Westernization Of African Americans In The Colonial And Postcolonial Period

Examine the condition of African-Americans in the late nineteenth century and explain why the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which were enacted to aid the new freedmen, actually did little.

This goes to show the gravity of impact the population loss had or still has on West Africa. In Walter Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ he states that “The massive loss to the African labour force was made more critical because it was composed of able-bodied young men and young women. Slave buyers preferred their victims between the ages of 15 and 35, and preferably in the early twenties; the sex ratio being about two men to one woman.” The people, or lack thereof, of West Africa found it very difficult to replenish the population, not to mention the interruption of the family structure in this part of Africa. Like most cultures, in African culture the men are the head of the household and were the chiefs of the various villages. In the absence of these men, many women found it very difficult to survive having lived as housewives and depending on men as the bread winners of the household. As a result, thre was social chaos in the Western part of Africa.

As time passed, European domination drastically altered the African landscape – both physically and culturally. Traditional roles, practices, and beliefs were either completely subverted or modified to fall in line with European cultural ideals. Doubtlessly, this process of subjugation worked to the detriment of native populations throughout the continent. Even though all members of indigenous communities have suffered under this system, African women remain especially vulnerable to its harmful effects. As Mary Kolawole points out in her comprehensive work, Womanism and African Consciousness, these women must confront a set of oppressions unique to their position as both black Africans and women. During her discussion of African women’s current struggle for recognition, Kolawole argues that, although colonialism displaced many African traditions, the patriarchal social structure remained. In many ways, she holds, European colonization widened the rift between African men and women even further (Kolawole 34). Although African and European traditions share in the elevation of the male over the female, most African cultures offered women a greater position of respect within society, as well as more “positive avenues of self-liberation” than were available to European women

“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 19th and 20th centuries Europe was thriving and wealthy while most of their colonies in Africa were suffering under their rule. The Europeans all wanted a piece of Africa’s land with its plentiful resources and free labor. Around this time, Europe was going through the industrial revolution and because business was booming the European countries need more resources than they already had. The Africans had the land the Europeans wanted to use to continue having booming businesses, they also had African slaves and workers that they can use so they don’t have to pay for labor. In the 19th century leader of the Europeans countries want to discuss how they will divide Africa without the leaders of Africa knowing. The Europeans then started to invade Africa and take control over the citizens. As the Europeans got more powerful, the Africans become more miserable. Unable to match the guns Europe had, African countries began getting claimed, one by one with the exception of two. The Europeans ruled in a cruel way that left many Africans dead or suffering. Many countries tried and successfully broke away from Europeans after many years under colonization. The Europeans had a negative impact on the lives of many Africans in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially with racism and assimilation. People were taught to be a human they had to be like a European which led to many racist views on African people and culture and is why some nations like France used assimilation to make

The history of Africa is very complex. Europeans invaded Africa and stripped them of their culture and denied future generations their history. Despite the focus on the time of enslavement in modern history, African history expands far beyond that. African history has been consistently whitewashed and many historians have attempted to put our history in a box. In order to understand and study the African experience, one must realize that the history of Africa extends far beyond the times of enslavement and colonialism.

At the point when hostage Africans first set foot in North America, they ended up amidst a flourishing slave society. Amid the greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth hundreds of years, subjection was the law in each one of the 13 provinces, North and South similar, and was utilized by its most conspicuous natives, including huge numbers of the authors of the new United States. The importation of slaves was accommodated in the U.S. Constitution, and kept on occurring on an expansive scale even after it was made illicit in 1808. The slave framework was one of the primary motors of the new country's monetary autonomy, and it developed consistently up to the minute it was annulled by war. In 1790 there were less that 700,000 slaves in the United States; in 1830 there were more than 2 million; on the eve of the Civil War, about 4 million.

During a period with death frequently caused by famine, lack of resources, and conflict the colonial Americans had to implement limited warfare in order to reduce wasted assets whether it be food or lives. The intent of limited warfare is multiple in that it decreases the use of supplies, it is not the goal to destroy the enemy, and it allocates soldiers to be able to accomplish other needs. The colonist used limited warfare by not creating professional soldiers, not dedicating all resources to fight wars, and by not engaging in an active mission of total elimination of the Native Americans.

felt that slavery was unlawful and that it needed to be banned, but the south favored slavery and thought

In 1800 over 1 million settlers lived between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Most of these settlers were farmers and merchants, looking to ship their products to the New Orleans port. The United States and Spain signed the Pinckney Treaty to give Americans the right to sell their products. But in 1801, a Spanish governor had given New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory to Napoleon Bonaparte. Then in 1802, the Spanish Governor of New Orleans withdrew from the Pinckney Treaty, outraging Americans. Jefferson figured the best option was to buy the port of New Orleans.

Thirty years following the abolishment of slavery in American, life was still harsh for those of African descent. African Americans began searching for a way out of the South; thus the cause of the Great Migration, the largest exodus of people in American history. With them, African Americans carried their hopes, dreams, and culture in hope of finding their own self-realization. The Emancipation Proclamation did not live up to the expectations America had hoped for, people were not truly free. Freedom, identity, claiming one’s citizenship were all the goals hoped to be achieved through the migration. The migration led many to New York where African Americans could be the people they had always imagined themselves to be. Here, they sought opportunity that had never been available. This was one of the most artistically fertile periods in African American history, known as the Harlem Renaissance. Races could commingle in ways that were illegal in much of the country.

The life of African Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries has been a truly storied past. One of the most astonishing aspects of African American life, in this period, is the degree to which it was heterogeneous. The experiences of African Americans differed widely based on geographic location, class, gender, religion, and age. Despite a high degree of variability in the experiences of Blacks in America, if one were to consider the sociopolitical fact that Black people as a group in America were a subordinate caste in dominant society, then it becomes possible to make certain overarching connections. One such connection is the presence of secretive subversive ideologies and actions. The existence of these secretive subversive activities is apparent if one examines the labor tendencies, the folklore, and the outward societal projections of black people. By briefly examining the labor practices of Black women in Atlanta during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, The Uncle Remus tales, and cultural icon Louis Armstrong, one can deduce that secretive subversive actions and beliefs were an integrated aspect of Black existence during this period.

Before Colonization indigenous Indians migrated between the Caribbean and America, they first came from Europe via the Bering Strait. This migratory practice by these Caribbean inhabitants soon came to an end following colonization. The early twentieth century saw migration being developed between the Caribbean and America through the United Fruit Company as a result of the banana industry. The banana boats that operated between the Caribbean and Atlantic ports in the US encouraged passenger travel (Palmer, 1995). However, the McCarran-Walter Act allowed the United States, to impose restrictive immigration policies, which lasted up to the mid-twentieth century. No more than 100 immigrants per year were allowed in the country. The Act

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.

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