The Wind of Change, which is the abstract name of the movement for independence throughout the African continent in the 1960s, is one of the most influential events in African history. This is because, after a long time of colonialism on this continent, the nations earned a chance to build their life as they want and develop their country in the desired direction. However, due to the relative youth of political thought, African nationalists faced three main problems that were important to overcome: Apartheid, colonial dependency, and the risk of war among new countries within the continent.
To start with, the main problem on the route of gaining independence from European colonists was the Apartheid. Due to the high pressure on African Americans, society could not think about freedom because it did not even have basic facilities, such as the right to vote. However, this problem was eventually solved mainly by the most iconic person in Africa who was struggling for African American rights: Nelson Mandela (A history of Apartheid, 2019). This relative nationalist became the first president of the African economical driver, which was South Africa. On the other hand, there was a second challenge for African nationalists on the route of independence: the colonial power. This is because even though European countries were having many problems those days, they had the infrastructure influence on the African continent and promised to take all the infrastructural objects back when the nations become independent (Austin, 2019).
This is the only problem that was ignored by African nationalists mainly because they did not have anything to propose. Finally, there was a risk of severe conflicts between warring nations throughout the whole African continent. This is because the national territories were often misled by the national parts, resulting in some land conflicts. From the African nationalists’ perspective, this problem was partially solved by the meeting in 1958 in Ghana, where some independent countries decided to create the Organization of African Unity in the future to unite the continent but not dive into the war (Fleshman, 2010). The meeting was processed earlier than the “Year of Africa” in 1961, where most of the countries gained independence, which was an important part of preventing the war between newly independent countries.
Overall, there were three main problems that African nationalists faced during the movement for independence: Apartheid issue, colonialism obstacle, and the risk of diving in war. They were completely or partially solved by the strong political authorities, such as Nelson Mandela. Even though the countries did not succeed in overcoming all of the obstacles, they gained independence, which was their main objective for a long time.
References
A history of Apartheid in South Africa | South African history online. (2019). SAHO. Web.
Austin, G. (2010). African economic development and colonial legacies. Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement, 1, 11–32.
Fleshman, M. (2010). A ‘wind of change’ that transformed the continent. United Nations. Web.