The role of the Explorers, Missionaries and Traders in the conquest of Africa and why the resistance Movement failed.
Introduction
The
purpose of this paper is to bring to fore the role played by the explorers,
Christian missionaries, and traders in the conquest of Africa, as well as some
salient factors that made Africans resistance an exercise in futility. However,
for proper understanding of the topic and clarity of our spatial coverage, a
brief survey into the geographical description of Africa is of utmost
importance.
Africa is presently the world’s second-largest and
second-most populous continent. The continent is three times larger than the
United States and Europe with about 30.2 million km2 (11.7 million
sq mi) including adjacent Islands.[1] It
covers six percent of the earth’s total surface area and 20.4 percent of the
total land area. With about 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for
about 15 percent of the world’s human population.[2]
The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the
Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the
Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The
continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagoes. It has fifty-four
fully recognized sovereign states or countries, nine territories and two de
facto independent states with limited or no recognition.[3]
Algeria is Africa’s largest country by area, and
Nigeria is the largest by population with over 160 million peoples.[4]
Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin
of humans and the Hominidae clade, as evidenced by the discovery of the
earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been
dated to around seven million years ago, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo erectus,
Homo-habilis and Homo ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens found in
Ethiopia being dated to Circa 200,000 years ago.[5]
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the
only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate
zones.[6]
With the spatial coverage examined, a thematic discussion of the topic will
subsequently occupy the discuss in form of Africa and the Explorers; Africa and
the Christian missionaries; Africa and the European Traders; nexus between the
explorers, missionaries and traders in the conquest of Africa; Resistance movements and reasons for its
failure and finally conclusion.
Africa and the Explorers
The first sets of Europeans to have contact with the
people of Africa continent were the Portuguese. J. D. Fage aptly observed that
in 1415, the Portuguese took the fortress town of Ceuta from the Moroccans, and
shortly afterwards they embarked on some sixty years of exploration of the
Atlantic and Indian ocean coasts of Africa.[7] The
motives which occasioned this Europeans expansion were mainly economic and
partly religious competitiveness of the Christians faith against the spread of
Islam. This led to the establishment of the first of a series of European
footholds on these coasts which were to bring Africa and sub-Sahara Africa into
closer relations with the rest of the world than ever before in its
history.
The sets of European intruders that ventured into
the interior were the so-called explorers, whose motives and the results of
whose activities certainly went beyond mere exploration. The objectives of
these European adventurers who were determined to explore these inlands regions
previously untouched and unseen by foreigners were many and varied. Two
considerations, however, are of primary importance. First, it is known that
some of these explorers were motivated by the desire for scientific knowledge.
This motivational factor should not be exaggerated, while the second and
perhaps most important, were strong economic factors at play. Vested European
business interests wished to promote the course of trade in Africa by exploring
African inland waterways.[8] Hence,
the early explorers focused their efforts on the exploration of Africa coastal lines
and the interior. In 1788 Joseph Banks, the
botanist who'd sailed across the Pacific Ocean with James Cook, went as far as
to found the African Association to promote the exploration of the interior of
the continent. What follows is a list of those explorers whose names went down
in history.[9]
James Bruce (1730-94) was a
Scottish explorer who set off from Cairo in 1768 to find the source of the
River Nile. He arrived at Lake Tana in 1770, confirming that this lake was the
origin of the Blue Nile, one of the tributaries of the Nile.[10]
Mungo
Park (1771-1806) was hired by the African Association in 1795 to
explore the River Niger. The Scottish
explorer, born in Foulshiels, Selkirk, upon arriving in present-day Gambia, he
went 322 km (200 mi) up the Gambia to the trading station of Pisania (now
Karantaba) and then traveled east into unexplored territory. He was captured by
a local chief but escaped and in 1796 reached the Niger River at the town of
Ségou. He traveled 129 km (80 mi) downstream as far as Silla before his
supplies were exhausted. After his return to Great Britain in 1797, Park
published an account of his trip in “Travels
in the Interior of Africa” (1799). In 1805 he returned to Africa to
explore the Niger, from Ségou to the mouth of the river, by canoe. His
expedition was attacked at Bussa and Park was drowned. An account of Park's
second journey, taken from his journals, was published posthumously in London
in 1815.[11]
René-Auguste
Caillié (1799-1838), a Frenchman, was the first European to visit
Timbuktu and survive to tell the tale. He had disguised himself as an Arab to
make the trip. He was however disappointed when he discovered that the city
wasn't made of gold, as legend said, but of mud. His journey started in West
Africa in March 1827, headed towards Timbuktu where he stayed for two weeks. He
then crossed the Sahara (the first European to do so) in a caravan of 1,200
animals, then the Atlas Mountains to reach Tangier in 1828, from where he
sailed home to France.[12]
Clapperton, Walter
Oudney, Dixon Benham, and Richard Lemon Lander
Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827), Scottish explorer whose account
of the region now known as northern Nigeria was the first by a European. Born
in Annan, Scotland, he went to sea at the age of 13 and later became a
lieutenant in the Royal Navy. In 1821 the British Colonial Office sent him,
along with explorers Walter Oudney and Dixon Denham, on the Bornu Mission to
trace the true course of the Niger River in Africa. They crossed the Sahara
from Tripoli, in present-day Libya, and became the first Europeans to see Lake
Chad, which Denham set off to explore on his own. From there, Clapperton and
Oudney headed west into present-day Nigeria toward Kano but Oudney died along
the way and Clapperton reached it alone. He then traveled on to Sokoto but,
detained by local rulers, was unable to find a guide to take him the 240 km
(150 mi) to the Niger. He returned briefly to England before coming back to
West Africa in 1825. With British explorer Richard Lemon Lander, Clapperton
traveled inland from the Bight of Benin to the Niger at Bussa and then to
Sokoto. Again he was unable to find a guide, this time to help him reach
Tombouctou far upstream (in what is now Mali). After more than a year at
Sokoto, Clapperton became ill, reportedly with dysentery, and died in 1827. In
an 1830 expedition, Lander succeeded in determining the true course of the
Niger, proving Clapperton's theory that it flowed into the Gulf of Guinea.
Clapperton's “Narrative of Travels and
Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the Years 1822-1823, and 1824”
was published in 1828. His second expedition was recounted both in his own Journal (1829) and in Lander's “Records of Captain Clapperton's Last
Expedition to Africa” (1830).[13]
Heinrich Barth (1821-1865) was a
German working for the British government. His first expedition (1844-1845) was
from Rabat (Morocco) across the coast of North Africa to Alexandria (Egypt).
His second expedition (1850-1855) took him from Tripoli (Tunisia) across the
Sahara to Lake Chad, the River Benue, and Timbuktu, and back across the Sahara
again.[14]
Samuel
Baker (1821-1893) was the
first European to see the Murchison Falls and Lake Albert, in 1864. He was
actually hunting for the source of the Nile.[15]
Richard
Burton (1821-1890) was not
only a great explorer but also a great scholar (he produced the first
unabridged translation of “The Thousand Nights and a Night”).
His most famous exploit is probably his dressing as an Arab and visiting the
holy city of Mecca (in 1853) which non-Muslims are forbidden to enter. In 1857
he and Speke set off from the east coast of Africa (Tanzania) to find the
source of the Nile. At Lake Tanganyika Burton fell seriously ill, leaving Speke
to travel alone.[16]
John
Hanning Speke (1827-1864)
spent 10 years with the Indian Army before starting his travels with Burton in
Africa. Speke discovered Lake Victoria in August 1858 which he initially
believed to be the source of the Nile. Burton didn't believe him and in 1860
Speke set out again, this time with James Grant. In July 1862 he found the
source of the Nile, the Ripon Falls north of Lake Victoria.[17]
David
Livingstone (1813-1873)
arrived in Southern Africa as a missionary with the aim of improving the life
of Africans through European knowledge and trade. A qualified doctor and
minister, he had worked in a cotton mill near Glasgow, Scotland, as a boy.
Between 1853 and 1856 he crossed Africa from west to east, from Luanda (in
Angola) to Quelimane (in Mozambique), following the Zambezi River to the sea.
Between 1858 and 1864 he explored the Shire and Ruvuma river valleys and Lake
Nyasa (Lake Malawi). In 1865 he set off to find the source of the River Nile.[18]
The
German explorer, philosopher, and journalist Carl Peters (1856-1918) played a significant role
in the creation of Deutsch-Ostafrika (German East Africa). A leading figure
in the Scramble for
Africa. Peters was ultimately vilified for his cruelty to Africans
and removed from office. He was, however, considered a hero by the German emperor
Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler.[19]
Generally, these explorers through their voyages of
discoveries played a key role in the opening up of the African interior to the
Christian missionaries and champions of legitimate trade. Similarly, through
these explorers, Africa became known throughout Europe as an undeveloped land
which was just ripe for foreign exploitation.
Africa and the Christian Missionaries
European missionaries enjoyed little success in the coastal
regions of Africa during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
J. D. Fage observed that “the early missions in Africa had been very closely
associated with the first flush of European expansion from the Portugal and
Spain, and little of their influence survived outside the remaining Portuguese
colonies”.[20]
The nineteenth century, however, marked an important turning point in the religious
crusading, when the missionaries began to widen their territory and move into
the interior, creating an atmosphere of flourishing missionary work. These
interior religious activities came in the wake of a Christian re-organization
which had occurred on the European and American continents during the period
immediately preceding the nineteenth century.[21]
These missionary bodies came from Britain, France, Germany and other parts of
Europe and America. Specifically, European humanitarians felt that the slave
trade could not be eradicated simply by force or by using naval patrol boats
alone, they felt that efforts would have to be made at striking at the root of
the entire system itself. Their aim in using missionaries was twofold: to
promote the newly introduced legitimate commerce between European and Africans,
and to win Africans over to Christian faith.[22]
Internally, some African traditional rulers also invited the missionaries
ostensibly for their prevailing security challenges. For instance, the civil war
which honeycombed the Yoruba nation in the 19th century in the
pre-scramble era encouraged the invitation of the missionaries by the Egba
people in Abeokuta. The Egba people expect military and political aid from the
British, not only against Dahomey but against other Yoruba groups as well. This
was further corroborated by Ayandele when he noted that as Sodeke, the leader
of the Egba of Abeokuta, told T. B. Freeman, the Methodist pioneer of
missionary enterprise in Yorubaland “My people (the Saro) told me they were
sure their friends in England would not neglect them; but I feared they would
not come so far. Now I see you, and my heart rejoices; and as you have come to
visit us, I hope the English will never leave us”.[23]
The pioneers were the Moravian Brethren who sent out their
first missionaries to South and West Africa as early as 1737.[24]
This evangelical body was swiftly followed by a missionary expedition made up
of British missionaries called the Niger Missions that reached the Niger in
1841. The objective of their expedition was to establish a model farm in West
Africa and Nigeria in particular, to penetrate the interior in the interest of
trade, and to conclude treaties with local West African hinterland rulers.[25]
In the end all of these objectives of the Niger Missions enjoyed a remarkable
degree of success from the mid-nineteenth century onwards in establishing a
foothold in most part of West Africa. Similarly, between 1842 and 1892 eight
missions were able to establish themselves in different parts of Africa in
general and West Africa in particular. For instance, in Sothern Nigeria, The
Wesleyan Methodists, confined themselves to the south-quarter of Yorubaland,
with their strength concentrated in Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan; the Church
Missionary Society was the colossus in Yorubaland, with greater weight and
influence in Abeokuta, Lagos, Ibadan, Ilesha. This mission monopolized the
Niger Delta with exemption of old Calabar until 1892 and the Niger valley until
1885; the United Presbyterians from Scotland concentrated in old Calabar with
the Cross River valley as their sphere of influence; the Southern American
Baptists, again found in Lagos, Abeokuta and Ogbomosho; the Qua Iboe from
protestant Ireland established themselves along the Qua Iboe River in 1887;
five years later the primitive Methodists started work in Oron among the
Ibibio.[26]
Two Roman Catholic missions also established themselves in West Africa with the
French at the helm of affairs. The Socirty of African Missions which by the
sixties had had a strong establishment in Lagos, moved into Abeokuta and
Dahomey in 1880, Oyo in 1885 and Ibadan ten years later. In 1888 it began work
in Asaba with the ambition of working west of the Niger towards Yorubaland; and
lastly in 1885, the Society of the Holy Ghost Fathers with strength from
Ireland, which was to be the greatest and most successful evangelizing mission
among the Igbo arrived on the Niger.[27]
In
the same vein, the arrival of more Christian missionaries such as the Lyons
Society for African Missions in 1877, London Missionary Society at Cape in 1799
and the Church Missionary Society at Sierra Leone in 1904 were witnessed in
Africa.[28]
At this juncture, the fact that the 19th century
Africa was a fertile ground for Christian missions cannot be overemphasized.
These missionaries came with the grandiose dream of sweeping through the
continent, including the Islam dominated areas such as the Sokoto Caliphate in
a matter of years. More so, ever before many of the pioneer missionaries set
foot on African soil they had wished out of existence African traditional
religion, which they expected to collapse Jerichowise at the mere shouting of
the gospel.[29]
And in the early days of their activities the pioneer missionaries expected an
easy victory for the Cross over the Crescent. However their vision collapsed
before the indivisible realities of the structures on ground with the people of
Africa. Ayandele crucially observed that:
Only along the coast and lower Niger, within the reach
of the gunboat, were Christian missions able to maintain their establishments
with impunity; only in some parts of Yorubaland were they able to operate at
all. The larger populations of southern Nigeria refused to patronize the
religious intruders; and the African Islamic societies like the northern
Nigeria was practically beyond the pale of Christian activity.[30]
It should be noted
that the introduction of
Christianity was characterized by both hits and misses. On the one hand,
missionaries have been credited for promoting literacy, education, teaching
Africans modern farming methods and techniques with the so called Bible-and-plough
policy, and for giving opportunities to disadvantaged members of society such
as orphans and lepers. On the other hand, the coming of the missionaries is
said to have repressed and demonized African cultures. In all, the missions did
encourage legitimate trade by not only preaching against slavery and the
practices associated with it but by their support of cash-crop production. The
changing of Africans economic habits was therefore one of the missions
important preoccupations.
African and the Traders
The
traders who arrived in Africa from the fifteenth century were mostly from
Portugal and Britain. These traders came to the Atlantic coast where they began
to exchange products, such as textile and metals for African agricultural
produce but, above all slaves.[31]
It was however, in the nineteenth century that the pattern of trade in
agricultural produce began to emerge. The reasons for the abolition are
twofold: one view argues that the pressure from humanitarians who were appalled
by the moral injustice of the trade and the sufferings of the slaves forced the
British government and others to put an end to the trade. The second view
emphasizes economic changes associated with industrial revolution in Europe
which made the use of slaves unnecessary coupled with the need for new markets
and raw materials.
British traders were in the forefront considering the fact
that Britain was the first to be industrialized. Many of the traders had had
long-established contact with the people of sub-Sahara Africa societies since
the period of the abolition of the slave trade and the establishment of
‘legitimate trade’. France was second to Britain. Germany joined in the second
half of the 19th century, and by the 1880s was able to handle a
third of the total West Africa overseas trade. Other participants such as the
Danes, the Dutch and the Americans lagged behind the British, French and
Germans. The Danes and the Dutch sold their forts in the Gold coast to the
British in 1850 and 1872 respectively and the Portuguese were restricted to the
tiny Portuguese Guinea now Guinea Bissau.[32]
The European merchants came with their articles of trade
mostly to the African water edge. For instance, the ports along the coast from
St. Louis in the west to Libreville in the east were the major entreports of
exchange.[33]
The mode of trading took three forms during the century. The first was the
floating trade in which vessels stayed along the coast while the Europeans
bartered their goods with Africans. Because of the hardships involved in the
trade, the merchants never embarked on the voyage except they were sure of
making a profit of about 60 per cent. The floating trade declined in importance
after the 1850s. The second was the castle trade in which merchants stayed in
the entreports where they had their stores, though this did not prevent them
from taking part in floating trade as well. Many of these merchants received
goods on credits from merchant houses in Europe such as Messrs Forger and
Smith, Messrs W.B. Hutton, Sewell Rose and Company, W. King of Bristol, F. and A.
Swanzy and Banner Brothers. The third mode of trade was the establishment of
trading posts and stores in the hinterland. Though this became a major feature
of European trade in the last quarter of the century, a number of European
firms had penetrated the hinterland by middle of the century.[34]
Because of the substantial profit from the trade, Europeans
usually competed with each other for the control of Africa trade. Up to the
1850s, when the floating trade was flourishing, there was intense rivalry between
those who engaged in the floating and the castle trade. The resident merchants
were against those who sailed along the sea and often combined to form a cartel
against them. The merchants in the entreports also struggled with one another
for trade. For instance, up to the 1850s, the Danes, Dutch and the British
engaged in intense conflict on the coast of Ghana.[35]
Furthermore, the introduction and use of steamship in the
second half of the century intensified rivalries among European traders. Prior
to this period, the slow-moving sailing ships were in use, but by 1852, the
African Steam Ship Company had begun a regular service of carrying goods and
mails to Africa. It was later joined by others such as the French-based
Fabre-Fraissinet line and German’s Woermann-Line. The use of steamships made
freights cheaper, thus lower the costs of business trips and made the crossing
of the Atlantic easier and faster. More importantly, the steamship made it
possible for many European trading groups which could not afford private ships
to pay for the use of the mail streamers in transporting their goods to and
from Africa. These small trading firms seized the opportunity to come to Africa
in large numbers and by 1856 they were up to two hundred.[36]
The competition for trade caused bitterness among the
established trading houses, the small and new ones, and the African merchants.
In the search for more trade and profits many of the European merchants
penetrated Africa hinterland with support and protection of their home governments
in the last quarter of the century. The resultant effect is the zeal of
European merchants to revive the idea of chartered companies with monopoly over
trade. This brought an English man named Taubman Goldie into the scene of
events. In 1879 he succeeded in the
merging of the various important British trading interests into a single
company known as the United African Company (U.A.C). The competition with the
French companies, the quest by the French to establish a colonial empire in
Africa and the advancement from the Cameroons to Northern Nigeria forced Goldie
to improve the organization and the activities of the UAC. He changed the name
of the company to National African Company (N.A.C). In 1886 after the granting
of the Royal Charter to Goldie’s company he changed its name from National
African Company to Royal Niger Company (R.N.C) which became the prototypes for
other chartered companies in Africa.[37]
Subsequently, the chartered companies were used as a tool of acquiring and
ruling territories in Africa.
Nexus
between the Explorers, Missionaries and Traders in the conquest of Africa
The European activities in Africa in the nineteenth century
began with the suppression of the slave trade. This was followed by the
introduction of the ‘legitimate trade’. Between 1807 and 1854 trade in slaves
went on along with the trade in farm produce. This was the period when trade in
palm oil gradually evolved from being a subsidiary of slave trade to being a
major business. From 1854 to the end of the century, the European who
participated in it interfered in the political affairs of African communities.[38]
A number of factors that facilitated this development are worthy of
examination.
First, the role of the explorers in this regard cannot be underestimated.
The previous experience, exploits and the reports of the early explorers on
African natural potentials and endowment no doubt provoked to a large extent
the search for colonies in the continent. It was this positive economic report
that exposed Africa to the whole world as possessing lands ‘flowing with milk
and honey’, and ‘walls made of precious ornaments’.[39]
This eventually made African communities become the focus of the European
powers economic interests.
In other to totally eradicate the obnoxious trade in human
beings and as well promote the newly introduced ‘legitimate trade’, the
Christian missionaries became a tool in the hands of the European nations for
the conquest of most African communities. The missionaries were reported to have
engaged most rulers of African communities in the signing of different treaties
which were later used by
colonialists to take over colonies. For instance, Tucker, a British Missionary interpreted
the 1900 Buganda Agreement to the regents of Kabaka Daudi Chwa II. This led to
loss of political, economic and social powers to the British protectorate
government. Sir Harry John stone who signed on behalf of the British government
confessed that;
“I John stone
shall be bound to acknowledge the assistance offered to me by the missionaries
especially the CMS. Without their assistance on my side, I do not think
Uganda’s chiefs would agree to the treaty which practically places their
country and land in the British hands”. [40]
In the same
vein, Missionaries supplied information to the
colonialists which they utilized to plan how to effectively impose their
colonial rule on how to crash the African resistance. In the religious wars in
Buganda, the British fought behind the Protestants. Colonel Saddler a British
commander once said;
The CMS was the first in the field …. Its connection
with the political history of early days, the difficulties, it successfully
surpassed and the assistance it rendered to the colonial government at the time
of the rebellion are too well known to need recapitulation. There has been
complete accord between the colonial government and Christian missionaries and
in no single instance has there been a friction of any kind. I would wish to
thank them for willing fully placing at my disposal a fund of information they
have regarding the country and its people.[41]
The activities of the traders in enhancing the conquest of
African communities can be best understood in light of the role they played in
the establishment of Company rule in Africa. Company rule in Africa was made
possible by the attitude of the European traders and their home government to
territorial expansion in the nineteenth century. For much of the century, most
European governments were very reluctant to extend control over Africa. Although
they were anxious to fulfill certain obligations such as eradicating the roots
of the traffic in slaves and the encouragement of the newly introduced
‘legitimate trade’, to abolish objectionable practices in the African societies
and assist the people to adopt ‘civilized’ ways.[42] The European powers were
unwilling to establish formal rule to achieve these objectives. Hence, they
began to appoint consuls that were invested with judicial powers to try cases
where there were traders. The consuls were also expected to assist the traders
in their work. The governments were anxious to ensure that the service of the
consuls would not involve them in any additional expenses. For instance,
Britain devised a formula for achieving more control over Nigeria without
incurring additional expenses. Goldie’s Royal Niger Company influenced
occasional bombardments of Nigerian communities hostile to its commercial
policies.[43]
Similarly, The Royal Niger Company used force to bring under colonial rule the
Urhobo, Ibibio, Igbo and many other sub-ethnic groups of Southern Nigeria. The
Company established British administration on the Middle Niger as well. Even
before it secured a royal charter in 1886, the company had become, to a limited
extent the de facto government of the Nigerian hinterland. More so, prior to
the end of the nineteenth century, the Royal Niger Company was the sole agent
of British administration in northern Nigeria.[44] It should be noted here
that this practice was not new in British history. The British East India
Company had been request in the seventeenth century to undertake administrative
duties. The British North Borneo Company, Imperial British Company and the
British South African Company all performed similar functions in Asia and in
Southern Africa.[45]
Aside from the crucial activities of the explorers,
missionaries and traders in the conquest of African communities, the breach of
the balance of power principle in Europe was another factor accountable for the
conquest and colonization of Africa. Immediately after the defeat of Napoleon
Bonaparte in 1815 at the battle of Waterloo, all European powers met at the
Congress of Vienna and agreed on a term of equal political strength, which was
in the spirit of equity in the possession of political and economic power in
relation to acquisition of territories. Eventually, Belgium, under King Leopold
acquired a territory in Congo River on the ostensible guise of promoting
knowledge of Africa interior.[46] This alarmed other
European powers and their imperial motives in Africa became stimulated.
With this development, the gun for the colonial race was
shot and at the same time no nation wanted a war to attend the territorial
struggle, because the previous wars had taught them lessons. To avert war
therefore, it was decided by the European powers to share African territories
peacefully among themselves. This gave birth to the Berlin ‘African’ conference
of 1884-1885 headed by Otto Von Bismarck of Germany. The crisis over the Congo
River had been described as the immediate factor that brought about the
partition of Africa.[47] Unfortunately, Africa was
not represented in the sharing of her territories. It is however difficult to
accept with high degree of conviction that it was at the Berlin conference that
Africa was partitioned. Whichever ways one views it, colonization of Africa by
European nations was motivated by both economic and political factors –
industrialism and imperialism.
At this juncture, it should be established that the pattern
of Europeans colonization and settlements in Africa vary from one part of the
continent to the other. In summary, they can be grouped as settler and
non-settler colonies. Settler colonies were African territories to which large
numbers of Europeans were brought to settle permanently and they include areas
like Kenya, Algeria, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Angola, South West Africa (now
Namibia), South Africa and Tanganyika. In these mentioned European colonies,
stretches of land were taken from Africans and given to the settlers who were
usually plantation farmers. These settlers regarded such land as permanently,
theirs to be inherited by their descendants. On the other hand, most parts West
and Equatorial Africa sub-region fell into the category of the latter. The
first major consideration that encouraged the former was the suitability of the
place for European habitation. Mosquito infested tropical forests and the very
hot desert were avoided. Aside from the favourable climatic condition, the
suitability of the land for large-scale production of cash crops coupled with
lack of willingness to engage in the plantation of desired cash crops by the
indigenous inhabitants, to a very large extent influenced the Europeans to
establish themselves as settlers in the afore mentioned parts of Africa. A major
difference between the two categories of Europeans colonies is the fact that
the whites regarded the settler colonies as their homes.[48]
Resistance Movements in Africa and Reasons for its Failure
The conquest
and establishment of colonial rule in Africa was not without some level of
resistance. Resistance movement in Africa took the pattern of passive, active
and collaborationist movements. Opposition to the imposition of colonial rule
in Africa took different shapes in different parts of Africa since the time of
occupation was not uniform. While in some parts of the continent, there were
lackadaisical resistance movements, some groups were in collaboration with the
colonialists, and others were resolute and volatile in their defensive and nationalistic
struggle.[49]
The early
rulers that fought relentlessly against colonization were called traditional
nationalists. Some of them were indigenous rulers while others were product of
missionary schools. For instance, Nana of Itsekiri gave a notable fight to the
British at Ebrohimi in 1894 before he was arrested and deported to Ghana. Jaja
of Opobo was also arrested after a prolonged resistance and was deported to
Accra in 1887. Oba Ovonramwen of Benin strongly protected his kingdom from the
British expedition of 1897 but he could not stand the test of the superior
belligerence of the British military squad. He was therefore exiled to Calabar.
Oba Mafimisebi I of Ugbo was deported to Calabar in 1921 as a result of his
stiff refusal to be a puppet to the British government. Other African
communities that were bombarded by the colonial powers include: Lagos in 1851, the
Ijebu in 1892, the Tukulor Empire in 1893, Behanzin of Dahomey, Bida and Ilorin
in 1897, Bai Bureh in Sierra Leone, Samori Toure in 1898 and Sokoto in 1903.[50]
These traditional rulers, settlements and many others across Africa gave virile
opposition to foreign rule, at the end of the struggle, they lost battle and
this gave way to European imperial encroachment in the territories.
The need
therefore arises to find some logical explanations for this defeat and eventual
subjugation. Why the British had relative ease in the conquest, acquisition and
occupation of African territories was not shrouded in magical or spiritual
mysteries.
First, the fact
that the British were armed with modern and sophisticated weapons and war
tacticians proved that there was no occurrence of miracle in their victory. On
the other hand, the African rulers had at their disposal, local weapons such as
arrow, spear and the local maxim-gun (Kurufu, which was used by Nana during the
ebrohimi British expedition of 1894).[51]
Similarly, Ahmed Bako reported that the reason for the British defeat of the
Caliphate was described in what Smaldone termed the failure of the Caliphate to
face the British threat with little more than the traditional strategy and
techniques of war. He went further that the Caliphate also lacked a central
standing army as well as central alliance structure.[52]
There was also at the time of the occupation neither inter-emirate defense
force nor was common strategy evolved.
In short, the conquest of Sokoto as Smaldone further emphasized
“represented the triumph of a total system of war radically different and
superior in its concept, organization, technology, method and strategy”.[53]
Equally
important too was the fact that African leaders were not fully united as
formidable blocs in their various sub-political units. Most of them did not
fight with the kind of zeal that could sufficiently check external aggression.
The Satiru revolt of 1905, led by Isa in Sokoto was decisive against the
British government. Samori Toure gave the French one of the toughest resistance
as a result of the possession of a large number of ammunition and with
determination and with relative unity in the Mandinka Empire.[54]
He was deported to Gabon in 1898. It could be deduced therefore that, if some
West Africans were well prepared and fully united, they would have given their
aggressors tougher fight and resistance.
Finally, it can
be rightly said that the Europeans also made use of superior diplomacy. A lot
of deceptive and ambiguously signed treaties were used to deceive some
traditional rulers hence some of them did not actively and loyally defend their
territories. It was this passiveness and attitude of betrayer that paved way
for insecurity which partly accounted for perforated and feeble resistance in
some parts Africa.[55]
More so it can be said without fear of contradiction that the various African
rulers failed to capitalize on the prevailing boundaries competition between
some European powers which would have given their resistance movements a boost
against the intrusion on their territories.
Conclusion
By and large,
it can be rightly said that colonization is the end product of imperialism.
Imperialism is a gradual and tactical process of colonization.[56]
As a prelude to conquest and colonialism, the colonizers spread their political,
social and economic tentacles over the weaker country or continent in order to
suppress and render it politically, socially and economically impotent and
submissive. Therefore, it is not out of context to assert that the activities
of the explorers, missionaries and traders all contributed to the conquest and eventual occupation of Africa. It is also
crucial to note that, Europeans activity in Africa in the nineteenth century
began with the suppression of slave trade and introduction of ‘legitimate
trade’ which was championed by the British considering their position as the
first industrialized nation in Europe. This was one of the excuses used for the
bombardment of different African communities such as Lagos in 1851 and its
eventual annexation in 1861.
The
fact that Africans also posed some level of resistance to the intrusion of
their lands cannot be overemphasized. The African rulers and people fought the
forces of both the company rule and colonial governments and succeeded in
repelling the invaders to an extent. Although at the end of the struggle the
European powers had succeeded in conquering most of the Africa communities,
they did not find things easy as it was only in very few places that the people
submitted peacefully.[57] In sum for the effective
political occupation of Africa, Christianity, education and trade were
introduced into Africa in the 19th century. These were powerful
instruments of acculturation and subjection as events in the twentieth century
Africa revealed.
ENDNOTES
[1] National Geographic
Society, World History: The Human
Experience, New York, Glencoe/Mc Graw-Hill, 1997, p. 182.
[2]
L. S. Suggate, Africa, London, George
G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1929, p.1.
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
Ibid.
[6]
Ibid.
[7]
J. D. Fage, A History of Africa,
London, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, 1978, p. 215.
[8]
T. Falola et al., History of Nigeria 2:
Nigeria in the Nineteenth Century, Ikeja, Longman, 1991, p.151.
[9]
www.africanhistory.about.com, retrieved on the 17th of March, 2014.
[10]
Ibid.
[11]
Microsoft Encarta Premium 2009.
[13]
Microsoft Encarta, Op. cit.
[15]
Ibid.
[16]
Ibid.
[17]
Ibid.
[18]
Ibid.
[19]
Ibid.
[20]
J. D. Fage, Op. cit., p.338.
[21]
Ibid.
[22]
T. Falola et al. Op. cit. p. 155.
[23]
E. A. Ayandele, “External Relations with Europeans in the Nineteenth Century:
Explorers, Missionaries and Traders”, In Ikime O. (ed.), Groundwork of Nigeria History, Ibadan, Heinemann Educational Books,
1980, p.372.
[24]
J. D. Fage, Op. cit., p.336.
[25]
T. Falola et al., Op cit. p.155.
[26]
E. A. Ayandele, In Ikime O. (ed.), Op cit.
p. 371.
[27]
Ibid.
[28]
J. D. Fage, Op. cit. p. 337.
[29]
E. A. Ayandele, In Ikime O. (ed.), Op.
cit.
[30]
Ibid.
[31]
M. Omolewa, Certificate History of
Nigeria, Lagos, Longman Nigeria Plc, 1986, p. 145.
[32]
T. Falola, “Trade with the Europeans in the 19th Century”, In G.O.
Ogunremi and E. K. Faluyi (eds.), Economic
History of West Africa, Ibadan, Rex Charles Publication, 1996. p. 94.
[33]
Ibid.
[34]
Ibid.
[35]
Ibid.
[36]
Ibid.
[37]
T. Falola et al. Op. cit. Pp.
175-176.
[38]
A. Afe, “Political Changes in the Nineteenth Century”, In S. O. Arifalo and G.
Ajayi (eds.), Essays in Contemporary
Nigeria History, Lagos, First Academic Publishers, 2003, p. 39.
[39]
O. M. Ehinmore, “ The Concept of Colonialism and the Nigerian Experience
(1900-1960)”, In S. O. Arifalo and G. Ajayi (eds.), Essays in Contemporary Nigeria History, Lagos, First Academic
Publishers, 2003, p. 52.
[41]
Ibid.
[42]
M. Omolewa, Op. cit.
[43]
E. A. Ayandele, In Ikime O. (ed.), Op
cit.
[44]
Ibid.
[45]
J. D. Fage, Op. cit. Pp. 348-349.
[46]
O. M. Ehinmore, In S. O. Arifalo and G. Ajayi (eds.) Op. cit.
[47]
Ibid.
[48] B. Barkindo, M. Omolewa
and G. Babalola, Africa and the wider
world 3, Ikeja-Lagos, Learn Africa Plc, 1994, Pp. 73-74.
[49]
O. M. Ehinmore, In S. O. Arifalo and G.
Ajayi (eds.) Op. cit. Pp. 54-55.
[50]
A. E. Afigbo, “The Establishment of Colonial Rule 1900-1918”, In J. F. Ade
Ajayi, The History of West Africa, Lagos, University Press, 1972, Pp. 426-431.
[51]
O. M. Ehinmore, In S. O. Arifalo and G. Ajayi (eds.) Op. cit.
[52]
Ahmed Bako, Sokoto Resistance of Colonial
Occupation with Special Reference to Giginya and Bormi in 1903, A Paper
Prepared for Sokoto State Centenary Book Committee, 2013.
[53]
Ibid.
[54]
John D. Hargreaves, “West African States and the European Conquest”, In L. H.
Gann and P. Duignan (eds.), Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960, (Vol. 1), London,
Cambridge University Press, 1977, p. 208.
[55]
O. M. Ehinmore, In S. O. Arifalo and G. Ajayi (eds.) Op. cit. p. 56.
[56]
Ibid. p. 49.
[57]
Ahmed Bako, Op. cit.
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