Written by: Anne Rose

The documentary by Basil Davidson, The Rise of Nationalism, basically gives information on how African countries fought for their independence. He first talks about Ghana, which was known as the Gold Coast during colonization. It was the first African country to obtain freedom in 1957 from the British. Kwame Nkrumah was responsible for leading Ghana to gain its independence (Basil, pg. 50). Nkrumah had big ideas for Ghana to become independent entirely from the British, and he fought hard to achieve his purposes. When Ghana got independence, Nkrumah changed his country name from Gold Coast to Ghana.

Davidson also talks about how Kenya struggled to obtain independence from the British. Kenyatta is an African leader who led Kenyans to fight for freedom. The British conducted an election, and Kenyatta won the election by far while in prison. He is one of the few African leaders to move from jail to a presidential sit. Algeria is another country Davidson talks about; they had an organized army of rebels who were few compared to the French army. Despite their small number, the Algerian military fought until they got their independence.

Congo is another county that stated who had to go through lots of tribulation and war to obtain their independence, which was different from other African countries. Belgium colonized them. Nkrumah was really disappointed with what was happening in Congo and so came up with the idea of a United Africa, Pan Africanism (Basil, pg.70). He did not live to fulfill this idea despite having many African leaders supporting him. Guinea Bissau fought their independence from the Portuguese with the help of their charismatic leader, Amilcar Cabral.

The Portuguese referred black people as unintelligent but were proven wrong by Cabral. Cabral army was small, but they conducted a bright attack by hitting the Europeans at the base, cutting the Portuguese supplies. The Portuguese were frustrated about what happened and killed lots of civilians in neighboring villages. I enjoyed the documentary on learning how African leaders struggled to fight for freedom. I loved the idea of Pan Africanism, hoping Africa would be united one day and not have to rely on assistance from western countries.

                                                                      Work Cited

Davidson, Basil. “The Rise Of nationalism” youtube uploaded by Ousmane Ndiaye January 6th, 2016.