Nationalism and Nationalist Movements

One great problem of nationalism in Africa is that virtually all national boundaries in Africa were imposed by European colonizers. Therefore, any decolonizing national movement must confront these boundaries and determine whether to retain them or to follow some other guideline in determining national limits. Often, the boundaries imposed by Europeans were determined or strongly influenced by geographical factors. Particularly in West Africa a quick glance at a map shows that national boundaries relate to watersheds.

But the word “nation” implies a community of birth, a common ancestry, which often is not present. Ethnic rivalries and divisions were small concerns in the European division of Africa, but in the business of decolonization these rivalries and divisions could become forefront issues, bringing about in some cases the redrawing of national boundaries. Common experience of colonial oppression might not be sufficient to form a unified national identity.

Franz Fanon, based largely on his experience of the decolonization of Algiers, argued in his 1963 The Wretched of the Earth that decolonization is a naturally violent act, and that the violence of decolonization is not even a regrettable necessity, but a psychologically positive effort which fundamentally heals the oppressed, and which makes, in Fanon's frequent phrase “the last first”. Fanon's argument won broad support in African nationalist movements.

Fanon also argued that individuality was a notion imposed by colonizers which decolonizers could not afford to adopt. Since all with rise or be killed as one, egoism or individuality must be abandoned in the quest for national liberation. This resonates strongly with the East African emphasis on Umoja.

But what constitutes a “nation”, and to what degree is it possible to forge a “national identity” out of the colonial experience? Such an identity would seem to be more negative than positive. Why should the pre-colonial experience be forgotten, and yet at the same time, how can it be reclaimed without reviving rivalries that will set back the people of a “nation” unduly?

Pan-African movements modelled on Pan-Arab movements might be an answer, but they also create complications of sovereignty and constitution. I must admit that I do not have any clear notions of ways to solve the problem of nationalism that seem realistic. Perhaps regional confederations leading ultimately to the dissolution of national boundaries, something like the experience of Europe, is worth exploration.