Colonialism in Africa was not only a story of suffering, exploitation and oppression of the indigenous people by the metropolitan powers. The war against colonialism was not only fought with the gun or only politically. It was fought both with the gun and with the pen. The battlefield was both Europe and Africa. In Europe, the sons and daughters of Africa were engaged in the political opposition to the system and the struggle was largely peaceful although the colonial authorities used repression to stifle the voices of opposition. In France where the anti-colonial struggle
French occupation of Algeria was the fiercest, domestic political formations from what was then called the French Left, including trade union formations were actively engaged in the movement for decolonization. Young Algerian immigrant from the first generation, better educated than their parents, took up the struggle in solidarity with the French public opinion that was basically against the war in Algeria. There were also notable intellectuals, writers and other activists who were involved in the fight for end to colonialism not only in Algeria but also in Africa in general.
However, colonialism in Africa was not only a story of darkness but also a story of light in the sense that the best men of letters across the continent had been galvanized to denounce the system with their intellectual talents and literary creativity. The many books that were publish before and after colonialism had contributed as weapons of criticism against the system but also shed light on the darker corners by stimulating important discussions and debates among the intellectuals.
Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961), French West Indian psychiatrist and political theorist whose analyses of colonialism place him among the leading revolutionary thinkers of his time. In the United States, where Fanon’s works became popular after his death, he was a guiding figure in the black liberation movement, particularly in the formation of the Black Panther Party. Fanon has become associated with his advocacy of revolutionary violence to purge colonized peoples of their colonial mindsets, often to the neglect of his other ideas. Fanon is credited for writing at least two major works, namely, “The Wretched of the Earth” and “Black Skin White Mask”.
Fanon’s writings consist of political and psychiatric analyses of Algerian population under the occupation. He is a political theorist whose analyses of colonialism place him among the leading revolutionary thinkers of his time. Fanon’s radical writings placed him on the Left of the French political establishment and earned him the wrath of the colonial authorities both in Algeria mand France.
In the United States, where Fanon’s works became popular after his death, he was a guiding figure in the black liberation movement, particularly in the formation of the Black Panther Party. Fanon has become associated with his advocacy of revolutionary violence to purge colonized peoples of their colonial mindsets, often to the neglect of his other ideas.
Franz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth” and “Black Skin White Mask” stand as genuine classics that not only reflect the realities of life under colonialism Africa but also proved prophetic in projecting neocolonialism’s detrimental manifestations against the aspirations of black people in general and Africans in particular. In these two works, Fanon has clinically dissected the psychological dilemmas into which black people everywhere in the world face in their lives, whether under direct rule or after pseudo- the independence of the post 1960s period.
Another prominent theoretician of colonialism and neocolonialism was Ghanaian first president Kwame Nkrumah. His most prominent book is “Neocolonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism”, a classic and immortal work of Africa’s post-colonial politics and its relations with the former colonial powers. Nkrumah’s analysis of neocolonialism was also considered relevant to the last phase of the 20th century when colonialism had evolved into what was known as neocolonialism and the last stage of imperialism, according to Nkrumah.
Nkrumah classic against neocolonialism is a masterpiece of political analysis of the causes and consequences of Western neocolonial machinations that tried to reverse the gains of the struggles for independence that were effectively reversed in the following years. The book was also prophetic in the sense that it shed light on how neocolonialism was started to subdue African countries to a new form of colonialism or neocolonialism which is in fact colonialism by remote control so to say.
The book title reminds the reader of another book by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin who called his book “Imperialism, the last stage of Capitalism”. In this book Lenin analyzed how Western capitalism was transformed into a more powerful economic system that sought territorial expansion in its search for markets, leading to colonial occupation of previously independent nations and their exploitations and oppression by powerful companies like the British East Indian Company whose tentacles extended to almost all countries of the world in search of raw materials and markets.
Nkrumah had borrowed from Lenin’s analysis of imperialism in order to build his own analytical framework and see the effects of Western imperialism on Africa that led to the indirect occupation, subjugation and exploitation of formerly colonial countries. Nkrumha did this by borrowing heavily from Lenin as well as by looking at economic and political developments though his own theoretical paradigm.
What is tragic about Nkrumah is the fact that while he was the lucid critic of neocolonialism, he was also its victim. The first Pan-Africanist leader who led his country to independence was made the victim of the revanchist politics of Western powers in tandem with their local allies that led to the overthrow of Nkrumah presidency in a military coup.
Neocolonialism has passed through various stages of development. Its rise and eventual fall is defined with crises that touch upon its cultural, political and economic powers. By the 1970s, political neocolonialism was in crisis because it had lost or abandoned its old pseudo-democratic ideals. Culturally, modern neocolonialism was facing protest movements within and outside its areas of domination with the rise of various forms of protest through music and dances, arts and literature.
Colonialism was criticized not only by the first generation of African writers like Chinua Achebe whose classic novel, “Things Fall Apart” was a prominent one. In this novel, Achebe dealt with the consequences of colonial infringement of traditional societies in his native Nigeria. It was a narrative centered on the fallouts of the clash of cultures between the colonizers and the local people. “ The novel chronicles the life of Okwonko, the leader of an Igbo community for accidentally killing a clansman , through the seven years of his exile, to his return, and it addresses a particular problem of emergent Africa.”
Achebe was mainly a post-colonial writer from Nigeria yet, his works also touch upon issues the surface during the post-colonial period, such as the corruption of the ruling elites, military rule and other social problems. Achebe is also apolitical novelists who highlighted the major challenges Nigeria faced after independence. He is often considered one of the fathers of the modern African novel in English that has been enjoying wide readership and critical acclaim by critics.
Another feature of post-colonial African writing consists of political leaders who were also writers who were engage in the struggle for independence. Some of them like Cabral were directly involved in the struggle at the leadership level. Former Senegalese president Senghor was a poet and essayist who was popular for his literary activities in addition to that of leading his country to independence and after. Senghor was also a philosopher, the father of the Negritude movement. According to available information, “Leopold Sedar Senghor was a prominent figure in the Negritude movement which was a political and literary movement that sought to redefine African culture and identity. Senghor was a poet, African socialist and the first president of Senegal.”
From Franz Fanon to Sedar Senghor, from Cabral to Achebe, Soyinka, Mahfouz, and Nkrumah, the post-colonial African intellectuals, writers and philosophers articulated Africa’s historical uniqueness as well as her lost glories. They have been articulating new thinking like Negritude, pan-Africanism, pan-Arabism, African village socialism, and African communal identities against encroachments by the post-clolonial powers. Unfortunately, the literary legacies of these writers have been largely neglected by the new educated classes in Africa and have largely been reduced as reference materials at faculties of political science and history in African universities and at the institutes of African studies across the world.
African writers of post-colonial Africa have also won Nobel prizes for literature. when Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the prize in 2021, the Swedish Academy praised him for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugees in the gulf between cultures and continents.” Thus, we can say that African literature has grown from the marginal role it played during colonialism, to produce some of the best literary figures who have excelled in the global arena. This is indeed a progress of African arts and literature worth celebrating and worth remembering by the new generation of Africans who should celebrate those achievements as part of their collective cultural legacies.
The total liberation of Black people is still a distant possibility as their fate has not been improved and history has never been kind to them. The present generation of black leaders obviously carry the burden of history and the responsibility for ensuring the continued struggle towards black liberation. As board member John Matthew said on the same occasion, the center will play a great role in documenting and passing on many stories that had never been told since ancient times. the remaining chapters of black history will no doubt prove long, impressive and bright as there is no going back to square one for all Black people across the world as history is never written in reverse order. Obviously, “Black people have a role to play in telling their own stories and supporting their heritage and passing it on to future generations.”
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2025
