Founding Leaders of Post-Colonial Africa

Namibia’s Sam Nujoma, the last of a generation across Africa who led their countries to independence from colonial or white minority rule died at the age of 95 on February 8. In March 1990 Namibia became independent from South Africa, a month after the apartheid government released Nelson Mandela. Nujoma served three terms as president from 1990 to 2005.

Sam Nujoma was the founding president of SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation) when it was set up as a liberation movement in 1960. That was the year seventeen colonies in Africa became independent and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan shocked apartheid-era MPs with his “Wind of Change” speech at South Africa’s parliament, saying, “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.” In December 1960, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

While Nujoma campaigned in exile and spoke on behalf of SWAPO at the UN General Assembly, several others came to the limelight as leaders of their newly-independent nations. This quiz examines the complex and sometimes contentious legacies left behind by the founding leaders of post-colonial Africa.

Questions:

1) Amilcar Cabral founded the PAIGC party which carried out a guerrilla movement against Portugal. The PAIGC fought for the independence of two colonies, one on the West African mainland and the other, an archipelago. He was assassinated in 1973 before the two colonies became independent. Name the two countries.

2) Leopold Sedar Senghor was a Catholic who was initially enrolled in a seminary but decided to pursue higher education in France. In 1935 he became the first Black African to obtain the equivalent of a PhD in French grammar at the Sorbonne. He taught linguistics and grammar in schools in France and was a founder of the literary and intellectual Francophone movement known as Negritude, which took pride in Black identity and heritage. He achieved acclaim as a poet in French and was appointed chair of Negro-African languages and civilisation at the French school for colonial administrators. He was the first president of his newly-independent country in 1960 and served until he stepped down in 1980. Which West African country?

3) Felix Houphouet-Boigny became the first Black African to hold a cabinet rank in France in 1956. He led his country to independence in 1960 and remained president until his death in 1993. Houphouet-Boigny maintained close ties with France and focused on agriculture. By the early 1980s his country became the world’s top cocoa producer. It also became the third largest coffee producer. But commodity prices tumbled during his final years, straining the economy and his authority. A period of civil war followed a few years after his death. Which country?

4) This West African country became the the first African colony of France to gain independence in 1958. That year, Ahmed Sekou Toure led a campaign inspiring voters to reject close ties with France in a referendum. Sekou Toure said his country preferred “poverty in freedom to wealth in slavery” and became the first president. He established a one-party state and remained in office until his death in 1984. Rights groups hold his government responsible for the death or disappearance of 50,000 people and the exile of hundreds of thousands of others. Which country?

5) His country became the first in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence from a European colonial power in 1957. He was prime minister and then president. In 1964 the country became a one-party state and he was made president for life. He was ousted in a coup in 1966 (corrected from initial version that said 1964). He was welcomed by Ahmed Sekou Toure and named honorary co-president. He lived in exile until his death in 1972. Who and which country?

6) Seewoosagur Ramgoolam qualified as a medical doctor in Britain. He was the country’s first and only chief minister under colonial rule and led his country to independence from Britain in 1968. He was prime minister until 1982, when his party was defeated in a landslide. He became the first leader of an African state to hand over power after an electoral defeat. His son, also a doctor is now the prime minister. Which country?

7) Milton Margai qualified as a doctor in Britain. In 1927 he opened a village dispensary back home. He served as a doctor for the next two decades, guiding efforts to improve child care and adult literacy. He wrote a primer on midwifery in the Mende language. In the 1950s he took to politics and became health minister and the first chief minister in the final years of colonial rule. He was the first prime minister as the country became independent in 1961. He died three years later and was succeeded by his half-brother Albert Margai. Which country?

8) In his inaugural speech as president after independence from Portugal in 1975, Samora Machel pledged to create the “first truly Marxist state in Africa.” He established a one-party state only to be mired in civil war with rebels backed by apartheid South Africa. Machel was killed in a mysterious plane crash in 1986. Which country?

9) Agostinho Neto was a doctor and poet. He was jailed in Portugal for trying to mobilise students from the colonies against Portuguese rule. After returning home, he became the clandestine head of a pro-independence movement. He was detained and exiled. He returned in 1975 and led his country to independence as the first president. Neto espoused Marxism and was backed by Cuban troops in his efforts to put down rival movements backed by apartheid South Africa and the U.S. He died in in a Moscow hospital in 1979. Which country?

10) Hastings Banda worked in the mines in South Africa and went on to get sponsorship for medical education in the U.S. He had further training in Britain and set up his practice in an impoverished area of Liverpool, followed by London. He returned to his country in 1958 and led it to independence from Britain in 1964. He established a one-party state and was made president-for-life in 1971. Pressure from Catholic bishops and donor countries forced him to hold a referendum in 1993. Voters rejected the one-party state and the next year, Banda was defeated in the presidential election. Which southern African country?

11) He was a student of social anthropology at the London School of Economics and his anthropological study of his tribe was published in 1938. In 1952 he was arrested and charged with masterminding an anti-colonial uprising. He was released in 1961 as Britain prepared to hand over power. He was prime minister as the country became independent in December 1963. In a year he remained in charge as the country moved to a presidential system. The main opposition party merged with his party, effectively making the country a one-party state. He cultivated close ties with western powers and remained president until his death in 1978. Who and which country? (his son was later elected president)

12) He was president of his country from independence in 1964 until 1991, when he became the first president in the African mainland to step aside after electoral defeat. Earlier in 1972 he had established a one-party state. He allowed Namibia’s SWAPO and South Africa’s African National Congress to set up their headquarters in his country and opposed apartheid South Africa and white-minority rule in Rhodesia. But the collapse of copper prices in the 1970s undermined his domestic appeal and the country has struggled to tackle high levels of debt ever since. He was eventually forced to hold multi-party elections and lost. Who and which country?

13) He was the first from his country to study at a British university and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He led his country to independence in 1961. Three years later, he was presiding over an expanded country with a new name, after the controversial addition of an island chain. He set up a one-party state and espoused ‘African socialism’, emphasising communal ownership of land and citizens’ mutual obligation towards each other. In 1985, he became a rare African leader of a one-party state to step down voluntarily. Who and which country?

14) Milton Obote was prime minister when this country became independent from Britain in 1962. He suspended the constitution and took over as president in 1966. In 1971 he was overthrown by a one-time protege in a coup. Obote was hosted by the president in the previous question, who saw him as a fellow advocate of socialism. War broke out between the two countries in 1978 and Obote returned to power in 1980. He was again overthrown in a military coup in 1985. Which country?

15) The 2016 film A United Kingdom was based on the inter-racial couple Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, whose marriage angered British colonial authorities, apartheid South Africa and the Church of England. It was also opposed by his uncle, who was serving as the regent of his tribe (his late father had been the chief of the tribe). He was banned for a time from his tribal territory. He returned after disclaiming the chieftainship. He set up a political party and led his country to independence as the first president. Which country?

16) He qualified as a teacher and went to work in Ghana in 1958. Inspired by the speeches of Kwame Nkrumah, he returned home and was jailed. He went on to lead a guerrilla movement. He became his newly-independent country’s first prime minister in 1980. He later became president and held on to power until 2017, when mass protests and a military coup forced him out. Who and which country?