Colonialism in Africa: An Indigenous Perspective

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Book Critique on A. Adu Boahen African Perspective On Colonialism and Thomas Pakenham on The Scramble For Africa

A. Adu Boehen, one of Africa 's leading historian traces the colonial experience in Africa from an African perspective that is, through the eyes of an African and not the Europeans. He further looked at the period of African History from the 1880 's to the 1900 's hundreds when most of Africa was seized and occupy by the imperial powers of Europe. Boehen also offers a view of the crucial question of how Africans perceived colonialism, how they responded to it and above all how they reacted after they were colonized.

In order for a clear understanding, Boehen set the stage leading up to the colonial era he takes the reader to the period when Africa was in a treos of changes. These changes were economically, politically and socially. Paramount among these changes were the economic changes that took place and the abolition of the slave trade, in 1880, which posed a great challenge to most Africans as the shift in trade from that of humans which was of course the most …show more content…

Hense, the economics of it all played a decisive role in the scramble for Africa. This scramble was carried out in three stages namely by treaties after the signing of these treaties came European conquest and occupation. Most of the treaties signed were of course null and void as the African rulers of the day could not fully understand the meaning of the clauses that in fact they were signing over their sovereignty and land to the imperial powers. Further to this, most of the signing of the treaties took place without the knowledge and participation of the Africans and as a result of this the European armies moved in to occupy and conquer Africa. Then and only then the Africans woke up and realized what was going

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