The Berlin Conference
The Transatlantic Slave was abolished on January 1, 1808 exactly four years to the day Haiti claimed independence from France after a 13-year war for freedom. Although the transportation of slaves across the Atlantic was illegal, colonies throughout the Americas abolished slavery at different times with Brazil being last in 1888. On November 15, 1884 through February 26, 1885 a series of European negotiations took place to colonize Africa called The Berlin Conference. Prior to the conference Africa was approximately 10% colonized, the conference took dividing up Africa into high gear. No longer enslaving African descendants in the Americas, Europe decided to go straight to the source, the continent of Africa, to pillage the land and exploit the people.
With one notable exception, the conquest of Africa was accomplished with few European soldiers. Mostly, troops from other parts of Africa were used. The invading armies were not large; in all these wars, the new industrial technology of warfare, especially heavy cannon, and the Maxim machine gun, gave the invaders an advantage. Colonialists referred to the process of establishing control over a territory as “pacification,” a grossly inaccurate term for a violent process. In general, by the first decade of the twentieth century, Africans resigned themselves to or tried to capitalize on European control. Of all the territories in Africa, only Liberia and Ethiopia (2.2f) survived with autonomous governments, although it took until the First World War for European empires to gain control over some areas they claimed within their colonies.”
Jacobs, N. J. (2014). In N. J. Jacobs, African History Through Sources: Volume 1, Colonial Contexts and Everyday Experiences, c.1850–1946 (p. 129). New York: Cambridge University Press
| Current Name | Independence | Flag | Former Colonial Name | Colonial Rulers | |
| 1. | Morocco: Including Western Sahara | 1956 | Spanish Sahara: was Western Sahara only | France & Spain | |
| 2. | Algeria | 1962 | France | ||
| 3. | Tunisia | 1956 | France | ||
| 4. | Libya | 1951 | Italy | ||
| 5. | Egypt | 1922/1952 | Great Britain | ||
| 6. | Cape Verde | 1975 | Portugal | ||
| 7. | Senegal | 1960 | FWA | France | |
| 8. | Mauritania | 1960 | FWA | France | |
| 9. | Mali | 1960 | French Soudan FWA | France | |
| 10. | Niger | 1960 | FWA | France | |
| 11. | Chad | 1960 | FEA | France | |
| 12. | Sudan | 1956 | Great Britain & Egypt | ||
| 13. | Gambia | 1965 | Great Britain | ||
| 14. | Guinea Bissau | 1974 | Portuguese Guinea | Portugal | |
| 15. | Guinea | 1958 | French Guinea FWA | France | |
| 16. | Sierra Leone | 1961 | Great Britain | ||
| 17. | Liberia | 1847 | – | ||
| 18. | Ivory Coast | 1960 | France | ||
| 19. | Burkina Faso | 1960 | Upper Volta FWA | France | |
| 20. | Ghana | 1957 | Gold Coast & British Togoland | Great Britain & Germany | |
| 21. | Togo | 1960 | Togoland/French Togoland | Germany/France | |
| 22. | Benin | 1960 | Dahomey FWA | France | |
| 23. | Nigeria | 1960 | Great Britain | ||
| 24. | Cameroon | 1960 | Germany/France & Germany/Great Britain | ||
| 25. | Central African Republic | 1960 | Ubangi-Shari FEA | France | |
| 26. | South Sudan | 2011 | Sudan | Great Britain & Egypt | |
| 27. | Ethiopia | Occupied by Italy, 1936-41 | |||
| 28. | Eritrea | 1933 | Italy/Ethiopia | ||
| 29. | Djibouti | 1977 | French Somaliland | France | |
| 30. | Somalia | 1960 | British Somaliland & Italian Somaliland | Great Britain & Italy | |
| 31. | São Tomé and Principe | 1975 | Portugal | ||
| 32. | Equatorial Guinea | 1968 | Spanish Guinea | Spain | |
| 33. | Gabon | 1960 | FEA | France | |
| 34. | Congo Brazzaville | 1960 | Middle Congo, French Congo (FEA) | France | |
| 35. | Congo Kinshasa | 1960 | Congo Free State, Belgian Congo | Belgium | |
| 36. | Uganda | 1962 | Buganda | Great Britain | |
| 37. | Kenya | 1963 | Great Britain | ||
| 38. | Rwanda | 1962 | Ruanda-Urundi | Germany/Belgium | |
| 39. | Burundi | 1962 | Ruanda-Urundi | Germany/Belgium | |
| 40. | Tanzania | 1961/1963 | German East Africa Tanganyika & Zanzibar | Germany/ Great Britain | |
| 41. | Comoros | 1975 | France | ||
| 42. | Seychelles | 1976 | Great Britain | ||
| 43. | Angola | 1975 | Portugal | ||
| 44. | Zambia | 1964 | Northern Rhodesia | Great Britain | |
| 45. | Zimbabwe | 1965/1980 | Southern Rhodesia / Rhodesia | Great Britain | |
| 46. | Mozambique | 1975 | Portuguese East Africa | Portugal | |
| 47. | Malawi | 1964 | Nyasaland | Great Britain | |
| 48. | Namibia | 1990 | South West Africa | Germany / South Africa | |
| 49. | Botswana | 1966 | Bechuanaland Protectorate | Great Britain | |
| 50. | South Africa | 1910/1994 | Great Britain | ||
| 51. | Lesotho | 1966 | Basotholand | Great Britain | |
| 52. | Eswatini | 1968 | Great Britain | ||
| 53. | Madagascar | 1960 | France | ||
| 54. | Réunion | Bourbon | France (remains overseas department of France) | ||
| 55. | Mauritius | 1968 | Great Britain |
*Countries 6 thru 55 represents black or predominately black Sub-Saharan nations
A couple of examples of life during Colonial Africa can be understood by the following excerpts.
New laws were approved introducing a legal colour bar between white and black employees. Whereas British administrators had previously resisted legal discrimination, mining legislation in 1883 decreed that ‘no native is to be permitted to manipulate explosives or prepare the same for blasting or other purposes’. Blasting had to be carried on ‘under the supervision of a European’. Subsequent legislation ruled that: ‘No native shall work or be allowed to work in any mine, whether in open or underground workings, excepting under the responsible charge of some particular white man as his master or “baas”’. To ensure a more reliable supply of black labour, mining companies organised their own system of recruitment. Recruits were required to agree to contracts running for six to twelve months rather than three to six. Their living conditions also changed. Originally, diggers had accommodated black workers on their compounds or encampments in tents or sheds. Subsequently, they were housed in barracks. From 1885, mining companies required black workers to live in fenced and guarded compounds on their property for the entire term of their contract. Closed compounds had the advantage of preventing diamond theft. They also provided mine owners with greater control of the labour force.
Meredith, M. (2014). The Fortunes of Africa, A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor. Great Britain: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd,.
After serving three months on a Government plantation where the workers were beaten, and three months as carrier for a government engineer, he was advised to enlist as a soldier. When he declined, they would give him no tax receipt, so he had to catch fish in order to get the money with which to pay his head tax. In 1922 he served as carrier under heavy burden on a three-months’ trip to Loanda. Within a year he was sent with a heavy load to a point 85 miles from his home. He got neither money nor tax receipt.
Jacobs, N. J. (2014). In N. J. Jacobs, African History Through Sources: Volume 1, Colonial Contexts and Everyday Experiences, c.1850–1946 (p. 282). New York: Cambridge University Press
AFRICA TODAY
Like the United States colonization of Africa began to change because of World War II. The seeds of the Civil Rights Movement began with black troops serving their nation only to return home to be treated as second class citizens. In Africa World War II had the same affect since Nazi Germany were engaged with both Britain and France creating additional help Africans filled that void.
Africa and the Allies shows subjects of the French and British empires engaging with Allied assertions about the war’s higher purpose. It begins with a memo by Éboué to his officials about the importance of colonies to the Free French cause. The Allies used propaganda to persuade Africans to take part, and Africans did enlist, although for their own reason. The assertion that the war was for self-determination inspired some Africans to claim the promises implicit in the Atlantic Charter. The French began public discussions about reforming their African empire in 1944, before the war ended. Returning veterans saw empire differently from the way they did before the war and made claims to rights and benefits by virtue of their service. Because Portugal and Belgium were neutral during the war, it did not have this transformational effect on their empires.
Jacobs, N. J. (2014). In N. J. Jacobs, African History Through Sources: Volume 1, Colonial Contexts and Everyday Experiences, c.1850–1946 . New York: Cambridge University Press
Of the Sub-Saharan nations Sudan was the first to become an independent nation in 1956 while South Africa being the last in 1994 due to the end of Apartheid. Today many African nations are attempting to have their stolen artifacts spread-out through Europe and North America museums returned. Some nations agreed to “loan” the artifacts to the respective nations, which questions, you cannot loan something that was stolen.
The imposition of colonialism on Africa altered its history forever. African nl0des of thought, patterns of cultural development, and ways of life were forever impacted by the change in political structure brought about by colonialism. The African economy was significantly changed by the Atlantic slave trade through the process of imperialism and the economic policies that accompanied colonization. Prior to the “Scramble for Africa,” or the official partition of Africa by the major European nations, African economies were advancing in every area, particularly in the area of trade. The aim of colonialism is to exploit the physical, human, and econol11ic resources of an area to benefit the colonizing nation. European powers pursued this goa] by encouraging the development of a commodity-based trading system, a cash crop agriculture system, and by building a trade network linking the total economic output of a region to the demands of the colonizing state. The development of colonialism and the partition of Africa by the European colonial powers arrested the natural development of the African economic system. Africa prior to colonialism was not economically isolated from the rest of the world. Indeed, African states had engaged in international trade from the time of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, and west Africa specifically had developed extensive international trading systems during the eras of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. These huge empires relied heavily on the taxing of foreign trade to finance government expenditures
Settles, J. D. (1996). The Impact of Colonialism on African Economic Development. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Colonialism did not allow for industrialization of Africa. It assigned Africa the role of production of primary goods or raw materials in the international division of labour. Colonialism encouraged and intensified class struggle, tribalism and ethnicity within the African colonies. These were strategies introduced by the colonialists to perpetuate or prolong their rule and domination of African territories. An example is the British colonial policy of “Divide and Rule” in Nigeria. Finally, colonialism shaped both the economic and political structure of African colonies to be in line with the need of the metropolis. It ensured that African economic and political structures both in form and content serve the interest of their home government (European powers).
Ocheni & Nwankwo Cross-Cultural Communication
Vol. 8, No. 3, 2012, pp. 46-54
DOI:10.3968/j.ccc.1923670020120803.1189
