The Colonization of Africa

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The Colonization of Africa

• An introduction to Chinua Achebes Things Fall
  Apart

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Scramble for Africa

• (1880-1900) - a period of rapid colonization of
  the African continent by European powers.
• By the beginning of the 1880s only a small part
  of Africa was under European rule, and that area
  was largely restricted to the coast and a short
  distance inland along major rivers such as the
  Niger and the Congo.

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What Caused the Scramble to Happen?

• There were several factors which created the
  impetus for the Scramble for Africa, most of
  these were to do with events in Europe rather
  than in Africa.

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1 - End of the Slave Trade

• Britain had had some success in halting the slave
  trade around the shores of Africa (Inland the
  story was different -- Muslim traders from north
  of the Sahara and on the East Coast still traded,
  and many local chiefs were reluctant to give up
  the use of slaves).
• Reports of slaving trips and markets were brought
  back to Europe by various explorers, such as
  Livingstone, and abolitionists in Britain and
  Europe were calling for more to be done.

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2 - Exploration

• Triggered to a great extent by the creation of
  the African Association by wealthy Englishmen in
  1788 (who wanted someone to 'find' the fabled
  city of Timbuktu and the course of the Niger
  River).
• As the century moved on, the goal of the European
  explorer changed, and rather than traveling out
  of pure curiosity they started to record details
  of markets, goods, and resources for the wealthy
  philanthropists who financed their trips.

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3 - Henry Morton Stanley

• A naturalized American (born in Wales) who of all
  the explorers of Africa is the one most closely
  connected to the start of the Scramble for
  Africa.
• Stanley had crossed the continent and located the
  'missing' Livingstone, but he is more infamously
  known for his explorations on behalf of King
  Leopold II of Belgium.
• Leopold hired Stanley to obtain treaties with
  local chieftains along the course of the River
  Congo with an eye to creating his own colony
  (Belgium was not in a financial position to fund
  a colony at that time).
• Stanley's work triggered a rush of European
  explorers, such as Carl Peters, to do the same
  for various European countries.

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4 - Capitalism

• The end of European trading in slaves left a need
  for commerce between Europe and Africa.
• Explorers located vast reserves of raw materials,
  they plotted the course of trade routes,
  navigated rivers, and identified population
  centers which could be a market for manufactured
  goods from Europe.
• It was a time of plantations and cash crops,
  dedicating the region's workforce to producing
  rubber, coffee, sugar, palm oil, timber, etc for
  Europe. And all the more enticing if a colony
  could be set up which gave the European nation a
  monopoly.

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5 Suez Canal

• The British wanted to protect the Suez Canal in
  East Africa along with the route to the east.
• Control over the Suez Canal allotted them to
  have financial superiority and comfort. Britain
  wanted to control Africa in order to be
  financially secure.
• Opened in November 1869, it allows water
  transportation between Europe and Asia without
  navigating around Africa or carrying goods
  overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea

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Rules for Dividing Up the Continent

• The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 laid down ground
  rules for the further partitioning of Africa.
• Navigation on the Niger and Congo rivers was to
  be free to all, and to declare a protectorate
  over a region the European colonizer must show
  effective occupancy and develop a 'sphere of
  influence'.

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Maps of Colonization
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http//www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome05/ind
ex.php
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Africa 1890s

• Black and White Images from the Winterton
  Collection at Melville J. Herskovits Library of
  African Studies Northwestern University

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Things Fall Apart

• The story of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall
  Apart takes place in the Nigerian village of
  Umuofia in the late 1880s, before missionaries
  and other outsiders have arrived.
• The Ibo clan practices common tribal
  traditionsworship of gods, sacrifice, communal
  living, war, and magic.
• Leadership is based on a man's personal worth and
  his contribution to the good of the tribe.
  Okonkwo stands out as a great leader of the Ibo
  tribe.

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• Originally written in English and published in
  1958, Things Fall Apart was one of the first
  African novels to garner worldwide acclaim.
• Though mostly fictional, Nigerian author Chinua
  Achebe claims that the book documents Africas
  spiritual history the civilized and rich life
  the Ibo lived before the arrival of Europeans and
  the ruinous social and cultural consequences that
  the arrival of European missionaries brought.
• Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as a sharp
  criticism of imperialism, or the European
  colonization of countries outside of the European
  continent (especially Africa and the Americas).

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Why Should YOU care?

• Ever been afraid that you might turn out like one
  of your parents?
• One of the most fascinating parts of Things Fall
  Apart comes from watching Okonkwo's ongoing
  battle against being like his father. Okonkwo
  doesnt respect anything about his father, which
  is a bit extreme.
• Its common for people to fear being like their
  parents, and overcompensate by behaving in the
  completely opposite way. Okonkwo, however, is an
  example of what happens to a person who concerns
  himself more with avoiding his father's traits
  than with living his own, independent life.

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Thematic Subjects

• Custom and Tradition
• Choices and Consequences
• Alienation and Loneliness
• Betrayal
• Change and Transformation
• Good and Evil
• Culture Clash

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Nigerian Independence

• British colonial rule in Nigeria lasted only
  fifty-seven years, from 1903 to 1960. Although
  Nigerians had long called for self-rule, it was
  not until the end of World War II that England
  began heeding these calls..
• On October 1, 1960, Nigeria attained full status
  as a sovereign state and a member of the British
  Commonwealth. But under the Constitution of 1960
  the Queen of England was still the head of state.
  She remained the commander- in-chief of Nigeria's
  armed forces, and the Nigerian navy operated as
  part of Britain's Royal Navy. Nigerians felt
  frustrated by the implication that they were the
  subjects of a monarch living over 4,000 miles
  away. In 1963, five years after the publication
  of Achebe's novel, a new constitution would
  replace the British monarch with a Nigerian
  president as head of state in Nigeria.