Decolonization of Africa

• Kwame Nkrumah


  • Led the Ghanaian independence movement
  • Formed the Convention People's Party (CPP) to speed up decolonization
  • Became the first president of the newly formed state of Ghana in 1957
  • Had a vision of a unified Africa or a Pan-African movement
• Self-determination

  The right of a people to decide their own political status and to pursue their own economic, social and cultural development
• European powers responded to cries for self-determination

  With attempts to offer more participation in ruling the colonies to keep the best of both worlds - economic benefit for the mother country and quashing of political issues of the colonists
• Nationalism


  The force to unify a group of people based on national identity
• Pan-Africanism


  The idea that all of Africa should be unified as one confederation
• Decolonization in French West Africa

  • Many colonists were given the right to vote and other rights of self-determination
  • France partitioned French West Africa into smaller colonies to limit their power and hegemony
  • All French colonies were freed from French control by 1960
• Decolonization in Kenya


  • Kenya was a settler state with white settlers blocking native Africans from owning land and developing their own products
  • The Mau Mau (the land and people's party) rebels sought to undermine the white settlers, leading to violence and arrests including of Jomo Kenyatta
  • Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya to independence in 1963 after being freed from prison in 1961
• Decolonization in South Africa

  • Apartheid - legal discrimination against black Africans in a white-dominated South Africa
  • The African National Congress (ANC) formed the Freedom Charter calling for an end to apartheid
  • The Sharpeville Massacre in 1961 kicked off the independence movement, leading to the banning of the ANC and Pan-African Congress
  • Nelson Mandela, a young lawyer at the time, was arrested and imprisoned for nearly 50 years before being freed and elected to the newly democratized government in 1994
• in 1960 17 countries were given independence
• In 1962 there were 28 independent states
• Who owned land and controlled tea and coffee commodities in Kenya?

  white settlers
• Which of the following is the term for the legal discrimination against black Africans in white-dominated South Africa?

  Apartheid
• What were the goals of Britain's attempt to prevent decolonization in Africa? (Choose all that apply.)

  keeping economic benefit & Giving political autonomy to Africans
• What was the name of the group that supported nationalist ideas and Islamic fundamentalism and aimed to remove Algeria from French rule?

  FLN (National Liberation Front)
• Which of the following did the Native Relocation Act do in South Africa? (Choose all that apply.)

  Allowed for the resettlement of whites in areas formerly belonging to non-whites

  Allowed for the government to evict non-whites
• Which of the following was another name for the Mau Mau?

  Land and People's Party
• Which of the following groups was formed to combat the white Liberal Party in South Africa?

  African National Congress
• Which of the following was an issue caused by creating countries in the Middle East after World War I?

  Merging different groups of Islamic beliefs
• Who was the first prime minister of the Republic of Egypt?

  Mohammad Naguib
• Which tactics did the FLN use against French forces? (Choose all that apply.)

  Attacking civilian targets

  Guerilla warfare
• When was Nelson Mandela released from prison?

  In the 1980's