COLONIZER MINDSET
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Colonization is a creation of two conflicting societies, one of the colonizer and
one of the colonized
– Colonizer & colonized, settler & native
– Colonization barbarizes the colonized so that the colonizer can, in good
conscience, take everything from the oppressed
– SEE PACKET
COLONIAL MINDSET
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White Man’s Burden (We will read this)
Founded upon beliefs of European superiority
The “duty and responsibility” to “civilize savage people”
In return, one should receive gratitude and appreciation (thankless years) for
their sacrifice
• Emasculation and dehumanization-seen as children (half-devil, half child)
• Gold, Gold, Glory- Competitive nature (judgement of your peers)
(they shall weigh your gods and you)
• Religious undertones, divine order from God
Colonial View of RACE
1. Europeans emphasized differences - those with dark skin inherently different to those with
white skin.
2. As a result Europeans believed that race was biological - the
differences genetic and unchanging. Is race biological? Construct?
3. Europeans promoted this view of race. People that look different are inherently different
and as a result of their color Europeans concluded that:
a. a Africans less civilized, less human - removal of dignity
b. Being less human allows different treatment of Africans justifies European behavior of not
treating them as humans at all
c. Justifies European carving-up of African continent. Africans do not know how to take care
of what they have therefore need to be colonized.
d. Europeans know better similar relationship of parent and child.
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Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in
one territory by people from another territory
– claims sovereignty over the colony, and social structure, gov’t, and economics of
the colony are changed by colonizers from the core
– Colonialism benefits of colonizer
Ideological basis of colonialism is racism/white supremacy
– The “white man’s burden,” in its 19th-century version, involved extraordinary
violence, approximating genocide, against its supposed beneficiaries
– A major component of this violence was the collection of cultural images and
themes by which colonized people came to be known by the colonial power
– The status of colonial subject, of being “known” by the colonizer, simultaneously
enforced & rationalized the colonial power’s dominance of indigenous populations,
giving imperialism a fundamental racial dimension-THE OTHER!
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Colonialism is a source of violence
violence of colonization both breeds and constrains violence within the
colonized, simultaneously enabling their colonization and providing the very
power through which the colonized might liberate themselves (divide and
conquer?)
Such liberation is only possible, he claims, through revolutionary violence
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In the colonies, the policeman and the soldier are the official, instituted gobetweens, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule of oppression
– In capitalist societies, institutions such as the educational system serve to
create around the exploited an atmosphere of submission and of inhibition
which lightens task of policing considerably
– In the colonial countries, by contrast, policeman and soldier, by their
immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact
with the native, using the language of pure force
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“The intermediary does not lighten the oppression, nor seek to hide the
domination; he shows them up and puts them into practice with the clear
conscience of an upholder of the peace; yet he is the bringer of violence into
the home and into the mind of the native….”
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Decolonization is not simply the removal of colonial structures, but especially, the
deconstruction of colonial legacies in the mindset of formerly colonized peoples
the psychological dimensions of colonialism creates a racist system that can go as far as
convincing the colonized that they are what the colonists tell them they are
– The colonized strive to be like the colonizer, to become him, to be white even.
"...The total result looked for by colonial domination was indeed to convince the
natives that colonialism came to lighten their darkness," writes Fanon (210)
To end colonization, first the colonized must see the myth that has been placed on him
BEFORE COLONIZATION:
AFRICA FLOURISHED
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Songhai
Mali
Moors
Benin
BEFORE COLONIZATION:
AFRICA FLOURISHED
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Songhay
1. Sonni Ali founded the Songhay Empire based on military conquest
2. Ali’s military was based on a calvary and a mobile fleet of ships
3. Askia Muhammad Toure established the largest empire in African
history
• 4. Askia Muhammad centralized the government by creating a
bureaucracy, standardizing weights, measures, and currency
• 5. Schools and universities were established teaching geography,
philosophy, medicine, law, government, astronomy, math, literature,
logic, rhetoric, music, and poetry
BEFORE COLONIZATION:
AFRICA FLOURISHED
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Mali
1. Mali was built off of the monopolization of the trade routes from western
Africa to eastern and northern Africa
2. Gold was the most lucrative of these monopolies
3. Sundjata, Mali’s founder, introduced the region to the cultivation and
weaving of cotton
4. Transformed soldiers into farmers and Mali became one of the richest
farming areas in West Africa
5. Mansa Musa expanded Mali’s influence (twice the size of Ghana) and Mali
became known in Europe and the Middle East
6. M.M took 60,000 people and 80-100 camel loads of gold on his hajj to
Mecca in 1324
7. Brought back Muslim scholars, architects, and other skilled people from
his
hajj
8. Timbuktu became one of the largest and most important cultural
and educational centers in the entire world
9. Vast libraries and universities were established
BEFORE COLONIZATION:
AFRICA FLOURISHED
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The Moors
1. The Moors ruled Spain and northern Africa
2. Moors brought Spain into golden age it never duplicated, pulled Spain out
of the Dark Ages
3. Moors brought its agricultural techniques and crops, engineering, mining,
industry, manufacturing, expanded trade, and emphasis on education
4. Moors built aqueducts for irrigation
5. Architecture included arches, courtyards, and gardens
6. Made education universal and built over seventy public libraries and
seventeen universities
7. Rest of Europe would borrow these ideas from the Moors
BEFORE COLONIZATION:
AFRICA FLOURISHED
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Benin
1. Benin’s Power in the region/The greatness of the Kingdom: Until the late
19th century, one of the major powers in West Africa was the kingdom of
Benin in what is now southwest Nigeria.
2. When European merchant ships began to visit West Africa from the 15th
century onwards, Benin came to control the trade between the inland peoples
and the Europeans on the coast.
3. One reason why the rulers of Benin conquered their neighbors was to
control the supply of goods, which could be traded to the Europeans on the
coast. The king himself was in charge of trading slaves, ivory, palm oil, rubber
and other important goods, so that all the profit went to support his court and
government. Other merchants could only trade with the king’s permission. The
Europeans themselves were seldom allowed to travel inland or visit Benin city,
to avoid them trading without the authority of theking.
4. Trade with the Portuguese and the British (decent relationship with these
Europeans countries.
Africa:
The Slave Trade
WAVES OF IMPERIALSIM
By Precious S., Courtney R., Neda
S., && Josh S.
Development.
• In the 1480s, the Portuguese
discovered new & unoccupied
land; the islands of Principe &
Sao Tome.
• On these lands, sugar
plantations were developed &
manned by slave labor.
• The Slavs of southern Russia
were also used to man these
plantations.
• This became the model for
plantation slavery in the
Americas & the Caribbean.
Initiation.
• Portugal’s immediate concern
was to gain access to the
regions of Africa that produce
gold.
• Sub-Saharan west Africa was
the main source of gold for
Europe.
• The wealth the gold provided
was used to finance more
exploration.
• In the 1470s, Portuguese ships
first reached the west African
coast.
The Beginning of Slavery
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Senegal & Gambia, in the 15th &
16th century, were the main
source of slaves. They were then
transported to southern Spain &
Portugal.
Soon, it became necessary for a
larger labor force. The new labor
was needed to maintain gold &
silver mines & tobacco
plantations.
Amerindians were also used as
slaves. But, soon diseases began
to decrease the Amerindian
population.
Many diseases that killed
Amerindians, however, didn’t kill
the Africans. So, again, more
Africans were requested.
• African rulers began to sell
their war captives &
criminals.
• In 1532, the first captives
were transported directly
across the Atlantic ocean.
• Demand for slaves soon
increased when the Dutch,
French & English became
involved.
• Over the next 200 years,
slavery became the biggest
transportation of captive
people in human history.
The Basics.
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At least 70 million people were
taken out of Africa.
The ‘Slave Coast’ became a large
source of slaves. The “Slave
Coast” is the western coast of
modern Nigeria.
The ‘Gold Coast’ had the most
European trading forts. The ‘Gold
Coast’ is modern Ghana.
European slave traders didn’t
capture their own slaves. Their
activity was restricted to the
trading forts.
The main source of slaves was
warfare.
Slave Sellers.
• In the late 15th century, Benin
sold captives to the
Portuguese.
• In the 16th century, they
refused to trade people.
• In the 18th century, they began
to sell them again due to the
decline of a powerful kingdom.
• The African rulers that sold
people became very rich. They
didn’t usually sell people from
their own society unless they
were criminals or outcasts.
Aggression.
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African wars may have been
deliberately started in order to
obtain captives.
In the 18th century when the
Europeans started trade with guns,
trading became more profitable at
least for a short period of time.
With the introduction of guns to the
society, there came total destruction
of weaker societies.
As a result of the slave trade, there
was an increased level of general
warfare in the west African interior.
There was a serious loss of
productive potential in the region.
Those sold were the young most
productive sector of the population
mostly between 14 and 35.
The Outcome.
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There was a large about of disregard of
human && dignity to slaves.
Becoming a slave marked the beginning of a
short life of appalling degradation &&
suffering.
Captives were no longer treated as human
beings but, rather as property like animals
who were to be herded together &&
examined. They were chained together &&
put in cages while waiting to be transported.
The main causes of death were overworking
&& underfeeding.
In the 18th century, it was cheaper to import
slaves from Africa then allow them to rear
there own children.
Productive wealth of the New World rested
heavily of the shoulders of the African
workers.
As dependence upon European imports
increased, further development of African
craft industries declined.
Import of European guns made African
warfare more effective && increased the
supply of slaves.
Since the emergence of ‘legitimate commerce’ in place of the Atlantic
slave trade. European merchants had been increasingly interested in
gaining control over the trading systems of the African interior.
Europeans recognized African authority and so, they acted through
alliances with local African rules.
Portugal had long maintained claims to an African
By the end of the 1800s a massive colonial onslaught known as the
European ‘Scramble for Africa’ had brought most of the continent
within the sphere
Britain’s position as the leading industrial nation in the world
was not challenged until the second half of the nineteenth
century.
Britain produced the cheapest European goods in the largest
quantity and had the largest merchant navy for shipping them
to Africa.
In the 1870’s Western Europe’s factories were producing too
many cheap goods, which was causing them run out of
customers.
Europe turned more and more to Africa to sell their
clothing, alcohol, guns, and metal manufactured goods.
France and Germany realized that the way to beat the British
was to establish colonies/protected areas in Africa.
Europeans believed that large stretches of Africa’s interior
contained unwrapped wealth and raw materials.\
China?
There were vegetable oils; ivory, rubber, diamonds, and gold were found in
Africa.
The possession of colonies in Africa became a point of national prestige within
Europe.
Colonial conquest of Africa was only possible because of 2 factors.
The first place was because colonists were able to exploit traditional and
longstanding rivalries between African states.
The second place was because Europe gained an advantage in military
technology.
In the 1870’s/80’s African armies were rapidly overtaken by advances in
European weaponry, for example the Maxim gun, which was the worlds first highly
mobile modern machine gun.
The French constructed a railway from Dakar to link their colony of
Senegal with the upper Niger valley. By doing this the French
government hoped to gain control of a huge protected market across
the Sanelian savannah regions of West Africa.
The Berlin West Africa Conference was an attempt by European
leaders to add some kind of international European agreement to the
carving-up of Africa that was already under way.
Africans did not lightly lay down their independence and the
1890s was a period of widespread African resistance to European
conquest.
Although the British did not conquer so much territory as the French,
they ended up with two of the wealthiest states in the region, Gold
Coast and Nigeria.
George Goldie had united several British trading companies
into the National African Company. This company alone
controlled virtually all the palm-oil exports between the
Niger/Benue confluence and the Delta.
Most of the vast inland territory of modern Nigeria was
gradually brought under British rule. But much of the region
had to be taken by force, for the various Nigerian peoples
fought hard against their conquerors.
The British in Nigeria, faced some of their toughest opposition
from those small groupings of ‘stateless’ peoples who and no
large centralized authority that could be overthrown.
The Savannah and forest zones of Sub-Saharan West Africa were
the regions where African initiative was best able to respond to the
new market opportunities of the early colonial period
On the whole the production of raw materials in the region was
left in the hands of African peasant farmers in both French and
British zones
African farmers were encouraged to turn away from food crops
and produce cash crops for the European market
Senegaiese peasants migrated seasonally into the less densely
populated Gamba river valley to cultivate the crop and sell their
exports down stream to the Coast at Bathurst
The development of cocoa as an export crop from Gold Coast was
a striking example of African initiative
By 1914 Gold Coast had become the worlds largest single producer of
cocoa
The British expected the Hausa of northern Nigeria to become major
producers of cotton but to their surprise the farmers in Hausa region
turned instead to groundnuts
Experienced local Hausa traders quickly spread the word and organized
the local marketing networks
Peasants produced in many parts of tropical Africa undoubtedly
benefited from the imported transport facilities roads and railways which
were developed in the early colonial period
In many cases railway construction companies received huge free grants
of African land
European merchants and manufacturers who benefited mostly from the
increased trade paid nothing for the transport infrastructures of the
colonies from which they profited
All 'systems' of colonial admin. were remarkably similar in practice
French originally sought to "assimilate" colonial subjects into
cultural Frenchmen, regardless of skin color
Were to have full legal & political rights of French citizenship
(i.e. right to send reps to French parliament in Paris)
Late 19th century --- large scale colonization of continent began
French abandoned "assimilation" for all BUT the citizens of
original four Senegalese towns (Dakar, St Louis, Gorée and Ruñsque) as well as select
few highly-educated French- speaking Africans
Authorities made educational qualifications for African
"assimilation" extremely difficult to achieve
Few Africans sought the status
Reaching for status involved rejecting their personality & culture
15 million of France's tropical African empire were classified as
subjects by 1930
50,000 were the 'Four Communes' of Senegal, and few add. of
selected assimilated Africans --- less than 500
Subject denied virtually any legal or political rights at all
District & village chiefs appointed or dismissed at will by provincial
French administration
Duty of French-appointed "chiefs" was to collect taxes, recruit
labor
(especially forced corvée labor) & suppression of rural African
opposition
Any who failed to perform to French satisfaction were replaced
Chiefs" became, in effect, French government officials
Denied any independent religious or legal authority
French affectively destroyed African customary law
Notorious colonial law (indigénat) entitled French provincial
administration to imprison any African sujet (subject) indefinitely
& without charge or trial
British also made use of "traditional" African rulers at local
government level
British had a "theory" of colonial administration "Indirect Rule"
"Indirect Rule" was believed by British to be cheapest & most effective way of
administering vast populations stretched over even vaster territories with minimum of
European personnel
Wherever possible, British used "traditional" African rulers to carry out basic functions
of local government (i.e. collect taxes, recruit of labor, control of potential African unrest
-- same as French)
British made greater use of African "customary law" unlike the French
Chiefs allowed to judge local civil disputes & to try minor criminal cases
Never allowed to try serious criminal cases or any dispute involving a European
Chief performed a whole range of legal duties which would otherwise have been costly
& inconvenient to colonial administration
"Tribe" was deliberately used in a derogatory sense by European colonists who looked
down upon African societies as "primitive" and "inferior"
There was competition & conflict by groups that had existed. It was for political power
or economic advantage rather than simply because they were of different tribes
British made use of the age-old imperial maxim: "divide and rule"
Portuguese administrative policy was similar to French in principle
Tiny number of select individuals who'd adopted Portuguese language
and culture were classified civilisado
Civilisado excused labor & tax demands
Never allowed voting rights in local or central government like French
assimilated "citizens" in Senegal
Civilisados were a very small minority (mostly mixed-race)
Lived in towns, worked as clerks, teachers & petty traders . They were
totally separated in culture and outlook from majority "indigenes"
people
Belgians used mix of French and British systems
Education above rudimentary primary level was actively discouraged
Use of chiefs in local government was fairly arbitrary. It was
dependent on local circumstances and administrative convenience
In the smallest-scale society the chief was usually the guardian of
religious shrines or protector of ancestral spirits
European destruction of African political authority also weakened
the authority of traditional African religion
Major growth period for Christian missionary expansion was thus
in the opening decades of the twentieth century
In the 1880s and 1890s in South Africa, African Christian
clergyman had rebelled against European domination of their
Churches
The tendency to reject European control and to form
independent African Churches spread to central Africa in the
wake of the spread of European colonialism
African Church leaders took the teachings of the Bible more
literally than some of their European colleagues. they saw in the
Bible the doctrines of justice and the equality of humankind
Perhaps the most famous African Christian 'rebel' of the
period was John Chilembwe. He had founded his own mission
station in the Shire Highlands, an area of white plantation
settlement
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
“The roots of many of
Africa’s recurrent Problems in the
final decades of the twentieth century
are to be found in the period of
colonial rule of the previous
eighty years or more.”
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
The Political Legacy Of Colonial
Rule
•After revolting against the foreign
governments, that was like an “alien
dictatorship,” African people had trouble
establishing governments.
•The colonial governments were made of
boundaries that had no correlation with
previous states and cultures.
•The various political leaders were
mostly chosen based on ethnics rather
than ethics.
•Some one-party states could not vote
out officials, however most of them
deteriorated to dictatorships.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
The Economic Legacy of
Underdevelopment and Dependency
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African economies had been directed towards exporting
cheap agricultural raw materials and unprocessed
minerals to Europe and in return, importing relatively
expensive manufactured goods.
There had been little or no attempt to develop African
economic self-sufficiency for that would have defeated
the purpose of Europe’s possessing colonies.
In times of European depression, Africa was paid less
for her exports, and in times of European inflation,
Africans had to pay more for their import.
Each year more and more African effort had to be
turned to producing cash crops.
As more effort was put into cash-crop production and
laboring in the mines, subsistence cultivation for
Africa’s basic food was neglected.
Africans on average were growing less than half of their
own food needs.
Africa’s transport system was totally inadequate for the
country’s internal development.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
The Economic Legacy of
Underdevelopment and Dependency
(Continued)
• Roads were poorly developed and most of Africa’s road and
rail networks showed no concern for a country’s internal
development.
•There were virtually no regional road or rail lines to help
promote trade between one African country and another.
•Tele communications were the same; internal rural networks
were almost non-existent, it was easier to telephone from
Africa to Europe that it was to telephone from one African
capital to another.
•African governments inherited two particularly repressive
economic policies from their colonial predecessors: poll tax
and agricultural marketing boards.
•The lack of education was further debilitating legacy of the
colonial period. Barely ten percent of the population was
literate and independent.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
The Early Drive for Economic
Development
•The new in-experienced rulers had high expectations
of what could be achieved with political independence.
•The dreams were shattered as the depth of the
underlying economic crisis became apparent.
•The new rulers of independent Africa made the initial
mistake of modeling their development programs upon
the industrialized economies of western Europe and
north America.
•Europe was “developed” and Africa was
“undeveloped.”
•Africa had to copy the European model or urban
centralized industrialization.
•African leaders accepted the model because they saw
rapid industrialization as the means to achieve
economic self-sufficiency.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
The Role of Military in African Politics
•Most of the French-Speaking states went over to military
during the 1960’s.
•Military had often played a powerful role in the politics of
the major pre-colonial states.
•The military was held in reserve for internal use against
potential rebellious subjects rather than for defense of the
country against political hostile neighbors.
•Gowon’s government grew increasingly inefficient and
divorced from the needs of the country.
•The vulnerability of African governments to military
intervention was revealed when a military leader was
assassinated by other officers.
•The country was turned over to civilian rule in 1979.
•The Nigerian civilian government was the freest time in
Nigerian history.
•Military rulers were just as likely to be corrupt as their
civilian counterparts.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
Drought, Debt and Development: The
Dilemmas of the 1980’s-1990’s
•Two of the principal factors stifling African development in
the 1980’s and 1990’s have been international debt and
drought.
•African governments have, with very few exceptions
struggled to increase self-sufficiency and reduce their
foreign debts. But the debts still rise.
•Since 1960 Africa’s raw material exports have dropped in
price 10 to 20 times in relation to manufactured imports.
•Governments have had to turn to the International
Monetary Fund for emergency foreign exchange and for
further loans to help pay the interest on loans.
•The problem is that the International Monetary Fund and
its associated World Bank, both Washington-based, are
financed by the banks of the ‘developed’ capitalist
economics of western Europe and North America.
•Since the 1950’s, there has been a noticeable fall in the
average annual rainfall in many parts of the continent.
•Some areas have been affected by the Civil War.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
Drought, Debt and Development: The
Dilemmas of the 1980’s-1990’s
(continued)
•Warfare waged by South Africa backed up rebels.
•Botswana had a stable economy and a stable political
democracy.
•Botswana was able to use its well-developed
infrastructure and its economic reserves to establish
effective drought relief projects.
•Africans have in the past coped with climate changes
and have evolved new pastoral and agricultural
techniques for coming to terms with their environment.
•Four countries are concentrating more on small scale
labor intensive projects.
•Local cooperative grain banks are being set up to
provide local credit and to store grain fore consumption
during times of need.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
International Cooperation and the
Organization of African Unity
•The first Pan-African meeting held in Africa was the All
African People’s Conference.
•It was held by Nkrumah in newly independent Ghana in
1958.
•Nkrumah believed that the only way to achieve complete
economic and political freedom from European domination
was to create a powerful “United States of Africa.”
•Only then would Africa be able to take its place on the
world economic and political stage on terms of equality.
•Nkrumah himself only achieved the appearance of internal
political strength and unity by surpassing regional Asante
opposition.
•However, on the wider continent, individual African States
and their newly-independent governments had too many of
their own immediate problems to take political union
seriously.
•In May 1963, 32 heads of State of then Independent Africa
came together in the Ethiopian Capital, to form the
Organization of African Unity (OAU.)
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
International Cooperation and the
Organization of African Unity
(continued)
•This organization’s goal was to promote political and
economic cooperation between independent states and to
help speed the de-colonization of the rest of Africa.
•A weakness of the OAU was the fact that it had no legal
sanction to enforce its resolutions.
•Nevertheless, the OAU has been a useful form for
international African cooperation.
•During June 1991, the heads of the OAU government
signed a treaty in hopes of mainly towards an African
Economic community.
•During the 1980’s, Africa faced an economic crisis.
•Jerry Rawlings of Ghana made a transition from a
dictatorship to a democracy.
•Nigeria demonstrated spectacular failure in the democratic
process in Nigeria.
•Forms of democracy were born in the early 1990’s and did
not fulfill hopes and aspirations of the ordinary electorate
who earned for a change in govt., to bring new and fresh
ideas.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
International Cooperation and the
Organization of African Unity
(continued)
•The new continent wide democratic movement,
whatever its limitations, has opened a new era
of direct African solutions.
•Governments have acquired a new legitimacy
which, combined with the concept of greater
regional economic integration, opens up whole
new horizons for the continents long-term
future.
AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
•Most of Africa is now flourishing despite news
of Ebola and the AIDS crisis.
The End