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Conclusion of the scramble for africa
Impacts of imperialism on Africans
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Colonial conquest began in the late 19th century for most of Africa. The “scramble for Africa” was a meeting known as the Berlin Conference in 1884 between 14 countries who decided how they would split up Africa. Europeans were interested in raw materials for industrialization from Africa, a place for exploration, and a chance to widen Christianity. The European claim of African territory had multiple effects on women in Africa such as having their voice silenced by colonial officials, having their bodies exposed to the public, and the increase of labor hours.
Women during the 19th century were usually silenced because they could not voice their opinion on whether they believed they were treated right or wrong. An example of this is Abina Mansah, an African woman from Asante who believed she was wrongfully enslaved and decided to run away and testify for her freedom. Abina is a great example of how women were treated in Africa as an effect of European Imperialism. Abina was enslaved in two places in Asante and then once more in Salt Pond by Quamina Eddoo. While enslaved by Eddoo, Abina did work around the house such as sweeping, going to get water and firewood, cooking, and going to the market to buy vegetables. Women like Abina did not have their own free will. While in the courtroom, they discussed that Abina was free, however, she believed she was enslaved because not only did she have to do work and not get paid but she also was called a slave multiple times. Abina, like other women in the Gold Coast, was threatened to be punished if she did not comply with her master’s orders. In regards to an order she received from Eddoo, Abina states, “And the defendant said that if I did not consent to be married to Tandoe he w...
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...o marry someone she barely knew and did not want to marry while other women from Asante, as discussed earlier in the paper, did not have control over their bodies being photographed and publicized. However, in Abina and the Important Men, it shows that Abina did not let European imperialism silence her. Instead of staying where she was enslaved, Abina ran away to Cape Coast to achieve freedom. Unlike Abina, many people during the 19th century remained silenced. The reason that people were silenced is due to the fact that many of them who lived in the Gold Coast still were slaves even though technically slavery was abolished. Many of these individuals did not contain the bravery that Abina had to try and get her story heard. The effect that European imperialism had on women in Africa was silencing their voice, exposing their bodies, and an increase of labor hours.
There were many cultural beliefs and practices that changed the outcome of Abina’s life including liberalism, industrialism, imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, slavery, and gender discriminations. Through the Western influences that the British brought to Africa, not only did Abina’s life change but the positive and negative effects influenced everyone in her village.
The Western and African culture believe that all women should be silent, they were not allowed to say what 's on their mind. Women’s opinions didn’t matter they were considered to be useless. They were accepted to be housegirls, where females had to cook, clean and nurture their children if they had any. Abina was a housegirl, and her daily routines were to do house chores, cook, get water and firewood. Sometimes she would go to the market to get vegetables. If she didn’t follow her master’s orders, she would get threatened. Many other women would be beaten and abuse if they didn’t follow the rules and regulations. In the book, Abina states, “ I had been sold, and I had no will of my own, and I could not look after my body and health”(Getz and Clarke 92). This quote seems to be saying that women during the 19th century were doing so many tasks for other people and they didn’t have the time to take care of themselves. If you don’t take care of yourself it can affect your health, you start to get weak, and catch all sorts of diseases. When you are low in energy, there is no way you can work. Your health always comes first no matter what the situation is. If you can’t take care of yourself what makes you think you can take care of other people. The Western and African culture apparently don’t care how women were being treated if they did woman like Abina wouldn’t
Throughout history, it is not uncommon for stories to become silenced; especially, when such a story is being told by the voice of a slave's. Slaves were not granted the same equal rights as the free men. They also were not seen as whole individuals -- worth less than the average citizen, to be sold and traded as property. Abina Mansha was a female slave whom once lived in Asante but came to live in the British Gold Coast Colony during 1876, after being sold to Guamin Eddoo by her husband, Yawawhah. As Abina claims in her testimony, her purchase was no accident. "Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire, a law extended into the Gold Coast in 1874. Yet ironically, the demand for laborers on the growing palm oil plantations and in the houses of those who own them means that the trade in slaves into the Gold Coast does not dry up following the war" (Getz and Clark, 2011, p. 6). Abina And The Important Men: A Graphic History written by Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke, but spoken in different perspectives, helps shed light on Abina's personal lifestyle; while the date and location provides us with further insight on how the world reacted to 19th century Western culture.
Another difficulty which black women had to handle was the fact that their masters would try to engage in sexual activities. Many masters would try to make sexual advances towards their women slaves and the women could not rebel. For example, in Harriet Jacobs’ slave narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, Harriet’s master tried to make sexual progress towards her. However, to avoid this, she decided to stay with someone she was more comfortable with. He was another slave master, but she used him to stay away from her own. This is only Harriet’s story; just imagine the amount of African American women slaves who had to face sexual tortures and who couldn’t read or write to tell their story.
Narration provided in the text “Abina and the Important Men” exercises the disadvantages Abina had due to the background or status of the jury. “To be a member of the jury, you must speak english well, you must own land or have money, and above all you must be a man.” p.57. Although the judged valued liberty the selection process that was carried out went all against the plaintiff. Abina was a slave, uneducated and suffered a language barrier, and a woman which gave her a
Throughout the 19th century, European Imperialism had a major effect on Africa. As countries expanded in terms of wealth, resources, and innovation, more territory and workers were needed. The first solution to solve these problems was to begin colonizing in Africa. The driving force for imperialism in Europe and Africa was mainly economical. This economical approach was established through many ways including cultural and nationalistic ideas.
The colonization of Africa officially began in 1884 with the Berlin Conference. Western European powers began to split up the land and resources in Africa among themselves. This period of history became known as the Scramble for Africa. The Scramble for Africa occurred because as the slave trade ended, capitalists saw Africa as a continent that they could now exploit through legitimate trade. European capitalists found new ways to make money off of the continent. With greater exploration of the continent even more valuable resources were found. The encouragement of legitimate trade in Africa brought Europeans flocking to colonize Africa. Africa lost their independence, and along with it, their control over their natural resources. Europeans used the term the "White Man's Burden," a concept used by white colonizers in order to impose their way of life on Africans within their colonies, to ...
During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black
In conclusion, women were considered property and slave holders treated them as they pleased. We come to understand that there was no law that gave protection to female slaves. Harriet Jacob’s narrative shows the true face of how slaveholders treated young female slave. The female slaves were sexually exploited which damaged them physically and psychologically. Furthermore it details how the slave holder violated the most sacred commandment of nature by corrupting the self respect and virtue of the female slave. Harriet Jacob writes this narrative not to ask for pity or to be sympathized but rather to show the white people to be aware of how female slaves constantly faced sexual exploitation which damaged their body and soul.
wanted? Did women attain their goals, and if not, why not? If women were not
Girls should be able to live out their childhoods carefree. They should not be forced to stop being children due to the fact they have their own kids now. Sadly, this is a reality many young Ethiopian girls have to face. Ethiopian women usually have to endure early marriage, being “split” and domestic abuse from a young age. In Ethiopia, being a girl indicates a hard life.
The Scramble for Africa was a period of time where major European countries fought over and colonized land in Africa, stretching from South Africa to Egypt. The scramble for Africa began shortly after the slave trade, and ended at WW1, and is a strong representation of the ‘New Imperialism’. The first country to act was Belgium, who colonized Congo at 1885, but soon, other countries such as Portugal and Great Britain joined in in order to not miss out. Firstly, the European could not colonize Africa easily, due to Africa’s giant land mass and the diseases that spread throughout the land. But then, came the Steam train, Maxim guns and new cures for diseases that paved the way for the Europeans to control Africa. Since one of the reasons Europeans wanted to colonize Africa was that they wanted to ‘civilize’ the people, the leader of Germany, Otto Von Bismarck, decide that they have a conference to split the land and not fight each other. Soon, in 1914, nearly all African countries were colonized by Europeans except for Ethiopia and Liberia. Different countries had different styles of colonization. For example, France was less eager to let the African chiefs take control of their colonies than Britain, who set up a African Government to their colonies. Basically, the scramble for Africa was a period of time when European countries colonized Africa.
In order to properly understand the effects of colonization, one must look at its history. Most of Africa was relatively isolated from Europe throughout early world history, but this changed during the 17th to the 20th centuries. Colonization efforts reached their peak between the 1870s and 1900 in the “Scramble for Africa” which left the continent resembling a jigsaw puzzle Various European powers managed to colonize Africa including Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain. This intense imperialist aggression had three major causes. The primary reason was simply for economic gain. Africa is refuge to vast, unexplored natural resources. European powers saw their opportunity and took it. Another motive was to spread the Christian religion to the non-Christian natives. The last major incentive was to demonstrate power between competing European nations. African societies did try to resist the colonial takeover either through guerilla warfare or direct military engagement. Their efforts were in vain, however, as by the turn of the century, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained not colonized. European powers colonized Africa according to the guidelines established by the Berlin Act (1885). Many of the colonized nations were ruled indirectly through appointed governor...
The Berlin Conference of 1884 peacefully divided Africa between world leaders. The conference, also known as the Congo Conference, looked at Africa as a great source of wealth in many areas to be shared among the participating countries. The division that took place at no time had at interest the people of Africa. By the time Africa regained its freedom in the 1950’s most areas had developed severe political and racial division. The result of this turbulence and division is the occurrence of such violent civil wars and genocides in African countries such as Rwanda.
Barrington M. Salmon. “ African Women in a Changing World.” Washington Informer 13 March 2014: Page 16-17