The BDP and Botswana's 'false decolonisation' Part 1

Our main concern here  is that  in the process, the party tried hard to re-invent itself or  obscure the true facts about its history. This article seeks to challenge this obscurantism by briefly looking at the BDP's unpleasant past as a virtual creature of the colonial administration and the settler bourgeoisie. Politically, Botswana was in the same league as former French  and British colonies Gabon, Niger, Ivory Coast, the Gambia, Lesotho and Swaziland  that experienced what Ben Turok calls 'false decolonisation'.

In the these countries, pro-imperialist 'clients' or  black leaders replaced white colonial masters without changing the basic character of the society. Felix Houphouet-Boigny who became the first president of Ivory Coast  opposed independence for Africa and his country at the 1946 Bamako Conference of the Rassemblment Democratique Africain.