The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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Chapter VI

Conservative Political
Elite and Protecting British
Power and Interests in the Decolonisation Process

The Labour Government
of 1945-51’s programme of decolonisation
mainly took place in Asia, with India being the prime
example. The Conservative
administrations of 1951-63 were chiefly concerned with the
African
decolonisation process, with some exceptions.

For
the imperial decision-makers of the new Government in Britain, the
process of granting full nationhood to
the colonies in Africa was much more
complicated than in the Asian colonies. African society was
fragmented along
tribal lines. For example, in Kenya there were about 110 separate
native
administrations that the British had been obliged to recognise. The Ashanti and
Ga of the
Gold Coast, the Kikuyu and Luo of Kenya, the Baganda of Uganda, all
shared their countries with many less
numerous or less advanced peoples. The
antagonism that they felt for each other was a serious obstacle to
effective
negotiation and stable government, especially in Kenya and Uganda. Moreover,
linguistic
differences among the African tribes was a further barrier to the process
of independence in Africa. It
was estimated that, altogether, about 400 languages
were spoken in British tropical Africa, and many of
these were sub-divided into
dialects. Further divisive factors were the teaching of Muslim, Protestant
and
Catholic doctrine to the African tribes in the nineteenth century, and the
boundaries of
territories that Europeans had frequently defined without regard to
the tribes. In addition to all the
problems that have been outlined, the British
political elite were suspicious of the legitimacy of the
nationalist leaders in Africa
both during the Labour and Conservative Governments.

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