Colonialsim in Africa

This is my journal about the Magnificent African Cake movie. Europe had a huge role in shaping African development; especially France, Britain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. It is amazing how the actions of a few can affect billions of people's livelihoods present and future. 13 European countries met at the Berlin conference to divide Africa for themselves in 1884. There was not even one African present at the meeting. They had no concern for the African rulers already in power, and set up arbitrary boundaries that did not take into consideration the many different cultures, religions, languages, and ethnicities that already divided Africa. In some cases their boundaries kept two enemy-nations inside the same boundaries. The impact of European influence in Africa is shocking. The way European nations competed for the opportunity to exploit African’s gold, copper, and diamonds is disturbing. It makes me think that these colonizers should pay the African states back for what they took. I wonder at what point grievances expire. Would it be possible for African nations to bring to the ICC or ICJ or a court of their own against the crimes that Europe committed against Africans? It is not still relevant since people are still suffering from the effects of colonialism? European replaced notions of traditional communal land sharing and flexible boundaries with privately owned plots of land. Europeans replaced the traditional African way of life and transplanted European traditions, cultures, and languages. How can Africans ever get their culture back? They cannot. They have had their most intimate and valuable treasures permanently stolen. How did the colonizers not see what they were doing was wrong? Competition is no justification for their actions. Maybe they did know, but they decided to hide their guilt because the profits were too big to voluntarily stop. It is sad how they made nations specialize in one thing so that they had to import so much and depend so much on international trades. They had no concern for the people who lived in those nations and needed food to survive. They specialized in chocolate and things that many African people had no use for.

It is detestable how they took Africans' resources and often sold it back to them! What they did was a crime. How they taxed the people so that they became slaves to the oppressor is outrageous. Although European countries helped African nations have a more active role in international trade and investments in technology, the ills they brought outweigh any of those advantages. It was interesting to learn about the differences between the influence of the French and the British on their colonies. I was upset the way the British and Dutch thought of themselves as superior. I guess the world only realized the danger of that kind of thinking after World War 2 when 6 million Jews were killed simply because of their lack of superiority. I was equally upset by the way the French thought that their culture was superior and that Africans needed to transform themselves into French men and pledge their allegiance to France. From a western perspective, I think that some good probably came out of some of the colonization. Greater opportunities for education, global travel, improved medical treatment, transportation routes, and international trade were hurriedly spurred to growth with colonization. In addition the British outlawed slavery, and made the Boers stop selling slaves. However, I do not think much good came out of the Belgian and Portuguese modes of colonialism, because they were very harsh and mean to the Africans. They took control and the model of their leadership left an awful impression of what leaders should be like. Perhaps the Belgian and Portuguese were harsher because they felt like they had less land than the British and French. They also felt like they had to compete with Britian and France who were much stronger powers, so they felt that they had to suck dry and control everything they could get their hands on. As previously mentioned, however, it is very sad the impression Portuguese and Belgians gave to Africans about the ways leaders should perform—which affects them to this day. It is very interesting and saddening to learn about how those influences still impact the nations today. The lack of concern for African peoples sadly marks the legacies of colonialism in Africa. I am so glad that formal colonialism lasted only 80 years and not much longer. Time does not seem to heal all wounds since many Africans still have to deal with the ills of colonialism.