Colonialism Effects: The Damaging Impact Of Colonialism on African Societies

Colonialism Effects On Africa

Colonialism Effects: For example, the Portuguese enclaves in the sixteenth century and the Dutch East India Company’s South African colony in the seventeenth century were the first European colonies in Africa. However, the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 was the start of colonization of the whole continent, which ended with Namibia’s independence in 1990. 

During these 160 years, European countries made big changes to the economies, societies, religions, and politics of Africa, whether they were aware of it or not. In line with ideas about the role of government from the 1800s, European forces in Africa set up governments whose main goal was to keep things running smoothly, not to improve the economy or society. 

But some people also thought that the colonies should pay for themselves. The European powers wanted the colonies, but they didn’t want them to cost too much. Because of this, in the early years of colonialism, European countries either kept their colonial staffs pretty small or hired chartered companies (like the British Royal Niger Company in northern Nigeria) to run the colonies. 

In either case, European governments had to form partnerships with powerful groups in the colonies to make sure they ran things well. Examples include the Barotse in Northern Rhodesia, the Baganda in Uganda, the Fulbe in northern Nigeria, and the coastal Swahili peoples in German East Africa. These kinds of partnerships often caused or worsened ethnic and tribal tensions, favoring certain groups over others. For example, Belgium sided with the Tutsi against the Hutu in Rwanda and Burundi. 

Many of them also created a privileged class from which colonial governments hired their native officials, police, interpreters, and clerks. Colonial rule benefited a very small group of people, but it hurt the vast majority. Individuals or groups who refused to cooperate with the colonial government, or who had previously been adversaries of the now-privileged groups, rapidly lost their influence within the colonies.

There are many examples of groups that fought against colonial power instead of working with it. In Southern Rhodesia in the late 1800s, the Ndebele and Mashona rebelled against the white colonizers several times. These groups lost their lands and were forced onto reservations, where they often lost their animals and had to start over in new communities that had been broken up by war and forced migration. 

The Bunyoro, who were traditionally enemies of the Baganda, fought back against British favoritism toward them. As part of British rule, the Bunyoro had to give Baganda land, get rid of the Bunyoro ruler, and make the Bunyoro choose Baganda officials. The colonial government killed two-thirds of the Herero people during the Herero uprising in German Southwest Africa (Namibia), took their land, and prohibited those who survived from owning animals.

Many Europeans lived in colonies at various points in time. For example, the Germans lived in eastern and southwest Africa, Cameroun, and Togo; the French lived in Algeria; the Portuguese lived in Angola and Mozambique; and the British South Africa Company encouraged people to live in Southern and Northern Rhodesia and, of course, South Africa. 

Most of the time, governments (or companies) urged people to move to Europe by offering economic incentives. These could include free land, agricultural supplies, assistance with moving and transportation costs, and better trade terms with the home country.

In some places, like the Portuguese colonies, settlers ran their businesses like feudal lords. They could tax, judge, hire workers, and make their own private police units on their own estates. Sometimes, like in Algeria, settlers formed a strong pressure group in their home country and had a big impact on colonial policy. The continent’s economy also changed a lot because of occupation. 

Most parts of Africa did not have a system of paid work before the colonial period. This made things challenging for foreign governments because they had to figure out how to get people to do government work like building roads, canals, and bridges. In many cases, the only way out was to make Africans work for the colonial governments. These governments partnered with local chieftains, who provided slaves and paid labor. 

It is easy to see how colonialism can go wrong by looking at the Congo Free State, which was ruled by Belgian King Leopold and then by Belgium as the Belgian Congo in 1908. The government used body mutilation and lashings as punishments for a wide range of crimes while taking advantage of the area’s wild rubber, ivory, and palm oil resources. They also often took hostages to make sure villages met their rubber targets. 

Even though these things happened, colonial governments often improved infrastructure. By the time World War I, the roads in central Africa had made most of the continent’s interior accessible for travel. In general, colonial governments didn’t care much about growth. However, building roads, railways, canals, and other similar structures was important because they made it possible to move troops, supplies, and trade goods across the continent. 

A lot of historians say that building this kind of infrastructure and less fighting between African groups led to a time of “colonial peace,” which meant that more attention was paid to development and social, cultural, and religious problems. Others, on the other hand, say that colonial peace was really a form of cultural warfare because it shook up African societies and the rules and authority that were already in place. Upon the arrival of colonial governments in West Africa, the economy relied heavily on the cultivation of cash crops for trade with Europe. However, most farmers continued to cultivate for survival.

To get more money, colonial leaders could just tax trade and farming that were already going on and push for more improvements in rural production, like the French did in Senegal. Indigenous people in central and eastern Africa also had to pay taxes to colonial governments. Europeans forced Africans to work for them, usually as foreign workers on farms, to earn the money they needed to pay their taxes.

This kind of economic reform, along with the use of coins and bills, helped trade grow and turned some parts of Africa into cash-based markets. But it did so at a terrible cost to the people. Africans were forced to work for money to pay for colonial expenses, and most of them worked in nonagricultural fields. This messed up rural life, made poverty worse, and caused people to move from the countryside to the cities, which in turn caused the postcolonial famines of the 1970s. 

During the colonial era, African societies and cultures also went through big changes and shifts. The establishment of colonies on the continent led to the creation of borders that didn’t always align with the government’s or indigenous situations. This is how colonial borders brought together people who were enemies and split up groups of people who used to be friends. The division of the Somali people by British, Italian, French, and Ethiopian officials serves as the worst example of this.

Even though it started in Europe, World War I had a huge impact on Africa. The European colonies in Africa provided the European armies with men to fight, resources, and money to pay for the war and feed their troops. Women and men from Africa began the war as part of colonial armies that were already in place. These included the British West African Frontier Force, the Belgian Force Publique, the French Tirailleurs, and the German Schütztruppen.

When the war started, these groups got bigger, and African men joined them either to follow their traditional leaders or to try to make money. But as the war went on and more people died, foreign powers started to demand that most of their people serve in the military. Over 500,000 Africans served in the French army during the war, and about 200,000 of them died. 

The British forced more than a million men to fight and help out. Large groups of Africans were also in the German, Belgian, and Portuguese armies. While no one agrees on the exact number of Africans who died in the war, a low estimate puts the number at 300,000. Many Africans lost their lives, and their societies descended into turmoil as individuals fled and concealed themselves to evade conscription or staged violent demonstrations.

European rule began to take over; crimes were tried in colonial courts, and local chieftains were forced or tempted to work as subordinates for European officials. This made traditional leaders look less trustworthy. Most traditional leaders based their power on religious approval. As these leaders lost credibility and became less important, religious issues began to arise.

Since colonial governments mostly dealt with politics and the economy, European missionary groups mostly handled schooling and social work. In most parts of Africa, missionary work began before colonies were officially set up. Colonialism gave these missions new life because more and more European men and women liked the thought of converting the native people who lived in the colonies. 

The majority of the time, mission work involved establishing schools in villages. These schools taught kids basic reading, writing, and math skills, as well as religion. Almost everywhere in Africa, where Islam was not the predominant faith, many people converted to various forms of Christianity.

As a result, a new group of mission-educated Africans emerged. These individuals frequently became the driving force behind increased education and mission work, serving as a rival power center that posed a threat to the established elites. People who went to mission schools had an easier time dealing with colonial officials. As a result, many of them got jobs in the colonial administration. Initially, missionary education may have been beneficial for the colonial forces. However, over time, it turned against European rule. 

Mission-trained leaders began to strive to incorporate more African elements into the religious and political institutions established by the West. This group produced many of the first African nationalists. These African Christians began to attack both the colonial government and the colonies’ churches. They pointed out the differences between what they learned about Christianity in mission schools and how the colonial government actually worked. 

This led to the construction of distinct African Christian churches in the early 1900s. However, not all stories about mission work in Africa are good. Mission work brought Africa to the attention of Europeans and painted its native people as weak, split, and uncivilized. This, according to many historians, set the stage for colonialism. In this way, colonialism had both positive and negative effects on African societies, but overall, it was not in Africa’s favor.

The establishment of colonial systems aided Europe. The economies were changed to benefit the government, the home country, and the European traders, merchants, and manufacturers in the colonies. The design of African political systems aimed to maintain submissiveness and obedience rather than provide genuine benefits to the people. Despite the construction of railroads, their primary purpose was to facilitate trade with Europe.

Despite the spread of education, it was mission schools that dismantled African communities and their traditional social structures. European rule increased the extraction of resources, yet the resulting wealth did not contribute to the development of these countries.

Even though Europe brought new tools to Africa, it didn’t teach the people there how to use them. There are many political, economic, social, and cultural issues in some current African states that have their roots in the time when they were colonies.

Also Read: Burkina Faso History: The Incredible History Of Africa’s Colonial Period