Introduction

African organisations and protest went through a process of evolution which began with what Michael West has labelled the proto-nationalist period between the two world wars, and went through the national moment from 1945 to 1948 to end with the nationalist moment from the late 1950s onwards. The first phase can be said to have started after the defeat of the Mapondera military uprising in 1900. Mapondera was a Shona chief who tried, unsuccessfully, to regain control of his territory in Eastern Zimbabwe by attacking colonial installations and personnel in the area. Thereafter, it was not until the 1960s that Africans took up arms again to try and dislodge colonial rule. Until then, they employed less confrontational ways of challenging the status quo. In this phase, a sense of nationalism was yet to develop, even though anti-colonial resentment simmered under the surface, and Africans took various initiatives to mobilise and organise themselves around specific interests.

For the emerging small mission-educated African elite, the focus was more on promoting their group interests, such as the right to vote, than on speaking on behalf of the African population as a whole on political matters. Because they had little mass support, they had no bargaining power. Therefore, the colonial authorities could easily ignore their demands. In any case, as has been argued, at this time, the African elite were not really interested in the destruction of colonialism, but were, rather, requesting that they also be accommodated among the colonial elite, as educated Africans. Thus, they were not demanding self-rule but only that they be governed well. It was the failure of the colonial system to respond positively to their requests, combined with the impact of the Second World War on African political consciousness, which eventually radicalised the African political leadership. The immediate post–Second World War period saw a quickening of African protest, dominated by two major workers’ strikes, followed thereafter by the rise of radical mass African nationalism now demanding ‘one man, one vote’ and an end to colonialism. This chapter traces the development of African political consciousness from conquest to the nationalist struggles of the post–Second World War era to analyse the factors that influenced growing African political awareness and the various forms African organisations took.