The Marxist Formula in Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood

New York: Quill, 1985 Wesson, Robert. Why Marxism? New York: Basic Books, 1976 Works Consulted Farah, Mounir A. and Karls, Andrea B. World History, The Human Experience. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Society and Politics in Africa. Vol 5. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1998. 113-123. Podis, Leonard A. and Yakubu Saaka, eds.

Englewood Cliffs:  Prentice-Hall, 1974. Jacoby, Russel. Dialectic of Defeat:  Contours of Western Marxism. Cambridge:  Cambridge UP, 1981. Jain, Ajit, and Alexander Matejko, eds.

Introduction The precipitating factors of emancipation have been debated for centuries by numerous scholars. Historians Barbara Solow, Selwyn Carrington and Eric Williams believed deteriorating economic conditions were to be blamed for the decline. On the other hand Robert Thomas, Seymour Drescher and Stanley Engerman postulated that humanitarian efforts and the legislative acts which abolished the Trans- Atlantic trade in 1807 and emancipated the enslaved in 1833 were to be credited. However, based on the statistics of plantation records and colonial office papers corroborating Williams’ thesis, one can argue that it was the dwindling West Indian Sugar economy which fostered the granting of emancipation. Research Questions 1.

They did this by putting rigid policies, like full power over the African labor. The British caused wide spread racial discrimination and economic exploitation throughout the world. Racial discrimination occurred when the British invented apartheid as a way of keeping their control over the economic and social system, initially apartheid aimed to maintain white domination while also extending racial separation. After being colonized by the Belgians, the people living in Congo were treated horribly by the king that was i... ... middle of paper ... ...ey stopped our mouths and ran off with us to the nearest woods." Equiano is explaining what had happened to him and his sister when the slave traders came into their house and kidnapped them.

The psychological impact of colonialism on the victimization of Africans While the economic and political damage of the scramble for Africa crippled the continent’s social structure, the mental warfare and system of hierarchy instituted by the Europeans, made the continent more susceptible to division and conquest. The scramble for partition commenced a psychological warfare, as many Africans were now thrust between the cultural barriers of two identities. As a result, institutions for racial inferiority became rooted in the cultural identity of the continent. This paper will expound on the impact of colonialism on the mental psyche of Africans and the employment of the mind as a means to seize control. I will outline how the mental hierarchy inculcated by the Europeans paved the way for their “divide and conquer” tactic, a tool essential for European success.

Padover, Saul K. Karl Marx: an intimate Biography. Abridged ed. Canada: Meridian, 1980. Rigby, S.H. Engles and the Formation of Marxism.

Through the 16th to the 19th century, slavery was closely intertwined on a global scale on the basis of economics. Slavery, especially in the Americas, became a colonial and empirical institution, which then made those societies dependent on coerced, forced labor for many economical activities based on racial hatred and violence. At each stage in the transatlantic slave trade, African people experienced systematic violence and oppression, shaped by racist capitalistic ideas that white opportunists profited from. Slavery was never an inevitable outcome of African and European encounters, but it developed in this way because of the search for wealth and money, combined with severe white supremacy and ethnocentrism. As slavery continued to develop, and many countries, such as the emerging United States in the late 18th century, had slaves as a major part of their economic model.

The newly independent nations faced countless challenges such as continued interference from colonial powers, neo colonialism, social issues within the state itself, and most notably economic instability. European Governments justified their actions of imperialism through the argument that they were in reality helping these developing countries. That they were uncivilized and involvement was necessary in order for them to thrive. We see this in Africa using Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden.” “Take up the White Man’s burden – the savage wars of peace – fill full the mouth of famine – and bid the sickness cease,” (Kipling, 1899-1902). Decolonization was more or less inevitable as there was increased tension between the native countries and the colonial powers after World War I and World War II.

In this way colonialism as a political entity was created to exploit the earth and its people in order to profit white Europeans. The economic dependency established by the slave trade established a stratified socio-economic hierarchy based on racism. The inequities inherent in this system caused the exploitation of less powerful resources to be established as the means of economic growth and prosperity throughout colonialism. The lack of representation of the oppressed black majority brought about a series of uprisings against colonialism. In Jamaica the Rastafarian movement brought to the forefront the pressing issues of deprivation upheld by the socio-economic structure of the island.