Colonialism on the Margins of Africa

117 Pages·2017·0.656 MB·English

by  Jan Záhořík, Linda Piknerová

Colonialism on the Margins
of Africa
Colonial rule shaped the map of Africa like no other event in history. New
borders were delineated; explorers and colonial armies were getting into the
interior of the continent in order to grab the “magnifi cent cake of Africa.”
Colonialism on the Margins of Africa examines less known and
smaller or peripheral areas of Africa which played a signifi cant role in
the process of colonization of Africa by European powers. Due to diverse
socio-economic, religious, ethno-linguistic, as well as political factors,
places like the Somali-speaking territories, the Gambia, or Swaziland were
divided between or surrounded by various administrative and political
systems with different economic opportunities shaping the way to different
futures in the post-colonial period.
T his book will be of interest to students and scholars of African history
and colonial and postcolonial politics.
Jan Záhořík is associate professor at the Department of Middle Eastern
Studies, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Linda Piknerová is an assistant professor at the Department of Political
Science and International Relations, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen,
Czech Republic.
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa
This series includes in-depth research on aspects of economic, political,
cultural and social history of individual countries as well as broad-reaching
analyses of regional issues.
Themes include social and economic change, colonial experiences,
independence movements, post-independence governments, globalization
in Africa, nationalism, gender histories, confl ict, the Atlantic Slave trade,
the environment, health and medicine, ethnicity, urbanisation, and neo-
colonialism and aid.
Colonialism on the Margins of Africa
Edited by Jan Záhořík and Linda Piknerová
Colonialism on the
Margins of Africa
Edited by Jan Záhořík and
Linda Piknerová
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Jan Záhořík and Linda Piknerová;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jan Záhořík and Linda Piknerová to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Záhořík, Jan, 1979– editor, author. | Piknerová, Linda,
1983– editor, author.
Title: Colonialism on the margins of Africa / edited by Jan Záhořík and
Linda Piknerová.
Other titles: Routledge studies in the modern history of Africa.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge studies
in the modern history of Africa | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017047012 | ISBN 9781138037946 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781351710534 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Africa—Colonial influence. | Africa—Colonization. |
Africa—Politics and government—To 1945.
Classification: LCC DT31 .C57 2018 | DDC 325.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047012
ISBN: 978-1-138-03794-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-71053-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of tables vii
Notes on contributors viii
Introduction 1
JAN ZÁHOŘÍK AND LINDA PIKNEROVÁ
1 Ethiopia and the colonial discourse 9
JAN ZÁHOŘÍK
2 The great imperial game in the Horn of Africa and
its impact on current political processes in Somalia 19
KATEŘINA RUDINCOVÁ
3 Small but strategic: foreign interests, railway,
and colonialism in Djibouti 32
JAN DVOŘÁČEK AND JAN ZÁHOŘÍK
4 A small piece of Africa: creating the British colony
of the Gambia 42
FILIP STRYCH
5 The French protectorate in Tunisia: a visitor’s insight 53
JAKUB KYDLÍČEK
6 Ruanda-Urundi under Belgian control: demography,
labor force, and migration 65
JAN ZÁHOŘÍK
vi Contents
7 British colonial policy toward Bechuanaland, Basutoland,
and Swaziland: real periphery of peripheries or the Suez
of the South? 77
LINDA PIKNEROVÁ
Bibliography 97
Index 107
Tables
6.1 Indigenous populations in Ruanda-Urundi 68
6.2 Estimate of percent representation of “races”
in the colony, 1952 69
6.3 Foreigners in Ruanda-Urundi in 1956: Asians by sex 69
6.4 Foreigners in Ruanda-Urundi in 1956: Europeans 69
6.5 Total population of foreigners 69
6.6 Foreigners in Ruanda-Urundi by number, 25 April 1946 70
6.7 Migration from Burundi to the Belgian Congo and
the British Territories 72
6.8 Migration from Ruanda-Urundi in the 1950s 73
Contributors
Jan Dvořáček is a historian from the University of Pardubice, whose inter-
est lies in French colonial interests in the Horn of Africa.
Jakub Kydlíček is a historian, fi nishing his PhD in Modern History at the
University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. His special focus is the colonial
period in Maghreb, primarily Tunisia.
Linda Piknerová is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Sci-
ence and International Relations, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.
She is a specialist in international relations, with a special focus on South-
ern African region. She has published several monographs on South Africa
(in Czech).
Kateřina Rudincová is an Africanist/political geographer, serving as an
assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Sciences,
Humanities and Education, Technical University of Liberec, Czech
Republic. She has been dealing with the issues of human rights, right
to self-determination, and colonial heritage in Africa, and has published
several articles in the fi eld.
Filip Strych is an Africanist/historian, currently fi nishing his PhD stud-
ies at the Department of History, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen,
Czech Republic. He has published several articles on the history of the
Senegambia, and China-Africa relations.
Jan Záhořík is an Africanist/historian, serving as associate professor at the
Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of West Bohemia in
Pilsen, Czech Republic. He has published numerous articles and several
monographs on the history and politics of the Horn of Africa, confl icts in
Africa, and European-African relations.
Introduction
Jan Záhořík and Linda Piknerová
C olonialism in Africa has been subject of numerous monographs and stud-
ies in last century. Still, it remains an issue that causes a lot of controver-
sies and emotions. Except for Ethiopia and Liberia, European colonialism
spread its infl uence all over the continent; and Great Britain, France, Bel-
gium, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Italy divided newly formed territo-
ries among themselves. Historiography on colonial Africa is very wide and
almost endless, ranging from early accounts legitimizing the “civilizing
mission” to postcolonial critique of European colonial impact on Africa.
Colonial rule shaped the map of Africa like no other event in history. New
borders were delineated; explorers and colonial armies were getting into the
interior of the continent in order to grab the “magnifi cent cake of Africa.”
A look at the map of Africa shows how a great variety of states in terms of
size, population, resources, and ethnic composition came into being after
the imposition of colonial rule on Africa: on one hand, there are enormous-
sized states with limited number of inhabitants, like Niger, Mali, Chad, Cen-
tral African Republic, etc.; on the other hand, we can fi nd very small states
of insignifi cant size including the Gambia, Swaziland, Rwanda, Burundi,
Djibouti. Some of the abovementioned states existed already long before the
European colonialism and were only incorporated under the colonial shelter.
S imilarly significant (with direct psychological and physical impacts)
aspects of colonialism included various forms of oppression and violence,
manifested by suppression of anti-colonial West African (often Muslim)
revolts, elimination of the Herero rebellion in former German South-West
Africa, or clearly brutal behavior of colonial masters in Congo Free State
during Leopold II rule and race for rubber. On the other hand, African
states can be taken as successful, because despite all thinkable barriers and
obstacles, an African state is a functioning element, or together with Patrick
Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, “Africa works.”1 Sure, creation of mostly
artificial borders did not respect existing social and cultural environment but
the emergence of ethnic identities is a process that started after the colonial