Macmillan, (Maurice) Harold, Earl of Stockton (1894-1986), British Prime Minister from Jan. 1957 to Oct.1963.
The Macmillan government accelerated the dismantling of the British Empire in Africa after Macmillan’s famous ... read full comment
Macmillan, (Maurice) Harold, Earl of Stockton (1894-1986), British Prime Minister from Jan. 1957 to Oct.1963.
The Macmillan government accelerated the dismantling of the British Empire in Africa after Macmillan’s famous “Wind of Change” speech made in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 1960. Macmillan had long felt that the British colonies were economic burdens and was anxious to get rid of them with minimum damage to British political and strategic interests. The implementation of policy he left to his colonial secretaries.
Macmillan’s “Wind of Change” Speech
Ever since the break-up of the Roman Empire one of the constant facts of political life in Europe has been the emergence of independent nations. They have come into existence over the centuries in different shapes with different forms of government. But all have been inspired with a keen feeling of nationalism, which has grown as nations have grown. In the 20th century, and especially since the end of war, the processes which gave birth to the nation-states of Europe have been repeated all over the world. We have seen the awakening of national consciousness in peoples who have for centuries lived in dependence on some other Power.
Fifteen years ago this movement spread through Asia. Many countries there, of different races and civilization, pressed their claim to an independent national life. To-day the same thing is happening in Africa. The most striking of all the impressions I have formed since I left London a month ago is of the strength of this African national consciousness. In different places it may take different forms, but it is happening everywhere. The wind of change is blowing through the continent.
Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact. Our national policies must take account of it. Of course, you understand this as well as anyone. You are sprung from Europe, the home of nationalism. And here in Africa you have yourselves created a new nation. Indeed, in the history of our times yours will be recorded as the first of the African nationalisms.
And this tide of national consciousness which is now rising in Africa is a fact for which you and we and the other nations of the Western world are ultimately responsible; for its causes are to be found in the achievements of Western civilization in pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge, applying science in the service of human needs, expanding food production, speeding and multiplying means of communication, and, above all, spreading education.
As I have said, the growth of national consciousness in Africa is a political fact and we must accept it as such. I sincerely believe that if we cannot do so, we may imperil the precarious balance of East and West on which the peace of the world depends.
The world to-day is divided into three great groups. First, there are what we call the Western Powers. You in South Africa and we in Britain belong to this group, together with our friends and allies in other parts of the Commonwealth, in the United States, and in Europe. Secondly, there are the Communists—Russia and her satellites in Europe, and China, whose population will rise by 1970 to the staggering total of 800 million. Thirdly, there are those parts of the world whose people are at present uncommitted either to Communism or to our Western ideas. In this context we think first of Asia and of Africa.
As I see it, the great issue in this second half of the 20th century is whether the uncommitted peoples of Asia and Africa will swing to the East or to the West. Will they be drawn into the Communist camp? Or will the great experiments in self-government that are now being made in Asia and Africa, especially within the Commonwealth, prove so successful, and by their example so compelling, that the balance will come down in favour of freedom and order and justice?
The struggle is joined, and it is a struggle for the minds of men. What is now on trial is much more than our military strength or our diplomatic and administrative skill. It is our way of life. The uncommitted nations want to see before they choose. What can we show them to help them choose aright? Each of the independent members of the Commonwealth must answer that question for itself.
It is the basic principle of our modern Commonwealth that we respect each other’s sovereignty in matters of internal policy. At the same time we must recognize that, in this shrinking world in which we live to-day, the internal policies of one nation may have effects outside it. We may sometimes be tempted to say to each other, “Mind your own business.” But in these days I would myself expand the old saying so that it runs, “Mind your own business, but mind how it affects my business, too.”
Let me be very frank with you, my friends. What Governments and Parliaments in the United Kingdom have done since the war in according independence to India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Malaya, and Ghana, and what they will do for Nigeria and the other countries now nearing independence—all this, though we take full and sole responsibility for it, we do in the belief that it is the only way to establish the future of the Commonwealth and of the free world on sound foundations.
This experience of our own explains why it has been our aim, in countries for which we have borne responsibility, not only to raise the material standards of living but to create a society which respects the rights of individuals—a society in which men are given the opportunity to grow to their full stature, and that must in our view include the opportunity to have an increasing share in political power and responsibility; a society in which individual merit, and individual merit alone, is the criterion for man’s advancement, whether political or economic.
The attitude of the U.K. Government towards this problem was clearly expressed by the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 17, 1959. These are his words: “In those territories where different races or tribes live side by side, the task is to ensure that all the people may enjoy security and freedom and the chance to contribute as individuals to the progress and well-being of these countries. We reject the idea of any inherent superiority of one race over another. Our policy therefore is non-racial. It offers a future in which Africans, Europeans, Asians, the peoples of the Pacific, and others with whom we are concerned, will all play their full part as citizens in the countries where they live and in which feelings of race will be submerged in loyalty to the new nations.”
As a fellow-member of the Commonwealth, it is our earnest desire to give South Africa our support and encouragement, but I hope you won’t mind my saying frankly that there are some aspects of your policies which make it impossible for us to do this without being false to our own deep convictions about the political destinies of free men, to which in our own territories we are trying to give effect. I think we ought as friends to face together—without seeking to apportion credit or blame—the fact that in the world of to-day this difference of outlook lies between us.
Source: Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, February 20-27, 1960.
Mahmoud 9 years ago
"Aspirations for African and World Leadership
Nkrumah, who is driven by ambition to be far more than Ghana's leader, aspires to be recognized not only as the predominant African political personality but as a man to be rec ... read full comment
"Aspirations for African and World Leadership
Nkrumah, who is driven by ambition to be far more than Ghana's leader, aspires to be recognized not only as the predominant African political personality but as a man to be reckoned with on the international stage. His dreams of grandeur have led to a number of attempts to make Ghana the focal point of wider African political entities -- the abortive Ghana Guinea-Mali union, the defunct Joint African High Command, and his current project of a united Africa -- all of which have foundered in the face of reality and because of the refusal of other African leaders to accord Nkrumah the position of predominance implicit in all of his schemes. Instead, Ghana has become increasingly isolated, and Nkrumah has •earned the distrust of most African leaders and has even alienated his erstwhile radical cronies in Guinea, Mali, and the UAR.
On the international scene, Nkrumah's conception of himself as a world leader has led him to make contacts with other leaders whose real or fancied friendship he values highly. His self-created role has also resulted in frequent offers of gratuitous advice in resolving non-African problems, the details and complexities of which he is largely ignorant. He has thus attempted to insert himself in the Cuban missile crisis, the Sino-Indian border conflict, the Arab-Israeli dispute, the nuclear-disarmament question, and the Vietnamese situation. Nothing has come of any of these efforts.
Although he has succeeded in projecting himself into the African and international scene to a greater extent than most African leaders, Nkrumah is considered by most world leaders to be more of a nuisance and a figure of ridicule than a statesman. These rebuffs, and Nkrumah's consequent sense of extreme frustration, are in part responsible for his policy of encouraging and abetting subversion in Africa, activity which he also rationalizes on the grounds that many African nations -- including all of his close neighbors-- do not support the radical policies which he advocates and are followed by his government."
GIRLS SP 9 years ago
Folks, much water has passed under the bridge since the iflux of some hypocrites and partisan nonentities like the useless Ewe J.K.Bokor.
Folks, much water has passed under the bridge since the iflux of some hypocrites and partisan nonentities like the useless Ewe J.K.Bokor.
amenyaglo 9 years ago
Bokor your ndc has been in power for how long?considering the 58yrs.Instead of you calling a spade a spade you are dancing in circles with all your effusions about nothing if you ask me.Talking about brain drain yet cooling o ... read full comment
Bokor your ndc has been in power for how long?considering the 58yrs.Instead of you calling a spade a spade you are dancing in circles with all your effusions about nothing if you ask me.Talking about brain drain yet cooling of in Long Island what kind of double standards are you?what's wrong about Ocquaye,Mahama,Akuffo Addo if their families are in politics?if only they have the citizens at heart?John Adams son John Quincy Adams,Kennedy's,Roosevelt's,Taft's,Clinton's,Bushe's to name a few are all families in politics so what?It happens everywhere some families like politics.Your ndc is at the helm of affairs and has been for greater part of our independence call them to order and stop the dancing around.
Amuzu 9 years ago
You see! Bokor, because of your stupidity of bias, tribal, hypocrite and partisan write ups, forumers are not interested to read you garbage.
You see! Bokor, because of your stupidity of bias, tribal, hypocrite and partisan write ups, forumers are not interested to read you garbage.
Macmillan, (Maurice) Harold, Earl of Stockton (1894-1986), British Prime Minister from Jan. 1957 to Oct.1963.
The Macmillan government accelerated the dismantling of the British Empire in Africa after Macmillan’s famous ...
read full comment
"Aspirations for African and World Leadership
Nkrumah, who is driven by ambition to be far more than Ghana's leader, aspires to be recognized not only as the predominant African political personality but as a man to be rec ...
read full comment
Folks, much water has passed under the bridge since the iflux of some hypocrites and partisan nonentities like the useless Ewe J.K.Bokor.
Bokor your ndc has been in power for how long?considering the 58yrs.Instead of you calling a spade a spade you are dancing in circles with all your effusions about nothing if you ask me.Talking about brain drain yet cooling o ...
read full comment
You see! Bokor, because of your stupidity of bias, tribal, hypocrite and partisan write ups, forumers are not interested to read you garbage.