ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the foundational ideas of the votaries of non-violence and violence, such as Mahatma Gandhi, who led anti-colonial movements in South Africa and India, Frantz Fanon, Kenneth Kaunda and Kwame Nkrumah, who played pivotal roles in anti-colonial freedom movements in Africa. It evaluates the arguments in favour of violence and non-violence advocated by freedom movements in India and Africa against colonisation, within the framework of humanism. The chapter presents the concept of humanism as a frame of reference because of its widely accepted emphasis on individual human rights, religious, cultural, economic, and political freedoms. It argues in favour of a broad-based non-violent strategy of social construction and transformation in societies, which are wracked by conflicts. The chapter presents Kaunda's critique of doctrinaire violence as well as non-violence, which was penetrative and insightful. Thus, the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence influenced African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Kenneth Kaunda, and Julius Nyerere.
