Reading Class Struggle in Africa

The first chapter in Boahen’s book is titled “Eve of Colonial Conquest” and this section gives the readers a background of the colonialism in Africa through a look at the fundamental economic, political, and social changes that occurred just a few decades before colonialism took root. Boahen states that the trade of “natural products” is the most significant economic change in Africa by 1880. Just before the trading of “natural products” slave trades were abolished.

All this is a little too close to what A. G. Hopkins called, in the Introduction to his brilliant Economic History of West Africa, the 'Myth of Merrie Africa'. This myth, and any static picture of the African past, does an injustice to the dynamic and innovative features in African society.

The motivations behind the civilization of Africa are viewed in documents 1, 4, 7 and 11. Economic motivations and political global power such as the advantages of

When Idi Amin’s policies are forcing Asians to leave Uganda, Mina’s father Jay asks his lifelong native Ugandan friend Okelo, “Where should I go? Where should I go? This is my home” (Nair). Okelo replies, “Not any more, Jay. Africa is for Africans—black Africans” (Nair). Although the pain of being forced to leave Uganda so that its indigenous people can regain control of the economy is massive for Jay, it is this remark by his closest friend that devastates him, because what it tells him is that he does not belong in Uganda. He is not wanted, not accepted—not even by his best friend.

Africa’s persistent poverty interrogates the continent’s past through institutions, government, demography, economics, colonialism, and the impact of the trading. The colonial era affected the variety of Africa’s historical development for it was quite the game changer since it put a halt to the continuous drain of scarce labor and paved the way for the expansion of land concentrated forms of agriculture, and engaging smallholders, estates, and communal farms. The establishment of the colonial rule over the African interior reinforced African commodity growth in export. The colonial control facilitated the construction induced significant inflows of European

If Africans and members of the African diaspora learn that the history of Africa is not just of despair and poverty, but of wealth, they will be uplifted and manumitted(liberated). This is true for all scenarios. Knowledge is power and the more you know the more powerful you are. That’s why slaves weren’t taught to write and that’s why authoritarian regimes keep their people ignorant. Our history is proud and extremely vital not only to us but world history. It destroys the morale of people looking for who they are when they’re completely left out of world history entirely. So, all you know is you were once under colonial rule or a slave and don’t realize how much of an impact you’ve had on world history. While it may seem

In a freezing class, two brilliant minds unlocked the fiery passion that is their talent one an artist the other a writer. Bringing to light a history long forgotten creating abstract thoughts arbitrary to our own. Komi Olaf the artist and Okey Ndibe the writer not only enlightening the class but also the world with each brush stroke and each word. Every creation stemming from the hands of these masters tell of issues at the heart of Africa from colonialism to existential dilemmas. Thru spoken word, hip-hop, art, music, poems and literature issues close at heart to the artists and to Africa are portrayed. This paper will focus on the art exhibit by Komi Olaf and Foreign Gods inc by Okey Ndibe as spoken by them during their discussion in the class on October 13th. Where the talks focused on the key course objectives being stereotypes, post-colonialism, youth culture, and resistance.

In the late nineteenth century the European powers of the world began imperializing Africa. This annexation, occupation, and division of African territory has since led to much strife within the continent and has caused many struggles politically. This period known as the “Scramble for Africa” has led to the many problems that Africa faces today and has been the root of several wars in Africa to assume control. After World War II many European imperialists began to give African nations autonomy. This seemed like a step forward for African nations, but without any plan to transition into self governance many African nations have faced bloody civil wars and corruption. Along with political struggles, numerous African nations face rising debt and other economic problems. Many of these political and economic issues stem from the “Scramble for Africa”. Once the European countries left Africa had very little to support itself. To explain the issues left by imperialism the three African nations of Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone will be put under the scope.

Nelson Mandela spoke, “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself”. Africa did have that peace, that sense of disclosure. Africans lived in a time when they did not have to worry about anyone else's religion, politics, or culture but their own; however, due to the European nation’s thirst for power, Africans now had to face those realities. Their individual countries began to turn against one another because of European influence. Some countries lost their roots and modernized to the European standards. Some countries, even lost hope in regaining the freedom they once had. Europeans wrote Africa’s single story through colonization, which left long lasting cultural, dehumanizing, and emotional effects upon each culture, furthermore changing

African socialism failed to deliver its promises and saved people from the aftermaths of colonialism. Many African leaders failed to put in practice policies that they preached during the African socialism adoption, they also lacked proper planning. Therefore, African socialism seemed as the mislaid philosophy idealism, worthless development with broken political promises which contained so many contradictions that then hindered its successfulness. Ujamaa policies shared the same basis and fallacy of development that has propelled and inhibited successive development initiative in Africa. This is objectification of African peasants and rural settlers as the hopeless sufferers of colonial era who were supposed to be lifted to higher levels of social and material well being. Thus, Ujamaa’s dedication to modernization paradigm ended in a condition where improving well being of peasants perceived as alienating them from their cultural and social realities to the reinvented colonial practices (Cameron, 2007: 116).

When learning about the history of the world, we can not ignore the fact that Africa plays a significant role. Many believe that Africa is the birth place of all races, and although that is true, the history and cultures of Africa and its natives are misunderstood among Americans. People do not take the time to expand their knowledge about Africa, yet they create their own perceptions of the continent based upon the image that America created. America creates this stereotype that Africa is inferior to the other continents by picturing them as savage like individuals who live an insufficient life. To truly understand Africa, you must understand these two important elements: the demographics of Africa and the true history of Africa

Secondly, Spurr tries through the trope of classification to analyze how western writers analyzed and qualified Africa. An Africa incapable of embracing the notion of political stability, an Africa that is compared to a developed west to which it has to adhere to be qualified as advancing and walking into the correct line. As if success, has a one and a unique model, the one chosen by the

This chapter in Africans and Their History by Joseph Harris presents some of the roots of the stereotypes and myths about Africa in the past and for the most part are still held today. Harris discusses how the “greats” of history, geography, and literature starting a path of devaluation of Africans that writers after their time followed. Harris also denounced the language that these “greats” used to describe and talk about Africans. He asserts that this language inherently painted Africans as inferior and subhuman.

In the chapter Ikem thinks to himself, “an insistence by the oppressed that his oppression be performed in style!” This statement is satirical in nature, for it exposes the problematic circumstance that most Africans have to endure in their everyday lives. They live in a system which forces them to look outside of the institutions of governance for access to basic necessities, because their government has failed to directly supply said resources. In addition the cycle of oppression persists because those in power have control over who they feel “deserve” common goods through the requirement of political support.

Recently, more and more publications on the research in Africa have shown that qualitative research and especially that of the interpretive method is the way to go to do effective research in Africa. Africa and Africans are largely misinterpreted in the academic world (….). It is undoubtedly essential to apply interpretive method to understand the complexity of the continent and its