northern Rhodesia or South Africa, traditional
African structures were subservient to white needs
and exploitation.
In West African colonies, educated Africans
were emerging as an elite group, participating in
the administration. The great majority of such
Africans hoped to play a role in the colonial hier-
archy and to profit from the status thereby
achieved; European control was far too tight to
give Africans any realistic hopes of African ‘inde-
pendence’ before the Second World War. Africans
collaborating with the colonial government could
thereby exercise some influence in defence of
African rights but could not challenge overall
colonial dependency. But it was possible for
Africans to combine together to protect their
interests, a move which at the same time served
to identify and strengthen an African identity and
solidarity. Examples ranged from the association
of prosperous African cocoa farmers on the Gold
Coast to organised strikes in Sierra Leone, Nigeria
and Senegal in the 1920s. African political stir-
rings in the 1920s and 1930s are significant only
insofar as they represent the roots of African
politics after the Second World War, when move-
ments at last began to achieve a mass following.
But the depression of the 1930s and the Second
World War itself were fundamentally to change
the face of Africa and undermine the pillars of
European colonial control.
The British bestowed on Africa all the trap-
pings of parliamentary democracy – the speaker’s
mace, the judges’ wigs and legislative institutions.
The French superimposed the accoutrements of
their democratic civilisation. But this panoply
of democracy did not correspond to the reali-
ties of colonial rule. Judged positively, Britain and
France had begun to guide Africa along the road
to democracy, but that road was intended to be
a long one indeed. Governments in London and
Paris after the end of the Second World War
believed that Africans would only be capable of
complete self-rule after one or even two genera-
tions. In the event, independence was conceded
much sooner, little more than a decade later.
Representative constitutions were conferred on
peoples who lacked technological skills, who were
poorer than most of the other peoples of the
Third World and of whom the great majority
were illiterate. The strongest groups and individ-
uals gained power and held on to it as long as
they could, repressing any opposition, which was
treated as sedition. Thus black Africa was ruled
for decades by strong leaders or, if the political
leadership did not prove powerful enough, the
soldiers would rebel and clear out the corrupt
politicians until government corrupted them too.
Post-independence, many African countries have
a bad record. Some, such as Uganda, have suf-
fered more through internal conflict and tyranni-
cal rule since colonial rule was ended than they
ever did before independence. But this too is one
of the legacies of the era of colonialism and
underdevelopment.
The Gold Coast was the most developed and
prosperous of Britain’s African colonies. The
Western-educated elite of teachers, administra-
tors, lawyers and businessmen became increas-
ingly frustrated by the continuing dominance of
British interests in the management of the colony
after the Second World War. But though Britain
now had a Labour government, which felt greater
sympathy for the African people, its own interests,
especially given the parlous state of sterling,
ruled out independence: the Gold Coast’s cocoa
was too valuable an earner of dollars. India was
granted independence speedily for fear of serious
political unrest, but none was expected in the
African colonies, which would be permitted to
govern themselves step by step through a long
period of partnership, with Britain controlling the
pace. That pace was too slow for the Gold Coast
African elite, and Dr Danquah, a prominent
lawyer, in 1947 formed a moderate political party,
the United Gold Coast Convention, to hasten
constitutional reform. The fiery young Kwame
Nkrumah was appointed its secretary. In February
1948 there were riots in protest against economic
restrictions and European businesses, which led
to widespread destruction after a British police
officer had fired on demonstrating ex-servicemen
and killed two; twenty-nine more died in the
violence. The Labour government in London
reacted positively, hoping to win over the mod-
erate nationalist leaders. Danquah was invited,
together with other moderates, to advise on a