The Nature of Nationalism in British West Africa

• Author: W.F. Gutteridge
• Published date: 01 September 1958
• Date: 01 September 1958
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295801100309
• Subject Matter: Articles

THE NATURE OF NATIONALISM IN
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
W. F. GUTTERIDGE*
HE
LEADERS of well-established nations with long traditions of
independence are apt to assume that militant nationalism quickly
JL fades away after the achievement of complete self-government by
formerly dependent peoples. This has never been the case. For one thing,
the resentments generated by a struggle for freedom, however peaceful, are
not readily dispersed. For another, there is not infrequently a cultural
mystique surrounding nationalist movements which makes them the reverse
of self-limiting. Such a movement was that by which the Greeks, with the
memory of classical glories, freed themselves from the authority of the
Ottoman Empire. The legacy of their struggle was an irredentist national-
ism of which the disagreement over the future of Cyprus has been for some
years the most pressing manifestation.
Where new nations for some reason, valid or otherwise, suppose their
independence to be incomplete, their spirit is likely to remain aggressive,
particularly if there are external forces interested in fomenting hostility.
Such has been the case with Egypt and, with chaotic results, in Indonesia.
Even in relatively settled areas with few problems, such as Ceylon, nation-
alist sentiments remain strong and take the practical forms of finally ex-
cluding British bases, of eliminating foreign nationals as far as possible from
positions of responsibility and of agitating for the nationalization of British-
owned tea plantations. Clearly the relations of such countries with Europe
and America have been conditioned by the circumstances in which inde-
pendence was achieved and especially by the, nature of the movement which
achieved it.
Events moved so rapidly in the two or three years after the war that in-
telligent anticipation of future diplomatic requirements was not possible.
Now in British African territories, at any rate, political development is
planned far enough ahead to make it possible, with the help of extensive
experience in Asia in this field, to foresee the difficulties which may arise in
the post-independence period. The economic progress of undeveloped terri-
tories is a matter of concern for the entire &dquo;free&dquo; world and it is important
to consider the acceptable means by which aid and capital investment can
continue. This cannot be determined without an understanding of the
sensitive points of nationalist sentiment. In the case of British West Africa,
the matter is of some urgency: the appearance in March, 1957, of an inde-
pendent Ghana and the publication on the same day of Dr. Nkrumah’s
own account of the process by which it came about provide the spur and
to some extent the material for the making of a proper assessment.
* Camberley, England.
574

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575
The book written by the first Prime Minister of Ghana is notable more
for the assumptions which it makes than for its analysis of the psychology
of nationalism in this context. Nowhere - and this is not surprising -
does
he question the right of his own political group to assume power. The chief
characteristisc of West African communities today, as ever, is that they are
not truly homogeneous and that the rate of the development of their dif-
ferent parts is so uneven. Literacy, for instance, is still confined to about
one-quarter of the population of Ghana, but, even so, the educational
facilities so far provided, originally exclusively by missionaries, have been
sufficient to cause a revolution. This has been immense enough to justify
the British government in handing back power to a different indigenous
group from that from which it was taken in the first place.
The assumption must be, then, that colonial rule tends of itself to pro-
mote not only political evolution, but a definite social revolution with politi-
cal consequences. This revolution has, in West Africa, led to rivalries
which, after independence is fully achieved, are likely to be the basis of
political parties with respectively progressive and conservative tendencies.
Such a process occurs because British colonial rule affects all aspects of the
life of a dependent community: it influences local attitudes towards social
and economic as well as political problems. The results are that the whole
pattern of life, except in the most remote parts of a colony, changes, new
classes spring up and wealth and power are redistributed. It is not that the
institutions and atmosphere of the imperial power’s own modus vivendi are
reproduced, but that an Af ro-European blend appears which is bound in
the end to replace, for good or ill, the ancient tribal traditions.
In these circumstances it is customary to remark that nationalism is a
force or concept deriving in the first place from the frustrations and ambi-
tions of only a tiny minority of the population -
an educated class or intel-
ligentsia created by British or other imperial rule. The implication is that
they are not truly representative of the mass of the people and that perhaps
in some way they ought to be by-passed. At one time...