Page 233 - Volume 1_Go home mzungu Go Home_merged with links

“Go home, m’zungu Go Home !”

Some Key Findings

the large-scale use of forced recruitment of Africans as soldiers and carriers (beasts of
burden) during WW1

(2 million Africans are said to have died in this m̩'zuŋɡu war. France recruited more Africans than
any other colonial power. It’s estimated that 1 million Africans died of starvation in East Africa
because forced military service led to labour shortages in the fields.)

a number of African communities felt forced to revolt against specific wartime
measures enacted by the colonial powers
· After WW2, many African leaders sought to change colonial rule through a variety of trade

unions and political parties. A significant number of African colonies only achieved
independence through armed struggle.

· Perhaps the clearest example of colonial powers intentions to maintain their hold over

African nations were the concepts of EurAfrica (a German concept) and EuraFrique (a
French concept) that were in essence simply frameworks that would allow colonial powers
to be able to ‘exploit’ post-Independence Africa

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The Emergence of African Leaders

Some African leaders had been students in western universities.

(Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast, now Ghana), Julius Nyerere (Tanganyika, now
Tanzania), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and Félix Houphouët-Boigny
(Côte d'Ivoire)

These can be seen to be intellectuals with genuine visions of the independent Africa they
hoped to create. This, of course, made these people a threat to the m̩'zuŋɡu colonial

powers who saw a vested interest in keeping things much as they had been.

All too often, African Independence only came about after a violent struggle.
(Algeria (former French Algeria), see Algerian War

Angola (former Portuguese Angola), see Portuguese Colonial War
Cape Verde see Portuguese Colonial War
Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese Guinea), see Portuguese Colonial War
Kenya (former British Kenya), see Mau Mau Uprising
Madagascar (see Malagasy Uprising)

Mozambique (former Portuguese Mozambique), see Portuguese Colonial War
Namibia (former South West Africa) – against South Africa, see Namibian War of Independence and
South African Border War
Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia) – see Rhodesian Bush War)

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