Unajua? – Many independence wars started off as peaceful resistance movements in Africa.
Resistance movements in Africa were part of the African independence movements that brought the end of colonial rule and imperialism in Africa.
Get a list of 9 Independence Movements in Africa here
Africans had many reasons to resist imperialism. This article gives you 5 causes of resistance movements in Africa, by giving you examples of African resistance movements.
Psst! There were always more than one cause for these movements, events like World War I and political turmoil in imperialist countries greatly affected African resistance movements.
Click to Read: African Independence Movements in Summary
5 Causes of Resistance Movements in Africa During Imperialism
MUHTASARI
Africans had many reasons to resist imperialism on their land because they have the right to freedom.
Why were African resistance movements usually unsuccessful?
Early African resistance movements were usually unsuccessful because European imperialists fought with stronger weapons like guns and cannons. However in the end, resistance movements led Africans to independence.
How did Africans resist European imperialism?
Africans usually resisted European imperialism in two ways: nonviolently, by way of protests and strikes, or by taking up arms in wars and rebellions like the Mau Mau War.
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Context
At the Berlin Conference (1884-85), leaders of 7 European imperialists countries, including Britain and France, decided to take control of Africa and Africans for themselves.
Imperialism brought a lot of problems to the lives of Africans. At the time imperialists believed the lie that Africans were racially inferior to Europeans.
>>>> You Can click here for a Brief History of Africa
Some 80 years after the Berlin conference most of Africa was free at last from imperialism thanks to the years of resistance movements in Africa.
This article is all about Resistance Movements in Africa
1. Cause of Resistance Movements in Africa: Violence
There were resistance movements in Africa because of the violence Africans suffered from imperialists.
Violence in colonial Africa often took place in the context of forced labour like in the Congo Free State where African workers were killed for not harvesting enough rubber. Africans were also attacked for breaking unjust colonial laws, like the ones in apartheid South Africa, other times it was for no reason at all.
Some of the violence that took place in conflicts like the Herero Wars and Maji Maji War were so terrible that today historians see them as genocides.
Click here to learn about 9 resistance movements in Africa (like the Maji Maji War!)
#1 African Resistance Movement
Algerian War (1952-1963)
One of the causes for the Algerian War was the violence Algerians suffered because of French imperialists.
The 1945 Sétif massacre, where 6,000 to 45,000 civillians were killed by French forces, is said to have been an important cause of the Algerian War.
In 1830, Algeria became an official département of France, but Algerians were not treated as equal citizens. During French rule in Algeria more than 100,000 Algerians died because of war, massacres, diseases and famine.
Algerians resisted imperial rule throughout France’s control of the country until the eventual independence of Algeria in 1962, after the long and bloody Algerian War which was lead by the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN).
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
2. Cause of Resistance Movements in Africa: Loss of Land and Forced Removals (Land Alienation)
During imperialism countless Africans got their land taken by colonialists, or settlers, while Africans had to move elsewhere (often to reserves) usually because their land had fertile ground or was in a strategic location for the imperialists.
Around 1,000,000 European settlers, aka Pied Noirs lived in Algeria during imperialism, for that to happen, Algerian land was taken. In South Africa the Natives Land Act of 1913 meant that Africans were moved by force from their lands to homelands and townships which still affect the population today.
Forced removals happened especially in East and Southern Africa. By resisting imperialism in movements like the Mau Mau War, Africans fought to get their land back.
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#2 African Resistance Movement
Mau Mau War (1952-1956)
The two main reasons Kenyans fought in the Mau Mau War was to get their land and freedom back from Britain.
During colonialism Britain took away the land of Kenyans and moved them by force to reserves, and around 1,000,000 of them were sent to what were “little more than concentration camps”.
The Mau Mau War was an African resistance movement lead by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) and lead by Dedan Kimathi, who like the African nationalist Jomo Kenyatta wanted Kenya’s freedom from imperialism.
Very Real List of resistance movements in Africa
Matson Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
3. Cause of Resistance Movements in Africa: Forced Labour
Imperialism in Africa meant that people, including children, were forced to work in dangerous places where they were overworked, with no pay and exposed to diseases.
The Congo-Océan Railway was built with forced labour (today Congo-Brazzaville). French imperialists made people from as far as Chad and the Central African Republic build the railway using only simple hand tools to cut trees and break rocks. Over 17,000 people died building the Congo-Océan Railway.
Imperialist countries had systems around Africa for forced labour like the Corvée (French and Belgian) and the Chibalo (Portuguese) systems.
To end forced labour, Africans resisted imperialism like at the Kongo-Wara War.
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#3 African Resistance Movement
Maji Maji War (1905-1907)
The Maji Maji War happened because Tanzanians did not want to grow cotton for German imperialists.
Germany, like other imperialist countries, really needed African forced labour to build infrastructure like roads and plant cash crops like cotton. But Tanzanians rarely got paid for their work.
The Maji Maji War was led by people like its leader Kinjikitile Ngwale, who did not want Germans to rule Tanzanians. After the war there was a famine, called Ukame, caused by German Governor von Götzen which killed over 75,000 Tanzanians.
Collection particulière, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
List of 10 African Nationalists To Know About < over here
4. Cause of Resistance Movements in Africa: Unwanted Government (Political illegitimacy)
A major reason for resistance movements in Africa during imperialism is that Africans did not want Europeans to rule them, plain and simple!
Africans, like Emir Abdelkader, have resisted European imperialism from the start like during the Anglo-Zulu Wars, the Anglo-Ashanti War and the famous and successful Battle of Adwa.
Many resistance movements in Africa worked to end imperialism in a peaceful way. Groups like the National Congress of British West Africa organized actions like the The Nigerian General Strike of 1945.
Resistance movements in Africa happened until Africans were free from imperialism, even when it took 13 years like the Portuguese Colonial War.
9 Major Independence Movements To Go Study ASAP (no Rocky)
#4 African Resistance Movement
Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974)
The Portuguese Colonial War happened in the modern-day (and far from each other) countries of Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
In Portuguese Africa there was loss of land, forced labour (Chibalo) and the transatlantic slave trade. Africans did not want Portugal to rule them.
Most African countries became independent in the 1960s but the Portuguese African colonies only became independent about 15 years later, thanks to the Portuguese Colonial War led by african nationalists Holden Roberto, Amílcar Cabral and Samora Machel from the FNLA, PAIGC and FRELIMO.
Collectie Wereldmuseum (v/h Tropenmuseum), part of the National Museum of World Cultures, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
5. Cause of Resistance Movements in Africa: Africa was not ruled by Africans
During imperialism, Africans did not rule themselves and they were not represented in the government, unless they were loyal to imperialism.
Africans did not have the right to vote in the colony or in the imperialist country. In a few colonies Africans could become naturalized but only by rejecting their culture and religion like in French Algeria.
Sometimes, like in Senegal, the government let some Africans in if they rejected their culture and took on imperialist(ic) values but the power stayed European. Other times, imperialist governments would ban some people and groups from politics like in Portuguese Angola, or South Africa where the ANC was banned.
African nationalists worked together to get independence from imperialism, they supported Pan-Africanism like at the Pan African Congress and the All African Peoples Conference.
10 famous african writers and their works
#5 African Resistance Movement
Congolese Independence Movements
The Democratic Republic of Congo became independent in 1960 after years of resistance movements by political parties like the Congolese National Movement (MNC-L) which was lead by Patrice Lumumba.
During imperialism most Congolese were banned from politics. Congolese people resisted imperialism so that they may be ruled by Congolese people and not Belgium.
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Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
↓ You Think About This! ↓
What have been the causes of resistance movements in your area throughout history?
United we are rock, divided we sand.
~ African Proverb ~
Word Bank📚🧑🏿🏫
Cash crop
Citizen
Civillian
Fertile ground
Harvest (verb)
Historian
Naturalized
Political turmoil
Racial inferiority
I want you to Read More !
The Voice of Coloured Labour edited by George Padmore (chapter 10 General Strike in Nigeria)
References
Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning : The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York, Henry Holt And Co, , Cop, 2006.
Fage, John D. “Western Africa – Decolonization and the Regaining of Independence | Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa/Decolonization-and-the-regaining-of-independence.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Algerian War.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War.
—. “Assimilation (French Colonialism).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(French_colonialism).
—. “Atrocities in the Congo Free State.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State.
—. “Congo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Feb. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo–Ocean_Railway.
—. “Congo Free State | Historical State, Africa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 Sept. 2011, www.britannica.com/place/Congo-Free-State.
—. “French Algeria.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Algeria.
—. “Maji Maji Rebellion.” Wikipedia, 5 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maji_Maji_Rebellion.
—. “Mau Mau Rebellion.” Wikipedia, 13 May 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_rebellion.
—. “Natives Land Act, 1913.” Wikipedia, 9 July 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natives_Land_Act.
—. “Political Legitimacy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Feb. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_legitimacy .
—. “Portuguese Colonial War.” Wikipedia, 9 May 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Colonial_War.
Williams, Susan. White Malice. C Hurst Co Publishers Ltd, 2021.
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