ABSTRACT
This book deals with the remarkable transformation that took place in British policy towards the empire in tropical Africa between 1938 and 1948, during which time a revolution occurred in the methods and purpose of British rule. In the following chapters attention is given to the parts played by the Colonial Office, the Colonial Service, and by African nationalists, while the effects of the Second World War for the African empire are also evaluated. Finally, emphasis is directed to the immediate post-war years, when a definite course was charted for the first time and a policy constructed that prepared the way for the decolonization of British Africa. Yet it is important for the historian to consider not only the political —‘technical’—process by which a policy for Africa was formulated but also the changing conceptions and assumptions which underlay and conditioned official pronouncements. For despite the impersonal and objective tone in which government reports and White Papers were couched, policy was formed by human beings and was never an automatic reaction to circumstances. The climate of opinion in Britain did materially affect British policy and rule in Africa. This is not very surprising, since the decision-makers in Whitehall were inevitably imbued with British ideas, thought with British minds, and saw with British eyes.
