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Colonialism and its impact on african culture
Impact of colonial rule in africa
Colonialism and its impact on african culture
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In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization …show more content…
When ancient Greek historian Herodotus travelled to Africa, he described the African civilization and their achievements as “different but equal.” Davidson’s video is a valuable historical resource that presents the viewer with the information to believe so. In summary, Davidson successful traces Africa’s earliest origins and demonstrates that this is a civilization far from having no arts, technology, sophistication and unique culture. Culture and civilization as we know it today can be traced back to Africa, and modern science has verified the early perceptions of Europeans to be wrong. He provides more than adequate evidence of Africa having a history complete with vast and rich civilization, including archaeological finds and specialized interviews with distinguished scholars and philosophers. Despite the fact that society possesses a more positive attitude towards African civilization today in terms of recognition, equality, and acceptance than in the past, negative stereotypes are still acknowledged and modern day racism unfortunately exists. I believe that the existence of Davidson’s work and videos such as Different but Equal are crucial to challenging these stereotypes and discrimination in order to create a more accurate image of Africa and its history. Overall, Davidson proves that the continent of Africa is home to a history that is just as meaningful, comprehensive, and progressive as that of any other civilization in the
Concerning the nature of myths, one can often find that they are built on broad generalization lacking the premises necessary to make a solid conclusion. Such was the same myths, Pier Larson sought to disprove in his essay “The Student’s ‘Ten Commandments’.” Larson discuss damaging and caustic stereotypes that have worked their way throughout history to create a narrative that often subordinates Blacks when promulgated by a more affluent European society . One myth in particular appears to be quite troubling for its contradictory nature-that being the myth: all Africans are Black. Additionally, to be African is to be Black, Africans are not culturally diverse, and that Africans share one, essentially unified culture. Not only do I find these troubling for their outright abasement of African culture, which is plain to see, but rather for the duplicitous logic that lead to the creation of such myths, and why they remain so harmful when they are continued to be spread in contemporary.
Understanding how the different cultures merged and morphed during this time can be even more difficult. Surveying and excavating a site such as Elmina in Africa, can make this task less daunting. Its history as a trade center and a major slave trade port can give us a unique insight into African and European relations. This information can give modern people an idea of what the slave trade was like in Africa, what it did to the people, and how they reacted to it. It can also be a step in identifying the reason the slave trade was so popular at the time. Racist sentiments throughout the European nations weren’t the only thing that kept the slave trade going for as long as it did. Economic stability in the trade was a major part of its success. Culture played a vital role in everyday life for these people, and the more it is understood, the more it can show us about Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonialism. New information may be uncovered here, and it has the potential to shine a new light on modern day understanding of colonialism, the slave trade, and the indigenous people in
“Different but Equal” is a video in which Basil Davidson, the narrator, attempts to expand and heighten the understanding that Western civilization has about Africa. Often thought of as underdeveloped or uncivilized, Basil focuses mainly on the accomplishments of Africans throughout the years and uses them to contrast the surprisingly popular belief of African inferiority. Just a few of the main issues being brought up are how Europeans routinely discredited African accomplishments, the often disputed race of the Egyptians and their society, and why the thought that Africans are ‘uncivilized’ isn’t accurate. The video uses science, archaeology and history combined with the input of well-known researchers to give a more accurate depiction of
Over time concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common linage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin, , have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th centaury, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force was justified by these views.
Before the slave trade began, Europeans had ideas about Africa, before discovery, which varied with “time and pace” (Davidson, 23). Africa was extremely foreign to Europe, as the only information they has was from a memoir written by a traveler titled “Inner Africa” in 1447. The information in the memoir is known as “caravan gossip” which was picked up by a traveler named Antonio Malfante, was wildly untrue. Malfante told Europeans that in the south of Tuat and the deserts surrunding Tuate: “there are black people who have innumerable great cities and territories” (Davidson, 24). He explained further that Africans were “carnal, and “act like beasts” he even told some that they were cannibals. It is because of these sorts of misconceptions lead on by “travelers” like Malfante, that Europeans built false understandings of places less traveled, like Africa.
Gilbert, Erik & Reynolds, Jonathan T., Africa in World History. Third Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, 2012.
Phillips paints a picture that the African culture and population was backward at the time of European contact with the African continent and suggests that their life was "savage". He even goes on to question whether contact with the Europeans was a blessing or a curse. These views are reiterated by other historians, Stanley Elkins ' book describes African culture as "primitive" and questions whether African culture was culture. He says that the distance between African settlements in Africa meant that "hopeless diversity" prevented the African population from resisting. Resistance to European masters is scarcely mentioned in the book. It is therefore obvious that the views presented in the museum do not reflect older views of the African
... 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.
Africa is too big of a continent for all its history to be discovered. All its history may never be discovered, but at least we can continue to search until we can get accurate descriptions of Africa’s history. To understand the history, we need better equipment that will track the human activity of the pre-historic years. Understanding the art and language as equal will allow us to depict why communities did the things they did. Also, knowing that the same humans today were not the same as the ones in ancient Africa can open the discussion of how people acted towards the climate and why did they people become
deep into the heart of Africa where a timeless culture was born and should be
One of the most baffling aspects of European interest in African people is the civilizations collective distaste of and fascination with people of African descent. The initial journey into Africa, and the planning that preceded it, spawned many of the most enlightening theories about African people. These theories, usually in support of African savagery and inferiority and in favor of European superiority and civility were based in the colonial mentalities of that time. Of the most notable theories is the idea that African religious system was pagan and that African people were inferior because of their darker skin pigmentation and “beast-like” nature. These theories dispersed rapidly across the globe, and even today people of African-descent collectively, however subconsciously, grow into them. Moving forward, how are these theories presented in post-modern works of literature? Equally so, how do authors weave the colonial and post-colonial mentalities into the framework of certain texts. Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage advances both colonial mentalities as well as post-colonial perspectives. The novel sheds light on traditional European colonial notions African savagery, the inferiority of African people as sub-human and commodities, and—at the same instant—presents the post-colonial perspective of the archetypical American Negro serving as a “middle man” between Europeans and Africans.
Bohannan, Paul, and Philip Curtin. Africa & Africans . Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc. , 1995.
To late nineteenth-century observers Africa seemed the most "barbarous" and "uncivilized" of the continents. "Barbarous" and "uncivilized" were imprecise and emotive epithets, which contemporary modern Europeans applied to many alien cultures whose mores they did not attempt to understand (Hallet 40).
By altering the perspectives of West Africans, it created two major problems. The indigenous man believes he is behind the rest of the world and must assimilate, and the colonizer becomes the ultimate goal of the colonized man. This is an imagined state of inferiority. Europeans have to power to influence one another and the one’s they colonize. Europeans provided a “need” for industrialization that was not relevant to African life. In order to legitimize industrialization, Europeans played on the ego’s of the ambitious. Marketing an ideal that Africans could be just as successful as the Europeans. Aimé Cesaire says, “No human contact, but relations of domination and submission which turn the colonizing man into a classroom monitor, an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and the indigenous man into an instrument of production”. (Cesaire, 50) The colonized man no longer needs the colonizer, he must perpetrate their principles. Some West Africans will now take on the role as exploiters in order to gain approval. This type of Laborer becomes the sub-oppressor. West African citizens are split into bourgeoisie and impoverished. The bourgeoisie believe that they have reach success by becoming educated in Europe and must come back and help their homeland, when in actuality they begin to harm their home rather than help. By believing that the colonizer has better schooling, opportunity or knowledge, they devalue those
Before the Western world had an influence on them, Africa, like the other continents had stable systems that differed, but resembled other civilizations around the world. Ibn, Battuta, Visit from Mombasa