1. African Colonial History
KEY TO UNDERSTANDING
AFRICAN UNDERDEVELOPMENT
ORIGINS AND MYTHS

2. Colonial Motives
Economic Interpretation- raw materials, minerals and agricultural products
Missionary Influence and abolitionism (Divide Religiously)
Pseudo-Scientific Racism
European Rivalries
Cultural Imperialism and Racism

3. Theme
“We have the Maxim Gun,
They Have None”
Hillaire Blazac

4. Issue: The Crusher
“Bula Matari came to represent [the] alien authority…”
Crawford Young describes
Henry Morton Stanley

5. Further Reading Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Later film, Apocalypse Now by
Francis Ford Coppola
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost

6. The Scramble for Africa
Triangular Trade to 1800
Legitimate Trade and Spheres of Influence
Spheres of Influence (the China Model)
The Role of the Trading Companies
German East African Company
French West African Trading Company
British East and British South African Companies

7. The Scramble for Africa
France, Germany and European Rivalries
Belgium, King Leopold and the “Congo Free State”
Congresses of Berlin: 1878 and

8. Origins of Colonialism: 1890-1914
West Africa: French vs. British and Assimilation vs. Indirect Rule
From Company Rule to Indirect Rule
Smaller Powers
East Africa: Settlers and Imperialism
German Authoritarianism,
White Highlands
British East Africa Company

9. Origins of Colonialism Central and Southern Africa
Jan van Riebeck and the Cape- 1652
Britain- Cape Colony: 1815
Cecil John Rhodes: British South Africa Company
The Rhodesias and Nyasaland- Company Rule to 1923
From Federation to UDI

10. Styles of Colonialism- Tactics and Methods
Force, Trickery, sub-imperialism (client kingdoms) and Authoritarian Prefectoralism
Carl Peters and his Bags full of Treaties
Sir Samuel Baker and his Hungarian Wife
Stimulate alliances and rivalries among different ethnic and religious groups
Use of Indigenous Forces: Create African Armies
Use puppet rulers, appoint chiefs in “stateless systems, use District Commissioners (Prefects)

11. Patterns of Colonial Rule
Parallel Rule vs. Indirect Rule- Britain
Assimilation- France Portugal and France
Federations vs. Fragmentation- Francophone vs. East Africa
Special Role of Settler Colonies

12. Discussion
“Do Things Fall Apart in Africa After 1870?

13. The Colonial Administrative State
Integration- Algeria and Lusophone
Overseas territories and provinces- France
Colonial Office and the Overseas Governor
Cultural Sub-Nationalism: Buganda, Ashanti and South Africa

14. British Colonialism
Sir Frederick Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London: 1922).

15. Types of Territories
Without European Settlers- Nkrumah and the Mosquito
Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone
Without European Settlers- Protectorates
Uganda, Zanzibar, Nyasaland
With European Settlers (No Home rule)
Kenya, Tanzania, Northern Rhodesia
With European Settlers (Home rule)
Rhodesia, South Africa, South West Africa (after 1920)

16. Colonial Processes Oxbridge Generalists
Major Ralph Furse and Gentlemen Administrators
LEGCO, EXECO and Unofficial Advisors (Europeans, Arabs and Indians, and Late a few Africans)
“Multi-racialism” vs. Ornamentalism

17. British Colonial Structures
Parliament
Treasury
Secretary of
State for
Colonies
Colonial Office
London
Secretary for
Foreign and
Dominion Affairs

18. Structure of British Colonialism
Colonial Office
London
Ghana
Tanganyika
Governor or
High Commissioner
Executive Council
Legislative Council
Uganda

19. Colonial Administration
Governor
Provincial
Commissioner
Provincial Officer
District Commissioner
l Commissioner
Provincial Education Officer
Government Secretary/
Secretariat

20. Colonial Administration
District Commissioner
DAO
Agricultural Demonstrator
District Education
Officer
District School
Inspector
DMO
DPWD
District Officer

21. Colonial Administration
District Commissioner
District Officer DO
Paramount
Chief

22. “Tribal” Administration
Paramount Chief
Sub-Chief
Head Man
Village
Leader

23. Colonial Structures-1956 Parliament and Cabinet-London Colonial Office
Governor and
Colonial Secretariat
Legco
And Execo
Departments
District Offices
Commonwealth
And Foreign Office
Treasury
Colonial Welfare
And Development
Office

24. Traditional Government Two Structures National Systems
Paramount
Chief (King)
Advisors
Native Councils
Traditional Meeting
Place
Sub-Chiefs
Headmen
Judicial System

25. Imperial Systems King Chief Sub-Chiefs And Headmen King’s
Representative
Inner Council
Outer Council

26. Parallel Rule The External Protectorate
Soldiers, Missionaries and Police
Settlers: Eastern and Southern Africa

27. Origins of Indirect Rule
INDIRECT RULE THEORISTS
Lord Lugard and Northern Nigeria
Theophilus Shepstone in Natal
Sir Donald Cameroon in Tanganyika

28. "Tribal Administration“ and Indirect Rule
Traditional vs. “Tribal” Rule
Modification of Parallel or Dual Rule
Goal: Legal/Rational Model
Modification of Tradition
Training of tribal administrator

29. Indirect Rule System Chief Tribal Secretary Clerks Treasury Court
Police
Council
Sub-Chiefs
Headmen

30. French Colonialism Meaning of Assimilation Direct Rule
Use of Traditional Authorities as French Administrators
Replacement of Traditional Authorities by Soldiers
In Practice Assimilation was Association
British and French administrative Practice not that different in rural Africa

31. French Colonialism The Concept of Permanent Association
Goal a French Language Union (Political Economic and Social)
Paris and A Single, highly centralized system- World Wide
Facade of Direct Rule

32. French Colonial Structures
France Overseas: Indochina, Caribbean
North Africa: Tunisia, Morocco, the Department of Algeria
L’Afrique Occidentale Francaise (AOF)
L’Afrique Equitoriale Francaise (AEF)
The Mandates: Togo, Cameroons

33. French Colonial Structures
French Executive
And Cabinet
French National
Assembly
( Nominal African
Reps.
Ministry of
Overseas Affairs
French Civil and
Colonial Services

34. French Colonial Structures
Governor General
Of the Federation
Territorial
Governor
Secretariat
and Staff
Old Communes:
St. Louis
Rep. in French
Assembly

35. French Colonial Structures
Governor
Commandant
(Prefect)
Chef
de subdivisions
District Chiefs
Sub-Chiefs
And Headmen
De cercle

36. French Decolonization
The Concept of the French Union
France and World War II: French Africa and Vichy
Socialist Governments and Socialist Empires
Collapse of Federation, the Loi Cadre of 1956
DeGaulle and the 1958 Referendum

37. SMALLER COLONIAL POWERS
Germany: Lost Colonies: German East Africa, German South West Africa, Cameroons and Togo
Belgium: Monarch’s Private Property (Congo Free State) Rwanda, Burundi- Primary Education, Church, Mineral Extraction
Portugal: Post-Revolutionary States. Four Centuries of Neglect, Massive Amounts of Settlers Post-WWI and WWII-Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde

38. SMALLER COLONIAL POWERS
Italy: National Grandeur, Battle of Adowa, Mussolini- Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, Libya, Ethiopia ( )
Spain: Colonial Remnants of Slave Trade- Spanish Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Spanish Equatorial Guinea
Holland: From Cape Colony to Dutch Republics Orange Free State, Transvaal, French Protestants, Germans-South Africa (Apartheid)

39. Themes of Colonial Rule
Psychological Dependence and Revolution
Racial animosity and “love-hate” cultural links (Indians, Arabs, Europeans)
Absence of Core State
Nationalism as a Product of Colonialism
Gender, Race and Class debates

40. Discussion Similarities and Differences: Richard Rive Chinua Achebe
Crawford Young

41. NEXT WEEK “Seek ye first the political kingdom, all else will follow”
Kwame Nkrumah