The Pan African Consciousness

They did no more work than the other people in the village did. Their clothing, housing, food and mannerisms were the same as the people who owned them. European influence started to affect slavery in Africa and it was now becoming an enterprise rather than a legal system for punishment. Traders would come to Africa selling goods to these people, who did not have access to these goods before, in exchange for slaves. These traders would bribe chiefs of tribes to go out and capture neighboring villagers in exchange for goods, encouraging the kidnapping and enslavement of fellow Africans. "When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them, and tempts him with his wares." This was all a part of the European Triangular Trade. Goods were brought to Africa in order to trade with the Africans. Slaves were then shipped to the Americas to produce more goods to be sent to Europe in order start the whole trade cycle again.

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.

In her book, Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman challenges Jerry Rawlings’ notion of freedom by responding with “Had Rawlings asked, “‘Are we yet free?’ most Ghanaians would have answered with a resounding, ‘No.’ This ‘no’ resonated on both sides of the Atlantic”(pg 126). The capitalistic spirit that possessed the Europeans enabled them to disrupt the untouched country of Africa and capture its children to satiate their wealth aspirations. In the meantime, the Europeans took the land from the Native Americans through genocidal practices and claimed it as their gift from God. Although some claim that the capitalist ventures of the Europeans during the colonial period and the 19th century were beneficial for all and rooted in innocence, it ultimately caused the physical and cultural death of the Native Americans and African-origin peoples and has led to the day to day suffering of their descendants.

The Africans, on the other hand, were also forced from their homes and into slave labor. The English captured Africans bringing them to the New World on the Middle Passage. The Africans were brought to the New World as a form free labor to help build the colonies. The English did use the Indians for labor, but found it hard to work with them and they were susceptible to illness and were not as strong as the Africans. The Africans suffered through sickness and lack of understanding secondary to the language barriers with the English. They also had problems

“Captive African and their descendants paid with their blood and sweat for the phenomenal expansion of human possibilities in the Atlantic world”(Rice, 62). Among many groups of people that migrated to America are the African Americans. At first it was by choice, but that gradually changed to being captured and forced to migrate to America to work in the plantation fields. African Americans faced racial oppression and prejudice in a land that put in its constitution “all men are created equal.” They were treated with disrespect, hostility, and cruelty and made inferior to their fellow beings. Despite the abolishment of slavery with the thirteenth amendment, African Americans still faced prejudice and racial hostility from all around.

This idea has taken on many different forms over the past century and a half, and its discourse has evolved alongside the major works of prominent figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Delany, and Marcus Garvey. A common theme among these thinkers is the notion of historicizing the development of black culture relative to diasporic movements in the preceding centuries. However, they differ significantly in their visions and aspirations for the culture at large, as well as in their interpretations of how peoples of African descent should behave with respect to the dominant (primarily white) societies in which they live and function. In particular, earlier scholars like Du Bois tended to “sustain their faith in a partnership with white allies, wagering that [their] commitments to ‘civilization building’ ... would hasten the day when they and their race would be respected as equal partners” (Ewing 16). In contrast, Garvey, a contemporary of Locke, supported a radical agenda for African independence, and a mass migration to bring peoples of African descent back to Africa (Ewing 76).

The indigenous people of Africa suffered many setbacks, when the Europeans arrived. When the Europeans arrived in Africa they made the indigenous people feel inferior, lack self-confidence, and be stripped of their responsibility. As shown by Document 2, when it says, “...convince us that our civilization was nothing less than savagery, thus giving us complexes which led to our being branded as irresponsible and lacking in self-confidence.” Some people may agree, that this seems like something out of a genocide. Originally the indigenous people of Africa were supposed to be cheap labor. However, this soon changed when the Europeans enslaved the African people. This is portrayed in Document 6, when it says, “...Beneath the noonday sun, My brother was strong…” By doing this they stole all of the human rights from the Africans, who had done nothing wrong. This is shown in Document 3, when it says, “Whereas fundamental human rights...are denied to Africans.” During this extremely horrific time in African history men were worked to death, and women were raped. This is found in Document 6, when it says,”The White Man killed my father,My father was proud, The White Man seduced my mother, My mother was beautiful.” This shows the negative effects are much worse for the Africans, than for the Europeans. But, there are some positives in this dark hour. When the Europeans arrived in Africa, they provided the

The choice of plantation owners to purchase Africans enabled vast commercial profits at the expense of humanity. “Slavery became not only a system of forced labor but also a pattern of human relationships legitimated by law” (Nash 61). Eventually stripped of all rights, African slaves were not expounded upon with human qualities and characteristics by those who enslaved them. In the dehumanization of Africans by their forced removal from their homes, transport to the “New World” via horrid conditions across the Atlantic Ocean, and removal of their basic human rights, the slavers ensured ample labor to produce crops for

Technology and How It Influenced Imperialism Near the end of the nineteenth century, Europe underwent a period of rapid expansion. As technology evolved, so did the efficiency at which empire-building happened. The rise of technology influenced Imperialism to spread like wildfire; by bestowing advantages, it allowed Europeans to successfully travel and fight more efficiently.

As W. E. B DuBois and Marcus Garvey were both forms of pan-Africanism, it was the differences in beliefs and their methods on hand that would impact the effects of the future. Garvey makes considerable presentation in raising recognition and consciousness of the African struggles. On the other hand, DuBois’s pan-Africanism,

In many ways it could be argued that Marcus Garvey was the most significant African American civil rights leader of this time because of his role in tackling the social issues African American’s faced. He aimed to improve the lives of African Americans by encouraging them to take control of their own affairs and education. His role surrounding this issue is illustrated by his founding of the UNIA. This Universal Negro Improvement Association was an organisation dedicated to racial pride, economic self sufficiency and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. Through this and the magazine the ‘Negro World’ he urged African Americans to be proud of their race, and argued “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. It has been said that through Garvey’s dedication to social improvement for his race he managed to capture the imagination of many blacks for whom the American Dream was a dirty joke.

Marcus Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). This association offered principles and a viewpoint for Negro self-reliance and African reclamation in the 1914’s. Garvey and a few of his followers organized events in New York City, the Harlem chapter of the UNIA. During one of his speeches, in August of 1921, also known as The Handwriting Is on the Wall, Garvey emphasized the need of the emancipation of the Negro race (p.31, pp. 2) when he said, “We have come to the conclusion that speedily there must be an emancipated Negro race everywhere…” He showed strength by telling his audience that he recognized how many before him fought to be accepted and not to be second citizens. He was fighting for the emancipation of all Negros from the thoughts and actions of others, which were influencing the actions of his “brothers”. He compared it to the Irish when he stated, “…the Irish are determined to have liberty and nothing less than liberty.” Garvey wanted the same for the African people, he would warn his followers during his speeches that “The handwriting is on the wall…,” meaning the Negro community needed to pay attention to what was going around them, and to know when to act and react. He further discusses his vision of the need of a united African community, so “…Africa could be free from coast to coast” (p/31, pp. 4). He pleaded for his followers, his “brothers”, his Negro community not to give up. His strength of showing them that he too

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.

There were attempts to rationalize the Scramble for Africa such as little knowledge of the region, the political implications, and the preciseness in distribution of supply that would come with separation into smaller “states”. Though there was “rationale” the 1884 Berlin Conference and Scramble for Africa can be seen as cultural genocide.

Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people