Independence and Pan-African diplomatic contestation: anti-colonial nationalism and the eclipse of white legitimacy in 'British Central Africa', 1957-64

Abstract

The rapid collapse of European empires in Africa transformed the politics of the white settler dominated states at the south of the continent. In what briefly remained ‘British Central Africa’, the rise of sovereign states created a new sphere of political competition between white officials and their anti-colonial nationalist opponents. White authorities, while perturbed by imperial retreat and committed to racial discrimination at home, nonetheless attempted to cultivate the emerging African nations. After some initial diplomatic success in west Africa, increasingly assertive African leaders became more overtly aligned with the cause of African nationalism in Southern Rhodesia, the pre-eminent British settler colony in the region. The presence of white settler officials at African independence celebrations generally became unacceptable. Conversely, the colony’s anti-colonial nationalists, initially excluded from independence ceremonies, quickly became the preferred diplomatic interlocutor at these events. This transformation forestalled settler attempts to establish diplomatic footholds in majority-ruled African states, but also spurred intra-nationalist factionalism. This analysis adds new insights on the rise of white unilateralism, the process by which the ‘wind of change’ reached southern Africa, and underscores the swift radicalisation of pan-African diplomacy.