True African History

A few weeks ago I started working with some researchers on what I think is an exciting research project.

This research project aims to uncover the motivations and perspectives of British colonial officials during the decolonisation African countries in the 1950s-1970s. The project will focus exclusively on primary source analysis, delving into memoirs, autobiographies, official correspondence, reports, private diaries, and letters housed in relevant libraries, archives, and online databases.

The goal is to understand how and why Britain relinquished control of its African colonies, despite the colonies not defeating Britain on the battlefield, the potential for economic gain, and the prevailing imperial mindset of the time.

I think it is largely not clear what really happened when Africa was being decolonised. I mean, put yourself in the colonisers shoes and ask yourself whether it makes sense to give up all of your colonies in a decade or two that you took perhaps centuries and lots of blood and sweat to acquire. It doesn’t make sense. Why did they let go of power?

Moreover, almost everyone who lives in Africa believes in neocolonialism - definitions for this vary but when most people that I know say this, they mean that they believe that, somehow, the colonisers never really left and that many of today’s African problems can be blamed on them. Did they really let go of power? To be honest, I have never really bought this argument as it made me feel like an attempt to use “colonists” as a scapegoat of a given country’s problems instead of attributing it to those in charge. That said, maybe there is something happening behind the scenes between the old colonial masters and the modern greedy African politician?

I suspect that the history around the decolonisation of Africa has been sanitised and whitewashed at least a little bit and that is why I am doing this research. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.