| Throughout the 1950s, as international anti-colonialism gained momentum, the US government showed consistent support for its colonial allies, particularly Britain. Washington pursued this course even at the risk of losing the cold war sympathy of the newly-independent peoples, whose objective was to bring an end to empire. UK officials explained this policy as due to increasing American self-consciousness about its domestic system which, like empire, was based on white domination of peoples of color. In fact, however, a study of the records of American, British and Nigerian archives indicates that the US was led by cold war concerns, shaped by racism. Accepting the imminence of a communism threat to Africa, Washington also believed that Africans were unfit for self-rule and would produce vulnerable states. Africa was safer within the European orbit. Racism also helped to govern the US response to Nigerian decolonization, where the US welcomed London's design to hand over power to an unrepresentative, deeply conservative government likely to remain a close UK ally. In Nigeria, and in the UN where decolonization was debated, Washington's reserve towards African independence illustrated how qualified many Americans' belief in self-determination actually was. |
