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The struggle for independence

“Vade Retro domum” - “Nolo Relinquere”

Niger and Dahomey remained out of French control for as long as a year for lack of
troops. Thus the French were initially unable to deal with the revolt of 1916 in
‒
Dahomeyan Borgu because neighbouring groups the Somba of Atacora, the Pila Pila of
‒
Semere and the Ohori among others were also in revolt. In Morocco Lyautey, its
conquistador, feared that metropolitan instructions to return half his 70000 troops to

France and withdraw to the Atlantic coast might lead to revolt. Though he had to release
the men, he did not withdraw and managed to avert the challenge to his authority. As it

was, France had to keep the other 35 000 troops in Morocco throughout the war. In
Portuguese East Africa the German invasion inspired Portuguese subjects to take the
occasion to overthrow their hated overlords.

The causes of the widespread revolts and protest movements that took place during the
war varied considerably and were not all directly connected with the war itself. In some
cases, what were described as revolts were, in effect, as in Libya, just the continuation of

primary resistance to European occupation. In many cases, the motives for revolt or
protest were mixed. There can be no doubt that the visual evidence of the apparent

weakening of European authority as represented by the exodus of Europeans encouraged
those contemplating revolt just as the influx of Europeans, in particular British troops,

discouraged it in Egypt.

A number of themes run through the wartime risings: the desire to regain a lost
independence; resentment against wartime measures, in particular compulsory
recruitment and forced labour; religious, and in particular pan-Islamic, opposition to the

war; reaction to economic hardships occasioned by the war; and discontent with
particular aspects of the colonial dispensation, full realization of the nature of which in

many areas coincided with the wartime years. There is a final theme, particularly
significant in South Africa, that of pro-German sentiment among the subjects of the

Allied powers.

The desire to return to a life independent of white rule, that is a return to the status quo
ante, comes out clearly in the revolts of the Borgawa and Ohori-Ije in French Dahomey

and of various Igbo groups in Owerri province of Nigeria. To a greater or lesser extent,
the desire to get rid of the white overlord runs through the majority of revolts against
French authority in West Africa. Certainly, one of the exacerbating factors in the rising of

the Egba in 1918 in Southern Nigeria was the very recent loss of their semi-independent
status at the outbreak of the war. In Egypt, the Wafd riots which took place immediately