African Nationalism

Defining “African Nationalism”

• First definition posits African Nationalists as those seeking to create nation-states in Africa (generally by transforming colonies into independent states, but potentially also by transforming ethnic or linguistic groups into states)

• Second (less common) definition sees African Nationalism as the attempt to define the continent of Africa as a coherent “nation”

African Political Organization Before 1939

• Rarely explicitly nationalist—tended to seek reform or a changed relationship with the colonial power, rather than an absolute break

• Political organizations tended to overlap with pre-colonial political identities or ethnic identities (for example, the Kikuyu Central Union)

The African National Congress

• Developed in the specific (and unusual) environment of the Cape Colony, where a non-racial, propertied franchise had been in place since 1853

• African National Congress founded in 1912, two years after the Cape Colony had been made a part of the Union of South Africa

• Made up largely of African “middle class”—teachers, lawyers, journalists, etc.

"An Appeal to the Members of the Imperial Parliament and Public of Great Britain“ 1914

• This Congress, gravely disturbed at the menace to native rights under the Natives' Land Act, passed a strong resolution against the Bill…

• A deputation waited upon the Government asking that the Bill should be delayed until the natives could study its provisions. These efforts failed, and the Bill which had been introduced only in May became law on June 16th, (1913). The natives, already suspicious of the measure, were now greatly alarmed at the haste with which it was forced through Parliament. Accordingly, the Native Congress, July 19th, 1913, resolved to send a deputation to His Majesty the King, praying that the Act might be disallowed…

• All these endeavours having failed, the Native Congress meeting at Kimberley, February, 1914, re-affirmed its resolution to send a deputation to England. But, once more, it petitioned the Union Parliament and the King's representative. The petition, however, was not presented, as its presentation was discouraged by the Prime Minister, who also is now Minister of Native Affairs.

• After exhausting all these constitutional Means in South Africa, for the redress of our grievances in connection with the Natives' Land Act of 1913 it was decided by the South African Native National Congress that we should proceed to England, as their delegates, to lay our cause before the Imperial Government and the people of Great Britain.

• Before 1948, the ANC was quite conservative—aimed at preserving what they saw as British political structures—and engaged largely in lobbying or petitioning as a means of action

• Over the period from 1910 to 1948, the government of the Union of South Africa became increasingly hostile to African political rights, culminating in the imposition of the apartheid system in 1948

The ANC Youth League

• Founded in 1944 by a group of men in their 20s and 30s (including Mandela)

• Espoused a more explicitly anti-government agenda than the ANC had previously embraced

• Called for civil disobedience and other overt acts of protest

ANC Youth League Policy Statement, 1948• The African people in South Africa are oppressed as a group with a

particular colour. They suffer national oppression in common with thousands and millions of oppressed Colonial peoples in other parts of the world.

• African Nationalism is the dynamic National liberatory creed of the oppressed African people. Its fundamental aim is:

the creation of a united nation out of the heterogeneous tribes;

the freeing of Africa from foreign domination and foreign leadership;

the creation of conditions which can enable Africa to make her own contribution to human progress and happiness.

• The African has a primary, inherent and inalienable right to Africa which is his continent and Motherland, and the Africans as a whole have a divine destiny which is to make Africa free among the peoples and nations of the earth.

• In order to achieve Africa's freedom the Africans must build a powerful national liberation movement, and in order that the national movement should have inner strength and solidarity, it should adopt the national liberatory creed - African Nationalism. and it should be led by the Africans themselves.