epatriation of liberated Africans. Thomas Peters lead approximately twelve hundred slaves free blacks from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone where Freetown was founded. Freetown then became the base for the British West African Slave Squadron which patrolled West African coast to enforce abolition treaties signed by several powers. By mid century there were seventy thousand African repatriates in Sierra Leone. According to Harris, “Although the liberated Africans did receive government food rations by 1819, the repatriated Africans continued to evolve a new society incorporating African and European culture”(105). Since the first settlers were from England and America, they valued education and enforced it to their children. The African desire for education led to the founding of Fourah Bay college in Sierra Leone. …show more content…
Harris says, Sierra Leone was an Omen of future relations between Africans and their descendants in Africa… Nonetheless, Sierra leone played a unique role in African history”(107-108). Harris highlights the era of slave trade which is very important. Africans in Africa faced many new challenges; thus, the back-to-Africa movement in the nineteenth century, which was created by black repatriationist in America. This era reflected a deep consciousness of and identification with Africa. The establishment of enduring links joining Africa to black in the United States And West Indies was regarded as the seedtime of a Pan-Africanist ideology. After centuries of physical and psychological apersion, Africans and their descendants continue to feel the need prove their worth. These factors led to the structuring of Pan-Africanism under W.E.B DuBois and others. In sum, black men and women are extremely significant to Africa’s
The origin tale of the African American population in the American soil reveals a narrative of a diasporic faction that endeavored brutal sufferings to attain fundamental human rights. Captured and forcefully transported in unbearable conditions over the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, a staggering number of Africans were destined to barbaric slavery as a result of the increasing demand of labor in Brazil and the Caribbean. African slaves endured abominable conditions, merged various cultures to construct a blended society that pillared them through the physical and psychological hardships, and hungered for their freedom and recognition.
Since the 1880?s, when European nations colonized Africa, Europe had almost complete control over the continent, but this changed during the 1950?s and 60?s. By 1958, ten African countries had gained their independence, and sixteen more joined the list in 1960 alone. Although these nations? gain of independence demonstrates the ability of blacks to overpower their white oppressors, Baldwin argues ?The word ?independence? in Africa and the word ?integration? here are almost equally meaningless; that is, Europe has not yet left Africa, and black men here are not yet free? (336). While black people had been legally free in the United States since 1863, two decades before the European colonization of Africa, they were still not truly free, almost a century later.
James Walker’s The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870 is a comprehensive study of black loyalists as a unique community in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone. Part of Walker’s book is in direct relation and defense of the work Christopher Fyfe had done previously, History of Sierra Leone. Walker’s view on the subject is, even though Sierra Leone is such a small area comparatively to the rest of Africa, important developments and significant trends developed in Sierra Leone and Nova Scotia that are worth examining. The main topic that he looks at is Black Loyalists and the effects they have had on history. Through the book Walker uses Fyfe’s contributions to the study of Sierra Leone and is arguing that it is important for us to look at and to expand on it back to Nova Scotia. The most significant reason walker wants more attention to be draw to the development of the Black Loyalists community is that they had influenced other societies to a good extent. Contributions to other groups of people have been deemed important, but walker feels that an understanding of the development of the Black Loyalists is lacking. This book is slightly older, being written in 1976, a while before Atlantic studies had been developed as a way of looking at history.
In Brent Hayes Edwards essay, “ The Use of Diaspora”, the term “African Diaspora” is critically explored for its intellectual history of the word. Edward’s reason for investigating the “intellectual history of the term” rather than a general history is because the term “is taken up at a particular conjecture in black scholarly discourse to do a particular kind of epistemological work” (Edwards 9). At the beginning of his essay Edwards mentions the problem with the term, in terms of how it is loosely it is being used which he brings confusion to many scholars. As an intellectual Edwards understands “the confusing multiplicity” the term has been associated with by the works of other intellectuals who either used the coined or used the term African diaspora. As an articulate scholar, Edwards hopes to “excavate a historicized and politicized sense of diaspora” through his own work in which he focuses “on a black cultural politics in the interwar, particularly in the transnational circuits of exchange between the Harlem Renaissance and pre-Negritude Fran cophone activity in the France and West Africa”(8). Throughout his essay Edwards logically attacks the problem giving an informative insight of the works that other scholars have contributed to the term Edwards traces back to the intellectual history of the African diaspora in an eloquent manner.
"The wind of change is blowing through this [African] continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it" (Macmillan). This speech, made by the prime minister of England in 1960, highlights the vast changes occurring in Africa at the time. Changes came quickly. Over the next several years, forty-seven African countries attained independence from colonial rule. Many circumstances and events had and were occurring that led to the changes to which he was referring. The decolonization of Africa occurred over time, for a variety of complex reasons, but can be broken down into two major contributing factors: vast changes brought about in the world because of World War II and a growing sense of African nationalism.
The writings of women in West Africa are similar to the writings of men in reaction to the distorting images and representation projected by the imperial colonial masters. Authors like Chinua Achebe and others wrote to tell the African man’s story by an African in order to set ‘the record straight.’ In doing this, they bring to the fore their own bias and stereotypes about women in the society. Their writings were replete with the ‘African way’ of treating women – objects, properties, and expendable (Boyce Davies 1994). While women like Flora Nwapa and other earlier writers told the African woman story without an appearance of opposition to the male hegemony, “male literary critics have tended to marginalize women’s writing and to dismiss foundational
Next is John Henrik Clark, who refers to African America Studies as Africana Studies because he believes that Black tells you how you look, not who you are. He goes on to state that he calls African American Studies “a dilemma at the crossroads of history” (Clark 32). This is because European people knew history well enough to distort it and use it, as well as political weapons such as the gun and bible, to control the world. This is the reason why a look at African culture will show what Africana Studies are about or should be about. Africana Studies should embrace the Africans all around the world, in places like Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean Islands even those in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Clarke states that Africa is
... Their existence proves that Africans were capable of managing their own affairs and creating noteworthy civilizations long before Europeans appeared on that continent. They left a legacy that continues to influence the lives of Blacks in Africa and abroad today. BIBLIOGRAPHY Koslow, Philip.
From Slavery to Freedom: African in the Americas. (2007). Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Retrieved October 7, 2007 from Web site: http://www.asalh.org/
Liberia, located in the west part of Africa, was a settlement to native Africans in the 1800’s would eventually stablish a settlement consisting of thousands of individuals, freed or non-slaves. This was an attempt of resolving the moral issue of enslavement by colonizing Liberia with freed, or ex-slaves. Not only were freed black men transported across the Atlantic, but women as well. No provisions had been made to ensure equality as a foundation to colonize which causes the issues misogyny and with the lack of historical content of women in Liberia the need for further analysis it is noted that women were hardly acknowledged and only seen as an object in creating a bigger population needed
Europeans arrived to Africa and started the colonization in the late 19th century. Along with Christianity, the Europeans left a major impact on the social and cultural life of Africa. Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God, James Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat, and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions help readers understand the life of Africans pre-colonial and post-colonial.
9 Davidson, Basil. Black Man's Burden: African and the Curse of the Nation-State. New York Times
Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
The process of decolonization in Africa during the 1950’s through the 1970’s was a very smart yet risky idea. For some places independence was easily gained yet in other areas it was a battle. During the time periods where colonization existed, Africa was peaceful and kept things in order. People had control over their specific locations and there were no questions to be asked. Once it was decided to remove these rights, things got out of hand rather quickly. Violence was a main occurrence during the decolonization timeframe because rules, rights, leaderships, etc. got altered and drastically changed. Sometimes nonviolence was used but it usually wasn’t as effective. A major example of using nonviolence actions to gain independence is when Gandhi protested in India. African leaders have tried very hard to lessen the influence of Western powers and the broader international community but they’ve never been completely successful because they continuously needed support in state building, economic development, and public health initiatives.
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...