This paper reviews the introduction and early chapters of Frederick Cooper's Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present, focusing on Cooper's argument that colonialism is the primary catalyst for African nationalism. The paper traces Cooper's analysis from pre-colonial Africa through the era of European colonization by Britain, France, and Italy, and into the post-colonial period following the 1970s. It examines how colonial economic and religious influence complicated African self-determination, and how African states ultimately coalesced around a shared desire for sovereign nation-states free from outside rule — a tension illustrated by contrasting events in Rwanda and South Africa in 1994.
The introduction to Frederick Cooper's Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present asserts that unless one has thoroughly researched African history, or has lived in Africa, it is nearly impossible for an outsider to chronologically organize all of the events that have happened within its borders in order to arrive at any clear statement about nationalism. Cooper opens his book with the ideas of colonialism — pre-colonialism, colonialism, and post-colonialism — and how that progression shaped Africa as it exists today, and how it continues to influence Africa as a nation together, a nation divided, and a nation struggling to define itself.
Cooper's book addresses nationalism within Africa and how Africa came to rest at its current (as of 1994) climate of dualism: between tribal bloodshed in Rwanda and the victorious election of President Nelson Mandela in South Africa (1). Cooper takes the reader back — even as far as the 1700s — to a period when Africa was being colonized by several countries, including Britain, France, and Italy.
Few of the African states seen today remained independent during the colonial era. Instead, they became heavily influenced by their colonizers' religion (Christianity or Catholicism), economy, and even racism (12–14). The colonizers themselves struggled with how to label, organize, and segregate the peoples of Africa, pushing forward through what they characterized as "tribalism" while simultaneously exerting both overt and subtle influence on the continent's delicate economic climate (12–14).
This colonial transformation reshaped African societies at every level, leaving legacies that would complicate African attempts at self-governance long after formal colonial rule ended. The intertwining of foreign religious institutions, imported economic structures, and racially coded administrative systems created layers of identity conflict that persist into the post-colonial period.
Loosely defined, nationalism means "a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms." African states found themselves in conflict over which state would represent Africa to the world, since so many of the states differ so greatly in language, religion, and tribal composition — not to mention the various cultural imprints left by their respective colonizers.
Cooper asserts early on that colonialism is the primary catalyst for nationalism within Africa's borders. Although Africans could not agree on which state should represent Africa as a nation, they could agree that they did not want to be ruled by colonizers. Instead, they wanted their own "nation-states, each with its own flag, passport, stamps, currency and other symbols of sovereignty, and its seat in the United Nations, its claims to regulate and to tax production and commerce within its borders" (14–15). Cooper goes on to argue that in post-colonial Africa, the desire is to rule with all of one's cultural past intact while moving beyond the bonds of colonialism — making, in a sense, pre-colonialism and post-colonialism meet in the middle (15).
"1950s protests demand African economic participation"
"Post-1970s independence and the challenge of nationhood"
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