Central Texas Model United Nations 2016
Background Guide:
The Decolonization of Africa “Colonialism. The enforced spread of the rule of reason. But who is going to
spread it among the colonizers?”
― Anthony Burgess
Letters from the Director
Hello Delegates,
I would like to give you a warm welcome to what I know will be one of the best Model
UN experiences you will have during your tenure as a delegate. To all first time crisis
delegates, welcome to a totally different world from your standard committee, and to all
experienced delegates, get ready for a crisis experience that breaks the mold in new and
innovative ways. My name is Saurabh Sharma and I have participated and staffed Model
United Nations conferences for almost 7 years now and in two different countries, India
and the United States. I am currently enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin,
double-majoring in Biochemistry and Philosophy, with my eye on a career in medicine,
the army, professorship at a university post-retirement, and political office. If any of you
have any questions of me as your Crisis Director, a MUNer, or a college student, please
feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Saurabh Sharma
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Setting the Scene: The End of the Colonial Era
It has been several decades since the fateful Berlin Conference that decided the future of
the continent of Africa. With little exception, every stone of the land mass is controlled
by Western European powers. Natural resources are used to assign value to swathes of
land encircled by borders whose ramifications will echo through history. On August 9th
1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met upon a British battleship in
Placentia Bay and begin the discussions that would forge the strongest geopolitical
alliance the modern world had ever seen and would become the iron backbone of the
postwar world. Among the discussions aboard that fateful vessel is a tacit agreement that
not only would the sun set on the British Empire after this second of Great Wars, but that
one of the most entrenched institutions of the millennium, European Imperialism as a
whole, would as well.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet aboard the
HMS Prince of Wales
An institution that had concentrated a majority of the worlds’ material wealth in a cluster
of nations on the tip of the European peninsula of Afro-Eurasia was not one happily
abandoned by any of those party to its benefits. The gentleman’s agreement on the
interpretation of what would become the Atlantic Charter was effectively null and void
when Churchill had to face his people, a people with love of Empire, and his European
allies. Thus, a conflict was borne. The Atlantic Charter was the shining symbol of the
Angle-American alliance and weakness on any one point rendered it toilet paper in the
eyes of the peoples of aggressor nations seeking an out to war that would still maintain
themselves sovereign. Double-talk was the bandage used to seal this leaking ship, one
statement would be said in the halls of diplomacy and another in the courtyard to the
masses, underneath, the real question remained unlitigated, what would be of the
colonized world after this conflict?
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Setting the Scene: The Landscape of a Colonial Africa
AscanbeseeninthemapofAfricaafterthefirstBerlinConferenceshownbelow
(notaccurateto1946),Africahasbeendividedalongpurelyterritoriallinesthat
weredeterminedatthatverysameConference.Naturalethnictensionsthatwould
haveotherwisebeenpresentforthelast100yearswerekeptsuppressedbythe
supersedingdynamicofthecolonizedandthecolonizer.However,evenasthe
intellectual,westerneducatedAfricanclassbeginstosupportnotionsof
independenceandsocialismthemoreruralandtribalareasofAfricahave
simmeringtensionsthatbegintoriseagainascolonialinvolvementdwindles.
Manycolonizersareholdingontowhattheyperceiveastheirpropertyvery
intensely,publicmassacres,especiallybyFrenchforcesinareaslikeTunisiaand
Algeriaarecommonplacewithmorecellsofdisgruntledcolonialsubjectsbeginning
torevoltagainsttheircolonialmasters.
Duringthecourseofcolonizationthecolonizershadoftenmaintaineddistincttribal
identitiesforthepurposesoftheirownorganizationandusingastrictsocial
structuretopreventunificationofthedisparateclassesinAfrica.Anexampleofthis
hasbeenthemaintenanceofTutsisupremacyintheareaofRwanda,amovethat
hasinspiredfurtherethnictension.
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There are some free nations at this time in Africa. The Kingdom of Egypt has
recentlyfallenoutaBritishmandateitwasundereventhoughitwasneverformally
colonized. Liberia and Ethiopia were similarly never under colonial rule. South
Africa was able to peacefully secede from the British Empire and has been selfgoverningunderanoppressiveandsegregatingwhiteminorityfordecadesnow.
The Committee: The Second Berlin Conference
The Second Great War has ended. Peace is upon us. Now begins the discussions that will
forge the next century. Imperialism as a model for a mechanized, militarized society has
proven unethical, unsustainable, and by a growing portion of the population, untenable.
The Second Berlin Conference (fictional) presents the chance to make the decisive turn
from this archaic institution. Successors to both of the founders of the Atlantic Charter
are no longer in office, Roosevelt having died recently and Churchill losing an election.
A meeting of the most imperial European Nations, the United States, the brightest
nationalist thinkers and leaders from colonial Africa, sovereigns of the few free African
nations, and the Secretary general of the newly formed United Nations has been called to
come to some form of negotiation on this most divisive of issues.
The leaders of Europe look to postpone the decolonization of Africa as much as possible,
the United States looks to hasten it to remove the one advantage Europe has, the
nationalists seek self-determinism, and everyone looks to maintain the fragile peace that
has been established after a quarter of a century of World War. The European imperialists
come while fully aware they will have to make concessions agreed upon during wartime,
Africa is not the most important territory for them to maintain. However the complication
with liberating such a massive area is the prevention of proxy conflict using this fresh
geopolitical landscape. Borders drawn throughout the continent to separate resources
amongst imperials remain important in creating balanced nations but stirrings of ethnic
conflict within artificial borders portends great disaster if not addressed.
This Conference begins on July 1st 1946.
The Committee: Initial Conflict
The committee will begin with a new superpower in the form of the United States putting
greater and greater pressure on the collective European bloc of colonizing nations to
begin the process of decolonization agreed upon in the Atlantic Charter. Both of the
leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom are replacements of the leaders who
originally made the deal. Churchill is still a formidable political force in England but
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President Roosevelt has died and an attempt it being made by the Truman administration
to follow through on the foreign policy goals he espoused in order to further cement the
United States’ role as the strongest nation in the world.
In the mean time in Africa various charismatic leaders have begun to emerge in either the
local governments that the colonizers allow to exist or in grassroots movements. These
leaders are usually avowed Marxists and socialists and believe in African nationalist
ideas that inform their desires for independence. The United States has invited some of
these leaders to the Second Berlin Conference in order to raise public awareness about
the existence of competent leaders in the African Continent and combat the colonizers’
narrative to their own people about a land of savages. This in turn is hoped to increase
internal political pressure in these European countries to release their respective imperial
conquests.
Character List
1) UnitedStatesPresidentHarryTruman:TheU.S.A.’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.TheUnitedStateshasseveral
conflictinginterestsinthedecolonizationofAfricaincludingthedesireto
cementtheirdominanceintheworldbyweakeningotherpowersby
dismantlingtheirempiresandthesimultaneousfearofSovietcontrolofthe
newlyliberatedstatesandseparationofthesenewcountriesfromthewest.
2) BritishPrimeMinisterClementAttlee:TheU.K.’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.Britainplaysadelicategameatthis
conference,threadingtheneedleofmaintainingagoodrelationshipwiththe
U.S.andattemptingtomakegoodonthepromisesmadeintheAtlantic
Charterwhileatthesametimebeinghighlyreticenttogiveupandamountof
territory.ThiswillleadtoalotoftensionbetweentheUSandtheUK.
3) JomoKenyatta(Kenya):KenyattaisagrowingintellectualleaderinKenya
withstrongtiestotheKenyaAfricanUnion,anorganizationdevotedto
Kenyanindependence.
4) KwameNkrumah(GoldCoast/Ghana):NkrumahisaPan-Africanistwho
hasrecentlybeenappointedtotheleadershipofthefirstmajorpolitical
partyontheGoldCoastofAfrica.Hehassympathyfortheideasbehind
AfricanSocialismandtheirsupplantingofcolonialism.
5) JuliusNyerere(Tanzania):AbelieverinAfricanSocialistideasanda
prominentmemberoftheTanganyikaAfricanAssociation,Nyerereisan
activistforthesovereigntyofTanganyika
6) LeopoldSedarSenghor(Senegal):AmemberoftheAssembleenationalein
Senegal,Senghorisanupandcomingpoliticianandthinkerintheregion
whoadvocatesforsocialistpolicies.
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7) FelixHouphouet-Boigny(Coted’Ivoire):Theleaderoftheveryfirststrong
Africanpoliticalpartyrightnow,Boignyisapowerfulthinkerandpolitical
forceintheCoted’Ivoireandisconsideredmoresympathetictowestern
intereststhanmanyofhiscounterpartsintheregion.
8) ChairmanofFreeFranceCharlesA.J.M.deGaulle:France’sheadofstate
andwillrepresentitsinterestsattheconference.DeGaulleisheavilyfocused
onmaintainingastablegovernmentinFrancebutseekstomaintainthe
integrityofmostoftheFrenchEmpireandwillbereticenttoyieldterritory,
especiallyAlgeria.
9) PresidentoftheGovernmentofSpainFranciscoFranco:Spain’sheadof
stateandwillrepresentitsinterestsattheconference.Spaincontinuesto
seeknewAfricanterritorywellintothe20thcenturyandisveryresistantto
massdecolonizationandwilllikelyonlycedeprovincesundersignificant
pressure.
10)PresidentofItalyEnricoDeNicola:Italy’sheadofstateandwillrepresent
itsinterestsattheconference.Beinginthemidstofnegotiatingaformal
peaceasamemberoftheaxis,Italywilllikelylosemuchofitscolonial
territorysoon.Asaresultitseekstohelpbuildconsensusandcompromise
betweenthearguingfactionsattheconference.
11)KingLeopoldIIIofBelgium:Spain’sheadofstateandwillrepresentits
interestsattheconference.Belgiumwillfaceuniquescrutinyatthe
conferenceasanexampleoftheworstexcessesofimperialismduetothe
massgenocideithasinflictedintheCongo,thiswillleadtotheirpresenceat
theconferencebeingmeasuredyetdefensiveofwhattheyviewastheir
property.
12)PresidentofPortugalOscarCarmona:Portugal’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.Portugal,likemanyotherempires,
facesimmensepressurefromthecompetingspheresofinfluenceoftheUS
andSovietUnionandseekstopreserveitsstrongholdonwhatterritoryit
stillcontrolsaslongaspossible.
13)KingofEgyptandtheSudanFaroukI:Egypt’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.AsanevercolonizedAfricannation,
itattemptstomaintainitsgeopoliticalinterestsandavoidsignificantconflict
alongitsbordersinordertomaintainstability,willactasaconsensus
builderinconference.
14)PrimeministeroftheUnionofSouthAfricaJanSmuts:SouthAfrica’s
headofstateandwillrepresentitsinterestsattheconference.Asa
previouslyfreedAfricannation,itattemptstomaintainitsgeopolitical
interestsandavoidsignificantconflictalongitsbordersinordertomaintain
stability,willactasaconsensusbuilderinconference.SouthAfrica’spolitical
leadershipisalsodistinctinsomeofitsracialviewsandwillconsequently
haveatendencytosympathizewithimperialpowers.
15)PresidentofLiberiaWilliamV.S.Tubman:Liberia’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.AsanevercolonizedAfricannation,
itattemptstomaintainitsgeopoliticalinterestsandavoidsignificantconflict
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alongitsbordersinordertomaintainstability,willactasaconsensus
builderinconference.
16)EmperorofEthiopiaHaileSelassieI:Ethiopia’sheadofstateandwill
representitsinterestsattheconference.AsapreviouslyfreedAfricannation,
itattemptstomaintainitsgeopoliticalinterestsandavoidsignificantconflict
alongitsbordersinordertomaintainstability,willactasaconsensus
builderinconference.
17)SecretaryGeneraloftheUnitedNationsTrygveLie:Astheleaderofthe
newlyformedUnitedNations,Liewilllargelyattempttonotoverstephis
boundsasaninternationalleaderandwillinsteadattempttofoster
diplomacyinmoretensesituations.
18)PresidentofthePopularCouncilofPolandBoleslawBeirut:Poland’s
headofstateandwillrepresentitsinterestsattheconference.Bierut
representsPoland’srecentshifttocommunism.Heisheavilyfocusedon
cementinghisgovernmentandsincePolanddoesnotpossessanycolonies
anywhere,heisnotheavilyalignedwitheithertheEuropeanorAmerican
interestsatplay.
19)PrimeMinisteroftheKingdomofDenmarkKnudKristensen:Denmark’s
headofstateandwillrepresentitsinterestsattheconference.Although
Denmarkdoesn’thavecoloniesinAfricapresentlytheydohaveastakein
colonialismduetotheirpossessionofGreenland,theywilllargelyalignwith
theEuropeanbloconissuesofcolonialism.
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My Recommendations
For some of you, this will be your first time in a crisis committee, so I wanted to give
everyone some advice on how the committee will be run. First, in crisis rather than pass
resolution, delegates will pass action orders. These orders may be created and passed by
the committee but individuals or factions that develop may also submit them with no
committee approval or announcement. Also, press releases can be issued unilaterally if
the delegate has the appropriate authority to do so and correctly states who is releasing
the press release and by extension whose voice is being represented.
In addition to standard note passing, delegates may communicate with organizations and
individuals outside the committee by sending properly addressed notes that will then be
sent to the crisis staff. The best delegates will be communicating with groups outside the
committee to facilitate smooth operation and to keep in your citizens’ good graces. As a
general rule for crisis, notes addressed to people or groups outside the committee can
always be intercepted. Please do keep in mind that the crisis staff expects legible
handwriting; otherwise, we will not reply. Do not expect immediate replies to action
orders or questions as government bureaucracy as well as travel times can significantly
delay any action. If you have any questions before conference (as you should), please
email the crisis director.
Preparation is key! You will not do well if you do not prepare. Crisis committees
emphasize thinking on your feet to problems that you will not see coming. The best way
to prepare is to understand your character’s background, his or her relationships with the
other characters in the committee, his or her goals, and a thorough understanding of the
crises topic beforehand. Crisis directors have a knack for shaking up committees so be
prepared for anything.
If you have trouble with any of part of this background guide or have any other questions,
make sure to email the crisis director before conference starts, and we will do our best to
answer your question or point you in the right direction. Please send any correspondence
to both crisis directors.
For some of the characters here, finding detailed and related biographies and actions can
be difficult. In these cases, we expect delegates to look at the available information and
extrapolate a reasonable position for their character. Unfortunately, not everything can be
researched using Wikipedia; however, using the references found in Wikipedia articles
can point you in the right direction. Good luck!
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Sources
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Spanish_Empire
http://www.timelines.info/history/empires_and_civilizations/portuguese_empire/
http://www.colonialvoyage.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-grand-alliance-and-thefuture-of-french-indochina-1945/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_3536000/3
536533.stm
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/asia-and-africa
http://www.nkrumah.net
http://web.archive.org/web/20131229150513/http://www.statehousekenya.go.k
e/presidents/kenyatta/profile.htm
https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2049/v49.pdf
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/atlantic-conf
http://www.systemicpeace.org/vlibrary/ConflictTrendsAfrica2006MGMarshall.pdf
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