After the recession of colonialism from the continent of Asia, in the post- war Era, Africa remained as the last resting place of imperialism. Britain, France, Portugal and Belgium had vast colonial possessions on the continent. The Second World War, however, introduced a leaven even here. According to the testimony of Lord Hailey, the center of interest in Africa, before the war, was on politics of the different European powers which exercised control there as well as on the attitude of the European communities in those areas where they constitute factors of importance.
Today, however, the focus of interest has changed: the African himself had begun to take a definite part in determining his destines. Between 1951 and 1956, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan gained recognition as independent states. Egypt was able, through the forum of world public opinion, as focused in the General Assembly of the UN, to compel Anglo-French, Israel withdrawal from her territory in consequence of the Suez dispute.
At the present time, a bloody duel is being fought in Algeria between France and Nationalists for determining the political destiny of this temperate land where about a million and half French settlers have made their homes. All Africa including all Asia is watching the results of this bloody and yet unequal contest!
Physical Barriers that have protected Africa south of Sahara from bloody colonial conflicts
Although Africa lies, almost, in the lap of Europe it was the last continent to be explored. North Africa, of course, had been in direct touch with Europe. In ancient times, Carthage fought a bloody and a fatal duel with Rome producing during the contest, Hannibal, one of the great military geniuses the world has produced. During the middle ages, the Arabs built up a great empire extending over all North Africa and embracing even Spain.
However, so far as Africa south of the Sahara is concerned, it remained a terra incognita till recent times. This inaccessibility of Africa was mainly due to the physical barriers which Nature has erected on this continent. In the north, there are the snow-capped Atlas Mountains guarding the Sahara. The dreary 1,000 miles of surf-bound desert coast in the West, daunted the early Portuguese explorers. This coast was regarded as the Whiteman's grave. From Cape-Verde southwards, adverse winds and currents heighted for mariners the terrors of the climate of the Bight of Benin, for there was no possible landing except on exposed beaches. Not for south of the Congo River, the desert once more comes to bar the approach to the interior and reaches almost to the most mountains in sight of the Table Bay.
The Dutch made no mistake in lighting on the delectable Cape peninsula in the south as the most favorable spot in all Africa for their refreshing station. It is no surprise, therefore, that for all exploration in early days, the cape-distant though it is, was the only possible starting point. The great explorer Livingston's approach was the same. East of the cape, the coast, and the currents again become difficult to penetrate. On the other side, the land was also vested with malaria.
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