, to the Berbers, ‘Akal n’Iguinawen’ (Guinea); and to the Arabs, ‘Bilad as-Sudan’. The desert has always been a formidable obstacle to human com- munication, but for two thousand years at least – since the introduc- tion of the horse and the camel made travel easier – people have per- severed in overcoming its difficulties. Before the days of the motorcar and the aeroplane, it took two months or more to cross. Nevertheless, 1 0521419468c01P1: CB692-Oliver-v2 JYD/... P2: FCH/FFX QC: JMT/AMIT T1: FCH 2 March 31, 2005 8:54 1. Northern Africa: geographical features and vegetation. P1: JYD/... P2: FCH/FFX QC: JMT/AMIT T1: FCH 0521419468c01 CB692-Oliver-v2 March 31, 2005 8:54 Africa North of the Equator 3 people did cross it, not merely in isolated journeys of exploration, but, regularly, year after year, in the course of trade, education, and pilgrimage. The essential intermediaries in this traffic were the pas- toral nomads of the desert itself. They bred the camels, trained them for carrying, and accompanied and protected the caravans on their journeys. They also controlled what was, until the twentieth-century discoveries of oil and natural gas, the one great natural resource of the Sahara, which was the salt deposited in almost inexhaustible quantities by the evaporation of ancient lake basins situated in the very middle of the desert, dating from prehistoric periods of much greater rainfall. The salt was in high demand to the north, and more especially to the south of the desert. The nomads brought in slaves to mine it and supplied the all-important camels to transport it in bulk. Given the salt caravans, which by the nineteenth century were em- ploying hundreds of thousands of camels to carry tens of thousands of tons of salt, the exchange of many other commodities from north and south of the desert becomes much easier to understand. The gold from the tributary valleys of the upper Niger, the upper Volta, and the Akan forest was an early and important element in the trans-Saharan trade.