by Guy Arnold
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Dateline
Prologue
Introduction
Part I: The 1960s Decade of Hope
CHAPTER ONE Problems of Independence
CHAPTER TWO The Congo Crisis
CHAPTER THREE African Unity and the Formation of the OAU
CHAPTER FOUR The Coup d’Etat and the One-Party State
CHAPTER FIVE Problems of Development
CHAPTER SIX North Africa
CHAPTER SEVEN The Nigerian Civil War
CHAPTER EIGHT West and Equatorial Africa
CHAPTER NINE The Horn of Africa
CHAPTER TEN East Africa
CHAPTER ELEVEN White Racism in Central Africa
CHAPTER TWELVE Portugal in Africa
CHAPTER THIRTEEN South Africa
The Decade in Retrospect
Part II: The 1970s Decade of Realism
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Patterns of Development
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Four Different Development Paths
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Oil and Israel; A New International Economic Order
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The Growth of Aid
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Strategic Highways
CHAPTER NINETEEN The Cold War Comes to The Horn
CHAPTER TWENTY Rhodesia
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The End of Portuguese Africa
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Namibia
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE South Africa: The Critical Decade
The Decade in Retrospect
Part III: The 1980s Basket Case?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Introduction to the Decade: The OAU Tries to Cope
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE The Arab North
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The Horn: Continuous Warfare
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN West Africa: Nigeria and Ghana
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT East and Equatorial Africa
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Endgame in Southern Africa
CHAPTER THIRTY Development Standstill
The Decade in Retrospect
PART IV: The 1990s New Directions and New Perceptions
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE The End of the Cold War
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO South Africa: The Last Hero
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Democracy
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Civil Wars: Algeria, Somalia, Sudan
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Genocide and Border Confrontation
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Failed States and the Return of the Imperial Factor
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN The Congo: Africa’s Great War
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Mugabe’s Zimbabwe
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Corruption
CHAPTER FORTY Century’s End: Globalization
EPILOGUE
Afterword to the 2017 Edition: The New Colonialism 2000-2015
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A Note About the Author
Picture Section
Copyright
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
From 1960 to 2000, the period covered by this book, momentous changes occurred throughout Africa to transform the continent from being a colonial extension of Europe into fifty independent nations. Following independence these new nations, struggled to achieve an identity of their own, faced the pressures of the Cold War, witnessed the emergence of the one party state and the charismatic political leader, watched the rise of their armies as major political players who carried out coups on a scale unequalled anywhere else and saw their continent wracked by wars that inevitably attracted interventions by the world’s leading powers – in the Congo, Angola, the Horn and elsewhere. Lack of trained personnel and economic weakness rendered most African countries deeply vulnerable to external manipulation by the former colonial powers, the new superpowers, part of whose ideological confrontations were conducted in Africa, and the western controlled World Bank and IMF, a process famously described by Kwame Nkrumah as neo-colonialism. The Africa which established the Organization of African Unity in 1963 had changed out of recognition by the beginning of the 21st century. By any reckoning the events of these years amount to an historical revolution.
During 40 years of travelling in Africa and writing about its political and economic development I have drawn upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of people whom it would be impossible to name. Their insights have influenced my own growing understanding and attachment to Africa over my professional writing life and this book reflects that influence though the arguments and conclusions are entirely my own.
I wish to record my particular thanks to Toby Mundy, my publisher, who has backed this large project with enthusiasm; and Louisa Joyner who has overseen each stage in the preparation of the book for publication. I am particularly grateful to Sue Hewitt and Ruth Weiss for their careful reading of the text and suggestions as to facts, presentation and clarity, and to Derek Ingram for a final appraisal.
Guy Arnold
2005
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SECTION 1:
Kwame Nkrumah and Gamal Abdul Nasser
Kwame Nkrumah
Gamal Abdul Nasser
Patrice Lumumba with U. N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold
Patrice Lumumba
Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
Ferhat Abbas
Ahmed Ben Bella
Nigerian (Federal) soldiers
Ian Smith
SECTION 2:
J. B. Vorster and Ian Smith
Portuguese troops in Luanda, Angola, August 1975
MPLA Child Soldiers
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jim Callaghan and Idi Amin
J. B. Vorster and K. D. Kaunda
Tanzam Railway
Helen Suzman
J. B. Vorster
Idi Amin
Bantu Housing
Black Sash protest
SECTION 3:
Robert Mugabe and Lord Soames
Robert Mugabe
Joshua Nkomo
Agostinho Neto
Jonas Savimbi
Hastings Banda
Woman of Lesotho
Lesotho landscape
P. W. Botha and his wife
Andries Treurnicht
Olusegun Obasanjo
SECTION 4:
Sam Nujoma and F. W. de Klerk
President Sam Nujoma’s guard of honour
Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Muammar Gaddafi and Jerry Rawlings
Nelson Mandela and Joaquim Chissano
Thabo Mbeki
Olusegun Obasanjo, Thabo Mbeki and Tony Blair
SECTION 5:
Hu Jintao and Umaru Yar’Adua
Workers at the construction of the African Union buildings
Young miners, Democratic Republic of Congo
Jacob Zuma and Joseph S. Blatter
Egyptian protester
African migrants
French troops, northern Mali
Catherine Samba-Panza
LIST OF MAPS
African Nations 2017
Part I: The 1960s Decade of Hope
African Independence
The Congo Crisis
African Unity and the OAU
Africa’s Regional Divisions
Arab North Africa
The Nigerian Civil War
West Africa
Equatorial Africa
The Horn of Africa
East Africa
Southern Africa
Highways of Southern Africa
Part II: The 1970s Decade of Realism
Regional Development Communities
Strategic Highways
Proposed Trans-Africa Highway
&n
bsp; War in the Horn of Africa
South Africa and its Neighbours
Part III: The 1980s Basket Case?
The Arab League
Islam in Africa
Areas of Conflict in North Africa
West African Economic Groups
South African Destabilisation Tactics
PART IV: The 1990s New Directions and New Perceptions
Africa’s Wars 1952–2000
Africa’s Great War
The Commonwealth in Africa
— * —
A Geographical Map of Africa
DATE LINE
1940s
1945 End World War II
Establishment of United Nations
Sixth Pan-African Conference (Manchester, England)
Setif Uprising, Algeria
Only four African countries independent – Egypt, Ethiopia Liberia, South Africa
1948 National Party wins South African election; implements apartheid
1950s
1951 Portugal transforms its African colonies into overseas provinces
Egypt abrogates 1936 Treaty with Britain; British troops occupy Canal Zone
Libya independent
1952 Army coup in Egypt; King Farouk goes into exile
Ahmed Ben Bella forms Algerian Revolutionary Committee in Cairo
1952-1959 Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya
1953 Trial of Jomo Kenyatta for managing Mau Mau backfires, helps create myth of Kenyatta the nationalist leader
Britain forms Central African Federation (CAF): Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland under white minority rule
1954 Col. Nasser takes full control in Egypt
National Liberation Front (FLN) launches Algerian war of independence
1956 Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia independent
Suez Crisis
French Loi Cadre gives universal suffrage in French West and Equatorial Africa
1957 Gold Coast independent as Ghana
1958 De Gaulle tours Francophone Africa; offers self-government within a French Community
Guinea under Sekou Touré opts for full independence; France breaks relations
1960s
1960 Harold Macmillan gives ‘Wind of Change’ speech in Cape Town
21 March, Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa
30 June, Belgian Congo independent; descends into chaos
‘annus mirabilis’ – most of Francophone Africa – Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (B), Dahomey (Benin), Gabon, Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) – independent
Ethiopia, abortive coup against Emperor Haile Selassie
British Somaliland joins former Italian Somaliland to form independent Republic of Somalia
Nigeria independent
1961 Patrice Lumumba murdered in Katanga (Congo)
Casablanca (radical) and Monrovia (moderate) groups threaten to divide Africa into rival camps
Portugal claims its African subjects are full citizens of Portugal
Liberation struggle launched in Angola
Sierra Leone, Tanganyika independent
South Africa leaves Commonwealth
Death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold
ECA study: “Impact of Western European integration on African trade and development” – EEC a threat to African exports
1962 Algeria, Uganda independent
Haile Selassie ends Federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia, incorporates Eritrea in Empire – prelude to 30 years’ warfare
UN general assembly calls upon all members to break ties with South Africa; special committee against apartheid is established
1963 Katanga secession ended by UN forces
Addis Ababa conference of 30 independent African states creates Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
Early OAU resolution calls on all members not to establish any relations with South Africa until apartheid is abandoned
Amilcar Cabral launches independence struggle in Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bisau)
First Yaounde Convention between the EC and African countries with ties to EC (former colonies of members)
Kenya, Zanzibar independent Central African Federation dissolved
1964 revolution in Zanzibar (January); Zanzibar joins Tanganyika to form
United Republic of Tanzania (April)
British forces quell army mutinies in East Africa
First OAU summit held in Cairo
FRELIMO launches liberation struggle in Mozambique
French troops reverse coup in Gabon to keep M’Ba in power
The Shifta border war between Kenya and Somalia – to 1967
Rivonia treason trial in South Africa: Mandela, Sisulu and other African nationalist leaders get life sentences, sent to Robben Island
Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia independent as Malawi and Zambia
Zhou en Lai in Mali enunciates Eight Principles of Chinese aid
1965 Coup in Algeria: Ben Bella deposed; Boumedienne becomes head of state
The Gambia independent
White minority government of Southern Rhodesia makes unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) 11 November
OAU resolution calls on members to break diplomatic relations with Britain by 15 December unless it has taken action to reverse UDI; only 11 countries do so
Joseph Mobutu carries out second coup in the Congo (24 November) – to rule to 1997
1966 Commonwealth summit in Lagos devoted to UDI in Rhodesia
Coup in Nigeria: military rule replaces civilian government
UN imposes sanctions on Rhodesia
Coup ousts Nkrumah in Ghana; military rule
UN General Assembly proclaims 21 March (Sharpeville day) International day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
UN terminates South Africa’s mandate over South West Africa (Namibia)
SWAPO launches armed struggle in Namibia
Assassination of Prime Minister Verwoerd of South Africa
Botswana, Lesotho independent
1967 Formation of East African Common Market (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda)
Col. Ojukwu proclaims independent state of Biafra (May);
Nigerian civil war begins (July)
Egypt humiliatingly defeated by Israel in Six day War
Arusha Declaration, Tanzania
President Banda of Malawi enters into diplomatic relations with South Africa
1968 Spanish Guinea independent as Equatorial Guinea
Britain passes Commonwealth Immigration Act restricting immigration from Commonwealth countries
Mauritius, Swaziland independent
1969 Coup in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power
Coup in Libya brings Muammar al-Gaddafi to power
Coup in Sudan brings Jaafar Nimeiri to power
Hardline Afrikaners break with National party in South Africa to form Herstigte Nasionale Party under Albert Hertzog
Second EC-Africa Yaounde Convention
Pearson Report
1970s
1970 Rhodesia proclaims itself a republic
UN strengthens arms embargo against South Africa; urges members to terminate all relations with the Republic
Non-Aligned Summit in Lusaka, Zambia
China begins construction of 1,100-mile TANZAM railway linking Tanzania and Zambia; opens 1976
1971 Commonwealth summit in Singapore debates decision of Heath Government to resume sale of arms to South Africa
Idi Amin mounts coup in Uganda to oust Milton Obote (in Singapore for Commonwealth summit)
Mobutu assumes absolute power in the Congo, renames Zaïre
International Court of Justice rules that South Africa is illegally in Namibia
President Banda of Malawi on state visit to South Africa
US Polaroid corporation experiment in South Africa: improved work conditions for black employees break apartheid rules
Ovambo strike in Namib
ia (to 1972) brings country to a standstill
1972 Opening of Orapa diamond mine in Botswana signals rapid development of mineral wealth
Pearson Commission to Rhodesia reports (April) that Africans
overwhelmingly reject constitution proposed by Britain
Sudan: Addis Ababa Agreement ends North-South civil war:
Nimeiri grants regional autonomy to South
Burundi: 100,000 Hutus massacred
Uganda: Amin forces all non-citizen Asians to leave; Britain receives 30,000
Rhodesia: commencement of sustained guerrilla warfare in northeast by forces of Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)
1973 Rhodesia closes border with Zambia
Britain joins European Community: opens way for EC aid to Anglophone Africa under Lomé Conventions
Sahel drought
British journalist Adam Raphael, in Guardian, reveals that only three of the top 100 British companies in South Africa pay their African workers above the poverty datum line
24 September: PAIGC declares Guinea-Bissau independent; recognized by a majority of UN members
Yom Kippur War: almost all African countries break relations with Israel
Algeria hosts Non-Aligned summit (September) and Arab summit (November): Boumedienne calls for Algeria and Arab world to take control of their economies
African economies hit by fourfold in crease in price of oil
1974 Portugal: 25 April Revolution; Caetano government overthrown;
Gen. Spinola recognizes right of African territories to independence
UN General Assembly rejects South Africa’s credentials and South Africa ceases to participate in UN deliberations
South Africa sponsors détente with its neighbours to ease tensions in the region
UN Sixth Special Session held in Algiers: launch of New International Economic Order (NIEO) initiative
General Assembly adopts Declaration and Programme of Action on the Establishment of an NIEO
Ethiopia: fall of Haile Selassie; military Dergue to rule
1975 End of Portugal’s African Empire: Mozambique (June), São Tomé and Principe (July), Cape Verde (September), Angola (November) independent
Mozambique: civil war between ruling FRELIMO and rebel
RENAMO – to 1992
South African force invades Angola; a PR disaster for Pretoria
Formation of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
Nigeria launches Third Development Plan, at Naira 32 billion the largest ever in Africa to that date
Nigeria: Gen. Gowon ousted in coup by Gen. Murtala Muhammad Lome I
Comoros independent