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History essay Apartheid in South Africa
The history of apartheid in south africa essay
History essay Apartheid in South Africa
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Supposedly, before the white man’s curiosity drove him to Africa, he already had a land upon which he built his nation and defined or refined his identity. He had fought in wars with his own kind to protect his place and rights within that land. When he reached Africa, the continent’s history not only commenced with him, it became part of his history. However, Plaatje’s perspective is that the black man’s history began before the arrival of the Boers where he—so secured in his identity—was only concerned with creating his own history of conquest and invasion (1-9). Nevertheless, History depicts that these two men’s path crossed and the white man came to classify himself as the civilized, which definition describes an advanced state of society,
Since the 1880?s, when European nations colonized Africa, Europe had almost complete control over the continent, but this changed during the 1950?s and 60?s. By 1958, ten African countries had gained their independence, and sixteen more joined the list in 1960 alone. Although these nations? gain of independence demonstrates the ability of blacks to overpower their white oppressors, Baldwin argues ?The word ?independence? in Africa and the word ?integration? here are almost equally meaningless; that is, Europe has not yet left Africa, and black men here are not yet free? (336). While black people had been legally free in the United States since 1863, two decades before the European colonization of Africa, they were still not truly free, almost a century later.
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
Fanon focuses on two related desires that constitute the pathology of the colonial situation: “The Black man wants to be white. The white man is desperately trying to achieve the rank of man” (p. xiii). As an unconscious desire, this can result in a series of irrational behaviors and beliefs, such as the Antillean speaking French, the desire for a white
Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting for a land grab in the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economical, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation.
After a journey into the dark history of Europe and Africa with Sven Lindqvist, I found myself shocked. It’s earth shattering. Ideas and historical events are presented through a journal/proposal of his unique view on racism. Lindqvist raises questions as to where racism was spurred and why what happened in late 1800’s and early 1900’s lead to the holocaust. Including religion, personal human values, advanced warfare and even societies’ impact as a whole. His travels through the Sahara and Africa in the early chapters show a more current day view of society over seas. The description of the desolate continent and harsh conditions paints a picture of what previous civilization lived through. He explains that part of the reason he has traveled to the desert is to feel the space all around him, a definite emptiness if you will. As his travels progress he introduces his own family life that pertains to the human emotion, which is also a big focus point in this book. Childhood beatings over taking the lord’s name in vain, dropped calls from his daughter that leave him torn and sad. He does an excellent job on taking the reader on a personal journey with him through his current day traveling and even his early life. Linking these personal experiences and tying in histories misconceptions of “right and wrong” is what makes this book so valuable. Lindqvist gives a relevant and educated answer to the question of how racism became such a terrible tribulation in all parts of the world.
“Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of
Over time concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common linage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin, , have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th centaury, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force was justified by these views.
As the author points out, “joining the faculty at Howard in 1912, he eventually moved from teaching English to teaching philosophy, but was prevented from teaching a subject of increasing importance to him- race, and especially the interaction of races affected by what is called the African diaspora” (Rampersad xi-xii). His limited opportunity of expressing and committing what he is interested in give him limited understanding of the movement of the Africans creating the social change.
Englishmen found the peoples of Africa very different from themselves. “Negroes” looked different to Englishmen; their religion was un-Christian; they seemed to be very libidinous people (Jordan, 1).” In this example Winthrop Jordan begins to target the differences that Englishmen seen and identified with from themselves and the Africans. Pointing out an area that differed, which to the Englishmen mirrored the souls and morals of the Africans, religion. Prejudice begins with difference.
One of the biggest and probably most important themes in this novella is the effects and outcome of imperialism in Africa. Kurtz is a perfect example of how the Europeans went into Africa to “civilize” the Africans but ended up failing in doing...
It is generally accepted by scholars and scientists today that Africa is the original home of man. One of the most tragic misconceptions of historical thought has been the belief that Black Africa had no history before European colonization. Whites foster the image of Africa as a barbarous and savage continent torn by tribal warfare for centuries. It was a common assumption of nineteenth-century European and American Whites - promoted by the deliberate cultivation of pseudoscientific racism - that Africans were inferior to Whites and were devoid of any trace of civilization or culture.
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (Jared Diamond). In the book Guns Germs and Steel he accounted a conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician that had asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”. Diamond tries to answer this by describing the difference in use of government throughout history by bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.
While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”
Achebe's Arrow of God is such a powerful novel because it shows that the immense power of colonialism can cripple even the strongest of men like Ezeulu. While we watch Ezeulu spending the remainder of his waning life living "in the haughty splendor of a demented high priest" spared the knowledge of the final outcome, a question forms in our minds: if Ezeulu could not stand up to the white man, what chance did the average man have? (229).
The first few months on the eastern border of the Cape Coloney, which had been allocated for thes settelers brought bitter disillusionment, that stood in stark contrast to their high hopes of coming to South Africa. The land given them by the British government of the Cape was unsuitable for agriculture, and their living conditions were appalling. The unnamed man who escorted the groups to their territory would always end his tour of their land by saying, “Gentlemen, when you go out to plough never leave your guns behind.” with that he would get on his horse and be off. This didn’t make sense to these settlers, but what they didn’t know was that the British government had decided to bring them hear, not to grow them in prosperity, but to use them as a buffer zone between the hostile and aggravated Xhosa tribes and the Cape Colony. Few managed to stay after the first few months in the area, and for those that did it was a difficult time. Everywhere you ...