Overview
- Explores how colonial governments sought to manage decolonisation in Africa, emphasising ‘softer’ methods
- Highlights which issues mattered to the African public at the end of the Empire
- Provides coverage of neglected events in African colonial research, such as the Nyasaland conference in August 1960
Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- British Empire
- Colonial Africa
- Colonial management
- Constitutional conferences
- Commissions
- British government
- East and Central Africa
- African politics
- Decolonisation
- Postcolonial Africa
- African popular opinion
- Iain Macleod
- Central African Federation
- Harold Macmillan
- Nyasaland
- East African Federation
- Monckton commission
- African representations
- African nationalism
About this book
Until 1960, the British and colonial governments regularly employed hard methods of colonial management in East and Central Africa, such as instituting states of emergency and imprisoning political leaders. A series of events at the end of the 1950s made hard measures no longer feasible, including criticism from the United Nations. As a result, softer measures became more prevalent, and the use of constitutional conferences and commissions became an increasingly important tool for the British government in seeking to manage colonial affairs.
During the period 1960-64, a staggering sixteen conferences and ten constitutional commissions were held for British colonies in East and Central Africa. This book is the first of its kind to provide a detailed overview of how the British sought to make use of these eventsto control and manage the pace of change. The author also demonstrates how commissions and conferences helped shape politics and African popular opinion in the early 1960s. Whilst giving the British government temporary respite, conferences and commissions ultimately accelerated the decolonisation process by transferring more power to African political parties and engendering softer perceptions on both sides. Presenting both British and African perspectives, this book offers an innovative exploration into the way that these episodes played an important part in the decolonisation of Africa. It shows that far from being dry and technical events, conferences and commissions were occasions of drama that tell us much about how the British government and those in Africa engaged with the last days of empire.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Peter Docking is a visitor in the history department at King’s College, London, where he gained his PhD. He is a former solicitor. Peter has research interests in decolonisation and the role of international conferences
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Negotiating the End of the British Empire in Africa, 1959-1964
Book Subtitle: Conferences, Commissions and Decolonisation
Authors: Peter Docking
Series Title: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88091-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88090-3Published: 02 December 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88093-4Published: 03 December 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-88091-0Published: 02 December 2021
Series ISSN: 2635-1633
Series E-ISSN: 2635-1641
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 313
Number of Illustrations: 3 illustrations in colour
Topics: Imperialism and Colonialism, African History, History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History, Political History