Western Europe dominated the world in the first four decades of the twentieth century, until 1941, the year when the Soviet Union and the United States of America entered the Second World War. Since then, these two world powers have dominated the world.

US President JF Kennedy shaking hands with Nigerian Prime Minister Sir Abubaker Tafawa Balewa.

The United States of America was a colonial power in 1945. It practised political colonialism in the Caribbean, where it exercised political control of Puerto Rico, some of the Virgin Islands, and the Panama Canal Zone, and in the Pacific, where it ruled the Philippines and a host of islands between Hawaii and Japan, which it now occupied. It practised massive neo-colonialism in Latin America and even on the African continent, in Liberia. It was, therefore, hypocritical of the United States to put pressure on the European powers to decolonize in Africa. Yet hypocrisy in politics does not necessarily have harmful effects.

American motives for putting pressure on Britain and France, in the United Nations and in direct country-to-country diplomatic contacts, were twofold. In the first place the Americans had a genuine tradition of mistrust of political imperialism, especially British. The spirit of King George III still haunted many Americans in the 1940s. So did the presence of Joseph Stalin. One reason the Americans abandoned, in 1945, their pre-war policy of splendid isolation from the rest of the world, was that Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union, had abandoned his pre-war policy of isolation, of 'socialism in one country', for a new policy of spreading socialism (or communism - the Russian variety of socialism) behind the tanks of the Red army.

The War may have led to the spread of American power across the Pacific and into Western Europe; it also saw the penetration of the Soviet Union into Western Europe, deep into the heart of Germany. The Americans, feared the spread of Soviet influence in the Third World, not least in colonial territories, and regarded preparation of these territories for independence as one way of countering potential Soviet influence in them.

American influence on Africa in the post-war period was exercised largely through the United Nations Organization, which was founded as the successor to the League of Nations. The Charter of the UNO included a clear statement of the rights of all peoples to freedom and Justice. This was adopted largely because of American pressure, and against the wishes of the European colonial powers. It was also largely due to American influence that the former mandated territories of the League of Nations now came under the supervision of the Trusteeship Council of the UN.

Yet American influence on Africa in the 1940s was not Just at the international diplomatic level. It was sometimes very direct too. American armies fought in the Maghrib against the Germans. In 1943 Sultan Sidi Muhammad of Morocco met President Roosevelt at Casablanca, and was converted by him to favour nationalism. From 1943 the Sultan gave open support to the Moroccan nationalist cause.

Soviet Union's influence on post-war Africa

The Soviet Union's influence on post-war Africa has been important in three ways.

First, in the field of ideology, the Russians have provided a theoretical attack on economic imperialism.

Secondly, they have provided, like the Japanese, an example of actual achievement in raising an economically backward country to an industrial one, and in replacing mass illiteracy by mass literacy. In other words, the Soviet Union provided not only a condemnation of colonialism but also an alternative to it.

Thirdly, the Soviet Union had, like the United States, used the UN as a platform to oppose colonialism. (Its hypocrisy on this matter at least equals that of the Americans if one considers Great Russian imperialism in Central Asia. the Caucasus, the Baltic States and the East European satellites.)

In the post-war period - indeed, up to the present day - the Soviet Union's influence on Africa has been expressed mainly in the field of ideology. Marxist ideas became a major source of intellectual Stimulation amongst French-speaking African intellectuals in the 1930s and 40s.

Several factors contributed towards this process: the large size of the French Communist Party in the metropole, the philosophical tradition of the French educational system, the policy of cultural assimilation pursued by the imperial power, and the French policy of political integration which facilitated participation by colonial peoples in national institutions in Paris.

Among black people of the Diaspora there was often, in this period, a strong link between Marxism and pan-Africanism. Black Americans and West Indians who were pan- Africanist were disproportionately left of centre in their political ideologies, and often explicitly Marxist in commitment. Several of the founding fathers of the pan-African movement, drawn from outside Africa, were either constantly Marxists or at any rate started as Marxists. Such founding fathers include the black American intellectual giant, W.E.B. Du Bois, the energetic West Indian intellectual, George Padmore, and his fellow West Indian ideological luminary, C.L.R. James.

 George Padmore was among the first black nationalists to have flirted with communism, and then groped for ways and means of Africanizing it. Padmore was once a communist, complete with party activism. But by the end of the Second World War he stood for a form of socialism more compatible with the uniqueness of the black experience. This idea was expressed rather later in his book, Pan-Africanism or Communism? The Coming Struggle in Africa. Padmore was able at the same time to reduce his love for Marxism and increase his admiration for Russia. He argued that Africans must be free to Africanize Marxism, if they wished, just as Lenin had Russianized it.

There is one Marxist theory propounded or refined by a Russian which captured the imagination of large numbers of Africans and blacks of the Diaspora. This is Lenin's theory of imperialism. All the arguments by imperialists that they were motivated by considerations of educating the Africans, or spreading civilization, or transmitting the Gospel, were revealed in their nakedness by Lenin's emphasis on economic motivation as the ultimate mainspring of imperial expansion.

Many decades ago Africa helped to give Russia one of its greatest poets, Pushkin. He was partly of African descent. Lenin reciprocated the debt - and gave to Africans one of the most inspiring explanations of their subjugation as a people. Out of Lenin's ideas of imperialism, so influential on Africa's intellectuals in the post-war period, there later emerged concepts like Nkrumah's notion of neo-colonialism, which gave to African nationalists and radicals a more congenial and more convincing perspective on their own predicament as a dominated people.

America and Russia influence as well as the Cold war Politics.

In 1941, U.S.S.R and U.S.A joined the Second World War. Their military and economic strength quickly over shadowed those of Britain and France. They wanted to spread their ideologies in Africa. After the 2^nd World War, a cold war (a war of ideas) started.

U.S.A. exposed students to democracy. America not only gave scholarships to African students like Nkrumah to study abroad but also allowed them to form or join democratic students organisations.

Interaction of U.S.A. troops with African soldier. During the Second World War, American troops were dispatched to North and West Africa. They valued the dignity of blacks unlike Europeans.

The 1941 Atlantic Charter was influenced by the U.S.A. president. As the 2^nd World War was going on, the American president F.D Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Churchill Winston signed the 1941 Atlantic charter.

American leaders criticised imperialism in Africa. When Churchill Winston of Britain tried to change the meaning of the 1941 Atlantic charter, the U.S.A. president came out boldly and criticised him. To Churchill, the charter was only applicable to Europeans under nazi (German) colonialism. U.S.A. and USSR had anti-colonial traditions. The U.S. had once been colonised and oppressed by the British under King George III.

USA's Economic aid was dependent upon decolonisation. The 2^nd World War depleted the resources of Britain and France, which turned to U.S.A. for economic aid.

U.S.A and U.S.S.R influenced the formation of the U.N.O. After World War II, the major powers of the world met at San Francisco and signed the U.N.O. Charter.

Supper powers threatened sanctions on colonial maters. U.S.A and U.S.S.R. exerted pressure on European colonialists to decolonise their Africa empires, hence facilitating nationalistic activity in Africa.

U.S.A. Influenced he formation of the UN Trusteeship Council. This was in charge of former mandate territories of the League of Nations for example Somalia, Eritrea, Tanganyika, Namibia, and Rwanda etc.

USA wanted to introduce neo-colonialism. U.S.A was purely capitalist state, which needed raw materials and markets for its industries.

The Element of Jealousy cannot be ruled out. America and U.S.S.R had not participated in colonizing Africa and didn't posses large colonial empires as those of Britain, France and Portugal.

The U.S.A. president sensitised some African conservatives. In 1943, the US president F.D Roosevelt met the Moroccan Sultan Muhammed at Casablanca and lectured him about the need to end French colonial rule in Morocco.

U.S.S.R. embarked on spreading socialism in Africa. This ideology condemned land grabbing, oppression, exploitation, and racial segregation. Lenin in his writings described colonialism as a son of capitalism.

U.S.S.R linked economic prosperity to political independence. Russia explained that she had been a very poor country like African countries but attained industrialization and economic prosperity through socialist principles.

USSR's Campaign helped to end USA's isolationist policy. Despite the fact that she was a political, military and economic power, USA has isolated herself from the affairs of the world for example it was due to her isolation that Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935.

Both U.S.A. and U.S.S.R supported Pan-Africanists. In America, Negro intellectuals like W.E.B Dubois, George Padmore and Ralph Bunehe expressed biter criticism against colonialism. They were never arrested for their views. Nkrumah's role is a case in point.

U.S.S.R gave financial, technical and military support to African nationalists.

U.S.A. responded by giving similar aid. In the first place she convinced European capitalists about the dangers of communism in Africa and urged them to decolonise to limit its expansion. Secondly America also extended the cold war by granting military, economic and technical aid to African liberation movements like UNITA of Angola. However, military aid from U.S.A. and U.S.S.R had a negative impact of creating prolonged civil wars in independent Africa. Hence causing heavy losses of lives and property in the name of the cold war!

U.S.S.R was very committed to the question of African's independence. In UNO, she supported Africans. In Congo (1960-64), Nigeria (1967-1970) and in all Portuguese colonies, she contributed to the unity of nationalists and de-campaigned the divisive elements. At times she even sent her own troops to fight for Africans.

USA's fear of the Non-aligned movement made her support African nationalists by giving them money, guns, etc.

U.S.A and U.S.S.R. were instrumental in inspiring the UNO to adopt the universal declaration of Human rights Charter in 1948.

U.S.S.R gave support to Pan Africanists. It is said that U.S.S.R. provided some of the funds that made the 1945 Manchester conference successful. In turn this conference greatly inspired nationalists and influenced their actions in Africa.

USSR's desire to create a strong communist empire catalysed nationalists in Africa. In 1949, with support from U.S.S.R, the communists gained power in China. They obtained aid from Russia. In 1959, the communists defeated capitalists in Cuba. Now, Cuba Russia and China joined and called upon Africans to embrace the socialist ideology in order to attain self-determination and economic progress.

However superpowers have contributed to neo-colonialism in Africa today. Cold War politics between superpowers led to hot and prolonged civil wars in Africa. Cold War politics led to destruction of lives and property in Africa etc.