The making of modern Africa
The Making of Modern Africa: Colonialism
Take a look at the past, our history; although there is only one factual outcome, there are an infinite number of opinions, perspectives and almost always more than one side to a story. I will be taking a look in to the novel, Colonial Africa, written by Dennis Laumann, as well as, African Perspectives on Colonialism, by A. Adu Boahen, and hopefully through this, we can gain a stronger understanding of Colonialism in Africa and how Boahen and Laumann compare and differ.
On (p.1), Boahen states, “The most surprising aspects of the imposition of colonialism on Africa were its suddenness and its unpredictability.” When I began reading I lacked an understanding of what this could really mean. I soon understood the imposition of colonialism on African, the swift overtake and domination of Africa and its countries by the European powers. I read an excerpt from an article on colonialism, the article brought up an important point that I can personally relate to. The article spoke of how it is difficult for people in our current time period and living conditions to truly understand colonialism for what it was. We can’t relate to this situation coming from the prosperous free rights world we live in now. They gave an example of this by saying, “A stranger walking through a neighborhood gets tired, seeing a cute house on the corner he walks inside and decides this will be his new home. This stranger then enslaves the current owners who are watching television in the living room, thus becoming his cleaning maids.” This scenario sounds highly unlikely and we know there is no way this could happen, unfortunately in Africa this is reality. Boahen analyzes this colonialism in the19th and 20th century through the different perspectives of the colonized African nationals, avoiding the common Euro-centric perspective. Boahen begins by touching on the slave trade and presents the immediate effects as well as the economic change that came
Take a look at the past, our history; although there is only one factual outcome, there are an infinite number of opinions, perspectives and almost always more than one side to a story. I will be taking a look in to the novel, Colonial Africa, written by Dennis Laumann, as well as, African Perspectives on Colonialism, by A. Adu Boahen, and hopefully through this, we can gain a stronger understanding of Colonialism in Africa and how Boahen and Laumann compare and differ.
On (p.1), Boahen states, “The most surprising aspects of the imposition of colonialism on Africa were its suddenness and its unpredictability.” When I began reading I lacked an understanding of what this could really mean. I soon understood the imposition of colonialism on African, the swift overtake and domination of Africa and its countries by the European powers. I read an excerpt from an article on colonialism, the article brought up an important point that I can personally relate to. The article spoke of how it is difficult for people in our current time period and living conditions to truly understand colonialism for what it was. We can’t relate to this situation coming from the prosperous free rights world we live in now. They gave an example of this by saying, “A stranger walking through a neighborhood gets tired, seeing a cute house on the corner he walks inside and decides this will be his new home. This stranger then enslaves the current owners who are watching television in the living room, thus becoming his cleaning maids.” This scenario sounds highly unlikely and we know there is no way this could happen, unfortunately in Africa this is reality. Boahen analyzes this colonialism in the19th and 20th century through the different perspectives of the colonized African nationals, avoiding the common Euro-centric perspective. Boahen begins by touching on the slave trade and presents the immediate effects as well as the economic change that came