What influenced the development of nationalism in Africa?

Answer 1

Like nationalism anywhere, a feeling of national unity arises strongly when a nation, or some identifiable national group, is oppressed by an outsider. For example, Scottish Nationalism is having a revival at this time, fuelled by English annexation of the Scottish Oil fields.

Nationalism in Africa is largely a response to colonisation of African countries by the European powers who were largely active during the period 1800 to 1900. The primary colonisers were Britain, France, Portugal, Germany and to a lesser extent Spain and Italy.

In each case, the original colonial powers were resisted by political movements with in the colonised countries. These movements then came to power and formed governments more representative of the national character of the state.

Unfortunately, in many cases the new nationalistic government, having captured state power, was not faced with any strong democratic opposition, so they formed a Dictatorship and began a process of stripping the assets of the countries concerned for the benefit of the rulers, not the ruled.

One exception to this pattern is South Africa, which has had two different nationalistic movements as government. That of the Afrikaners (white setlers of Dutch extraction) and the native Africans.

Afrikaner nationalism arose from the British colonization of the South African Repbublic and the Orange Free Statem primarily to take control of the extensive gold and diamond mines in those countries. As a result, Afrikaners in what became South Africa were bonded by a common hatred of the British and English speakers generally. They founded a political party, the National Party, that took control of, and then governed South Africa for 50 years.

The NP government was brought down by African nationalism, ironically the same nationalistic political force, but this time in the hands of the black African majority in the country.

Since 1912 there has been a strong political organisation, the African National Congress, which has followed a political path towards rule by black Africans. They felt oppressed by first the British and then the National party government (as above).

The ANC has followed a moderate path, influenced heavily by the thoughts of MK Ghandi who was close to Reverend Dube, founder of the ANC. More extreme nationalism was followed by smaller parties such as the Azanian Peoples Organisation ( AZAPO), but they have little support.

The African National Congress is the current governing party of South Africa.