African history test
1900-1929
(hey-day of Indirect Rule, also sometimes called the "high noon" of colonialism): infrastructure, attempts to expand cash-crops (eg. cotton in Uganda, Tanzania; coffee, tobacco, etc.)
Second scramble
1890s-1914 (unfolded differently in different places different paces etc.) World depression 1870s. European concern w/securing primary products to its economies and depression strained inter-European relations and Afro-European relations bc those relations entailed dept like in Egypt where 60-70% of the government's expenditures eaten up servicing external debt.
West Africa and gold
1312 Mansa Musa (Mali) made a hajj and stopped in Cairo on the way. He carried so much gold that its price went down 12-25%. Europeans first came to West Africa for gold.
Increasing intervention in the niger river basin
1817 Br. anti-slavery treaties w/spain and portugal increasing Br. naval presence. 1839 Sir Buxton bemoans slavery, rise of domestic african slavery, lack of legitimate commerce and civilization. Wants trade posts and missionaries and explorers. Missionaries and explorers sent out esp from 1840s including the Niger Expedition, most of whom died from malaria. From 1830s liverpool shifts from slave trade to palm oil trade and more officials and merchants go to the coast. Extension of trade goods to african middlemen, most of whom fall into high levels of debt and tensions between european and african merchants; rising domestic slavery and persistance of exgernal slave trade.
First scramble
1840s-1884-5. Except for a few places like Egypt, Algeria, and parts of South Africa this was largely a paper scramble. Continuation of processes rooted in the slave trade and the rise of legitimate commerce. Lots of treaties; Europeans largely on coast. Men on the spot include African chiefs and kings, European officers, merchants, chartered company officials, missionaries, explorers,. Reliance on European men on the spot influenced official thinking. Violence avoided in favor of treaties that allowed Europeans to trade.
Lagos becomes a British protectorate
1850s and a br. possession in the 60s. Treaties signed in 60s and 70s exacerbated by french comptition. Merchant Goldie-Taubmann arrives in 1876, seeks authority to rule Niger and forms United Africa Co. 1879 w/royal charter in 1881. At Berlin Br. argue the Niger is theirs.
Berlin Conference
1884-85 mainly ab the niger and congo basins and est a more formal regulated process in light of imperialism of free trade and competitive annexation but laid down separate and informal agreements that est the basis for the conquest of the rest of Africa
Market women
1929-30 Igbo (Ibo) Women's War Introduction of direct taxation, impact on families, women's ability to earn, etc. Protests against warrant chiefs (remember that chiefs were responsible for enforcing colonial policy) "Sitting on a Man." Women would go to a man's compound and night and make a ruckus, cursing him, banging on his hut, yelling how he mistreated his wife, etc.
formal annexation
1980s-early 1900s
The Sahara
5000 BCE Massice grassland plains, C 2500 BCE rivers begin to dry up
Map of authority
A VERY CRUDE MAP OF AUTHORITY. AT THE CENTER IS THE LEADER. THE DOTS REPRESENT HIS "PRESENCE"/AUTHORITY/POWER. THE CIRCLE IS HIS DOMAIN; NOTE AS WELL THAT THE BORDERS ARE BROKEN. TYPICALLY, BORDERS WERE VAGUE AND CHANGING. NOTE HOW THE DOTS ARE CONCENTRATED THEN DISPERSE. THESE DOTS OF COURSE MOVE OVER TIME. A STRONG RULER OR STATE WILL LOOK DIFFERENT THAN A WEAKER ONE. THE RED SHOWS A COMMUNITY THAT IS IN WHAT WE MIGHT CALL A DISPUTED OR FRONTIER ZONE.
Absorption or not
A classic theory of slavery in Africa (Miers and Kopytoff) posited that it was an absorptive institution, in contrast to the Americas. That is, over time the slave became incorporated (absorbed) into the host community and thus their status improved. Moreover, their children did not inherit the status. Therefore, according to this theory, slavery in Africa was fundamentally different than in the Americas and, moreover, "milder". Note that this theory is very static.
Settler colonies/societies
A few areas had substantial populations of people of European descent like South Africa beginning in 1652, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) from around late 1890s, Algeria (mostly the north) from the 1840s, Kenya (mostly only the white highlands esp from around the 1910s), Angola and Mozambique esp for a short time in the 1950s in a few places so not really an example.
Slave
A human being who has been reduced to property, and who is subject to sale/purchase/exchange. Typically, to be a slave one is made kinless, that is divorced from their natal (kin) community. Some have used the term "natal alienation." This means that slaves are in a fundamental sense strangers/outsiders. Most of you want to be "free", to be an individual independent of others (parents, professors). Freedom in much of precolonial Africa was more defined by one's obligations and ties to lineage and so on. (Remember that in much of African history people were considered as part of members od groups and not as so many individuals.)
berlin conference
A meeting from 1884-1885 at which representatives of European nations agreed on rules colonization of Africa. French west africa forms.
Kinship/family
A relationship which binds two individuals by birth or major helped determine matters like identitiy access to wealth etc, slave = kinless
Gate keeper state
Africa was effectively conquered but ineffectively ruled. State power confined primarily to the "gate": the interface between the colony and the world economy, specifically the export of primary products. Colonial states had great difficulty extending effective rule outside cities and the coasts. The state tended to be more disruptive than hegemonic. The post-colonial state has continued this pattern of being a "gatekeeper"
Connections
Africa was never cut off from the rest of the world
How do we understand political systems in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial eras?
Africa's political map today is comprised of nation-states. The empires of old (african and european) are no longer but there are continuities that reach into the colonial era. This is often presented as "traditional rule" so in places like SA, kenya, or senegal we have a world where there is an elected leader (president) as well as chiefs, kings, etc. Also people might be subjects of multiple, overlapping, political systems
African Agriculture and the cash-crop revolution (FWA, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda), as examples of
African economic initiative o Peanuts, cotton, cocoao Few Europeans, who mainly controlled the export sideo Role of the colonial state Marketing Boards from the 1930s The Plantation Economies (Liberia, Congo, Mozambique)o Rubber; forced cash-crop production of cottono Companies, large estates, highly exploitative Settler Agriculture: Kenya, SAfrica, Rhodesiao Maize, tobacco, coffeeo Land alienation The Mining Economies of South and South-Central Africa Copper in parts of Eastern Congo and Zambia; Gold in Zimbabwe, SAfrica; Diamonds in SAfrica, Namibiao Importance of working class, esp. miners Issue of migrant labor
General processes
African race for power and political judo. Africans using the weight of European intervention as a way of building or rebuilding political power. Africans using the weight of european intervention as a way of building or rebuilding political power. Invention of sovreignty: Europeans had to imagine African polities in order to annex them. Maps and boundaires identification of leaders if only to negotiate or recognize.
Considerations from Africa
African race for power; militarization of politics; increasing levels of violence2. Political fragmentation and repercussions of ending of slave trade; rise of new commodity production (palm oil, etc.)a. Classic example: Oyo Civil Wars c. 1810s-30s3. Endemic instability in some areas c. 1820s-1870s?4. New patterns of political consolidation in 19th centurya. West Africa and the juula (merchant) and Islamic revolutions. Rise of the Sokoto Caliphate founded by Usman dan Fodio, expansion in early part of the nineteenth century; Samori Ture (1830-1900) and what is sometimes called the "Wassoulou" or "Mandinka Empire"i. Note these were associated with the spread of slavery and the use of guns (recall Lovejoy)b. The Egyptian empire in the Sudan (also associated with high levels of violence)c. Expansion of Ethiopian empire (you might want to recall the recent/ongoing conflict)d. Omani Empire and the East African slave and ivory trade. . Formation of the Zulu Empire and expansion, esp. 1820s
Historical characters in the 19th century
African rulers, merchants, big mean, religious revolutionaries, recall importance of weapons, rise of trade etc. Slaves and producers.
Looking Forward. Understanding the post-1945 period of reform in the era of the Second Colonial Conquest. Remember:
After 1945 the colonial relationship was strengthened, not the opposite. There were attempts to reimagine/reform empire/colonies. The rise of the post-war order saw (re)emergence of universalist sensibilities (all people are essentially the same, there is but one human race, etc.). This made things like colonialism, racism, forced labor, etc. untenable. Africans (in different ways) imagined and mobilized ways of being in the world, setting off one of the most important, complex, historical developments that culminated in the end of formal empire (decolonization) and the birth of nation-states (independence). How do we understand the fact that labor organizations are quite weak across the continent, and they weakened in the early post-colonial era? How do we think about the status of women?
General characteristics after 1920s: governor general controlled econ, revenues went to dakar and redistributed
All africans-men and women-taxed directly, min age as low as 8, chiefs force people to pay taxes and provide labor for army or infrastructure.
Eastern Africa (lowlands)
Along coast, connections to arabia and china; NB Indian Ocean Trade, Swahili cultures 12th c.-
African empires
Ancient Egyptb. The classical Sudanic Empires: Mali (esp. ca 13th-15th centuries); Songhai (about as large as West Europe, esp. 15th through late 16th)c. West African Empires: Asante Empire, esp. 18th century; Oyo Empire, esp. 17th and 18th centuriesd. West-Central Africa: Lunda Empire, esp. 18th and 19th centuriese. South Africa: Zulu Empire, early 19th centuryf. East Africa: Omani Empire; Ethiopiag. Various important 19th century developments (see below)
Patterns with land tenure and economic change
Anywhere w/white settlers you have priv property-SA, Zimbabwe, parts of Kenya and Algeria. Where there are high levels of capital investment you tend to have priv property. Bc the colonial period organized rural spaces around "tribes" land rights were governed by customary law so someone who was Kikuyu could only have access to land in Kikuyuland.
Associationism
As french moved into the interior they began to retreat from assimilation. First advocated for in 1920s: africans to be ruled over and societies reorganized for benefit of france and themselves. Peasants to be given land or access to land. In fact until the 1930s france didnt have coherent policy and lef to individual lieutenants. governrors of the constitutent part of FWA. Rule = centralized and incoherent
Generational Tensions
Because colonialism created burdens and opened possibilities, these often unfolded in generational tensions. o Elders might want a portion of their children's wageso Children might "escape" to cities to avoid their elders
Wetter areas of savanna
Bordering on tropical, rainforests-problem w/disease and sleeping sickness hard to use horses bc of tetse fly, states like Asante 1680-, Oyo Kingdom 17thC, stateless societies like Ibo
Premise of european culture was that socities had linear boundaires and not permeable
But in precol african societies identitiy was often fuild. Europeans saw them as part of tribes which fixed rigid boundaires and frozen in time-notion of africa living in timeless past. Became a darwinian social evolutionary schema and tied to colonial rule esp britih who wanted to rule through indirect rule
Africa has seen stability in terms of international borders
But v high instability w/in particular countries (civil wars, election violence, coups) A lot of it unfolded according to ethnic or tribal violence so how do we understand the politicization of ethnicity. There are v powerful gender issues here man tied to the codification of customary law. Women were often legally defined as perpetual minors.
General characteristics after 1920s: Lack of scope for individual african initiative
Chiefs used as local admin helpers not as local gov authorties ie chosen for fluency in french etc. collected taxes but didnt keep any, no judicial power, no self gov like British
Robinson
Collaborators
Femininization of Poverty
Colonialism had a differential impact on genders (and generations). Understanding this is super important, and difficult.o Be wary of women were simply "beasts of burden" in precolonial Africa, or that societies were egalitarian and communalo Colonialism could create a double burden (colonialism+patriarchy), but also could create spaces for women to pursue various activities (eg. market/trading)
Histories: French West Africa
Federation of SENEGAL, GUINEA, MAURITANIA, SOUDAN/SUDAN, NIGER, IVORY COAST, UPPER VOTLA AND DAHOMEY, created c. 1895 with a Governor General and Lieut. Governors for the coastal "colonies". French not much interested in developing interior until 1930-50s3.1. Conquest c1890s-early 1900s: defeat of states and empires that had emerged esp. as a result of the arming of African polities in late 18th and esp. 19th cent. Large polities broken down
West African Coast
Combo of grasslands and forested areas (latter mostly closer to the coast), and important riverine systems. We also see states and empires and stateless societies, often very close to each other. Important kingdoms include Yoruba kingdoms in what are Nigeria and Benin, one of the most famous being Oyo, dahmoey kingdom in what is today benin, asante kingdom in what is today benin, asante kingdom in what is today ghana. These would play important role in the atlantic slave trade-asante (rose/expanded late 17th and 18th centuries) had control/access to important gold supplies, which would attract europeans to the coast (one of their trading forts was called "elmina"-the mine"). Oyo was a calvary kingdom (began in 14th; height first half of the 19th century).
Compound system south africa
Compound system emerges in Southern africa 6-9 months of mine labor then they receive wages and return hoe Seasonal dovetailing Labor demands fluctuate by season in rural economy High labor demands during planting and harvest Land is harder to farm and labor falls to women and children Double burden on women, feminization of poverty
Competitive annexation
Conquest as a way of preventing someone else and as a way of protecting markets (real and imagined). Increasing European competition (and rising tensions) encourages states to annex areas to preclude others
Assimilation
Conquest of Senegal area c. 1854-65; decision that Africans in towns would have citizenship and could vote for French National Assembly. Idea that Africans could "evolve" into French. BY 1939 ONLY 500 AFRICANS IN WEST AFRICA HAD BECOME FRENCH CITIZENS OUTSIDE OF ORIGINALLY DESIGNATED AREAS IN SENEGAL
Cooper
Cooper-the divergence of the British economy reflected both its capacity, coercive, financial, economic to concentrate resources and its capacity to prevent others from doing so Miracle of the unfettered market The fetters, imposed selectively, helped to produce the market Relatively strong state was necessary Much of what Africa is up against today-not least the denigrating terms in which its future is debated-is not a consequence of "failure" so much as of the partial success of a large number of its people in responding to or staving off efforts at economic domination, from within and abroad Enrichment via escalated exploitation of local people was a dangerous endeavor in Africa-got slaves elsewhere
How did chartered companies work
Country A grants a charter to company B to engage in various activities (colonialism, exploitation!) in region C. These companies often engaged in treaty-making, had own flags and militaries and sought to make a profit. Similar to earlier companies going back to the sixteenth century.
Matrilineal
Descent through male on mothers sidex, often inheritance goes through mother's brother ex akan of ghana
Systems of rule
Earlier ideologies pre-1900s, civilizing mission/assimilation (French) idea that Africans should become "Western" Christian etc.. Generally anti-chiefs, kings, traditional leaders, policies laws: repugnancy laws (abolishing witchcraft and other practices deemed repugnant to civilized world. Anti-slavery. Areas of progressivism: Dakar and Abidjan (evoluté: the evolved) and representation in French parliament; Gold Coast Colony in 1870s; non-racial franchise in cape colony 1850s.
British West Africa
Early rule had favsored African commercial elite this changes from 1890s on. Indirect rule: idea that colonies should be ruled through African Authorities as much as possible. Governing structure: governor of colony; legislative assembly (gov. and official, sometimes Europeans who had commercial interests, in a few cases nominated Africa, local district officers, then local native authorities (king, chiefs, headmen) Governor has important legislative power. Effect of indirect rule: chiefs sympathetic to colonial rule left in power; unsympathetic gotten rid of; states might be dismantled; stateless societies British created chief were none existed eg Ibo and warrant chiefs; politicization of ethnicity; running econ policy thru traditional leaders. Railroads connecting interior to coast (Lagos, Accra)o Movement of agricultural goods; some mining in Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeriao Urbanization; importance of women in local food markets
Examples of this state formation
Egypt and the perils of defensive modernization, Br. invade in early 1880s. Central Africa, belgian congo: travesties of concessionary companies: an economy of pillage, between 1884-5-1912 upwards of 60% of pop. died from 20-8 million. East Africa, Germans, Brits, and the Omani empire. 1890 Anglo-German agreement Br. sphere becomes largely br east africa (kenya, uganda protectorate) 1900 uganda agreement. German concessionary compnies in German east africa (tanganyika) attempts at forced cotton protection leading to 1906-7 maji maji. South Africa SA war 1899-1902 Shona/Ndebele revolt
1848 Fr abolition of slavery
Emancipation threat to African rulers but also mercantile elite including Europeans. 1880s on increasingly conflict as French press into the interior; second scramble ab to begin.
West central africa (congo and angola)
Emergence of various kingdoms like the kingdom of kongo. Very early european presence (Portuguese from 16th c.) as well as adoption and africanization of Christianity. This very large region would provide the majority of enslaved people to the Americas (esp brazil). Large forested region as well as savanna all around. Lots and lots of rivers, so importance of canoes (some huge and really small ships! west Africa also had lots of canoes)
Thornton
Emphasizes African agency and not seek external explanations
1890s-early 1900s
Era of scramble, extractive economies (eg rubber); expansion of minerals in Southern Africa; on-going cash-crop revolution in WA, esp. cocoa, peanuts, palm oil
Ex of new motives with Western Sudan
Ex. Mali produces cotton for france and buys cloth, peanuts etc. Farmers in Ugan produce cotton for England and buy British cloth
Patterns Indian Ocean and East Africa
Expansion of slavery on Zanzibar, Pemba, and coast. Tied to Omanis. Often described as the "Arab Slave Trade." One of the most famous (infamous) slave traders was Tippu Tip. Rapid expansion in the 19th century, including slaves moving into the Indian Ocean and the Americas (esp. from Portuguese Mozambique), as well as north to Egypt.a. Estimates range from 800,000 to 2 million. I estimate that 1.6 to 4 million died to produce this number. Enslavement and trade routes extend to Interlacustrine region and beyond, incl. into Zambia and Congo. The slave trade was intimately tied to the ivory trade. Ivory esp. in demand in Europe and America as well as South Asia. Very rapid increase in ivory exports (ended up as piano keys, cutlery, false teeth, bracelets, etc.) Trade items: esp. weapons and cloth. Outside of coast/islands, number of slaves increase. Dramatic increase in violence, insecurity. Esp. around 1860s (related to USA Civil War), very rapid increase in slaves moving from greater Sudan region (and all the way to Uganda) north to Egypt, upwards of 25,000-30,000 people per year, far in excess of the US in terms of imports.a. Shocking amount of violence in greater Sudan region.
Facts on imperialism
Extremely rapid European formal annexation of Africa in the period c. 1878-1900: the so-called "Scramble for Africa" (see map below)2. European imperial expansion also unfolding across many other areas of the world (eg. Asia; informally in South Africa)3. Expansion/involvement in Africa has been increasing during the 19th century (recall "Age of Irony"), sometimes referred to as the "First Scramble" or a sort of "creeping imperialism"4. Imperial conquest occurred primarily in the absence of very large numbers of European troops (big exception was South Africa, esp. the 1899-1902 South African War)
Economic change
Farmers in nigeria participated in the world market thru harvesting palm oil and farmking cocoa. Wealthier farmers engaged poorer people as wage laborers. Also a practice of stranger farming started w/people coming from further in the interior renting land from farmers and producing their own crop of cocoa in return for giving some of it to the owner of the land. After harvest, the stgranger farmers would return home. The British spent money building roads and railways to carry produce to capital, lagos, and onto ships world market. A bureaucracy develops, particularly from the 1920s. It is associated w/indirect rule and the growth of the court system and education system. Africans need to be educated in english in order for the system of indirect rule to work. District officers have to be able to correspond and talk to african elite. Railway workers based in lagos primarily become ab elite working class. Also people with some edu in missionary school and a few of the government schools became formed the. middle class nigerians who filled lower level civil service jobs in the bureaucracy
Kongo kingdom
Founded around 1390 out of a collection of principalities. king (mani kongo) collected tribute, taxed trade, and controlled (or tried) the royal currency (shells). Lots and lots of people could make claim to be the next king, a kind of electoral council of chiefs/governors and priest chiefs/governors and priest chiefs would make the selection. Super contested and often violent transitions. Jesuit priest 1622: "In this kingdom, there are certain be great revolts upon the death of the king by the nobility and the common people, the commoners to steal and the nobility to make a king who conforms to their pretentions and to avenge themselves upon each other, therefore paying more attention to their own particular good than to that of the common, general good. Africa is a good place to think about the relationship between things and people, how objects and their circulation create/sustain relationships of authority and dependence.
The early making of the French Sudan (senegambia 1800s)
French presence mainly on coast in senegal, br. in gambia. Increased instability in interior w/massive expansion of domestic slavery and jihads, political transformations in the interior (development of states, empires) Gum production in Senegal, Mauritania, millet elsewhere, increasing penut and palm oil as well. Massive flow of weapons tied to slavery and state development esp 18th century on. Thus, militarization of african politics at approx the same time that europe
Western Africa
From Southern shore of Sahara "sahel" to the gulf of Guinea. Wester Sudan-Bilad Al Sudan "the land of the blacks" located around sahel. Important long-distance trade connected the region to north Africa. Things and ideas like Islam moved back and forth. Importance of controlling means of destruction (weapons) over the means of production (eg land). Relationship between the steppe and the sown, btwn people who farmed and people who herded. Rise of states/kingdoms and empires. Perhaps most famous is mali (legend of sundiata) these states were characterized by calvaries (mounted warriors) and pivoted around controlled trade routes.
Quick facts on British colonialism in Nigeria
From the 1820s britain becomes interested in promoting econ relationships with west africa which do not including trading in people. The British encourage "legitimate trade" in agricultural products and raw materials such as palm oil. 1900 britain takes over control of royal niger company concessionary company rules. 1901 Lord Lugard first governor of southern nigeria. 1914 Northern and Southern nigeria 1914 northern and southern nigeria formed into the single colony of nigeria. 1914-1918? lord lugard first governor of united nigeria. Implemented his policy of indirect rule.
Agriculture and gender.
Generally, in precolonial Africa both genders were involved in agriculture, though in different ways (men might clear, help plant; women might tend, and process; or genders responsible for different crops)o Cash crop production typically produced a pattern where men took over the cash crop (for example cocoa) and women were responsible for food production. Or men took over marketing of crop and women performed much of the labor (for example palm oil)o Generally, the greater the export market connection the more men exerted controlo Because women so often were involved with food production, they often were able to participate in local marketing (woman grows onions, sells some in local market). Or they might take a grain like sorghum and turn it to beer to sell.o Male migrant labor systems (esp. southern Africa) would become associated with the feminization of rural poverty.
Slavery and lineage/kinship
Generally, male slaves in patrilineal societies struggled to found a lineage. A male slave in a matrilineal society who married a non-slave person saw their condition improve, and their children "belonged' to wife's kin. Female slaves in a patrilineal society often had a range of possibilities but could become part of a kin group. In a matrilineal society, men took slave wives as a way of increasing wealth and power and avoiding obligations (no in-laws!). Note also how this theory is static/normative.
The transformation of slavery
Generally, slavery both expanded and became harsher especially in the early part of the nineteenth century as Africa began exporting raw goods (cloves, palm oil, peanuts, cocoa). In some areas, we see the rise of a slave mode of production. Ironically, crops like palm oil and peanuts were considered by Europeans as "legitimate commerce" (as opposed to slaves). Hence, we can call this period an "Age of Irony."
Forms of mobilization/resistance/organization.
Generally, strikes around issues such as wages, taxes, living conditions, etc. invariably became tied up with broader colonial/imperial matters and people's status as colonized subjects. Protest almost always spread to other sectors/groups.
Wage earners
Go-slows; wildcat strikes; beginnings of unionization/organizing 1935 Copperbelt strikes 1947 Mombasa strike 1925 and especially the 1946 Dakar Railway strikes Long history of strikes in South Africa from 1910s through 1940s
SA (plateau areas and plains)
Great zimbabwe 1250-1400 AD
Forms of development and migrant labor
Guest workers in WA; mine workers in Southern Africa; migration to cities everywhere
Southern Africa
Here we have peoples who lived by agriculture and herding (agro-pastoralists) who spoke a bantu language, and others who lived by hunting and gathering (the san) or by herding (khoekhoe). The latter two spoke an entirely different kind of language-khoesan. Also, there was an early colonial presence, including european settlement, in what became south africa from the mid-17th century. Primarily grasslands and semi-arid regions. Importance of chiefs (inkosi) early state formation in what is known as "great zimbabwe (1100-1450). Later state formation esp rise of the zulu kingdom in early 19th century. Mining and industry!!! (Copper, gold, diamonds). Especially from about post-1910s, South Africa would develop secondary (manufacturing) industries. Rapid urbanization; developed infrastructure Migrant labor system for mining, with exception of Zambia, which pursued residential mining labor policies Importance of settler agriculture, esp. South Africa and Southern Rhodesia
intralacustrine zone
Here we often see unusually good soils like rwanda, intensive farming (esp. bananas), fishing trade and the emergence of powerful kingdoms eg. buganda (esp rising 17/18 century), bunyoro (esp rising 16th century), rwanda (esp rising 18th and 19th centuries). The buganda capital at kampala once had a population of 77,000 people. Important connection the coast important relationships between farmers and herders.
Central Africa
Huge tropical rainforest as well as grasslands and savannas (areas of precolonial prosperity in current day western angola and zambia, nb example = kingdom of Kongo 15th-17th C. Rubber, then rise of mining (copper; "copper belt"), so we have some nodes of industry in places like Lubumbashi (Katanga Province). Extremely uneven economic development patterns Railroads and river boats
Sovreignty and ethnicity
Idea that political space as organized on basis of tribal affiliation. Drawing of maps to create admin areas. Law: colonial and "native" "tribal" law. Offices: colonial officials (eg Magistrates, governor. African leaders (kings, chiefs, headmen) he was talking about getting his "pump" at the gym look at his arms....
Slavery as a minor part of a society and did not define that society.
Igbo communities c. 1700s, might have a few slaves that arose as a result of dispute resolution. Typically slaves not a distinct class of people, part of a continuum of forms of dependent labor.
Later ideologies 1900s-
Importance of perserving or working thru traditional authorities preservation of chiefship, kingship etc. concern with detribalization. French association. British indirect rule
Niger river basin as an example of competitive annexation
Important earlier role in slave trade. African actors include coastal groups mainly involved in trade and stateless societies like the Ibo as well as kingdoms like the Oyo further inland. European actors are metropolitan officials, abolitionists, traders, missionaries, explorers, local officials.
Is land priv property in africa
In general not until relativelyt recently. Kinship often determines rights to land on which one can plan build a home etc which is a massive issue
Land issues are often productive of conflict
In parts of WA for example a person might migrate into an area and ask a chief for land for money and various items but there may be no record of the transaction.
Post 1945
Return to civilizing mission, but now called "development"
What can we say about the varieties of social and political life in what is usually called precolonial Africa?
Incredibly diverse. So always be careful about generalization! Generally, the continent had a lot of land relative to people and only in a few places was control of land a big deal. Controlling people was more important than controlling land (recall means of destruction). Kinship systems were ways by which people had rights, obligation, and made claims. To be kinless was to be utterly alone and indeed, most often a slave trade. Both localized regional and long-distance, was important in some areas critically so people developed complex ways of organizing trade/exchange, including the use of various currencies. Things were important in making relationships. The idea of a continent that was isolated or cut off from the rest of the world is mostly a myth. There were important in making relationships. The idea of a continent that was isolated or cut off from the rest of the world is mostly a myth. There were islands of states/kingdoms etc in a sea of statelessness. Political power was unevenly distributed across space.
Sites of class formation
Infrastructure: building roads; railways; ports; other transport (male labor) o Note relationship to state (railroads were state/government) projects State employees: soldiers; policemen; clerks (male); hospitals (male and female) Cities (remember that in many colonies, officials attempted to restrict female urbanization) Includes all the above sorts of workers in addition to what one would find in urban areas. Remember economic extroversion as well as fact that new urban cities were also colonial capitals (eg. Nairobi). o Female workers: domestic labor (generally later, at first heavily male); "illegal" activities such as beer brewing; market women; prostitution (because colonial policies created a situation of gender imbalances in urban areas, prostitution was an important economic activity. Prostitution varied tremendously from "street walkers" to "fictive wives." Industry: especially mines, since the manufacturing sector generally remained small throughout the colonial period. Agriculture, especially export oriented, capitalist. Schools, in some areas associated closely with mission stations, in other areas (esp. West Africa) Islamic brotherhoods
Infratstructure
Infrastructure: roads, railroads, telegraphs, etc. Typically tied to real and hoped for products with high transportation costs so new technology was cool
How has is/Africa represented
Inside and outside the continent
Eastern Africa (highlands)
Interlacustrine, mountains, fertile, regular rainfall and year round cultivation. 14th-15th C. Bunyoro-kitara state in uganda
Neo-Marxists and Progressives.
International Trade (raw materials for finished goods) is a form of Unequal Exchange in which value (wealth) is drained from periphery (Africa) to core (West, China). It takes a lot of labor to produce a ton of cotton but very little labor to turn that ton of cotton into a shirt. Private property inevitably produces exploitation and inequality, in this case inequality that is spread across space (rich USA//poor Ghana).o Impediments: capitalism, trade agreements; debt; comprador class (elites in Africa)o Possible solutions: autarky/reversal of extroversion; emphasis on basic needs; local and regional trade; nationalization of industry etc.; redistribution
What's an Empire?
It's complicated. But, a working definition of empire is:a. Empire (n.). A large political unit extended over considerable geographical space, hierarchically organized, based on differentials in power, expansionist (unless it's collapsing or declining), that incorporates diverse people. In general, empires require the prior existence of a state (there are a few possible exceptions, eg. Comanche of North America).
What are the connections between contemporary economic issues (eg. poverty, inequality, class formation, "resource curse") and what unfolded during the colonial period?
It's easy to say, as Rodney asserted, that the origin of present crises are in the colonial period! However, we know, for example, that in the 1950s many were quite optimistic about Africa's economic future, and that the prices for many primary products were quite robust into the 1960s and Africa's era of decolonization. Some commodities are still robustly priced. Nigeria generates around 32 billion dollars yearly just in oil, about $1500 per capita. In other words, we need to consider more closely our "pessimism" and its history.
SA (mediterranean around fair cape)
Khoisan, xhosa, dutch colonialism 1652 ad
International "chartered" companies
Like Royal Niger Co., British East Africa Co. and Fr. Gr. and Belg. equivalents like King Leopold's International African Association.
Lineage
Line of descent back to a common ancestor
Men on the spot
Livingstone and Stanley identify as European men on the spot, merchants, missionaries, officials, and explorers
The turbulent 19th century
Lots of political insecurity and instability. Fundamental shifts in world econ and Africa's place in it esp rise of commodity production for export (palm oil, peanuts, shea butter, cotton, rubber, ivory, timber, minerals (diamond, gold). Political instability and consolidation as well as changes to political econ.
Creating the concrete reality of territorial empire
Making rule permanent which meant forming colonial bureaucracies, creating alliances or collaborative linkages. Rule requires collaborators. To rule effectively and cheaply meant they had to give some power away after conquest so the paradox of conquest became the paradox of rule. Issue: making of the colonial state. Just as the war against slavery was being won by the abolitionists, the war against racism was being lost; the second scramble occurs at same time as rise of pseudo-scientific racism.
Egypt example
Map shows contested area in Sudan Egypt expands into Sudan Violent slave trade bringing slaves up to Egypt Egyptian economy relies heavily on European capital Produces cotton for textile mills of Europe Especially during Civil War cotton shortage Cotton prices went up = windfall, then they went down rapidly This region would ultimately invite both French and British intervention In the Sudan there was a massive Islamic revolution that was anti-Egyptian In Cairo there is economic depression and anxiety Men on the spot are calling Paris and London asking them to stabilize the situation on the ground British intervene and take over Europe → formal British takeover Marks the imperial moment This process happens everywhere on the continent in different ways
Marketing board
Marketing boards emerge in later colonial period Esp common in Br. empire You have to sell crop to marketing board (parastatal) which sets the price Cocoa producers esp in Ghana resist these boards These are crucial bc conservative economists would argue that you are denying farmers wealth because you are interfering in the market The first independent Ghanian president kept the marketing boards bc he thought the money could be used for development Ghanian producers smuggled their cocoa into Cote D'Ivoire Raises questions ab the interference of the state in economy IMF and Worldbank came up with idea of structural adjustment Shrink the state
Period 1890-1920
Mass conversion to christianity (things fall apart). 1918-1945, also witnessed anticolonial resistance. 1918, tax revolts in abeokuta, 1929 aba women's war, 1942 anikulapo kuti founded abeokute women's union
What africans got in return
Means of destruction (horses, metals, guns)2. Cloth, especially cotton (one cloth common in East Africa in the 19th century and was tied up with both slaves and ivory was called "Amerikani" and was manufactured in New England. A town in Connecticut is called Ivoryton!).3. Beads, cowrie shells, alcohol.
North Africa
Mediterranean climate
New actors from Europe
Merchants/tradersi. Esp. important in West Africa to secure access to tropical fats (this is how the company Unilever began, today one of the world's largest...and highly profitably)b. Missionariesc. Officials (might think of these as diplomatic outposts)
General characteristics after 1920s: Hierarchical admin structure
Military influence i.e. French equivalient of dist off was chef de subdivision.
1959 Murdock Map of Africa
Murdock was a famous African anthropolgist and the map imagines Africa as comprised of ethnic or tribal communities with borders bu the history of ethnicity is more complex
General characteristics after 1920s: Heavy centralization
Native local authorities in Fr. West Africa not have leg powers like in Br colonies. French chamber of deputies in france or minister of colonies who actually drew up legislation. Even gov general of ffrench west africa had no legislative powers.
Variables of land tenure ande conomic change
Nature of the land (rich, poor, hydrology) Rwanda and Uganda have good soil but not Burkina Faso. Agricultural regime or what people are growing. Cash crops (local, regional, international market); household consumption, combination (often called subsistence). Demography: low or high density. Land tenure system: how do people gain access to "rights in" land? So-called customary system or private property. Rural/urban-usually private property is most evident in urban areas
How do we understand the emergence of new social groups in colonial Africa?
New socio-economic classes: working class, middle class, colonial city dwellers, new converts to Christianity and Islam, peasants and prosperous farmers
Did large numbers of Europeans invade Africa?
No even at the height of colonialism large areas of the continent had very few europeans like British colonial india
Major departure from the first scramble
Not a paper scramble, rapid movement from coast to interior of europeans and afr. auxiliaries, violent, new european motives (not just engaging in trade with africans already producing and protecting markets, try to transform afr. economies to becone a dependent part of the national economy of the metropole). Conquest becomes a struggle to control African production and labor.
Ethnicization of space
One important development since the colonial period which has unfolded as the politics of indigeneity. This is a situation in which space and identity become synonymous. The modern idea of the nation state does the same. If democracy is desireable what are the histories tha tobstruct its realization in Africa.
Wind currents in the Indian Ocean
Reverse yearly, allowing merchants to sail between the Indian subcontinent and the East African coast
Women in cities
Position of women could be quite vulnerable since their access to occupations quite limited; often low wage, unskilled jobs or participation in "informal economy." In all areas, women struggled to gain access to capital and credit (one reason micro-lending was all the rage a few years ago) and have had structurally vulnerable lives (recall customary law). But there are important exceptions, and everywhere there are example of women who thrived, became successful and powerful, etc. Colonialism sometimes opened cracks where women could escape bad marriages, set off on their own, etc. In a book titled The Comforts of Home, the historian Luise White documented how some Kenyan "prostitutes" entered the middle class, owned significant property, etc.
Slave trade in west and west central africa
Predominance of West Africa, esp. from Ghana to Nigeria, and esp. West-Central Africa (about 3.5 million). Rising external prices and rising numbers but inflation inside continent. Gun-trade-debt cycle(s) takes control. Militarization of African societies.a. 1750-1807: 283, 000-400,000 guns yearly.b. Rapid increase in insecurity. I have estimated that between 1.58-3.9 million people died as a direct result of generating 7.9 million exported across the Atlantic (deaths during the voyage were about 11%). Slave trade has impact on demography in areas most impacted. Predominance of men and especially increasingly presence of children. States and stateless societies engaged in enslavement/trade. Number of slaves within Africa increases alongside rising exports. Societies were becoming slave societies as opposed to societies who had slaves.
Rodney
Rodney-Africa isn't undeveloped it was underdeveloped Extroverted trade during slave trade cut off trade between Africans Underpopulation
Cash-crop farmers
Protests against marketing boards etc. Cocoa "hold-ups", in 1927-1938
French West Africa
Railroads connecting interior to Dakar; Abidjan; importance of portso Movement of agricultural goodso Urbanization; importance of women in local food markets
Eastern Africa
Railroads connecting interior with ports (Mombasa; Dar es Salaam) Agricultural (esp. cotton in Uganda; tea and coffee in Kenya and Tanzania; coffee in Rwanda and Burundi)o Importance of settler agriculture in Kenya
Transformation of slavery in Africa
Rapid shift from exporting slaves to exporting raw agricultural commodities: esp. palm oil, peanuts, shea butter, cocoa, cloves, cotton. Except for cloves, these were seen by Europeans as "legitimate goods," that is products not made by slave labor (what abolitionist were fighting for).a. In fact, in many cases these commodities were produced using slave labor.b. These commodities attracted European traders. Emergence of slave mode of production3. Collapse of external slave trade and rise of internal slavery associated with violence, resistance, conflict4. Slavery ended very, very slowly on the continent. Nigeria formally outlawed slavery in the 1930s.5. All of these developments would create more and more African-European conflict. One can only understand the 19th century European colonial conquests by understanding the transformations of slavery in Africa.
Chattel slavery
Refers to a system in which the status of the slave is permanent, and the status passes on to descendants. Invariably, chattel slavery involves agriculture. The USA had such a system. In Africa, there have been debates about the definition of slavery and its relationship to other forms of unfree labor.
Tribe
Replace with ethnicity. By ethnicity we mean people who claim membership in a common community often tied together by descent so the Kikuyu of Kenya are an ethnic group but how did people become kikuyu and what does it mean
Slave trades
Saharan—from sahel to North Africa and Middle East2. Indian Ocean—to Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, also to Americas3. Atlantic—Americas
SA (deserts)
San from earliest times
Southern areas of west africa
Savanna, 30-40 inches of rain like parts of midwest, insufficient rainfall limited to 4-5 month period, good for africulture
1885
Scramble for Africa begins
Africa's geography and environment
Series of ecological bands changing over time. Semi arid lands bordering deserts, desert: sahara, open woodlands and savanna/forest mosaidc = about 2/5 of land mass, tropical forest, savanna, steppe/semi arid land bordering desert, desert = kalahari, mediterranean tip of south africa
Timeline of slavery in Africa
Slavery increased dramatically w/in Africa esp from the second half of the 18th c., and in many areas it persisted well into the 20th century
Second scramble epidemiology
Sleeping sickness pandemics across tanzania, uganda and some of kenya, sand fleas hopping from congo to the indian ocean, famines esp 1890s, changes in nutrition, infant mortality etc.
Middle class and elite. Invariably literate and urban.
Societies; newspapers; publications and other forms of "print capitalism"o These (virtually all men) elites would play an important role in various political movements: Pan-Africanism; nationalism; demands for reforming empire; Third-Worldism. A few examples: Blaise Diagne (1872-1934)—Senegal/Mayor of Dakar; member of French Parliament Leopold Senghor (1906-2001)— poet; involved in publication Presence Africaine; Pan-Africanist and proponent of la Fraconphonie Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72)— Ghana, educated at Lincoln University and Penn, early member of United Gold Coast Convention; involved in 1945 Pan-African Congress; Pan-Africanist and first President of Ghana Jomo Kenyatta (1897-1978)— educated on mission station, goes to LSE, involved in 1945 Pan-African Congress, first president of an independent Kenya Sol Plaatje (1876-1932)—educated on mission station; works as interpreter during SA War (1899-1902); starts newspaper; author of first novel written by an African south of the Sahara; founding member of the African National Congress
Pericentric
Source of Imperialism is in Africa, not in Europei. The "man on the spot"
Schematic re Rule
Structures of rule, Northern Nigeria (in parts of Southern Nigeria among stateless societies, the British created "warrant chiefs"). General Structure under Indirect Rule (British). General Structure under Association (French)
The nilotic regions
Sub regions of the nile. Settings of major centralization ie pharonic civilizations in egypt 3200-332 BC. The Sudan.
Administrative
Taxation; labor demands (forced labor corvee.
Tenancy and land tenure and economic change
Tenancy arrangements depend on the above variables and patterns. Tenancy refers to a situation where one person lays claim to a land on which another person or group lives by way of a tenancy agreement. There is a wide pattern of tenancy relationships across africa. Most exploitative tend to be in settler colonies.
Vent for surplus thesis
The "vent-for-surplus" thesis: was there excess land and labor that could be opened up to production without affecting subsistence production? Recall Goody thesis re land in Africa.o Opportunities for Africans to move into new types of farming and trading: cash crops for export; food crops. The example of cocoa.
Southern Africa (lowlands)
Zulu speaking socieities like Shaka 1818-1828, mfecane (the crushing)
Permissive factors
The industrialization of violence and differentials in terms of the means of destruction (compare a spear to a Gatling gun).2. Administrative revolution. Rise of bureaucratic forms, declining administrative costs.3. Ideological. Ideas of European superiority, rise of pseudo-scientific racism.4. Medical. Better health, better sense of disease, innovations like quinine (first isolated in 1820s, large-scale use c. 1850)
Enslavement
The process by which a person is made a slave. There are many ways by which this happened: war; raiding and banditry; kidnapping; punishment; resolution of debt; resolution of dispute.
Northern areas of west africa
The sahel, band btwn the sahara and savanna regions-10-15 inches of rain, supports pastoralism not agriculture Also, NB (important) states Ghana 10th C, Mali 1250-1337, Songhai 1498-1590
Why did Africans exchange people for various goods, especially in societies that so treasured human life? Why would someone capture and trade another human being for a bolt of cloth? (Remember that Europeans very rarely did the enslaving.)
The slave was a foreigner/outsider, someone captured in a war or someone deemed to be a criminal (Africa did not have jails. Until well into the nineteenth century, there was no concept of being "African" or "Black". Hence, the assertion "why did Africans enslave one another" is nonsensical.) (Slave war captives is a practice that has been going on around the planet for at least 4000 years.) The increasing demand and rising prices for slaves, so the argument goes, encouraged warfare and expanding political frontiers as states preyed on outsiders, especially so-called stateless societies without a centralized government that were especially vulnerable to attacks by soldiers on horseback and/or armed with guns. Enslaving and selling a foreign enemy or a miscreant seemed logical, as well as relatively unencumbered by moral unease: it is easier harming someone you don't know, especially someone deemed an enemy, than someone you do.a. So-called "political" and "economic" model. The first suggests that slaves were the by-product of warfare. The second suggests that slaves were the intention of warfare. The second becomes more common in the 18th century.2. Everything began slowly and nobody could know what would happen. (Compare, say, global warming. Few knew in 1770 that we would end up destroying the planet!) Remember, the AST began in the 1500s and went on for 350 years! 63% of the total trade (approx. 12, 521, 322) was concentrated in just 100 years from about 1750, 200 years after it began. Many of you won't like this explanation, but also recall Adiche.3. The goods were in demand (remember Meeting 1), especially the means of destruction upon which political power rested. This, however, in effect unleashed an arms race. Other goods were also in demand. Remember, goods were important ways by which people made relationships of dependence. More goods, however, created inflationary pressures: it took more things to create the same relationship. So, here, we have a kind of spiral. It also led to an increase in debt, and one way to resolve debt was by selling a person. (Disclosure. This is an important part of a new book I am completing, where I explore how international trade that tied communities ultimately to London bankers led to the equivalent of Africa's first debt crisis.) "[W]ould we have sold one another," bemoaned an elder Fante man from what is now the coast of Ghana, "if you....had not come to us? It is you," he continued, "you Whites....who have brought all the evil among us." The evil? The man explained: "the desire we have for your fascinating goods and your brandy, bring it to pass that one brother cannot trust the other, nor one friend another. Indeed, a father hardly his own son!" This quote should give us pause. It speaks to the intimacy of violence and enslavement (compare to #1). It also speaks to greed, or as another person said around the same time, people's "cupidity and blighting avarice." Some of you may not like this explanation either. I would say that every one of us is implicated in slavery and other forms of extremely coerced labor. And this terrible exploitation is driven by our desire for goods.
The Maghrib
The west-Libya to Morocco, long but narrow
Neo-Classical (from the days of Adam Smith to contemporary neoliberalism).
There are a wide range of analyses and prescriptions, including from institutions like the World Bank and IMFo Comparative Advantageo Impediments to growth: high transportation costs; predatory state; uneven private property; insecurity re private property rightso Possible solutions: shrink the state; turn communally-held land into private property; infrastructure; market integration; develop undeveloped areas
Imperial types
There is an enormous range of imperial formations/types: territorial empires (eg. Mongols, Romans, Persians; maritime empires (Ancient Greeks, 15-16th Portuguese); formal and informal empires (British and French and USA depending on when and where); "free trade" imperialism; secondary empires (Egypt in the Sudan, Boer Republics, Ethiopia in nineteenth century); neo-Empires of the post-1945 period, eg. USA? China? European Union? The enormous range has led to lots of slipperiness, so that people throw words like "empire, imperialist, imperialism" without much thought.
What is the relationship between colonialism and ethnicity and ethnic violence
Think also how linguistic groups became ethnic groups, people who spoke Isizulu became zulu
East Africa
Think of this region as divided into two parts A. area near the coast. B. the interior, mountainous area w/the great lakes (interlacustrine region). a. coast, often called the Swahili coast, roughly kenya to tanzania and northern Mozambique. Important connections to indian ocean, esp trade and religion (islam) Kiswahili, the language inforporates bantu, Arabic, and some english. Over the centuries, people have debated who constituted being Swahili. Substantial migration of people migration of people from arabian peninsula (oman), esp from around in the 19th century, who were engaged in the slave and ivory trades and esp plantation slavery importance of urban centers.
We tend to think of Empire or good as bad
This is a huge mistake. The (post-1945) world we inhabit, a world of (approx. 206) individual nation-states (or "countries") is very new and, by global historical standards, very strange. The nation-state is the big the exception. Empires have existed for many thousands of years; they have been more the norm than the exception of world political life.
Slave trade
This is a system of (typically long-distance) trade in which there is a considerable space between where a person was enslaved and where they ended up living.
Imperialism of free trade
Trade w/out conquest if possible, trade w/conquest if necessary
Clan
Two or more lineages who trace their lines to a common ancestor, real or imagined
1970s-present
Various economic crises (declining food production, declining commodity prices; debt crises) at the same time as increasing populations, urbanization. Contemporary "resource curses" eg. oil in Nigeria, minerals in Congo, diamonds in Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Importance of international agencies: World Bank, IMF, USAID, Peace Corps, and the whole NGO world. Rise of structural adjustment from 1980s. Rise of China from 2000s.
The Sahara and Kalahari deserts used to be
Vast grasslands
African slave trade
Very rapid expansion esp. from about 1750, followed by very steep decline. Total about 7.9 million.
Policies typically saw men as workers, and not women.
Wage labor typically male, esp. in early period. Female labor seen as "informal" and as supplemental to men's work. Women seen as mothers and wives. Controlling migration, esp. to cities, and fear of "detribalization." Across much of colonial Africa, people had to carry passes when they left their rural homes ("native reserves"). In Kenya, for example, the passes were called kipande. (Everywhere, people detested this system, since it controlled movement.) Labor policies would change significantly, especially in the post-1945 period, for complex reasons (worker organization/unionization, strikes); redefinitions of African (return to universalist ideas).
Emergence of new socio-economic groups
Wage laborers, prosperous farmers, peasant farmers, beer brewers, prostitutes (the trade in sex increased largely because many cities had a very unequal gender balance, with lots of men and few women), clerks, soldiers, etc. etc.
Colonial labor policies
Was the African worker a "worker" in the European sense of the word? This might seem weird but remember that colonialism was also defining Africans as ethnic ("tribal") subjects, or as somehow "primitive," and that many African workers had powerful roots in various rural economies.o These ideas (eg. "backward sloping labor supply curve") legitimated all sorts of things: forced labor; low wage rates, etc.
Economic problem
We know that, in general, Africa exports raw materials (oil, rubber, minerals, copper, cocoa, palm oil, etc.) and imports manufactured goods (cars, tires, cloth, copper pipe, computers, etc.). We also know that Africa, in general, is poor. Per capita income ranges from about $900 (Congo) to about $15,000 (South Africa). (In the USA, it is about $60,000.) Many economists (and others) would argue that there is nothing wrong with Africa exporting raw products and importing finished goods; it is an example of the law of comparative advantage. The problem, they would insist, is with how exports have been (mis)managed. Other scholars (and others) would argue that this arrangement was a) not inevitable and operating according to some law; b) is a form of unequal exchange whereby wealth is drained from Africa and ends up in the West (and now China); c) is the reason that Africa is so poor. Where they agree is that many of the answers are to be found in the colonial period.
Why Africa? Or, somewhat differently, why in societies that so valued humans did people enslave and sell others for things like cloth, guns, beads, alcohol?
Who were those who were enslaved? How did the processes of enslavement change over time? How did the slave trade[s] transform (or not) African societies? How do we explain the fact the enormous growth of slavery within Africa, especially ca. first half of the 19th century, precisely the same period that saw the abolition of the AST and the abolition/ending of slavery (1830s; 1860s)? And what was the nature of these systems of slavery? In other words, how did slavery in Africa change over time?
General questions on imperialism
Why did imperial conquest happen when it did?2. How did imperialism unfold? High levels of intention/organization? Or did empires emerge sort of by mistake, in a kind of absence of forethought? Just how aware were people of what was actually happening around them?3. What is the relationship between African history and European history? In other words, where does the story begin, in London or in Kumasi (Ghana)?
1836 protection treaty
With coastal town/king bonny when bonny arrests the lieutenant in charge of a british vessel that seized a spanish slaver. Treaty meant to guarantee that all Br. subjects would be free of interference. Br. also get rid of king and install a more cooperative one. Increasing instability. 1847 Bonny priest Awanta leads attacks on british ships and british traders are afraid. Beecroft becomes consul and intervention increases. African failure to produce oil against advances leads traders to seize goods under the protection of British squadron. Instability in the interior (Oyo civil war of 1840s). Increasing French presence near by.
Double-burden thesis
Women as colonized and as subjected to African patriarchies. Generally women excluded from cash-crop revolution; examples of men going into farming once markets opened up. Women relegated to subsistence production, local trading in foodstuffs, and in cities illegal beer brewing, domestic work, prostitution, local trading (esp. market women in WAfrica). When involved in cash-crop they did so under the control of men. Labor demands on women may have increased. Feminization of poverty.
Nation-states tend to imagine
a common people (as in the USA and the idea of "in many, one"). Empires center on heterogeneity or "otherness" even if part of imperial ideology rests on the notion of converting that "other" (eg. Roman Empire after a certain point, where the idea was to "Romanize" conquered populations.)
Polygyny
a form of marriage in which men have more than one wife
Slavery as a major part of society
an institution where production (slave mode of production) was done by slaves and/or slaves helped maintain an elite's dominance within political system. Here maintaining slave population is important. The Western Sudanic kingdoms and empires would see concentrations of slaves esp. in select fertile agricultural zones. (See also below.)
Empire of Songhay
at its height in the sixteenth century under Emperor Askia Muhammad I. Songhay was one of the largest territorial empires in world history. Note how it stretches across the sahel and then north deep into the Sahara. Remember that this empire was sparsely populated and that populations were concentrated in the great cities like Timbuktu and Gao. Remember also that you can pretty much fit the USA into the Sahara!
Forms of descent (patrilineal)
boys inherit thru father luo of kenya
Characters to keep in mind
chiefs, kings and other leaders; producers and traders; slaves and workers; European merchants, bankers, missionaries, officials
1960s
decade of independence and optimism, shift from colonial to post-colonial "successor state"
Acephalous society
headless society
Political society
here is a tendency to emphasize/prefer states/kingdoms, empires over stateless societies. We need to think about this and the usual narrative/model of human development
Understanding the making and unmaking of modern empires
incredibly difficult, and contentious, in part because we live in their afterglow, as it were. To what extent, for example, can the 1994 Rwandan genocide be explained by looking at empire and colonialism? Or corruption in Nigeria? Or ethnic conflict in Kenya? Or systemic poverty? Or the African middle-class (including doctors, lawyers and even professors)?
Rise of urbanization and pop. growth
rise of colonial cities Accra, Dakar, Abidjan, Lagos, Brazzaville, Leopoldville, Elisabethville, Johannesburg, Nairobi. Note that many of these cities are ports, sites of mining, and administrative centers.
General history of slavery
slavery is ancient and common across the world. There has been slavery for at least 6-8000 years. What is more surprising is the absence, and not the presence, of slavery. In fact, there are more (approx. 31.2 million) slaves today than at any other time in history (of course there are more people). The challenge is to try to understand the histories of slavery, how slavery changed (or didn't) over time. This is difficult, especially because the historical materials are very uneven. The AST lasted for 300 years. Why did Africa come to provide the vast numbers of enslaved people to the Americas (approx. 13 million, the world's largest forced migration of people)?
1930s-50s:
the beginnings of "development" (eg. 1939 Colonial Development and Welfare Act); colonial and metropolitan state involvement in more actively "developing" Africa; commitment that the connections between metropole and colony would be strengthened; many areas saw rising GNP, exports and imports, etc. Some people describe this period, esp. after 1945 as the "Second Colonial Conquest"
Story of peanuts in Senegal
used to be one of African economic initiative, but now we have found out that this initiative also entailed an expansion of slavery