From Colonizers to Guardians: International Law and the African Mandates under the League of Nations (1919–1945)

Central to the League of Nations’ vision was the creation of a legal framework deemed appropriate for the administration of former colonies and territories of the defeated powers, to wit: German and Ottoman. Drawing on the principles of collective security, peace, and justice, the league projected its vision as a “sacred trust of civilization” – cloaked in the idea of humanitarianism. Concerned with the fate of non-sovereign populations in the former German and Ottoman colonies, the League qualified the situation as an international concern, and proceeded to develop an international administrative framework called the “Mandate System”, enshrined in Article 22 of the League Covenant. The main purpose of the mandate regime was to guide and oversee the transition of the affected non-self-governing territories towards eventual self-determination. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Africa, where former German possessions: Tanganyika, Rwanda-Urundi (Rwanda-Burundi), Kamerun (Cameroon), German South West Africa (Namibia), and Togoland were assigned to Allied powers as mandates. Perceived as not yet having reached the infamous “standard of civilization”, these territories were assigned to mandate powers to govern them on behalf of the international community, as well as lead them towards eventual self-rule.