NATIONAL MOVEMENTS AND THE NEW STATES IN AFRICA
Preface
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN NATIONALISM
CHAPTER 2: THE ITALO-ETHIOPIAN WAR
CHAPTER 3: THE IMPACT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR ON AFRICA
CHAPTER FOUR:THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
CHAPTER FIVE:THE GHANAIAN REVOLUTION
CHAPTER SIX:THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA: UNITY OR BALKANIZATION
CHAPTER SEVEN:PAN AFRICANISM
CHAPTER NINE:NEO-COLONIALISM
CHAPTER TEN:AFRICAN POLITICAL PARTIES: THEIR ROLE IN THE REGAINING OF INDEPENDENCE
CHAPTER ELEVEN:NATIONALISM IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER TWELVE: NATIONALISM IN CONGO
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:NATIONALISM IN TANGANYIKA
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:NATIONALISM IN KENYA: THE DEFEAT OF REGIONALISM
CHAPTER FIFTEEN:MAU- MAU IN KENYA (1952-1956)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:THE ALGERIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:THE ARMED STRUGGLE: THE 1960S AND 1970S
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN MOZAMBIQUE
CHAPTER NINETEEN:THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN ZIMBABWE
CHAPTER TWENTY:THE POLISARIO WAR IN WESTERN SAHARA
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:THE LIBERATION WAR IN NAMIBIA
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:AFRIKANER AND AFRICAN NATIONALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:NATIONALISM IN UGANDA
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:UGANDA NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (UNLF) (1979-1980)
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE:PROBLEMS OF DISUNITY: CIVIL WAR IN SUDAN
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:THE ERITREAN SECESSION WAR FROM 1961-1993
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:POLITICAL INSTABILITIES IN THE HORN OF AFRICA.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:SECESSIONISM IN ZAIRE, 1960-
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:THE NIGERIAN CIVIL/ SECESSION WAR, 1967-70
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:THE CIVIL WAR IN CHAD FROM 1965-1982
Introduction
Causes of the civil war in Chad (1965-1982)
Civil War Starts & Col. Gaddafi Annexes the Aouzou Strip
The Military Overthrows and Kills President Tombalbaye
Habre Becomes Premier & Tries to Topple President Malloum
Goukouni Becomes President, but Habre Says "No"
Chad is Nearly Merged with Libya as the Civil War Abates
Goukouni is Duped & Habre Hops into Power
The failure of the OAU peacekeeping force in Chad,1981-2
Effects of the civil war in Chad
Steps taken by Government to end the civil war in Chad
Efforts made by the O.A.U to end the civil war in Chad.
The weakness of the O.A.U during the Chadian civil war
CHAPTER THIRTY:THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR, 1975-6
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:MOZAMBICAN CIVIL WAR 1977-1994
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO:THE RWANDA REVOLUTION- 1959-1994
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE:THE ZANZIBAR REVOLUTION OF 1964
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:MILITARY COUP D'ETATS
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE:THE LIBYAN REVOLUTION- 1969
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX:THE ONE-PARTY SYSTEM
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN:MULTIPARTY SYSTEM
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT:NATIONAL UNITY AND SOCIALISM
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE:AFRICAN CULTURE
CHAPTER FOURTY:REGIONAL AFRICAN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS
CHAPTER FOURTY ONE:POPULATION EXPLOSION IN AFRICA
CHAPTER FOURTY TWO:WARS BETWEEN INDEPENDENT AFRICAN STATES
CHAPTER FOURTY THREE:NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT (NAM)
CHAPTER FOURTY FOUR:MAJOR PROBLEMS OF AFRICA
CHAPTER FOURTY FIVE:THE BEST TECHNIQUES TO PASSING A' LEVEL HISTORY PAPER 1
REFERENCES

 

The OAU sent into Chad its peace-keeping force- drawn mainly from Nigeria, Zaire, and Senegal - to maintain peace on behalf of President Goukouni. The force was only to maintain order without taking part in the civil war! Some observers doubted the efficacy of such a force.

 

They rightly felt that some political euphoria had motivated President Goukouni to accede to such arrangements.

 

While in exile in Sudan, Habre had been training his' army and soliciting and receiving aid from the US, France, Sudan and Egypt. The Libyan withdrawal encouraged Habre to step up his offensive. The OAU troops did not attempt to halt the advance of Habre's troops; and in June 1982, Habre's troops routed President Goukouni's army and captured N'djamena, the capital town. Goukouni fled Chad, and Habre replaced him as President. Within the same month (June 1982), the OAU troops were withdrawn.

 

Goukouni revived himself, and in early 1983, his Libyan-backed army attacked from the north. He almost over-ran the entire country were it not for the external aid President Habre requested and received from the West. The US despatched military hardware; France flew in armed paratroopers and commandos. President Mobutu of Zaire, a great friend of the West, also flew in troops to fight for President Habre. During the OAU summit in Ethiopia in mid-1983, the OAU did recognise the government of Habre. The civil war is still on though at a much smaller scale. At present, Goukouni's army controls the entire northern half of Chad, although sparsely populated. Ipso facto, Goukouni claims equality with President Habre.

 

Chad became independent in I960 under the presidency of Francois Tombalbaye, leader of the Parti Progressiste Tchadien (PPT), heavily supported by the non-Muslim and partially-Christianized southern Sara. Tombalbaye soon emerged as a dictator who relied on the support of his own ethnic community, the Sara. Potential rival leaders and their followers were purged from the PPT and all opposition parties were banned in 1962.

 

The underground opposition that followed was countered by widespread arrests of suspects; anti-government riots by trade unionists and students in Fort Lamy (later N'djamena) in 1963 were brutally suppressed with the loss of five hundred lives. In December of that year the government manipulated elections it feared it could not win freely.

 

A rebellion began in the desert northern half of the country in 1965 and soon developed into a full-scale civil war. The main cause of the rebellion was maladministration by southern (mainly Sara) civil servants in the north. The Toubou people were forbidden to wear turbans or carry knives. Civil servants replaced territorial chiefs in tax collection in the north. Extortionate tax levies in Mangaime caused riots which spread throughout Batha district (the Muslim district in the centre of Chad across the N'djamena-Sudan road).

 

The Toubou in the far north also rioted over taxes; their traditional leader, the Derde, Sultan Oueddei Kedefemi, took refuge in Libya while his sons, including Goukouni Oueddei, took up arms against the Chad government.

 

The Chad National Liberation Front (FROLINAT) set up in 1966 was a composite movement uniting various parties and factions of the north, notably the radical Union Nationale Tchadienne (UNT), led by the Marxist Ibrahim Abatcha and the conservative Muslim group, Mouvement Nationale de Liberation du Tchad (MNLT) led by Ahmed Moussa. Both the UNT and the MNLT Joined the rebellion with the ultimate objective of achieving social justice in Chad, even if their own interpretations of social justice differed markedly. But both parties relied on northern Muslims for their support and in practice the rebellion took the form of a struggle for ethnic equality, a civil war between the Muslim north and the non-Muslim south, with southerners as the government and the northerners in revolt. It was the Sudan situation in reverse.

 

Moussa's Muslim-oriented MNLT soon broke away and FROLINAT came to represent the socialist views of the UNT, but it never managed to broaden its support to a nationwide level; FROLINAT was inter-ethnic in terms of the spread of its northern support; but it remained a northern party.

 

FROLINAT took only two years of guerilla war to gain control of much of the north, east and centre of Chad. Tombalbaye's regime only survived through French intervention in 1968 and again in 1969-72. But French military activity could only limit the extent of rebel activity; it could not eliminate it.

 

In 1972 Tombalbaye sought a rapprochement with Gadafi of Libya, which had been providing substantial aid to FROLINAT since the Libyan coup of 1969. Gadafi promised Chad 23 000 million CFA francs and occupied the 1 000 000-square-kilometre Aouzou strip in northern Chad, an area reputedly rich in minerals, including uranium. Gadafi did not pay the money and his support for FROLINAT continued. But FROLINAT's activities flagged.

 

Apart from renewed French intervention, Tombalbaye's position was strengthened when he divided the northerners by appointing a number of Muslims to the Cabinet. Moreover, FROLINAT factions emerged after Abatcha's death in action. Muslim conservatives were purged, the new leader Abba Siddick was undemocratic and quickly unpopular and effective power passed to the 'second army' under Goukouni Oueddei and the Paris-educated Maoist Hissene Habre.

 

FROLINAT's position was strengthened by the divisions in the southern leadership caused by Tombalbaye's policy of 'Chaditude' and by the military coup that followed. In 1975 Tombalbaye inaugurated his 'cultural revolution', an attempt to create national unity through retraditionalization. Christian names were banned and many place names were changed. Francois Tombalbaye. became Ngarta Tombalbaye and Fort Lamy became N'djamena.

 

The Christian and intellectual elite, even of the dominant Sara, was alienated even further when the traditional Yondo initiation rite was made compulsory and religious persecution began. Finally, Tombalbaye's threat to purge the military leadership led to a coup in April 1975 led by General Odingar. Ex-Chief of Staff Felix Malloum was released from prison and made head of the ruling Military Council. While the south was preoccupied with 'Chaditude' in the years 1973-5, FROLINAT's 'second army' quietly extended its authority and influence in the north. Malloum hoped for a reconciliation with FROLINAT.

HISSENE HABRE

 

The Derde rallied to him, and so did Hissene Habre, who made a ceasefire agreement with Malloum in January 1977. But Habre had been ousted from a dominant role in the second army whose leadership had been consolidated in the hands of Goukouni, who rejected Malloum's concessions as inadequate.

 

Later in 1977 Goukouni's army, with much Libyan support, took the offensive, capturing Bardai and the remaining government outposts in Tibesti. In February 1978 Goukouni took the towns of Fada and Faya-Laigeau in Borkou district.

 

The next four years (1977-81) are marked by the triumph of Libyan policy and of Goukouni's second army. In February 1978 Malloum met Gadafi in Sebha in Libya in the presence of the President of Niger and the Vice-President of Sudan: a ceasefire and seeps towards a political settlement were agreed. However, talks between Chad government and FROLINAT representatives in Benghazi broke down because of the lack of sufficient common ground.

 

In April fighting resumed, and FROLINAT advanced. Malloum's government was saved only by French intervention, involving 1500 troops and ten Jaguar aircraft. The government was reformed without Goukouni; Malloum remained President but he appointed Hissene Habre as Prime Minister (August 1978).

 

Habre formed a government of national union with ministers from all regions. However, an unfortunate civil war broke out in the capital between Malloum's and Habre's soldiers in February 1979, as Habre tried to overthrow Malloum. Goukouni was encouraged to undertake a new offensive in the north.

 

In March 1979 a new agreement was reached in Kano, Nigeria; under UNO auspices Goukouni became Chairman of a new Council of State, with Habre as Minister of Defence and Malloum was to remain in exile. Goukouni brought in the most prominent southerner, police Colonel Wadal Kamougue, as Vice-president. Goukouni had thus used the Libyans to gain power. The northern revolt had ended with a northerner as head of the Central Government; the struggle for political justice for the north was over.

 

The northern revolt was over, but the civil war went on, in a new form. From March to December 1980 Goukouni's, government was rent by a struggle for power between Goukouni and Hissene Habre, as the latter made a bid for power with his private army, the FAN, bolstered by supplies from Egypt and the Sudan, Goukouni's forces were triumphant in December with the aid of Libyan troops and weaponry.

 

Libya flew in 5000 troops of Gadafi's "Islamic Legion' in Hercules transport planes with Soviet multiple rocket-launchers and heavy mortars, US Chinook helicopters, and 200 T-series Soviet tanks, which were brought across the Sahara on transporters. This array of weaponry and armour was decisive in drawing the FAN out of N'djamena and Abeche.

 

In January 1981 Hissene Habre's surviving troops retreated to Cameroon and the Sudan. In the same month Libya and Chad announced plans for complete unity; but the proposed union was dropped in the face of strong opposition from the southern Chadians and powerful African neighbours like Nigeria, the Sudan and Egypt.

National Movements and New States in Africa