Who founded African states?
Are claims by some African leaders that they are founders of some African states true? What if historical evidence shows that they cannot be founders of their countries?
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A state, by dictionary definition, is “a country considered as an organised political community controlled by one government”.
A founder is “a person who starts an organisation, institution, etc. or causes something to be built”.
To found a town or a country is “to be the first to start building or living in” that country.
A brief journey into history can show whether the claims of some African political leaders and their followers that they founded certain African countries can stand the test of history.
The history of African countries can be put into the following categories: ancient African states; countries formerly part of ancient empires; African countries close to the Mediterranean Sea and subjected to European occupation or settlement.
Others are African countries founded directly by an European or American country; and African countries with no semblance of established monolithic governance before colonisation by European powers.
Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and Libya are examples of African states that established and flourished in ancient times. They survived the vagaries of history although the mode of governance changed with time.
Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya and Egypt were mentioned in biblical history.
Ethiopia was a monarchy with a long history of independence until 1880 when Italy invaded the country. In spite of the invasion, Ethiopia remained independent when Italy invaded again in 1936 and colonised it.
British forces liberated Ethiopia in 1941 during the Second World War.
The northern part of Sudan was ancient Nubia. Egypt took over Sudan in 1820 after conquering the last of the empires of that country. Egypt granted Sudan partial independence in 1936.
Egypt has a history that dates back to 4000 B.C and has been conquered and ruled by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ptolemies, Byzantines, Arabs and the British.
Libya was originally inhabited by the Berbers. hat country was ruled successively by Carthage, an ancient African country, Rome, the Vandals, Italy, Britain and France until independence in 1952.
Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are examples of African countries close to the Mediterranean Sea and subjected to invasion and occupation by European and Arab countries.
Sierra Leone and Liberia are African states founded directly by the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively.
The British government established Sierra Leone in 1787 as a place of settlement for freed slaves from British colonies.
Liberia was established in 1822 by American colonisation societies with assistance from the US government – for American freed men and women.
The colony was set up during the reign of President James Monroe, well known for the Monroe doctrine that opposed US intervention in the Western Hemisphere. The capital of Liberia, Monrovia, was named after him.
African countries that were part of ancient African empires are Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Niger. They were part of West African empires – Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
Northern Sudan was part of ancient Nubia. Tunisia is reputed for being the site for ancient Carthage, a former Barbary state, later colonised by Turkey.
Nigeria and Sudan are among African countries associated with rich ancient cultures. Ile Ife, Benin and northern part of Nigeria and Northern Sudan are known to have developed rich cultures in literature and fine arts, music and religion in historical periods that date back to 700 BC.
Some tribes of Ghana such as the Ga-Adangmes, the Ewes and the Akan have claimed to be descendants of ancestors who had settled in some of the ancient West African empires and in Nigeria and Egypt.
Besides, many African countries were originally made up of tribal groups that were conquered by invading European countries that later settled and colonised them.
Some African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria were not conquered as such. Tribal groups in those countries voluntarily signed treaties with the colonising European countries in exchange for protection, trade and commerce.
Such African countries did not originally have well-organised communities of a number of tribes under one governing body or a national government.
Having migrated from faraway lands and finally settled in their present locations around the 15th and 16th centuries, the African tribes were separate entities with some of them fighting among themselves in wars of conquest and possession.
Inter-tribal conflicts for domination and occupation characterised the history of such tribes until the Europeans arrived.
Many modern African states owe their statehood to the European colonialists. Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Gambia are examples of African states founded from the scratch by European countries.
The Federation of Nigeria observes its 100th anniversary of the union of southern and northern Nigeria this year.
Having colonised Lagos and surrounding areas in 1861, the British extended their control northwards encouraged by the spread of French colonising forces in West Africa.
The British took control of Northern Nigeria from Islamic overlords and administered it as a British protectorate.
In 1914, the British, under Governor Luggard, united the southern and northern parts into what is known as Nigeria today.
The same story goes for Ghana. The Bond of 1844 is a symbol of a voluntary arrangement between coastal tribes of what is now known as Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, and the British government.
The southern part of the land was known as Gold Coast Colony. After a brief engagement with the Asantes at war, the British brought that territory under its control and headed northwards to put the northern part of today’s Ghana under its rule before the French did.
That was how the northern protectorate or northern territory of the Gold Coast was created.
The British brought the Gold Coast colony, Asante and the northern protectorate under one government and called the whole land the Gold Coast.
Republic of South Africa was also a creation of the British colonialists.
The Dutch and British landed on the shores of South Africa at different periods in history. The Dutch arrived earlier in the 17th Century. The British came in 1808.
After unsuccessful resistance from the indigenes, the Dutch colonised what became the Orange Free State and Transvaal and the British seized the Cape of Good Hope and Natal.
The British eventually defeated the Dutch in a war that lasted from 1899 to 1902. The Union of South Africa, now Republic of South Africa, was founded in 1910.
What would the picture look like if colonisation did not take place?
In Ghana, for example, an Ashanti empire spreading from the middle of Ghana to the coast could be a possibility.
Large Dagomba and Gonja Kingdoms could have established as nation-states in the north.
However, such scenarios could not have happened in the face of European discovery of Africa with rich sources of raw materials needed in Europe for the emerging Industrial revolution.
Colonisation was a sheer coincidence. It was the result of convergence of historical events – European countries in search of raw materials available in Africa and African tribes that needed protection from warlike tribal groups and for trade and commerce.