Africa Read online

  1976 Nigeria (February): Muhammad killed in coup; Olusegun Obasanjo becomes head of state

  South Africa: Soweto uprising heralds year of violence

  Spain gives up control of Spanish (Western) Sahara: Morocco and Mauritania claim the territory and mobilise forces to seize it

  Seychelles independent

  1977 Ogaden war between Ethiopia and Somalia – to 1978

  Haile Mengistu Mariam assumes full control of Ethiopia and purges opponents; implements Marxist policies; US ends aid

  The two superpowers (US and USSR) become engaged in the Horn: USSR supports Ethiopia, US supports Somalia

  Zaire: Shaba wars (1977 and 1978) launched by exiles in Angola threaten Mobutu’s hold on country; France and Morocco provide military assistance

  President Bokassa of Central African Republic crowns himself emperor in lavish ceremony

  Djibouti independent

  Rhodesia: Gen. Peter Walls argues publicly for negotiations, says Rhodesian government cannot win the war

  1978 Amin launches attack on Tanzania through the Kagera salient

  French mercenary Bob Denard leads 50 white mercenaries from South Africa to carry out coup in Comoros

  Algeria: death of Boumedienne; Chadli Benjedid succeeds him

  South Africa; Muldergate scandal destroys Vorster’s political career; P. W. Botha becomes Prime Minister

  Kenya: death of Kenyatta; Arap Moi becomes President

  1979 Commonwealth summit in Lusaka: Britain convenes constitutional conference in London to settle future of Rhodesia

  Lome II

  Africa 2000: analysis of Africa’s economic problems, leads to

  Lagos Plan of Action 1980

  Tanzanian army in support of Obote invades Uganda; fall of Amin

  Central African Republic: coup supported by France ousts Emperor Bokassa

  Ghana: Jerry Rawlings seizes power in coup: three former military heads of state executed

  Nigeria: Obasanjo returns the country to civilian rule

  Egypt isolated in Arab world following the Camp David Accords

  South Africa explodes nuclear weapon in South Atlantic

  1980s

  1980 Brandt Report

  Rhodesia becomes independent as Zimbabwe; Robert Mugabe Prime Minister; 30,000 dead in guerrilla war (official)

  Wars in Africa 1980-1990 result in 5 million refugees, one-third of world total

  Liberia: Samuel Doe seizes power in coup; President Tolbert killed; 13 members of his government publicly executed

  South Africa: policy of destabilizing its neighbours – to 1990

  Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) formed by Frontline States

  1981 World Bank Report: Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa An Agenda for Action

  1982 Zimbabwe: Mugabe wages ‘Dissidents’ War’ against Ndebele to 1987; destroys Joshua Nkomo’s power base

  US President Ronald Reagan bans import of Libyan oil

  1983 South Africa: Botha introduces constitutional reforms which establish a tricameral racial legislature; leads to increasing protests and violence through to 1986

  Sudan: resumption of North-South civil war

  Nigeria expels two million foreign workers from Ghana (majority), Cameroon, Chad, Nige,

  Nigeria: New Year’s Eve army ousts civilian government of Sheu Shagari; Gen. Muhammed Buhari head of state

  1984 UN General Assembly rejects new South African racially segregated tricameral constitution

  Lome III

  OAU: 30 member states (a majority) recognize the legitimacy of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) occupied by Morocco, which quits the OAU rather than accept its decision

  Ethiopia: tenth anniversary of revolution: formation of the Workers’ party of Ethiopia; country affected by famine

  World Bank report: Toward Sustained Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Joint Program of Action; calls for more aid

  1985 OAU adopts five-year plan (1986-90): African Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER); this is followed by UN Programme of Action for Africa’s Economic Recovery and Development (UNPARED)

  Tanzania: Nyerere retires as President; succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi

  Western business disinvests from South Africa

  South Africa: 15 August at Durban President Botha delivers ‘Rubicon’ speech – makes no concessions; Rand loses 35 per cent of value in 13 days

  Group of South African businessmen go to Lusaka to talk with Oliver Tambo and other ANC leaders about the future of South Africa

  Libya: Gaddafi says: We have the right to fight America, and we have the right to export terrorism to them

  Sudan: Nimeiri ousted by military

  December: five-day border war between Burkina Faso and Mali

  1986 Yoweri Museveni wins control of Uganda after years of civil strife

  United States bombs targets in Libya

  Mozambique: death of President Samora Machel in air crash

  South Africa: government repeals 34 laws and regulations as it begins to abandon apartheid

  South Africa: the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) established by the Nassau Commonwealth summit of 1985 to sound out opinion in South Africa quits the Republic when Botha orders cross-border raids into Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe

  World Bank report: Financing Adjustment and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1986-90

  1987 Angola: battle of Cuito Cuanavale (into 1988) in south of country involving South African and Cuban forces destroys myth of South African superiority

  Tunisia: Gen. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali replaces 84-year-old Bourguiba as no longer competent to rule

  1988 Algeria: rise of Front Islamique du Salut (FIS)

  1989 Egypt: President Sadat assassinated; Hosni Mubarak president

  Ethiopia: military coup against Mengistu fails

  South Africa: Botha has stroke; F. W. de Klerk becomes President

  Liberia: Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Front of Liberia launches civil war

  1990s

  1990 End of Cold War

  South Africa: de Klerk unbans ANC and 33 other black political organizations; announces determination to end apartheid (2 February) ; week later releases Nelson Mandela

  Namibia independent (March 21); Sam Nujoma becomes President

  Angola: MPLA government abandons Marxism-Leninism

  UN Secretary-General sends mission to South Africa to report on progress towards dismantling apartheid

  ODA (aid) to Sub-Saharan Africa falls by 21 per cent from 1990 to 1996

  Chad: civil war ends; Hissène Habré flees country; Idriss Deby president

  Ethiopia: Eritrean people’s Liberation Front (EPLF) launches final offensive against Ethiopian forces

  Côte d’Ivoire: Houphouet Boigny (aged 85) wins presidential election after 30 years of continuous office

  1991 South Africa: remaining apartheid laws repealed

  Somalia: Siad Barre quits country as it collapses into chaos

  Zambia: elections – Kaunda is defeated by Frederick Chiluba who becomes president.

  Algeria: first round of elections on 26 December bring FIS close to victory; army cancels second round (due 15 January 1992) which FIS would have won; prelude to civil war (1992-2000)

  1992 Dissolution of USSR removes alternate court of appeal for aid and political systems

  Brazil: Rio Earth Summit on environment

  Mandela addresses UN: calls upon it to lift sanctions because of progress in South Africa

  Somalia: 28,000 US marines deployed in ‘Operation Restore Hope’

  1993 Eritrea independent

  Burundi: civil strife to 2000 kills 200,000

  Côte d’Ivoire: death of Houphouët Boigny ushers in period of political instability

  1994 South Africa: (April 27) first national non-racial one person one vote elections; ANC victory; Mandela becomes President; formation of Government of National Unity

 
Malawi: elections bring an end to Banda’s rule

  Rwanda: extreme Hutus carry out systematic genocide of Tutsis, April to September, 800,000-1 million slaughtered; international community fails to intervene

  1995 Nigeria: execution of human rights protester Saro Wiwa by Abacha government causes international outrage

  Publication of Our Global Neighbourhood

  1996 Somalia: UN withdraws its peacekeeping mission UNOSOM

  1997 Zaire: Mobutu ousted; Laurent Kabila President; country renamed Congo Democratic Republic; country descends into war

  Africa’s Great War; estimated three million casualties (dead);

  Neighbouring states – Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe – become involved in one or other side

  Congo (Brazzaville): civil war

  Zimbabwe: Land Redistribution Act – white-owned farms designated for compulsory purchase

  1998 Border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia – to 2000 – 70,000 Dead

  1999 South Africa: Thabo Mbeki succeeds Mandela as the country’s second black president

  Nigeria: return to civilian rule; Olusegun Obasanjo president

  Côte d’Ivoire: growing divisions between north and south bring the country to the brink of civil war; France sends troops

  2000s

  2000 Sierra Leone: Britain sends troops as peacekeepers in civil war

  Zimbabwe: Mugabe holds referendum to alter constitution; a 55 per cent ‘no’ vote is recorded

  2001 Ghana: elections return John Kufuor for second term

  Democratic Republic of Congo: Laurent Kabila is assassinated (January 16); his son Joseph appointed president

  Nigeria: at Abuja summit the concept of a New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is launched

  2002 OAU dissolves itself; replaced by African union (AU) with greater powers to intervene in individual states in reaction to genocide, ethnic cleansing or abuse of human rights

  2003 Zimbabwe leaves the Commonwealth

  US President George W. Bush visits Africa

  Nigeria: first civilian-run presidential elections since end of military rule; Olusegun Obasanjo elected for second term

  Civil war begins in Darfur region of Sudan

  2004 South Africa: Ruling ANC wins landslide election victory. Thabo Mbeki begins a second term as president

  Gambia: announcement of discovery of large oil reserves

  2005 South Africa: President Mbeki sacks his deputy, Jacob Zuma, in the aftermath of a corruption case

  Namibia: government begins expropriation of white-owned farms

  Kenya: voters reject proposed draft constitution

  2006 Ethiopian troops attack Islamists in Somalia

  China issues its first Africa Policy Paper; President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visit Africa

  Democratic Republic of Congo: first multi-party elections held since independence; Joseph Kabila elected president

  2007 United States Africa Command (US AFRICOM) established

  Togo holds first democratic elections

  Somalia: US airstrikes against al-Qaeda suspects and al-Shabab militants; state of emergency declared; UN Security Council approves a six-month African Union peacekeeping mission

  2008 South Africa: President Mbeki resigns over allegations that he interfered in Zuma corruption case

  EU and US widen sanctions against Zimbabwe’s leaders

  2009 South Africa: Jacob Zuma elected as president

  Ethiopia withdraws forces from Somalia

  Rwanda joins the Commonwealth

  Africa’s population reaches 1 billion

  2010s

  2010 Sudanese government and Darfuri rebels sign ceasefire agreement

  Nigeria: President Yar’Adua dies; Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan sworn in as Acting President

  South Africa hosts the World Cup football tournament

  Kenya: new constitution approved in referendum

  Tunisia: street vendor Tarek al-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire in protest over harassment by a municipal official; protests begin

  2011 Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali steps down; Arab Spring protests spread across North Africa

  Egypt: President Hosni Mubarak overthrown; Mohammad Morsi elected president before being ousted; Abdel Fattah el-Sisi elected president

  Libya: Muammar Gaddafi overthrown and killed by rebel forces; civil war ensues

  Nigeria: Acting President Goodluck Jonathan elected president

  South Sudan receives independence

  2012 Northern Mali conflict begins; France sends troops the following year and Islamist forces are defeated

  Central African Republic civil war begins

  2013 Nelson Mandela dies, aged 95

  Gambia leaves the Commonwealth

  2014 Nigeria: Islamic terror group Boko Haram kidnaps 276 schoolgirls

  Tunisia becomes a parliamentary republic

  Burkina Faso: President Compaoré resigns after 27 years in power

  2015 Burundi: rebel forces stage failed coup attempt

  Burkina Faso: after a short-lived coup by the military, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré elected president

  Nigeria: Muhammadu Buhari elected president

  US President Barack Obama visits Kenya, his father’s homeland

  MAPS

  African Nations 2017

  African Independence

  The Congo Crisis (See Chapter Two)

  African Unity and the OAU (See Chapter Three)

  Africa’s Regional Divisions

  Arab North Africa (See Chapter Six)

  The Nigerian Civil War (See Chapter Seven)

  West Africa (See Chapter Eight)

  Equatorial Africa (See Chapter Eight)

  The Horn of Africa (See Chapter Nine)

  East Africa (See Chapter Ten)

  Southern Africa (See Chapters Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen)

  Highways of Southern Africa (See Chapter Thirteen)

  Regional Development Communities (See Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen)

  Strategic Highways (See Chapter Eighteen)

  Proposed Trans-Africa Highway (See Chapter Eighteen)

  War in the Horn of Africa (See Chapter Nineteen)

  South Africa and its Neighbours (See Chapter Twenty-Three)

  The Arab League (See Chapter Twenty-Six)

  Islam in Africa (See Chapter Twenty-Five)

  Areas of Conflict in North Africa (See Chapter Twenty-Five)

  West African Economic Groups (See Chapters Eight and Twenty-Seven)

  South African Destabilisation Tactics (See Chapter Twenty-Nine)

  Africa’s Wars 1952–2000 (See Chapter Thirty-Six)

  Africa’s Great War (See Chapter Thirty-Seven)

  The Commonwealth in Africa (See Chapter Thirty-Eight)*

  * Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth in 2003, followed by Gambia in 2013. Rwanda joined in 2009.

  A Geographical Map of Africa

  PROLOGUE

  1945

  THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR II

  When World War II came to an end in 1945 the European colonial powers thought to resume business as usual in their empires; but this was not to be. Huge changes in the world’s power structures were about to take place while the climate in which the maintenance of European empires appeared to be part of the natural political order was disintegrating under a range of new pressures. These included the marginalization of Europe by the emergence of the two superpowers, the coming of the Cold War and, everywhere, nationalist demands for independence. Moreover, much of the groundwork necessary for the transition to independence had been laid during the war even though this had not been the intention. Britain may have fought its last imperial war, as historians were later to suggest, but it was the last imperial war in more senses than one.

  When the war began in 1939 the African empires of the European powers were intact and few colonial administrators or politicians of the metropolitan countries had given much tho
ught to the possibility of African independence or, if they had, it was in vague terms of a long-distant future. The war was soon to change such perceptions; indeed, it would call into question the very existence of colonialism:

  In the first place, the spectacular reverses suffered at the beginning of the war by the two main colonial powers effectively destroyed their semiconscious assumption that they had a natural right to rule the ‘uncivilized’ world. In Africa this assumption had been strengthened by a widespread acceptance of it even among the natives – to the extent at least that white power was assumed to be invincible.1

  The collapse of France in 1940 dealt a massive blow to French prestige in Africa, and the struggle for colonial loyalties that followed between the Free French and the Vichy regime did not help. And though black Africans rallied to France’s defence, the relationship between the French and their colonial subjects had been profoundly altered: ‘But the realisation that she actually needed their help, that they were no longer being lectured like children but appealed to as brothers, was clearly going to make it difficult to retain an authoritarian system of government after the peace.’2 From 1940 onwards progress for a French imperialist ‘would imply closer integration with the mother country, and political maturity would mean not the rule of Africans by Africans – which after all had existed before the imperial power arrived – but the participation of Africans as Frenchmen in the government of a greater France.’ Or so, for a while, it was to seem.3

  The crisis for the British came early in1942 with the fall of their impregnable, as they thought, bastion of Singapore to the Japanese. This was not just a traumatic defeat but, far more significantly, the defeat of whites by non-whites. The Times described the fall of Singapore as ‘the greatest blow, which has befallen the British Empire since the loss of the American colonies… British dominion in the Far East can never be restored – nor will there be any desire to restore it – in its former guise.’ Moreover, another blow to imperialism in Asia, the bulk of the Asian populations remained spectators from start to finish of the war while Churchill, the arch-imperialist, was obliged to promise independence to India in return for its co-operation during the hostilities. The fact that Britain, though battered, had not been invaded by Germany and was carrying on the war made it easier for it to call for assistance from its imperial subjects to help save the Empire. Ironically, the response of many Africans to this call ensured that after the war the empire was doomed since, during the course of the struggle, Britain had forged an instrument for its termination by teaching its black soldiers the nationalism essential to its demise. Another factor arising out of the war was the rapid increase of British demand for colonial products – for example, spices from Zanzibar to replace those normally imported from the Dutch East Indies, which had been overrun by the Japanese. The added flow of money to the colonies that resulted became an extra source of confidence for the breed of new nationalists that was emerging.