Imperialism: Good or
Bad

Education Improves
◦ Ndansi Kumalo, an African warrior in the British Matabele War
said “the Government has arranged for education and through
that, when our children grow up, they may rise in status”

Industrialization Comes to Africa
◦ Kumalo said, “they brought us European implements plows; we
can buy European clothes, which are an advance”

The Creation of Infrastructure (long-term
benefit)
Sewage systems, railroads, and mail delivery systems were
brought to Africa-- revolutionizing sanitation, travel, and
communication

European Wealth??
The Good
Food Scarcity
◦ “All the best land has been taken by the white people. We get
hardly any price for our cattle; we find it hard to meet our
money obligations. If we have crops to spare, we get very little
for them… When we have plenty of grain the prices are very
low, but the moment we are short of grain and we have to buy
from Europeans at once the price is high”
 Taxes

◦ “The government said, ‘You must contribute more; you must pay £1.’ We
did so. Then those who took more than one wife were taxed… that is not all.
We are also taxed for our dogs… then we were told we were living on
private land; the owners wanted rent in addition to the government tax…If
we do raise anything, it is never our own: all, or most of it, goes back in
taxation”

Africans subject to abuse/brutality (inferior)

War (The Boer War)
◦ Africans were “the most despicable specimens of human beings.”
◦ “We were treated like slaves… the treatment we received was intolerable.
We said, ‘It is no good living under such conditions; death would be better—
let us fight’”
The Bad

Aparteid (in S. Africa until the 1990’s)

Arbitrary Boundaries Dividing Africa (Caused
Tribal Conflict)

Gap Between Rich and Poor ($30,000
earnings gap between whites and blacks)

Christianity is the Major Religion (vanishing
cultures)

Civil War in Africa (Zimbabwe, Sudan,
Congo..)
Long-Term Impact