Africa

IN A CONTINENT where conservative empires like Germany, which originally held today's Namibia and Tanzania (except for Zanzibar), Belgium, England, and France, it is interesting to note how two of the most important African countries clung to conservative ideologies after independence: Kenya and South Africa. Both are effective case studies of how assuming power can bring about extensive change in the tactics and ideology of a national independence movement.

Although the Mau Mau of Kenya, led by Jomo Kenyatta, committed many atrocities during the struggle for independence, it was not motivated by any real political ideology, like the communists who later fought the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique, or would overthrow and kill Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia. Kenyatta's struggle for independence was a purely pragmatic ...