A Brief Note On Occupational Inequalities And The Colonial Administration

This paper will discuss how the centralized and decentralized societies interacted during the slave trade and how the trade had an effect on them. It will also discuss how and why some of the decentralized societies were predatory towards people exactly like themselves by looking at multiple decentralized societies, including the Balanta and the Igbo. Though each side of the debate gives convincing evidence and arguments, the Atlantic Slave Trade was not just centralized societies preying on decentralized societies and the decentralized societies were not completely victims. They used different mechanisms to defend themselves. In some decentralized societies, after they gained some power, they would prey on other weaker decentralized societies.

“African Perspectives on Colonialism” is a book written by A. Adu Boahen. This book classifies the African responses to European colonialism in the 19th century. Boahen begins with the status of Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century and follows through the first years of African independence. This book deals with a twenty year time period between 1880 and 1900. Boahen talks about when Africa was seized and occupied by the Imperial Powers of Europe. Eurocentric points of view dominated the study of this era but Boahen gives us the African perspective. There are always two sides of the story and Boehen tells us the side less talked about informing us of what he knows.

In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi’s essential argument is that the collapse of colonialism is inevitable. According to Memmi, there are only two answers for the colonized to disrupt the system of oppression. The two possible “solutions” are assimilation and revolt. In response to the marginalization of the colonized, both answers carry a high price. In Memmi’s eyes, neither will work in the end. The first of two answers on the road to collapsing colonization is assimilation. Imitation and compromise are not the answer to decolonizing, for neither the colonized nor the colonizer.

On a “Trip to Congo” Sir Richard F. Burton writes a story during his exploration to the Yellalla or Cataracts of the Congo leaving some detail insights of the customs and behavior of the African communities. He only gives his point of view from an imperialist position and sometimes denigrates and diminishes the people and their culture. Even though Burton had a translator throughout his trip the language barrier prohibits interaction with the communities and the ability to empathize with the natives. Interaction and understanding is the key to appreciate their behaviors, instead Burton

Although all this documents stress voices from the Slave Trade, each document sheds a unique light on the much-debated question about who should be held responsible for the tragedy of the Atlantic slave trade. For example, Document 15.1 sheds light on the role of both European and African merchants in the trafficking of slaves as well as the human suffering of the slave trade. However Document 15.2 reveals the cooperation between local African rulers and European and African traders in the slave trade. Moreover, Documents 15.3 focus on how disruptive European traders could be to established African governments, even those that actively opposed the slave trade. And finally, Document 15.4 shows how some African leaders were attached to the slave trade and promoted it even when European were moving to end it. Nonetheless, all the documents do shed a clear and a full light on what should be held responsible for the

European powers shamelessly exploited the people and resources of Africa in the 19th century. They often tried to justify their actions by using ideology, religion and moralism. After the end of the African slave trade, the development of steam power, and medical discovery, European nations started exploring not only the coast but also the unmapped interior of the continent. In this essay, I will explain the main driving forces behind African Imperialism. The Western europeans countries all competed for land and resources because of their self interest. They sought natural resources, and technology gave them the ability to exploit them. The philosophy of national pride however, was the primary reason. (Main document) (Doc C, D & B)

Cultural superiority is the basis of Nathaniel’s attempts to set up a mission in Africa, and “Persuaded of Americans’ election as the chosen people, he ignores local Congolese customs, resists help and information from villagers, and strenuously insists throughout on his own exceptional destiny” (Strehle). He also,“In the distorted evolutionary logic of nineteenth-century imperialism, Nathan considers Africa as inadequately evolved, backward, primitive—a childish culture dwarfed by its grown-up Western colonizers—and thus in need of help from the advanced West.” (Strehle). Said beliefs caused Nathaniel’s superiority complex that caused him to attempt crushing African culture opposed to assimilating into it. The result? A grotesque love child of the taboo, an improper reliance on Christianity for those who abandoned their Congolese culture. When explaining to Nathan the trouble that his church is causing, her claims the village chief held the following concerns; “‘His concern is with the important gods and ancestors of this village, who have always been honored in certain sacred ways”’ (Kingsolver 128). The African people lost their ways due to imperialist religion that was forced upon

Documents two and three reveal the effort among Africans to react with diplomacy. In Document two, Ashanti leader Premph I rejects a protectorate status under British rule goes to great lengths not to offend “Her Majesty” and insists

One of the many aspects of colonial times was life in the city. A key part of life in the city life was the variety of jobs that were offered. For instance, in Excerpt B, William Penn listed many of the jobs, including printer, shoemaker, butchers, and carpterners. In addition to being a center for jobs, the city provided other opportunities Visual B, there are many men gathered for a market in Philadelphia. Markets were one of many opportunities the city offered for trading goods. Furthermore, the city  had taverns, shapes, and churches that attracted

In the colonial times the economy was similar to the economy of today and it has some differences to today's economy as well. In the colonies the economy was based on occupations. Each region had different occupations that supported their climate and geographic location. This is one way that the colonial time economy is similar to the current economy.

This European interference in African historical storytelling destroyed parts of the uniquely constructed explanations that were no more wrong than the scientific explanations. In general, education destroys the truth of imaginative stories because it teaches which explanation is “correct” when both are equally legitimate. Part of the reason to imperialize, according to J. A. Hobson, author of Imperialism: A Study, is the ability to control the education of the colonized. To the ignorant public, education is a reason to imperialize for it is seen as generous of the mother country to enlighten primitive Africans. Once able to control the education of children, it is easier to impose ideas of racial inferiority, corrupted measures of value, and European morals. (Hobson 229) This education, however beneficial or otherwise, plausibly diminished inventive African explanations of nature, but also destroyed the need for griots. Once Europeans and eventually Africans could begin writing down their stories, the oral storytellers of the past were not needed. The essential and important part of Mali’s history and cultural became much less

Inequality has been a major issue in the Colonial Virginia and it was originated within a hierarchy of race, gender, and social class that already existed in the mother country of England.

He suggests this idea of an illusion of control, that the colonials think they have

The British colonization of Kenya destroyed the culture and economy of the native people, but it established a democratic government and left Kenya a more modernized country.[1] During the 1880’s through 1914, the start of WWI, was an age of imperialism. One place that felt victim to this imperialism was Africa. At this time Africa was a wholly unmodernized continent. The reason the Europeans went after Africa was the introduction of the idea of social Darwinism and the “white man’s burden”. Social Darwinism is the belief that only the strongest and the most cunning can make it to the top of the social ladder, and it was the White Man’s Burden to step in for these undeveloped countries

New courts were established, new codes and new laws were introduced, chiefs were confirmed or deposed and new ones appointed, direct and indirect taxation was introduced, and forced labour was demanded for the construction of roads and railways. All these measures naturally generated various reaction” (Cohen and Boahen 68).