The British in Africa [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION THE British rule in Africa is ending. It is over four centuries since William Hawkins, whose descendants still live in Bristol, took out those first ships to Brazil and, homeward bound, made a landing in the Gulf of Guinea. A longer connection than with India, but has it left an equal impression? That can hardly be expected, for Britain has been only one of half-a-dozen colonial powers in Africa. Yet no other nation exercised her rule in so many parts of that great continent, and her influence has accordingly been far more widely-spread than any other. But has it been so deep as that of France, for example? Only the years ahead will provide a certain answer. Here I have tried to analyse, whilst it is all fresh in my mind, what Britain did and what she is leaving in Africa, at the time of her going. It is an analysis based on research and study but, equally, on a close connection over the post-war years with the British-connected territories in Africa and with many of its most significant personalities. In the nature of things, at this point of time, it must be a largely personal appreciation. The final stage of the African emergence has been so rapid, spread over the past ten years, that most of the principal figures at the beginning of that revolutionary decade are still with us. One can enter the Athenaeum on a good day and see five or six former Governors who, so short a time ago, dominated the scene in great African territories. Now seems a good time to reflect on all that they and a host of others meant to Africa. For it is a remarkable story when one begins to piece it together, and to remember the great names. Livingstone and Mungo Park; Chaka and Prempeh and Lobengula; Rhodes and Kruger; Maclean and Guggisberg; Mutesa and Khama; Lugard and Speke. It has all come out very differently from that old Cape-to-Cairo dream. The names of today are Nkrumah and Nyerere, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Banda, Mboya, Kenyatta, Kaunda, Margai, Azikiwe and—not even he British—Welensky. It is what is in 11