On February 3rd 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made a famous speech to the South African parliament about the inevitable rise of independence in Africa. This “wind of change” speech as it has gone down in history was a formal acknowledgement of the end of colonial rule. Among other things, Macmillan said:
“The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.”
Macmillan spoke in his capacity as leader of one of the strongest and most influential colonial powers in Africa – Britain. His speech would therefore appear as the end of an ugly chapter in Africa’s history and the beginning of a new era of freedom for Africa. But in truth it was not. This speech was a hypocritical verse from beginning to end, and like British colonialism, the entire purpose of this speech was to conceal the double standards with which Britain ruled Africa.
The Wind of Change and the Reality of British Colonialism
Macmillan was very right in recognizing the surge of nationalism in Africa but he lied blatantly when he said “... our national policies must take account of it.” From the year of his speech until 1980, Britain held Zimbabwe hostage for twenty long years. This British colony only obtained independence after a bloody liberation war that lasted for fifteen years.
In the same South Africa where Macmillan made his speech, apartheid had become firmly institutionalized. Its victims were Africans and non-whites while the perpetrators of this system were whites of British and European descent. The survival of apartheid until 1994 was thanks largely to the support of Britain which openly flouted United Nations sanctions against the racist regime in Pretoria.
The Emptiness of Macmillan’s Speech
In view of the chaotic politics of the 1960s, Macmillan completely failed to address the pertinent issues of the day. He spoke neither of the enslavement of Africans, nor racism, nor apartheid nor the seizure of African lands. He failed completely to even talk about the fate of the new nations that were struggling to graduate from colonial bondage. Above all, he struggled to hide the brutal nature of colonialism.
Instead, Macmillan exalted the white men in South Africa who held Africans in chains under apartheid. He even went as far as crediting the civilized Europeans for Africa’s independence. The premier exalted his white colleagues in the following words:
“... You are sprung from Europe the home of nationalism. Here in Africa, you have yourselves created a free nation. ... This tide of national consciousness which is now rising in Africa is a fact, for which both you and we, and the other nations of the western world are ultimately responsible.”
How Macmillan was Proven Wrong
By crediting Europe for the rise of nationhood and nationalism in Africa, Macmillan was propagating the same doctrine of European superiority against African inferiority which was the motto of colonialism. The liberation wars that followed after Macmillan’s speech in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe revealed that Europe was neither happy nor ready for African independence.
In his book The Wretched of the Earth, political activist Frantz Fanon completely reverses Macmillan’s theory of European contribution to African nationalism. In Fanon’s words “the well-being and progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat and dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs ....” Fanon contends strongly that “Europe is Africa’s creation.”
Unlike Macmillan, Fanon painted the true picture of colonialism in the following words. “Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state and will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”
The “wind of change” was therefore not a gift from Europe as Harold Macmillan made the world to believe. It was the outcome of the struggle between European oppression and African resistance. Fanon again says of this “colonialism only loosens its hold when the knife is at its throat.” This was the right interpretation of the “wind of change.”
See Also: Frontline States and the Struggle against Apartheid
Sources
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth, 1961
Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, 2005
Tongkeh Joseph Fowale - Tongkeh Joseph Fowale is a post graduate student of International Public Affairs at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome - Italy.
