Wind of Change (speech)

The "Wind of Change" speech was an address made by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Parliament of South Africa on 3 February 1960 in Cape Town.

Spurred by increasing nationalism in Africa and in Asia, the government made the decision to initiate the process of decolonisation by granting the empire's various colonies independence.

The Gold Coast nationalists had campaigned for home rule even before the Second World War, before most other colonies of the British Empire had initiated the process of decolonization.

[10] After the war, Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party (CPP) orchestrated a campaign of civil disobedience in support of self-government.

They asserted their dominance by their denial of universal suffrage to Africans and by efforts to persuade the British government to consolidate colonial territories into federations.

[citation needed] By 1960, Macmillan's Conservative government was becoming worried about the effects of violent confrontations with African nationalists in the Belgian Congo and French Algeria.

[13][14] Besides restating the policy of decolonisation, the speech marked political shifts that were to occur within the next year or so, in the Union of South Africa and the United Kingdom.

[18] Macmillan did not compose the speech commonly known as the "Winds of Change" himself, but had input from numerous friends and colleagues who helped derive the perfect wording for the delicate situation.

The speech related mainly to the separation of Britain from its South African colonies, but it also referred to discontent with the system of apartheid, and held positive political results for the British government.

Since it lays down a relatively clear understanding of Britain's intended exit as a colonial power in Africa, it achieved its purpose in the larger scheme.

However, since there are indications that Macmillan's intent was to sway White South Africans to abandon Verwoerd's apartheid dogma, that part of the speech was a failure.

The speech was an important moment to have such a distinguished and powerful figure from the Western world admonishing the practices and encouraging the black nationalists to achieve equality, but it still was not as groundbreaking or immediately effective as was the implied intent.

Small groups of ANC supporters gathered in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, and stood in silence while they held placards with urgings directed at Macmillan.

He had to save face when Macmillan had dropped a ticking time bomb into the speech, but he managed to respond quickly and well in a game of words to which he was not accustomed.

Macmillan's speech can officially be seen as a declaration of a change in policy regarding the British Empire, but prior government actions had already moved towards a slow process of decolonisation in Africa.

However, that gradual policy of relinquishing colonies owned by the Central African Federation was originally intended to target only areas in West Africa.

As such, the aftermath of Macmillan's speech brought not only great surprise but also a feeling of betrayal and distrust by members of the Conservative Party at the time.

Lord Kilmuir, a member of Macmillan's Cabinet at the time of the speech, went on to regard: Few utterances in recent history have had more grievous consequences... in Kenya the settlers spoke bitterly of a betrayal, and the ministers of the Federation approached the British government with equal suspicion.

Lord Salisbury, another member of the Conservative Party, felt that European settlers in Kenya, alongside the African populace, would prefer to remain under British rule regardless.

[21] Additionally, the fear that Britain would appear weak or unstable by a rapid decolonisation of her various colonies was of great concern to many Conservatives at the time of the speech.

Many felt that countries such as Ghana, which were among the first to be granted independence from British rule, were decolonised so quickly only by a lack of economic interests pushing against decolonization.

Those factors not only created a clash of ideals at home between conservative forces and those who wished to initiate the process of decolonization but also worked to complicate relations between Britain and other nations.