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Pan-Africanism and African Governments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Claude Ake
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Extract

THE last decade has seen the proliferation of organizations and institutions which have broadened the scope of social communication between African peoples. The sophistication of a broad African perspective, which tended to be a monopoly of top-level leadership, is now permeating the lower strata of African society. Previously, consciousness of a common African destiny had to be induced by the elite, but in recent times the masses have become sensitive enough to events in the continent to cause anxiety to leaders whose performances have to be constantly compared. This nascent psychological unity is standardizing expectations throughout the continent. Thus events in one part of the continent tend to echo in another. Following the alleged plot against Houphouet-Boigny's regime, the Ivory Coast National Assembly passed a law on January 17, 1963, authorizing the government to impress into public service anyone whose activities it considered detrimental to national security. Anticipating a similar plot the legislature of the Upper Volta passed a law on January 29 creating a High Court of State to deal with offenses against the state committed by deputies, ministers, and other officials and also empowered the government to impress any person into forced labor in the national interest. Colonel David Thompson, the leader of the abortive coup d'état in Liberia, was reported to have argued that there was no reason why 5,000 Liberian soldiers could not capture a government if 250 Togolese soldiers succeeded. The recent crop of mutinies in East Africa centered around the common theme of Africanization and the improvement of the service conditions of the army.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , October 1965 , pp. 532 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1965

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References

* I am indebted to Miss Judith Matejka without whose diligent secretarial and editorial help, this essay would never have been printable and to Professor L. Gray Cowan and his doctoral seminar for helping me clarify my ideas.

1 Africa Report, February 2, 1963.

2 Kilson, Martin, “Authoritarian and Sing-Party Tendencies in Africa,” in World Politics, XV (01, 1963), 280Google Scholar.

3 Wallerstein, , “What Happened to the Opposition?” West Africa, 11, 1961, p. 1299Google Scholar.

4 Legum, Colin, Pan-Africanism (New York, 1962), pp. 81–91Google Scholar.

5 West Africa, June 10, 1961, p. 639.

6 Ibid., November 17, 1962, p. 12731.

7 Hodgkin, Thomas, African Political Parties (Penguin, 1961), pp. 204–5Google Scholar.

8 In a speech in Bamako Stadium in 1961, Modibo Keita heaped contempt on the unreality of Senegal's independence: “Senegal under its present leadership is a menace not only to us but to Africa; we are maintaining the rupture not through rancour but to encourage the Senegalese to a true African awareness, so that they will get rid of the agents of French and international colonization and neo-colonialism who govern them. …” West Africa, August 26, 1961, p. 944.

9 See C.P.P. Policy Statement, For Work and Happiness, Accra, 1962Google Scholar.

10 See their selected speeches in Sigmund, Paul E., ed., The Ideologies of the Developing Countries (New York, 1963)Google Scholar.

11 There is also the possibility that the international prestige of such associations may frighten the government into greater repression.

12 Spiro, Herbert, Politics in Africa (New York, 1962), pp. 111–112Google Scholar.

13 A fairly good idea of development of the movement may be had by reading the resolutions in Pan-African meetings available in the appendix of Colin Legum's Pan-Africanism.

14 Sigmund, Paul, op. cit., p. 11Google Scholar.

15 Hunting for elements of Hobbes, Marx, Lenin, Rousseau, etc., in the thoughts of African leaders is becoming a favorite pastime. We must be careful not to mistake coincidence for inspiration. See: T. Hodgkin, “The Language of African Nationalism,” St. Anthony's Papers, No. 10, and Wallerstein, I., “The Political Ideology of the P.D.G.,” Presence Africain, XII, No. 40Google Scholar.

16 Cowan, L. Gray, “Guinea,” in Carter, G., ed., African One-Party States (Ithaca, 1962), pp. 218–219Google Scholar.

17 “The government of Ghana has always welcomed private investment but recently it gave full legal backing to its openhand investment policies. The 1962 Capital Investments Act allows many generous concessions to investors. These include: An income tax holiday of up to ten years; exemption, in many cases, from import duties and purchase tax on raw materials, and from export or excise duties on manufactured goods. The Act also ensures full protection of investments from expropriation by the Government.” Ghana Government advertisement from the New York Times, January 20, 1964, p. 65.

18 DuBois, Victor, “The role of the Army in Guinea,” Africa Report, 01, 1963, pp. 3–5Google Scholar.

19 Compare the selected speeches of the African leaders in Paul Sigmund, op. cit.

20 Keita, Madeira, “Le Parti Unique en Afrique,” Presence Africaine, No. 30, 02–03, 1960Google Scholar, is an interesting example of how African leaders rationalize their policies and the confidence with which they imitate one another. Keita defends the one-party state as an emanation of the harmony of African society and the realities of the post-colonial situation. He then suggests that the idea attracted Mali because it worked in Guinea and Soudan.