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HUM2420: African Humanities

Open Education Resources created by Sarah Cervone PhD

HUM2420: African Humanities

Colonialism

The beginning of the 20th century marked the colonial period in Africa, what is now known as the Scramble for Africa. Nearly the entire continent fell under European control as the abolition of enslavement in the Americas and competition over resources compelled European empires and countries to claim territories on the African continent. This lesson will provide a brief introduction to the historical circumstances leading to the colonization of Africa by European powers as well as the effects and outcomes of the colonial experience.

Lesson Objectives
  • identify the historical events that led to the European colonization of the African continent.
  • recognize how different European powers colonized territories in different ways.
  • describe how the representations of Africa and African people served to justify European occupation of Africa and exploitation of African people
  • analyze an outsider representation of Africa using Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism
Empires, Imperialism and the Demand for Resources

As states and kingdoms demand more resources they must expand their territories, and the process of taking and holding foreign territories is called imperialism (Kottak 2012). Imperialistic civilizations go as far back as the early Egyptian Empire, the Incas, Greeks, and Romans. Yet the colonial epoch which marked European imperialism throughout the past 500 years is a significant part of the history and culture of people living in formerly colonized areas today.

Colonialism is the economic, social, political, and cultural domination of a society over an extended period of time. Increasing demands for wealth and resources heightened tensions between European civilizations and compelled European states to expand their territories into Asia, Africa and the Americas in order to extract resources. In the 15th century Portugal launched maritime voyages to extract resources and acquire territories along the coast of Africa and Spain contracted Christopher Columbus to locate and establish territory in the Americas. By the 16th century, France, Britain and the Netherlands began to compete for land resources. By 1914, European empires occupied nearly 85% of the planet (Petraglia-Bahri 1996), and occupation was made possible through the widespread practice of genocide, enslavement, and the exploitation of indigenous people.

Genocide and Enslavement

The widespread decimation and exploitation of indigenous people was part and parcel of European imperialism. During the colonial epoch known as The Conquest in the Americas, millions of indigenous people died from colonial conflict or disease. In Africa, the enslavement of more than 20 million people over the course of several centuries decimated the population, ripped apart societies, and opened the door for European occupation in the 20th century. The Trade Triangle, the triangular trade route that imported enslaved African people to the Americas, raw materials from plantations in the Americas to Europe to be manufactured into luxury items, and the exportation of luxury items to Africa in exchange for more people, helped fuel the accumulation of wealth in European civilizations.

The Berlin Conference and The Scramble for Africa

Official colonization of Africa is marked by the Berlin Conference at the turn of the 20th century, and what is now referred to as the ‘Scramble for Africa.’ Increased wealth, made possible by the one-way triangular trade route, facilitated technological advances in steam-coal power, manufacturing, transportation, weaponry, and medicine which served to strengthen European powers and change worldwide power relations. European powers were able to undermine the sovereignty of foreign states by carving out territories on maps and claiming to ‘explore’ and ‘discover’ areas that were already occupied by indigenous people.

The abolition of enslavement in Asia and the Americas coupled with rising tensions between European powers prompted European leaders to look to Africa for new opportunities to acquire resources and fuel a growing industrial economy. In order to avoid a war, the Berlin Conference aimed to parcel out African lands to European nations. The conference establish regulations on occupation holdings and trade patterns between European powers. It marked a New Imperialism period and that coincided with Germany’s emergence as an imperial power. The conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany. Its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin Conference, can be seen as the formalisation of the European Scramble for Africa, yet there were many bilateral (country -to country) agreements that took place before and after the conference. The conference eliminated existing African forms of self-governance in the eyes of the Europeans.  Fourteen countries attended the Berlin conference, yet Austria-Hungary, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden-Norway, and the United States did not receive any formal possessions in Africa.

The Berlin Conference indelibly shaped Africa and chartered the destiny of millions of people. Lines drawn on a map of the continent by Europeans, many of whom had never actually been to Africa, came to define the nations on the maps of Africa that exist today and chartered the lives of millions of people who came under European colonial rule and those who continue to live with the legacy of colonialism today.

The 10-min documentary below, Uganda Rising, details how contemporary issues in Africa are rooted in the colonial policies of the past.

The 20-min documentary below traces the tragic history of the Namibian people from the harsh German colonial Era to the recent attempts to achieve independence from South Africa.

The occupation of an indigenous majority by a European minority was made possible by a ‘divide and conquer’ policy that facilitated internal conflicts within occupied groups. Colonial boundaries intersected ethnic groups. Colonial policies privileged some and alienated others. And despite increasingly popular ideas about liberty and equality among the masses in Europe during that time, colonial states managed territories according to a feudal-capitalist model; rights and privileges were granted to Europeans and to indigenous people who abandoned their culture and conformed to European authority and ways of life. In light of the apparent atrocities and inequalities that became evident during the colonial era, imperialists relied on propaghanda that offered a moral justification for the injustices that were embedded within the colonial system. The Race Science webpage explore how racial theories and categories were created by philosophers and scientists in order to reconcile ideas about equality with the oppression of large groups of people. Evolutionary theories were used to construct linear trajectories that positioned occupied societies behind European societies, and were therefore in need of ‘development.’

Prejudice, Orientalism and the ‘White Man’s Burden’

There is a distinctive pattern associated with power and representation. In most cases, representations are produced by those who are in power, and the powerless are usually the ones being represented. In his book, Orientalism (1978), Edward Said points out the social and political implications associated with power and representation as he described the inconsistencies between outsider representations of Arab men and his own experiences as an Arab man.

According to Said, prejudiced outsider interpretations are shaped by the attitudes of imperialists in order to justify the occupation of foreign territories and the exploitation of indigenous people who live in those territories. Although Said’s analysis primarily targets artistic representations of the Middle East by European artists, his orientalist critique has been expanded to address pejorative representations of oppressed people worldwide.

Representation and ‘The White Man’s Burden’

According to Said, negative representations of indigenous people are designed to ensure popular support of occupation among the masses living in the homeland. The Uganda Rising documentary posted above featured Noam Chomsky describing how colonial policies and practices are presented as being for the benefit of the people who are under occupation. This ideology was coined as ‘The White Man’s Burden’ in a poem written by Rudyard Kipling, famous author of  The Jungle Book. The poem expresses a sentiment shared by European and American imperialists. In his poem, Kipling refers to occupied people as ‘half devil and half child’, ‘sullen’, ‘sloth’ and ‘ungrateful.’ He goes on to characterize occupation as a seeking ‘another’s profit’ and ‘working another’s gain.’ From his perspective, colonialism aims to ‘fill the mouth of famine’ and ‘bid sickness to cease. This poem ignores the social and historical recipe that shapes conditions in Africa by blaming the failures of occupation on ‘sloth and heathen folly’ that ‘bring all hopes to naught.’ The rhetoric behind the white man’s burden reflects the ideological propaganda intended to justify occupation and control people who are colonized.

The video below explains the political meanings and purpose of Rudyard Kipling’s 1929 poem, the White Man’s Burden.

A wide variety of prejudiced and biased representations of Africa persist today, and this shapes the way people outside of Africa perceive African people. News outlets, films, art, and other media produced outside of Africa continue to represent a vast continent comprised of a wide array of diverse peoples and cultures with negative stereotypes that focus on violence, corruption, under-development, disease, famine, and war. The video below attempts to provide an ‘insider’ representation of African men that counters what is commonly portrayed in American cinema.

Hegemony and Internalizing Oppression

Negative representations of African people created by Europeans and Americans is not limited to a European or american audience, however. These representations also can also affect African people. The idea of cultural hegemony was proposed by Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, when he produced The Prison Notebooks  during his incarceration by Benito Moussolini in 1926. In his writings, Gramsci described how those in power are able to maintain social power by manipulating and enforcing specific norms and values in a society. In essence, the culture of those who are in power becomes the culture of those who are oppressed.  Hegemonies become embedded in society because they are often learned implicitly and during childhood before the individual has developed critical thinking to contest learned ideas. As a result, hegemonies are often unapparent and this makes it difficult to recognize and challenge hegemonic culture.

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French philosopher, Louis Althuesser (1970), built on Gramsci’s notion of hegemony to argue that while a large part of European occupation was fueled by military power (what he refers to as the repressive apparatus), long-term occupation and state power rests on ideologies that convince people that they are inferior and unequal. He refers to this as the ideological apparatus. While the repressive apparatus constitutes institutions such as the Government, the Administration, the Army, the Police, the Courts, the Prisons, and other bodies that exert external social controls, true domination, according to Althuesser, is based on a set of realities that get inside the minds of people and compel them to control themselves. During the colonial period, euro-centric institutions such as churches, schools, media, and associations were used to get inside the minds of the colonized by promoting European cultural values and ideas.

Although World War II is considered the official end of European colonialism, the legacy of world-wide ideological and cultural domination by colonial powers persists into the present. The commercial below is one of several advertisements for a skin-lightening product that is the number one product sold to women in North Africa. Watch the commercial below and consider the ways that media instills Euro-centric standards of beauty with social and economic success. Imagine that you are an eight year old girl living in a village in North Africa watching television with your family. What type of conclusions would you develop about people and skin color?

Afrocentrism and the Decolonization of African Representations

The American Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century called greater attention to dominance of Euro-centric representations and ideologies in the public and academic arena.  African-American scholars offered alternative viewpoints and representations that gave a voice to the peoples and cultures represented by Europeans. The brief lecture below by M.K. Asante describes Euro-centrism in academic institutions throughout Africa, and he calls for the recognition of an Afro-centric viewpoint in education.

Questions to Consider
  1. What historical events led to the European colonization of the African continent, and how did different colonial powers (France, Britain, Spain, Germany, etc.) occupy African territories?
  2. According to Edward Said, what is an orientalism and what is an example of orientalism in Africa? How has it been used to justify European occupation of Africa and the exploitation of African people?
  3. Force is one way a small group can control a large population, according to Gramsci and Althuesser however, what is the most effective way?
  4. What is Afro-centrism and how is it different from Euro-centrism?
Reference and Resources

To learn more about colonialism in Africa, explore the links below.

For Discussion in Canvas

Identify and describe the European country that colonized your selected country. What was the relationship with Europe prior to colonization and how did it change? When did colonization take place and under what circumstances did it occur? How was colonization administered? The next lesson will address independence.

Note: Ethiopia and Liberia were never colonized by Europe. If one of these are your country, describe why they were never colonized and how that shapes circumstances in the country today.

When you complete the discussion, complete the Outsider Representation assignment.