The Danger of a Single Story
• Chimamanda Adhichie
• https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=D9Ihs241ze
g
Author of
• Half of a Yellow Sun
• Purple Hibiscus
• Americanah
• The Thing Around Your
Neck
Vital Statistics
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30 million kilometers –
– 2nd largest continent in the
world
– 20.4% of the total land area of
the world
1 billion people
– 2nd most populated
54 countries
Formerly known as Ifriqiya
Largest country – Algeria
Highest point: Mt. Kilimanjaro –
19,341 feet
Lowest point: Lake Assai in
Djibouti, 509 feet
Climate and landscape
• 15% of it is considered desert (hot with
little rain)
• 10% of it is considered tropical rainforest
(tropical wet)
• 35% of it is considered
savanna/grasslands (steppe)
• The rest of Africa includes Mediterranean
climate, mountain climate, tropical wet and
dry, rainy and mild, and wet and mild.
Majority Muslim nations
Which country in Africa
has the largest
Muslim population?
Lalibella,
Ethiopia
TAKE OUT YOUR JOURNALS
WRITE ABOUT THIS:
“The early bird catches the worm.”
What does this mean?
What is a proverb?
• Early to bed, early to rise makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise.
• Give someone an inch, they will take a
mile.
• All’s fair in love and war.
• A watched pot never boils.
• Beggars can’t be choosers.
Proverbs of the Mongo people, of the
inner Congo Basin
• The older one is, the
greater the respect.
• The forest is a relic of the
ancestors; it stays with
the family.
• The health of a banana is
foud in its leaves as that
of the family is in its
members.
• It is the young who want
war and the old who
yearn for peace.
• A rich man gains from his
generosity.
• Help received today is
returned tomorrow.
• The young cannot teach
tradition to the old.
• The fish does not reject
its water; man must follow
the family.
• Firewood burns as long
as it not wet; a good man
triumphs only when he is
just.
• All are equal in the eyes
of the ancestors.
Jupiter Bokondji
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Ctl
wz5Zbo
•
I wanted to convince people from
Kinshasha that we have an
extremely rich culture. We have
nothing to do with gold, diamonds
and all that stuff that
multinationals are suffocating us
with. I’m talking about riches
that no one can take from us, in
other words, our cultural riches,
which are so immense, and with
which we can develop our country
properly.
•
Jupiter and Okwess International
Mansa Musa, 14th century King of Mali
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12675464
Cairo to Capetown
• The Distance from Cairo to Capetown on this map
is approximately 4, 495 miles.
• Estimate where you would end up if you travelled
South from Seattle for 4,495 miles.
• Write down your guess.
• Estimate where you would end up if you travelled
East from Seattle for 4, 495 miles.
• Write down your guess.
To exploit
To make use of something or
someone
Why did Europeans go to Africa?
• Why did Europe take an increasing interest in
Africa?
• How did Europeans justify their imperial
aggression?
• How did they manage their colonial power
and why?
• What idea is the policy of assimilation based
on?
Imperialism
Imperialism: The policy by a stronger nation
to attempt to create an empire by dominating
weaker nations economically, politically,
culturally, or militarily.
Empire
• A geographically extensive group of diverse
states and peoples ruled by a central
authority, either a monarch (king, queen,
emperor, empress, or an oligarchy)
• Examples: Aztec Empire, Persian Empire,
Babylonian Empire, Roman Empire, Egyptian
empire, British Empire
How Did Imperialism Begin?
A coaling station for steamships, Cape Town, South Africa
The Industrial Revolution
• The Industrial
Revolution began
in Great Britain in
the mid-18th
century
• Britain’s
advantages
• The spread of
industrialization
Economic Motives
Industrialized
nations
sought:
• Raw materials
• Natural resources
• A cheap labor
supply
• New
marketplaces for
manufactured
goods
Technological
Advances
•
•
•
•
The steam engine
Better transportation
Increased exploration
Improvements in communication
The steamboat Herald
(with mounted machine guns)
on the Zambezi river in Africa
One of the first steam engines
The Maxim Gun
British
troops
fighting
forces in
Benin in
1897
Whatever happens,
We have got
The Maxim gun
And they have not.
Hilaire Belloc, 1898
Exploration
• David Livingstone
• Mapping the “Dark
Continent”
David Livingstone
Henry Stanley
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
Henry Morton Stanley in 1869
Nationalism
• 19th-century political
changes
• Allegiance to one’s
country rather than
to a monarch
• Role of the
“common people”
• Unification
movements
• Militarism
Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi (on
horseback) leading an attack in Palermo, Sicily
German Unification
Other strong
nations
emerged in
the mid1800s as the
result of
political and
economic
changes in
Europe and
beyond.
To colonize
To exploit or make use of another
person or people
The Scramble for Africa Begins
King Leopold II of
Belgium
King Leopold: The International
African Association
900,000 miles of
territory in The Congo
By 1882
Steamboat Stanley on the Congo River
“Entrepreneur” “Business magnate”
Colonialism for personal profit
• Forced labor using “Force Publique”
• Tortured, mutilated and killed tens of
millions of men, women, and children.
• Made millions in personal profit from
sales of rubber and ivory
• Critics now refer to it as “Red Rubber”
The Berlin Conference
Established a set of
agreed-upon rules
regarding the
competition among
the great powers for
colonies in Africa
No Africans invited
YINKA SHONIBARE,
Nigerian Artist
“The conquest of the
earth, which mostly
means taking it away
from those who have a
different complexion or
slightly flatter notes than
ourselves, is not a
pretty thing when you
look into it.”
Joseph Conrad
1857-1924
Al-Jazeera Presents Africa States of
Independence: The Scramble for Africa
• Professor Lansine Kaba,
born and educated in
Guinea and then Senegal
• Biyi Bandele, Nigerianborn novelist and playwright
• Jonathan Lawley, Former
District Administrator of
Zambia/Northern Rhodesia
• Richard Dowden, Director
of the Royal African Society
• https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=CgzSnZidGuU
• How did Europeans
carry out their
colonialist empire?
• How did colonial
subjects respond?
• The answer to both of
these questions is
shaped by the social
and cultural ideologies
used to justify the
colonial mission.
• A system of ideas, often a set of principles
that form the basis of economic or political
policy.
• Example: Socialist vs. Capitalist ideology
• Often used to sell, support or justify
• May be circulated invisibly through popular
culture
What is Social Darwinism?
• An application of Darwin’s theories of ‘natural
selection’ and ‘survival of the fittest’ to
society, popular in the 19th century.
• Core Belief: Societies evolve from lower
(barbarians) to higher (civilized), and the
most capable are the ones who survive; and
it is wrong to interfere with this process.
• Real Darwinists want nothing to do with these
beliefs.
Who is Rudyard Kipling?
“The White Man’s Burden”
By Rudyard Kipling
• Read your stanza slowly and
underline key words or
phrases that stand out for
you.
• Identify what metaphor or
metaphors can be found.
• Translate the stanza into
your own words.
• Prepare to share it with the
class.
• Write down what, according
to Kipling, is the White Man’s
Burden???
• And what reward does
Kipling seem to suggest the
White Man may get for
carrying this burden?
• According to Kipling, what is
the impact of colonialism
upon the people being
colonized?
• In your opinion, how might
colonized people be affected
by this way of thinking? How
might they resist it?
The “White
Man’s
Burden”
appeared in
children’s
books and
even in
advertiseme
nts of the
time period.
The Black Man’s Burden
Pile on the Black Man’s
Burden.
Tis nearest at your door;
Why heed long bleeding Cuba,
Or dark Hawaii’s shore?
Hail ye your fearless armies,
Which menace feeble folks
Who fight with clubs and
arrows
And brook your rifle’s smoke.
Pile on the Black Man’s
Burden
His wail with laughter
drown
You’ve sealed the Red
Man’s problem,
And will take up the
Brown,
In vain ye seek to end it,
With bullets, blood or
death
Better by far defend it
With honor’s holy breath.
What impact did the history of
colonialism have on the people who were
colonized?