Anarchism in Africa refers both to purported anarchic political organisation of some traditional African societies and to modern anarchist movements in Africa.
"Anarchic elements" in traditional cultures Sam Mbah and I. E. Igariwey in African Anarchism: The History of a Movement make the claim that:
The reason why traditional African societies are characterised as possessing "anarchic elements" is because of their relatively horizontal political structure and, in some cases, the absence of classes. In addition to that, the leadership of elders normally did not extend into the kinds of authoritative structures which characterise the modern state. A strong value was, however, placed on traditional and "natural" values. For example, although there were no laws against rape, homicide, and adultery, a person committing those acts would be persecuted together with his or her kin. The principle of collective responsibility was sometimes upheld.
Class systems had already existed in some African civilisations (such as Nubia, Egypt, Axum and the Hausa Kingdoms) for millennia, but processes of social stratification accelerated from the fifteenth century onwards.
Modern anarchist movements
Algeria
The French anarcho-syndicalist Émilie Busquant is commonly credited with creating the first copy of the Flag of Algeria. The anarchist Pierre Morain was also the first person from France to be arrested for publicly supporting the cause of Algerian independence.
Angola From the 1890s onwards, Angola became one of the destinations for anarchists that had been exiled by successive Portuguese governments, possibly resulting in the development of a syndicalist presence in the colony. Following the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, Portuguese anarchists participated in a failed revolt against the new military dictatorship, after which the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) was outlawed. As a result, in October 1927, the CGT leader Mário Castelhano was himself deported to Angola, where he stayed for two years, before making his way back to Portugal. In the wake of the Portuguese general strike of 1934, the Estado Novo established a concentration camp on the north bank of the Kunene River, to which they deported some anarcho-syndicalists that were involved in the strike.
During the Angolan War of Independence, many Angolans began to develop anti-authoritarian systems of "popular power", during which people took control of and transformed their own lives while fighting against the Portuguese colonial authorities. However, once Angola achieved its independence following the Carnation Revolution, people were disarmed by the new MPLA government, which officially adopted Marxism–Leninism as its ideology and replaced the nascent "popular power" with a one-party state, igniting the Angolan Civil War. The MPLA began to arrest left-wing opposition figures, including Maoists, Trotskyists and anarchists, and broke up workers' strikes for higher pay and better working conditions. In 1977, a power struggle between MPLA moderates (led by Agostinho Neto) and radicals (led by Nito Alves), culminated in an attempted coup d'état, after which the radicals were purged from the party's ranks and power was centralized further around the MPLA leadership.
Chad During World War II, many Spanish republicans served as part of the Long Range Desert Group and French Foreign Legion during the North African campaign. On May 13, 1943, the 9th Company of the Régiment de marche du Tchad was established in Chad from these Spanish republican volunteers, which included many anarchists. In September 1943, the company was transferred to Morocco and then the United Kingdom, as part of the 2nd Armored Division, going on to participate in the Battle for Normandy and the Liberation of Paris.
Egypt
The anarchist movement first emerged in Egypt in the late nineteenth century, but collapsed in the 1940s. The movement has reemerged in the early 2010s.
The movement re-entered global view when a number of anarchist groups took part in the 2011 Egyptian revolution, namely the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement and Black Flag. The Egyptian anarchists have come under attack from the military regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.FEATURES: Anarchists: Preferably Stateless in 2013. On October 7, 2011, the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement held their first conference in Cairo.
Eswatini In 2003, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) began to build an underground presence in Eswatini, with Swazi members joining the organization. ZACF began to openly support the pro-democracy movement and popularised anarchist ideas among young people, with some members even working within the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO). On October 1, 2005, eight SWAYOCO members, including the ZACF member Mandla Khoza, were arrested by police during a youth demonstration in Manzini, which had been protesting against the suppression of the pro-democratic opposition.
At the turn of 2006, 17 petrol-bombings were carried out by pro-democracy militants against state targets. Several democracy activists were arrested and charged with treason, while an article in the Times of Swaziland accused ZACF of having carried out an attack on a police vehicle during a demonstration in Manzini. This claim was denied by the ZACF, who issued a statement to the Times in which they reiterated their support for the pro-democracy movement and stated that the Swazi ZACF branch had denied taking part in the bombing. The ZACF subsequently noted the emergence of an armed struggle tendency within the pro-democracy movement, but they considered this to not be a viable option for liberation, instead proposing the construction of a mass movement for a participatory economy, while not ruling out armed self-defence.
At the December 2007 ZACF congress, it was decided to restructure the organisation, establishing the Eswatini section as its own autonomous group. Members of SWAYOCO subsequently set up an anarchist study circle in Siphofaneni, organizing the transport of anarchist materials from South Africa into Eswatini. Mandla Khoza also attempted to establish a community project in this time, but activity in the following years was limited, due to the poor living conditions of many pro-democracy activists. The year of 2008, which PUDEMO had slated to be the year of democratization, passed without any democratic reforms taking place.
Ethiopia In the 1960s, students at Addis Ababa University began to protest against the absolutist rule of Haile Selassie I, establishing the University Students Union of Addis Ababa (USUAA) in 1966 to coordinate the campaign, which culminated in a general strike in early 1974, called by the Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU). This campaign against the monarchy eventually resulted in a coup d'état by a military junta known as the Derg, which overthrew the Ethiopian Empire and established a Marxist-Leninist one-party state in its place. During the Red Terror, the Derg used the term "anarchist" to describe many of its enemies, ordering the purge of "anarchists" from Ethiopia. Some more radical Ethiopian students, who saw themselves as the true standard-bearers of the Ethiopian Revolution, came to label the Derg as "fascist", after a number of students had been arrested by the government, with some accused of being "anarchists" for opposing the land reform program.
In 2020, the Horn Anarchists collective was established to spread anarchist ideas throughout the Horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and within the Ethiopian diaspora. The Horn Anarchists have been active in the campaign against the Tigray War, which they have described as a "genocide", analyzing it as a product of the rising nationalism and a political shift to the right-wing under the government of Abiy Ahmed and the ruling Prosperity Party.
Guinea-Bissau Between the 10th and 14th centuries CE, the Balanta people first migrated from Northeast Africa to present-day Guinea-Bissau, to escape drought and wars. During the 19th century, the Balanta resisted the expansion of the Kaabu Empire, earning them their name, which in the Mandinka language translates literally to "those who resist". The Balanta organize their society largely statelessly and without social stratification, with elder councils deciding on day-to-day matters. They also practice gender equality, with Balanta women taking ownership of what they themselves produced. Property and land are mostly held in common among the Balanta, with some personal property being allowed for subsistence farming and the means of production being held by individuals and their families.
In 1885, the Berlin Conference brought the entire territory of Guinea-Bissau under the effective occupation of the Portuguese Empire, which had previously only occupied a few settlements in the area. During the 1890s, Portuguese Guinea was established as a separate military district, to promote Portugal's occupation, which began to impose taxes on the indigenous population and grant concessions to foreign companies to fund its expanding occupation. During this time, Guinea-Bissau was in part used as a penal colony for anarchists that had been exiled by successive Portuguese governments. Indigenous resistance to colonial rule continued well into the 20th century.Basil Davidson, The Liberation of Guine (Baltimore: Penguin, 1969), p.66 By the time that the 28 May 1926 coup d'état established a military dictatorship in Portugal, most of Guinea-Bissau had been occupied, administered and taxed, a process that was finally completed by the Estado Novo in the mid-1930s.
In the 1950s, the Bissau-Guinean activist Amílcar Cabral began to agitate against the Estado Novo, advocating for the independence of Portugal's African colonies. He established the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to coordinate the struggle, though he insisted the party "is not a system of chieftainship", instead organizing along anti-elitist and anti-bureaucratic lines, in contrast to vanguardism. Power instead lay in self-administering village committees, which were elected and recallable, rather than in party officials, as Cabral had stated that "we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by black people." In 1963, the independence struggle evolved into the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, in which the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP) led an armed guerilla war against the Portuguese colonial authorities. The FARP was itself made up of unpaid volunteers and was not hierarchically structured, instead decentralizing command as much as possible. These decentralist tendencies led Stephen P. Halbrook to consider Cabral as "one of the great libertarians of our age", although this libertarian socialist characterization is disputed.
Kenya According to oral tradition, the Kikuyu people were once ruled by a despotic king who was deposed in a popular uprising, which instituted a democratic system in the place of monarchy. This saw the establishment of the Ituĩka ceremony, a tradition in which the old guard handed over the reins of society to the next generation, to avoid the institution of a dictatorship. The Kikuyu subsequently lived under a system of social equality, without class or gender stratification, where a federation of councils organized society from the bottom-up. But with the arrival of the Imperial British East Africa Company and establishment of the East Africa Protectorate, the new British colonial authorities reintroduced a centralized autocratic system, appointing chiefs to rule over the Kikuyu. The last Ituĩka ceremony passed power from the Maina generation to the Mwangi generation in 1898. The next scheduled Ituĩka ceremony was eventually thwarted by the British colonial authorities, which cemented its centralized rule over the Kikuyu with the establishment of Kenya Colony.