Challenges of Nation Building in Africa and the Middle East

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Chapter 30 Challenges of Nation Building in
Africa and the Middle East
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Africa Becomes Independent 1. The first
independent black African state to emerge out of
European colonialism was the British colony of
the Gold Coast which became free in 1957. It
renamed itself Ghana. 2. Perhaps the most
serious problem for the European governments
granting independence to the African states was
how to deal with the permanent white settlers.
Wherever the whites were numerous, European
states sought to preserve white privileged
status. Thus, for Britain granting independence
to black dominated states was fairly easy but
more difficult when there was a substantial white
population such as in Kenya and Rhodesia. Kenya
received independence in 1963 only after a
guerrilla war was subdued and the whites were
safe. In Southern Rhodesia, whites split from
Rhodesia and illegally declared independence from
Britain in 1965. A long Civil war lasted until
1980 before the whites surrendered power. The
country was renamed Zimbabwe. 3. France divided
up its West Africa and Equatorial Africa
possessions into thirteen separate governments,
thereby creating a French commonwealth.
Plebiscites were to be called in each to approve
the new arrangement. If this was ratified, the
association with France would continue. A
negative vote would mean independence. In 1958
Guinea rejected the French offer for commonwealth
status and chose independence. Shocked, France
withdrew every official and piece of equipment as
punishment. France expected Guinea to collapse
but it did not. In 1960 Mali joined Guinea in
seeking independence. Other French territories
followed suit though many retained their close
ties with France. 4.Tunisia and Morocco were
granted independence by France in 1956. With a
sparse European population, the separation was
easy. However, this was not the case for
Algeria. Not only did it have about one million
French speaking Europeans in a total population
of eight million but it was France's source for
oil. When Muslim nationalism stirred, the
Europeans responded and a bloody and violent
civil war broke out. Finally, Algeria was
granted independence in 1962. 5. Violence also
characterized Belgium's withdrawal from the
Congo. Having fostered neither development nor
education, there was no loyalty to the colonial
master. In 1959 riots broke out and with no
warning Belgium proclaimed in 1960 the Congo's
independence. What followed was a violent tribal
conflict and civil war. The new state was
christened Zaire (renamed in 1997 the Democratic
Republic of Congo). Civil war and political
instability has plagued the nation since
independence. 6. Like Belgium, Portugal did
nothing ta prepare its African states for
independence. Facing a guerrilla war, Portugal
granted Angola and Mozambique independence in
1975. Independence in Angola brought a civil war
with the involvement of the United States, Cuba,
and China. Political stability was finally
established in 1997. 7. The nation later named
Namibia was originally called South West Africa
and colonized by Germany in 1884. During World
War I it was seized by South Africa. After the
war, the territory was mandated to South Africa
by terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty. In
1946, South Africa sought to incorporate the
territory into its own. The U.N. rejected this
but did allow closer association. In 1969, South
Africa to extended its own laws, including
apartheid, to the land. When the Security
Council demanded that the laws be rescinded,
South Africa refused. In 1974, a Security
Council resolution required a transfer of power.
Slowness to act resulted in a war in which
various guerrilla organization were supported by
Cuba, Angola, and South Africa. Finally, an
agreement was made for elections to take place in
1989. The new president, Sam Nujoma, took
office in 1990 when Namibia became
independent. 8.Throughout the period of African
imperialism, only two states managed to remain
independent, Liberia (colonized by the United
State to send back to Africa freed slaves) and
Ethiopia which routed an Italian invasion in
1896. Italy achieved revenge in 1935 with
conquest and annexation to Eritrea from 1936 to
1941. Question 1.How was the British and French
approach to independence different?
Africa Becomes Independent
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Freedom (Uhuru) monument at Dar es-Salaam.
Located in capital of Tanzania
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• The Struggle for Independence (Uhuru)
• Britain used indirect rule over its African
  colonies
• France emphasized French culture in training
  local administrators
• Election of African representatives to the
  National Assembly
• Native population generally restricted to
  unskilled or semiskilled jobs
• Only a few native political organizations emerged
  after World War I
• Led by Western-educated African intellectuals
• Some areas (South Africa and Algeria) dominated
  by European settlers
• Era of Independence
• Pan-Africanism and Nationalism
• Organization of African Unity, 1963
• Negritude

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Present-Day Africa 1. The post-Cold War era in
Africa has seen a resurgence of democracy. In
Zambia, mounting domestic pressures fueled by
economic difficulties forced President Kenneth
Kaunda (1964-91) to move away from his one-party
state to multiparty democracy. National
elections held in October 1991 brought Kaunda's
government to an end. Similarly, in Zaire where
the military has had an overwhelming influence,
demands for political reforms led to the end of
one-party rule in 1990. Unfortunately, political
and ethnic tensions have led to violence. In
Kenya, a single party state existed from 1964 to
1992 under Jomo Kenyata and Daniel arap Moi who
controlled the Kenya African National Union.
Although President Moi permitted multiparty
elections in 1992, he still arrested those who
politically attacked him. 2. When Nigeria became
independent in 1960, it was a loose confederation
of self-governing states. With some 250 ethnic
and linguistic groups, it was only a matter of
time until there was trouble. In 1966 rioting
broke out and the military seized the government.
That same year Muslim Hausas in the north
massacred predominantly Christian Ibos who were
forced to flee east to the region of Biafra. In
1967 Biafra declared its independence. Civil war
ensued for the next three years with Biafra
surrendering in 1970. Since the 1970s, the
government of Nigeria has been characterized by
repeated military coups against the civilian
government. 3. In the Horn of Africa, the end of
the Cold War also brought decreased foreign aid
to desperately poor countries. Ethiopia was
proclaimed a communist-socialist state in 1977
following the deposing of Emperor Haile Selassi
(1917-74). Rebel activity began in 1991 when the
Soviets cut off aid. A separatist guerrilla
organization also took control of the province of
Eritrea. In 1993, Eritrea's independence was
recognized. Order was returned to Ethiopia in
1995 with general elections. The following year,
sixty-eight leaders of the former military
government were put on trial for genocide and
crimes against humanity. The situation was even
worse in nearby Somalia, where independence was
soon followed by a military coup and close
relations with the Soviet Union. In 1977, it
supported rebels in Ethiopia. This brought an
eight-month war that left the Somali army
destroyed. The government fell in January 1991
when the president fled the country. Somalia was
left in the hands of clan-based guerrilla groups.
Attempts to restore order repeatedly have failed
and several cease-fires have collapsed. An
attempt by the United States to protect delivery
of food to the starving people in 1992-93
resulted in an ambush of American troops and soon
after the anarchistic country was abandoned by
the Americans. 4. The violence in South Africa
centers around race. Apartheid ("separatehood")
was formalized in 1948 and was designed to keep
the Bantu, Coloured, Asian and white societies
separate by posing a number of restrictions on
the non-white population. Such practices brought
world criticism and racial tensions. Strikes and
demonstrations against the government in 1960
culminated in the Sharpeville Massacre where
sixty-nine people were killed by a panicky police
force. That same year the African National
Congress was outlawed. By 1961, the ANC and the
Pan-Africanist Congress, both operating
underground, turned to the use of sabotage. It
was a charge of sabotage in 1964 that brought
Nelson Mandela a sentence of life imprisonment.
In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became the leader of the
Nationalist Party and began rapid reform. He
lifted the ban on the ANC and released Mandela
(27 1/2 years in jail). Negotiations between the
government and the ANC commenced, resulting in an
agreement in 1993 that minority parties could
participate in government for five years after
the end of white rule. In the meantime,
parliament scrapped apartheid laws relating to
property ownership and did away with classifying
South Africans at birth by race. Elections were
held in 1994 with Mandela achieving an
overwhelming victory. 5. Difficulties in Algeria
began in December 1991 when the first
parliamentary elections in the country were won
by the militant Islamic fundamentalist party,
Islamic Salvation Front. Under pressure from
senior army commanders, the electoral process was
cancelled. Civil war ensued resulting in at
least 60,000 civilians being killed by
terrorists. Question 1. Why has there been a
resort to violence in so many of the
Present-Day Africa
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• Political and Economic conditions
• Scarce natural resources
• Neocolonialism
• Bribery and corruption
• Population growth
• Solutions
• Shamba
• Capitalism
• Marxism-Leninism
• Undermining community
• Border disputes
• Regionalism and tribalism
• Pan-Islamism

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• Foreign intervention
• South Africa
• Nelson Mandela (b. 1918)
• Rwanda and Burundi
• Continuity and Change in Modern Society
• Education
• Christianity
• Tension between the rural and urban
• Change in relationship between men and women
• Status of women in urban and rural areas
• Tension between tradition and modern African art
  and music
• Modern African literature
• Embrace negritude
• Glorifies aspects of traditional African society

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Traditional African house. Located in Dar
es-Salaam,Tanzania
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African women in colorful dress. Djibouti, on
Red Sea
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Israel and Arab Neighbors, 1947-1994 1. After
World War II, pressure increased to fulfill the
Zionist call for a Jewish commonwealth in
Palestine. Delay brought violence, especially
the Haganah which had acquired weapons. Unable
to keep the situation under control, in early
1947 Britain requested a special session of the
U.N. General Assembly to consider the problem. A
U.N. report recommended partition to form
territory for Jews and Arabs Jerusalem and
Bethlehem to be internationalized and that Arab
and Jewish states become independent only when
they sign before October 1, 1948, a ten year pact
of economic union. The plan also called for the
British mandate to end May 15 and troops
evacuated before August 1. The proposal touched
off a civil war between the Zionist military
organizations and an Arab liberation army
augmented by Iraqi Egyptian, and Palestinian Arab
units. On May 14, 1948, the establishment of the
Jewish state was proclaimed in Tel Aviv. The
Arab League refused to recognize Israel and on
May 15th war began. The United Nations brought
about an armistice between Israel and Egypt in
February 1949. Jordan and Syria agreed to an
armistice in April. By this time, Israeli forces
had captured some of the land assigned to the
Arabs while Egypt held the Gaza Strip and Jordan
controlled the West Bank. Jordan annexed its
territory in 1950. 2. In late October 1956 an
Anglo-French-Israeli agreement was signed to
attack the Suez Canal which had been nationalized
by the Egyptians. Shortly thereafter the allies
struck and by November 7 the Sinai as well as
Sharm al-Shaykh was occupied by Israel. When
world criticism forced Britain and France to
surrender the seized canal, Israel refused to
give up the Gaza Strip and Sharm al-Shaykh. In
March 1957 Israel withdrew from both
positions. 4. Syria, fearing an Israeli attack,
concluded in May 1967 a mutual defense act with
Egypt. Concentration of Egyptian forces east of
the canal brought an Israeli surprise attack on
June 5. Within six days Israel occupied the Gaza
Strip, Sinai east of the Suez Canal, all of
Jordan west of the Jordan River including East
Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. A cease fire
was then agreed upon. 5. On October 6, 1973,
(Yom Kippur) Egypt and Syria made a surprise
attack on Israel but ultimately failed.
Disengagement came in January 1974. Five years
later as a consequence of the Camp David Accords,
the state of war between Israel and Egypt ended
and Israel began returning the Sinai to
Egypt. 6. Exacerbated by terrorist attack from
Lebanon, in June 1982 Israel invaded for the
purpose of creating a forty kilometer buffer
zone. At the close of 1987, a resistance movement
called Intifada was initiated by Palestinian
women. 7. The first major breakthrough between
Israel and the Palestinians came in 1993 when the
Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel
reached an agreement calling for Palestinian
autonomy in selected areas of Israel in return
for PLO recognition of the legitimacy of the
Israeli state. Implementing the agreement has
been difficult as radicals from both sides want
it to fail. Ultimately, in November 1995 the
disagreement cost Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
his life when he was assassinated. Nevertheless,
the agreement resulted in limited Palestinian
autonomy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town
of Jericho. 8. A second Palestinian-Israeli
agreement in October 1995 gave the Palestinians
direct control of six West Bank towns, partial
control over Hebron, civil authority over 440
West Bank villages, and executive and legislative
authority. The latter is exercised through a
legislative council. 9. In October 1994, Israel
concluded peace with Jordan. Questions 1. Why
did problems develop between the Arabs and the
Jews? 2. What attempts have been made to resolve
the problems? Why has success been so elusive?
Israel and Arab Neighbors, 1947-1994
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• The Middle East
• Palestine
• Zionists
• Independence of Israel, May 1948
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Palestinian refugees
• Gamal Abdul Nasser (1918-1970) and Pan-Arabism
• King Farouk of Egypt overthrown in 1953
• General Gamal Abdul Nasser seizes power in 1954
• Arab socialism
• Nationalizes the Suez Canal, 1956
• Britain, France, Israel attack Egypt
• U.S. supports Nasser

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• Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab
  Republic,1958
• Other Arab states suspicious and do not join the
  union
• UAR lends in 1961
• Palestine Liberation Organization created in 1964
• Al-Fatah led by Yasir Arafat (b. 1929) launches
  terrorist attacks
• Arab-Israeli Dispute
• 1967 Six-Day War
• Nasser died in 1970 and succeeded by Anwar
  al-Sadat (1918-1981)
• Yom Kippur War, 1973
• Camp David Agreement, 1978
• Sadat assassinated by Arab militants, October
  1981
• Israel invades southern Lebanon to destroy bases
  of the PLO
• Prince Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995)
  assassinated, 1995

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The Modern Middle East 1. In 1945, the League
of Nations mandates over Syria and Lebanon were
surrendered by France. Both became independent
the following year. 2. Jordan gained
independence in 1946 after Britain gave up its
mandate. Britain had more difficult problems
with Palestine. The Jews demanded that the
British permit all survivors of Hitler's death
camps be settled in Palestine. This was opposed
by the Palestinian Arabs and the newly formed
Arab League (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, and Yemen). In 1947 Britain
announced its intent to withdraw the following
year. The United Nations passed a non--binding
resolution in November calling for the partition
of Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state. The
Jews accepted this, the Arabs did not. When the
British mandate ended May 14, 1948, the Jews
proclaimed the state of Israel. Arab countries
immediately launched an attack. The Jews fought
off the Arabs and conquered more territory.
About 900,000 Arab refugees fled or were expelled
from old Palestine. 3. Egypt had been given its
independence in 1922 but the British still
retained control over military affairs. In 1952
corrupt, pro-Western King Farouk was driven from
Egypt by Colonel Gamel Abdel Nasser. He led
Egypt to a middle course in foreign policy.
Reacting to the withdrawal of aid from the United
States to build the Aswan Dam, Nasser
nationalized the Suez Land Company in 1956.
Britain, France, and Israel invaded to protect
the canal. Pressure from the United States and
the Soviet Union forced the invaders to
withdraw. Hostilities with Israel continued in
1967 and 1973 with two futile wars but in 1977
President Anwar Sadat soften relations by meeting
with Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin. This
led to negotiations mediated by President Jimmy
Carter resulting in a limited peace settlement.
Egypt got back the Sinai Peninsula lost in the
1967 war and Israel obtained peace and normal
relations with Egypt. In 1981 Sadat was
assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists. 4.After
World War II, Iran openly courted the West.
Nevertheless, in 1951 nationalist successfully
nationalized a British owned oil company. The
resulting boycott of Iranian oil plunged the
economy into chaos and forced Muhammed Reza Shah
Pahlavi (1941-1979) to flee in 1953. When he was
restored (with the help of the CIA), the shah
sought to use Iran's oil reserves to build a
modern state to ensure his rule. In the process,
the government became a corrupt, harsh
dictatorship. A rebellion in 1979 drove the shah
from power and an Islamic Republic was
proclaimed. The new republic caused concern for
Iraq which feared Iran might try to incite Iraq's
Shi'ite majority to rebel against the Sunnite
leadership. In 1980 Iraq initiated a war against
Iran, lasting until 1988. Two years later, Iraq
attacked Kuwait and announced its annexation. An
international response headed by the United
States drove the Iraquis out in early
1991. Question 1.How has religion been a factor
in Middle East politics?
The Modern Middle East
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• Oil Politics and Revolution in Iran
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
  (OPEC)
• Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1990-1980), 1941-1979
• Prime ally of the U.S. in the Middle East
• Social and economic reforms
• Internal problems
• Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini (1900-1989)
• Restore traditional Islamic law
• American embassy hostages

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• Crisis in the Gulf
• Iraq
• Saddam Hussein (b. 1937), 1979-
• War against Iran, 1980
• Iraq sends military forces into Kuwait, 1990
• United Nations response
• Politics in the Contemporary Middle East
• Monarchy of Saudi Arabia
• One party rule
• Charismatic rule
• Bureaucratic rule
• Israel, democratic institutions

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• Politics of oil
• OPEC
• Developing economies
• Arab socialism
• Western capitalism
• Population growth
• Islamic Revival
• Reaction to Western influences
• Reaction to secularization
• Iranian Revolution

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Modern Islam 1. The largest religion in the
world is Christianity with nearly two billion
followers (Roman Catholics, Protestants,
Orthodox, and others). The second largest
religion is Islam with 1.1 billion adherents.
Sunnites make up 83 of the followers with
Shi'ites composing 16. Although in a worldwide
minority, Shi'ites make up 95 of the population
in rran (Sunnis are 4). The nation with the
largest Muslim population is Indonesia where 87
of the of the 210 million people are Muslim. The
largest Muslim state in terms of territory is
Algeria (919,595 square miles). While the Sudan
is territorially larger (967,491), its population
is only 70 Muslim (Sunni) while that of Algeria
is 99 (Sunni). 2. Tearing at the Muslim world
are the conflicting forces of secularism and
religious, political fundamentalism.
Fundamentalist, who call themselves Islamists,
wish to create Islamic governments and
constitutions based on Islamic law. Without any
unified organization, the Islamists condemn
rulers of Muslim states where secular reform
endangers Muslim practices. The Islamists also
promise social reform based on the Quran.
Opposition to the Islamists often comes from the
military and entrenched establishements. An
Islamic revolution in 1979 led to the creation of
the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the Sudan, a
military regime in 1992 supported by the National
Islamic Front instituted rule by Islamic law. 3.
In 1980 war erupted between Iraq and Iran when
Iraqui warplanes attacked Iranian airfields and a
refinery. While there are many causes for the
war, one element is the treatment of Shi'ite
Muslims by the Sunni dominated Iraq government.
The war ended when devastated Iran accepted a
U.N. brokered cease fire in 1988. Having created
a battle-hardened army, President Hussein turned
it against neighboring Kuwait in 1990 after
claiming it had flooded the world market with oil
thereby driving down prices. In 1991, U.N.
forces attacked Iraqui occupied Kuwait and drove
out the Iraqi army. 4. The great modernizer of
Turkey was Mustafa Kemal, Ataturk, who
secularized the country. In 1993 Tansu Çiller
became prime minister making Turkey the first
Islamic Middle Eastern country with a woman in
that position. 5. As Britain began to divest
itself of empire, it recognized the religious
difficulties of India where a substantial Muslim
population lived in the northwest and northeast.
In 1946, Britain agreed to the formation of
Pakistan as a separate state. Civil war broke out
in 1970 when East Pakistanis stopped paying
taxes. The war ended in 1971 with the
independence of Bangladesh proclaimed. In 1988,
Benazir Bhutto became the first woman in the
modern Islamic world to be voted into the office
of prime minister. 6. In Algeria where the
population is 99 Sunni Muslim, civil war erupted
following the canceling of the 1991 elections won
by the Islamic fundamentalist party Islamic
Salvation Front. Over 60,000 people have been
massacred by fundamentalist terrorist. 7. Egypt
is 94 Muslim in religion. A leader in the wars
against Israel, under the guidance of Anwar
Sadat, it made a formal peace in March 1979.
The Arab states reacted with fury -- only
Morocco, Tunsia, Sudan, and Oman approved.
Fundamentalist vowed revenge and on October 6,
1981, Sadat was assassinated by extremist Muslim
soldiers at a parade in Cairo. Sadat's
successor, Hosni Mubarak continues to deal with
the fundamentalists. 8. Disintegration of the
Soviet Union resulted in several Muslim republics
withdrawing from the Soviet state Azerbaijan
(87 Muslim), Turkmenistan (35 Muslim),
Kirgizatan (70 Muslim), and Tajikistan (80
Muslim). Georgia (11 Muslim) also withdrew.
Russia continues to have problems with the Muslim
dominated state of Chechinya. Questions 1. Why
is it so difficult for Muslim states to operate
in agreement? 2. Why have relations between Iran
and Iraq been so strained? 3. What was the impact
on the Muslim and non-Muslim world of the
assassination of Anwar Sadat?
Modern Islam, 1998
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• Middle Eastern Societies and Womens Rights
• Traditional role of women in Islamic societies
• Modernist views
• Impact of the Iranian Revolution
• Literature and Art in the Middle East
• New themes
• Historical traditions
• Folklore
• Everyday life
• National issues
• Israeli art