5: 'The Winds of Change' in Africa (1950s-60s)

Key Dates:

• Kenya: Mau Mau Rebellion

• Macmillan’s “Audit of Empire”

• Hola Camp Massacre

• “Wind of Change” Speech

• South Africa leaves the Commonwealth

• Kenya: Mau Mau Rebellion (1952-56)

• Macmillan’s “Audit of Empire” (1957)

• Hola Camp Massacre (1959)

• “Wind of Change” Speech (1960)

• South Africa leaves the Commonwealth (1961)

Britain Before Mau Mau Rebellion

• Churchill is back → unhappy with leaving India, more against decolonization

• 1951 Conservative manifesto pledges to preserve and develop the British Empire/Commonwealth

Kenya Context:

• under colonial rule, whites and asians had moved into Kenya

• White Highlands: fertile land

  • ~30,000 British settled since early 1900s

  • original land of Kikuyu

    • placed in reserves, would sometimes receive small amounts of land for labour

• resentment from Kikuyu → rebelled → Churchill dismissed as “British children”

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

• (Weep Not, Child) (1964)

• depicts feelings of Kenyan bitter by enduring presence of English

• depicts anger of returning soldiers

  • fought in WWII, received no rewards, no land when he came back

Mau Mau Rebellion (1952–1956):

• Kikuyu peasants took blood oaths to overthrow colonial rule/expel settlers (many victims were black loyalists)

  • violent rituals recreated for US propaganda

• shortage of weapons, thus used long sword

Casualties:

• 95 white settlers killed

• ~13,500 Africans died total (approx. 11,000 Mau Mau suspects + 2,000 black loyalists)

  • unrest → who was Mau Mau, sympathizer, loyalist

British Response

• state of emergency declared Oct 1952

  • became a police state where rule of law broke down

  • on top of harshness towards Kikuyu, land reforms and policies for all Africans

• over 100,000 imprisoned/interrogated in “rehabilitation camps” in Britain’s Gulag

  • detainees checked for blood-oath markings

  • many executed or subjected to brutal treatment

  • underwent cleansing rituals

Local Tensions

• being black was not enough → could be loyalist or Mau Mau

• Kikuyu used to spy on Mau Mau

Kenyatta

• symbol of African nationalism

• arrested and sentenced by white settler judge to 7 years hard labour for allegedly managing Mau Mau terrorist society

• qoute: “When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible… When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

Significant Mau Mau Attacks

1. nearly 1,000 rebels attack black loyalist village at night (1953)

   • 97 burn / hacked if tried to escape

2. white farmers attacked, in response whites form vigilante groups, police shoot on cite

   • Kikuyu required to live in protected areas, watched over

   • left Mau Mau in the forest

   • royal air force and army attack forest

   • Marshall law enforced

Ending of Mau Mau Rebellion

• 1956

• due to violent subjugation realized there was no more point

• desire for independence grows and continues

Britain After Mau Mau Rebellion (Politically)

• Macmillan (1957-1963)

  • more progressive than other Conservatives

• 1957, in Beford

  • refers to “growing reality of nationalism”

  • ripple, now tidal wave that cannot be pushed back

  • commissioned “audit of empire” to weigh costs/benefits of colonies

• motives:

  • recognizes Bandung Conference (2 years before)

  • little attachment to Empire

  • focused on links to Europe/US

  • cold war: leave in good terms so colonies remained aligned with West

  • saw F in Algeria

• findings: Britain has been too long connected to leave abruptly without creating discreditable and dangerous bewilderment

Independence in Africa

1. Ghana (Gold Coast): first British African colony to gain independence, 1957

   • model of relatively peaceful transfer

   • established parliamentary system (based on British system)

2. Nigeria: no longer had India as military manpower, British interested

3. Congo: Belgians leave (1960), collapses into civil war (1960-64)

4. Angola, Mozambique: Portuguese ruled. rebellions against them.

→ Ghana, Malaya, Cypress, Western Samoa, Caribbean, Uganda

Cold War Context

• Soviet arsenal growth (1950: ~5 → 1959: 1,700)

  • could transport across nation

  • hydrogen bombs

  • testing intercontinental ballistic mission ahead of US (57)

  • Sputnik launched (first artificial satellite) (57)

Response

• JF

  • argues US losing race because Republican’s allowed budgetary cutbacks/mismanagement

  • urges increased defence to meet Soviets

  • establishes NASA (1958) and new ties to share info/equipment between British and US

Hola Camp Massacre Context

• 1959

• Mau Mau rebellion is over but those in prison are treated poorly

• March 1959: guards beat 11 prisoners to death, 77 permanently injured for not doing work told to do

• British officials destroyed documents

• uni student protests in Britain increase pressure

Enoch Powell

• MP who gave speech on Hola Camp in the Commons

  • argues for consistency with standards across Empire

Iain Mackeod

• becomes Colonial Secretary (1959)

  • recognizes as worst job of all

  • later reflects Hola Camp as moment it was clear they could not continue with old methods of governance in Africa and they needed to move towards independence

Winds of Change Speech

• 1960 while Macmillan touring British possessions in Africaa

• in Cape Town to speak to South African Parliament, issued endorsement of decolonization shocking audience

• awakening of national consciousness in peoples who lived in dependence

• “blowing through continent” is a “political fact”

• expresses desire to support South Africa

Significance of Delivering in South Africa

apartheid

Reception of Speech

• white settlers disliked

• Verwoerd: disliked

Issue with South Africa

• apartheid

  • ex. pass laws: people could not pass areas based on skin colours

    • sharpeville massacre: 6,000 protest in front of police station (1960) → shot, 69 die

• not what Commonwealth wanted when planning independence

• Verwoerd and wife go to Commonwealth PM Conference in London (1961)

  • Verwoerd: “architect of Apartheid”, PM

• decision: rather than stopping SA, get rid of SA in Commonwealth

• response: settlers/Verwoerd happy they could continue without pressure

Frantz Fanon

• born in French colony Martinique

• veteran of WW2

• Wretched of the Earth (1961)

  • discusses inequality of living arrangements between Indigenous towns and settler towns

  • encourages violence to overturn status quo

• immediately banned in France

• Rapid independence (post-1945) — many African & Asian colonies became sovereign; former British colonies often joined the Commonwealth, but apartheid South Africa left.

• Map key — shows year & colonial power: 🟩 French (e.g., Algeria 1962, Senegal 1960); 🟧 British (e.g., Nigeria 1960, Kenya 1963); 🟨 Italian (Libya 1951, Somalia 1960); 🟪 Belgian (Congo 1960, Rwanda 1962); 🟦 other powers in Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam).

• Regional tempo — Asia: earlier (India/Pakistan 1947 → late 1940s); Africa: wave mainly 1957 (Ghana)–1965; Middle East: 1940s–50s.

• Why it happened — weakened Europe after WWII; rising nationalism; UN & Cold War pressures. Britain mostly managed orderly exits (Commonwealth); French decolonization was often violent (e.g., Algeria).