Abstract
The thesis examines the sixteen constitutional conferences and ten commissions that were held for British colonial territories in east and central Africa during the tenure of the Conservative Government of 1959-64. It argues that the British Government used these conferences and commissions to regulate, manage and control the pace of constitutional change in these territories. Hard methods of control, such as the use of force, were becoming increasingly unacceptable during this period. This was on account of a number of pressures, such as United Nations’ criticism of the British Government, domestic pressure faced by the British Government after the Hola camp deaths and the state of emergency in Nyasaland in 1959, and the unwillingness of the British Government to commit to its own ’Algeria’. Commissions and conferences gave the British Government breathing spaces which ministers embraced fully. Objectives were worked out for conference and commission outcomes, and a whole range of tactics, schemes and manipulations were employed by the British to secure their desired end-results.The second main argument put forward is that the commissions and conferences of the period helped shape politics and popular opinion in east and central Africa in the early 1960s. Both sets of mechanisms offered those in Africa the chance to make their voices heard at a time when few had the vote. Commissions, in particular, stirred an interest in territorial-wide issues, provided opportunities to become involved in politics, encouraged people to stake claims and to organise to make representations. Conference announcements could boost party membership and affirm identities, and the conference table offered aspiring leaders credibility and power and, like commissions, both encouraged organisation and development of political party policy. Conferences boosted the reputation of some politicians and political parties but diminished that of others.
The final key contention is that conferences and commissions are likely to have had particular consequences for British decolonisation in east and central Africa. Whilst giving the British Government temporary respite, conferences and commissions both ultimately ratcheted up the decolonisation process, having transferred more power to African political parties. Conferences, however, could also encourage alliances, leading to workable short-term political solutions, and gave the British the time and opportunity to work with African politicians seen hitherto as dangerously radical. They helped induce some mutual understanding. The channelling of energy into commissions and conferences, the outcome which these offered to African politicians and the softening of perceptions which commissions and conferences engendered on both sides may have assisted in largely avoiding bloodshed in the final days of British imperial rule in Africa in the early 1960s.
The thesis seeks to supplement the existing historiography in several main ways. Historians have written about how the British Government employed a variety of means to control and manage colonial subjects including the law, coercion, intelligence gathering, propaganda, and even welfare measures. This thesis widens the literature to show how, in the last days of empire in Africa, the British used conferences and commissions as a valuable means of governance. Secondly, although there are histories which include short sections on many of the individual conferences and commissions that are the subject of this study, none has interrogated systematically how conferences and commissions affected politics and popular opinion in Africa in the round, as this study will do. Finally, whilst some works have credited individual commissions and conferences with historic significance, such remarks have been confined to commenting on commission recommendations and conference outcomes. This study goes beyond that by looking at the significance and consequences of change having been effected through the medium of conferences and commissions.
| Date of Award | 1 Jul 2020 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Sarah Stockwell (Supervisor) & Vincent Hiribarren (Supervisor) |