The Labour Government and Decolonisation in British West Africa (1945-51)

Abstract

The present research paper attempts to examine the attitude of the Labour Government 1945-51 towards the process of decolonisation in British West Africa and whether the party, with its socialist agenda, was able to initiate any new course different from that of the capitalist, imperialist Conservatives. To inquire into this, the paper sheds light on the colonial policies adopted by the Labour Party before 1945 and after to show how far the Party’s actions once in office were consistent with its resolutions once in opposition. Previous historical research on British decolonisation dating back to the late 1950s presented the Party as playing a major role in unscrambling the empire and assigned it a positive role in Africa. However, the chief limitation of this historiographical genre is its lack of objectivity as it did not make use of primary sources. Relying on some archival sources and adopting an analytical approach, this study argues that the Labour government of 1945-51 did not mark a new move towards decolonisation in West Africa. Contrary to what has often been assumed, the Party’s approach to colonial questions was not different from that of the Conservative Party. Labour adhered to the political, economic, social and ideological constituents that defined the culture of imperialism. Its colonial policy was neither innovative nor did it involve any revolutionary break with the past official colonial policy. A major influential factor had been British national self-interest.