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British Decolonisation in Africa, 1957-1965

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British Decolonisation in Africa, 1957-1965 MIL UN P H L I) I G I A B L E I' AST THE WIND OF CHANGE': BRITISH DECOLONISATION IN AFRICA, 1957-1965 Carl Peter Watts estimates the importance of the different reasons for British withdrawal. Introduction nlike other empires in history - such as the Roman, Byzan- U tine, Ottoman, or Habsburg - the collapse of the British Empire was remarkably rapid. This was espe- cially true of the British Empire in Af- rica, which was largely dismantled in the years 1957-1965. Historians continue to disagree on the importance of metropoli- tan, colonial and international causes of this withdrawal. This article will argue that colonial nationalism and an increas- ingly hostile international environment contributed to the timing of indepen- dence in British Africa, but these influ- ences must also be understood against a background of changing metropolitan circumstances and the deliberate cal- culations of British pohcy-makers. This causal interlock will be demonstrated in relation to several episodes of decolo- nisation between 1957 and 1965, in- cluding the Gold Goast in West Africa, the East African territories of Tangan- yika, Uganda, and Kenya, and the col- lapse of the Gentral African Federation. Colonial Nationalism Historians like D. A. Low have empha- sised that without pressure from nation- alism Britain would have been more reluctant to quit its African colonies. According to this view, without colo- nial resistance neither the impact of international politics nor the process of domestic reassessment would have been enough to undermine British imperial power. African nationalism was stimu- lated by the Second World War, which Above: This poster from the Second World War emphasised the unity of Britain and required Britain to tighten control over the Commonwealth-Empire. Such propaganda made it difficult for the British to deny its colonies in order to harness essen- constitutional reform in Africa after the war tial resources for the fight against the 12 DECEMBER 2011 HISTORY REVIEW THE UNPREDICTABLE PAST Axis powers. In 1942 the Governor of 1956, the colony became independent territories into federations. In East Africa Uganda, Sir Charles Dundas, suggested under Nkrumah's leadership as the state the attempt to establish a federation of the war would have a 'rousing influence, of Ghana in 1957. Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika foun- chiefly political and social, and it will One British official observed that dered on the rocks of African opposition. be sheer blindness not to foresee tbe Ghana had become independent 'with Julius Nyerere and the Tanganyika Africa logical consequences'. Africans wanted less bitterness' than former colonies in Union capitalised on discontent gener- to be rewarded for their services to the Asia, yet within a short time Nkrumah ated by local government reorganisation British Empire with greater economic became a spokesman for anti-colonialism and agricultural improvement schemes. and political opportunities, but they and African unity, which embarrassed The Governor, Sir Richard Turnbull, were bitterly disappointed when these Britain in Commonwealth meetings and warned that local nationalism would failed to materialise. When Charles at the United Nations. Lord Home, then undermine British rule unless there was Arden-Clarke took over as Governor of Commonwealth Secretary, wrote that a rapid transfer of power. The Colonial the Gold Coast following riots in 1948, Nkrumah regarded himself as 'a Messiah Office appreciated that swift decolonisa- the Colonial Secretary, Arthur Creech sent to deliver Africa from bondage . tion would encourage Nyerere and other Jones, told him that the colony stood on In contrast to West Africa, British nationalists to collaborate with the UK, the edge of revolution. An investigative colonies in East and Central Africa which Britain sought as a substitute for commission concluded that 'a substan- contained significant white settler popu- direct control. By 1960 the Conserva- tial measure of reform is necessary to lations, who dominated local politics and tive government was increasingly worried meet the legitimate aspirations of the the economy. They sought to maintain that the effects of violent confrontations indigenous population'. However, time their dominance by denying universal with nationalism in the Belgian Congo for reform was running out. In 1950 suffrage to Afiicans, and persuading the and French Algeria could spill over into Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's British government to consolidate colonial British colonies. It was against this back- Party (CPP) orchestrated a campaign ground that the British Prime Minister of civil disobedience in support of Harold Macmillan delivered his famous self-government, and Nkrumah was speech to the South African Parliament imprisoned for a brief period. However, * * Nkrumah regarded in February 1960, in which he declared: Arden-Clarke recognised that the CPP himself as *a Messiah 'The wind of change is blowing through embodied popular political aspirations this continent and whether we like it or and he therefore released Nkrumah. In sent to deliver Africa not, this growth of national conscious- the 1951 elections the CPP won 34 out fronn bondage' f f ness is a political fact. We must all accept of 38 seats and Nkrumah soon became it as a fact, and our national policies must prime minister. As a result of further take account of it. Iain Macleod, Colo- CPP electoral victories in 1954 and nial Secretary in 1959-61, acted more Above: A summit meeting of the modem multi-racial Commonwealth of Nations in the 1980s, with (inset) a similar; all-v\Ai(te meeting fnam the 1920s (with George V in the centre of the bottom TOW and Stanley Baldwin to his right). HisrroRY REVIEW DECEMBER 2011 13 THE UNPREDICTABLE PAST violent methods oF the Mau Mau, which showed the limits oF AFrican nationalism in Kenya. In this instance Britain was v\ illing to resort to a policy oF coercion, which partly rejected the political inFIu- ence oF the white settler population over the Gonservative government. A state oF emergency was declared and the authorities imprisoned the charismatic leader oF the Kenyan AFrican Union, jomo Kenyatta. The British Army also mounted counterinsurgency operations. During Operation Anvil (April 1954), the Army rounded up thousands oF Kikuyu in the capital, Nairobi, and sent them to holding camps For questioning and political rehabilitation'. However, the brutality oF the counterinsurgency campaign stained the reputation oF the British Army and the colonial police Force. The revelation that 11 prisoners were beaten to death at the Hola deten- tion camp in March 1959, and that there had been an attempted cover-up, gener- ated cross-party indignation in Parlia- ment and a wave oF revulsion among the British puhlic. Gonsequently, the British government ordered the release oF Kikuyu detainees and an end to the prison policy oF 'compelling Force'. TTie Governor oF Kenya, Sir Patrick Rcnison, continued to regard Kenyatta as 'dark- ness and death', but in 1961, as a result oF popular pressure in Kenya, he came round to the view oF British oFFicials who thought that he ought to be released From prison and independence granted on the basis oF AFrican majority rule. Kenyatta became President oF Kenya in 1963 In 1953 the British Government established the Gentral AFrican Federa- tion, which the historian Ronald Hyam has described as 'the most controver- sial large-scale imperial exercise in constructive state-building ever under- taken by the British government'. The Federation consisted oFthe territories oF Above: lain Macleod, Britain's progressive Secretary of State for the Colonies, talks with Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Julius Nyerere, leader ofTANiJ (theTanganyika African National Union), in Dar-es-Salaam. and Nyasaland. The European popula- Tanganyika became independent, under Nyerere's leadership, in 1961. In 1964 it joined with tion constituted a tiny minority (8 per Zanzibar to form present-day Tanzania. cent in Southern Rhodesia, 3 per cent in Northern Rhodesia, and just 0.3 per cent in Nyasaland) but their social, quickly than even Macmillan had envis- especially traumatic. The Mau Mau economic and political dominance stim- aged. He accelerated the original time- uprising (1952-60) appeared to illus- ulated the growth oFAFrican nationalism. table For independence in East AFrica trate the strength oF AFrican nation- Racial tension increased throughout the by a decade, so that independence was alism. However, the Mau Mau were Federation and in January 1959 there grunted to Tanganyika in 1961, Uganda drawn only From the Kikuyu tribe, who was widespread rioting in Nyasaland, in 1962, and Kenya in 1963. constituted just one-Filth oF the popula- which prompted the authorities to British decolonisation in Kenya was tion, and not all Kikuyu agreed with the declare a state oF emergency. 14 DECEMBER 2011 HISTORY REVIEW THE UNPREDICTABLE PAST Macleod sought to calm down the the ability to recruit local collaborators, on to African colonies the public would situation in Nyasaland by instigating but during the 1950s the British found have been reluctant to countenance the release of the Malawi Gongress that they could no longer rally enough heavy expenditure on lurther emergen- Party (MGP) leader, Hastings Banda. collaborators and that African national- cies resulting from confrontations with In December 1959 Macleod wrote to ists were becoming more successful in African nationalists. Macmillan advising that 'There are no mobilising
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