African nationalism is anumbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies insub-Saharan Africa, which are based on the idea ofnational self-determination and the creation ofnation states.[1] The ideology emerged underEuropean colonial rule during the 19th and 20th centuries and was loosely inspired by nationalist ideas from Europe.[2] Originally, Africannationalism was based on demands forself-determination and played an important role in forcing the process ofdecolonisation of Africa (c. 1957–66). However, the term refers to a broad range of different ideological and political movements and should not be confused withPan-Africanism which may seek thefederation of many or all nation states in Africa.[3]
Nationalist ideas in Africa emerged during the mid-19th century among the emerging black middle classes inWest Africa. Early nationalists hoped to overcome ethnic fragmentation by creatingnation-states.[4] In its earliest period, it was inspired byAfrican-American andAfro-Caribbean intellectuals from theBack-to-Africa movement who importednationalist ideals current inEurope and theAmericas at the time.[5] The early African nationalists were elitist and believed in the supremacy ofWestern culture but sought a greater role for themselves in political decision-making.[6] They rejectedAfrican traditional religions andtribalism as "primitive" and embraced western ideas ofChristianity,modernity, and thenation state.[7] However, one of the challenges faced by nationalists in unifying their nation after European rule were the divisions of tribes and the formation of ethnicism.
African nationalism first emerged as amass movement in the years afterWorld War II as a result of wartime changes in the nature of colonial rule as well as social change in Africa itself.[8] Nationalist political parties were established in almost all African colonies during the 1950s, and their rise was an important reason for thedecolonisation of Africa betweenc.1957 and 1966. However, African nationalism was never a single movement, and political groups considered to be African nationalists varied by economic orientation and degrees of radicalism and violence.[3] Nationalists leaders struggled to find their own social and national identity following the European influence that controlled the political landscape during the colonial occupation.
African nationalism in the colonial era was often framed purely in opposition to colonial rule and was therefore frequently unclear or contradictory about its other objectives.[9] According to historianRobert I. Rotberg, African nationalism would not have emerged without colonialism.[10] Its relation toPan-Africanism was also ambiguous, with many nationalist leaders professing Pan-African loyalties but still refusing to commit tosupranational unions. African nationalists of the period have also been criticised for their continued use of ideas and policies associated with colonial states.[9] In particular, nationalists usually attempted to preservenational frontiers created arbitrarily under colonial rule after independence and create a national sense of national identity among the heterogeneous populations inside them.[10]
African nationalism exists in an uneasy relationship withtribalism and sub-nationalethnic nationalism which differ in their conceptions of political allegiance. Many Africans distinguish between their ethnic and national identities.[11] Some nationalists have argued that tribes were a colonial creation.[12]
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During the late 1950s and 1960s, scholars of African nationalist struggles primarily focused on the Western-educated male elites who led the nationalist movements and assumed power after independence. The history of studies of women's involvement in African nationalist struggle, mobilization, and party politics can be traced along intellectual and political paths that initially followed, later paralleled, but have seldom deviated from or led the course of Africanist historiography. The goal of these women involved in the African nationalism movement was to recover Africa's past and to celebrate the independent emergence of independent Africa. It was necessary to raise awareness of this cause, calling to the new emerging generation of African women, raised in a better, more stable society. Although the challenges they faced seemed increasingly more significant, they, however, had it better than past generations, allowing them to raise awareness of the African Nationalist moment. Whereas women's historians interested in effecting changes in the process and production of American or European history had to fight their way onto trains that had been moving through centuries on well-worn gauges, the "new" Africanist train had barely left the station in the early '60s. With a few exceptions, scholars have devoted little more than a passing mention of the presence of African women as conscious political actors in African nationalism.Anne McClintock has stressed that "all nationalisms are gendered."[13] Undoubtedly, women played a significant role in arousing national consciousness as well as elevating their own political and social position through African nationalism.[14] It is with this in mind, that both feminism and the research of these women become critical to the re-evaluation of the history of African nationalism. In 1943, a prominent organization called the African National Congress Women's League used its branches throughout the continent to build an international campaign.
As leaders and activists, women participated in African nationalism through national organisations. The decade of the 1950s was a landmark because of the significant number of women who were politically involved in the nationalist struggle. A minority of women were incorporated and affiliated into male-dominated national organisations. Founded by women in 1960, TheNational Council of Sierra Leone was to become, in 1968, the women's section of the rulingAll People's Congress and dedicated primarily to the vigorous support of head of state, President Stevens. Women activists extended and conveyed militant behaviours. Nancy Dolly Steele was the organizing secretary and co-founder of the Congress, and has been noted for her militant political and nationalist activities. In the same way, throughout Africa, the influence of trade union movements, in particular, became the spawning ground for women organisers as such. South African women, for instance, emerged as primary catalysts for protests against the Apartheid regime. These women first participated in resistance movements through women's branches of the larger male-dominated liberation organizations, as through theAfrican National Congress (ANC). Nevertheless, in 1943, the ANC adopted a new constitution which included a new position for women to become full members of the national movement. Women also formed their own national organisations, such as the Federation of South African Women in 1954, which boasted a membership of 230,000 women. Though at the time women viewed themselves primarily as mothers and wives, the act of their joining in political organisations illustrated a kind of feminist consciousness.[15]
Women were fundamental nationalist leaders in their own right. Under the inspiration ofBibi Titi Mohammed, a former singer in Dar es Salaam who became a Tanganyikan nationalist, Tanzanian women were organised into a Women's Section of the Tanganyikan African National Union. Mohammed, who was semi-illiterate, was an impressive orator and later combined her nationalist work in the 1950s with her political ambitions. She was one of the most visible Tanganyikan nationalists during the struggle against colonialism and imperialism.[16] She was the only nationalist leader, besidesJulius Nyerere, who was recognized across the country at the time of Tanzanian independence. Her legacy as a leader, speaker, organiser and activist is testimony to the pivotal role played by many uneducated women in spreading a national consciousness, a political awareness and securing independence from British rule in Tanzania.
Whilst some female-oriented initiatives may have been conceived and presented to women by male party-leaders, others were clearly created by women themselves. These women used nationalism as a platform to address their own concerns as wives, mothers, industrial workers, peasants, and as women affiliated to the ANC. The 1940s Anti-tax protest inTanzania involved the women of Peasant Pare, where women employed methods of direct confrontation, provocative language and physical violence. Explicit use of sexual insult was also central to the powerful Anlu protest of theCameroon in 1958, where women refused to implement agricultural regulations that would have undermined their farming system.[17] In the same way, women used music, dance and informal methods to convey their solidarity for African nationalism. The production of Tanganyikan nationalism in Tanzania can be seen as “woman’s work,” where women evoked, created and performed nationalism through their dances and songs.[18] Equally, women were considered the best sloganeers, as traditional story-tellers and singers using ideas, images and phrases that appealed to the non-elite population. Market women in coastal Nigeria and Guinea also used their networks to convey anti-government information.[19] ‘Ordinary’ women themselves had transformed "traditional" methods for networking and expressing disapproval against individuals, into mechanisms for challenging and unsettling the local colonial administration. However, although these women contributed to African nationalist politics, they had limited impact as their strategies were concerned with shaming, retaliation, restitution and compensation, and were not directly about radical transformation. This problem was a reflection of the extent to which most African women had already been marginalized politically, economically and educationally under colonial regimes in Africa.[20]
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In theGambia, one of the prominent Gambian nationalists andPan-Africanists during the colonial era wasAlieu Ebrima Cham Joof. From the 1950s up toGambia's independence, Cham Joof (as he is commonly referred to), held a series of campaigns against theBritish colonial administration. In 1958, he spearheaded the All Party Committee – the purpose of which was for self-governance and to determine the political direction of the Gambia free from European colonialism and neo-colonialism. In 1959, he organized the Bread and Butter demonstration from outside his house in Barthurst nowBanjul, and led his followers to Government House to lobby the British colonial administration. Following that demonstration, Cham Joof and his associates Crispin Grey Johnson and M. B. Jones were indicted as "inciting the public to disobey the laws of the land" and charged as political prisoners.[21][22][23][24][25][26]'[27]
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party inSouth Africa. It originated as aliberation movement known for its opposition toapartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when thefirst post-apartheid election resulted inNelson Mandela being elected asPresident of South Africa.
Founded on 8 January 1912 inBloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress, the organization was formed to advocate for the rights ofblack South Africans. When theNational Party government came to powerin 1948, the ANC's central purpose became to oppose the new government's policy of institutionalizedapartheid.
In the post-apartheid era, the ANC continues to identify itself foremost as aliberation movement, although it is also a registered political party.
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