Africa under colonial domination, 1880-1935

380 Pages·2011·10.36 MB·English

UNESCO International Scientific ( ommitteelorthe DraftingofavÇeneralHistory of Africa
---._-. - ~.»
GENERAL HISTORY
OF AFRICA- »"
VIÏ Africa under Colonial
Domination i88o-.g]5
EDITOR' A.ADUBDAHEN s
HeinemannEducational Books«Nigeria)l.-tt
JamesCurrèj/./California. UneS'cb
* r 1/ 7 7- /" '-
General History of Africa VII
Africa under Colonial
Domination 1880-1935
Abridged Edition
UnescoGeneralHistoryofAfrica
VolumeI MethodologyandAfricanPrehistory
EditorJ.Ki-Zerbo
VolumeII AncientCivilizationsofAJnca
EditorG.Mokhtar
VolumeIII AfricafromtheSeventhtoEleventhCentury'
EditorM.ElFasi
AssistanteditorI.Hrbek
VolumeIV AfricafromtheTwelfthtoSixteenthCentury'
EditorD.T.Niane
VolumeV AfricafromtheSixteenthtoEighteenthCentury'
EditorB.A.Ogot
VolumeVI TheNineteenthCenturyuntilthe1880s*
EditorJ.F.A.Ajayi
VolumeVII AfricaunderForeignDomination1880-1935
EditorA. AduBoahen
VolumeVIII Africasince1935*
EditorA.A.Mazrui
AssistanteditorC.Wondji
forthcoming
The abridged edition of
THE UNESCO GENERAL HISTORY OF AFRICA
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InternationalScientificCommitteefortheDraftingofaGeneralHistoryofAfrica(UNESCO)
General History of Africa VII
Africa under Colonial
Domination 1880-1935
EDITOR A. ADU BOAHEN
Abridged Edition
HEINEMANN EDUCATIONALBOOKS(NIGERIA)LTD.
lirstpublished 1990bythe
UnitedNationsEducational,Scientific
andCulturalOrganization
7PlacedeFontenoy.75700,Paris
and
JamesCurreyLtd
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Firstpublished1990
intheUnitedStatesofAmericabythe
UniversityofCaliforniaPress
2120BerkeleyWay,Berkeley
California94720,UnitedStatesofAmerica
Firstpublished1990by
HeinemannEducationalBooks(Nigeria)Limited
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P.M.B.5205,.Ibadan,Nigeria
©Unesco1985and1990
ISBN(Unesco):92-3-102499-X
ISBN(HeinemannNigeria)978 129 495 7
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
GeneralHistoryofAfrica. Abridgeded.
7:Africaunderforeigndomination, 1880
1.Africa,history
I.Boahen,A.Adü(AlbertAdu), 1932 II.Unesco,
InternationalScientificCommittee/ortheDraftingofa
GeneralHistoryofAfrica.
960
ISBN 0-85255-097-9
LibraryofCongressCataloging-ln-PublicationData
Africaundercolonialdomination,18801935/editor,A.AduBoahen.
Abridgeded.
P.cm. (GeneralhistoryofAfrica:7)
Atheadoftitle:InternationalScientificCommitteefortheDraftingof
aGeneralHistoryofAfrica(UNESCO)
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN 0-520-O6702-9
1.AfricaHistory18841960.1.Boahen,A.Adu.II.Unesco.
International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General
History of Africa. III. Series: General history of Africa (Abridged
version):7.
DT20.G452 vol.7
JDT29]
960sde20
[960.3'1]
89-20397
CIP
Iypcsclin 11ptBembobyColsetPteLtd.
andprinlcdinNij-criabyPolygraphieVenturesLtd.,Ibadan.
Contents
PrefacebyAmadou-MahtarM*Bow,formerDirector-GeneralofUnesco(1974-87) viii
DescriptionoftheProjectbyB. A. Ogot, formerPresidentoftheInternational
ScientificCommitteefortheDraftingofaGeneralHistoryofAfrica Xtii
Noteonchronology XVÍ
Membersofthe InternationalScientificCommitteefor theDrafting
ofaGeneralHistoryofAfrica XVÜ
Biographiesoftheauthorswhocontributedtothemainedition XÍX
1 Africa and the colonialchallenge 1
2 Europeanpartition andconquest ofAfrica: an overview 10
3 African initiatives and resistance in theface ofpartition
andconquest 25
4 African initiatives and resistance in North-EastAfrica 33
5 African initiatives and resistance in North Africa and the
Sahara 46
6 African initiatives and resistance in WestAfrica,
1880-1914 55
7 African initiatives and resistance in EastAfrica,
1880-1914 12
vi Contents
8 African initiatives and resistance in Central Africa,
1880-1914 83
9 African initiatives and resistance in Southern Africa , 94
10 Madagascarfrom 1880 to 1939 108
11 Liberia and Ethiopia, 1880-1914:
the survival oftwo African states 120
12 The First World War and its consequences 132
13 Methods and institutions ofEuropean domination 143
14 The colonial economy 153
15 The colonial economy oftheformer French, Belgian and
Portuguese zones, 1914-35 162
16 The colonial economy: theformerBritish zones 173
11 The colonial economy: North Africa 186
18 The social repercussions ofcolonial rule:
demographic aspects 200
19 The social repercussions ofcolonial rule:
the new social structures 208
20 Religion in Africa during the colonial era 211
21 The arts in Africa during theperiod ofcolonial rule 229
22 African politics and nationalism, 1919-35 240
23 Politics and nationalism in North-East Africa, 1919-35 249
24 Politics and nationalism in the Maghrib and the Sahara,
1919-35 260
25 Politics and nationalism in West Africa, 1919-35 210
26 Politics and nationalism in East Africa, 1919-35 219
21 Politics and nationalism in Central and Southern Africa,
1919-35 289
Contents vil
28 Ethiopia and Liberia, 1914-35: two independent African
states in the colonial era 301
29 Africa and the New World 314
30 Colonialism in Africa: its impact andsignificance 321
Bibliography 340
Index 348
Preface
AMADOU-MAHTAR M'BOW
Former Director-General of Unesco (1974-1987)
For a long time, all kinds ofmyths and prejudices concealed the true history ofAfrica
from theworld at large. African societies werelooked uponas societies that could have
nohistory. Inspiteofimportantworkdonebysuchpioneers asLeoFrobenius, Maurice
Delafosseand Arturo Labriola, as earlyas thefirst decades ofthisceLtury, a great many
non-African experts could not rid themselves ofcertain preconceptions and argued that
thelack ofwritten sources anddocumentsmadeit impossible toengageinany scientific
studyofsuch societies.
Although the Iliad and Odyssey were rightly regarded as essential sources for the
history ofancient Greece, African oral tradition, the collective memory ofpeoples that
holds the thread of many events marking their lives, was rejected as worthless. In
writingthehistoryofalargepart ofAfrica, theonlysourcesusedwerefromoutsidethe
continent, and the final product gave a picture not so much ofthepaths actually taken
bythe African peoples as ofthosethat theauthors thought theymust have taken. Since
the European Middle Ages were often used as a yardstick, modes ofproduction, social
relations and political institutions were visualized only by reference to the European
past.
In fact, there was a refusal to see Africans as the creators oforiginal cultures which
flowered and survived over the centuries in patterns of their own making and which
historians are unable to grasp unless they forgo their prejudices and rethink their
approach.
Furthermore, the continent of Africa was hardly ever looked upon as a historical
entity. On thecontrary, emphasis waslaid on everythinglikely tolendcredence to the
idea that a split had existed, from time immemorial, between a 'white Africa' and a
'black Africa', eachunawareoftheother'sexistence. TheSaharawasoftenpresentedas
animpenetrablespacepreventinganyinterminglingofethnicgroupsandpeoplesorany
exchange ofgoods, beliefs, customs and ideas between the societies that had grown up
oneither side ofthedesert. Hermeticfrontiers weredrawnbetween thecivilizations of
Ancient Egypt and Nubiaand those ofthepeoples south oftheSahara.
It is true that the history ofAfrica north ofthe Sahara has been more closely linked
with that ofthe Mediterranean basin than has the history ofsub-Saharan Africa, but it
is now widely recognized that the various civilizations ofthe African continent, for all
their differing languages and cultures, represent, to a greater or lesser degree, the
Preface ix
historicaloffshoots ofa setofpeoples and societiesunitedbybondscenturies old.
Another phenomenon that did great disservice to the objective study ofthe African
pastwas theappearance, with theslavetradeandcolonization, ofracial stereotypes that
bredcontempt andlackofunderstandingandbecamesodeep-rootedthat theydistorted
even thebasic concepts ofhistoriography. From the time when the notions of'white'
and 'black' were used as generic labels by the colonialists, who were regarded as
superior, thecolonizedAfricans had to struggleagainstboth economic and psychologi¬
calenslavement. Africanswereidentifiableby thecolouroftheir skin, theyhadbecome
a kind of merchandise, they were earmarked for hard labour and eventually, in the
minds ofthose dominating them, they came to symbolize an imaginary and allegedly
inferior Negro race. This pattern ofspurious identification relegated the history ofthe
African peoples in many minds to the rank ofethno-history, in which appreciation of
thehistoricalandcultural factswasboundtobewarped.
The situation has changed significantly since the end ofthe Second World War and
inparticularsincetheAfricancountriesbecameindependentandbegan to takean active
part in thelifeoftheinternational community and in the mutual exchanges that areits
raisond'être. Anincreasingnumberofhistorianshaveendeavouredto tacklethestudyof
Africa with a more rigorous, objective and open-minded outlook by using - with all
due precautions - actual African sources. In exercising their right to take the historical
initiative, Africans themselves have felt a deep-seated need to re-establish the historical
authenticityoftheir societieson solidfoundations.
In this context, the importanceofthe eight-volume GeneralHistory ofAfrica, which
Unescoispublishing, speaks for itself.
Theexpertsfrom manycountries workingon thisprojectbeganbylayingdown the
theoretical and methodological basis for theHistory. They have been at pains to call in
question the over-simplifications arising from a linear and restrictive conception of
world history and to re-establish the true facts wherever necessary and possible. They
have endeavoured to highlight the historical data that give a clearer picture of the
evolution ofthedifferent peoplesofAfrica in their specific socio-cultural setting.
To tacklethishugetask, madeallthemorecomplexanddifficultbythevastrangeof
sources and the fact that documents were widely scattered, Unesco has had to proceed
bystages. Thefirststage, from 1965 to 1969,wasdevotedtogatheringdocumentation
and planning the work. Operational assignments were conducted in the field and
included campaigns to collect oral traditions, the creation of regional documentation
centres for oral traditions, the collection of unpublished manuscripts in Arabic and
Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script), the compilation of archival
inventories and the preparation of a Guide to the Sources ofthe History ofAfrica, culled
from the archives and libraries ofthe countries ofEurope and later published in eleven
volumes. In addition, meetings wereorganized to enableexperts from Africaandother
continents to discuss questions of methodology and lay down the broad lines for the
project aftercarefulexamination oftheavailablesources.
The second stage, which lasted from 1969 to 1971, was devoted to shaping the
History and linking its different parts. The purpose of the international meetings of
experts held in Paris in 1969 and Addis Ababa in 1970 was to study and define the
problemsinvolvedindraftingandpublishingtheHistory; presentationineightvolumes,