Contrasting Aspects of Africa Decolonisation Processes and Missions in West and Southern Africa: Ghana and Angola as Case Studies

Abstract

A major result of the Second World War was a radically new world constellation. In 1945, Soviet Russian and American troops in Torgau at the Elbe shook hands over the ruins of an old Europe that never would dominate the world as it had done before. A bipolar world order had come into being, now dominated by anti-colonial superpowers. Yet, many European nations were still clinging to their overseas colonies in the hope that they could contribute to repairing their diminished political and economic position and prestige in the new global context. New approaches had to be developed and choices made regarding the world-wide changes affecting also the colonies still under European control, and affecting, likewise, Catholic and Protestant Missions operating there. This article deals with the decolonisation processes of the British colony, Ghana, and the Portuguese colony, Angola, and how churches and their missions were involved in these processes. The year 1992 has been chosen as the terminus ad quem because, in that year, elections took place in both Ghana and Angola, though in quite different circumstances and with quite different results.