NATIONALISM IN AFRICA

"Nationalism in Africa is a reaction against foreign infiltration and imperialism and were it not for it, African nations would not have been where they are today. Discuss"
This article was written during my second year of the undergraduate degree at Kabianga Campus in response to the above question though it is not as a result of thorough research. Your comment is welcome.

NATIONALISM is the desire for independence and self determination among a group of people. It is the feeling of national pride, patriotism and belonging towards one’s country. Owing to this, it is actually true to argue that nationalism in African context is a reaction against European infiltration and domination. It is a term generally employed to describe and explain the struggle for and attainment of freedom from colonial rule by most countries in Africa. And were it not for nationalism some nations would not have gained freedom and they would not have been what they are today. This attainment of freedom was marked by a transfer of power previously discharged by the colonial authorities. Thus new sovereign nations were born.
At the end of 19th century, the European interest in Africa intensified. They then competed for colonies in Africa to boost their social, economic and political standing. During the scramble for Africa, the Europeans adopted carrot-stick methods to acquire as many colonies as possible for themselves. This involved persuading Africans to collaborate by offering them a reward or punishment if they did not cooperate. They divided continent and ruled virtually all of Africa and Africans nations lost their sovereignty. The Africans’ political, religious and social structures were interfered with. The Europeans took the African land and Africans into their hands and controlled everything in Africa. Africans had no say in their own land.
The Europeans’ entry saw to the lives of African inhabitants turned upside down. All social structures and institutions among the people were replaced by the oppressive structures of the dominating elites, the Europeans. The Europeans acted as though the people of Africa were nothing more than helpless animals who needed to be broken in. this was the starting point of colonialism in Africa. The colonial powers acted oppressively to Africans. Africans were turned into slaves in their own land.
The arising colonialism was accompanied by economic exploitation of the African communities. Africans were thrown out of their land by European settlers in many places especially the white settlers in such colonies as Algeria, Kenya, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa. Many taxes were imposed on African communities. The taxes were ranging from hut tax (taxed on each hut in Africa), poll tax (taxed on every African man) and ‘breast tax’ (paid by all women in Belgian Congo). This was nearly impossible to pay and drove Africans to severe poverty and starvation.
The conditions for Africans under colonial domination were pretty pathetic. They were denied their basic human rights. They had no burgaigning power and were not to form any type of union that would demand descend pay and descend working conditions. They labored hard for the Europeans but they were not being rewarded. Due to poor nutrition, poor drinking water, bad living conditions and being overworked, the native people became more susceptible to such diseases as malaria, tuberculosis, yaws and kwashiorkor. And with no proper medical facilities, these Africans were left to die.
Africans were also subjected to cultural discrimination by the colonial order. The European dismissed old African customs as being primitive and barbaric. The relation of the black man to a white man in Africa became that of social inferior to superior. The white man was more superior to a black man.
This colonialism with numerous injustices went on for centuries before the Africans began to really stand up and demand freedom from their captors. It was during this time that nationalism spirit was born in Africa. Africans had suffered enough and had enough reasons reclaim their land and to prove that they were more equal to Europeans.
However, real nationalism in Africa did not take shape till the 1950s at a party celebrating the independence of Ghana as the first African state to gain freedom. This celebration alongside the African experiences during the World War II (where Africans fought alongside Europeans and some were commanded by African-Americans) spearheaded the demand for freedom across all African nations. Kwame Nkurumah of Ghana also played a key part in the African nationalism. He convened multiple Pan-African conferences that paved way for the series that culminated in the creation of African Union (AU) in 1963. Among the Pan-African conference convened was the fifth Pan-African Congress that saw to attendance of African intellectuals including Nyerere (Tanzania), Nkurumah (Ghana), Kenyatta (Kenya) and Liberia’s Gadhafi among others. During this congress, the issue of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism was brought to the table.
The African nationalists attempted to indigenize nationalism doctrine and became the heading nationalism thinkers. They blamed western capitalists for Africa’s ills and believed that the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism was the only way to truly liberate Africa. Nationalism therefore became overtly anti-colonial, anti-European and anti-imperialism. It was the movement for independence.
Nationalism was originally referred to the process of uniting and regaining freedom from European rule, but it was also defined by pioneer African leaders to mean the creation of new nations as well as their economic and political transformation. Kwame Nkurumah during the fifth Pan-African Congress stated that every movement for independence had two basic elements; demand for political freedom and revolt against poverty and starvation .This was the nationalism spirit.
To achieve independence, Africans had to unite and reclaim their freedom. African nationalists advocate1d for the use of force if necessary since dialogue method was not being a success. For this to happen, Africans had to shed their strong ethnic or religious identities and see themselves simply as black or African rather than Zulu, Asante, Kalenjin among other tribes in Africa. Nkurumah argued that they could not look for any outside power for support, and believed that foreign economic and political forces eroded African values. By stressing the continents’ success through its history African leaders sought to convince their followers of their own worth and that Europeans were not superior to them. They had to restore pride in Africa and create a sense of unity that nations could use to foster nationalism.
The struggle for independence by African nations was not that easy. This was owing to the fact that colonial power could not relent in the fight and that they had sophisticated technologies and powerful weapons. Many Africans were killed but never gave up in the struggle. Each African nation took a unique path towards independence. Such nations as Mozambique, Algeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe took extreme measures like waging a guerrilla war on the colonial states while others pursued non-violent means to acquire a peaceful transfer of power.
African nationalists in different parts of Africa resorted to various methods to articulate their grievances in the pursuit of freedom. They formed associations, welfare groups and political parties through which they could press for reforms. These reforms included the demand for the establishment of democratic structures of governance in such countries South Africa under the Zulu army and Southern Rhodesia where FRELIMO was used. In Kenya, such associations as Kikuyu Central Association, parties like Kenya Africa Democratic Party (KADU) and Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) and groups such as Mau-Mau demanded for quitting of colonial rule. The political parties helped in uniting Africans the struggle of independence. The creation of slogans and selection of flag colors for the parties was also a motivational aspect in the struggle for independence. Nationalists also used the media such as newspapers to channel their grievances and demands. In Kenya, the Mwigithiria newspaper was used in which Kenyatta was the editor. Political meetings, workers’ strikes, protests, boycotts, and street demonstration were organized regularly by the nationalists in response to the colonial governments’ impingement on their rights.
This struggle went on for several years in different African nations depending on the strength of colonial governments. Many African nationalists were killed, and this included Dedan Kimathi (Kenya), Steve Biko (South africa) and Asentehe (Ghana) among others. However, Africans persisted in the fight for independence. This led to Africa undergoing major transformation and each colony eventually gained its freedom. Nationalism was finally achieved.
Colonialism was an evil system designed to exploit the subject people. It was characterized by oppressive and discriminatory policies against the Africans. The minority whites on the other hand enjoyed numerous privileges. The expected consequences of this, as Marx observed in his Marxist theory (Marxism), is a revolt by those being oppressed. According to Marxism, tension exists in a society where there is one class dominating the other. In such society, the dominators take control of the others and oppress them. However, the oppressed will eventually revolt to seize power from the dominators. In this view, nationalism sometimes emerges as a democratic anti-authoritarian movement and at other times as a means to promote wars to obtain unification or as a force seeking the liberation of a territory from ‘foreign’ domination. This is what virtually happened in Africa. Africans could no longer stand the Europeans’ imperialism and had to, therefore, react against it giving birth to African nationalism. The struggle for independence.
African nationalism was therefore a reaction against colonialism and its racist policies. It arose from the desire for self-determination and self-governance. The outcome was independent African nations. What followed was the recovering process from the colonial cocoon and initiation of development in the free nations to be where they are today.