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UPSC Mains 2016 · GS Paper I · Q7

UPSC Mains 2016 GS Paper 1 Q7: model answer

The anti-colonial struggles in West Africa were led by the new elite of Western-educated Africans. Examine.

12 marks200 wordsDirective: Examine

What the question wants

Examine whether Western-educated Africans led anti-colonial movements in West Africa, and their role.

How to structure it

Examine: test the claim with examples, and note the role of other groups.

  1. Rise of the educated elite
  2. Leaders and movements
  3. Role of masses and others
  4. Verdict

How to think it through

A familiar story for Indians: colonial education produced the very people who fought colonialism. Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Léopold Senghor (Senegal). But add the farmers, traders, ex-soldiers and women who made it a mass movement. Examine means: mostly true, with qualification.

Model answer

Kwame Nkrumah studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics before returning to lead the Gold Coast to freedom as Ghana in 1957, the first sub-Saharan colony to win independence.

Rise of the educated elite

  • Mission schools and colonial colleges, and study in Britain, France and the US, produced lawyers, journalists and teachers.
  • They were influenced by liberalism, socialism and Pan-Africanism (the Manchester Pan-African Congress, 1945).

Leaders and movements

  • Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast formed the Convention People's Party (1949), led 'positive action' and became Ghana's first leader.
  • Nnamdi Azikiwe in Nigeria, through journalism and the NCNC.
  • Léopold Senghor in Senegal and Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Côte d'Ivoire in French West Africa.
  • Ahmed Sékou Touré in Guinea, which voted for independence in 1958.

Role of others

  • Ex-servicemen, cocoa farmers' boycotts, trade unions, market women and students gave the elite a mass base.
  • The war weakened Britain and France; the UN and the US supported self-determination.

Verdict

  • The statement holds: the Western-educated elite led the movements, but they succeeded because they mobilised the masses.
  • In Kenya and Algeria, armed struggle played a larger role, a useful contrast that shows settler colonies resisted peaceful transfer.

West Africa's freedom struggle mirrors India's: colonial education created a leadership that used Western ideas against colonial rule.

Keywords, cases and data to drop in

Pan-African Congress 1945, Nkrumah, CPP 1949, Ghana 1957, Azikiwe, Senghor, Sékou Touré.

Where most answers lose marks

  • Writing about all of Africa, or about South Africa.

Learn the concept

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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.

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