Reparation In Africa In The 18th And 19th Century

In the 18th and 19th century, nations that conquered other nations should be obligated to offer a form of compensation to those countries. The countries that were subjected to imperial rule were being oppressed by their “mother country” and the people and their resources were exploited. Furthermore, the unity amongst various ethnic groups in Africa were destroyed. Therefore, reparations should be made to the denizens of Africa to repent for the damages inflicted upon them.
Oppressing others under a person’s rule is morally unjust and compensations should be made as an act of condolence. There were many cases in which appointed leaders became oppressive tyrants whom abused their power and were extremely corrupted. They accepted bribes

from people and tried people unfairly which lead to public unrest. Moreover, in countries like Nigeria, tribal leaders were imprisoned and subjected to cruel forms of punishment. A form of punishment that was used can be seen in Things Fall Apart as it was described that they “ate nothing throughout the day and the next. They were not even given any water…they began to talk about giving in” (Achebe 195). The Europeans starved their prisoners in order to force them into submission before releasing them. This served to induce fear into the people after seeing that the most influential and power men in their society are treated cruelly if they defy the Europeans. This form of oppression is erroneous and the oppressors need to rectify their past mistakes.
There are numerous amounts of people that argue against having to owe reparations to former European colonies even though the European countries exploited the people and resources of Africa.

The Europeans claim that they helped industrialized many African nations and set up a form of government in which many nations in Africa still follow today. However, the truth is: “In the context of the economy, there were few attempts at industrializing the colonies…dependent on agriculture as the mainstay of their economy”(Nedge). In other words, not every colony controlled by the Europeans was industrialized; causing many African countries’ economy to remain stagnant. In addition, European constantly took raw materials and people from Africa, in which they had an abundance of, to fuel their growing empires. At the time, Europeans only cared about their own commercial and political interests in order to become more powerful in order to compete with other nations. As stated in “Britain’s African colonies”, “The West African coast was part of the elaborate network of transatlantic slave trade…not immune from the commercial interests of various European nations”(Nedge). The Europeans initiated the slave made which lead to the capture of many African people. Thus, it is only correct to compensate the losses that were caused by European

nations.
The intervention of European nations into the affairs of various tribes in Africa destroyed the bonds that kept the people together. The arrival of the Europeans brought in many foreign beliefs, such as Christianity, which was forcibly integrated into the society. They Christian missionaries that came to Africa gradually won over converts which chiefly split the views of the tribe into two. Which leads to the statement: “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe 176). Basically, the “white man” did not respect the traditions and cultures of the people of Africa which eventually led to the destruction of unity of the people in Africa. Therefore, imperial nations have to apologized for their actions of splitting apart groups of people with a form of compensation.
Generally speaking, nations that were imperial colonizers owe remuneration to the people of the territories that they formerly conquered. The pain that was inflicted on the people as a result of the oppression they experienced, their own people and resources being exploited, and the unity of the people being crushed is far too vast and reparations shall be made.