Reading the first chapters of the Scramble section of the book, it just seems to me that the continent of Africa was a sort of a "playground" for imperial ambitions from King Leopold II to Cecil Rhodes. After reading the first chapter in the section which detailed the Belgian Congo, I couldn't help but feel that although the whole idea of imperialism is repugnant there could be a defense formed for it. What happened in the Belgian Congo under the rule of Leopold II was atrocious, however seeing that the idea of empires back then was as normal as maintaining embassies in foreign nations is today, it is not all that surprising as to what occurred. Although this is by no means a defense for the atrocities that occurred under Belgian rule, the fact that at that time the life of was viewed as worthless taken together with the commercial value of the Belgian Congo forms a sort of defense for the policies of King Leopold II.
The next chapter in the section entitled "An African King" further vindicates this defense when one accepts the fact that Lewanika accepted the British rule over his territory, although the British clearly cheated him in that they never delivered what they promised. However, again the idea that the British government should somehow repay Lewanika for taking his territory would never occur if one were to realize the historical context in which all of this occurred. I mean saying that the African people should be repaid in some way back then would be like saying we should repay cows today for the milk we take from them, as much as we would like to avoid saying it, Africans back in the era of European colonization were viewed as beings to be used to their full extent and then thrown away.
Another thought that came to me while reading was that the British when they came into Africa came in as commercial entities, no matter how much they pushed the idea that they were there to introduce civilization to the uncivilized. The failure of Lewanika to realize this fact led to his kingdom's demise, Reader does point out that the Europeans had the advantage of language in that they drafted the agreements in English or some other European language that the Africans could not understand, but the fact still remains and the question persists, how ignorant of human nature was Lewanika to not see the Europeans for what they truly were?
All of this said, the issue of development comes to the front and I cannot help but think of the indelible mark the past has left on the present in Africa, there seems to be a psychological burden of inferiority that the history of colonization has left on the African people. This means that whatever steps we take in developing African nations, the first of these steps will have to be to restore the self confidence that was lost as a result of the Imperial Scramble and rule.
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I was just about to write a post similar to the first paragraph of this post, so I figured I would just write it here! Me and Carly were talking yesterday about the book, and the thing that still strikes me the most is how much of a "game" this seemed to be to the colonial powers. Carly said it almost seems like they are playing Risk. I know that there are a lot of factors that play into this "game" but when it comes down to it, those were ancient civilizations with unique cultures, languages, and religions that these so called civilized elites were playing with.
ReplyDeleteThis took me back to thinking about Kristy's post a while ago when she was comparing colonization to pirating music. I liked the comparison, it helped me to see the possible ignorance of the colonizers. But then in the first part of the reading when King Leopold invites different parties to his country to get them on his side, he completely hides his real intentions. I realize that he has multiple reasons for wanting to colonize, but when you think of basic human goodness (which I realize is a vague and difficult term) it is hard to imagine a person would be able to live with the exploitation and near destruction of a civilization. It is sad to think that a person with such low morals was able to have that much power. Anyways, I realize that this is a very idealistic and emotion centered post and that there is much more that goes into the mix of things.