1.

Political problems of nation-building

Once African countries became independent, the role of nation-building fell to them. However
there were two main problems that arose. These problems were.
Political

The main problem with nation building in Africa was National unity
o Border conflict the result of the colonial legacy

Ethiopia the northern part of Ethiopia (Eritrea) had been colonised by

the Italians for a while, leaving a distinct Italian-influenced culture behind
which put them at odds with the rest of Ethiopia. This lead to a war of
secession between them and Ethiopia that lasted 14 years.

Cameroon One part of Cameroon was colonised by France and the

other was colonised by the British. At some point they decided that there
ought to be only one Cameroon, which led to tension between the Frenchinfluenced Cameroonians and the British-influenced Cameroonians
(Bamenda).

To exacerbate the problem, Cameroon shares a border with Britishflavoured Nigeria and the British-influenced Cameroonians want to be
part of Nigeria instead of Cameroon.

o Ethnic Conflict People often feel more connected to their ethnic group than
their country i.e. macro-loyalty vs. micro-loyalty and its a very, very big deal
and often leads to attempts at secession.

Nigeria had a similar problem where an area called Biafra attempted to

secede from Nigeria as a whole. It was unsuccessful, the only one to
succeed was Eritrea.

Irredentism The Shona live in both Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but most of them live in

Zimbabwe. At the Somali-Kenyan border, there are many Somalis who live in Kenya. Its
when a diaspora lives in a country different to their counttary of origin and that country
wants to rescue them and bring them back.
Africa vs. the World
The Soviet Union wanted Africa to side with them in the UN and the US wanted the exact
opposite thing and African nations got caught in between in the conflict.
Most countries refused to side with either and assumed neutralism
The president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, said that Ghanaians would support what they
called positive neutrality meaning that they would vote with whoever was chasing something
that was in their own interests. However, if the next day the policies changed to something
that they were not in favour of, they would not vote for them any longer.
Third-world countries including Africa, Latin America and Asia were non-aligned, meaning
that they would not side with the US or the USSR
When some countries, such as Mozambique, were fighting for independence, the USSR
provided them with armaments to fight their colonial masters. Therefore after the war was
done, they decided to side with the USSR and become communist. For these countries, nonalignment meant alignment against imperialism.
In Senegal, they also revisited the concept of non-alignment and said that they were
unaligned against communism.

2. Economic problems of nation-building

Once African countries became independent, the role of nation-building fell to them. However
there were two main problems that arose. These problems were.
Economical

Non-Policy Problems refers to problems that the government is not responsible for
such as drought and other natural disasters.

Policy Problems problems that are the governments fault such as corruption,
o Bad political ideologies (like communism) or ones that are not a good fit for their
countries
o Civil wars, which destroy crops, agriculture and infrastructure

Problems with non-Africans

o Unequal trade After independence, foreign countries started offering African
countries less and less money for their goods.
o One of the solution for the problem was to delink i.e. to stop giving them stuff
(Mozambique and Angola)
o The other solution was linking, which was simply to go on giving them things
(Malawi)
o Negotiation (Nigeria and Kenya)

3. X Number of Afro-American academic institutions that have

contributed to the training of national African leaders. Please identify x
number of African national leaders who were trained in Afro-American
institutions
African-American academic institutions that contribute to future African leaders:

Xavier, Tuskegee, Hampton, Lincoln, Livingston, Howard, etc.

Lincoln University trained Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, Nnandi
Azikwe of Africa was also educated here and liked it so much that he donated money for
a scholarship to that university

Tuskegee University John Chilembwe and Hastings Banda, presidents of Malawi was
educated here

4. X Number of reasons for Afro-Americans developed interest in Africa

Main reasons for interest in Africa:

Once, poor African-Americans want to return to Africa because they dont feel like they
are getting a big enough piece of the economic pie in America as whites

Nowadays, African-Americans feel like they would like to return to Africa to help their
struggling brethren

Some Africans want to return to Africa and create a mighty nation of black people there
o The idea of a mighty African nation is an old one but many African leaders are
too reluctant to relinquish the power they have over their respective countries to
let that happen.

The idea that African-Americans should go to Africa to shape their own reality without
outside influences

The cultural pull of Africa each African country has its own culture but there is still a
typical continental attitude. Some people believe that African Americans should have
African culture and that they should go to Africa to get some more African culture.

African American Organisations with an Interest in Africa

TransAfrica (dedicated mostly to South Africa)

Operation Crossroads Africa

The American Negro Leadership Conference

Congressional Black Caucus

The National Students Support Council for Africa

African-American Peace Corp to South Africa

African Heritage Association

! 5. X number of reasons that contributed to create tensions between

African emigrants and Afro-Americans
Major Sources of Conflict:
Some of the problems that African Immigrants encounter in America are those of:

Mutual prejudice between Africans and African Americans

Identity should you identify as African or as African American?

Mutual jealousy (over money), since African immigrants are proportionally more
educated than any other group and over Africans and African Americans dating and
intermarrying

Money/Salaries/Jobs Africans must often work harder than African Americans to get
the same opportunities

Lingering stereotypes about Africa.

Being raised in a different political socio-economic environment has different effects on

how a person views the world

6. Concept of African literature. Make sure that you identify major

themes of modern African literature

Modern African Lit as opposed to the non-written stories i.e. African Oral Tradition or
Oral/Traditional Literature, used to pass information about cultural values from
generation to generation

Modern Literature is the stuff that Africans began to write after the coming of the
Europeans, usually in a European language. Except for a one guy, Ngugi wa Thiongo,
who wrote in Swahili because he believed that when you wrote an African story in a
European language, you lost some of the flavour.

The main conflict of African literature is this: can a non-African, especially a white
person, write a good African novel

The three major periods of African literature are:

o Colonial period writers used to talk about how much they hated colonialism and
how they were victimised by it and how after independence things would become
better
o Post-colonial period in which writers talked about how terrible and bloody a
place Africa had become after independence. Not everybody benefitted from
independence and got the same privileges.
o Women in Africa in which women in Africa began to retaliate against their
subservient role in African society, since they had fought for independence with
everybody else

For the test, we need to say the period the book belongs to, the author, the name of the
book and a bit about the books subject

7. Identify x number of African writers, their works, and themes of their

works
Colonial
(Amos Tutuola) The Palm-Wine Drinkard 1952 A palm-wine lover goes on a quest find his
dead palm-wine tapster in deads town, only to discover that he cannot bring him back because
the dead are dead
Camara Laye The African Child (French, 1952) Layes life as the son of a goldsmith in a
Muslim village and society
Cheik Kamidou Kane Ambiguous Adventure (French, 1962)
Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (1958) the tragic story of Okwonko, and how his Ibo
village, Umofia, is destroyed by Europeans
Post-Colonial Phase One (1957 1963) in which African writers discuss their disappointment
that the liberated Africa had become a haven for cronyism and nepotism as opposed to what
everyone had hoped for it
Nugugi wa Thiongo Petals of Blood
Chinua Achebe Man of the People
Post-Colonial Phase Two (1970s) in which African writers begin to discuss the
underprivileged groups in society, such as the poor
Festus Ayayie Violence
Jared Angira Cascades
Women At first, most womens books talked about domestic issues, before moving on to
discuss more general issues affecting women, and womens struggle for Africa
Grace Ogot - Land without Thunder
Marjorie Oludhe McCoy - Street Life (French)

8. The impact of Christianity in the socio-economic development of

Africa

Christianity has existed in Africa since time immemorial, the Kenyan theologian and
philosopher, John Mbiti, notes that Christianity has existed in Africa for so long that it
could be considered a traditional African religion

Portuguese Expansion the Portuguese crossed over to Morocco, with the aim of
spreading Christianity to Africa, as well as with the goal of fighting the Moors who might
endanger the Promised Land. They soon began building missions. Lots of missions.

But was the spread of Christianity useful to Africans?

Christianity in Africa has always been intertwined with colonialism and eurocentricism,
hence certain religious figures proclamation of their intent to civilise and Christianise
Africa

Nevertheless, the appearance of the Church in Africa played an important role in social
services such as education and healthcare as clergymen began to set up the first schools,
hospitals and clinics all over Africa, even in the remote, previously inaccessible
hinterlands

These mission schools went on to produce many famous African nationalists, who,
having been schooled by Europeans, knew all about the equality in the eyes of God that
these men preached, but refused to uphold, and as a result viewed Christianity as a tool of
colonialism

The Church also had a problem in that it failed to train a local clergy and adapt to the
culture and practises of Africa, which lead to the chastisement of traditional African
practises, such as polygamy.

Therefore, although Christianity was being practised in Africa, it was still distinctly
European, using European images, songs and languages

Africans began to secede from these churches and start up their own, Africanised
churches, leading to a loss of attendance in mission churches and schools that was almost
90% in some places

9. Major phases of conversion to Islam and the pillars of Islam

Islam
The major phases of conversion to Islam were:

Acceptance of the material cultures i.e. The food, ornaments, and concepts

Formal conversion in the form of the worship of Allah, and acceptance of the ulama
(Muslim scholars)

Integration of Islamic customs including the rituals of circumcision, marriage and death

And the adoption of the Islamic law and the Five Pillars of Islam:
o Acceptance of Allah as God and Muhammad as his prophet
o Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in ones lifetime
o Observation of Ramadan
o Praying five times a day
o Giving alms to the poor

10. The impact of modernisation in the traditional African families

Modernisation of the African Family

Traditionally, the both men and women were farmers and pastoralists, with the men
tending to the land, and the women doing busywork like planting seeds

When Africa became modernised there was a general shift from African families being
self-sufficient farmers and pastoralists, to paid labourers

Men began to move away to the city and doing menial tasks for white people

However, because city life is expensive, and because there are always more workers than
there are jobs, many men were forced to leave their families behind

However, these men did not go away to the city to abandon their roots, but rather to earn
more money to help their family members still living in rural areas

As a result of this the roles of women began to change and they began adopting
traditionally masculine tasks, such as growing crops, in order to compensate for the
absence of men

In some cases these responsibilities can prove too much, particularly with all the men
away at work, and all the children away at school

As a result, Africans have adopted the traditional idea of support in the community, and
have formed migrant associations in their new cities, or a network of friends and relatives
who help them cope with their new living situations

Soon, women began to move to the city as well, working side by side with the men

Men became reluctant to marry women they had met in the city, perceiving them as
loose, and started going back to the country to get married, a problem which is even more
pronounced due to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa

11. Factors/strategies of Islam expansion in Africa

Islam began in with the prophet Muhammad who, after proclaiming himself the last
prophet, began to teach the new religion in Mecca, which is now Saudi Arabia

The new religion was poorly received at first, but at length the Arabs were converted to
Islam by force and through persuasion, through jihad or holy war, an Islamic crusade that
swept across the Middle East with the aim of converting pagans to Islam

Soon, Islamic adherents began to penetrate Northern Africa, penetrating and converting
most of the Maghrib to Islam, although they would not obtain full religious and political
control of the area until the turn of the 16th century

After that Islam spread to the Berbers, and then down to Sub-Saharan Africa through the
desert

The Almoravids, a subset of the Berbers who followed the teachings of Abu Bakr, began
a successful conquest of West Africa in 1076, and though they were tossed out of Ghana
a decade later, Islam had already taken root and then spread to Mali and Songhai.

From here, African rulers began to take up the torch of jihad and began to go on crusades
across the continent, conquering and converting wherever they went.

In East Africa, entrepreneurs and traders sailing from already-Islamic states like Yemen
and Southern Arabia, began to intermarry with the Africans who lived there, cementing
Islam in East Africa where there were no strong states to spread the word of Islam

Oppressive colonial regimes forced Africans to join the religion of their Muslim
neighbours, who had successfully halted colonialism in their areas in the past.

Pax colonica, the peace brought about by colonialism, is believed to have created the
prime conditions for Islam to spread quickly over Africa by improving transportation and
communication.

Others say that pax colonica was not the reason for the spread of Islam, but rather odium
colonicum, or colonial hatred.

This basically says that Africans, unable to cope with the threats posed by colonialism,
turned to Islam as a method of unification and rebellion

This theory hinges on the fact that the most vigorous Islamic expansion took place in
times of upheaval, not times of peace.

On the east coast, one of the most important factors in the rise of Islam were Muslim
brotherhoods

The leaders of these brotherhoods, while not well-educated, were egalitarian, mystically
oriented, self-styled missionaries well-versed in the Quran, which made them very
charismatic figures. They were also healers and charmers, which appealed to the
traditional roots of many Africans

! 12. Describe patrilineal and matrilineal societies

When getting married, lineage is very important to the majority of Africans.

Lineage can be traced either matrilineally (through the mothers side of the family),
patrilineally (through the fathers side of the family), or bilaterally/cognately (both sides)

While cognatic descent is widely observed in the West, in Africa, it is observed only by
tribes such as the BaMbuti in Zaire

For this reason, having a boy is very important, because boys, not girls carry on the
lineage.

Some patrilineal societies are the Tiv and Yoruba (Nigeria), the Swazi (Swaziland), the
Zulu (South Africa) and the Gala (Ethiopia)

In a patrilineal societies, children belong to their fathers family, without exceptions

There is also a preference for arranging marriages between certain pairs of cousins,
usually the children of a brother and sister, to strengthen bonds and to keep wealth in the
family, rather than spreading it out among the younger generation

In patrilineal societies, there are three levels of relation

The first is a mans immediate family, which consists of his wife, or wives, and his
children

If a man has more than one wife, each wife will have her own individual house, even if
they live on the same homestead

Next is a mans lineage, which is made up of people in the same area who can trace their
ancestry back to a common forefather

In many societies, men often live close to their fathers and grandfather and the whole
society becomes focused around a shrine to their common ancestor

Lastly is a mans clan, which consists of all the people in a society who recognise that
they belong to the same kin group, whether or not they can all trace their lineage back to
one person

A man is considered responsible for the actions of his clan

In patrilineal societies, women are traditionally in charge of taking care of the house and
the household, collecting firewood and preparing food

Children also helped with the household work, with the older children taking care of the

younger ones and helping with household chores

Matrilineal societies incule the Yao of Malawi, The Wolof of Senegal and the Bema of
Zambia

In matrilineal societies, a man will most often move in with his wife and her family,
although he may also want to move to live near his sister

Although a society is matrilineal, it will still be male-dominated. However in matrilineal

societies, it is a womans brother, rather than her husband, who will have the final say in
her final affairs

Similarly, it is a womans brother who will belong to the same kin group as her and her
children, not her husband.

The bond between a woman and her brother is considered stronger than the relationship
between a man and his wife, and since there is little property to use as bridewealth,
divorces happen frequently

Matrilineal societies occur mostly in the matrilineal belt of the southern savannah, where
hoe culture is prominent, the land is difficult to farm, and people are far and few between

Matrilineal societies are

! 13. Muslim attitude toward nationalist movements in Africa

Muslims were not in favour of independence because Muslim leaders wanted to retain
control of Muslims in the area

The nationalist leaders called for secular independence

Long standing tension between Arabs and Africans in sub-Saharan Africa

Philosophical dispute over the role of race and colour in nationalist movements

14. The origin and development of non-alignment

The Soviet Union wanted Africa to side with them in the UN and the US wanted the exact
opposite thing and African nations got caught in between in the conflict.
Most countries refused to side with either and assumed neutralism
The president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, said that Ghanaians would support what they
called positive neutrality meaning that they would vote with whoever was chasing something
that was in their own interests. However, if the next day the policies changed to something
that they were not in favour of, they would not vote for them any longer.
Third-world countries including Africa, Latin America and Asia were non-aligned, meaning
that they would not side with the US or the USSR
When some countries, such as Mozambique, were fighting for independence, the USSR
provided them with armaments to fight their colonial masters. Therefore after the war was
done, they decided to side with the USSR and become communist. For these countries, nonalignment meant alignment against imperialism.
In Senegal, they also revisited the concept of non-alignment and said that they were
unaligned against communism.