5 Reasons Colonisation In Africa was Successful
Sitting across the table from an old friend, he sparks up a conversation that had my spider senses going into overdrive. “Wale, let’s face it — the black race is inferior”. The words stung worse than a Liverpool win at Old Trafford. He proceeds to explain himself citing issues such as the majority of African countries being more or less failed states to how Africans seem to only excel outside the continent than within
I listen intently setting aside any urges to retaliate or engage in a rebuttal. He lists a myriad of continent wide failings of the African people mostly focused on the 19th and 20th centuries. Seemingly one of the most raucous in human history. We came into that age superior or at least on par with other races but somehow ended up at the bottom when all was said and done. How did this happen? He wasn’t wrong. Surely, we have heard the stories of the riches of Mansa Musa, the great dynasties of Memphis and Thebes, the inventions of Neolithic Africa. What happened between then and now? We have been on a downward spiral and although there are some bright spots over the last thirty years, I daresay these are cosmetic and fleeting.
But enough of the doomsday premonitions, are we truly an inferior race? Are we mentally, physically, psychologically inferior to our siblings of lighter hues? Let’s jump into my retrofitted DMC DeLorean and go back to the future.
Our first stop (only stop probably) is Africa. And yes I say this intentionally, not Nigeria, not Kenya, not Botswana. Africa. The initial issue we had as Africans was our abhorrence towards empire building. Most African tribes have been migratory. A number of issues caused this — weather patterns, expansion of the Sahara, inherent distrust of neighbors et al. Most importantly, there always seemed to be more than enough resources for everyone to prosper as opposed to the other continents. Even the great empires from the Egyptian dynasties and Kush empires to the Ghanain and Malian empires focused more on trade than war and empire building.
Migratory
The Sahara. The largest hot desert in the world. The epitome of barren land. It may come as a surprise to some that the ‘Greatest Desert’ was once a sprawling vegetative grassland and home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna. Due to a 20,000 year cycle which the earth tilts on its axis (process known as precession), the Sahara oscillates (excuse the pun) between desert and grassland. As one can imagine, this would have serious effects on inhabitants of this region.
The desertification of the Sahara — close in size to continental USA — was in two stages. The first was approximately between 4,700 BC and 3500BC. This was the less severe stage and didn’t cause as much of a change. The second was between 2,000BC and 1,600 BC. While shorter, this was probably the most brutal of climate change events in recorded history. Extremely vegetative land could turn barren almost overnight.
This often resulted in inhabitants having to flee new settlements on a weekly basis and perpetuated the collapse of nation building. Populations were dissected in the search for food and foliage with a huge percentage dying in this search. A whole village might split into ten parts in search for a more habitable location. A week later the same thing till they either died or end up with a handful living in remote areas.
We can easily imagine what this did to the population in such a vast expanse of land. What is more difficult however, is to determine the effect this had on the mentality of the people. With an ever changing environment, it is difficult to innovate, experiment or even educate when your sole priority is ensuring survival over the next seven days.
Timing
European empires had began ‘visiting’ Africa from the late 15th century. Bartolomeu Dias and later Christopher Columbus made a number of voyages to sub Saharan Africa during what was termed the Age of Discovery.
Europeans (Portuguese primarily) set up trade routes with West Africa in the 16th Century. These trading ties were so well developed that royal families from both regions would send princes to spend time living with the other royal families. This carried on in earnest till the 19th century.
The late 19th century brought with it severe droughts and plagues of locusts across the continent. This plague not only affected livestock and fauna but people too. A large percentage of the population was wiped out as a result and coincided with the push by the European powers to take advantage of weakened fragmented tribes. During the drought and plague, hardly any crops were produced. The few that were drought resistant ended up being consumed by the plague of locusts. To add to this, in the 1890s, the cattle plague broke out decimating cattle, sheep and goats. This resulted in one of the largest continent wide famine in modern history.
In 1870, only 10pct of Africa was formally colonized. By 1914 however, this number had increased to 90pct with only Liberia, Somalia and Ethiopia left as independent states.
Coincidentally this was the time of the great depression in Europe. The economies of so called European powers were in sharp decline following the Second Industrial Revolution. The United Kingdom was hit significantly and had to look outwards for opportunities to counter their trade deficit. Africa with huge natural resources presented a golden opportunity.
In 1870, only 10pct of Africa was formally colonized. By 1914 however, this number had increased to 90pct with only Liberia, Somalia and Ethiopia left as independent states. Europeans had been on the continent for centuries and had lost a number of battles in their pursuit to colonize regions — Queen Nzingha (of Modern day Angola) vs Portuguese, Ethiopia vs Italians, Zulu defeat of the British but to name a few. However, the combination of famine and timing of European incursions left the continent most vulnerable than it had ever been.
Short Termism
The hard truth is a majority of African leaders through the ages have had an inability to focus on long term planning. I realize that this might be hard to digest for a lot of Africans. Most of the other races were patient in the quest for invasions. Their leaders made plans that might not bear fruit till long after they passed. Prime examples are how the Asians/Arabs used the matrilineal culture of Ancient Egypt to their advantage. With no clear ability to topple the Pharaohs, the Arabs ensured their sons married Egyptian princesses ensuring their offspring were heirs of mixed origin. This resulted in Egyptians and their Royalty changing from black Africans to what we see today — primarily Arab looking. Lower Egypt (Northern Egypt) was overtaken by the Arabs while the blacks were pushed to Upper Egypt (Southern Egypt).
We can argue that this tactic was used all around Europe also — the core difference is the matrilineal tradition made this far more effective on the African continent than anywhere else.
We see this more so today than anytime during our history. Short term gains of fleeting riches encourage our leaders to mortgage our future for peanuts.
Slave trade
Slavery in African culture was a very different idea to slavery brought by the Europeans. In truth, there was hardly a term for ‘Slave’ in Africa. What the Europeans regarded as slaves were usually labourers captured as prisoners of war or inmates imprisoned for various offenses. So initially when the slave trade began, African Chiefs and Kings were unaware of the treatment the Europeans would put these slaves through believing they were merely supplying workers that were needed abroad. By the time they realized, it was too late with a significant infrastructure built around the trade. Ironically most of the ardent slave traders in Africa at that time were smugglers who covered themselves with the cloak of priesthood.
Until the Lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter
Christopher Columbus — a wily character praised for ‘discovering’ America (or the New World as it was known then) by pitting the Portuguese and Spanish against each other for his so-called discoveries had already encountered a number of Africans when he landed on the shores of what we refer to as North and South America today. Aside from the fact that Mansa Musa’ s uncle (or brother), Abubakari, who gave up the Malian throne to explore what was beyond the seas, landed in the Americas in 1311 — almost two centuries before Columbus, there is evidence of Nubian Ethiopians and Egyptians settling there way before.
More importantly, the Aztecs and Olmecs of today’s Mexico, were known to worship Black Gods. The idols had unmistakable black features and were constructed all over the region. It is incredulous that the same regions that worshipped black idols are at the forefront of physical and institutional black genocide. None more despicable than the white washing of today’s Argentina. The deliberate decimation of the black race in Argentina was only surpassed by King Leopold’s antics in the Congo.
Lack of unity among tribes
Africans have always had an overriding desire to welcome foreigners ahead of their neighbours. Over time, this has proven to be more of a curse than a gift. The Mossi (Burkina Faso today) people had a prophecy which stated that once the first white man lands in their state, it would signal the fall of their empire. They held this position for 500 years and never let anyone but the Arabs and Muslims come in on allotted trading days. They would come in, trade their wares and leave.
This ended when they let the French in. And true to the prophecy, less than a decade after the first French foot landed on their soil, the Mossi empire no longer existed. Lewis Binger, the so called French explorer first landed in Senegal in 1880. He weaved his way to the power brokers of the land and used them to infiltrate the Mossi Empire. The Mogo Noba (Mosi King) at the time had a more relaxed attitude towards the whites than his forebears. George Ferguson — a mixed race Senegalese — was used by Lewis Binger to break into the Mossi hierarchy in 1888. By 1896, the Mossi empire was overthrown by the French. This represents a microcosm of the colonial workings across Africa and is still used to great effect today.
Economic, Societal and Religious approach
The overriding theme here is the distinct lack of cohesiveness between Africans and those of African origin. From an economic perspective, intra African trade is immaterial when compared to any other continent’s. This is even more devastating when we consider that the African market would represent the largest free trade bloc in the world if AfCFTA is implemented. While some may point to increased exports within the region from 10% in 1995 to about 17% in 2017, serious consideration should be given to the fact that a majority of African countries were either engaged in war, controlled by dictators or operating some form of closed economies during the 90s. We might actually see a regression in intra African trade during that period if we extrapolate the numbers to include these variables. We need to bridge the gap between Africans — African states, Africans in the diaspora and African Americans.
From a societal perspective, our insistence on creating factions and encouraging divisiveness is second to none. The viewpoint that there is a difference between black Americans and Africans is nothing short of genocidal mentality. The traditional viewpoint that African Americans have a different culture or are not as ‘African’ as those that reside in the motherland is pure fallacy. I daresay a significant number of African Americans have more of an appreciation for African history and culture than continental residents. This stigma needs to be broken.
The Islamic influence on medieval Mali hardly touched the common people. Even the kings … gave Islam little more than lip service. — Ivan Van Sertima.
Religion is the one aspect where there is some semblance of cohesion. Unfortunately, this does more harm than good. Creating unison through a medium that is foreign to us as a people is not sustainable. As a result, we feel more of a connection with the Vatican or Saudi Arabia and less for Askum or Kano.
Islam was a tool used for trade as the largest traders during the time were the Arabs. But this did not result in antipathy for indigenous culture and religion as it does today.
A thorough understanding of how the black race found itself at the bottom of the race barrel is invaluable. A proper review would show that we are still guilty of the same mistakes our forebears made and more. They made mistakes — grave ones — with catastrophic consequences. They were unlucky. They were naïve. They were ill prepared. We need to understand that, accept it, forgive and move on.
They lost the battle. It is on us to win the war.
