Examine six contributions of welfare associations to the rise of nationalism in Africa.
African nationalism refers to the political desire of Africans to unite as the nation so as to eliminate the foreign rule with the intention of ruling themselves in social, political and economic affairs.
The movement gained momentum after the Second World War due to the internal pressure such as the role played by African elites like Nelson Mandela who championed for the decolonization of African country, intensive colonial exploitation.
Apart from internal influence, there were external factors as supported by the role played by ex-soldiers, the role-played United Nations Organization (U.N.O. Welfare associations were the workers associations which formed by the African who were employed in various colonial economic sectors like mining industries and plantations.
Examples of welfare association formed by Africans were Tanganyika African Association (TAA) and Kenya African Association (KAA).
The role played by welfare associations to the rise of nationalism in Africa were as follows;
They opposed racial discrimination, which was practiced by Europeans. The formation of welfare associations such as Tanganyika African Association started to oppose the racial discrimination hence this action raised self-awareness to Africans, thus they started to demand for their lost independence from the colonial government.
They created foundation for education. This was because the formation of welfare associations demanded the Africans to get access to education so as to oppose the use of African chiefs as the puppets during the system of indirect rule. They wanted their posts to be run by elected Africans hence it raised African nationalism so as to demand their lost independence.
They showed the evils of colonialism to their fellow Africans such as force labor, raised discrimination, low wages and land alienation. These factors created the rise of self-awareness to Africans and they saw the need of uniting so as to oppose the colonial government. from the point is where the Africans started to demand for their lost independence from the colonial government.
They facilitated the formation of political parties. This was as the way of uniting all Africans regardless of their job, religion or color in order to achieve this situation is where most of this welfare associations changed to political parties for instance, the Tanganyika African Association changed to Tanganyika Africans Nationalist Union (TANU), which enabled the attainment of independence on 9th December 1961.
They exposed Africans political feelings to the colonialist. Through this way is where colonialist discovered the needs of Africans towards achieving their major roles. Again, these factors created self-awareness to Africans hence they started to force various as the way to demand for their majority rule.
Most of welfare associations opposed colonial intensive exploitation. For example, peasant co-operatives disliked low prices of cash crops, the workers associations demanded high salaries and opposed low wages.
Generally, welfare associations contributed greatly to the attainment of African independence after the change of these associations to political parties for instance the change from Tanganyika African Association (TAA) to Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) a political party that spearheaded the attainment of the independence in Tanganyika due to its effort to cement a solid unity among the Africans.
