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Comparing Two African Countries The purpose of this paper is to compare the ways two African countries gained independence from their colonizers. Within the conceptual framework of this report, we will see how Nigeria and Zimbabwe became independent from the British rule, and see what events accompanied that independence. In order to illustrate how independence was gained, we will analyze the events that took place in both countries prior to the independence movement. In 1890 a pioneer column set out from Bechuanaland and reached the site of the future capital of Rhodesia without incident on September 12. There the new arrivals settled and began to lay claim to prospecting rights.
By 1892 about 1, 500 settlers from the south had arrived in Rhodesia. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1896 and Victoria Falls in 1904. By the following year there were 12, 500 settlers in the country, and in 1909 gold exports were worth more than? 2, 500, 000. Agricultural development, however, was slower, and it was not until 1907 that steps were taken to facilitate the acquisition of land.
By 1911 nearly? 35, 000 worth of tobacco was being exported annually, and the European population had risen to 23, 600. From the earliest years, the settlers had demanded representation on the Legislative Council, which in 1903 comprised seven company officials and seven elected representatives of the settlers. In 1907 the settlers were given a majority of seats. Immediately after World War I the pressure for self-government was resumed, and a royal commission was appointed to consider the future of the territory. As a result of the commission's report, a referendum of the electors among the 34, 000 Europeans in the country was held in 1922; the choice was between entry into the Union of South Africa as its fifth province and full internal self-government. In spite of the offer of generous terms by the Union's Prime Minister, General Jan C.
Smuts, a majority voted for self-government. On Sept. 12, 1923, Southern Rhodesia was annexed to the crown and became a self-governing colony. The British government retained control of external affairs and a final veto in respect to legislation directly affecting Africans. The interwar period was one of material progress, with the development of a reasonably prosperous economy based on copper, gold, and other minerals, corn (maize), tobacco, and cattle. By 1953 Southern Rhodesia had a European population of 157, 000 and annual revenue of more than? 28 million. The policy of Sir Godfrey Huggins (later Lord Malvern), who served as prime minister of Southern Rhodesia for 20 years, was to build a society in accord with Rhodes's dictum of equal rights for all civilized men, one in which merit and not color should be the test of political and economic advancement.
He believed that political power should not be given to the Africans until they were sufficiently experienced to know how to exercise it in cooperation with the Europeans and thus to maintain the economic development built up over the years. In 1957 a new electoral law was passed providing for a common roll of voters (the A roll, composed only of whites) with a special roll for those with lower qualifications (the B roll, a tiny minority of the blacks). At the same time, there was growing political consciousness among the African population, together with increasing hostility to the idea of federation. Joshua Nkomo was one of the fiercest opponents of federation as the local leader of the African National Congress, and when that organization was banned he became president of the National Democratic Party in 1960. It, too, was soon banned, and he formed the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which in turn was banned in 1962. In 1963 Robert Mugabe broke with ZAPU to join the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and thereby split African support along ethnic lines Nkomo retained the Ndebele ethnic minority (mostly in the Matabeleland region), while Mugabe garnered the Shona ethnic majority.
Unsuccessful negotiations with Britain continued. A 1971 proposal to lessen restrictions on the opposition led to the creation of a third nationalist movement, the United African National Council (UANC), led by the Methodist bishop Abel Muzorewa. () Unlike ZAPU and ZANU both banned and operating only from exile in Zambia and Mozambique, respectively UANC was able to organize inside Rhodesia and held talks with the government during the 1970 s. During the early 1970 s ZAPU and ZANU had sporadically organized raids into Rhodesia, but in December 1972 the violence of the conflict intensified after a ZANU attack in the northeast. The Zambia-Rhodesia border was closed in 1973, but Mozambican independence in 1975 provided a valuable base of operations for ZANU, which had close links to the Frelimo government. The white Rhodesian government was thus under diplomatic, military, and, increasingly, economic pressure for a settlement. The 1976 rapprochement between Nkomo and Mugabe led to the formation of the Patriotic Front (PF), which received frontline support from Rhodesia's majority-ruled neighbors.
The fighting escalated in both area and intensity, and the emergency measures adopted by the government to counter it also served to increase antigovernment feeling. By 1979 the combination of pressures had forced Smith to accept the necessity of an internal settlement. A 1978 agreement with internal black leaders, including Muzorewa, promised elections for a transitional government that would provide for both enfranchisement of blacks and protection of white political and economic interests. The UANC won a clear majority of the seats allotted to blacks in the April 1979 election, and the country adopted the name Zimbabwe. Without PF participation or support for Muzorewa's new government, however, Zimbabwe was unable to end the warfare.
Diplomatic recognition of the new government was not forthcoming given the stalemate; after talks between Muzorewa, Mugabe, and Nkomo in London in late 1979, Britain briefly retook control of Southern Rhodesia as a colony until a new round of elections was held in February 1980. Of the 80 contested black seats, ZANU won 57, ZAPU 20, and the UANC 3. Mugabe became the first prime minister as Zimbabwe achieved an internationally recognized independence on April 18, 1980. In Nigeria the situation was somewhat different. Although colonial rule appeared secure in the first two decades of the 20 th century, in fact the British struggled to keep control of their Nigerian colony and continued to do so until Nigeria became independent in 1960. The British, when faced with dissent, tended to grant political reforms in an effort to dispel the attractiveness of more radical suggestions, a tactic they had used in their own country in the 19 th century.
Early during colonial rule, for example, Nigerians protested the manner in which water rates and head taxes were collected. Nigerians also requested more political representation. The Nigerian Legislative Council was established in 1914 and was given limited jurisdiction; it was replaced in 1922 by a larger one that included elected members from Lagos and Calabar, although its powers also were limited and the Northern provinces remained outside its control. A more representative system did not appear until 1946, when each geographic group of provinces had its own house of assembly, with a majority of nonofficial (though not yet all elected) members, two houses of chiefs, and a central legislative council in Lagos. By 1919, the National Council of British West Africa, an organization consisting of elites across West Africa, was demanding that half of the members of the Legislative Council should be Africans; they also wanted a university in West Africa and more senior positions for Africans in the colonial civil service. After the 1930 s, political activities focused primarily on ways to end British rule.
A national party emerged in 1934, the Nigerian Youth Movement, members which also won elections to the Legislative Council. After 1940, political activities were broadened to include more people. In 1944 Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo who had been educated in the United States, united more than 40 different groups to establish the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). The forces unleashed against the British were now diverse, including the activities of soldiers who had served in World War II, the media, restless youth, market women, educated people, and farmers, all of whom became committed to the anti colonial movement. Political leaders resorted to the use of political parties and the media to mobilize millions of Nigerians against the continuation of British rule.
Among the problems needing attention before the British would grant full independence was that the minorities feared discrimination by a future government based on majority ethnic groups. After the Willing Commission reported on this issue in 1958, independence was granted on October 1, 1960. A new constitution established a federal system, with an elected prime minister and a ceremonial head of state. Following a UN-supervised referendum, the northern part of the Trust Territory of the Cameroons joined the Northern region in June 1961, while in October the Southern Cameroons united with Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon; on October 1, 1963, Nigeria became a republic. Regional divisions plagued independent Nigeria from the very start. After Macaulay's death in 1946, Azikiwe took control of the NCNC, which became aligned with the Northern People's Congress, led by Abubakar Tarawa Balewa, for the 1959 elections.
Balewa continued to serve as the prime minister, a position he had held since 1957 while Azikiwe took the largely ceremonial position of president of the Senate. In 1963 he became president of the country, but the position of prime minister was still more powerful. In an attempt to stave off ethnic conflict, the Mid-West region was created in August 1963 by dividing the Western region into half, but still the country remained divided into three big regions: the West dominated by the Yoruba; the East dominated by the Igbo; and the North dominated by the Hausa-Fulani. Conflicts were endemic, as regional leaders protected their privileges; the south complained of northern domination, and the north feared that the southern elite was bent on capturing power.
All major decisions regarding revenue allocations and the census results created bitter antagonism. After a brief honeymoon period, Nigeria's long-standing regional stresses caused by ethnic competitiveness, educational inequality, and economic imbalance again came to the fore in the controversial census of 196263. In the West the government fell apart in 1962, and a boycott in the central area over the federal election of 1964 brought the country to the brink of breakdown. The point of no return was reached in January 1966, when, after the collapse of order in the west following the fraudulent election of October 1965, a group of army officers attempted to overthrow the federal government and Prime Minister Balewa and two of the regional premiers were murdered.
A military administration was set up under Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, but his plan to abolish the regions and impose a unitary government met with anti-Igbo riots in the north. The military intervention worsened the political situation, as the army itself split along ethnic lines, its officers clashed over power, and the instigators and leaders of the January coup were accused of favoring Igbo domination. In July 1966 northern officers staged a counter-coup, Ironsi was assassinated, and Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Good came to power. Words Count: 1, 862. Bibliography: Cliffer, L. Zimbabwe.
New York: Random House, 1988. Crowder, M. The Story of Nigeria. London: Books, Inc. , 1999.
Either, C. Growth and Development of the Nigerian Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Herbst, J.
State Politics in Zimbabwe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Hodgkin, T. Nigerian Perspectives. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997.
Gann, L. A History of Southern Rhodesia: Early Days to 1934. New York: Harper Collins, 1990. Martin, D.
and Johnson, P. The Struggle for Zimbabwe. Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, 1997. Olaniyan, R. Nigerian History and Culture.
New York: Random House, 2000. Painter-Brick, S. Nigerian Politics and Military Rule: Prelude to Civil War. London: Scientific Press, 1998. Schatzberg, M. The Political Economy of Zimbabwe.
London: Scientific Press, 1984.
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