African Response to Colonial Rule

African Response to Colonial Rule

African response towards the European colonialism has always been seen in terms of the power struggle and tends to highly neglect the power dynamics of the African communities during the colonial era . The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 gave some of the most powerful European countries the power to divide the African continent according to their own agreements. However, the European conquest had started decades earlier before this agreement. Therefore, the success of European colonialists and imperialists must be seen in the light of their long history of conquest where they had mastered the art of conquering , divide and rule. Basically, lack of technology was the main reason for the defeat of the African communities in the sense that there were poor communication technology, poor military technology, and inferior weapons by the Africans.

It must as well be noted that Africans relied too much on their religious beliefs, too gullible to believe all the European missionaries, weak economic base that could not support war for a long time, disunity among the African leaders at the time and the inability to successfully contain the natural calamities that most of the African communities had suffered. On the other hand, the Europeans had superior weapons, well organized and outstanding army, determination of their soldiers, and their long experience of using divide and rule policy which made it easy for them to turn African communities against one another.

European colonialism and imperialism initiated an immediate response from the Africans in different ways. African response was either resistance or collaboration. Some African leaders resisted the occupation of their lands by the colonialist while others saw it futile to resist the European colonialism and decide to collaborate with them ¹ . However, the nature of the African response differed depending on several factors, for example, some African leaders realized the potential advantages in relation to their response, social and culture hierarchies and inter-community rivalries.

Most African communities who collaborated with the British initially thought that this reaction would help in the protection of their independence and only realized later when their own independence was taken from them. They assumed the signing of treaties to have meant agreements to show the power over their independence, particularly for the purpose of protecting them as well as promoting the trade between them and the colonialists ² . Most of the African leaders who signed collaboration treaties were quite illiterate and welcomed the missionaries to interpret for them the terms of such treaties. Besides, other insecure African communities collaborate with an aim of acquiring weapons and other ammunition to help them fight their enemies who had been threatening them for a long time . More importantly, some communities had seen how futile their neighbors tried to resist the colonial rule, and did not want to suffer the same fate ³ . Therefore, all the collaborated African communities did so in relation to the prevailing conditions at that time, and in an effort to preserve their own independence.

Similarly, African communities that had resisted the European colonialism did so in an effort to preserve their independence against the Europeans who they felt had come to take away their independence. Interestingly, some of these communities had engaged in several wars of conquests and this breed of military confidence in them ⁴ . These wars had united them against their enemies and they were willing to do the same with the European imperialists and colonialists. Moreover, they had long experience strong and outstanding armies. However, it must be noted that all the African communities that resisted the European rule were defeated except the Ethiopians under the rule of Menelik II. Italians were defeated by the Ethiopians at the Battle of Adowa ⁵ .

In case of Ethiopian response, for instance, Ethiopia and Italy had a treaty of friendship that they both had different opinions on the nature of this friendship. Ethiopians expected the Italians to be their friends who would not in any way threaten their independence, while Italians consider themselves a friend to Ethiopia and it was their role to protect and control anything in Ethiopia. The Italian occupation of Ethiopia was motivated by the fact that Italy had been divided into regionals, political and religious grounds that they wanted to use Ethiopian resistance to unite them. On the side of Ethiopia, Emperor Menelik II was a crafty politician who had acquired lots of weapons and ammunition waiting to greatly resist the Italian occupation. He even gave the Italians a year to occupy Ethiopia before confronting them in an effort to purchase enough weapons. Ethiopians saw this as an opportunity to protect their independence and proved the possibility of defeating European colonialists.

In the case of the Maji Maji rebellion against the Germans, it was one of the most significant challenges against the European colonialist and imperialists. For a long time, Germany had succeeded in occupying Tanganyika and went to the extent of forcing labor on Africans, higher taxation and the forced growing of cotton in their farms. Such treatments were resented by most Africans who felt the need to resist the European colonization. ⁶ A prophet, Kinjikitile Ngwale came up with a solution claiming sacred liquid that could be able to repel any bullets by the Germans. This motivated the rebellion against the Europeans and united over twenty ethnic groups in the region. This was the first ever inter-ethnic cooperation against colonialism in Africa. However, this resistance never worked and lots of the African soldiers were killed by the Germans. The situation was made even worse by the Germans who decided to destroy the crops for the Africans in an effort to cause famine among the Maji Maji supporters ⁷ . Although Maji Maji rebellion was unsuccessful , it made a great impact on the colonization of Africans in the fact that it made the Europeans come up with reforms to curb the brutality they applied in colonization of African communities ⁸ . More importantly, Africans later used the Maji Maji rebellion to encourage different ethnic groups to come together and fight the European colonialists.

In conclusion, the success of Ethiopia against the European showed the importance of military technology in European colonization and imperialism. Therefore, the modern weapons of the Europeans must have been the most decisive factor in the European conquest of the African communities. Most African communities would have defeated the European imperialists if they had the military technology.

Bibliography

Gilbert, Erik, and Jonathan T. Reynolds. Africa In World History. Pearson Education, 2011.

William, Worger, Nancy, Clark, and Edward, Alpers. Africa and the West: A Documentary History. Volume 2: From Colonialism to Independence, 1875 to the Present . 2010.