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The struggle for independence
“Vade Retro domum” - “Nolo Relinquere”
opened in 1950; by 1960, the total number of graduates in French West Africa was about
1,800.
***
By the late 1940s, both the French and the British territories possessed an educated,
politicized class, which felt frustrated in its legitimate expectations; it had made no
appreciable progress in securing any real participation in the system of political control.
***
Already in 1945 at the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester, UK, there were a number
of delegates who were later to bring their countries to independence. These included
Hastings Banda (later President of Malawi), Kwame Nkrumah (later President of Ghana),
Obafemi Awolowo (later Premier of the South-West Region Nigeria) and Jomo Kenyatta
(later President of Kenya). "
"The Story of Africa" 105
BBC World Service
*****
“ Africa, searching for an autonomous development model, was caught in the middle of
the East-West confrontation. Nationalist zealots considered that only the left-wing
ideology that was prevalent in the East could help them to break away from the
guardianship of the conquering Westerners.
Therefore, almost all political parties which led Africa to independence were of a Marxist-
Leninist persuasion: the African Independence Party in Senegal, the African Democratic
Rally, founded in Bamako in 1946, with notable members Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte
d'Ivoire), Ahmed Sékou Touré (Guinea) and Modibo Keita (Mali), the Action Group of
Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Nigeria, the Convention People's Party of Kwame Nkrumah in
Ghana, the Mau Mau of Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya.
It was long afterwards that France managed to divide the African Democratic Rally by
associating with Félix Houphouët-Boigny. This association dealt a fatal blow to unified
left-wing action. These leaders were profoundly divided on the essential questions
relating to the future of Africa.
On one side, there stood the group from Casablanca which, around King Mohammed V
and his successor, Hassan II, brought together the pro-Westerners such as Félix
Houphouët-Boigny, Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Amadou
Ahidjo (Cameroon).
