A description and comparison of the decolonization processes in Algeria and Ghana.

1. Algeria vs. Ghana
DECOLONIZATION BY ISABELLE KUPKA

2. Decolonization
“The process of granting independence
to a colony; refers particularly to the
period after WWII when European
colonies in Africa an Asia achieved
independence. “
Taken from Choices
Taken from PPT lecture

3. Maps
ALGERIA: FRENCH COLONY SINCE 1830
GHANA: UNDER BRITISH INFLUENCE SINCE 1850
BECAME OFFICIAL COLONY IN 1874
Taken from ChoicesTaken from Choices

4. Background
ALGERIA GHANA
COLONIZER France Britain
TYPE OF COLONY Settler colony  France’s
“backyard”
Colonial protectorate until 1874
(used mainly as a strategic trade
region)
TIME UNDER COLONIAL RULE 1830 to 1962 1850 to 1957
TYPE OF RULE Direct rule Indirect rule
TRADE Farming of wheat and production
of whine
Extraction of palm oil, gold, ivory,
cocoa
INITIAL RESISTANCE

5. Life as a colony
GHANA
•British allowed African colonial leaders to take
the roles of colonial administrators 
collaborative elites
•Introduced new techniques and procedures to
increase trade and maximize control
(railroads)
•Trade: encouraged farmers to grow cocoa,
which soon became one of the top exports
•Cause for frustration: profits from trade were
now British and Africans had a weak presence
in the government'Selling Indian corn in the streets of Cape Coast Castle'

6. Dissatisfaction in the Gold Coast
•Ghana’s relationship with Europe had brought up a
generation of merchants, traditional leaders, and
professionals (doctors, lawyers, teachers) who where
in contact and understood Western culture and
politics
•Ultimate government power was held by the British
governor and population felt like they had no political
role because of the indirect rule system
•British counter argued that they did allow the
traditional leaders to voice the people’s opinion in
the government  collaborative elites
•Dissatisfaction led the professionals to turn to
newspapers, petitions and appeals as a fight for their
rights
Gayatri Spivak: the subalterns have no voice
Spivak argues that during the time of
decolonization, the subalterns, or the
colonized, had no power to speak up against
their oppressing colonialists. In Ghana, most of
the population had no voice in the politics of
the country. The traditional leaders that the
British claimed spoke for them were actually
collaborative elites who were expected to keep
British colonial interests in mind. The Africans
were only about to gain a louder voice later on
in the 19th and 20th century when the number
of educated Africans in Ghana began to grow.
The means of newspapers became extremely
important in Ghana so that the “subalterns”
were able to speak and be heard.

7. Life as a colony
ALGERIA
•French invaded because they wanted to increase
trade, spread their culture and religion, and
respond to diplomatic tensions with the Algerian
ruler
•Administrated the country as province, not
colony
•Wide range of European settlers migrated and
became farmers, mostly for wheat and whine
•Cause for frustration: by the 1930s, deep
segregation between Algerians and settlers could
be noticed. French though to have a superior
culture and saw the Algerian Muslims as
“primitive”
“Aerial view from 1935, showing the juncture of the
casbah (on the right) and the French quarters
(on the left). The intersection is marked by Boulevard
Gambetta (now Ourida Meddad), the Grand Theater,
and Place d'Aristide Briand (now Square Port Said).”

8. Deeper into Algerian segregation…
•Muslim Algerians were to be called “subjects” unless they
stopped believing in and following Islamic rules, only then
would they be acknowledged as citizens
•If the “subjects” were caught ill-mouthing the French
government or mistreating colonial officials, they were to
receive harsh punishment
•1930s:
• Colonial policies divided Algerian land allowing settlers to buy
out most of the fertile land
• Extreme migration to France and Algeria’s towns and cities by
Muslim Algerians looking for jobs in settler farms for low wages
 country was overcome with poverty, hunger, and
malnutrition
Gayatri Spivak: the subalterns have no
voice
Spivak argues that during the time of
decolonization, the subalterns, or the
colonized, had no power to speak up
against their oppressing colonialists. In
Algeria, the European settlers – in a
population of about one million – used
their political advantage to suppress
the native population. Besides the
constant racism, discrimination, and
continuous disadvantages the
“subjects” were faced with, the French
also made it difficult for them to
become “citizens”. They opposed any
attempts to increase Muslim rights.

9. Deeper into Algerian segregation…
•Racism and discrimination allowed an informal
segregation to be enforced and kept Algerians away
from certain places in the city  by 1936: out of 4.5
million people, only 2,500 Muslim Algerians became
“citizens”
• Many Algerian did not accept French rule, but many
viewed themselves as French too
•European settlers were deeply fond of Algeria and
perceived it as their homeland. Unlike French
politicians, settlers usually wanted nothing to do with
Muslim Algerians and depraved them of their rights as
citizens.
Benedict Anderson: imagined communities
“[the nation] is imagined as a community, because,
regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that
may prevail in each, the nation is conceived as a deep,
horizontal comradeship. Ultimately, it is this fraternity
that makes it possible, over the past two centuries for
so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as
willing to die for such limited imaginings.” In Algeria,
although ruled by the French by centuries, Muslim
Algerians were not able to assimilate with the
Europeans. Especially because of the threat the French
posed to their religious habits, eventually Algerians
created an imagined community which brought people
together in spirit of revolution. For the settlers, their
imagined community was one that did no include the
original inhabitants of the land they colonized. This
community allowed them to think that they were the
superiors and held the right to rule over the Algerians.

10. World- System Theory
• Britain
• France
Core
• India
• South Africa
Semi-
Periphery • Ghana
• Algeria
Periphery
High profit consumption goodsCheap labor and raw materials
High profit consumption goods
Cheap labor and raw materials

11. Non-violent resistance in Ghana
•Africans began forming political parties, such as the
National Congress of British West Africa (made up of
representatives from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
and Gambia) and began forming religious, ethnic,
and literary societies  but only a minority was
involed
•The majority of the population supported traditional
leaders, who although obligated to gratify British
requests, did organize resistance in the best
interests of Ghana
• 1937: traditional leaders organizes a boycott of selling
cocoa to foreign companies, disturbing heavily the
economy
•Although this system seemed to put educated
leaders of political parties and traditional leaders
against each other, around the 1930s and 1940s
they united forces in name of a revolution and
eventually independenceBoycott and protest organized by traditional leaders

12. Violent resistance in Algeria
•Resistance stemmed from religion, it “allowed
Algerians to assert an identity and cultural pride
outside of the colonial system” (Choices 41)
•French wanted to suppress uprisings through
suppressing religion  rebellion in 1871 led to
decrees censoring Arabic as a foreign language,
regulating pilgrimage to Mecca, and controlling
Islamic schools
•1920s and 1930s: various nationalist groups
formed in Algeria and France
•1940s: groups were demanding independence,
even by force if required
•The Algerian War began in 1954 and lasted eight
years Scene from the movie Battle of the Algiers, which depicts the
guerrilla warfare during the Algerian independence

13. Ghana: Explanations
International Explanations:
• WWII: Africans who returned from the war and were presented with
unemployment and economic difficulties joined the political parties to put
pressure on the colonial government
• AJP Taylor Continuity Theory because of the nationalistic ideals and
decolonization murmurs all over Africa, Ghana also began entertaining the idea
National Explanations:
• Creation of the UGCC, United Gold Coast Congress, in 1947. A joined group of
traditional leaders, wealthy business men, and professionals that were appealing
for self-government and gradual development.
• There was a cause for national commotion when Kwame Nkrumah split from the
UGCC to create the CPP, Convention People’s Party, calling for immediate self-
government.
Metropolitan Explanations:
• Economic distress and inability to pertain in an active political role in the
government made educated professionals extremely unsatisfied, which began to
rile up an nationalist ideal to strive for independence.
Eric Hobsbawm: recrudescence of local interests
and ideals
According to Steven Kemper, “Hobsbawm
speculates that nationalist movements derive from
‘middle peasants’ seeking to preserve a threatened
way of life and their own advantage or that the
state mass produced tradition for the sake of its
own legitimacy.” In Ghana, new ideas of a
betterment in living conditions for the population
is occurring, especially for those familiar and
educated in Western culture. These former
peasants or middle class now want something
more for themselves and the an opportunity in
self-government to ameliorate their lives and that
of the people. This new-found nationalism stems
from their own desire for improved lives mixed
with nationalist and decolonization ideas
flourishing all over Africa at the time.

14. Algeria: Explanations
International Explanations:
•WWII Algerian nationalist groups made use of the end of fascism to set up movements voicing their aspiration for the
end of colonialism
•1954: France lost the nine-year war in Indochina and was facing revolutions in Tunisia and Morocco too. The Algerians
saw this as a sign and opportunity to also rise up against the European empire.  AJP Taylor Continuity Theory
National Explanations:
•Violent revolts by the Algerians that targeted European settlers were rebutted by the massacre of Algerian citizens by
the French police. Soon enough, the deaths became a reason for national outrage and the thirst for independence.
•The creation of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) led the country into the Algerian War, which put Algerian
militants against the French army, white settlers, and anyone who stood in name of France.
Metropolitan Explanations:
•Algerian population was being discriminated against and had no right to speak in front of the government or in any
political role. Ideologically, the dissatisfaction gave birth to intense and violent nationalism which motivated people into
risking their lives for independence.

15. Finally independent
GHANA
•1950: CPP began upholding strikes and demonstrations for
immediate self-government, some of which turned violent
•Kwame Nkrumah was arrested and released a year after
and elected into the legislative council as “leader of
government business”(somewhat like a prime minister)
•Over next five years “political reform gradually led to a
new government in which power was held by elected
Africans.” (Choices 29)
•Many opposed the CPP centered government that was
being built
•1956: British called for another election to ensure CPP still
had majority support the had 57% of the votes
•March 6, 1957: Gold Coast became the independent state
of Ghana with Kwame Nkrumah as prime minister

16. Finally independent
ALGERIA
•FLN and French massacres of each other were under
extreme international criticism
• Most infamous example of the guerrilla warfare that
happened between both forces was in the capital, Algiers,
from 1956 to 1957 and which resulted in “one million
Algerian casualties and tens of thousands of settlers and
French soldiers dead” (Choices 42)
•Ceasefire with the FLN was negotiated in March, 1962
• Violence continued even after the ceasefire between
settler groups and the FLN leading into thousands
more deaths
•Algeria gained independence: July 3, 1962
•Elections were held and the first Algerian president
was chosen: Ahmed Ben Bella

17. Further Insight
Frantz Fanon: nationalism is paradoxical to
liberation
“National identity, while vital to the
emergence of a Third World revolution,
paradoxically limits such efforts at liberation
because it re-inscribes an essentialist,
totalizing, fetishized, often middle-class
specific understanding of “nation” rather than
encouraging a nuanced articulation of an
oppressed people’s cultural heterogeneity
across class lines.” Fanon argues that real
liberation will never be able to exist as long as
there is nationalism. The concept of nation,
even in the new governments of Algeria and
Ghana at the time, proved themselves again
to be class-centric such as the CPP in Ghana
who’s centralization was already being
contested at the time.
A.G. Hopkins: decolonization is a process of globalization
“the study of decolonization need to be extended beyond Africa and
Asia to include the old dominions. The subject needs to become truly
global because, to complete the argument, decolonization was a
response to changes in the process of globalization after the Second
World War.” Both in Ghana and Algeria the process of decolonization
was deeply affected by the international setting of the time. The end of
the second world war inspired nationalist movements in a global scale
and eventually began the decolonization process in Africa, in which
one country followed the other’s example in getting rid of the colonial
government. The global status quo has to be considered when
discussing decolonization, for example, if it were not for the various
wars and uprisings from French colonies at the time, maybe Algeria
would not have had influence and encouragement to lead an uprising
of such proportion. The same goes for Ghana, who had one of its
triggers be the fact soldiers returning from the battlefield of WWII
seemed to be greatly dissatisfied with the situation and confident in
themselves to act for change.

18. Algeria vs. Ghana: So what?
• the process of decolonization of Algeria and Ghana were extremely different
• Algeria: province + previous direct rule + violent resistance
• Ghana: protectorate + previous indirect rule + non-violent resistance
• To analysis of the two cases should be done separately, there should also be a careful analysis
between the two colonizers, Britain and France, who were key in the outcomes of both
occasion
• Independence was eventual for both countries and was bound to happen because of the
status quo at the time
• But in France’s case, international influence was one of the main reasons for them to allow
independence, much more than Britain, because the tragedy in Algeria was being watched
very close by the international society