NATIONALISM

Nationalism can be defined as a strong feeling of national consciousness and love for one's country to handle its own affairs devoid of foreign control and domination. It can also be defined as a certain form of unity which grows out of historical experience. It is the sense of oneness that emerges through the act of trying to control a nation’s destiny and defending her interest against competing groups.

In other words, it is the strong awareness of belonging to a nation, which leads to the struggle against foreign rule and domination. It is the feeling of national consciousness by the people that they are members of a nation state and desire freedom from colonial rule.

Nationalism in the African context refers to a desire of African people to terminate all foreign rules and live under a government of their own choice so as to preserve their political, economic and social interest.

The hostility against colonial rule was due to the fact that it was hindrance in the struggle for the creation of nation state, hence nationalism was identified with struggle for independence. National consciousness was a gradual process i.e. was not over right phenomena.

Factors That Led to the Growth of Nationalism

 There are two (2) main factors which are:

1. The internal factors.
2. The external factors.

1. The Internal Factors:

1.     Emergence of many young elites: young elites with radical nationalistic movement such as Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Augustino Netto (Angola), Keneth Kaunda (Zambia), J.K Nyerere (Tanganyika), and Kwame Nkurumah (Ghana) Nnamdi Azikwe, H. O. Davies, Obafemi Awolowo, (Nigeria) etc. emerged. These Africans who were educated from colonial school and Missionaries schools contributed to the rise of Nationalism. They mobilised the masses for support during the struggle for independence.

2.     Formation of Political Parties: Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), etc. were formed and they played leading roles in the growth of nationalism in Nigeria.

3.     Absent of Democracy: people had no democracy since colonial government gave no room for colonial subjects to elect their own leader. Example, the Legistrative council had dominated by colonial masters hence discontent among the Africans.

4.     The Influence of Christianity and Establishment of Schools: These made the nationalists realise that all men were actually created equal by God.

5.     Discriminatory Attitude of the Europeans to Nigerians: There was racial discrimination and limited opportunities for Nigerians in the Civil Service.

6.     Economic exploitation: These include intensive economic exploitation exercised in the colonies by the colonialist this ranged from forced labour, taxation, land alienation, bad working condition, low wages, low prices of cash crops, thus Africans had to fight for independence and remove all of these colonial injustices.

7.     The role of Independent African Church movement: These were the churches formed by Africans to challenge European church leaders. The movement was not merely, but also addresses economic, social and political discontent such as land alienation, forced labour, taxation, involvement of Africans in European wars and colonial discriminatory policies.

8.     Development of communication system by 1945: During this period there was a little development of communication system such as Roads, Railways, Newspaper, radios etc. These in turn were used by Africans leaders to awaken nationalism to the masses. Also they facilitated the nationalists to travel from one side/point of a country to another in order to arise political consciousness to the people.

9.     Growth of trade unions: The trade unions were formed by workers as a reaction to their exploitation and oppression under colonialism. The trade unions pressed for their demand through strike also aided the growth of nationalism in Nigeria. There was a general strike in 1945 and this forced the colonial masters to accede to the demands of the striking work force.

10. Social Segregation: Socially, the major social discontent were discrimination, where Africans masses were racially discriminated in all forms of life, in urban areas there were discrimination in education, health, sports and in many other field.

2. The External Factors:

1.     Impact of the Second World War: The war exposed the myth surrounding the whites’ supremacy. The whites were in no way superior to the blacks.

2.     Activities of British Labour Party: The labour party in Britain opposing the conservative parties’ policy on colonialization influenced the growth of nationalism in Nigeria.

3.     Activities of the Pan-African Leaders/Organisation: The activities of the prominent individuals and organisations such as some black American leaders and other blacks in diaspora like Dubois and George Padmore, as well as organisations like West African Students Union (WASTU), Negro World Movement, etc. gave inspiration to Nigerian nationalists.

4.     Economic Depression: The effects of the Second World War included the world’s economic depression and this aided the nationalists in their struggle for political independence.

5.     1) The Effect of the Second World War (WWII): The war led to the intensification of exploitation due to the colonial economic policies introduced in the colonies. This was mainly in agriculture and mining sectors faced harsh treatment such as forced labour and land alienation which led to the wide spread discontent from the Africa.

Also during the WWII Africans from different areas were recruited to fight against the German and the colonialist. They were told that they are fighting for human dignity, justice, equality and right for all people to self-determination. They were also promised that at the end of the war the colonialist will improve the colonial social services and they will be employed and given good salaries. However these promises were not fulfilled hence it in increased frustrations among the Africans where by the some of them took up arms to fight against the whites.

6.     The role played by UNO. UNO was formed after the WWII (1945), and one of the characters of UNO was the “Colonization violated human rights”. Therefore its role was to support decolonization. Its purpose was to maintain international security and peace to different nations. Due to all these objective UNO was against all forms of oppression and exploitation exercised by the colonialists in Africa.

7.     The return of Ex-Service men: the  Ex-Service men who fought along side the white men in the second world war also encouraged nationalist activities. Having fought alongside the white men the concept of white man’s superiority was deflated.

8.     Atlantic Charter: The 1941 Atlantic Charter emphasized the right to self-determination by all the peoples of the world

9.     Indian’s Independence: ) Independence of India in 1947 inspired West African Nationalists in the struggle to stamp out colonialism