Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present

Citation

Cooper, F. (2019). Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The second edition has eight numbered chapters and an interlude, about 300 pages of text, and is part of Cambridge's New Approaches to African History series. The publisher says the revisions are integrated into the existing structure, with new events, new cases and more attention to the ups and downs of African economies and to contrasts between regions. A reviewer, Niamh Condon (Comillas Journal of International Relations, 2020), reads the book as two parts joined by the interlude: the first on decolonisation, the second on development and the gatekeeper state.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The chapter, which runs to about 26 pages, sets out the book's approach. According to Condon, it opens by comparing two events of 1994, the first democratic election in South Africa and the genocide in Rwanda, and uses them to show that no single event is a clean turning point. Cooper also explains that he wrote within the genre of a textbook, as an introduction for readers with little prior knowledge, and begins in 1940 rather than dividing African history into a colonial and a postcolonial period.

Chapter 2: Workers, Peasants, and the Challenge to Colonial Rule

Its title points to labour and rural society as the sources of pressure on colonial rule (about 24 pages). The publisher's description stresses that the book follows how peasants and workers, as well as religious and local leaders, sought to refashion the way they lived and worked, and this is the chapter whose title names those groups.

Chapter 3: Citizenship, Self-Government, and Development: The Possibilities of the Post-War Moment

Roughly 36 pages on the post-war moment, when, in the title's words, citizenship, self-government and development all appeared as possibilities. Condon notes that Cooper introduces developmentalism within his account of decolonisation, as an initially European response to African demands for independence.

Chapter 4: Ending Empire and Imagining the Future

The chapter on the end of colonial rule (about 29 pages). Condon cites its discussion of different decolonisation processes, including the independence movements in the French colonies and the options that France opened and closed, such as Pan-Africanism, as an example of the book's detailed cases.

Interlude: Rhythms of Change in the Post-War World

A short section of about ten pages between the two parts of the book. Its title points to the longer rhythms of change in the post-war world, set between the account of decolonisation and the account of economic development that follows.

Chapter 5: Development and Disappointment: Economic and Social Change in an Unequal World, 1945–2018

The longest chapter, at roughly 70 pages. It follows economic and social change from 1945 to 2018. Condon says it separates growth from development and uses that distinction to introduce the gatekeeper state.

Chapter 6: White Rule, Armed Struggle, and Beyond

A chapter of about 38 pages whose title points to white minority rule, armed struggle and what came after it.

Chapter 7: The Recurrent Crises of the Gatekeeper State

The gatekeeper state, as Condon describes it, is one in which the ruler controls access to international markets and distributes the proceeds, often to personal advantage. Condon says the concept is introduced earlier, in the discussion of economic development, and then analysed more specifically; this chapter (about 57 pages) addresses its recurrent crises.

Chapter 8: Twenty-First-Century Africa

The final chapter brings the narrative to the present. According to Condon, it looks at Africans' own part in the historiography and in international organisations, at African art and literature as ways of arguing about decolonisation and culture, and at "divergences as well as convergences" across the continent, as against sweeping headlines such as "Hopeless Africa" and "Africa Rising".

Key Concepts

• Decolonisation as a process: the independence period is treated as a set of negotiations and struggles between Africans and Europeans rather than a single break, and Cooper rejects a neat colonial/postcolonial division.
• Developmentalism: the idea that colonial and then African governments could transform society through planned development, which first appears as a European response to demands for independence.
• Citizenship and self-government: the possibilities opened after the Second World War, treated in Chapter 3.
• Growth versus development: the distinction that allows the book to explain why economies grew without wider social development.
• The gatekeeper state: a state whose rulers control access to international markets and distribute the gains.
• African agency: the emphasis on the choices of Africans within an international system they did not control.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear organising argument. Condon identifies three linked components, decolonisation, developmentalism and the gatekeeper state, which give the book a through-line from 1940 to the present rather than a country-by-country catalogue.
• Rejection of a neat colonial/postcolonial break. The book begins in 1940 and treats the period as one continuous process, which the title, The Past of the Present, signals.
• Attention to agency and diversity. Condon credits Cooper with keeping African actors at the centre while recognising the limits set by the international system, and with drawing examples from different states instead of treating the continent as uniform.
• Written as an introduction. The publisher states that the book presumes no prior knowledge and is suited to political science and "Introduction to Africa" courses, and the author describes it as a textbook.
• Updated for the second edition. It now covers the period since the turn of the millennium, with new cases and more attention to economic fluctuation.

Limitations

• Dense examples. Condon notes that Cooper's detailed examples can pull attention from the main argument and may be hard going for beginners, and would have preferred that the explanation of continental diversity come in the introduction instead of the last chapter.
• Thematic rather than regional organisation. The chapter titles are organised around labour, citizenship, development, white rule and the state rather than around regions, so readers wanting country-by-country surveys need other books.
• Starts in 1940. The book deliberately begins in 1940, so the earlier colonial period is background that must come from elsewhere.

Where It Fits in the Course

Cooper is one of two regional accounts in this imperial and colonial history list, the other being Metcalf and Metcalf on India; the remaining titles are comparative or global in scope. Burbank and Cooper's Empires in World History is the long-range comparative study of empires, and the two books by the same author work well together, one for the global framework and one for the African case. Howe's Empire: A Very Short Introduction is a concise overview of what empires are, and Darwin's The Empire Project is a large-scale study of the British world-system from 1830 to 1970 for readers who already know the field.

Jansen and Osterhammel's Decolonization: A Short History treats the end of empire in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean in comparative terms, and is a good first book before Cooper's more detailed treatment of Africa. Metcalf and Metcalf's A Concise History of Modern India gives a parallel regional case, so reading it beside Cooper allows a comparison of the South Asian and African paths.

How to Use This Book

No prior study of African history is required. A general knowledge of twentieth-century world history helps, particularly for the Second World War, which frames Chapter 3. The book suits undergraduates in African history, global history and postcolonial studies.

A practical plan: read the Introduction first, since it sets out the approach and the way of handling examples; then Chapters 2 to 4 as a block on decolonisation; the Interlude as a pivot; and Chapters 5 and 7 together, since the gatekeeper state is introduced in Chapter 5 and developed in Chapter 7. Chapter 6 can be assigned on its own for courses on white minority rule and liberation struggles. Chapter 8 serves as a conclusion and as a reflection on how Africa is portrayed. Readers new to the subject should expect to slow down for the detailed cases and to return to the Introduction after finishing.