UNITED NATIONS, DECOLONIZATION, AND SELF-DETERMINATION IN COLD WAR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, 1960-1994, THE

At the time of African decolonization, the Cold War was already in the process of being thoroughly globalized. Throughout Africa, decolonization frequently became entangled with the East-West conflict, further contributing to the already heavy burdens of the post-colonial development. Considering the violence with which the Europeans long pursued their colonial aims in Africa, and the relative lack of benefits Africans accrued from contact with Europeans, the process of decolonization would have been difficult under even the best of circumstances. That much of Africa became a focus of superpower competition shortly after independence further exacerbated an already difficult process of decolonization and state building.

African decolonization had a profound impact on the United Nations. During its first decade, the UN was largely western-dominated. The security Council reflected the views and interests of the western world, with its permanent membership consisting of four largely white states with European cultural ties and one Asian state, Nationalist China, or Taiwan, essentially a western-created client. Of the original 51 member states, only two, Liberia and Ethiopia, came from sub-Saharan Africa (excepting white-ruled South Africa). At the end of the UN's first year, 39 of the 51 member states, or 75 percent, came from western, European, or Latin American cultural backgrounds.3 At its tenth anniversary in 1955, UN membership stood at 60, with only Liberia and Ethiopia still representing sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 42 of the 60 member states, or 70 percent, came from western, European, or Latin American backgrounds. Thus, despite the East-West Cold War divide, the western powers, their allies and client states, could still depend upon healthy majorities in the General Assembly to promote their interests at the UN.4

The freeze on UN membership was lifted in 1955 and, in the years after, a massive increase - particularly of African members - occurred throughout the tenure of secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.5 By 1965, the beginning of the UN's third decade, the General Assembly was undergoing a transformation. In the preceding decade membership had nearly doubled, to 118, with a majority of 63 states from non-European backgrounds - including 30 from Africa. The West was losing control of the General Assembly and, with it, many of the other institutions of the UN. In 1970, as a sign of things to come, the United States cast its first veto on the security Council, the first of what would subsequently total more than 70 over the next two decades.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, as newly liberated peoples of Africa joined the United Nations, a sense of optimism grew that the international community would begin to address many of the problems of those societies held back by colonialism. But, rather than resolving these, decolonization brought with it a host of new problems the United Nations would have to contend with in the decades ahead. The arbitrary boundaries of many African colonies, often bearing little relationship to underlying cultural, societal, or linguistic patterns, frequently contradicted historical relationships and economic realties, making the prospects for postcolonial progress bleak.