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African nationalism is an umbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies in sub-Saharan Africa, which are based on the idea of
national self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
and the creation of
nation state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...
s.African nationalism
The ideology emerged under European colonial rule during the 19th and 20th centuries and was loosely inspired by nationalist ideas from Europe. Originally, African nationalism was based on demands for self-determination and played an important role in forcing the process of decolonisation of Africa ( 1957–66). However, the term refers to a broad range of different ideological and political movements and should not be confused with
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
which may seek the federation of several or all nation states in Africa.


History

Nationalist ideas in Africa emerged during the mid-19th century among the emerging black middle classes in West Africa. Early nationalists hoped to overcome ethnic fragmentation by creating nation-states. In its earliest period, it was inspired by
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensla ...
and
Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the t ...
intellectuals from the
Back-to-Africa movement The back-to-Africa movement was based on the widespread belief among some European Americans in the 18th and 19th century United States that African Americans would want to return to the continent of Africa. In general, the political movement wa ...
who imported nationalist ideals current in Europe and the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with t ...
at the time. The early African nationalists were elitist and believed in the supremacy of Western culture but sought a greater role for themselves in political decision-making. They rejected African traditional religions and tribalism as "primitive" and embraced western ideas of Christianity,
modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " Age of Reaso ...
, and the
nation state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...
. 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 a mass movement in the years after World War II as a result of wartime changes in the nature of colonial rule as well as social change in Africa itself. Nationalist political parties were established in almost all African colonies during the 1950s, and their rise was an important reason for the decolonisation of Africa between 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. 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. According to historian Robert I. Rotberg, African nationalism would not have emerged without colonialism. Its relation to
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
was also ambiguous, with many nationalist leaders professing Pan-African loyalties but still refusing to commit to
supranational union A supranational union is a type of international organization that is empowered to directly exercise some of the powers and functions otherwise reserved to states. A supranational organization involves a greater transfer of or limitation of ...
s. African nationalists of the period have also been criticised for their continued use of ideas and policies associated with colonial states. In particular, nationalists usually attempted to preserve national frontiers created arbitrarily under colonial rule after independence and create a national sense of national identity among the heterogeneous populations inside them.


Tribalism and ethnic nationalism

African nationalism exists in an uneasy relationship with tribalism and sub-national ethnic nationalism which differ in their conceptions of political allegiance. Many Africans distinguish between their ethnic and national identities. Some nationalists have argued that tribes were a colonial creation.


Women in African nationalism

During the late 1950s and 1960s, scholars of African nationalist struggles have 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." Undoubtedly, women played a significant role in arousing national consciousness as well as elevating their own political and social position through African nationalism. 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.


Women in national organisations

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, The
National Council of Sierra Leone The National Council of Sierra Leone was the main opposition party in Sierra Leone in the early 1950s. The organisation was founded by former members of the Sierra Leonean branch of the National Congress of British West Africa around Herbert Bankol ...
was to become, in 1968, the women's section of the ruling
All People's Congress The All People's Congress (APC) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the other being its main political rival the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). The APC has been the main opposition party in Sierra Leone since 4 Apr ...
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 the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election installe ...
(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.


Women as national leaders

Women were fundamental nationalist leaders in their own right. Under the inspiration of Bibi 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. She was the only nationalist leader, besides Julius 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.


Women and Informal Methods of Protest

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 in Tanzania 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 the Cameroon in 1958, where women refused to implement agricultural regulations that would have undermined their farming system. 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. 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. ‘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.


By country


Gambia

In the
Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
, one of the prominent Gambian nationalists and
Pan-Africanists Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
during the colonial era was Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof. From the 1950s up to Gambia's independence, Cham Joof (as he is commonly referred to), held a series of campaigns against the
British colonial The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
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 organised the Bread and Butter demonstration from outside his house in Barthurst now
Banjul Banjul (,"Banjul"
(US) and
), officially the City of Ba ...
, 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.' The Point Newspaper
"Cham Joof's speech on Pan-Africanism".


See also

;General * African Nationalist Movement * African socialism *
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
* Green resistance *
Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...
* Types of nationalism ;By state *
Algerian nationalism Algerian nationalism is pride in the Algerian identity and culture. It has been historically infuenced by the conflicts between the conflicts between the Deylik of Algiers and European countries, the French conquest of Algeria and the subsequen ...
*
Ethiopian nationalism Ethiopian nationalism, also referred to as Ethiopianism or Ethiopianness ( am, ኢትዮጵያዊነት, ''Ityop̣p̣yawinnät''), is a political principle centered on the unification of Ethiopian identity. Originated from throughout ancient hist ...
* Libyan nationalism *
Nigerian nationalism Nigerian nationalism asserts that Nigerians are a nation should promote the cultural unity of Nigerians.Luke Uka Uche. ''Mass media, people, and politics in Nigeria''. Concept Publishing Company, 1989, pp. 23–24 Nigerian nationalism is territo ...
;By ethnicity * Amazighism *
Igbo nationalism Igbo nationalism is a range of ethnic nationalism, ethnic nationalist ideologies relating to the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria. While the term is defined as seeking Igbo self-determination by some, others argue that it refers to the preser ...
*
Kabylism The Kabyle people ( kab, Izwawen or ''Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', ) are a Berber ethnic group indigenous to Kabylia in the north of Algeria, spread across the Atlas Mountains, east of Algiers. They represent the largest Berber-speaking popula ...


Notes


References

*. * * * * * * * * * *
Foroyaa ''Foroyaa'' is a newspaper located in Serrekunda, the Gambia. It was first launched in July 1987, and is owned by the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), an opposition political party A political party ...

Exclusive interview with Foroyaa Panorama
(''TRIBUTE TO ALHAJI A.E. CHAM JOOF'') * Joof, Alh. A. E. Cham, ''Party Politics in The Gambia (1945–1970)'', pp. 21, 53-56 *
All Africa AllAfrica is a website that aggregates news produced primarily on the African continent about all areas of African life, politics, issues and culture. It is available in both English and French and produced by AllAfrica Global Media, which has of ...
: ''Gambia: AE Cham Joof Passes Away'' (4 APRIL 2011

*Joof, Alh. A. E. Cham. ''The root cause of the bread and butter demonstration. s.n. (1959)'' * Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Jawara, Dawda Kairaba. ''Kairaba'' (2009). p. 200, * The Point Newspaper
"Cham Joof's speech on Pan-Africanism".


Further reading

* Almond Gabriel and James S. Coleman
''The Politics of the Developing Areas''
(1971) * Eze, M
''The Politics of History in Contemporary Africa''
(Springer, 2010.) * Hodgkin, Thomas
''Nationalism in Colonial Africa''
(1956). * * Ohaegbulam, Festus Ugboaja
''Nationalism in colonial and post-colonial Africa''
(University Press of America, 1977). * Shepherd, George W., junior (1962)
''The Politics of African Nationalism: Challenge to American Policy''.
New York: F.A. Praeger. {{DEFAULTSORT:African Nationalism Politics of Africa