Before the Wind of Change: The Orientation of Labor Unions in Africa

There is no history of sustained Communist influence in British African colonies, although individual union leaders with Communist sympathies appeared from time to time, particularly in West Africa during the colonial period. In Britain’s East and Central African colonies, any political sympathies were directed by unions toward their respective nationalist groups, particularly in Kenya, where the general secretary of the Federation of Labor (KFOL), Tom Mboya, was also the leader of the African members in the Legislative Council.2 This largely explains why World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) never succeeded in gaining a foothold in British East and Central Africa. In addition, the prohibition of the import of WFTU literature and colonial Africans’ difficulty in obtaining travel documents to travel to Iron Curtain countries. Furthermore, the relative “backwardness” of the Central and East African colonies compared with those of West Africa and the fact that the non-Communist International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU) was able to gain a footing in the area since its inception in 1949 and exert its influence among most African union leaders were also reasons for the colonial government’s success in limiting Communist influence.