History of Africa - Resistance and Liberation

Good day my readers, I hope this day finds you very well.  February is passing by quickly and the month is winding down.  Today, I am working through the History of Africa Series with Zeinab Badawi.  This is a series that continues to provide an excellent overview of the history of Africa.  Who knew looking for documentaries on the Ancient World would lead me to this delightful series?  Zeinab’s narration is excellent as well.  The episode I am doing today is called Resistance and Liberation and the run time for this episode is 45:11.

Africa is made up of 54 nations that were united by their history despite the diversity of backgrounds.  For the most part, these nations got their freedom peacefully, however, there were times when the struggle for freedom got violent.  Zeinab Badawi looks at how across Africa freedom fighters rose up to fight for freedom in Africa.  She interviews a Mau Mau fighter in Kenya.  A member of the resistance in Algeria’s war for independence.  She talks about the families of Africa’s best-known independence leaders: Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Congo’s Patrice Lumuba, and Senegal’s Leopold Senghor.

The times were changing.  The people were starting to chaff against colonial rule.  The colonial system was a system that was determined to dominate and stamp out the people’s culture.  Nationalism was on the rise and the people were starting to rebel.  Zeinab interviews the grandson of the man who defeated British General Gordon in Sudan.  Sudan’s sovereignty would still be fought over and the Sudanese were defeated.  The Somalians also fought against the British and the Italians.  Ethiopia fought back against the British and the Italians as well. 

Zeinab looks at Emperor Haile Selassie and how he became a symbol of African independence.  She interviews his granddaughter who fondly remembers her grandfather.  I would have appreciated a longer look at Emperor Haile Selassie.  After this, Zeinab looks at Tanzania and how the Tanzanians launched a large-scale rebellion against the Germans.  The German officials were slowly imposing their power on the people and they would rebel against this encroachment.  The people would pay for their rebellion against the Germans.  However, there were instances of collaboration and negotiation too, especially when the interest of the leaders aligned with the colonial powers.  The Kingdom of Buganda allied itself with the British because their interests aligned.  However, this would cause trouble as people would see the Buganda kingdom as having a “favored” status.

World War I and World War II had a huge impact on the social structures around the world and had a big impact on Africa.  These wars would sew the seeds for freedom for Africans.  Zeinab interviews a professor about the impacts of these wars.  The political climate also changed as a result of World War II.  India’s independence also had a huge impact on the resolve of Africans to gain their independence. 

After this discussion, Zeinab interviewed Leopold Senghor.  His uncle lead independence efforts by demonstrating that Africans did have civilization before Europeans colonized the continent.  This should have been explored more.  How else did the Africans resist colonialism?  In what other ways did World War I and World War II have an impact on liberation and resistance movements?  Who else does Zeinab interview on her journey?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more!

This was very fast-paced as Zeinab was trying to provide a snapshot of the battles for sovereignty and freedom.  Sadly, it was too fast which led me to feel like I was bouncing on a pogo stick as Zeinab bounced from one episode to another.  I had to pause and rewind a couple of times.  It was a good primer, or a snapshot as Zeinab put it.  That said, this episode would have been better being broken up into separate episodes.  Maybe an episode on resistance efforts in East Africa and another episode on West Africa.  Or even an episode on resistance efforts and separate episodes on liberation efforts.  I felt like I was missing information about resistance and liberation efforts.  Yet, I will still put this on my list for a documentary to show to a history classroom.  It was a well-done quick snapshot and broad sweep of African history.