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| Colonialisation
and Decolonialisation |
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Century looks at the fight for independence and self government. |
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Indonesia
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Rosihan Anwar was born in 1922 in West Sumatra and experienced
life under Dutch rule. The Dutch East Indies were amongst
the richest European colonies in the world. At the end of
the Second World War in 1945, Indonesian nationalists proclaimed
independence.
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India
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Sandra
Anson arrived in India in 1942 to work at the British Residency
in Bangalore. The British had ruled in India since 1858. The
Indian nationalist movement under the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi gathered momentum in the 1930’s, but independence wasn’t
secured until 1947. When Britain and her colonies went to
war in 1939, India’s role was crucial to the allied war effort
and Sandra Anson was on hand to experience the last days of
British rule.
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Kenya
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Harkman Muiruri Muniu took part in the Mau Mau rebellion in
Kenya from 1952. It was a campaign against colonial rule and
European settlers, led by such people as Dedan Kimathi and
Jomo Kenyatta. In the 4 years of intense fighting 100 Europeans
were killed, 2,000 African loyalists and 11,000 Mau Mau rebels.
The uprising was brutally crushed but the struggle acted as
a catalyst for independence which came in 1963.
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Mozambique
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Lina Magaia, a poet and a member of the government remembers
her time working for the guerrilla movement, Frelimo, in Mozambique
where the war of independence was launched in 1964 to end Portuguese
rule. It was a military and political campaign that lasted for
more than a decade.
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Algeria
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Jean Leca, Professor of Political Science at the Institute of
Political Studies in Paris, was born and brought up in Algeria,
a member of the community known as the pieds noirs. They were
the original colonial settlers that the French relied on to
govern when they ousted the Turks and took control of Algeria
in 1830. In 1954, Algerian nationalists began their bitter struggle
for independence against their French colonial masters and by
the time independence came in 1962, most of the pieds noirs
had fled the country.
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