African Decolonization Research Articles

Researching Decolonization: Exploring the Applicability of the Concept of Decolonization to Student Activism in Ghana

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the role university students played in the decolonization discourse in Ghana. It analyses whether or not the concept of decolonization can be used to investigate the resistance of student movements through their activism. The consciousness of student movements such as the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) of the continuous existence of forms of colonialism despite nominal independence can be seen in student struggles for socio-economic and political justice especially struggles against neocolonialism and neoliberalism from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It investigates the continuities and discontinuities of different historical conjunctures of student movements and how these fed into the wider debates on decolonization. Using a qualitative multidisciplinary approach and relying chiefly on primary sources, open-ended interviews, newspapers and archival data, this paper analyses the connection between student political activism and the concept of decolonization in Africa. The article situates student actions within decolonisation discourses in Africa by analysing student efforts to ensure the total liberation of all African states, oppose neocolonialism, and contribute to Africa’s development.

Problem państw de facto w stosunkach międzynarodowych w okresie dekolonizacji w Afryce

THE PROBLEM OF DE FACTO STATES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DURING THE DECOLONISATION IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF KATANGA AND SOUTH KASAI In modern history of Sub-Saharan Africa there have been several attempts of secession, most of which failed. Some of them were successful, such as Eritrea or South Sudan, others were close to success, such as Katanga in the Belgian Congo or Biafra in Nigeria, and some others never had any practical chances of success, such as Cabinda, aiming to separate from Angola, or South Kasai from Congo. The Republic of Congo, one of the largest countries in Sub Saharan Africa, was the first of the independent states in this region to experience civil war and separatism. This former Belgian colony gained independence on 30 June 1960 and was plunged into an internal conflict just two weeks later. The military rebellion and the chaos that arose in the country after the declaration of independence were used by politicians from the mineral-rich Katanga and South Kasai provinces. The conflict, taking place in the realities of the Cold War and decolonisation, became an element of a larger international game between the Western world, the Eastern bloc, and non-aligned countries. Katanga is the only example so far when the international community has made an effort towards ending secession of an unrecognised state and has tried to restore state unity using military force through the United Nations.

Decolonial Embodiments: Materiality, Disability, and Black Being in Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso

Grounded in, and in dialogue with, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso of 2018, this paper interrogates a particular time and place of coloniality and racial capital’s reproduction of Black fungibility in late twentieth-century Portugal, after formal decolonization in Africa and in the wake of Black migratory waves from the post/neo-colony (Angola in this case) to the former metropolis. Almeida’s novel provides a literary intervention in grappling with the economic and institutional reinvention of anti-Blackness in Europe after settler colonialism, while also imagining and inscribing modes of Black being within and beyond the materialities of white supremacy. Towards this end and against the racial, gendered, and ableist logics of capital, the Black body in Almeida’s novel becomes a site through which the relationships between humans and matter as well as mind and body are decolonially revised.

Harlem, Addis, and Johannesburg: African Solidarity and African American Internationalism in Harlem from the 1960s to the 1990s

Abstract This 2021 ASA Presidential Lecture combines sociopolitical history with personal reflections on Black Harlem during African decolonization. It begins at the turn of the twentieth century and traces Harlem’s transformation into an international center of pan-Africanist activism and cultural production. Brown explores solidarities that grew as Harlem politicians, grassroots leaders, and residents encountered political exiles and cultural leaders from the continent, the diaspora, and aligned political movements worldwide. These alliances and modes of protest facilitated a hardening of militant activist traditions and cultural cohesion that shaped an anti-imperialist pan-African movement and ultimately a multinational Black political movement in the 1960’s to 1990s.

Land Grabbing and Development: The Case of Ethiopia

Since African decolonization and independence, foreign land acquisitions for agriculture have surged in Sub-Saharan Africa, notably transforming agricultural production. This “land grabbing” phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia. This study assesses the impact of land grabbing on Ethiopia’s development, targeting economic, environmental, and quality of life dimensions. Development is viewed as multifaceted, spanning beyond merely economic aspects. The research delves into the land-grabbing phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia, focusing on policy and legal frameworks for large-scale commercial agriculture. It then explores the effects of large-scale land acquisition on Ethiopia’s development in terms of economy, environment, and quality of life. The analysis reveals that land grabbing profoundly affects Ethiopia’s development. Although some economic benefits exist, the negatives like environmental degradation and food insecurity greatly outweigh the positives. Consequently, the study advises prioritizing alternatives and strategies favoring Ethiopia’s economic development and people’s well-being.

The Commonwealth and Southern African Decolonization 1949–1994

This article addresses the role of the Commonwealth, a unique post-colonial association, in the protracted process of decolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the ways in which Commonwealth leaders sought to use the association to enhance their national diplomacy and policy stance on African self-determination: to pressure the British government to adopt more robust policies such as economic sanctions, and to use Common-wealth meetings as a diplomatic forum to coordinate and publicise their stance on decolonisation to their home constituencies, enhancing their domestic legitimacy. The article also addresses the ways in which the Commonwealth evolved in the process of British disengagement from empire, developing a separate identity, political leadership and an international secretariat; and its place in the global struggle against white minority regimes in Southern Rhodesia, Namibia/South West Africa and South Africa.

Affective Authenticity

This article develops the concept of “affective authenticity” to explore the experiences and reception of US-based African migrant musicians in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on interviews, archival sources and musical analysis, we trace the migration stories of South African singer Letta Mbulu and the ways in which she negotiated conflicting demands for “authenticity” in her musical performances on the American stage. Affective authenticity represents a heterogenous, explorative sound, reflecting pan-African politics and aesthetics that created the very conditions for African and African American musical collaborations. This aesthetic was countered with expectations for “scientific authenticity:” an ethno-linguistically circumscribed performance that catered to colonial ears and conceptualized African musics as insular, ancient and unchanging – an aesthetic held and policed primarily by (white) music critics. Through analysis of the Yoruba hymn Ise Oluwa (1927) and its “translations” in Mbulu’s performance on the soundtrack for the television show Roots (1977), we show the careful balance of voices, texts, instruments, and rhythms African migrant musicians perform in order to adhere to conflicting demands for authenticity, and the rebuke they experience when they transgress them. We also place conceptualizations of affective and scientific authenticity applied to popular music in broader discourses occurring during the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, the decolonization of Africa, and the entrenchment of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Decolonization Debacle: The Bane of Sustainable Development Attainment in Nigeria

Colonization, an imperial conquest of native lands by European countries, became an epoch-making, monumental highlight in the historical development of third-world countries. There is no gainsaying that the colonial exercise did more evil than good for the colonized world. The decolonization of Africa and other colonized areas of the world was a slow process that was triggered by the First and Second World Wars. The devastating effects of the two wars on the economies of the West, coupled with the native resistance from the colonies, made colonialism impracticable. Hence, the European imperialist states were faced with no other choice than to relinquish their dominance in their colonies. Nigeria, which finally, attained independence in 1960, tailored its national development policy along the welfarist paradigm. In 1987, Nigeria joined the rest of the world in subscribing to the ideology of sustainable development by partaking in the World Commission on Environment and Development summit. The realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) became entrenched in national developmental planning after Nigeria attended the Sustainable Development Conference held by the UN in 2012. However, following the years of decolonization, Nigeria has grappled with developmental challenges and appeared to be in reverse gear in the developmental process. The post-colonial upheavals and mismanagement of Nigeria became a glaring feature, thus having far-reaching consequences on her development strides. This begs the question as to what and how the decolonization exercise benefitted Nigeria. Therefore, this study examines the decolonization dilemma of Nigeria and how it has hampered Nigeria’s chances of attaining sustainable development. The study employed a qualitative and expository analysis in examining the effect of the decolonization process on the attainment of the SDGs. The study builds on data from a range of published and unpublished sources. It was concluded in the study, that the climate that arose from the decolonization process had not enhanced the actualization of sustainable development in Nigeria. Among the suggestions in the study includes retracing the decolonization steps taken thus far and redefining how Nigeria can be rid of the legacies and traces of colonialism so as to set out on a steady drive toward attaining sustainable development.

African Indigenous Research to Decolonisation of African Universities’ Curricula

The phrase African indigenous research (AIR) depicts a novel research thrust that seeks a global entrance into the mainstream research assortment as a competitive area of study. A discourse on decolonisation attempts to reverse the gains of colonialism. Existing studies show that most (South) African universities’ curricula can be traced to the colonial era. A rereading of available scholarly conversations depicts some reluctance on the part of education authorities towards decolonising the (South) African universities’ curricula. It is in the context of the above that the present study engages conversations on decolonisation in order to establish a common ground that affords AIR a notable articulation on decolonisation of (South) African Universities’ curricula. The present research is anchored on a critical race theory (CRT) in which narrative inquiry as a methodological approach is utilised. Although the phrase African universities’ curricula is employed, the study will focus on the (South) African universities’ curricula as representative examples. The (South) African scenario is preferred as a case study due to the author’s familiarisation with (South) African universities as well as African decolonisation discourses. The study attempts to answer the following three questions (1) what motivated research conversations on decolonisation? (2) why is the study on decolonisation of the curricula in (South) African universities necessary? and (3) what is the global impact of decolonisation processes in (South) Africa?

Subversive text as dystopian negative: speculative gesture, prophetic rhetoric, and Helon Habila’s Oil on Water

This paper connects a crucial use of rhetoric in activist texts of the past 175 years to a similar rhetorical structure in the arts. In causes such as African decolonization, Black liberation, revolutionary socialism, and ecocriticism, activist texts vehemently expose injustice and turn swiftly at the end toward emancipatory possibility. Using Fred Moten’s concept of prophesy, I read this rhetorical structure as a vital intervention in the imaginary of the future possible, and I use the term “dystopian negative” to describe artistic uses of this rhetoric. In my reading of Helon Habila’s 2010 novel Oil on Water, I examine how the dystopian negative rejects the alarmism of dystopian narratives, gesturing instead to possible alternatives. Interpreting this gesture as a call to audiences to participate actively in building better futures, this article queries the role of the audience in the interpretive field of dissident expression.

Black American Agricultural Experts and the Vernacularization of American Science in Liberia Prior to Decolonization in Africa

Black American Agricultural Experts and the Vernacularization of American Science in Liberia Prior to Decolonization in Africa

James H. Meriwether’s Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa

James H. Meriwether’s Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa

James H. Meriwether. Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa.

James H. Meriwether. <i>Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa</i>.

Decolonization and Theatre History

‘Decolonization’ has superseded ‘postcolonial’ as the most compelling catchword of the present moment. Broadly speaking, the term possesses two parallel genealogies: African decolonization and Latin American decoloniality. But where are Asian territories such as India and Hong Kong, and, more specifically, fields such as theatre history, located in the debate? This article analyzes the stakes and struggles, inner contradictions and blind spots, involved in decolonizing or decentring the curriculum. It asks whether the decolonial temporalities of our time constitute an adequate lens to theorize theatre history by firstly examining the term’s misuse by popular historians, media, and government; and, second, by interrogating a spectrum of positions on ‘Indian Theatre’ from the nineteenth century onwards. Through this double focus, the article probes the scholarly possibilities for undoing the dominant mode when the ‘decolonization trope itself becomes a tool for colonization’.

Rethinking Decolonization in “Sub-Saharan Africa”: Toward Reinventionism

This article contributes to the assessment of decolonization in what is known as sub-Saharan Africa, from the context of a contested independence in many African countries, which highlights the claim for a new kind of decolonization. After reconsidering the way in which the decolonization process took place in Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War, the article proposes the theory of reinventionism as a way to gain genuine self-determination. That theory, which should fuel all the aspects of the African reality, is meant to lead to a breaking up with any structural domination in Africa. Rethinking decolonization in Africa, as no longer a mere Africanization of the structures of domination but as a way of liberation, is imperative.

The Cultural Underground of Decolonization

AbstractThe African liberation movements and the early phases of nation-building on the continent, intertwined with the Cold War and the global student movement, left behind an array of textual, visual, and sonic traces that circulated through underground and clandestine networks across Africa and beyond. These cultural products, which include materials in African languages, remain marginalized in studies of African history and arts. This article posits the cultural underground of decolonization in Africa as a productive category for historical and literary inquiry and argues that exploring the literary and aesthetic aspects of this archive offers other ways of knowing and temporal epistemes important for the reconsideration of aesthetics, politics, and histories in and of Africa. I explore poems and songs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and Senegal to show how they provide avenues for a renewed engagement with decolonization and revolution.

An African Looks at America: Picturing Racial Integration for Africa, 1956–68

The global tour of Edward Steichen’s 1955 photographic exhibition The Family of Man, sponsored by the United States Information Agency (USIA), has long been viewed as the defining moment for the medium’s engagement in US Cold War diplomacy and propaganda. Yet the attention garnered by this single exhibition has served to obscure an extensive programme of photographic diplomacy developed by the USIA during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and largely overlooked by photographic scholarship. One strand of this programme was shaped by the twin concerns of racial conflict at home and decolonisation in Africa and Asia. As the US government cultivated audiences in the newly independent nations of the emerging Third World, it became clear that it would need to adapt its message. Racial integration became a pervasive theme in the agency’s photographic output as it sought to picture America for its international audiences and visually refute accusations that the USA was an inherently racist society. In contrast to studies of US propaganda output of the early 1950s, which have suggested a limited repertoire for the representation of African Americans, the photographic records for this period provide evidence that the USIA paid close attention to the micro-politics of racial interaction and endeavoured to create a richer and more complete set of representations. Seen in the context of the time, the carefully choreographed portrayals of interracial interaction that emerge from the USIA archives are remarkable, if always highly partial and selective.

Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa

Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa

Gender relations in Indigenous Yorùbá culture: questioning current feminist actions and advocacies

Gender hierarchy and inequality are attributes of Western colonialism enforced in several colonised societies. Similarly, feminism (Western), as the antithesis of European sexism, has permeated colonised societies and has been assimilated without proper reflection. This is concretely evident among the Yorùbá people of south-western Nigeria. Before European colonisation, Yorùbá culture was gender-neutral and gender-silent; women were seen as complementary and not subordinate to men. Hence, according to Oyěwùmí’s work on The Invention of Women, caution and reflections must be raised on the continual adoption of mainstream Western feminist philosophy in Yorùbá culture. In essence, the colonial imposition of the Western gender binary in Yorùbá society and women’s anti-colonial and feminist activities are discussed. Furthermore, the paper challenges some feminist approaches and ideologies in Nigeria, while advocating for a communal, transformative, and Pan-African feminism in Yorùbá and African societies. The decolonisation of Africa and the Yorùbá education system are recommended, alongside a proper history of Indigenous Yoruba people and knowledges. Contemporary feminist campaigns (including digital feminisms) and movements must also develop a ‘shared text of blackness’. The duo should align and improve the worth of women based on the indispensability and esteemed status offered to women in ‘pre-colonial’ Yorùbá society.

Decolonisation in Africa: love or litigation? Mandela as moral capital

ABSTRACT The Rhodes Must Fall social movement infused new life into the decolonisation discourse in Africa. However, whereas most scholars agree on the need for decolonisation, there is little consensus or even clarity on what it actually means in our everyday encounter with others and engagement with reality. Indeed, much of the debate on the issue consists of a recycling of the arguments employed by the first generations of anticolonial/postcolonial scholars and political leaders – a pattern of anti-imperialist thinking and litigation of the past which fails to enhance African self-understanding. This article examines the structure of thought that underlies that pattern and much of Africa’s intellectual decolonisation. I argue that Nelson Mandela understood the risks of the decolonisation arguments embodied by the likes of Robert Mugabe and intentionally adopted a different approach, anchored in encounter as an ethical and epistemic imperative. I therefore propose a theoretical approach drawing on Mandela’s thought and actions and argue that his politics of encounter constitutes a hermeneutic condition for a proper constitution of epistemic decolonisation.