Justification Of Colonialism In Africa

Kiare Abdul-Majeed

Professor Charlotte Walker-Said

AFR 150: Origins of Contemporary Africa

May 23, 2014

It is said that colonialism is the occupation and control of one nation by another. In this case it was the continent of Europe occupying Africa during the late 19th and 20th century. There were many justifications for this rule over Africa. Some of the justifications were that they would bring higher civilization, increase trade and economic prosperity for Africans, Christianity and the end of paganism, human rights and the end of slavery, women’s rights and the end of polygamy, the introduction of freedom and liberty, the benefits of modern medicine, better agriculture, and modernity. The particular justification of colonialism

Higher civilization means that Europeans had the higher civilization that they can bring to Africans. This was based on their racial prejudices and their ideologies of racial hierarchy. These feelings were very prevalent in Europe during the time of colonialism. It was almost common culture for the Europeans of this time to believe that Europe had one of the most advanced civilizations in the world. And because of this, a lot of them saw it as their mission to "enlighten" and "civilize" the people of the rest of the world and bring them higher civilization. These racial prejudices and ideologies of racial hierarchy can also be shown in the poem, “The White Man’s Burden”. It showed a lot of incorrect and erroneous racial stereotypes of African peoples. This is part of the higher civilization justification because the poem showed how they

The British annexed Natalia after victory. Natalia was a South African colony previously owned by the Dutch. When this happened, the British soon became aggressive towards the Zulu. In 1878, the British warned the Zulu that they would take measures against them if they did not give up Zulu warriors who had supposedly killed British settlers. But it was just an excuse in order to get more land. The king of the Zulu empire at the time was Cetshawyo and he did not give up anyone. The British viewed this as disrespect of their laws and on December 10, 1878 sent an ultimatum to Cetshwayo demanding that he disband his army. Obviously the Zulu would not do that because who were the British to tell them what to do on their own homeland. So Cetshawyo refused and the British advanced into the Thukela river which they were not supposed to. War took place because the British did this and the Africans believed that they were getting too aggressive. Early in the war, the Zulus defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana. But in the end they lost the war in the last battle of Ulundi. Britain was able to defeat them because of its advanced military might. It was finally able to gain access to more African colonies and further divided South