By 1885, what were the only two African countries to remain independent?
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The European scramble for Africa culminated in the Berlin Westward African Conference of 1884-85. The conference was called by German Chancellor Bismarck and would set up the parameters for the eventual sectionalisation of Africa. European nations were summoned to discuss issues of free navigation forth the Niger and Congo rivers and to settle new claims to African coasts.
In the cease, the European powers signed The Berlin Human action (Treaty). This treaty set upwards rules for European occupation of African territories. The treaty stated that whatever European claim to any part of Africa, would only exist recognized if it was effectively occupied. The Berlin Conference therefore prepare the stage for the eventual European military invasion and conquest of African continent. With the exception of Federal democratic republic of ethiopia and Liberia, the entire continent came under European colonial rule. The major colonial powers were Great britain, France, Frg, Kingdom of belgium, and Portugal.
The story of Due west Africa after the Berlin Briefing revolves around 5 major themes: the establishment of European colonies, the consolidation of political authority, the evolution of the colonies through forced labor, the cultural and economic transformation of West Africa, and West African Resistance.
European Penetration and Westward African Resistance to Penetration
Constructive Occupation was a clause in the Berlin Treaty which gave Europe a blank check to use military force to occupy Due west African territories. 1885-1914 were the years of European conquest and amalgamations of pre-colonial states and societies into new states. European imperialists continued to pursue their before treaty making processes whereby West African territories became European protectorates. Protectorates were a loaded pause earlier the eventual European military occupation of Due west Africa. Because protectorate treaties posed serious challenges to West African independence virtually West African rulers naturally rejected them. W African rulers adopted numerous strategies to forestall European occupation including: recourse to affairs, alliance, and when all else failed, military confrontation.
Recourse to Diplomacy
The British institute few people as difficult to subdue as the Asante of Ghana in their quest to build their West African colonial empire. The Asante Wars against the British, which began in 1805, lasted a hundred years. Although outmatched by superior weaponry, the Asante kept the British army at bay for a short terminal menses of independence.
To sympathise the Asante wars, ane has to await at role of King Prempeh I, who firmly resolved non to submit to British protection. When pressured in 1891 to sign a protection treaty which implied British control of Asante, Prempeh firmly and confidently rejected idea. Here are his words to the British envoy:
The suggestion that Asante in its nowadays land should come and enjoy the protection of Her Majesty the Queen and Empress of India, is a matter of very serious consideration and I am happy to say nosotros take arrived at this conclusion, that my kingdom of Asante will never commit itself to any such policy. Asante must remain [contained] of old . . .
In 1897, Rex Prempeh was exiled, and the Asante were told that he would never be returned. He was first taken to Elmina Castle. From in that location, he was taken to the Seychelles Islands.
In 1899, in a further attempt to humiliate the Asante people, the British sent British governor Sir Frederick Hodgson to Kumasi to demand the Golden Stool. The Aureate Stool was a symbol of Asante unity. In the face up of this insult the chiefs held a hush-hush meeting at Kumasi. Yaa Asantewa, the Queen Mother of Ejisu, was at the meeting. The chiefs were discussing how they could make war on the white men and force them to bring dorsum the Asantehene. Yaa Asantewa saw that some of the bravest male members of nation were cowed. In her now famous challenge, Yaa Asantewa declared:
How can a proud and dauntless people like the Asante sit down dorsum and look while white men took abroad their king and chiefs and humiliate them with a demand for the Aureate Stool. The Golden Stool only means money to the white man; they searched and dug everywhere for it . . . If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to bear like cowards and not fight, you should commutation your loincloths for my undergarments.
That was the beginning of the Yaa Asantewa War. The final boxing began on September 30, 1900, and concluded in the bloody defeat of the Asante. Yaa Asantewa was the terminal to be captured, and subsequently exiled to the Seychelles, where she died effectually 1921. With the finish of these wars, the British gained command of the hinterland of Republic of ghana.
Around the aforementioned fourth dimension, Behanzin, the last king of Dahomey (1889-94), told the European envoy that came to run into him:
God has created Black and White, each to inherit its designated territory. The White man is concerned with commerce and the Blackness homo must trade with the White. Let the Blacks do no damage to the Whites and in the same way the Whites must do not damage to the blacks.
In 1895, Wobogo, the Moro Nabaor king of the Mossi told French Helm Restenave:
I know the whites wish to kill me in order to take my country, and yet you claim that they will help me to organize my country. Simply I notice my state skilful just every bit information technology is. I have no need of them. I know what is necessary for me and what I want: I have my ain merchants: too, consider yourself fortunate that I do non order your head to be cut off. Go away at present, and higher up all, never come back.
Brotherhood
When West African leaders struck alliances with the imperialists, they did then in an attempt to heighten their commercial and diplomatic advantages. King Jaja of Opobo, for instance, resorted to affairs as means of resistance to European intrusive imperialism. Mbanaso Ozurumba, a.chiliad.a Jaja was a sometime slave of Igbo origin. He was elected equally king of the Anna Pepple House in Attractive, Niger Delta, in 1863, post-obit the death of his principal. Shortly a struggle between the Anna Pepple House and Manilla Pepple House led to the outbreak of ceremonious state of war in Bonny in 1869. The war resulted in King Jaja's migration and founding of the inland kingdom of Opobo which lay in the palm oil producing hinterland.
Jaja was an avowed nationalist and determined to command the merchandise in his political domain. He was determined to prevent European incursions into the interior. He too wanted to ensure that Opobo oil markets remained outside the sphere of strange traders. To this end, King Jaja signed a trade treaty with the British in 1873. Office of the treaty reads as follows:
After April two, 1873, the king of Opobo shall allow no trade established or hulk in or off Opobo Boondocks, or whatever trading vessels to come up higher upwards the river than the Whiteman'south beach opposite Hippopotamus Creek. If any trading ship or steamer gain further up the river than the creek above mentioned, after having been fully warned to the reverse, the said trading send or steamer may be seized past King Jaja and detained until a fine of 100 puncheon [of palm oil] be paid by the owners to king Jaja . . .
By signing the treaty, the British acknowledged Jaja every bit the king of Opobo and ascendant middleman in the Niger Delta trade. However, the ensuing scramble for Africa of 1880s upset the understanding. The British merchants and officials were no longer in the mood to respect Jaja'southward preeminence in the Niger Delta hinterland. They instead penetrated the hinterland to open up free trade and therefore a confrontation with Jaja became inevitable. In 1887, the British consul Harry Johnson enticed Jaja to the British gunboat for discussions; but so exiled him to West Indies where he died in 1891.
Military Confrontation
Some decentralized West African societies equally resisted European penetration.
The Baule of Ivory Declension and Tiv of Nigeria stiffly resisted colonial occupation. The Baule fought the French from 1891-1911. The Tiv fought the British from 1900-30; and Igbo resistance was particularly widespread and prolonged. Because of the egalitarian nature of their gild, the British establish it extremely difficult to subjugate them. The British literally had to fight their way from Igbo village to village, from town to town, before they could finally declare their imperial authority over the Igbo people. Igbo elders challenged the British imperial penetration and invited the British to: "Come up and fight: if you lot want warm, come up, we are ready." The British waged wars from nearly 1898-1910.
While West Africans fought gallantly against their European intruders; everywhere just Ethiopia, the Europeans were triumphant.
European Political Policies in their West African Dominions
The British in W Africa
The 19th century British colonial policy in Due west Africa was a policy of assimilation.
Their 1000 programme was to have Africans assimilate into European culture and culture. The policy created a western class of black Englishmen who were supposedly British partners in organized religion, trade and administration. These African "British men," especially Creoles, rose in colonies of Freetown, Bathurst, southern Ghana and Lagos to important positions in the church, commercial firms and the colonial authorities. However, with the growth of European racism, western educated Africans (elites) constitute that they were increasingly discriminated against in assistants. The British now imported European administrators to fill positions previously held past Africans. Western educated Africans like the Creoles were even forced out of the civil service.
In 1910, the British colonial office expressed the stance that Englishmen naturally expected to enjoy fruits of their conquests, therefore they should be preferred over Africans in senior positions. The problem however was that there were not enough Englishmen prepared to serve as colonial administrators in Africa. Therefore, the British soon adopted the policy of Indirect Rule.
Indirect Rule was the brain child of Lord Lugard. He presented the principles of the arrangement in his book The Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa. In it, he identified the 2 most important administrative principles to employ in ruling alien people. The outset was the principle of decentralization, in which he stressed importance of recognizing and ruling people through their indigenous regime. He argued that the office of the British officers, except in critical areas such as taxation, armed services forces and the alienation of land, was to suggest, non demand. The second principle, was the principle of continuity. Lugard argued that the British should utilize indigenous institutions and regime, thereby preserving "continuity" with the past, while laying foundations for what he saw equally the progressive improvement of indigenous society.
Indirect Rule which begun every bit administrative expedient in Northern Nigeria, would eventually be imposed throughout their territories of British Africa.
Authoritative Policies
The British fix up separate authoritative machines for each of their colonies. At the caput of each colony was the governor, who was responsible to the Secretarial assistant of State at the colonial function. He administered the colony with assistance of a partly nominated legislative council and executive quango of officials. Most of the laws of the colony were drawn up by the authorities or his council.
Each colony was divided into regions under a regional or chief ambassador. The regions were divided into provinces which were controlled by the provincial commissioners. Each province was divided into districts under leadership of a district commissioner. Each district was divided into one or more than traditional states which were ruled past traditional rulers.
Features of Indirect Rule
Indirect Rule saw to the mapping out of relatively large areas which were subject to single dominance: Smaller indigenous groups were included in the jurisdiction of their larger, more than highly organized neighbors. And district heads, specially in Igbo and Ibibiolands, Nigeria, were appointed to defined areas without much consideration to their relationship with the populations under their authority.
Indirect Dominion sustained tyrannical and corrupt governments and promoted divisions in populations: In Northern Nigeria, the organisation strengthened the emirates, therefore increasing the possibility of revolution by the oppressed peasantry. In Igboland and Ibibiolands, warrant chiefs were created to fill the leadership positions, because the Igbo and Ibibios had no chiefs, instead they had egalitarian systems of regime which recognized authorization as coming directly from the people. These warrant chiefs were decadent and miniature tyrants. Therefore, in 1929 when the British tried to impose directly taxation on Igboland, Igbo women challenged government and the Women's War or Ogu umunwanyi ensued. The warrant chiefs were the main targets of the women's attack.
Indirect Rule weakened traditional rule: The traditional paramount ruler in British W Africa was not actually the head of social and political order. Rather, he was a subordinate of the British overlord who used him to implement unpopular measures such as compulsory labor, revenue enhancement, and military enlistment. Moreover, the British had the ability to dispose of traditional rulers and replace them with their own nominees. And the British often interfered with existing paramountcies by breaking them up and raising subordinate chiefs to the status of paramount chiefs.
The British District officers dictated to traditional rulers and treated them as employees of government rather than supervising and advising them. Members of ruling families were non encouraged to attend new schools that were introduced for fear they may get denationalized. In northern Nigeria and northern Republic of ghana, the people as a consequence were not given the sort of education that would enable them cope with new problems of colonial society, thus making them even more than dependent on District Commissioners and British Technical Officers.
The greatest fault of the Indirect Dominion system, notwithstanding, was its complete exclusion of the West African educated elite from local government: the educated elite were excluded from both Native Administration and colonial government, and thus became transformed into an alienated course.
In decision, Indirect Rule was implemented because it was cheap and practical. It preserved old bourgeois regime who were ill equipped by education and temperament to cope with the changing environs.
The French in West Africa
Administrative Policies
The French had a policy of absorption which sought to "civilize" indigenes and gradually plow them into petits Français or junior Frenchmen. The highest-ranking of these juniors were the évolué southward, or evolved ones. They were colonial subjects trained to piece of work in administrative positions.
Évolués served two purposes. Get-go, to cut down on costs by replacing French manpower. Second, to create an illusion that colonials were profiting from their becoming "civilized." Both the junior Frenchmen or petits Français and the evolved ones or évolué s were to serve the grandeur of France and in the far, far, future, they would become "civilized" enough to be considered fully French. This would never actually happen withal. When independence came, these well-positioned évolué south often ended up running their countries.
In French West Africa, the colonies were integral parts of the metropolitan country, and were as well considered overseas provinces. West Africans were regarded equally subjects of France, and like children were expected to have patriotic duties to their mother country. The French believed that the first duty of civilization to the savage was to requite them "a gustation for work" on the grounds that as beneficiaries of civilization, they should contribute to expenses of the state which brings them benefits. In keeping with this philosophy, the main role of the "native" therefore was to fight and produce for female parent country. The French believed that the "native" will inevitably be civilized by this process, so that in helping France, the "native," in fact, helps him- or herself.
West Africans that were deemed civilized were rewarded by conferring the privileged condition of French denizen on them. To go a French denizen, the W African would have to have been built-in in i of the four communes or municipalities in Senegal: Saint-Louis, Gorée, Rufisque, and Dakar. They must as well have a merited a position in the French service for at to the lowest degree x years; and accept evidence of good graphic symbol and possess a means of beingness. They must likewise have been busy with the Legion of Honor, a military award.
The advantages of French citizenship were many. In one case a West African became a Frenchman, they were subject to French law and access to French courts. The blackness Frenchman was exempted from indigénat, which is a legal system which enabled a French administrative officer to sentence any African for up to two years forced labour without a trial. A West African Frenchman could commute compulsory labor for a monetary payment. The person could be appointed to any post in France and in colony. For instance, Blaise Diagne of Senegal was the first black African elected to French National Assembly and Mayor of Dakar, which was the capital of the Federation of French West Africa. He would nonetheless autumn out of favor with West Africans because the French colonial regime used him to forcibly induct West Africans to fight for the French army during WWI.
However, the assimilation policy was abandoned as impractical. By 1937, only eighty thousand of the xv million French Due west Africans had become French citizens. 70-viii thousand of those had because French citizens because they were built-in in one of the communes.
Thus, in the 1920s, the policy was changed to the policy of association, which was advocated as the about appropriate for French Africa. On paper, clan reorganized the society supposedly to reach maximum benefit for both the French and the West African. In practice nevertheless, scholars accept argued that this policy was like the clan of a horse and its rider, since the French would at all times dictate the direction that the development should take and determine what would be of mutual benefit to themselves and Westward Africans.
The colonial belief in the superiority of French culture was reflected in the judicial system, their attitude toward indigenous law, indigenous regime, ethnic rights to land, and the educational program. They condemned everything African as primitive and barbaric.
Bodily Administration
The French employed a highly centralized and authoritarian organisation of assistants. Between 1896 and 1904, they formed all of their eight W African colonies into the Federation of French Westward Africa (AVF), with its capital at Dakar.
At the head of Federation was governor-full general who answered to government minister of colonies in Paris, took most of his orders from France, and governed according to French laws. At the caput of each colony was the Lt.-governor who was assisted by a quango of administration. The Lt.-governor was straight under the governor-general and could make decisions on simply a few specified subjects. The French policy of assimilation, was a policy of direct rule through appointed officials. Like British, they divided their colonies into regions and districts. The colonies were divided into cercles nether the commandants du cercles. Cercles were divided into subdivisions nether Chiefs du Subdivision. Subdivisions were divided into cantons under African chiefs.
Distinguishing Features
- African Chiefs were not local regime authorities. They could non do any judicial functions. They did not have a police force or maintain prisons.
- African chiefs were not leaders of their people. Rather, they were mere functionaries, supervised by French political officers.
- African chiefs were appointed, not by birth, but rather by education, and familiarity with the metropolitan administrative do.
- African chiefs could be transferred from ane province to some other. The French policy actually went out of its manner to deliberately destroy traditional paramountcies.
The Portuguese in Westward Africa
Administrative Policies
Portugal, one of the poorest of the European colonist nations in Africa operated what amounted to a closed economical organisation in their African colonies. They created a arrangement which welded their West African colonies to female parent country, Portugal, both politically and economically. As such, their territories in Due west Africa were considered overseas provinces and integral role of Portugal.
Actual Assistants
One underlying connection of all Due west African Portuguese colonies was the presence of relatively big numbers of Portuguese in the colonies, specially after 1945 when in that location was a full-calibration emigration program from Portugal, especially to Republic of angola. The Portuguese operated a very authoritarian and centralized organisation of government. At the top of government was the Prime Minister. Under him were the Council of Ministers and the Overseas Ministry building, which was made upward of the Overseas Advisory Council, and the General Overseas Agency. And so there was the Governor General, a Secretariat and Legislative Quango. All of these offices were in Portugal. At that place were also Governors of Districts, Administrators of Circumscricoes, Chefes de posto and at the very bottom of the governmental hierarchy, the African Chiefs.
As in the British instance, the Portuguese corrupted the systems of chieftaincies. They sacked chiefs who resisted colonial rule in Guine, and replaced them with more pliant chiefs. Thus, the historical authority of chiefs and their relationships with subjects was corrupted to one of authoritarianism which reproduced the disciplinarian system of government in the Estado Novo dictatorship (1926-74).
Real authority was held past the Portuguese council of ministers, which was controlled by the prime minister. The management of colonial policy was determined by the overseas ministry, aided by the advisory overseas quango and 2 subsidiary agencies. The governor-general appointed the main official resident for the colony. The chief official of the resident for the colony had far reaching executive and legislative power. He headed the colonial bureaucracy, directed the native authority organization, and was responsible for the colonies' finances.
The Circumscricoes and Chefes de posto roughly corresponded to the British provincial and district officers. They nerveless taxes, were judges and finance officers. West African chiefs were subordinate to the European officers with trivial power to deed on their ain. Moreover, they could be replaced at any fourth dimension by a higher Portuguese power.
The political policy adopted in Guinea Bissau, São Tomé, Principe, and Cape Verdes, Portugal's West African territories was a arrangement of assimilado. The assimilado policy held that all persons, no thing their race, would exist accorded this status if they met the specific qualifications. Similar to the French policy of assimilation, the Portuguese Due west African had to adopt a European mode of life; speak and read Portuguese fluently; be a Christian; compete armed services service; and have a merchandise or profession. However, only a small number Portuguese Westward Africans became assimilados because of the difficulty in achieving this station.
Additionally, the Portuguese did not support education in their colonies. They built few secondary schools, and well-nigh entirely neglected unproblematic education. Most of their emphasis was given to rudimentary levels of training where Portuguese West African students were taught moral principles and basic Portuguese; making it almost impossible for the Portuguese West African, fifty-fifty if she or he wanted to, to attain the condition of assimilado.
The Germans in W Africa
Administrative Policies
The Germans had two territories in W Africa—Togo and Kameroon. German colonialism was too short-lived to establish a coherent administrative policy. German African colonial experience essentially amounted to xxx years (1884-1914) and was characterized by bloody African rebellions. Withal, their harsh handling resulted in intervention and straight rule by German regime. The High german colonialists envisioned a "New Germany" in Africa in which colonialists would be projected as members of a superior and enlightened race; while Africans were projected as junior, indolent, and destined to exist permanent subjects of Germans.
Bodily Administration
The Germans had a highly centralized administration. At the top of government was the Emperor. The Emperor was assisted by the Chancellor, who was assisted past Colonial Officers, who supervised the administration. At the bottom were the jumbes or subordinate African staff. These men had been placed in the stead of recognized leadership.
European Economic and Social Policies in their West African Dominions
The cardinal principles of the European colonial economic relationship in West Africa were to: (one) stimulate the production and export of West African cash crops including palm produce, groundnuts, cotton fiber, rubber, cocoa, coffee and timber; (2) encourage the consumption and expand the importation of European manufactured appurtenances; (3) ensure that the Due west African colony's trade, both imports and exports, were conducted with the metropolitan European country concerned. The colonialists thus instituted the Colonial Pact which ensured that Due west African colonies must provide agronomical export products for their imperial country and purchase its manufactured appurtenances in return, even when they could get better deals elsewhere.
To facilitate this process, the colonialists therefore forced Due west Africans to participate in a monetized market place economy. They introduced new currencies, which were tied to currencies of the metropolitan countries to supersede the local currencies and castling trade. Railroads were a central element in the imposition of the colonial economic and political structures. Colonial railways did not link Due west African economies and product together. They did non link W African communities together either, rather they served the purpose of linking Due west African producers to international merchandise and market place place; and also connecting production areas to the West African declension. Moreover, railroads meant that larger amounts of Westward African produced crops could be sent to coast. All equipment used to build and operate the railroads were manufactured in Europe, and brought footling to no economic growth to Due west Africa beyond reinforcing the product of West African greenbacks crops for the external market. What was more, thousands of Westward African men were forced to construct these railroads; and many died doing so.
The key to the development of colonial economies in West Africa, was the need to command labor. In the colonies, this labor was forced. At that place were basically two types of forced labor in Africa. The start, was peasant labor. This occurred in virtually parts of West Africa where agriculture was already mainstay. In East, Primal, and Due south Africa, Africans performed migrant wage labor on European owned and managed mines and plantations.
The colonial masters besides imposed taxation in Westward Africa. By taxing rural produce, the colonial country could force West Africans to farm cash crops. W Africans had to sell sustenance crops on the market for greenbacks. Then use cash to pay taxes. Taxes could be imposed on land, produce, and homes (hut tax). The requirement to pay tax forced West Africans into the colonial labour market.
West African Response and Initiatives
The imposition of foreign domination on West Africa did non go unchallenged. Westward Africans adopted dissimilar strategies to ensure survival. Some West African people living outside the cash crop areas found that they could get abroad with very trivial contact with the Europeans. Others exploited the system for their own gain by playing on the colonial authorities'south ignorance of specific regions' histories. Even so others pursued Western instruction and Christianity while holding strong to their identities. West African people struggled confronting the breaking up of their historical states too as any threat to their state through petitions, litigations, uprisings
Early Protest Movements
West Africans organized protest against colonialism in form of the exclamation of the correct to self-rule. Some of the well-nigh notable movements included: (one) The Fante Confederacy (1868-72) of the Gold Coast, which recommended British withdrawal from all of her West African colonies; (ii) The Egba United Lath of Direction (1865) of Nigeria, which aimed to introduce legal reforms and tolls on European lines, institute postal communications in Lagos; (3) The aborigines Rights Protection Society (1897) of the Gold Coast was formed to oppose regime proposals to classify unoccupied land as crown land (meaning that the land belongs to government). In the 1920's colonial administration succeeded in breaking alliance by supporting chiefs against the elite; (iv) The National Congress of British W Africa (1920). The Congress was formed in Accra in 1920 under the leadership of J. Due east. Casely-Hayford, an early nationalist, and distinguished Gilt Declension lawyer. Its aims were to press for constitution and other reforms, demand Legislative Council in each territory with half of members made up of elected Africa. They opposed bigotry confronting Africans in ceremonious service, asked for a West African university, and asked for stricter immigration controls to exclude "undesirable" Syrians (concern elite).
The African Church building Movement or Ethiopianism
In the religious sphere, the Creoles played an important role in Christianizing many parts of West Africa including, Sierra Leone, Lagos, Abeokuta, and the Niger Delta. However, they soon met with the same kind of British racial arrogance encountered by Due west Africans in the colonial government. The British replaced Creole archbishops and superintendents with Europeans. A European succeeded Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, and no African was consecrated to this high office again for next threescore years.
The Due west African response to this was to break abroad from European churches and form new, independent West African churches. These churches included: the African Baptists, United Native African Church building, African Church, United African Methodists—all in Nigeria, the United Native Church in Cameroon; and the William Harry Church in Republic of cote d'ivoire. Past 1920, there were no less than xiv churches under sectional African control. In Fernando Po, Reverend James Johnson was leading effigy of the African church move until his expiry in 1917.
The Independence movement among churches demanded that control be vested in West African lay or clerical leaders. Many churches incorporated aspects of Due west African ideas of worship into their liturgies, showing more tolerance for West African social institutions like polygamy.
The Prophetic Church Movement too emerged during this fourth dimension, propelling the establishment of at least three prominent churches in West Africa which related Christianity to electric current West African beliefs. These prophets offered prayers for the issues that plagued people in villages, problems which traditional diviners had previously offered assistance in form of sacrifices to various gods. The Prophet Garrick Braide movement Began in 1912, ending with imprisonment in 1916. The Prophet William Wade Harris motion began in 1912, reached its height in 1914-fifteen, spreading his gospel in the Republic of cote d'ivoire, Liberia, and Gilt Coast. The Aladura (people of prayer) Movement in Western Nigeria, began during the influenza epidemic (1918-nineteen), achieving its greatest touch on during Cracking Revival of 1930.
The African Church building and prophetic move was represented a nationalist reaction against white domination in religious sphere, whim encouraged Africans to adopt African names at baptism, adapt songs to traditional flavors, and interpret the bible and prayer books into Westward African languages.
Despite the rapid spread of Christianity in West Africa, Islam was spreading even more rapidly. W Africans embraced Islam every bit a form of protest against colonialism because information technology offered a wider earth view devoid of the indignity of assimilation to the colonial master's culture.
The Role of West African Newspapers
The emergence of African endemic presses and newspapers played an important role in sowing the seeds of early nationalism. The West African elite, through their newspapers and associations, acted every bit watchdogs of the colonial government, protecting their citizens against its abuses. Isaac Wallace Johnson and Nnamdi Azikiwe, for case, were agile in the West African press; and the press served equally an important chemical element in keeping the elite united. The Sierra Leone Weekly News was founded in 1884, and the Gilt Coast Contained beginning published in 1885. In Nigeria, the Lagos Weekly Record was established in 1890 by John Payne Jackson. He propagated racial and national consciousness in Nigeria during the menstruum. All worked to spread nationalism among West Africans. The press was in fact the unmarried virtually of import element in the birth and development of nationalism in British West Africa.
Westward Africans Abroad
Many of West African'southward future nationalist leaders, including, Leopold Senghor, Kwame Nkrumah, and Nnamdi Azikiwe studied away. They obtained necessary education to fight white domination effectively. The fact that they often suffered from white racism while abroad made them far more than militant. Azikiwe and Nkrumah studied at the Historically Black College, Lincoln University (United States of America).
In London, the Due west African Student Marriage was founded in 1925 by Nigerian police student, Ladipo Solanke. Solanke, ane of fathers of Nigerian nationalism, toured West Africa to enhance funds for union which published its own journal. Members stressed cultural nationalism and emphasized the greatness of the African past. 1 of members, Ghanaian J. W. de Graft-Johnson, published book called The Vanished Glory. Members believed that W Africans should seeks their independence in well-nigh future.
The Ethiopian Crisis, 1935
West Africans were jolted towards radicalism past Italy'south invasion of Federal democratic republic of ethiopia in 1935. Federal democratic republic of ethiopia held a special significance for colonized Africans. It was an ancient Christian kingdom, an island of freedom in a colonized continent. Ethiopia was taken every bit symbol for African and African Christians. Nkrumah who was in London at time later on recalled, "at that time it was near as if the whole of London had suddenly declared state of war on me personally."
Effects of WWI, 1914-1918
WW1 had far reaching political and economical impact on West Africa. French West Africans were more afflicted than those in the British colonies. Information technology is estimated that 211,000 Africans were recruited from Francophone Africa. Of these 163,952 fought in Europe. Official figures say that 24,762 died, but this number is causeless to exist low, and did not account for Africans missing in activity. Compulsory military service was introduced in 1912. From 1915, French West Africans actively resisted, as wounded and mutilated Africans began to return home. It presently became obvious that no adequate provision fabricated for families of absent soldiers. Few Africans fought in British Africa. They took part in the conquest of Togo and Kameron. 5000 carriers were sent from Sierra Leone, and over k Nigerians and Ghanaian were killed or died of disease there.
Effects of the State of war
- Later war, following the decisions reached in the Treaty of Versailles, German colonies were taken abroad and handed over to United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and France to be administered by them on behalf of League of Nations. Thus, the British and French occupied German Togo and Cameroon. Colonies consequently converted into mandated or trusteeship territories.
- WW1 influenced African Nationalism: African soldiers from both French and English territories fought Germans in Togo, Cameroons and Tanganyika. During those campaigns African soldiers gained some cognition of outside globe which widened outlook. They fought side by side with Europeans and discovered their strengths and weaknesses. They returned home with experience which deeply influenced desire for freedom and liberty
- WW1 led to the arbitrary sectionalisation of Togo and Cameroon betwixt France and Britain as result of Treaty of Versailles: The division was fabricated without reference to peoples, and this offended the latter's sense of justice and fair play. Thus, the people adult a strong hatred for colonialism. For instance, the Ewes of Togo were split by sectionalization, and thus, organized "Ewe Union Motility" to entreatment for remerging of their ethnic group.
- WW1 allowed W Africans admission to external wartime rhetoric, which had tremendous impact upon the thoughts and aspirations of literate Due west Africans. Woodrow Wilson (US) and Prime number Minister Lloyd George of Britain made statements almost principles of self-decision. West Africans believed that these principles were but as applicable to the colonies every bit to occupied territories of Europe.
- WW1 led to tremendous decrease in West African import trade and revenues from customs declined.
Negro Earth Movements
The anest Pan African Congress was held in Trinidad in 1900 and attended mainly by West Indians. Like early on nationalistic movements, this Pan African Congress was elitist and concerned with issues such as the disabilities of black civil servants. The 2nd Pan African Congress was held in Paris in 1919 under the initiative of W. East. B. Dubois, the founder of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who hoped that the problems of black people would be included in discussions of the Peace Conference at the end of WW1. Resolutions made at this congress were moderate. Few delegates from English Westward Africa attended. Later congresses in 1921, 1923, and 1927 were even weaker and less influential.
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Marcus Garvey was the founder of Universal Negro Improvement Clan. A Jamaican resident in New York, he influenced West Africans profoundly. He spoke of pride in black identity and said that to exist an African was a matter of joy and pride, and that black men everywhere would gain their rights by militancy and not past supplication. Branches of the motility were established in Lagos and Gold Coast. Garvey urged blackness people in the New World to return to Africa and fight or what was their own. Liberia was going to be the launching point for this return. He founded a shipping company called the Black Star Line to forcefulness links betwixt Africa and Afro-Americans.
Youth Movements of the 1930s
In the 1930s, a series of new movements sprang up in Nigeria, the Gold Declension, and Sierra Leone. They called themselves Youth movements, not because their members were youth—they were often middle aged—but because the word, youth, was often used in West Africa to symbolize i'southward rejection of the past. One such motility was the Gold Coast Youth Conference (1930), organized by J. B. Danquah. It was not a political party, simply a discussion center which brought together larger numbers of debating clubs to discuss issues of national importance. In 1934, the Lagos Youth Movement was founded past a grouping of young men led by Ernest Ikoli, Samuel Akinsanya, Dr. J.C. Vaughan formed. In 1936, it changed its proper name to the Nigerian youth motion. The move was restricted get-go to Lagos, and then Nnamdi Azikiwe and H. O. Davies joined on their return to Nigeria in 1937 and 1938 respectively, and the movement became nationalistic in its outlook. The Due west African Youth League was formed in 1938. Organized by Sierra Leonean, Isaac Wallace-Johnson, it favored Marxism. Wallace-Johnson had international groundwork. He had visited London and Moscow and had worked for communist paper in Hamburg. On his return to the Aureate Coast, he was jailed for sedition.
Effect of WWII
WWII accelerated the growth of nationalism and shook the foundations of imperialism. The economic affect of the war on Due west Africa was tremendous and far reaching, resulting in (ane) an increased economical importance of W Africa to the globe market. Europe began to depend more on tropical Africa to supply rubber, cotton wool, cocoa, palm produce, and groundnuts. Thus, West African colonies increased the product of these greenbacks crops. In Nigeria for instance, value of exports rose from x,300,00 pounds in 1931 to 24,600,00 pounds in 1946. Imports rose from 6,800,00 pounds to 19,800,00 pounds during the aforementioned period. (two) Westward African workers developed grievances as a result of the colonial regime introducing price control, controlling marketing of export crops, introducing wage ceilings, and pressuring for more product, Moreover, African businessmen were excluded from the import and export trade which was now reserved only for European firms. (3) The rise of trade unions emerged as a result of the rise of the cost of living without respective ascent in wages. This provided stimulus for organizational action among the labor class. In Nigeria the number of trade unions rose from v to 70, and the Nigerian Trade Wedlock Congress (1943) became cardinal coordinating body. Merchandise unions cooperated closely with nationalist leaders in pressing for the terminate of colonialism. (4) State of war resulted in speedy growth of cities as result of people flocking into cities to accept up new jobs. Many West African cities more than doubled their population. Lagos rose from 100,000 in 1939 to 230,00 in 1950. Accra rose from 70,000 in 1941 to 166,00 in 1948. Towns became overcrowded with discontented job-seeker and workers who witnessed whites living in comfortable, spacious European reservations with paved streets and beautiful lawns and gardens, while they were living in slums. The people therefore became receptive to nationalist appeal and would go the first willing recruits into militant nationalist move. (5) State of war gave impetus to education in West Africa. Because of increased prosperity resulting from war time economic boom, more than parents could beget to send children to school, literacy spread, and paper readership increased. Newspapers became a powerful tool in hands of nationalists to push for political, economic and social development. (6) In spite of more than job opportunities, thousands of school-leavers remained unemployed. For the first fourth dimension, West African cities developed a new form of unemployed people specially in cities. They became disgruntled and blamed colonial authorities and European firms for their plight. They were easily won over by nationalist agitators. (7) The most decisive cistron that accelerated the growth of nationalism was withal the return of ex-servicemen. Over 176,000 men from British West Africa served in British colonial army during war. Later war, large numbers of survivors returned. Nigh 100,000 returned to Nigeria, and 65,000 retuned to Ghana from the Middle East, Eastward Africa, Burma and India. Ex-service men had seen life in more developed countries and enjoyed high living standards in army. They had seen the force of nationalist movements in Asia and fought side by side with Europeans and seen weaknesses which exposed the myth of European racial superiority. They came home with burning want for improve life for themselves and people and urgent demand for extension to Africa of liberty for which many of them had fought and died. Many joined ranks of militant nationalists.
The Impact of European Colonialism on West Africa
Belgium'southward King Leopold, speaking at the 1884 Berlin West Africa conference, was attributed with saying, "I am determined to get my share of this magnificent African Cake." Tragically, as history reveals, Leopold did get a considerable share of the "magnificent African block," which he exploited with unimaginable brutality. While European colonialism in West Africa lasted for a menstruation of only about fourscore years, the basic impetus for colonialism was to control existing West African markets, its mineral wealth, as well as to control its futurity economical discoveries. Portuguese dictator Marcelo Caetano put it this style, "[West African] Blacks are to exist organized and enclosed in economies directed by whites." Indeed, European colonial rule took much more from Due west Africa than information technology gave it.
Colonialism was a double-edged-sword. While the European colonialists saw to the building of roads, railroads, ports, and new technology in Westward Africa, the infrastructure developed past them, and built with West African forced labor, was designed to exploit the natural resources of the colonies; and advance European colonial presence in West Africa. Effective colonial government command demanded a more efficient arrangement of communications that previously existed in precolonial Westward Africa. Thus, in colonial northern Nigeria, for case, railroads were specifically built for this purpose. With the discovery of mineral deposits in areas of colonial Sierra Leone, railways were either extended or spur lines were built to facilitate the exploitation of these minerals. In addition to railroads, the colonialists also improved and expanded the route networks in their various West African territories. This they did, much like the railways, to link production areas to the coasts. These roads yet had the added issue of providing the impetus for increasing urbanization in West African cities and towns.
As mentioned above, colonial investments in West Africa were full-bodied, for the most part, on extractive industries and merchandise goods. In guild to exploit these raw materials, the colonial governments had to control labor. They did this by encouraging large numbers of skilled and unskilled laborers to concentrate in given locales. This resulted in the tremendous growth of towns and cities in the vicinities of these industries.
Some other reason for the growth of new towns and cities, as well as urbanization, was the demand to service the new agricultural sectors imposed by the colonial governments. Seaports, in cities like Dakar, Lagos, and Abidjan, thus, registered remarkable growth rates in the fifty years of the twentieth century. The aforementioned was true of towns selected by the colonial authorities every bit sites for the headquarters of the various colonial districts and provinces.
The introduction of cash economies as well had far reaching effects on urbanization in W African societies. By introducing taxation, Europeans could strength Africans into the monetarized economy. Young men institute information technology much easier to obtain European currency by working in regime or civilian sector jobs in towns and cities, rather than working on the plantations, which many were forced to do. Thus, a greater mobility created past the roads and railroad networks, in addition to greater economical opportunities in sure colonial vicinities, combined to facilitate the rapid growth of West African cities. This growth in cities however had debilitating consequences on West African families. Migrant work encouraged the separation of families.
In improver, the accent on cash crops grown for export made West African societies dependent on European economies. Little was washed by the European colonialists to develop trade between W African colonies; and as a consequence, many Due west African nations still merchandise more than with European countries than with neighboring West African states. Moreover, the land on which the European colonialists established these cash cropping plantations was seized forcibly from West Africans, leaving households landless, and dependent on the Europeans.
While the various missionary societies proselytizing in West Africa, introduced schools of European learning in their West African dominions, as noted above, these for the most function, were far and few between. After the introduction of indirect rule, for instance, the British discouraged Westward Africans from acquiring higher education past denying them employment in the colonial administrations. They instead subsidized Christian missions to produce more clerks and interpreters. The French government on their office, limited the number of schools in their West African territories. Indeed, Senegal was the just colony that had secondary schools; and of these schools, the William Ponty schoolhouse in Dakar was the oldest and nigh pop.
Nwando Achebe
parkerhimmenting76.blogspot.com
Source: https://wasscehistorytextbook.com/8-colonial-rule-in-west-africa/
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